Ah, the missing link..

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was so homesick I was ready to hop a plane and head home. I have been trying to meet up with a girl who was in Nebraska for a month studying English and met some of my friends. Today we decided to meet in Ueno and go to the zoo. On my way out the door, I realized I didn't have my Tokyo train map (which is pretty much my lifeline here) so I frantically searched, and after coming up empty handed, I begged Jenna to lend me hers (which she graciously did) and I booked it to the station (about a 20 minute walk, and I had 1/2 an hour until I was supposed to meet Yoko.) On the way there, I was listening to a CD that my friend Jessica made for a road trip once and it brought me so much joy I was having a hard time from dancing the whole way there. All of the sudden a guy walked up beside me and started talking to me. Turns out he lives near the hospital here and studied English in Australia for 5 years and was so surprised to see me (pretty obviously American) in this town that he wanted to come talk to me.

I got to Ueno about 20 minutes late, and thought I was at the right exit (which of course I wasn't) so I used a pay phone to call Yoko and tell her I was trying to find her. I wandered around for a long time, and finally found a tourist help desk in another station where the lady spoke English and gave me a map and hi-lighted the way to get to the right exit. I arrived exactly one hour late, and after an exhausted but excited hello to Yoko and her boyfriend, we made our way to the zoo. As we arrived, the man was putting up the "closed" sign! It closed at 4 on Saturdays, and unfortunately, because I was an hour late, it was now 4. Lame. So we wandered around, visited a temple, then went to Starbucks (of course!). We sat there and talked about Nebraska and Yoko showed me pictures of some of my friends that she met. This made me really homesick, but excited that she got to meet them! Then we went to amereyoko (sp?) which is a really old/cheap shopping street but it was sooooooo full of people that we escaped down another street and decided to go eat my favorite Japanese food--Okanomiyaki--where Yoko's boyfriend cooked us dinner like a pro. His dad is a chef, so he learned to cook and is very good at it! It was delicious and so fun!

I still miss my friends and family back home a lot, but having friends here will make it a little more exciting. And Krysta is coming in about 2 weeks!!!! Ahh the adventures we'll have.