Collecting My Cash Card

I received a message from the postman a couple of days ago saying that he'd tried to deliver my cash card but because I was at Gaba training I'd missed it.

I couldn't decipher the message so this morning I asked one of my multi-lingual housemates (whose language ability is amazing, have a look at his blog) to help me. He rang them up for me and found out where the letter was and how I could collect it.

So I set out for Nihonbashi (pronounced Nihombashi) , for the big post office there. It was only one stop on the Toei Asakusa Line but it cost Y170 (the cheapest fare for that line, I think the very cheapest one is Y130), which is about 80p. So much cheaper than Birmingham! The journey lasted about 2 minutes and then it was very easy to find the post office. I didn't need the map I'd drawn, but better safe than extremely sorry.

I queued at the main counter (only two windows were in use, the place was really quiet, probably because it's Saturday) and the man there directed me to a separate room to the left. The window looked closed but I could see someone in the office behind it so I waited.

He came and I gave him the message I was left. He went to find my letter and asked for ID. I showed him my new Gaikokujin Tourokusho Card (Alien Card) and he asked if he could write my passport number down.

Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank had told me that I would need to use my inkan (name stamp) to sign for the letter but my signature was fine.

That was very painless! Not the usual disaster my little trips are!

I had the afternoon free so I decided to attempt walking home from there. I knew that was very risky as I didn't have a map on me, but I followed the river and my sense of direction. And to my shock, it took less than half an hour to get back!

I went looking for postcards on the way, I thought Tokyo City Air Terminal should have them, but there were none to be found. I think I might have to go to a Tourist Information Centre as they're not very popular here.

During my search, I found a magazine called 'Bing!', which only a sad few will understand, and an extremely new Rough Guide to Tokyo, published February 2008, which is very impressive as it's only the 2nd February today.

Tonight, a group of us from the guesthouse and friends are going to a party I was invited to by an English teaching website (Findateacher.net) in Shibuya, which should be fun!