poof (or should it be proof?)
Camp was fun. The girls were in tears at the end. Afterward, I wanted to go to the bank to exchange my Chinese money for the yens, but it had just closed. So, it was an omen for an afternoon of running - left my keitai at my house and only realized it at the bus stop. So I ran home and back (with the taking-shoes-off thing) to just catch the bus to the station.
I needed to buy shinkansen tickets to check in on time, but there was a line for the window. Most bus-station connections are perfectly timed, so I didn’t really have time to wait. So I braved the ticket machine instead. Luck and unlucky for me, the train was 4 minutes late. I could catch the train, but I’d have 4 minutes less to make the transfer in Shizuoka for the shink.
Carrying two large bags that weigh 35kg combined really slows you down on stairs. But I made it to the platform as the shink was stopping. I even managed to get a seat.
A power nap left me in Tokyo, Where it was still slightly raining. And with two trains between me and the hotel. Fortunately, all of the transfers were downstairs. Only exiting the subway required awkward stepping.
Checked in and immediately went back out to dance. It was great leaving those bags behind for the half-hour journey to Roppongi. The bags not only slow you down, they make getting on a crowded Tokyo train an experience of pushing and bad looks.
The dance was lovely and a few people went out afterward for dinner at a Chinese place. It was decent. My conversational skills were really being tried. The late final night at camp combined with the train-luggage obstacle course made even following the topic at hand difficult. Answers were short and strange, and I was losing concentration and the will to put so much effort into the conversation.
But one thing is the same: when dancers go out after dancing, they get a big geek-on about it. Talking about teachers, other dancers, and technique. One reason I liked the oz/nz scenes was the way they left dancing on the floor.
The trip to the airport was rather uneventful. tho, I learned that folks in wheelchairs can’t take my favorite route to the airport.