Jimmy Buffett, you really have no idea...

Today started out lovely. I made some pancakes! And talked to my big little brother on Skype, which was so nice! We were trying to work out flight arrangements for him to come visit me. Since I got paid today for the first time (thank GOD), I was going to use the salary to front the money for his ticket here, as well as Nick's, as to not miss out on the still relatively low ticket prices.

HA, well.

Michael found a ticket for $500 something plus about $200 for taxes... came up to about $710 or something like that... GREAT! Well... when he clicked on it, it JUMPED up immediately to about $1000 plus. Then we both started navigating to the other fare websites, and couldn't find anything for less than $900... what happened to $700, even $800??

So here's what that means, being that I'm fronting the money and I only got paid $2899 for the first month (freakin taxes...), if I end up having to pay $1100 per ticket, give or take, that's roughly $2200, leaving me with $699 to pay bills and what ever else. Is it manageable? Yes. But that's a ROUGH estimate, and if the prices go up AGAIN, i'm most likely SCREWED.

So I start to panic a little. I have my brother continue to search for tickets while I call the Japanese Citibank to wire money from my account here to my account in the states... which is ALSO silly, because I bank with Citibank in the states... but instead of linking the accounts, I have to wire (which costs money...) because APPARENTLY it's not the same company... ridiculous. Oh, and the card they gave me for my account is just a withdrawal/deposit card, not a charge card, which is why i have to wire it to my American account in the first place.

SO I'm on the phone with citibank, trying to navigate through their (pain.in.the.ass) automative menu, when I finally get an operator. SHE tells me I have to fill out a FORM for the account I want to wire to... which I can do by MAIL!
What? Mail? I need it today!
Oh, ok, well then you can go to the branch and fill out the form there.
So there's nothing you can do over the phone, i have to go there?
No, nothing, sorry. And make sure you get there by 3pm.

But it's 2:10pm now... I'll never make it... (this is where i start to get frustrated and cry... if i can't get this done today who knows what the ticket prices will look like tomorrow) Ok, so where is the closest branch to me?
Blah blah blah places I have no idea where they are, SOMEWHERE in the tokyo area... which is like saying somewhere in Los Angeles county...
Um, I have no idea where any of those places are... (meanwhile the clock is ticking)
She tries to help me, but I can't really understand what she's saying because of her accent... I ask her to spell the address, but that isn't helpful either...
Ok, thank you, I'll figure it out

I went to the website and quickly tried to study the map of the station and figure out where I have to go once I get there. I run downstairs, without even brushing my teeth or grabbing a jacket... forGET a shower... I missed the bus by a minute and a half... so I RUN the whole way to the station (which is about 2 miles)

By this time it's raining.

I get there, try to ask the station attendant which way Chiba Station is... he tells me which line, but not which way... I look at the map and don't see anything that says "Chiba Station"... I switch platforms a couple times, going up and down the stairs, trying to decide which is the way. The lady said there was one at Tokyo station... I'll never make it though... and Tokyo station is HUGE, who KNOWS which exit it's at...

I email a couple people I know who know their way around here, hoping they'll help me. I try to navigate the browser on my blackberry, but I can't read the tiny tiny print because at this point I'm completely in TEARS. At this point I KNOW I'm not going to make it by 3... but there is a late night hour... I'm out here already, I may as well try to go, even if my request won't be processed til tomorrow, at least I'll have all the paperwork and red tape taken care of...

STILL RAINING...

STILL can't figure out where the hell Chiba Station is... eventually my friends mail me back, but it looked like i was gonna have to transfer trains... WHAT? that must be far then... Kasey tells me about a Citibank that's closer than that, so I try there... but now that I have my wits about me, I go back to the Citibank website on my Black Berry and find that it's not one of the branches that has evening hours. So I WILL have to go back tomorrow. Well, I may as well find out where it is so I know where I'm going tomorrow...

After much wandering around, I finally found it. Ok. So I head back to the station to get home...

And my subway card isn't working... SERIOUSLY??? SERIOUSLY???? i stand in line, PRAYING that someone speaks english (knowing they won't), eventually he pointed me in the direction of another kiosk, where they WERE able to help me, I STILL couldn't tell you what was wrong with my card, but it's fixed now...

What a dumb dumb day. Mom ended up booking my brother's flight and I'll pay her back so at least I have ONE ticket done, and if the ticket prices DO go up again, I won't be TOTALLY screwed...

Shouchu (alcohol) makes this day more tolerable.

And I suppose I inadvertently got some cardio... AND stumbled upon some products that I can make mexican food with at the International Market! So there we go, lemonade.

And all that drama aside, I can't WAIT for my brother and Nick to come here! Ugh I can't WAIT!!

Ok, and now for some

ENGRISH OF THE DAY!