October 15, 2006 - page 3

arrows pointing to a room off to the side. At this point we felt like we needed to do something, so we boldly marched inside.

Now, one would think that perhaps the soothing colors, fabric partitions, and people walking around in scrubs and lab coats would have hinted that something wasn’t quite right, but the funny thing about culture shock is that after a while your instincts have been proven wrong so many times that you just stop trusting them and think, “maybe this is how they do it in Japan.” I think the image of Than walking into a physical therapy office and politely asking a doctor for bowling shoes
is one of my most treasured memories. It only got better when the helpful doctor scurried across the bowling alley to the vending machines with his group of bewildered Americans in tow, while everyone else leaned helplessly against counters laughing at us. For most of us, the next few minutes offered a brief respite from embarrassment as we figured out the vending machines without too much trouble. Unfortunately for Gerard, the biggest pair of shoes they offered was 4 cm too short, so he looked a little goofy walking around with his heels hanging out of his fluorescent purple and pink bowling shoes.

I’d like to say we redeemed ourselves with our scores, but no such luck. In a heated battle, Whitney won with a score of 80.

To top things off, I got hopelessly lost in the train system coming home and had to call my host mom to find me. It was that kind of day.