Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The LSAT Oddessy





What a whirlwind weekend! Finally getting back into my regular routine, certainly glad that the LSAT is over with, though it wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Of course, I won't get my score back for another three weeks, but I can afford to be optimistic for a little while. For those who don't know, here was the breakdown of my weekend.

7:30pm Friday- Got on the Iyotetsu bus bound for Tokyo. Much more comfortable than any other charter bus I've been on, there are only three seats per aisle, and you can recline about three times as much, which is a big help. Still, hard to sleep, and they don't let you get off and stretch your legs after the first rest stop, the other stops are only for the drivers, apparently. There was a bathroom on the bus, so I guess no biggy. They shut all the curtains, and it's pretty much pitch black in the cabin, which is really nice considering how many street lights they have on the highways here.

7:30am Saturday- Arrived at Shinjuku station in Tokyo. Got off of the bus and wandered around for a few hours, checking out the massive buildings they have all over the city. And I do mean massive buildings. The Shinjuku station itself is a huge sprawl of bus stops, train stops, taxi stops, subway stops, and metro stops. The whole thing takes up a city block, and has at least 6 underground levels for all the subways and malls. Yes, I said malls.

Because I was so wiped from the 12 hour ride, I headed over to the area where my test was being held, and holed myself up to study at the university for a few hours before I checked into my hotel, which was near the test site. I know, I know, I didn't see nearly as much of the city as I should have, but I was concerned about resting up for the test, and I was really tired after not sleeping on the bus ride over.

Sunday- Took the LSAT. I thought it was pretty fun, if by fun you mean getting into a bathtub filled with Tabasco sauce, lemon juice, and broken glass. I overexaggerate, it actually wasn't that bad, just another long standardized test. Took about four hours, then I was free. Funny thing, most of the test takers were people in the JET program who had also traveled to Tokyo, since it was the only test center in the entire country. Saw more white people in my test room than I've seen in five weeks! Pretty amusing. Headed back up to the hotel to grab my stuff, and ran into some of my fellow test takers. We all decided we needed to blow off steam, so five of us went and filled up a ramen shop for a few hours. Some of us still had some hours to kill before we departed, so we headed over to the Harajuku district. Oh my people! The picture I took should give you some idea. Literally rivers of people, like Disneyland on the 4th of July. Just crazy! But I definitely know some places that I want to check out the next time I get up to this city. Crazy people dressed up in all sorts of cos-play stuff. Goth people, furries, even girls dressed up like Alice in Wonderland. You'd think there was a convention, but nope, just how like like to go out on the town. Didn't get any pictures, I'll try the next time. Got onto my bus at 7pm on Saturday, and arrived back in Shigenobu 12 hour after that. What a weekend!

So sorry for such a delay, but now that things are back to normal, I'll start posting regularly again!

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