Lessons of life: Roppongi

ok. most of the people I know believe (i think) that everyday we learn something new. I decided today to go and pickup my alien registration card from the ward office in Yokohama. I left at about 12.10 pm to pick it up.

LESSON #1: never go late to a civil service whatever the country.
(ok, I knew this already but still I had somethings to do before leaving my flat)

so, I took the Tokyo-Toyoko line to go the ward office.

LESSON #2: ALWAYS be sure of the place that you're going and DO NOT ASSUME you know where the place you want to go is.

After about 20minutes walking around the second station I realised it was the wrong station... Anyways, I said. Let's go to the greek embassy in Tokyo to register the stay and ask for passport renewal, I can always go to the ward office on Monday! After about 30minutes I was at the Roppongi station. btw Roppongi is supposedly a very popular gaijin (foreigner) place with great nightlife --- but nothing else. That seemed to be the case...

LESSON #3: ALWAYS FOLLOW THE WISDOM OF LESSON #2.

2 and a half hours later I was swearing at the bad quality of the map provided by the embassy's website. finally, I found an old lady and asked for directions with my poor japanese. fortunately i had managed to position myself 100m from the embassy. great.

LESSON #4: ALWAYS CALL A GREEK CIVIL SERVICE BEFORE GOING. EVEN IF IT SEEMS POSITIVELY ODD THAT A GREEK CIVIL SERVICE IS OPEN UNTIL 17.00pm ALWAYS CALL TO CHECK THE WORKING HOURS. ALSO, GREEK CIVIL SERVICE WEBSITES ARE ALMOST ALWAYS OUT-OF-DATE.

so, having lost all of the day for the above stupidities, I go to the Naka-Meguro station to return to where I live, on the way back I realised that I had to go just one station more to get my alien registration card. anyway,

LESSON #5: ALWAYS check if your train in the Tokyo subway is passing from your station. if it is an express train (as it was) maybe it doesn't stop on your station (as it didn't)

there I am, 3 stations pass my station. so, frustated with my actions once more I change platforms and get into the first train leaving on the platform towards my station

LESSON #6: do not repeat the error that led to Lesson #5, even if it is for the opposite direction

LESSON #7: in addition to the above, don't be surprised when a member of staff comes rushing in to the wagon to politely ask you to come out with him. hey what the heck, you WERE inside a WOMANS ONLY wagon after all... you just didn't see the PINK sticker on the windows...

so, having experienced all of the above in one day and then becoming the joke of the women inside the wagon, the people of the lab for the day (and probably many more days to come), i think today was a quite productive day. what do YOU think?