Yesterday morning my sister Christine decided to go for a walk while I was studying Japanese. When she hadn’t returned 5 hours later we did start to get a bit worried.

She went out for breakfast and then spent a couple of hours wandering around the local area. When she noticed the time she decided to get a train back as she thought this would be quicker. And it would have been if she had gone in the right direction. She ended up at Ikebukuro which is in the North West of Tokyo when we live in the South West. She was absolutely horrified when she realised that the train station was almost as big as Belfast city centre and had no idea where to go next.

One of the nice things about being in Japan is that people will help you when you are lost. She tried to get help from the information desk and from various people working in the station. However, she hadn’t taken out any of our phone numbers and couldn’t remember the name of the place where we lived. All she knew was that it started with the letter J! No-one she spoke to had any idea where we could possibly live.

She remembered that Marty worked in the Mori Tower and one very helpful man looked up the phone number, rang the tower from his mobile phone and spoke to the people at the tower for her. Unfortunately, because she couldn’t remember who Marty worked for, they wouldn’t put her through. Eventually she decided that she would just have to get the train back to where she had first got on and then walk back to the apartment.

She arrived back at the apartment seven hours after she had left. She is planning on going out again tomorrow morning but this time she is taking our address and one of Marty’s business cards.