Japan: The Second Day, Part 2 – Running in the Rain

After visiting a Buddhist temple (Day 2, Part 1) our troupe set out for lunch. Now, I had had breakfast at 10am, and wasn’t really up for lunch a mere four hours later, but not wanting to offend I joined in. While deciding what to do next we got a phone call, notifying us that Jeong Gumin and I have to don in formal attire for the evening dinner.

So while the rest of the company, accompanied by another Japanese-Korean, Yeong-Ran, who had joined us, continued on to the next tourist attractions, Instructors Jeong, Hwang and myself returned to the motel so Jeong Gumin and I could get dressed in our suits so long. Unfortunately the motel was locked up when we arrived and the message indicated that it would stay closed until 4pm! A little irritated at our useless journey we decided to return to the rest of the group, now in Harajuku. I will write about Harajuku in a following post.

In the late afternoon it started to pour down. While the previous day and even this particular morning were pleasantly warm, it became quite cold. Time was running out, it was around 6pm and we had to be at the Gala Dinner at 7pm. Jeong Gumin and I was still not dressed for the occasion. Returning from Harajuku and arriving at the subway station again we decided to make a run for it. There’s no reason to have the whole group get soaking wet, so we told them to stay in the subway station while the two of us, and one other brave team member, started our dash through the rain. I’m guessing it was a proper 10 minute run, shouting “excuse me” in Japanese all the way as we bolted round corners, sidestepped other pedestrians and splashed our way to the motel.

We quickly changed. This proved a short moral dilemma for me. I only had one suit and one dress shirt – which was what I wore the previous day for Young’s wedding. (Will give a thorough account of that later). Having no other choice, I put on the same clothes I wore the day before, only with fresh underwear and a new tie, and hoped for the best. Luckily the motel had umbrellas for us to use, so we did not need to run in the rain again.

To my chagrin I did find out that my formal black shoes are not waterproof. Walking back to the subway my right shoe started to sponge up water. My right shoe and sock squished the whole evening. But luckily nobody noticed and I looked formal enough for meeting the "important people" of the Japanese ITF Taekwon-Do national governing body.