literally, an abbreviation for train station melody, the recording played at Japanese train stations when a train is about to depart
concerned, would be a good way to describe my feelings over the past few days. a major client has suddenly gone dry, dropping from more than 40 hours of work last week, to six so far this week.
since we're dancing on the edge of bankruptcy as it is, this is indeed cause for concern. especially when Hiro continues to press me to either find more freelance clients or else to return to full-time work.
and so the CV gets dusted off and calls go out once more. I'm hopeful that an old associate will like the samples of my fiction translation that I sent enough to send me work. and I'm also hoping to hear more from the head-hunter who spoke with me briefly about possible jobs last week. we'll see.
the connection to this entry?
well, as there is no work, I was casting around for some Japanese I hadn't heard or seen before, and picked up a catalog of gift items from Japan Rail.
there is a clock decorated with all twenty-nine of the stations on the Yamanote Line, the loop line that circles downtown Tokyo, and which I used to ride nearly every day when I lived in Tokyo. each of the twenty-nine stations has a unique melody to announce the departure of the train. in fact, stations are quite cacophonous. lights flash to signal train arrivals and departures to the deaf. announcements are made in Japanese and English and, lately, Chinese and Korean too, and different melodies are used to announce arriving trains and departing trains, which run on average every three minutes. it's always a challenge to remember all twenty-nine stations...
starting with my home station and heading south we have:
- Mejiro
- Takadanobaba
- Okubo (or was it Shin-Okubo?)
- Shinjuku
- Yoyogi
- Harajuku
- Shibuya
- Ebisu
- Gotanda
- Osaki
- Shinagawa
- Tamachi
- Hamamatsucho
- Shimbashi
- Yurakucho
- Tokyo
- (drawing a blank... it's near Kanda)
- Akibahara
- Okachimachi
- Ueno
- Uguisudani (the most beautiful name on the line, literally means, Nightingale Valley)
- (drawing a blank... it's a stop on the Keisei line out to the airport too...)
- Tabata
- Komagome
- Ikebukuro
so... I'm missing four stations... I know there are a bunch on the northern segment, between Ikebukuro and Ueno, that I've totally forgotten. whenever I rode that segment, it was usually when coming home from the bars in Asakusa, so I slept for most of the way...
what a nostalgic post this turned out to be... yet another reminder that I should be writing a book about my years in Japan...
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