From the university, four of us who had bikes rode to my Host Family's house to get my passport, which I had stupidly left behind that morning and would need for registration. One guy, Vinnie, has been in Himeji for 6 months already, so he showed us things along the way and seemed very knowledgeable. Anyway, I was mighty surprised to discover that I could remember the way to my house. I had inadvertently noticed landmarks along the way (THE ONLY WAY TO FIND ANYTHING, AS THERE ARE NO STREET NAMES - Soooo irritating). However, as we got closer and closer, I recognized less and less, and finally, after much deliberation, we decided to give up looking and to go straight to city hall to meet the others. This took a further 20 minutes to get to. By this time, I was getting very wobbly and my legs wouldn't do what I wanted them to do (pedal). But I tried to keep steady so as not to let the team down.

When we arrived at the City Hall, I reluctantly told the representative from the University International Office that I couldn't find my own house. It was so embarrassing! I think I made a bad first impression. But he didn't seem to care. He called my Host Sister and offered to drive me home himself. So off we went. When we got there, I was so angry to find that the intersection where we had given up was 100 meters (330 feet) from the house. But I got my passport in the end, and that's all that matters, right? So we talked in the car, and I couldn't just pretend to know what he was talking about, because he was asking me all these questions, and I was absolutely horrified that he would discover that I'm just altogether stupid and can't do anything and send me home. But I think it went ok. I think I passed the test. I was hoping at every set of traffic lights that we would arrive back at City Hall and I could speak in English again to all the Australians. Six of us from Perth!!

I did feel really guilty though, so I told my fellow bike riders that we had been close (partly just to prove that I did have SOME idea of where I was going). They said not to worry, but I know that secretly they were all talking about me behind my back about sabotaging my bike and egging my 
house. But if I can't even find it, neither can they, so I should be ok for now.

After I wrote my name, address and birthday on a zillion forms, I had to wait an hour for my Gaijin card (foreign student card) and health insurance to be processed. They wanted 5 passport sized photos!

So we headed round the corner to the combini (convenience store) for lunch. I bought ikaosembe (squid flavored snack), chocolate biscuits (so small I swear I could eat twenty at once, though I haven't tried yet) and chicken karaage (a bit like KFC). But on the upside, all the cycling I did no doubt burnt many more calories than the amount I ingested. I got Lipton Lemon Iced 
Tea to drink (no, that isn't product placement, Mum). After gorging on this food, I carried the biscuits back into City Hall (I don't think they were very happy about me eating inside, oh well, I didn't see any signs).

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