…and the humidity’s so bad I can barely use the touchpad. I can’t even come up with a workable analogy for New York, so I’ll just say: it’s dirty, dangerous, frequently bad-smelling, unpleasant, aggressive, nasty - but all these things pale into insignificance because it is the most exciting city in the whole damn world. [...]

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I don’t know if there’s any wi-fi here so I’m on a public computer. At a charming hostel in Kyoto. The last two nights I’ve been staying in a capsule hotel seeing as I foolishly didn’t reserve any accommodation.
Took a 300 Series Shinkansen from Tokyo station. The shinkansen is pretty cool indeed. Very quite and [...]

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Nothing much has been happening here, at all. Paid next month’s rent, so I’m alright for a bit, and I have enough cash to survive into the new year.
“Why not go to Akihabara?” said my subconscious. “Because it’s wrong! I’ll spend money! I’ll — oh hell, why not.”
Oh, Akihabara. If you’re tired of Akihabara, you’re [...]

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I got up early today, at 7am, to use the private indoor spring. Aaah, luxury. Planned possible routes for the day, then went down to the local Lawson store to get some breakfast. And as I walked down the road and Hakone’s gorgeous mountains appeared, I thought “I should live here.” Bet it costs you [...]

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Having problems uploading pics so can’t do a proper entry — oh wait, I ran out of disk space on the server.
That’s better.
So today I went to Hakone. The reasons for going are twofold, and equally nerdy.
1) There is an old PC game called Microsoft Train Simulator. You drive trains. One of them is the [...]

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In the words of Freezepop:
Demo, kyo
Ame ga furimasu
It’s raining today. Checked out of my room and took a train to Shinjuku. Bags really heavy and difficult to carry. Got to the Sakura House office, signed a billion scary contracts, got my key, and headed to Uguisudani on the Yamanote line. (The ‘note, as only I [...]

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Went down to Shibuya and Ginza last night. Absolutely nothing was happening. Even Tokyo shuts down on a Sunday night.
So I move to my new accommodation today: it’s in Uguisudani, not far from Ueno Station. Here’s the page on where I’m staying. I’m in 402-02.
Got an email from a friend of my dad, suggesting that [...]

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Oh, number 3. Nothing is locked. Everyone just leaves their bikes in the street. No locks. Tokyo has no bike thieves.
So I spend midday searching the web for jobs and homes.
Stressful. I hate looking for jobs, because it’s like you look for a good one and it’s maybe too good and you wouldn’t qualify so [...]

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Things I have noticed in Japan:
1) No one crosses unless the green man shows up.
2) Everyone assumes you speak fluent Japanese.
3) There was another one, but I can’t remember it.
Bit of a pointless day this, but meh. Got up early, went down to Sendakaji to find this “Yamaha English School”. It turns out that Yamaha [...]

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So, future plans are: get a job, get accomodation. I need somewhere to leave soon, otherwise I’ll literally be out on the streets. Or a capsule hotel.
That gaijin house I was looking for apparently has phased from existence. I couldn’t find any sign of it whatsoever. Alas. So, the train back to Tokyo: into Ueno [...]

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