7th Oct 2006

Hmmm…I’ve just walked back from Ariake to my halls… it’s the majority of the length of my part of the island and took me a whole 40mins in heels!!! Something tells me I need to actually check what time the last tube is and where it stops…it’s a nice walk…just a bit long that’s all…now my feet hurt…

Today has really involved a lot of walking, it started off nicely with a chat to mum then eventually got my arse down to ‘Electric Town’ in Akihabara…which is crazy…it’s like a permanent computer fare/Tottenham Court Road extravaganza…unfortunately I ran into another 100yen shop as well as a UniQlo then proceeded to try and explore the entire area…which was hard on my little legs. L But Soooo much stuff to see…was trying to absorb all the information, but the whole currency exchange thing is proving and issue…hence actual value of stuff is a little retarded…but am planning many purchases…once I get funding…mmmm….today I settled with a hot water flask thing, a new bag (more suitable to travelling on the metro) and some more kitchen junk from 100yen shop…

Ahhhh, but lunch was exciting!!! at first all I could see were rather pricey restaurants of American and Japanese food close to the mass of DUTY FREE shops which lure in the tourists…but I wondered deeper and found a little eatery on the corner of a street under a big green steel railway bridge…It looked absolutely miniscule and only had the menu in Japanese posted on the outside walls with no pictures!, but *best* of all there was a very long queue of Japanese people outside which must be a good sign. Not a foreigner in sight. So while I queued I whipped out my Japanese phrase book and made a vain attempt to figure out what they offered…but no luck. I settled for a poster I’d seen several other people in front of me pointing at…it had in smaller print “no.1” written on it, which I assumed would be a good thing…SO, anyway ordered one of those in a really timid manner whist professing my obvious lack of skill with the local language and the waiter dude was very nice and pointed me to my place…luckily most people seemed to be having what I was eating (must be good if everyone is doing it…) and I subtly attempt to mimic what they are doing. Unfortunately I’m not so good at subtle and just look like a idiot who’s obviously lost their way and should be in the KFC down the road. But, yeah, the food is put on an elevated counter in front of you, an amazing arrangement of raw (unidentified) fish [RUF] underlain by sushi rice with garnishing of wasabi paste and fresh chopped spring onion and pickled ginger…there’s also miso soup sitting there which I assume is mine too.

I carefully much my way through my lunch…taking far more time than everyone else does…and I think the waiter is trying to get rid of me when he puts down a hot cup tea by me, either that or he’s just being nice and making sure I get the full experience I can’t tell…communication hasn’t really been a fixture of this trip and I’ve kinda given up… but amazing and all for 1000yen.

Exploration continues until 530pm when I drag myself away before I buy a million appliances I don’t want or need. Because advertising gets to you at some point….particularly when Japanese girls in very short puffy skirted nurses outfits knee-high socks and the most dangerous platforms hand out leaflets to you or groups of people pounce in front of you when you wait at the traffic lights to cross the road to shout about some poster they hold up at you… it almost reaches weird levels of aggression…so I head home to drop off my haul and then get ready to meet Seda (a turkish girl in my lab who’s just invited me out tonight to see a live band in Roppongi)

Randomly, as I try and negotiate my way to exit A3 (which I might add, technically doesn’t exist…there’s only an exit 3, I mean for there are exits 1a, 1b, 1c etc but no A3) I am drawn to the map to see if it holds any better advice as to whether an exit A3 does exists or I really have gone blind where bump into another English girl (Lisa, Manchester) who was attempting to ask me something in Japanese…bad idea. Anyway I’m still glowing from the idea that I’ve finally run into another English person in Tokyo when Seda rolls up with her friend…Lisa goes on her way…and after collecting a few more bodies we make our way (eventually) to the bar…
Interesting cover night…some of the stuff is rather old and so I’m not so taken by it all… but Seda and her friend are dancing like crazy…they are a good laugh…and we eventually leave at 1130…hence the being caught on an unexpectedly shortened version of my train home…oh well, maybe one day I’ll learn… or not.