8th Oct 2006

I get up late today… to recover from last night…and the remnants of jetlag still clinging to my brain making it hurt. I have decided to go food and household junk shopping in Toyosu, I need stuff to make a cake for tonights welcoming party (which requires guests to bring a dish, which I assumed meant a plate/offering of food as opposed to just a plate to eat off…). I’m looking forward to it actually, as I might be able to meet some more people who live in halls…as they are mostly proving rather elusive over the past few days…but first I buy up most of the household items available in ‘super VIVA Home’ which turns out to be cheaper than walking around for hours looking for a 100 yen shop or in Akihabara…rather annoying all that actually cost me more money….anyhow the experience was worth it…

Buying food is more interesting, especially cake ingredients…as I can’t read the words to identify vanilla essence. I just guess and look suspicious sniffing lots of small bottles trying to figure out what is inside. Buying baking paper was also a bit of a guessing game…the stuff I bought ended up being very efficient and waxy…easy to get out of the tray and off the cake… amazing…coco powder comes in the form of hersheys and flour in the form of ‘cake flour’… there are also more shops (clothing, book and electrical) on the same floor as the supermarket which I explore…no adapter but there is a webcam with headset on offer…mmmm more therapy of the pointless retail kind.

I’ve been carting all the stuff I’ve bought around in a trolley so it’s not until I have to unload the thing that I realise (again my own fault) that I’ve bought more than I should have…I then spend about twice the length of time needed to get home, as I’m slowed by my load…

I eventually get back and have to quickly try and cook chocolate brownies in a microwave oven…the instruction manual comes in handy again…and despite my fears of undercooking the cake… I actually manage to burn the top…I take it to the welcome party anyway, hoping no one will really notice…
The party is interesting…I’m the only European there which makes a change. The food is good, and there’s drink too…the Japanese RA’s (residential assistants) are funny and in the spirit of things…the whole thing goes on until past 2am…despite being moved from the starting venue at 11pm… however, numbers had dwindled by then. I discovered that several people in my halls are also at Uni of Tokyo, but even a few in Geotechnics…I was rather surprised…nice though.