It's Monday evening, and I have claimed the only chair in our little apartment to finish the video and write this wee blog.
Chris and I talked about it and decided that we didn't want to bring a chair home. So our apartment has one chair, and we eat on the floor on one of our four towels.
It's been a week of these discussions and concessions (yes, we do need a toilet scrubbing brush. No, we don't need a laundry hamper or a wok. We can make a washing line out of 490 yen rope). I've enjoyed it. Our little apartment has become very livable in a minimalist kind of way. I refuse to regret buying the wonderful sausage stamps and smiley face seaweed punch, even if Chris's hospital has 500 yen lunches, rendering my 'making him Bentos' an obsolete pipe-dream.
His orientation day has gone swimmingly; I'm sure he'll tell you all about it.
My day has been very chilled. I located and bought some white polo shirts to fit a tall frame (and then Chris told me t-shirts were better.) Found a charger for my Mac, (the slower charging from 100v means we can't share one, and this 2012 battery has the retention ability of an overly hydrated Jack Russel). The geriatric machine also required an SD to USB adaptor, as the port has given up the ghost.
We may have spent the week shopping - for unexciting, mundane things that kind of make your soul feel good. I bought laundry detergent pods that felt like jello candy and understood the Tidepod 'forbidden candy' phenomenon. We spent half an hour looking for cooking oil in a supermarket - dissecting the consistency of many bottles of vinegar in a growing concern that we were going mad, before spotting the telltale 'oilo' on a row of bottles which made us feel a bit daft.
However, I should start when we arrived.
It was Tuesday, after a reasonably uneventful flight (one dude was fairly crook, pale as a sheet and very desperate to use the bathroom in front of us, but the staff had that out of control. /foreboding), we landed in the beautiful Tokyo. Well, Narita. It's kinda like landing in Hamilton because it's an hour and a bit by commuter train to Tokyo proper (we didn't want to spend 3000 yen, so the cheapskates we were, we bundled ourselves onto the 1300 yen route.).
Our hotel was every bit like I remembered, although the 3814 was closed when we were mulling a highball or ten /in-joke. The all-male groupies for the singing-dancing video game promo girls were there too! It's like I never left.
We had fried chicken from family mart for dinner, delicious and easy, with sweet dango for dessert. Then crashed to sleep watching Starwars - The Last Jedi, as Luke Skywalker spoke fluent Japanese.
Wednesday woke rainy, but our spirits could not be dampened! We ventured out to scope what would be our home for 8 weeks, in the Kamushakujidaii area, via Shinjuku and Tokyo Medical University Hospital. The Japanese train system is legendary, and rightfully so. A complete novice can navigate it and I'd had a whole week experience, so I was clearly a pro.
One thing that will be impossible to master is this heat. I understand it is a concern for the Olympics, and any activity in it should probably be an extreme sport of its own. I felt like we deserved to medal after slogging the 15-minute walk at midday.
The cicadas here are loud, louder than home where we live next to the bush. Crossing the bridge passed our neighbourhood graveyard (oh man, we live right next door to the cemetery - the puns are itching in my fingertips), we found our spot and tested the onigiri from the local Lawsons. They were cheap and tasty.
The first time.
Crash cut to the return and Chris was in the hotel room in gastrointestinal agony. Did you know you can't buy pain killers at Japanese convenience stores? I did not. I eventually found some by walking around and stuttering 'Paracetamol?' at a store which I'm pretty sure was a pharmacy, thanks to the universal language of boxes featuring pictures of runny noses.
It was 36 hours of unpleasantness, of which I will spare you the details. My Taco Bell followed Chris's onigiri the morning after, and we really made the most of the extra-large bed (not in any way that was fun though).
Friday arrived and we steeled our stomachs to move our luggage to our new apartment. In the midday heat, with our vulnerable constitutions, it was a mission. We made it, moved in and promptly went to buy toilet paper, towels, soap, and other immediate necessities to enable us to get clean, and sleep.
Then the weekend of shopping commenced. Muji is a store where my desire to appear classy is soothed and appeased, while Daiso offers fun and joy and smiling wooden spoons, so it really is an experience that hit all the boxes. Supermarkets are confusing and cooking ramen is easy. Now we've sped forward to where we are today.
I haven't been filming as much as I should. Editing to date I've noted shakiness, and a lot of park nonsense. Greenery isn't as exciting as the tall buildings and lights - but I keep going wow and not going 'wow - let me get my camera'. I'll get better at that.
For now, this blog is long enough, and I've to go fry up our leftover ramen to make some form of dinner.
And we'll eat it with our lunchbox chopsticks from our towel on the floor, watching season two of Dark. Well, Chris will watch that. I'll probably get distracted and browse houses on TradeMe.
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