friday

 Lunch at Mita Campus. Thought I'd break the rice trend and go for something new. Turned out with miso soup, tofu and grilled egg plant. Very innovative. One of these days I will dare to order the udan (noodle thing). Looks amazing! Being vegan here isn't super easy, I'll be honest, but I get by. I've learn the symbols for meat and fish and egg now so I can spot most non-vegan things.

Meat: 肉 (niku) Egg: 卵 (tamago) Fish: 魚 (sakana)

And when you're finished, you simply take your tray to the station by the exit, throw your chop sticks (cutlery is for losers) and put the tray on the conveyor belt. No fuss, no mess - perfect.

 Tokyo subway map in the station. Good luck trying to find your way. You think it looks a lot and messy? Also consider the fact that it only says the names of the stations in Japanese symbols.

Lost? Me? Never!

Managed to take another picture of my lovely view where you can see a bit more. Some towers, a lot of buildings is pretty much what it is.

Today's activities have been oddly tiring but few. Had some information meetings about housing etc, then went for mission impossible 1: banking. 10 of us in a room with a non-English speaking bank lady. It took well over an hour to sort it out. And it's not done, no. We have to go and pick up our bank book (yes, you read correctly) on Monday and will be sent the bank card after a week. Then you can't take out money anywhere, anytime - only in your bank's ATM's between 8AM-9PM or something. Any other way and it'll charge you a few pounds. Japanese society is not as convenient as our Western one. However, I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

Next mission is to sort out telephoning. Here, people don't really have top-up cards. In fact, only one company offers it at all! Instead there are contracts for two years which, in my case, I would then have to cancel for a rather significant fee. And you need health insurance in order to get a contract...UK, I will never ever complain about your bureaucratic idiocy again!

Got a stupidly big bottle of soy sauce at the supermarket today, and also bought some tofu and noodles. So I'm all set if I only can figure out how to use the gas stove...

Jo x