Still bored of flathunting and pissed off that we have an unexpected meeting tomorrow with one of the trustees slap bang in the middle of my first Noh performance. I need to decide whether to see the first half an hour (of three hours) or just ditch my not inexpensive ticket. Tits.

So bored of flathunting.

Frat-hunting

It was sunny. I went flat hunting again, this time with my helper from the Japan British Society.

Here are the current competing properties:

This is a delightful ground-floor flat in area where lots of films stars live. The owner of the property lives upstairs so all if very well kept and there is a very green garden as you approach the house. French window, but the owner parks his car outside. All very modern and looks brand new. Separate loo/shower. Can walk to school from here in about 20 mins but it is a little way (15+ min) from the station for future projects.

This might be the front runner. 1 minute walk from a decent station for getting to school. 8 minutes walk from the little hub where the amazing restaurant is. Large balcony on three sides with cracking views across Tokyo. The price for that is climbing up 5 flights of stairs at the end of every day. Fridge (small) already installed).

This is a really nice ground floor flat which also appears brand new. The main room is also quite a bit larger than the last one. 3 mins from the same station.

Another nice flat 8 mins from the hubby bit. This has lovely views from a balcony across a pretty buddhist cemetery. A few floors up but there is a lift.

This one is unusual. It's really cheap but also very big (comparatively) and within a few minutes walk of school. It's ground floor and rather dark.

Hm, so tricky decisions to take now.

The numbers in the centre of each room are the size in tatami mats, the traditional way of measuring footprint in properties. All the living spaces in the flats above are smaller than my university room...

Salmonella Nuggets

Today I slept and swam.

For lunch I went for my usual Japanese fast food. All over Tokyo they have little restaurants which will serve you noodles almost instantly. When you go in (or sometimes even from the outside) you choose what you want and pay on a vending type machine. It gives you a little ticket, you sit down and within about 2 minutes your food arrives.

Luckily this machine has a picture of each dish.
Mistakes can still be made.

They turned this round in about 60 seconds (and for ~£3.50).

The Japanese don't really eat things that hot so noodles with often be tepid if warm at all. This seems quite normal even for things you would expect to be piping hot like a katsu.

Today I went for my cheap beef and rice but decided to spice it up with 3 chicken nuggets. Everything appeared as usual in about 30 seconds flat. I ate one of the nuggets and thought it was a bit odd. So I bit into the other two and they were both raw on the inside. A horrible feeling of being unable to rewind the previous 30 seconds. Maybe the had not precooked any nuggets and tried to turn them around too fast. Maybe they even like their chicken nuggets sashimi-style out here?

I spent the rest of the day expecting waves of violent vomiting to strike me down. A long night ahead.

Another day

It didn't rain today so I went flat-hunting. A feckless occupation. Every one-roomed Japanese flat whose plan I have seen has the same layout. They also also have the same one-piece moulded plastic bathrooms which are so vile and single (or, if you are lucky, double) hobs which are no good to man nor beast. The difference between paying 65000 yen a month and 85000 seems to be the size of the main room (which is going to be tiny anyway) and the date the building was built (an identically sized and located room may be 15000 yen cheaper if it is 20 years older).

Of course, a larger space would be nice but I am resigned to the fact that a gas-ring for a kitchen means one not only will never entertain, but rarely even cook for oneself. And if one isn't cooking for oneself, one is probably only going to be in the flat to sleep. So it would make sense to go small and cheap. But Tokyo risks being claustrophobic in its own right so a little space might be worth having. And round we go.

This whole affair is worse than shopping for clothes.

Tonight we were invited to the British Ambassador's residence for a 350th anniversary party for the Royal Society. Several eminent British scientists got very jolly. The ambassador himself is rather inspiring.

Some unusual treatment in one area I saw flats.

A philosophical wine shop.

The swimming pool story

My friend Drum has an excellent swimming anecdote about one of his father's friends who was at a rather austere prep school in Scotland: the boys all had to swim naked, and on high days and holidays the headmaster would jump in too - also completely starkers.

It's a story which always goes down well which is unsurprising given how alien it sounds to modern ears; it is quite inconceivable that anything remotely similar could happen in a modern British school (where even plain old communal showers are now banned). In fact, it was probably pushing it a bit, even for the 50s.

Well, fast-forward to this Tuesday and I am busy minding my own business in the swimming pool showers at the end of my 60 lengths. The door slides open and in trots a swimming teacher followed by a gaggle of pupils. They all strip off, the teacher hoses them down one by one then they all hop into the bath together. Extraordinary.

I passed this sign in the street. I can't help feeling the logo at the bottom looks like a rather unpleasant pictogram.

A common site outside Japanese restaurants are samples of the top menu items, all made in plastic. They can look very realistic.

The Japanese are nationally obsessed with the 'cute'. I haven't quite got to the bottom of what defines cute, but this is certainly the quality which has spawned phenomenon like Hello Kitty; and why the Eton choir is so warmly received when it comes here on tour. Unsurprising, then, to find a pet shop in the centre of Tokyo filled with tiny puppies and kittens. The bottom photo was make a Japanese girl swoon all the way to the bank to fish out the £800 or so they were asking...

Tonight we're off to Yokohama to see a Cambridge acting group put on some Shakespeare.