Settled down?
Haven't been writing much recently as not much to tell; the setting up of my apartment is almost complete - table, chairs, curtains coming next Monday and I'm going to shop for monitor on Monday - the new Acer 24" widescreen is very cheap here, 750 euros or so. Fridge I am still missing, but not a huge priority right now. Washing machine arrived today, microwave oven I'm unlikely to buy as I don't see much I'd care to heat in the stores anyway.
Then only thing I _really_ lack is network access (I have wireless network access that costs all of 4 euros/month but it's bit unreliable and works only from near window of my apartment :->), my fiber-based 100mbps line is coming in week or two.. *sigh*
I have had all sorts of interesting episodes in the last 10 days, but nothing particularly dramatic - few quite long walks, lots of anime-watching/manga-reading, some Go in local Go place (Shinjuku) as well as the main Ichigaya place, interesting encounters with local bureaucracy - the number of times I have filled in my details for foreigner registration, various bank accounts and credit cards [3 so far, at least one more pending], rental contract, two different kinds of network address, water, electricity, gas, and so forth - is downright amazing. At least I can write the address fairly fluently now :-)
On positive note though, the money transfer from Finland to Japan took only 3 days, which was impressive. So now I have enough $ to fund the rest of my shopping needs - I spent today hour or two drooling at bicycles (buying one on Saturday or Sunday).
Interestingly enough, almost _every_ conversation with Japanese people goes something along these lines: japanese guy/gal, with pained expression, not really looking forward to speaking english, gets surprised by me being able to speak some japanese. Then, they almost always ask how long I have lived here, and when I answer 'one month', they're like 'ooo...'.. and then I spoil the moment by telling that this is my 8th time visiting Japan :-)
Some pictures coming up fairly soon again.
Then only thing I _really_ lack is network access (I have wireless network access that costs all of 4 euros/month but it's bit unreliable and works only from near window of my apartment :->), my fiber-based 100mbps line is coming in week or two.. *sigh*
I have had all sorts of interesting episodes in the last 10 days, but nothing particularly dramatic - few quite long walks, lots of anime-watching/manga-reading, some Go in local Go place (Shinjuku) as well as the main Ichigaya place, interesting encounters with local bureaucracy - the number of times I have filled in my details for foreigner registration, various bank accounts and credit cards [3 so far, at least one more pending], rental contract, two different kinds of network address, water, electricity, gas, and so forth - is downright amazing. At least I can write the address fairly fluently now :-)
On positive note though, the money transfer from Finland to Japan took only 3 days, which was impressive. So now I have enough $ to fund the rest of my shopping needs - I spent today hour or two drooling at bicycles (buying one on Saturday or Sunday).
Interestingly enough, almost _every_ conversation with Japanese people goes something along these lines: japanese guy/gal, with pained expression, not really looking forward to speaking english, gets surprised by me being able to speak some japanese. Then, they almost always ask how long I have lived here, and when I answer 'one month', they're like 'ooo...'.. and then I spoil the moment by telling that this is my 8th time visiting Japan :-)
Some pictures coming up fairly soon again.
posted by Wanderer at 16:24
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