Missing the last train

Today has been a rather lazy day - the first day of getting enough sleep, and waking up to finally clean my room and to empty out my rubbish bin which has been piling up for two weeks.

The pride and joy of my bookshelf are these Fullmetal Alchemist figures which I got from some ガチャガチャ machines in Akihabara.

Since the last post, I have obtained a Japanese cellphone - I didn't have to pay for it so it's not that fancy. The only thing of interest is the barcode scanner that it has, but even that's a bit gimmicky. I've also got a bank account. For future reference, go to a branch close to the university as they seem to be more lenient with foreigners who don't yet have their gaijin card, even amongst the same bank company.

Also, autumn is setting in. The night starts much earlier and it got really cold all of a sudden. Here I go again haha.

Recent events

I woke up on Saturday morning to a large raucus of school kids and screaming on megaphones. The elementary school next to us happened to be having their 運動会 or 'sports day', so in a stalkerish manner I snapped these shots from our building.

I spent the day exploring Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harajuku with some friends.

At a shrine in Shibuya with Mister Donut in hand

Shinjuku skyline.

The night ended with an izakaya in Shibuya, which we left at about 11:30pm. Thing is, the trains stop at about midnight in Japan, so if you miss the last train, you pay exorbitantly for a taxi (about $15 for the first two kilometers and about $20 for each additional 5km) or pay a lot for a a place to stay. Of course you could stay out all night partying too.

There was a mad dash to the station that night, and after reaching the usual Saikyo line platform which we use to get home, we were told by the station guards that the line had already stopped. More running, and at one point, up the escalators in the wrong direction, we did end up making the almost last train via another route. I would have taken a photo of the board that said "Last train", but, well, you know.

We visited Ikebukuro on Sunday to see the ふくろ祭り, some festival that was going on. It was rather small for a festival and I hear bigger ones usually happen in other places.

Group callled 'Through The Break' スルー・ザ・ブレイク who were not too bad. They were a rap/hip hop/boy band kind of act. Most of the audience were old people but some of them really got into it!

Enka singer (Enka was a popular style of music in Japan through the 60s and 70s)

Monday was spent exploring Akihabara. Went to a bunch of electronics and manga shops. It was raining so I didn't take many pictures. There were indeed maids around dressed up trying to sell their services, but I've yet to actually go to a maid cafe. Or a cat cafe.

I finally had McDonalds though. It tasted sickly as it does back home - I'm definitely sticking with Mos Burger.

Chicken tenders which were quite nice. A tamago double burger (egg, two beef patties, cheese and sauce).

I woke up early on Tuesday morning to catch the results of the Japanese placement test. It wasn't released at 10am as promised so a few of us rushed to uni in a panic. After arriving sleepy and annoyed we subsequently learned that they had finally been uploaded. I'm in the Intensive Japanese II course, which is the one I wanted to get into.

That's all from me now. I'll leave you with a personally guided tour of my dorm room, especially for you.

Oh, and I also forgot to mention that we had a little earthquake at about 3 in the morning on Monday as I was trying to fall asleep. At first I thought I was imagining it, but my bed was definitely shaking! Apparently it happens all the time. (Update: it was a 4.9 magnitude quake)