Tuesday 16th April 2002

This is from my diary from when we first relocated to Japan – pre-blog. Other entries can be found here.

We’re in! We have (most of) the furniture and – most importantly – we have clean clothes! Once a man has come this afternoon to fix the oven door, I am off to Tokyu Hands for essentials – bins, shower curtains, fax paper etc etc. I had a bit of a trauma earlier today when, after buying a huge amount of stuff from the western supermarket (nissin) I found that they only deliver to ohyamacho on weekends. So I had to get a taxi – much migi*, migi, find the koen**. erm what if we start at the eki*** I know where it is from there… – but I managed! And I was running a bit late for yoga this morning so I just jumped on the first train that came, only it was an express and didn’t stop until it came to shinjuku and then when I tried to transfer to the yamanote line it wouldn’t take my ticket and the chap sent me back to the fare adjustment machine only that didn’t take my money so I went back to the barrier and tried my JR pass only that didn’t work either! So I was just beginning to think I would never get out when a nice man in a smart cap explained that I had to put both my JR pass and the subway pass through together. I could have been there weeks before I worked that out. So I eventually arrived, yoga was extremely hard, went for coffee with Gail and her friend who I think was called Carolyn and another friend called Tina who lives quite near here and has cats so I will have to make friends with her. Then a quick rotating lunch and off to the supermarket which I think is where I started.

Cameron was off yesterday – we were collected at the hotel to come to the house then our air freight arrived almost immediately, closely followed by the furniture. It seems that the new stuff I have chosen won’t be ready for a few weeks, which isn’t a problem but I wish they had explained it when I was choosing. Maromi took us down to the local shops and explained what was what in the supermarket, then left and that was it! On our own. So we bought some essentials, cam back for lunch, and spent the afternoon unpacking – in the evening we wandered down towards the station and found a little bar where we had delicious salads and grilled meat. The korean-style lamb (cut so thin it resembles bacon) was fantastic.

On Sunday we went to Yokohama with Eiji and Yuko, which was very nice. It was a lovely sunny day and Chinatown is amazing – hundreds and hundreds of little restaurants packed full of people, and lovely smells everywhere. Had a gorgeous lunch, apart from the raw jellyfish, which I was not very keen on, and took a boat back to the station, then home in time for a final sauna and swim in the hotel.

And on Saturday, we went to Asakusa to look at the temple (we realised once we had arrived that we’d been there last time**** – no problem, it was a nice day and good to see) and kitchenware alley, followed by a trip up the tokyo tower.

*right
**park
***station
****We had a holiday in Japan a year or so before moving out there to live

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