Be The Jam

I assumed there would be loads of internet cafes over here but it transpires that this is just not the case. The last internet cafe I found was clearly labelled in English and Japanese; that was fortunate. I’m tired of walking into business meting and restaurants in their pursuit so that’s why I’ll be writing from Alexis` flat from now on.
Last night Alexis and I went to see an authentic Japanese DJ going under the name of Bryan G. Strangely it sounded more like UK drum and bass but there you go. The club was called WOMB and it cost 20 quid to get in! Expensive but standard apparently. Once you’re in there drinks only cost £2.50 though. We left the club around 4.45 and went to grab the Japanese equivalent of a fry up near Alexis` flat. These restaurants are open to six in the morning, and from what I’ve seen so far generally have drunken people slumped awkwardly over the bars-dead to the world. I swear half the population have narcolepsy. Anyway, the Japanese equivalent of a fry up is healthy and delicious. It’s kind of like coleslaw mixed with seafood and then fried on a hot plate in front of you. My explanations will never be able to do justice to how tasty it is.
As far as food is concerned this place is paradise (especially if you like shell fish) you can pick up 5 huge fresh tiger prawns for 1.50 and everything is so fresh. To my shock and disgust my local supermarket doesn’t have fresh chillies but in all other respects the shops are great. The restaurants are also amazing, and eating out is pretty cheap. As with London there’s a real variety of restaurants. I still haven’t eaten anything alive but I’ll keep you posted (this crab was giving me the eye in the supermarket) .
As of last Sunday I officially became a resident of Tokyo . I live on California road in Itchikawa city (in east Tokyo ). It’s surprisingly quiet and suburban but still fairly central. There’s a fairly large Indian expatriate community which makes me feel more at home. My area (Myoden) is fairly nondescript (standard Japanese architecture, but it’s nice). Unfortunately it’s about twenty stops away from Alexis` so it takes about an hour and twenty minutes to get to him (from one side of Tokyo to the other takes about two hours).

My apartment consists of a room with a bed and a small bathroom. The kitchen is by the entrance and it’s small, but clean so I’ve got no complaints. As it’s on ground level I may have to battle cockroaches but thankfully this hasn’t happened yet. My neighbour got woken up with a big one in what his pants, that isn’t going to happen to me.
Although I’ve only been here two weeks I’m already making a concerted effort to learn the language. My first full lesson is on Wednesday. In an effort to immerse myself fully in the language I spend a lot of my time at home with the television on in the background. They are a lot of obvious comparisons with English TV (cooking programmes etc) which at first led me to believe maybe things weren’t so different. Two shows have significantly swayed my opinion, one of them is presented by a chimpanzee, a well dressed primate he is too. The other one is a sort of teenage blindate show with a twist- they bet large sums of money on who will get together and who will get dumped. A bit cold I thought, especially as they interview the distraught teenagers shortly after they’ve been dumped.
Back home we always mention how organised the Japanese are. The simple truth is that there is no alternative. Seemingly simple activities like going to the toilet or throwing your rubbish away aren’t so straightforward; I have five different rubbish bags and different binmen come on different days to pick it all up. There are 10 stages to washing my clothes! That’s 9 more than usual! (10 more me thinks, ed).