Random Stuff
We have now been free for 6 days (it seems so much longer) so I thought I would share some initial observations.
A new home …. our current apartment is booked up until Jan 13th and rather than move somewhere temporary again (too much moving in 2020) we have been looking for a ‘permanent’ home. Geoff’s employer have contracted a company to help us and this lovely lady booked appointments and drove us around 14 apartments on Friday. And on the following day we walked around the areas around these various apartments. A record day of 23,000 steps!
We revisited the last apartment this morning & agreed to take it. So from January next year, we will be living in Shibaura. Close to the JR network and the subway, so we have excellent access into the city centre and Geoff’s work.
We will be on 21st floor … we like a bit of height! 
The view from the balcony …. 
…… is especially good at night
Apartments here are rented without washing machines, fridges, ovens and ceiling light fittings; we also need furniture, bedding, curtains, kitchen stuff so we have a lot of shopping to do!
Directions – those who know me well, know how challenged I am even with a map. On the positive side I do see many strange things as I wander around. I had fully got to grips with the MTR system in Hong Kong, but just look at this train map ..
Goodness knows how I will get to grips with this, let alone buses! I managed to reach an appointment in Omotesando but had difficulty returning home. I knew I was on the correct platform but having seen three trains thunder past me, the penny finally dropped that the fast train didn’t stop at this particular station. So I jumped on the next train in the opposite direction and caught the train going my way from the next station. Phew!
Currency Japanese Yen have so many 000000s that I find it difficult to calculate conversions in my head. It seems strange to hand over a 1,000 note for a cup of coffee! And the loose change …. so many coins, some of which are so light & tiny. I coped well with $HK but fear this is going to take longer.
Post We have received our first post – a surprise because we thought we hadn’t given out this address. But of course we have, because you have to register your presence in the ward office. Geoff has to take all our Japanese post into work for translation.
Google translate is my friend …. but it does let me down. Odd expressions appear such as ‘the teacher is different’, ‘because the craftsmen hated it’, ‘how much fat is glued’, ‘for this reason the craftsmen have separated’ on a pack of dashi stock. But confusingly, every time I attempt a translation on the same piece of text I get a random selection of the above. I now throw some in the pot & hope for the best! We ate some interesting dumplings the other evening –
