Well, I found an apartment. Without swooning too much, let me just say that it's EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! It's like my personal dream Tokyo apartment. Fine, that's an overstatement, but's a great place. Within 5 minutes of a station (Shibuya), quiet area, newer building, high floor, nice view, a good amount of space, two bedrooms + an office/den. It's perfect! And it's within my budget! I'm turning in the application tomorrow. Here it is on Google Maps:


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It's up on the 10th floor of that building. I know that it looks like it only has 9 floors, but it actually has 12... the top few are set back a bit and have roof balconies. Go north up that side street and turn the view around, and you can see how the top floors are set back and have balconies. Very nice.

I had a delicious katsu curry for lunch, so I decided to go non-Japanese for dinner. There's a Jamaican Jerk place not far from the office, so I walked there and ate, then walked about a mile back to the apartment. Very good meal, very nice walk.

Now I'm going to relax and watch TV for an hour before I have to get on a midnight conference call.

Today was a national holiday in Japan, celebrating the birth of 昭和天皇 (Emperor Showa). He was the father of the current emperor, Akihito, and reigned over Japan from 1926 until his death in 1989. Think of that... 63 years in power. He was only 25 when his father died, and he led Japan through times of empire, war, surrender, and democratization. Think of how much Japan changed during his rule. Definitely a man worth celebrating.

With it being a holiday, I didn't have to work! With that in mind, I stayed in until the afternoon, read emails, watched "The Hunt For Red October" on cable, watched a soccer game, and generally relaxed. In the early evening, as the sun was setting [side note: the sun rises here before 6 and goes down at around 5 or 5:30. I'm definitely not used to that yet), I took the subway across town to Akihabara for a little electronics shopping. I'd been there in September and remembered that I could find everything remotely related to electronics, electrical appliances, and gadgets.

I went in search of a very specific item: a refill "tank" for the cleaning system inside my electric razor's dock. Since it holds a specific type of liquid (I threw it out when I moved here, just so it wouldn't spill all over everything in my luggage), and my shaver is made by Braun (in other words: not Japanese), I wasn't sure if I would be able to find the cartridge thing, but I figured that if any place would have it, Akihabara would be that place. So I subwayed over there and picked a random shop (there are dozens of them, all of which appear to have the same products at the same prices), and found the first attendant I could see.

Now here's another lesson in communicating in Japan for foreigners: sometimes it's best to use your primitive language skills or facial expressions; other times, though, your best bet is to go the Charades route. I tried that one today. Rather than ask him to point me to the floor with the SHAY-vah or RAY-zah, I just put my hand to my face like I was shaving and made the sound of the electric motor: jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj. The guy IMMEDIATELY knew what I was talking about, and he said SHAY-vah? "Hai!," I replied. "Fiss fror" was his response. So I went up to the 5th floor, found the shavers, found an attendant, and pointed to the part of the docking station where the "tank" guys. He ran off to the back and brought me back a 2-pack.

I'm happy to report that my shaver is now being cleaned, even as I write this. Another day, another success. BAM. DONE. MARK IT DOWN! CARVE IT IN STONE! I RULE THIS CITY!!!!

I know I already posted once today, but hey, content is content, right? You publish it when you've got it. And I've got it!!!

You know how when you were younger and you were first learning Spanish, or before you started even trying to learn it (hasn't everyone taken at least one Spanish class?), you were under the crazy impression that in Spanish you could just take normal English words and add an "o" to the end, and somehow Spanish words would result? Or that if you just said English words with a Spanish accent, Hispanics would understand you?

As of today I've been here for a week, and I'd been to Japan twice on business trips. I've been studying Japanese for a few months (sometimes moreso than at other times), and tonight at dinner* I was thinking about Japanese, and it dawned on me that it's in some ways the same as my adolescent take on Spanish. If you don't know a word in Japanese, just say the English word with a Japanese accent! As I've blogged before, there are thousands of English words in Japanese. Tonight, though, I wanted a sparkling water, and rather than use Japa-Tim (that's a language... It's my language. As a friend told me, it's made of basic English, rudimentary Japanese, and mostly-unfamiliar facial expressions), I decided to just ask for (get this) spa-koo-ring-wah-tah. "Hai, hai!," the server replied, and I had a San Pellegrino on my table within 30 seconds! I've known about all of these English words in Japanese, but it didn't dawn on me until tonight that there may be thousands more, and that I should just try the English word rather than throw out the Japa-Tim speak.

Oh, and on the way to dinner we passed by a Denny's. In Tokyo. You heard me right, brother: a Denny's in Midtown Tokyo. I find the idea both horrifying (stay away from me, stupid Americans!) and exciting (can't wait to get me a Grand Slam!). How long do you think I can hold out before I go?

One final thought from today: I went to lunch with a few guys from the office today -- the "sushi lunch" mentioned in a prior post. After we were done, Tsunogai-san and Miyahara-san held back downstairs for a smoke, and Mori-san and I were walking back into the office. I was wearing some sunglasses, and I asked him if he ever wears sunglasses on days like today. He responded that "yellow people have dark eyes." It's seriously a good thing that I wasn't drinking a Diet Coke at the time, because I would've spit it everywhere. "You can't say that, dude," was my response, and he asked me in reply: "What are you?" "I'm white. But you can say white. And you can say black. But you can't say yellow." "What do you call us, then?" "Asians." "What?" "Asians." "Oh, okay. Asians have dark eyes."

* My birthday dinner was staggeringly boring. I left the office at 8:30 PM, took a taxi to Nogizaka, and had pizza at a restaurant called 1830. Really good Neopolitan-style pizza. And since I'm new here and I have no friends, I ate by myself. It's surprisingly refreshing to sit and think while you eat. I mean, I prefer being social, but it's nice occasionally to just eat quietly. Not every night, though, of course... I NEED SOME FRIENDS, STAT!

The building next to our office is under construction, and all around it is this vinyl sheeting, I suppose to cover the unsightly appearance of scaffolding. Today while I waited for a meeting with the Distributor Sales team, though, I saw two ravens perched on top of the covering, no doubt chatting with each other about what a beautiful day it was.

Then I had sushi for lunch. I love sushi in America, and I love sushi here in Japan.

Today I turned 30. That sucks. 30. Say it again, Tim: you're 30. 30. 30. 30. I hate it.

I just went and looked at the apartment that I found yesterday. Meh. But I did then find two more places. Since tomorrow's a national holiday, I'll go see them on Thursday. While today's apartment was close to the church, the two I'll see on Thursday are in a great location a few stops away, and conveniently located next to the station and Yoyogi Park, and just a few blocks away from the Jingu Stadium, home of the Yakult Swallows baseball team.

I'm somewhat dreading this. At least, though, I know what parts of town I'd be willing to live in: Shibuya, Harajuku, Yoyogi, Ebisu, Hiroo, and maybe around where my temp apartment is: Shirokanedai. I'll post an update later today.

*EDIT* Well, that was easy. There are apartment rental "shops" in every neighborhood. They're basically like real estate agents, but they have ground-floor locations with store-front windows, and up on the windows are advertisements for apartments. I started in Ebisu, real close to the office, and checked out a few store-front windows. Upon further introspection, though, I decided that I don't want to live in Ebisu. I'd like to be far enough away from the office that I don't feel boxed into a small area. I want to travel to the office each day, just not that far.

So after going back to the office for a while longer, I went and found a rental office in Shibuya. I really that part of the city. I had walked around the area quite a bit when I was here in September (my hotel was right there), and I knew that while Shibuya Crossing is frenetic and bright and loud and crazy, just a few blocks from there it's rather quiet. Plus the church building is right there.

So I spoke in primitive English to the rental office guy, and he showed me a bunch of places in the area. There was one about two blocks from the church! Very nice! I have an appointment tomorrow at 4 to go see it with him. We'll see how that goes. I also want to check out some places up more toward Shinjuku (but still in Shibuya). With holidays here next week, I'm giving myself all this week to make a decision.

I love what the Japanese have done with baseball. They've taken something that was ours and they've made their own version that, while true to its roots, isn't unoriginal. The game itself is pretty much the same, but the culture is way different, especially at the ballpark. The crowd gets really involved, chants, claps, makes noise, etc. They really have a unique way that's different than how Americans are at games. And it's awesome!

Tonight I went to the Tokyo Dome to see the Yomiuri Giants (from here in Tokyo) play the Chunichi Dragons (from Nagoya). I had decided before I moved here that I would try to support the Yakult Swallows, the other Tokyo team, because I'm a Dodgers fan and Dodgers fans can't cheer for anything called "Giants," even half-way around the world. Tonight the Swallows were playing the Yokohama BayStars, but it's been raining all day, and I figured that game would be canceled, so I went to the Giants/Dragons game instead. I paid about $10 for the cheapest ticket available -- a "standing" ticket for the second deck. It was great! I plan on being a regular baseball game attender here.

One other noteworthy point from tonight's game: Edgardo Alfonzo is playing for the Giants now. It was pretty cool to see him playing here.

Not figuratively, but quite literally. The wallet that I paid 700 yen (~$7) for back in September is breaking at the seams on one side. I purchased it at the Tokyu Hands department store in Shinjuku when I was here the last time, and now I think it's time to go buy another one. It's the perfect wallet, really -- three card slots and a cash slot -- it just isn't handling the pressure.

Figuratively, though, my wallet is doing fine. Things are more expensive here, but I also don't seem to be spending as much as I thought I would. That's a good thing!

I'm officially official. "Oh, you registered with the city government today, Tim?" Yes, that too. More importantly, though, I am now officially a card-carrying member of my local video rental store, Geo Amusement Developer Hyper Media Shop.


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Not a bad selection of titles, and only 240 yen (around $2.50) for a week's rental.

But yes, I did also become an officially registered alien today. That was the last step in my immigration process. I went down to Minato City Hall [Side note: Tokyo is itself not a city, but a prefecture, which is akin to a state. What Americans know as "Tokyo" is actually a set of 23 "special wards," each a small city within the bigger prefecture of Tokyo. The special ward I live in is called Minato Ward or Minato City. The Red Hat office is in Ebisu, a district of Shibuya Ward. It's all Tokyo, though, really... I just figured I'd bore my readers with minutiae.] and registered as an alien resident. My visa allows me to be here for three years (even though the plan is for two years), and my alien registration reflects the dates on my visa. I'll receive the official card in a month -- today I received a temporary registration as well as a government-authorized certification of my address. This will allow me to procure a bank account.

It feels goooooooooood to be an official resident of Japan!

In honor of my new life here in Japan, I'm adding the letter J to the front of everything from now on. All of the projects that I sponsor at work will have a J in front of them -- for example, today I wrote a business case for a project called "Japan Renewal Form Generator," which I'm codenaming "JForm." I'm going to a J-League soccer match next weekend. I love the letter J.

Try getting a bank account when first arriving in Japan, though, and you'll find yourself in the middle of a JCatch-22. In order to get a bank account, you need to have your Alien Registration Card, a name stamp, and a name card (business card). I already ordered my name stamp (a simple "ティム") and my name cards will be ordered once I get my cell phone in a couple of days, but the Alien Registration Card is the difficult thing.

The Alien Registration Card is the legal document that allows me to be in Japan throughout the length of the visa period (three years). I can register for it at the city office, but in theory I shouldn't do it until I've moved into my permanent apartment a month from now. The problem, though, is that without the Alien Registration Card, I can't get a bank account, and without a bank account, I can't get an apartment. Without an apartment, I can't get an Alien Registration Card.

This, of course, is based on my assumption that whatever landlord I rent from won't let me pay with a foreign bank transfer. If that's the case, my JCatch-22 will remain a problem. If not, I have nothing to worry about.

When I got to my temporary apartment, there was a complimentary basket of food waiting for me. Basic stuff, really: tea packets, sugar packets, peanuts, Oreos, corn flakes, strawberry jam, and bread. The bread, though, was in a square package: eight pieces of white bread, each a perfect square; when all are stacked together, the whole thing makes a perfect cube. I thought to myself, "what a cute little mini-pack of bread!"

Last night, though, I went to the grocery store, only to discover that this is how a loaf of bread is here. There are all kinds of specialty breads, buns, and rolls, but the basic loaf of sandwich bread comes in an 8-slice cube. Very interesting. And the bread inside is quite good. Very dense. It makes for good sandwiches... which brings up another good topic: Japanese sandwiches, preferably of the "convenience store" varietal.

Japanese convenience store sandwiches are the bomb. They're cut into triangles or small squares, and there are always two or three types to choose from within the package. Yesterday, for example, I got a sandwich that had three triangles in it: egg salad, katsu, and ham & cheese. I could've chosen one that was tuna, egg salad, and ham & cheese. I suppose the concept isn't that much different than sandwiches that you buy in convenience stores elsewhere in the world, but here they actually taste good and appear to be made with some semblance of quality.

I saw at the grocery store that they had "sandwich bread," which was different than the cube loaf previously references. It had the crust cut off and the slices were thinner. I'll definitely have to give that a try.

I'm sitting in the Raleigh airport waiting for my flight. Leg 1:
Houston. Leg 2: Tokyo. I arrive there Tuesday afternoon and will start
at the office on Wednesday.

Goodbye to all of my friends in Raleigh. I will miss you!

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