Alien.

Well it's well into the 2nd night in Japan and I still haven't seen a flutter of my flatmate anywhere. Millions of possible excuses flitted across my mind - from lying dead in a park to running away - but I've settled for staying over at someone else's apartment. Good on her for having so many friends - but it's causing minor problems for me - for one, trash day is coming up and I have no idea what to do. It's not like home where its either red bin or yellow bin. Over here the Japs are very particular and anal about how they separate trash, from burnable to unburnable, cans, bottles and paper. Plus they are all collected on different days. Geez. Anyway my gripe is the grey area of plastics. Some are burn and some are unburn. So what's a yoghurt cup? I know that's recyclable in Oz, but here it could be burn. Or unburn. And how about those take-away lunch bento boxes? They are piling up in the kitchen because I dont know which one to chuck it in. I haven't kinda unpack yet because I'm still waiting for HER to appear to let me know if the other room is free. It looks to me like it could be free (because an old unused oven is in the room) but there are also possessions in the room that suggest 'claimed'. What do you think guys? Should I just move in to the other room without consulting her? The apartment was kinda grot - the bathroom was mouldy with a feet mat that looks like it had been there since the Big Bang. I can't make out the original colour because its all grey. Needless to say I went shopping today for cleaning products and clean towels. I spent the whole of last night wiping down the kitchen (ergh) and this morning cleaning and wiping down my room (ergh ergh) I never knew I was so pedantic about this. I'm very suprised because my mum always tells me I'm so unclean, but I think I've worked out it's because I don't KNOW who had used it before me and WHEN the last time it had been CLEANED. Well mum, you should be proud that I'm cleaning like a mad woman.

Ok, it's looking a bit text heavy. I thought I'd balance it out with the FIRST meal I cooked for last night's dinner!!! The stove was a puzzle to switch on. It's a dial that you press in and twist but everytime I did it the flame will die but the gas continued to leak. Even though I press down for a few seconds before letting go. Anyway it's all good now.

This is ramen in miso with egg and spinach and honeyed little fish with walnuts. Very nice. The eggs here are cheap and they are pure white!!!! The shitake mushrooms are a bargain too. The fruit section in the local supermarket is so cool to look at but I feel so gulity about the overpackaging....they wrap everything in plastic - vegetables, apples, ginger, onions, garlic, everything! (Plus it will be an extra headache issue for me to decide if it goes in to burn or unburn..) The strawberries are perfect in shape and colour - and are almost identical to each other - no imperfections and lumpy, bulbous bits like back home - and they taste divine! Makes me wonder where all the rejects go. This is seriously John West stuff.

This is what I had this morning. 3 rye rolls (I ate one already before I remembered to take a pic for this special occasion), cherry tomatoes (yum) and spinach. Plus a small tub of apple yoghurt. Don't worry I won't be taking anymore pics of my dins and breakies..It's just the first (of anything) are fondly remembered :)

Alright back to the point of this post. Today I went to the city office to apply for a Alien Registration Card. Just the term alien irks me a little bit. Can they not use softer sounding words like foreigners? I wondered what they would call real aliens. The lack of communication on my part was keenly felt when trying to tell the officer what I wanted and what she wanted me to write on the form. I'm glad she was patient :P We were there trying to sound out my name in katakana. My chinese middle names kinda threw her off because Japanese sounds doesn't cover the weird tones and pronounciation of 'euk' and 'ing' of Chinese sounds. Then I went to Ikebukuro to see how much time is needed (my orientation is going to be there) and also because I wanted to find a 100 yen shop so while I was there I went for a spot of window shopping (spectacular!) and the cool basement food halls (droooooool...I had REAL sushi there! sorry no pics...I ate too quickly). I then scuttled to Akabane (the closest biggish city to my little Todakoen) and I stumbled into a giant 6 storey 100 yen shop. Holy cow! I think I would have to go back there for more supplies after settling in more. Apparently by the time I decided to go home with my goods it was peakish hour and the train was quite packed at Akabane (only for a stop, and then it was quite roomy afterwards) Anyway this suit saw me with my bucket and bags of stuff and started having a go at me. I really don't know what he was saying (an advantage to not understanding Jap) but I gathered he was probably annoyed that he had to share space with a girl and her bucket and her bags of stuff. Ha! Imagine if I lugged a bicycle in as well. Hope he gets demoted.