i am re-reading the harry potter books from the beginning. three down. amazing decision so far :-D

Well, I can officially say I live in Japan now, because we moved into our apartment yesterday! It's quite nice and not *quite* as tiny as I was afraid it would be, though it's still pretty damn small for what we're paying. The one major drawback is that we have NO HEAT. Now, Tokyo isn't experiencing the mind-numbing cold snap that's apparently blanketing the entire United States, but no heat in 40-degree weather with sliding glass doors to the balcony and an open-to-the-elements hallway makes for much colder than indoors should be. Conservative estimate? I think it's about 55 in here. I'm going to take a soak in the bath shortly to warm up.



Aside from dressing in heavy layers in the comfort of our own home, Mitch and I have done a bit of exploring of the area. There are tons of little shops and restaurants around here, including an Indian place around the corner, which is music to my vegetarian ears. The Imperial Palace is about a half-hour walk, though we haven't gone onto the grounds yet, and we're even closer to Akihabara than I thought we'd be -- literally a few blocks, as I discovered when I wandered into it by accident tonight.



Many more photos have been and will be uploaded to flickr (and Facebook) ... mostly just snapshots now, but hopefully more creative stuff soon, not to mention more recognizable landmarks. In any case, one of my toes is starting to go numb, so I think it's about time for that bath. I should mention ... we have a wall panel in our kitchen that fills our bathtub, remotely, at at the specified temperature and to the preset depth. I am totally serious.

Happy New Year Ya'll!!

We're back home after our annual roller-coaster Holiday ride and 2010 has already been a crazy year.

First, I discovered this morning that our car had been broken into last night. Welcome home to BK! Thankfully no damage had been done, just a huge mess to clean up. The joke is on the thief though since we keep nothing but junk in our car (we're no fools), we don't even have spare change in there. The one thing that was stolen was a box of family photos and pictures that we had been transporting in an old DVD player box (that had "FAMILY PHOTOS" written all over btw), and possibly the new long underwear that I bought down south. Idiot. I take small comfort in the fact that he spent all that time tearing my car part and all he got was a box of pictures of strangers and women's long johns, I hope he feels like a douche. Luckily, the other box of pictures that we had in the trunk was undisturbed and it was the one that contained an old japanese print from my grandmother and our Honeymoon photo album. I can't remember what was in the DVD box actually...I am hoping it was just stuff that we can replace. It could have been much worse really.


But the universe decided to make it up to us anyway, because Matthew found out today that he is going to Italy for a WEEK on friday!!! The museum needed some one to go pick up some art from a museum in Perugia, and from one in Sienna and to bring them back home. So he gets to fly in to Rome, take a train to Perugia and Sienna and then ride the art back to Rome and fly business class all the way home. I am SO JEALOUS. Obviously I am in the wrong line of work. He'll have 2 free days while he's there that won't be spent traveling or in the museums over seeing deinstallation. One of those days will be in Siena, but the other one he has a choice between Perugia or Rome...what a dilemma to have! Oh how I wish I could go with him!

In other news: DO NOT SPOIL ME FOR DR WHO!!! I haven't seen the End of Time yet, but it's downloaded and hopefully I'll be able to watch it tonight. I can't read half my FL for fear of spoilers! CAN'T WAIT!


UPDATE: Another search of my car has produced my precious long-johns!! SUCCESS! Also, checking my mail box revealed that another issue of my FAVORITE catalog of riddiculous men's undies arrived! Apparently it was also a favorite of the Marine that occupied our apartment before we moved in, because they are all addressed to him. It brings me endless joy and LULZ XD

You remember our friends the chimney sweeps yeah? From a long time ago. Or pehaps it is called Polly and the Idiots, I don't know.

I hope your holidays were good! Mine were very busy with family, and how. Also check this out, John Campbell started Hourly Comic Month again, it's bananas.

You know, I sketch a lot of Wonder Womans when dawdling, I like the look of 'em.

I'm in Japan!

The day of travel was pretty awful ... we had to catch a bus to O'Hare at 5:15 on New Year's Eve morning, so we didn't even bother going to sleep the night before, seeing as how we'd have to get up around 3:00am. We got to the airport at 8:00, flew out at noon (thanks, underwear bomber), sat on the plane for 12 hours, took an hour-long express train into Tokyo, and then a taxi from the train station. Eesh. By the time we went to bed, we'd been up for a good 36 hours -- luckily it was bedtime here, so we could go to bed and not worry about jetlag.

Yesterday we saw Tokyo Tower, which is within walking distance of our hotel (and visible from our window). We didn't go up to the observation deck, though, since we're pretty tight on money until next week and won't be using food money on any tourist attractions before then. Photos to come, in any case. I only hope I'm able to download them from my camera, seeing as how I didn't have a chance to install the software on my laptop before I left and I forgot the disc lying on the computer chair ... and my SLR can't be opened via My Computer like a mass storage decide. Oops. We'll see.

In any case, we'll be here at the Tokyo Sanuki Club until the 6th, when we get to move into our apartment. (It wasn't available until then, which is why we have to shell out for 5 nights at a hotel in the meantime. So long, Christmas money.) We'll continue to do whatever free tourism we have, I'll try my best to find vegetarian food, and Mitch will get everything squared away for when his law school orientation starts on the 7th or 8th. Wish us luck!


Update: Photo uploading turned out to be no problem at all. Huzzah!