Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Landed in Japan

Alright, time to blow the dust off this old blog and detail my travels.

Everything is going pretty well. I've had some difficulty getting a phone working because I can't sign up for an account without a permanent address, but its also hard to navigate around without a phone to see these places. Bit of a chicken and egg problem, but really it just slows stuff down a bit.

I landed at this place owned by a guy named Yasuomi who is about 35. He was a little hesitant at first with me but warmed up. He dragged me around town for about an hour trying to talk to 5 or 6 different phone companies about how I can get a phone for anything less than a 2 year contract.

Yasuomi shares his 3 room place with 3 or 4 people. Seems to be kind of a revolving door of roommates. One guy works away from home frequently who's room I'm using. Another guy is a German dude who works at a cafe and is mostly fluent in Japanese, but quit because his boss stopped paying him and his coworkers. He's a real character. The other couple Japanese guys are all pretty chill but I don't know them well. We were up fairly late drinking and just hanging out. Half the time they talk in Japanese, and then at some point some one will turn around and translate a bit.

I've been picking up a lot of Japanese already, somewhat to my surprise. I asked a guy which train was the one to Ikebukuro (where I am currently) and he told me how to get off this train after a couple stops and transfer. I might actually survive out here ;).

Today I'm going to meet up with a guy to talk about his company. Later, I'll be seeing a apartment in Meguro which is more central Tokyo, about an hour train ride. I'll ride back up to Ikebukuro and meet up with my Japanese friend from college. I haven't seen her in a long time so it should be fun. I think her and her American husband will be returning more permanently to Japan in not too long.

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