Yesterday: Take 2

It already feels like I left Melbourne weeks ago but I can probably account that to simply doing more in my last two days than I generally do in a month back home. It still feels too strange to so easily have just packed up and left everything behind. How much can change during a simple (18 month) holiday? I'm not too concerned about filling in my time here in Japan. Every street is just so impossibly full of houses, shops and people that I can't ever see myself completely knowing the area around me. And this is just Takarazuka, a tiny dot on the map. However, come 2008, how much will I have missed from back home? Will everyone still be there when I do finally come back? I can't be so naive to presume everything would remain unchanged, but it provides food for thought anyway.

Yesterday started off with me heading over to Sakasegawa by train to apply for my alien registration card. Again I found Nova's maps to be poor and later learnt the city office was actually faster to walk to than to train. I did manage to get there and only once backtracked then found my way to the correct level. It was a pretty simple thing in theory; just fill in the form after I let them know why I was there. The catch being that they spoke less english than I do Japanese. Honestly, I had a lot of fun and am slowly losing my fear to speak.

I stopped by Mos Burger on the walk back to the station and had a hearty cheeseburger meal set. Was good stuff, but may have been because it was my first actual meal since getting here...

Getting back to my apartment I found Brad to be up and about and managed to have a decent chat with him. He let me know where the best local supermarket is and I'll be headed there this arvo sometime. He also let me know where the nearest electronic store was and so I headed down there in my search for a laptop.

Surprisingly, I found the place pretty easily. After staring for about 45mins at this beast of a cheapass laptop that just called out to me, I summoned the gall to flag down a sales guy. For the next 30 odd mins I drowned, picking up about 5% of the long answers he gave me. Somehow I actually managed to walk out of there with my laptop. I wonder if he spoke English... never actually thought to ask.

Now that the rest of my luggage has arrived I feel more settled in (and clean). Just need some food now.