After much anticipation we arrived early on a Friday morning having flown overnight from London. Our first impressions were - 'Good, there's a Starbucks' which, if you remember from our China Blog, is always a good start to any of our adventures.
Our temporary home is excellent. It's a fully furnished, fully serviced apartment in the heart of Tokyo and we are very happy here. We are surrounded by restaurants, shops and interesting things to see and do - never a dull moment.
Our temporary home is excellent. It's a fully furnished, fully serviced apartment in the heart of Tokyo and we are very happy here. We are surrounded by restaurants, shops and interesting things to see and do - never a dull moment.
Our first challenge is to go house hunting - more on that later.
Recycling is a BIG deal here and in our particular Ward (or Ku) we have to separate combustible, non combustible, cans, glass and foil. You do this in your home and anywhere outside. It takes forever to leave Starbucks - decisions about whether the rubbish will burn or not seems to be a bit arbitrary so I am sure there is major confusion even amongst the native Tokyo-ans!
The house hunting has gone well. We have found just the place. The decisions were many as the choice was large. Would we go for a house or an apartment? Which part of the city would be best? Having made one decision a number of others followed; we saw Japanese style houses (very charming but a little on the low side for one of us...) , colonial style houses (OK but very large and there seemed always to be 'an issue') apartments on the lower floors of low rise blocks (safer in an earthquake, we have been told) or apartments on the higher floors of high rise blocks (I saw something absolutely astounding on the 29th floor...). We have gone for none of the above. We saw and fell immediately for a maisonette that is on the 9th and 10th floors of a 12 floor block. It faces south so there is so much light; it has floor to ceiling windows in the front of the apartment so the view is tremendous - even from the bathroom - note to self: must get curtains sorted! Move in date is 11th September.
We braved the Metro and went to see our first Festival last weekend. The metro was a delight - very clean and light but the signage could do with a little help - what there is, is in two languages which is great but some of the more important signs are not there - like, where now?!
The festival was hot, humid, packed and lively. There were thousands of stalls selling food from everywhere in the world but it was soooo busy that it was difficult to move around. We grabbed a bit of bar b q meat and headed back to the civilisation that is Shibuya! (Another packed area of Tokyo.... come to think of it, it's a very busy place!)
Recycling is a BIG deal here and in our particular Ward (or Ku) we have to separate combustible, non combustible, cans, glass and foil. You do this in your home and anywhere outside. It takes forever to leave Starbucks - decisions about whether the rubbish will burn or not seems to be a bit arbitrary so I am sure there is major confusion even amongst the native Tokyo-ans!
The house hunting has gone well. We have found just the place. The decisions were many as the choice was large. Would we go for a house or an apartment? Which part of the city would be best? Having made one decision a number of others followed; we saw Japanese style houses (very charming but a little on the low side for one of us...) , colonial style houses (OK but very large and there seemed always to be 'an issue') apartments on the lower floors of low rise blocks (safer in an earthquake, we have been told) or apartments on the higher floors of high rise blocks (I saw something absolutely astounding on the 29th floor...). We have gone for none of the above. We saw and fell immediately for a maisonette that is on the 9th and 10th floors of a 12 floor block. It faces south so there is so much light; it has floor to ceiling windows in the front of the apartment so the view is tremendous - even from the bathroom - note to self: must get curtains sorted! Move in date is 11th September.
We braved the Metro and went to see our first Festival last weekend. The metro was a delight - very clean and light but the signage could do with a little help - what there is, is in two languages which is great but some of the more important signs are not there - like, where now?!
The festival was hot, humid, packed and lively. There were thousands of stalls selling food from everywhere in the world but it was soooo busy that it was difficult to move around. We grabbed a bit of bar b q meat and headed back to the civilisation that is Shibuya! (Another packed area of Tokyo.... come to think of it, it's a very busy place!)
We have used our first vending machine - very big in Japan. They sell almost anything from drinks to food to cigarettes and they all work efficiently! They are on every street corner and in between too. One more tick in the 'Things to do in Japan' box!
The Alien Registration was smooth and efficient thanks to our lovely HR lady, Mariko, and the wonderful efficiency and helpfulness of the Japanese. We came away with books and maps and lots of other information which is absolutely necessary for foreigners here. There's a lot about recycling......
It's all gone well and it looks like a pretty good start!
The Alien Registration was smooth and efficient thanks to our lovely HR lady, Mariko, and the wonderful efficiency and helpfulness of the Japanese. We came away with books and maps and lots of other information which is absolutely necessary for foreigners here. There's a lot about recycling......
It's all gone well and it looks like a pretty good start!
