Sons of Loki

Just been for a small gym session with Fran and having sweated out most of the 100-yen “Postonic” energy drink, took a very pleasant shower. As I write this, the rain pours down outside the window amongst the tan-coloured concrete blocks of university buildings and on the deserted sports field and with the looming electricity towers towering off in the distance, and it looks like a scene from the episodes of Evangelion when they did some ass-kicking character development instead of ass-kicking battle sequences, with every single character staring out of windows with their head resting on their hand and thinking complex interior monologues about the nature of being and the intricacies of solipsism.

Yesterday we got up far too early to head to the Fuchi-shi city hall, where we were to go through the process of alien registration. We sat waiting for our number to come up, me sipping delicious Calpis and eating not-so-delicious Calorie Mate (as eaten by Snake) (essentially tasteless shortbread), signed a few forms, and there we was, officially non-citizens of the state. (The clerk babbled at me in Japanese, and remarkably I got the gist of it. Of course, a foreign language is a lot easier in context rather than in a classroom.) After that a quick trip upstairs to sign up for the Japanese national health service (no more untimely deaths for us) and then a visit to a cute little shrine in the sunshine, where we tossed a donation in the box, bowed, and clapped to awaken the spirits.

Von links nach rechts: Ella, Hattie, mich, Dan, und Fran.

We rolled into Fuchu-shi, the city we live in (which is a sub-city of Tokyo) and spent some time wandering around the shops. At the 100-yen shop I picked up a bunch of necessities: plates, chopsticks, a glass, a periodic table mug, and shampoo/conditioner. Wound up paying about 1000 yen, I think. Then lunch at a smallish restaurant – think I had katsu, which is rapidly becoming an unhealthy additction, and had a nice chat in Japanese with Kazuki (one of our student tutors).

We came back via Tobitakyū station on the Keio Line, which offers a direct service into Fuchu station and into Shinjuku, but which is a decent 15-minute walk from our halls; unlike Tama station on the Seibu Tamagawa Line, which is closer but has poorer connections (essentially going nowhere unless you change to the JR Chuo line, which handily goes straight through Tokyo).

We are quite close to Ashinomoto Stadium, home of Tokyo Verdy and the young upstarts FC Tokyo.

Dan said he saw a spider twice this size.

Chilled in our rooms for two hours, then emerged downstairs for our trip to SHINJUKU. Shinjuku. CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE, or at least it feels like that when you get there.

AAARRGHHH

HAAAARGH

BAAAARGHHHHHH

Wifi in great supply.

Went for some grub, which was as delicious as ever, eating in a smallish ticket-place which was possibly on Koshu-kaido according to this map. Discussed many things. On the way back to the station we wandered through Bic Camera for a bit. I thought about splurging on some lovely T20 speakers, but in reality I think I’ll be happy with something cheaper.

I am feeling Mixed. Right now everything is very fun, I’ve got a good boost from the gym, and I’m feeling up to – gasp – actually doing some studying in a bit before heading out to Akihabara later with t’others to meet up with Katy, pick up some obnoxiously-bassy speakers and possibly, maybe, a bit of karaoke.

But I hear rumours that our JASSO scholarship is frozen, or even worse. The deal was that only a handful of people would get JASSO, but then they expanded it to more and more people, including Muggins here, and such a sudden change of policy raised alarm bells for me. Still, they promised it, they better deliver, or … what? I dunno. People will complain, but if the government (the new government) doesn’t want to spend the money then they won’t. Oh well. Easy come, easy go, it seems to me. I’d happily accept half the money, say, 40,000 yen – 80,000 seemed a tad ridiculous – but it will be very, very tough to get by without it.