Nov. 4th, 2004 Tokyo, Japan

. . .Home. . .
It’s day four in Japan.
Liberty Hill is how the more fashionable stores in the area translate Jiyûgaoka, and that’s where I live now. A place where modish couples browse for $1000 dinner tables, and pet shops seem to outnumber restaurants. Around the corner, I see a porsche parked in a garage every time I walk to the train station. Speaking of the train, I’m close to 20 minutes away on foot. Not a perfect situation, but out here, you almost never hear any traffic (just the squabbling of cats and dogs *not a metaphor*).

Must be a record somehow. In four days, I now have a cellphone, national insurance, an apartment, library card, student ID. . . and I’ve applied for my foreign resident card, DSL, a land line. . . and ordered a bicycle, a bed, washing machine, desk, chair, sofa bed. . . I’m productive at last, busy trying to build something, if only a workable life here. But I ran into a wall today, when I no longer had anything to special order, apply for, or office to hurry to. On the way back from Tokyo University, having just checked out the library, I realized how little I had thought out my day after all the errands were done.

I sat down on the Hanzomon subway line, and just let myself miss my stop. Past Shibuya, to some place called Sangenjaya. Just got off to see what there was to see. A busy street, and lots of cafes and bars. Ok. Bought a can coffee, and hit the subway again, back to Shibuya, transfer to Toritsudaigaku. Off the train, and wandering the streets. Found a yakitori restaurant, a cool internet cafe (not sleazy at all), and then happened upon the Yagumo Chuo library and community center. It has a gym, which costs 200 yen per visit, but works out to be much cheaper than a private gym if I only go about twice a week. The library was amazing though; a vast glass and reinforced concrete structure, it must have been built during the bubble years, because it’s hard to imagine this town having the funds to construct it now. Compared to the Fukasawa library, the district where I live now, it was at least much better lit . . . Anyway, I can see myself jogging out to this place several times a week.