On my first day off, I had a lot of errands to do. I went to Nerima City Hall to apply for my gaijin (alien) card, then did some shopping, some laundry, and some cleaning. Very exciting stuff.

On my other day off I explored Tokyo with a girl from Vancouver who arrived on the same flight as me. We were actually sitting at opposite ends of the same row on the plane, but we only met at Narita Airport when we were all met by a Nova rep, and again at orientation. She's living in Fujisawa, near Yokohama, and has invited me out there because it's near the beach!

Our first stop was the gardens of the Imperial Palace. An oasis of green in the centre of the city. There was GRASS there! Most Japanese parks that I've seen are paved or dirt, with trees, rocks, water, etc. It was great to see real grass again. There was even an unpaved trail through the woods, which was a very refreshing place to be. We saw a baseball team running around the outside of the gardens, on the shoulder beside the traffic. This is their training?! It's such dirty air! I don't know which team it was, but it was pretty funny. Imagine the Toronto Blue Jays working out by running along Harbourfront or through High Park!

The gardens are close to Ginza and we went there to check it out. It's just a lot of big buildings full of shops. It probably looks quite good at night with all the signs lit up, but in the daytime it's not very interesting. So we headed for Shibuya, which was much more exciting.<

Outside the station at Shibuya is a maze of bridges for pedestrians to cross the maze of roads. There's a HUGE intersection, not uncommon in Tokyo, where all the traffic stops and pedestrians cross from about 6 directions. At the first one I saw, in Ginza, I thought it would be cool to go up on top of a building and video it from above. I wondered whether there would be a big pile-up of people at the centre if someone got confused! Above the intersection at Shibuya are a couple of huge video screens showing commercials - the Nescafe ad that seems to be in every country I visit, as well as promotions for Western Australia and Egypt.

There are lots of side streets with funky shops and cafes. As it got dark, the signs stood out even more. The crowd is more interesting, too. Ginza's a pretty upmarket kind of area, so the people are not all that different from the ones out here in the suburbs. In Shibuya there was relief from the endless parades of schoolgirls and salarymen that seem to be the only people who live around me!

I'd been dying from a break from Japanese food. I like it, but I was working such long hours that I didn't have time to cook. I could only get fast food from 7-11 near the station on my way home, because the supermarket was already closed. And Hanno is so small that my only non-Japanese dining options are McDonalds and KFC - and I have strong feelings about (against?) KFC.<

Anyway, I wanted Italian food. There were several choices in Shibuya, including 2 outlets of a place called Pronto. We had a great meal at one of them - pesto spaghetti, tomato salad, foccaccia, beer, mmmmmmmmmm! :-) I was happy. Then we went to Haagen-Dasz for dessert. It was a good day!

Now I'm back at work and the week's already more than half over. I'm feeling pretty burnt out this week - guess things are catching up with me. I haven't decided what I'll do on my days off this week, but I hope to get out of the city for some fresh air!

Copyright Ailsa Wylie 1999