Before I begin today's regailment, I need to make something clear about Japan. This is a country of Four seasons. It isn't like England where we get rain all year round and a few days sunshine in the summer. Nor America where it is bleak for 3/4 of the year and then they get snow in winter. No Japan has a beautiful spring, lovely Autumn, Snowing winters and Blazing hot summers. And when I say hot, I mean 27 degrees C at the lowest point in the shade.
Today I started by experiencing one of the horror stories of Japan 1st hand - early morning commuters. Thousands of people all trying to get somewhere at the same time, and all trying to get packed into trains. I was stupid enough to feel like going somewhere early today so its my own fault, but I got stuck on a train in Tokyo and when I mean stuck, I mean not enough room to scratch your ear, if you are holding onto the railing by your head. The sheer volume of people crammed into the tiny space of the subways is unbelievable. Basically: it was cramped in there.
My venture took me to a favourite location of mine within Tokyo - Meiji-jingu. This is a large shrine dedicated/built by the Emperor Meiji of Japan back in the mid 1800's. It is a fantastic establishment situated right in the middle of a gorgeous park. Trees grow up all around it and the whole place is teeming with the sound of cicadas. Some friends of mine who live here took me to see it when I was visiting on holiday before, and I decided I had to see it again and pay my offerings to the local deities (you know, like you do). It is a fantastic place to visit, a real proper piece of Japan and well worth taking a 30 minute train tetris to go see.
Mid day was devoted to speaking with the estate agent in my apartment and having him explain everything I needed to know (at the moment) about the apartment, as well as making sure that any damage that we found was noted as 'not my fault'. Since i'd decided to move in tomorrow, I needed to go and buy a fold away futon and curtains. So a quick train ride later I wound up back at the furniture store where I bought my other bits and pieces at the weekend. Buying it was easy, getting it back was difficult. I had to transport a futon, bedding, curtains and a couple of extra bits from one point of Tokyo to another. This is like trying to walk from St Pauls to London Bridge with a pair of mattresses on each shoulder. All the while in the middle of the lovely heat I mentioned before. I had just enough energy left to ditch the stuff in the apartment before heading back to the hotel and trying to go back from liquid to solid form.
For supper I went for another wander, and found a rather nice tonkatsu (deep fried/breaded pork) shop, and order myself a katsudon - pork cutlet with egg on a bowl of rice. This is by far my favourite Japanese food of all time, but for some reason everybody here chuckles when I say that. I wonder why?
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