I seem to have survived the subway system. Its not as complicated as it was made out to be – theres enough romaji around for my poor little brain to deal with navigation without having to interpret too many squiggles. The system seems quite efficient, the ticket barriers are a little disconcerting, they appear open but sense if you try to get through without a ticket and close at just the right height to make you make a fool of yourself. Descending to the platforms, there is a haunting music when there is a train present, I:m sure theres more to it than that, maybe with some kind of change to let you know whether its worth running for the train, but I haven:t figured that bit out yet.
I took a run down to the new office, just so that I know where I:m going tomorrow, it seems that all the street maps are upside down to what I:d expected.
I didn:t find anywhere that would sell me power cables in Meguro either – theres not computer stores or stationers on every corner like there is back home. So I trekked onward to Shinjuku. A totally mad part of the city, theres hundreds of little windy streets around there containing all sorts of shops, mainly CD/DVD and guitar shops from what I found, but that might just have been the bit I was in. Still, I did find a four story computer shop which had power cables underneath a perfectly written English sign for firewire extender leads. I:m now powered again – at last I no longer need to entertain myself in the netcafe or subject myself to CNN or bizarre Japanese game shows (there was one last night which involved those cameras that disappear inside peoples guts, I hate that sort of thing so turned over quickly, but I:m pretty sure it was a game show).
I got back to the hotel to discover a message from my new company – they were apparently expecting me to start yesterday. No matter, I phoned them up and explained I didn:t get into town until Sunday and that I:d not totally recovered from the flight yet…I start there 10am tomorrow. And it sounds like they:ve got a whole string of advisors for me to meet to set up everything from accomodation to tax affairs. Which can:t be a bad thing.
And I:m getting depressingly sleepy now…
jetlag–
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