I need a haircut. Its been over two months, so its well time, but I really do think its a shame when I have to budget ahead for a few days for this. Actually, for the next few days, there are far more important things to buy so getting my hair cut will have to be held off a while longer. I'll let you know how I go.
My shopping list at the moment is something along the lines of:
1. Answering Machine (It is truly unnerving after all these years to step back into my room, look at my phone, and have absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone has tried to call me or not. Even Ursula had the voicemail, and mobiles everywhere at least let me know the number that tried to call, even if no one left a message)
2. Toaster oven, for toasting, and hopefully cooking the occasional oven-based goody. Can be had for about 3000 yen new, so thats about three days saving up provided I can stay about a thousand yen under budget until then... not likely..
3. Coffee maker... yeah, its sad I know, but I got so used to having good coffee from Sarah's coffee maker. It was lovely in the mornings to turn on the machine (which had been already filled with coffee and water the night before), lie in bed waking up slowly as the coffee brewed, then have a fresh cup of coffee to start the day....ahh. By my logic, getting another coffee maker (only two days saving up!) might make life here just that little bit better. After the initial outlay, of course, coffee from that should work out heaps cheaper than those little cans of coffee from the vending machine I used to rave about. The cans are still fun, especially to hold for a few minutes to warm your hands up before you drink it, but the fact is, the coffee just doesnt taste very good from them.
4. Rice cooker. Yup, for cooking rice. Rice is great- its the poly-filla of japanese food. No matter how hungry you are, you can always fill up on rice. For a hundred yen or so, you can get stuff to sprinkle on the rice too so it varies the taste - or pouring green tea over a bowl full is also not a bad way to eat. The downside, however, is the actual rice itself is more expensive than it is in Australia. Also, the only cooking implement Ive been able to get so far is a flat-bottomed wok - rather like a frying pan with wokky edges. Its serving its purpose so far - and is also the only method I have to boil water, so I guess I need a
5. Kettle. So I can have water hotter than the stuff that comes out of the tap.
6. Still have to get that stuff Sarah wanted for Melissa... you'd think it would be easy to find in this country.... but the search is proving harder than I thought...
Given all the above, I reckon it will be about June before I can get that haircut... oh well, I'll need another one by then anyway, why not just hold off til then..... Though first I think I need to get myself back to below budget spending... or at the very least on budget. Ive gone over three out of the last four days...
What is the point of going through all this setup expense and hassle, when I will need to do it all again in January in Canberra?? At least next year, stuff like this (kitchen stuff, etc) will be able to be used for quite a long time... not just for a few months. Wish there were some way of paying a twentieth of the price of stuff like my wok, because I'll only be using it for six months, not ten years.... At least when the next ANU student comes here I should be able to help him/her out with stuff... though if they do come in October, well, I'll still be here for a couple of months. Tohoku say that a student will come this October from ANU; ANU say they arent sure what's going on (though.. thats always the case when anyone is ever dealing with Tohoku); I know of one ANU student who wants to come, though I havent heard whether that progressed any further or not... actually that reminds me, I havent heard from Eugene these days. He's supposed to be back in Tohoku now as a normal student (ie, student who can get student discount on the trains and phones, basically everything that they refuse me on), but thats about all I know, so either I will randomly bump into him on campus one day ("Hey - I know you!") or he'll email, or months will pass and I won't see him.
On a more positive note, I finally got my nikuman! I was intending to buy only the carton of milk I needed so I can have something for breakfast (side note- the largest size milk comes in here is one litre... this is not a country suited to wombats), when I noticed that the nikuman shelf was full of... well, not quite full... well, ok, there was one lonely nikuman sitting in it. I was rather hungry, and felt like I deserved a treat, so I splurged and bought it. Actually I took a photo of it, too, which I'll put up on the photos page next time I'm in at uni.
The scholarship people in Tokyo have had a fun few days changing things around... my scholarship has been cut back - though its not really all that much - it works out to about 50 yen (70 cents) a day less, so I can deal with this. However in a stroke of genius, they also decided to move the date they pay out back til the last day of every month. They used to pay somewhere between the 17th and the 20th, (still a looooooong time to wait for the payment when you are instructed to arrive at the start of February and it takes three weeks for money to arrive), but now they have decided that we dont need our scholarship money until the end of the month. This is rather sneaky, because it means that in our last month in Japan, we can't then leave before the end of the month is up, or we dont get the scholarship for that month. (Unless there is some way to get money from your account in one country while being in another country....) A rather sneaky way has just occured to me... needs work though, I'll see how it goes.
Anyway, short of the matter is, I was planning to stay here at the end of the year until the scholarship came through, then take the money and run, heading straight back to Australia before Christmas. Now, given that if I wanted December's money I would either have to figure out a way to get it without actually being in Japan myself, or have to wait until the 31st to get my money. Nope... I will be home by Christmas. That's a promise. I now plan to leave Japan on the 30th of November, or the following day at the latest. Ideally an overnight flight leaving Tokyo about 8.30pm on the 30th. Its a Tuesday, so it shouldnt be too hard to get a cheapish ticket. I know a Qantas flight leaves Nagoya every night at 8.30, so there should be one around then from Narita as well. I see no reason to stay in Japan any longer than absolutely necessary - and collecting November's money is about the limit of it. Any extra day I stay past then is just spending the money I would rather be using to start up properly in Canberra. And guess what... that's only 236 days from today! I can do this!
For now though, I would absolutely love a hot milo in bed, then rolling over and sleeping for the next twelve hours.
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