There is an astonishing lack of carpet in this country.
I don't recall having seen any carpet except for rugs covering floors, neither in shops, schools, and not even in personal houses. Personal houses go for extensive polished wood - or faux polished wood - which at first does look very nice, but when the entire house is hard floored, walking around in bare feet or even socks takes its toll on the soles of your feet. Kitchens and bathrooms should be hard floored, as the entrance hallway should be, but I really believe that living areas and bedrooms need soft carpeted floor so you can properly relax and walk around without your feet getting totally exhausted.
Having hard floors on the living room area are terrible because it takes all the relaxation out of sprawling on the carpet relaxing. Rugs dont quite count, when spread on hard surfaces rugs are still pretty hard - the underlay is so important.
Ray English Club here in Saitama... is floored in every room with none other than linoleum... Everywhere.. the lounge area, the kitchen, the hallways... and my bedroom. Lino! Just walking around inside the building is tiring on the feet, and very unwelcoming. Kinda reminiscent of the whole country, its not welcoming, and even the simple things like walking between the bedroom and the kitchen is far more tiring on the body than doing the same thing back home. Surely its not a difficult thing at all to have carpet, and not even in every room, but just in the living area and the bedroom!

Tuesday was a quick trip to Sendai and back on the Shinkansen- to collect my alien card (meep meep), my bank card (so now I get to use the ATMs), and brought my big suitcase back so I can start wearing a slightly more varied range of clothes, and have stuff to put on the wall of my room...
A very productive trip in all, for I now have the two little pieces of plastic that I need to continue daily life here (though a visa card wouldnt go astray... have to work on that one next), have the rest of my stuff, and probably most importantly of all was able to talk to the people who sort out my accommodation and confirm that I will indeed be able to get into the Kaikan - the university college they originally told me I would be staying in and then changed their mind and said "maybe" - at the latest the first of April. They did say it might be possible to move in a day or two earlier, but thats not certain yet.... I cant wait to find out for certain precisely when the earliest is that I can move in, so I can get up there and at least be slightly more settled in than I am here... though Im not holding my breath for carpet, nice though that would be. They did try to ring me yesterday, but I missed the call; despite me telling them on Tuesday that I would be living in Saitama until April they just wanted me to call into their office some time this afternoon to clarify something. Not sure what, so I guess it will have to wait.

Caught up with Yusuke in Shinjuku on Wednesday night too - lots of fun as usual, and discovered the joys of bars small enough that you cannot actually stand up inside - the ceiling is that low that provided you are sitting down you are OK, but standing up and you have to bend double else whack the ceiling.

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Meep Meep!

It's official, I am now a legal alien! I'll see if I can get a photo put up soon to prove it, but today I was able to collect my genuine Certificate of Alien Registration from Sendai. Doesn't everyone aspire to some day be recognised by the government of wherever you live as an alien?

Well, I've well and truly made it to Saitama, and moved into the tiniest shoebox of a room I've ever seen. I used to think rooms at Ursula were small, but this room could fit into it at least twice, maybe even three times!
It is nice to finally be able to unpack, and put my clothes in a proper wardrobe and put some photos on the wall. The bed is comfortable enough too, decent enough for a short time. I'll be looking forward to bringing the rest of my luggage down from Sendai to make the place a little less stark white and more comfy.
The place is filled with all sorts of random foreigners- a couple of Americans, one British, one Canadian, and another Australian. They all seem like pretty decent people, so its not going to be impossible to live there.
Saitama was teasing me on Friday, laughing at this poor little wombat (and not having opposable thumbs, what could I do?) in his efforts to get money. My scholarship was supposed to have been paid into my bank account on Friday, so I thought I'd go and see if it had, and get some money out, so I would be able to afford food and other luxuries. Now, though I haven't yet recieved my ATM card, that is not generally a problem in Japan because the bank passbook (remember those?) they give you has a magnetic strip on the back and you can indeed use the book in place of an ATM card.
I must have tried about fifteen banks on Friday to try and get one to accept my bank book. They each told me that their particular ATM or even service counter wouldnt be able to accept my book because it wasnt from their bank, but if I tried a different bank it might work. What sort of place has fifteen different banks within two minutes walk from each other, and NONE of them were the bank I have my account with? (Oh yes, the people at the University insisted I use this particular bank, because 'there are branches all over the place so you won't have to worry')...
I did eventually find the location of the nearest branch- right smack in the centre of Tokyo, just across from the Imperial Palace- so today was an excursion to try and find the thing, and amazingly, it was right where it was supposed to be! So in goes my little bank book to the ATM, and out comes cold hard cash! Ahh... so very very nice!
Going to put some of it to use tomorrow and head up to Sendai and back, collect the vital items of my Alien registration card (meep meep), and my ATM card so I can use any ATM (for a whopping 105 yen service fee for using other banks ATMs .. though that sure beats the 800 yen return train trip to Nihonbashi in Tokyo to use that ATM), and I'll be bringing back my large suitcase too so I can make this place feel a little more comfortable.

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