Well, here it is. My ticket out of and back into this country. I had to go to the Kawasaki office to get my re-entry permit. See, because I am here on a working visa, I forefeit all its priviledges if I leave the country before it expires. What that means is that I cannot work once I come back to Tokyo. That in itself isn't such a bad thing when you think about it...
Anyway, so I get to the immigration office at 12:15pm (it would have been earlier, but I got off at the wrong station, Yurigaoka instead of Shin-Yurigaoka) and just my luck, the office is close from noon to 1pm for lunch. I spent the time just looking around the area and did a bit of shopping. When the damn office finally opened again, I was the second person in line, but it took them a full hour to call my number. In any case, I am glad I don't have to go back there. I hate government offices.
I got paid today. Normally, we get paid on the 15th of each month, but being that the 15th falls on a weekend, we get paid today. I suppose that we can get paid as early as the 13th, if the 15th of a particular month falls on a Sunday.
I felt really good about withdrawing a sum of 20,000.
Here is the station I got off at. It's actually not that far from where I live, if you measure it in a straight line. However, the subway system forces me to take a super roundabout way of getting there, so a 15 minute drive took me about an hour or so on the train (not including the time I spent wandering around in Yurigaoka, which is one stop before).
As you can see, this place is pretty modern looking. The buildings are nice and the roads are made of interlocking bricks. It was a beautiful, sunny day today, and it gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my new sunglasses that I bought last night from Don Q's. They were cheap as hell, but I like them.
This is a statue I came across while waiting for the city workers to come back from lunch. I am not sure what it is supposed to be, but it reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Can't touch this. Pepsi, anyone?
I got the hell out of Shin-Yurigaoka and headed to Shinjuku as quickly as possible because I still had to return my old apartment key to Nova. It took me a while to find the NS Building, as I had only been there once, but I got to it eventually. I handed in my key to a nice Japanese lady with an Aussie accent and strolled out, relieved that I wouldn't be charged any additional days of rent on the old place.
I don't think that I took many pictures of Shinjuku the last time I was here, so that is what I decided to do today. I haven't really had the opportunity to walk around here all that much because it is so out of the way and I have to pay extra to come here on the Yamanote Line. This station is just nuts. It's probably the biggest one in the west of Tokyo. Click on the photo to see a clip of what it's like on the platform.
Here's a shot from the overpass that runs above Kabuki-Cho, the red light district in Shinjuku. This part isn't all that scummy, as it is still really close to the station. This area is nothing more than a bunch of electronics stores, restaurants/bars and the odd porno theatre. Nothing too threatening. But walk down the street and venture north a little more and you will find things that would make even the likes of Marv Albert queasy.
I spent a lot of time in the electronics stores here, as they are a lot cheaper than anything I have seen so far. I saw MDLP players here for under 29,000 yen, which is pretty cheap for Tokyo. In a few months, once I start making more money, I think I will pick one up.
Woops. A little too quick on the shutter button.
Ah, here we go. Vanity at its finest.
I took this shot by accident too. I was trying to turn off my camera, but got confused with the buttons. Oddly enough, I think this is one of the better photos I took today.
The descent into the darkside. These are the steps that lead from the overpass into Kabuki-Cho.
I think that this big TV screen is called Studio Alta or something like that. It's one of the biggest screens you will find around Tokyo.
Here's the main street you hit once you go down the stairs. This place looks killer at night with all the lights flashing and buzz going on at street level.
I was very happy to see this sign, but not because I am some perv. I saw this picture on a girl's site some time ago, and it was strange to see it in real life. I tried to replicate her photo, which is just to the right.
You can check out her site here. She's got some cool pics and good writing.
This was a strange sight and a perfect example of the apathy in this city I have been harping on since the beginning. Some genius decided to throw paper products into the same bin people stub out their cigarette butts. I suppose no one told them that when you put flammable materials next to fire, it burns. What's even funnier is that people just keep walking by and throwing more paper in! Do they not see the smoke and smell the burning styrofoam? Click the photo to see what I am talking about.
And yes, I am aware that I did nothing more than take a picture of the whole incident, so there is no need to mention it.
The thing actually started to burst out into flame after the last guy tossed in that last piece of paper. People started looking at me because I was just standing there filming, so I ducked into a store nearby. It turned out to be a CD store.
There was a larger used section, so I browsed through for a while and found two gems for the low, low price of 580 yen each.
Have you seen this movie? If not, go rent it now.
This is the other CD I bought. It's the soundtrack to Happy Together. It's only 40 minutes long, but has some interactive movie thing that I have yet to check out.
There were lots of postcards featuring scenes from the movie inside. The visuals are amazing. Check out the two shots below. The movie's not bad either.
