The days are long

I didn't do much yesterday (Sunday). Woke up and put away the rest of the stuff we bought on a massive shopping binge the day before. After that I pretty much had the apartment set up. The afternoon was laid back. The weather was beautiful and I have a big balcony, so naturally I brought my uber-comfortable sofa (どうもありがとう、伊藤家族!) outside. Then P and I went for dinner at this nice Tonkatsu place. It was a bit on the expensive side, ~1400Y for a dish, but free rice/salad/soup refills, so it ended up being fine. There's a big restaurant area there, and I saw a 食放題(all you can eat) shabu-shabu place for $1500 :D Monocle girl if you come visit we will go there! There was also this place called Pet City:

Hold your excitement though cuz these cuties, presumably all pure-breeds, go for four digits. The last picture says: please take these kittens. There are four of them - I am tempted. But I'd rather not adopt and adopt kittens.

At night we watched a thriller, which we had gotten from Tsutaya - a big DVD/books chain. They have a deal where you can get 4 DVDs for a week for 1000Y, which comes out to be 4000Y a month for 16 DVDs. A little on the expensive side, but it does have a great selection of Japanese stuff hard to find on the internet (To AG - they have Trick too, of course they would)

Today was my first day, though it wasn't really a day. I met with M, my boss and just went over the basic stuff. It was short and a bit uncomfortable - all to be expected. Afterward, I headed off to the City Hall to get my alien card. I was unprepared because I didn't think I would be able to go after the meeting. The people there, like always, were polite and helpful, even though I would understand if they had turned me away for not having all the information. After an hour-ish, they said it would take 3 weeks. A bit slow but shikatanai.

Then I got on the bus to get back, and on the way, it passed by the more rural part of Chiba. Kinda reminded me of the countryside in Vietnam with narrow roads connecting masses and masses of rice fields. This might be what Vietnam's countryside will look like in a few decades.

Afterward, I went grocery shopping, which was kinda fun strangely enough - I spent more than an hour there. I got a bunch of stuff: banana, bread, bacon, pork, onion, spaghetti + sauce/parmesan, apple juice, enough to last me at least a week. And it only cost 2500 yen - who says Japan is expensive? Even if I feel too lazy to cook on a particular given day, ready-made meals at the super market are also really cheap. ~450Y for 8-10 pieces of tuna/salmon sashimi, ~100Y for spiced/seasoned piece of fish ready to be grilled. I think I can go along way toward saving a lot of money.

Anyhow, adult life w00t! I might not cook or speak Japanese well, but I'm getting there! Watch out, world.