Tuesday, January 16, 2007

new apartment






So, new events, new happenings… I found a new apartment – YAY. It is in a ward of Tokyo called Shinagawa. A ward is sort of like a neighborhood or an area. It would be like the village in NYC, except more defined. I am about a ten minute walk (can also take a shuttle) from the subway and my subway station is a little less than ten minutes from the school. The apartment is really nice and a decent size compared with most apartments in Tokyo. It’s brand new and furnished and it’s mine for the next four months. Above are some pics from inside and my view from outside on my balcony

School’s also going well. Since I finally moved into an apartment I was able to read for class. I am enrolled in 5 classes. East/West Negotiation, International Intellectual Property Licensing, International Criminal Law, Intro to Japanese Law, and Chinese finance and investment law. Except for the higher than expected amount of reading, the classes are all fine. The program is pass/fail anyway, so I need a C or better to pass.

Interesting things I noticed waking around the city. Japanese people don’t look up or move around at all on a subway. They stare at the floor or at their cell phones. As an aside, their cell phones are way more advanced that the ones in the US, but they are also much larger. Also Japanese people almost all follow pedestrian traffic laws. When the don’t walk sign is up, almost no one walks. About 1 out of 800 (pure conjecture) walk. Also no one talks on their cell phone while walking the streets and no one eats or drinks while walking. Everyone is extremely nice. I was carrying my bags across town to get to my new apartment and someone offered to help take my suitcase of stairs I had to climb. Also everyone bows here. Not a full 90 degree bow, but anytime there’s any sort of interchange between people there’s always a bow.

I’m going to take the next couple days to get random things I need for my apartment and also catch up on the rest of my reading. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get to new areas of Tokyo!

2 comments:

angelaphotos said...

you do have a freezer... yay. I like the new place. I also like the Jonathan's restaurant. I bet you go there all the time :)

Unknown said...

I just caught up with the posts...glad to hear you are doing so well...I am excited to follow your adventures...I will definitely be living vicariously through you!