Day 5 (Tuesday)

Last night, had dinner at random restaurant, in small dark alleyway (just my type of place). Tonight, my professor, Nakamura-sensei's inviting me to dinner at a nice restaurant. Also invited are Oochi-san and Pan-san, all three have been great help in getting Yabani life started.

So, to the mall! Up 10 floors (takes a while using escalators...)! In 15-minute minimum line! Out of line! To next restaurant! Wow. Amazing dinner... So this restaurant has a grill in the middle of every table. The menu we ordered included fresh squid, that is cooked right in front of you, and a bowl containing a mixture of cabbage, squid, pork, eggs maybe, that becomes kind of like an omelet (so hard to have it right under your nose while you wait for it to get cooked...), and finally noodles with more squid and pork! Oh and beer! Mmmm... This is apparently called Okonomi (favorite) Yaki.

I'm blending in very well by the way: Japanese looks... check! Notebook used to take note of any new word/expression/food I hear of... check!

Other than that, did my daily routine of getting myself lost by walking in a new random direction (the expression "getting lost" isn't very accurate since each street has its coordinates and I just need to go back to 0 North 0 West/East to get back to the subway station). On my way back from my daily expedition, bought myself a brand new Sony Vaio VPCF119FJ/Bl. This is my birthday present from myself: Intel Core i7-720 QM, 4/8 Gb RAM, 500 Gb HD, Blue-ray Disc player, GeForce GT 330M 1 Gb VGA RAM, 16.4" display, 3.2 Kg... the list goes on. Very, very, very sweet. Got home and turned it on... to find a pixel not working! FFS! Good thing I got the warranty...

Ooh nearly forgot. Rained for the first time since I got here. Not a heavy rain, but it's getting colder. On a side note, even with the colder weather, half sleeves (for me at least) and thick jacket are more than enough. Inside is always so very very hot. I'm sweating here more than I would be sweating in Lebanon with 30 degrees weather...