Konnichiwa friends and family! Thanks very much for tuning in. I am happy to announce that I have completed my first week living in Tokyo and have (almost) completed my training for my new job so I am pretty much all settled in.

After a fairly emotional 20 hour journey, I touched down in rainy Tokyo last Saturday at around midday. I managed to navigate the Tokyo metro system well enough to get myself to the nearest station, where I was met by someone from the agency who took me to my sharehouse. At the moment, I am living in a sharehouse with 29 other people, 14 other girls on the top floor and 15 boys on the bottom. We have a small shared living room downstairs but separate kitchens and bathrooms so I haven’t actually met any of the ground floor residents yet although I did sneak down to their shower this morning because both of ours were in use.

Once I had put my bags down and signed all the necessary contracts for the room, I was feeling quite overwhelmed (and very hungry) so I decided to get out and about. The area that I’m living in is called Koenji. Koenji is a really nice neighbourhood less than 10 minutes on the train from central Tokyo. Really it feels like you are much further away because it is a lot quieter and the streets are filled with small restaurants, cafes and vintage shops and very few people working in these places can speak English. Anyway, here is a picture I took of Koenji as I was wandering around in the rain last week.

By complete coincidence there was a University of Leeds alumni event in Tokyo on my first night so I fought the jet-lag and headed there for 7:30pm. The event was a lecture by someone from Leeds University Business School followed by food and wine/juice. The presentation was quite dull and throughout it I was feeling very homesick and I sat there panicking about my decision to move to Japan and wondering whether I could come home. Anyway, afterwards I met a really nice group of people who all lived in Tokyo, which made me feel so much better. Some of them were from the UK, some of them were Japanese and had been exchange students in Leeds. Everyone was really friendly and very excited by the fact that it was my first night in Tokyo. By the time I was on my way home that evening I was feeling a lot more relaxed about living in Tokyo and even a bit excited!

Sunday was pretty much a write-off as I slept until mid-afternoon because of the jet-lag and I spent most of Monday morning at the local council registering my address and signing up for Japanese health insurance. I met up with a man called Ryan who I met in London over the summer, who works for a different English teaching company over here. We went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Shinjuku, the very centre of Tokyo (as pictured below). It was really nice to talk to Ryan about his experiences. He moved out here in October and absolutely loves it. Although he went home for Christmas, he is definitely living his best life out here and has no plans to go home again for the foreseeable future. One of the contributing factors to Ryan’s decision to stay in Tokyo for as long as possible is that, as a tall blond man with blue eyes, he has been very successful with Japanese women. It was very entertaining to hear the trials and tribulations of Ryan’s love life in Japan and he is keen to set me up with his Japanese friend Hiwasa. I haven’t seen Ryan since Monday so I’m not sure if this set up will ever take place but I’m not too concerned either way!

After I said goodbye to Ryan, I wandered around Shinjuku and up some of its side streets, which were filled with small bars, or izakayas, as they are called in Japan. I walked home from Shinjuku, which took me over an hour, but here is a picture that I took on the way.

On Tuesday, I had another day of admin as I had to set up my phone contract and bank account, the latter of which was very difficult as no one in the branch spoke any English. That evening, I took the train to the famous Shibuya crossing, which is rumoured to be the busiest intersection in the world. I took the escalator up to the top of a department store and paid 600 yen to get onto the roof, which Lonely Planet describes as the best place to watch the action.

I was feeling very hungry at this point so I went to a nearby 24 hour noodle restaurant called Sagatani. At this tiny restaurant, you put in your order on a machine by the entrance and take your ticket to the counter where they call out your number a few minutes later when your meal is ready. The man behind me in the queue was kind enough to help me out as I wasn’t sure what the different options were and I ended up with a delicious bowl of soba noodles and prawn tempura for the equivalent of £4. See below for a picture.

On Wednesday, I met up with two English girls who I had met at the airport on Saturday. We met at the Monster Cafe in Harajuku, which was definitely a tourist attraction. The Monster Cafe was very neon and noisy and the menu was a bit overpriced but you’re paying for the experience really. The interior was crazy and halfway through our meal there was a dance performance by 3 Japanese girls in wacky outfits. It was definitely an experience but I probably won’t be going again.

After that we explored the Meiji-shrine nearby and then strolled the back streets of Harajuku, which are filled with lots of trendy-looking shops. The Lush store in Harajuku was a definite highlight of the day as it was so much better than any Lush store I have seen in the UK. The bath bombs were arranged immaculately and there was a conveyor belt through the middle with some of the most exciting ones. I also went to Lush in Shinjuku later in the week, which was 4 floors high and had some amazing soaps, shampoos and bath bombs as well. Anyway, here are some pictures from my walk around Lush because it was more like a museum than a soap shop. I later met up with them again in Kanda, another area in downtown Tokyo, for a soba noodle dinner.

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I spent Thursday getting myself ready for the four training days I had on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I stopped off for lunch in a small Japanese restaurant near my house. I walked in and the elderly Japanese couple behind the counter looked very confused as to what I was doing in their restaurant. I pointed at a picture of a meal on the wall and they nodded at me and started to make my lunch right in front of me. The restaurant was tiny and you had to sit right at the bar in front of them so after they served me my meal they stood in front of me grinning and watching me eat the entire thing. We spoke a little bit through my limited Japanese but I couldn’t really understand what they were asking me so I just kept repeating “eigo no sensei desu” which means I am an English teacher because I think they were asking me about my job. Anyway here’s a picture of the meal I ate, it was a chicken katsu omelette type thing (delicious) with some rice, seaweed, radish (the orange thing) and some kind of soup (which I didn’t really enjoy). The entire meal came to 600 yen so about £4! Bargain!

I then went to the two different offices I’ll be working at so that I wouldn’t get lost the following morning on my training day. I did a bit of last minute shopping as well. I discovered a great 100 yen store (the equivalent of 70p) called Can Do, which sold everything that was on my shopping list that day and much more. I was walking back to the station that evening when I walked past a really cool beer garden/restaurant called Sanagi Shinjuku that was offering happy hour whisky highballs for 300 yen (£2). I wouldn’t usually stop at a bar at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and order a large whisky to drink alone but I was feeling quite tired and I had heard that these were a traditional Japanese drink. I thought 300 yen was too good a deal to pass on and don’t worry Grandad – I just had the one!

My training days over the last 4 days were very long but I’ve learnt a lot and met some nice people so I’m looking forward to starting work in the next few days. Anyway, thanks for reading and more to come soon!