Unexpected Thursday

Well, it wasn't entirely unexpected. I did expect it to be a Thursday, since the day before was Wednesday. I didn't, however, expect it to be so interesting. In the morning I went to the British embassy to get some visa info for Mai, but found that it didn't open until 2pm, so I had a few hours to kill. I turned round to discover the Imperial Palace just across the road! It has a big moat around it. This is the only picture I managed to take before my camera's battery ran out.

The palace is only open 2 days a year, but you can always stroll through the grounds. Having done so, I was in the mood for walking, so I kept on wandering. I went to Hibiya park for a bit, where I played with stray cats and amiable tramps. I then started following any roadsign that pointed to an interesting-sounding place. Before I knew it, I'd nearly walked to Shinjuku. As I had started in Iidabashi, that means that I'd crossed the whole of central Tokyo! I had no idea that Tokyo was so small. Ever since then, I've given up on tube trains and I walk pretty much everywhere. It's much more interesting. It's also pretty easy, as there are a few absolutely massive skyscrapers that serve as good landmarks.

Later on, I went to school and a classmate gave me an invitation to some kind of launch party that evening in some nightclub in Roppongi. I had no idea what it was all about until I arrived, but it was a good excuse to exercise my new-found walking skills. I walked from school to the event (again, crossing the whole of Tokyo), accompanied all the way by some German guy (I've no idea who he was, and he took a train home as soon as I approached my destination). The event turned out to be a joint launch party for two different music/art/fashion/design/anything-cool magazines and a web design/hosting company. So the club was packed with a pleasing mixture of 2/3rds super-trendy arty people and 1/3rd geeks. And I got a free drink and some good Japanese practice out of it. Good stuff!

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I'm on a roll now.
I'll write another blog post
Immediately.