I have a flat!

Very exciting news... I won't be homeless! The landlord of the flat I liked has just got back to me and told me I can move in from Tuesday 13 October. I would have preferred it to be a little earlier, as that's the day before I have to check out from the hotel, and apparently I'm not allowed to store anything inside before that date, even though it's completely empty, but I'm not complaining (much). I'll email the address to everyone as soon as I can find the bit of paper that has it written in the Roman alphabet. I'll also post some photos if I can borrow someone's camera, so you can see the 'before' shots; once I get a mobile (which shouldn't be too long now I have an address) I can take my own photos.

Now the shopping starts in earnest... when they say 'unfurnished' here, that means you have to buy a hob, lights, curtains... Luckily I have a Japanese volunteer (who's already looked round lots of flats with me and interpreted into English) who's offered to help me buy furniture. I'm hoping to get big appliances like a washing machine and fridge second-hand through the equivalent of Freecycle.

In other news, I went to a very nice glossy shopping centre called Tokyo Midtown yesterday. They have an art gallery on the 2nd floor that specialises in 'art in daily life' - beautiful things that are also useful. The theme of the current exhibition was traditional Japanese paper, washi, which can be used for all sorts of things, from origami cranes to decorative kimono for Shinto festivals. They had some amazing Buddhist sutra scrolls from the 8th century with immaculate calligraphy in gold leaf. Incredible that it's survived this long - when I think back to what dreadful condition many medieval Spanish manuscripts are in these days, it's hard to believe things are in such a good state here.

Academic geekiness aside, I also made significant progress in one of my top priorities: the hunt for a shop in Tokyo that sells Marmite. I know I could just bring some back with me when I come back after Christmas, but there's satisfaction to be had in finding it on sale somewhere in Japan. Precce, a very luxurious supermarket in Tokyo Midtown, sells Vegemite (the Aussie version of Marmite) but not the good stuff. Still, I must be close now.