The time is nearing when we will leave our family, friends and home and make our way to Japan. Steve returned from Japan today with lots of information about our possible living arrangements. It looks like we will begin our time in a serviced 2 bedroom apartment located in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is possible we will be there for a month, dependent on when we can finalise our long term accommodation. As his work will involve long hours I am keen to live somewhere in Yokohama. Being a 'country bumkin' I am choosing the smaller city, 3.6 million compared to 12 million in Tokyo. I have requested somewhere up high so at least I can look out over the sprawl a little. A view of the water would be good, but most likely it will be another building!! We are taking our bikes, diving gear and backpacks so hopefully we will be able to get away from the crowds a little, if that is possible in such a densely populated country. As it is nearing summer hopefully we will have some warmish weather. I know in mid June we will experience quite a bit of rain which can last 4-6 weeks. Oh joy!!
As of tomorrow we will be sleeping on the floor, the packing company is coming and doing the packing for us. Finally we will find the lounge room floor again. We are entitled to a 20' foot container, which will be quite empty really, and two ten cubic feet air freight crates. What we take in our suitcases is all we will have for quite a while. Unfortunately I have not been able to squirrel in any Christobel's Sav Blanc as Exxon have a zero allowance policy!! That shall be my first challenge, to source a decent wine. My next challenge will be to get a hairdryer as no electrical equipment from Australia will work, with the exception of Ipods, docking stations and computers. Even then the computer needs a Japanese lead with no earth pins as our plugs won't go into the Japanese/US adaptor.
Keep posted. Hopefully my adventures will rev up a bit more.
Packing day came and went with the minimum of fuss, how could it be any other way when two guys do all the work for you. I had collected everything together and had it roughly sorted into areas. The bed was pulled apart and boxed up. The bikes were boxed, as was everything else.
