After work Dennis had his Welcome-party at a restaurant/bar near his work. With 9 colleagues Dennis spent the evening drinking, talking, having snacks, laughing and learning new Japanese words that are not all that appropriate to use in daily life ;) When he came home in the evening, Michelle had just arrived too from her day of shopping. Michelle did not stay home and get bored. She decided to go to Shibuya and grab some food there and do some shopping. When...

Today was "Kinro no Hi" or what we call Labor Day. This is a national holiday in Japan so Dennis had a day off from work. When we woke up we heard a car in the street which was singing "Yakimo" which is a roasted rice cake. Apparently the car was selling them and had a speaker on it which was singing the song in the street wherever it went. We heard them before but never heard or saw one from close by. Dennis first went to the post office to get his bank book o...

Today Michelle went to meet Reiko at the Kugahara station. With a small touristic detour trough Kamata she only arrived 10 minutes late. She was very happy with her iPhone with internet, otherwise it would have been a small disaster! The trains can be quite difficult even for a short distance. When she met Reiko at the Mizuho bank they went to a shopping mall called Lazona Kawasaki Plaza. It was very big with all kind of shops like a supermarket, some stores wi...

In the morning the rental company came to pick up the beds and the couch. They also brought and installed the ceiling lights, so it's very light now in the evening! In the afternoon the furniture company came to deliver and install our new beds and couch. We are looking forward to a night without back aches. In the evening we went to Ginza to get a green bumper for Michelle's iPhone 4S at the Apple Store, since original Apple bumpers are hard to find in any ot...

Due to the late previous evening, we were up and about a bit later than planned. We went to Hachioji were there was a street festival along a road lined with ichou trees. The weather was very nice (up to 24 degrees) and we took a nice stroll along the lane. Most stalls were selling either food or (second-hand) clothes, but there were some ceramics as well (we bought a nice small vase). Everyone was very nice, friendly and wanted to chat; it was a very good atmo...