It's not all been dismal recently. On Monday I caught up with Satoko, Noriko and Mayu-chan, and bought some cheapo sandals (after several months of trying and failing, not quite getting round to it etc) and went for sushi, again. Just before the Fuji failure we had spent the afternoon and several thousand yen eating tabehodai (all you can eat) at a pretty good sushi restaurant. I think we clocked about 25 or so pieces of delicious sushi, including a Super California Roll, which is like an ordinary California roll (sushi rice, crab, avocado, cucumber) but really big, with eel wrapped around the outside. Also we discovered the difference between hamachi and kanpachi (both yellowtail, but one is tastier than the other - older perhaps?). It was basically very very nice, and really good to see Sato again after a long time being super busy at Shane, and with ShWA. Then, on Monday as I said we ate sushi again, this time at the favourite Ueno sushi outlet where you can eat whatever you like for 130 yen a plate. In essence, it is tabehodai there as well, as you can't actually eat so much sushi that the meal becomes particularly expensive. I think it was 27 plates between me and Satoko that night. Noriko and Mayu are a lot of fun too. Mayu was practising her English, which in December was non-existent and now is broken, but improving.

Also good is that Shane came round to renovate the flats we live in here in Minami-Kashiwa. While they appear to be neglecting my bouncy floor and broken kitchen light, I was shamed into tidying the flat, so I have a spick and span flat now. I moved my fridge around and placed my recently salvaged and extensively cleaned microwave on top of it, freeing up the only workspace I have.

I also made and ate 12 pancakes with whatever was in my fridge, including cucumber, salad dressing, Milo (which is a milk drink powder which tastes of crushed Maltesers), and of course lemon and sugar, which I bought especially. I saved a piece of fish, two eggs and a potato to eat later, but ate everything else with the pancakes. I think my sushi consumption has led to an expectation of grossly over-carbohydrated meals, so I should cut down. Fortunately I have no food (other than a potato, two eggs and a piece of fish) so there is not too much danger of me overdoing it on any of the food groups. Actually, I have a very few Hershey's Kisses left from Satoko, which are being strictly rationed because I never buy chocolate for myself, and it's really nice.

I went to Top Home Station and bought some modular table construction bits and pieces to enable me build a little lap table to more comfortably code in a very comfy chair I found in the street. I also found a different, more comfortable way of organising my futon, so last night's sleep was as good as can be expected for something broken early in the morning by the screaming of a woodsaw on 15 ply flooring.