Would I really want 10,000 to die? No of course not, but for some reason I don`t want to continue on with a quiz that asks questions like that...silly myself I know.
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I`d like to also note that on this trip I have come to the decision that I will take steps to instigate a change to my working life toward the end of the year. I don`t know if I have the commitment to follow it through though, because I really have no idea what I could do after it - and thats a little scary.

I`ve never been one to take big steps or actually make decisions - things always sort of fall into place and I go with the flow. But note today I`m feeling like I should act on this change. I feel I want to wait for something or somebody to help me decide on this - but I don`t think thats how it works - I have to make the decision for myself.
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I`ve also found a good Japanese restaurant nearby with English menu - I`ll be eating there from now on! It serves Inanawi (?) style food.
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I`m also currently reading `The Vanished Man` by Jeffery Deaver. Its a crime novel about a serial killer that uses magic tricks to inspire his crimes. He also wrote `The Blue Nowhere` which is well read, so I might read that one after this.
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Still haven`t done anything on fat prophets. Everytime I go to the website I just get this feeling of laziness come over me.

Another day of rampant sightseeing - slash - shopping. I`m well and truly sick of walking into and out of shops now. I visited 3 areas of Tokyo

Jimbocho - the hotel clerks said that this was where all the sports stores were - and they were right - snowboard stores everywhere! There were so many I got sick of going into them, coz they all had the same stuff. I bought some bubble grips for my stomp pad, and 2 snowboard vid`s - quite old, but they were cheap!

Shibuya - trendy shopping district of Tokyo - so many people, and Shibuy 109 - which is a shopping mall with ONLY female clothing stores, is eye candy city! But I felt silly walking around in there - seriously there was not a single guy in there...so I bailed out of there..

Harajuku - looks like a tourist trap - its a small group of streets - main one being takeshita st (yes, take-a-shita street) and full of your typical weekend markets - but in a small alleyway. Starting to see some of the more `colourful` tokyo-ites around here :). There are alot of goths in tokyo! And alot of wannabe homies! And whats with the girls in school uniforms on the weekend - did they actualy have school - or do they were their uniform as a fashion statement?

Meiji Shrine - shrine of Emperor Meiji. Situated within a huge park, with wide avenues in between the huge native Japanese flora (I have no idea what those trees are called). Its visited by both tourists and locals - as a place to pray to the late Emperor and ask for good fortune. The way you pray is make a small donation, then bow twice, clap twice, pay your respects, then bow once again.

And finally - Akihabara - nerd city. More electronics shops than you could possibly visit. And a Sega World - which was a pretty cool games arcade. They have new games, as well as all the classics - they still have heaps of Street Figher Turbo machines. I played a few games, lost all of them - I`m crap as usual at arcade games. In addition to electonics shops, there are alot of DVD shops, and a few things that caught my attention;

there is not much point buying any dvds from japan bcoz they are all in japanese...even manga is pointless to buy i reckon
there were 3 whole stores of manga porn. and just manga porn. nothing else
there were whole stores of porn. and just porn. nothing else.
(I of course wandered into these establishments inadvertantly - there were no warning signs! and of course didn`t stay any longer than I had to)

After this long and tiring day...I come back to my hotel, with the cute desk clerk hehe I might have to find a reason to go up to talk to her ...but in the meantime I need to find something to eat

btw 2 footnotes

it is very difficult to find something to eat in tokyo - they aren`t that big on their fast food - not many around at all. And the casual food halls or restaurants they do have, very few of them have english menus
in japan you are not allowed to smoke on the footpath, but you can smoke indoors

Things I have noticed while in Japan:

I can`t speak Japanese. But while I still feel I belong in other Asian countries I`ve been too, I feel a bit more like an alien in Japan. Some say I look Japanese, but I may as well be a blonde haired, blue eyed Australian.

Fruit is very expensive. Japanese have a big thing about rockmelons. Although they call it something else here (name of which I can`t remember). One rockmelon now, can cost in excess of 10 thousand yen - which is approximately AUD$120! However I don`t know whether they GE their fruit, but the rockmelons could be display ornaments - they are perfectly round, with perfectly formed patterns on their outside. The fruit shops in Japan are almost like boutique stores, displaying fruits like rare and precious items.

I`m slowly starting to appreciate the train system. There are several different independent train companies in Japan (go privatisation!) which results in an absolute mess and tangle of railway lines. I`m amazed someone worked out how to present it logically on a map. But the benefit of all that is trains run every 5 minutes, are always clean, and are always on time. And you can basically get from anywhere to anywhere in the city by train, at a cost of about 200 yen per trip. I haven`t had to take a trip that crosses different train lines yet, so I have to found out how to buy tickets for that adventure.

Everythings comes in small packages in Japan. From tiny Udon, Ramen and other Japanese cuisine diners you find everywhere on the streets. These restaurants are so small you have to hold your breath to walk in. Then there are the tiny apartments that people live in. Speaking to people I work with, they live in apartments big enough for a single bed, and pretty much not much more - no table, no closet, nothing. That may seem unbearably claustrophobic to us, but that is the typical standard of living in Tokyo I think.