Taken with my iPhone on Cat Street, the street that connects Shibuya to Omotesando. I'm pretty impressed by the picture quality of my iPhone, I should take more photos with it...

I can't wait until the typhoon season - after a typhoon, the skies are like washed from any cloud or fog - when I should be able to see the Fujisan clearly from my window.

More photos in the flickr photoset...

The view from the living room should be like the picture below on clear days (albeit from a lower vantage point but I should still be able to glimpse the Fujisan). Can't wait to be doing cool Tokyo timelapses from my own window.

fujisan view - the weird white triangular building is Nakano

This time, my company does not wish to rent it for me and take it out of my salary as I am a local contract employee. So this is my first foray into actually signing a rental contract and paying all the fees myself upfront. So lets break it down:

• 1st month of rent (you pay your rent in advance in Japan) = ¥220.000
• Moving in on 26th of June so 5 days worth of rent until 30th = ¥36.700
• 敷金 - deposit, 2 months of rent = ¥440.000
• 火災保険 - fire insurance = ¥25.000
• 鍵交換代 - lock change fee = ¥35.000 (that's a hell of a lot for a lock!)
• 町内会費 - neighborhood association membership fee for 2 months = ¥500

For a grand total of ¥757.200 or three quarters of a million yen... upfront... it hurts...

And actually, I should count myself lucky, this is rather cheap and most of it is the deposit which I'll mostly get back. Apartments here, especially new ones, often have a 礼金 which is also called key money and is a nice gift of 2 months of rent to the owner.

Thinking of all that money makes me a bit more partial to the idea of buying a place for myself...

It is right next to the 京成関屋 train station or 10min walk from 北千住. More photos in the flickr set.

A skull chariot sculpture in Marunouchi.

An abandoned ice-cream stand-sign in Koenji.

So my girlfriend and I arrived at 5:30 after being guided by cops that were all over the station for the opening and got there to climb in the first train to arrive at Shibuya station and reversing for the journey back to Saitama.

Ruiko said:
Do not under-estimate the Japanese Otaku...

Remembering this saying by a good friend of mine, I wasn't surprised when that first train came in Shibuya station packed full of weirdos with backpacks and cameras (the classic Otaku costume). They came out of the train clapping and cheering, taking photos of each other in front of the driving cabin and macroing on every little details of the new train and station.

After the flow ebbed, we climbed on the train and were followed by a dozen of guys who must've missed the very first train. Losers... One of them was recording the trip and announcements with a microphone, bobbing his head to each of the stations' distinctive music as if to music from heaven... One of them had long pommeled hair and wore a flowery dress...

I didn't take any photos of them as my girlfriend was afraid I would get shanked by one of the weirdos like what happened in Akihabara 2 weeks ago, but I do have some photos of the brand new piece of station in Shibuya.

From left to right: a Maserati Quattroporte, a Lamborghini Gallardo and an unknown Ferrari... More pics here and here.

On the border of the 目黒川, I got to take some nice photos with the president of the 写真倶楽部.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out their website for more of the same and even a making-of.

Nice shops to check out:

• The brand new MoMA store in the Gyre building (from which I took the photo) with lots of funny gadgets.
• hhstyle just down the road from there with very very nice and very very expensive furniture.