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Yokohama went all Melbourne on me yesterday. I was woken up early by wind rattling the apartment and by rain flying horizontally against the windows.

Rolled over, went back to sleep.

Woke up maybe 4 hours later, thinking I’d have to pinch an umbrella to get to work, only to find that the sky was a brilliant blue with not a cloud in sight. Kinda warm too, but still really windy.

Four seasons in one day indeed.

Melbourne probably doesn’t get magnitude 6 earthquakes, though.

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Jean Snow pointed out that Metropolis magazine (the free English magazine here in Tokyo) has made a podcast of it’s contents.

So, I had a listen…

Oh gods.

The Rick Dees accent is too much >.<

Never mind the blatant advertising. It’s kinda sounds like a 1950s talkshow for housewives.

Is it meant to be funny? Is it all just a terrible joke? I’m not laughing, I’m cringing.

Blegh. I might give it another shot but they need to get rid of that host. And the cheesy American accents. And the cheesy elevator music. And the cheesy classifieds. And everything.

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Google have just introduced their Calendar product for every Google (read: Gmail) account. It’s being rolled out slowly to every email account, so soon you will see a small blue toolbar above the Gmail logo that has links to “Google, Gmail, Calendar and more”.

Nice, but I am notorious for not remembering to write in important stuff on my calendar, so I’d be sure to never use it, at least not properly.

That is, until I saw this on the sidebar of one of my emails, above the advertisements that keeps Google going…

Predictive calendar entries! It could sense that the email was about a meeting and asked me if I wanted to add it to the calendar!

I remember when Gmail first came out and people were worried about the lack of privacy when Google software scanned your emails and showed you relevant advertisements. I bet this Calendar function reignites the debate.

But I don’t care, that is very, very cool and may finally teach me how to use a calendar.

AJAX coding, huh? Methinks I’m going to have to start learning it.

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“Your hair looks cute like that”

*double take*

“Uh…does it?”
No, it doesn’t. It needs a wash and it was windy outside so it’s all messed up. It also doesn’t really look any different than it does everyday, so why suddenly this compliment from this guy that I never expected to like me?

It wasn’t just a once-off either. It was the start of random, offhand comments, which, even after taking into account the fact that I’m female and likely to read too much into things, do sound a bit…suspicious.

It has made life interesting, to say the least.

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What the hell is wrong with stuff today?

ATM was broken. My phone doesn’t want to make phone calls or receive them. The light in the toilet is giving out.

And everywhere I walked around, power lines were buzzing loudly. I thought at first that maybe the cicadas had arrived. But no, it’s the power lines, the entire walk home from the train station. I can hear them now from inside my bedroom, it seems to be making the fluorescent lights in my apartment buzz too.

What the hell is wrong with stuff today??

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Went to Harajuku today, with H, L and her sister. L finally got dressed up in her GothLoli gear, and she said she felt incredibly uncomfortable afterwards. Heh. I guess she’s not really GothLoli material. Not enough exhibitionism in her.

She got a few people asking her to pose, including - as expected - some perverted old oyaji making kissy faces at her. Poor girl. But still, she looked good and it was a highly successful day. I took lots of photos and the weather was great. We also went to Akiba later where I finally found volume two of the Ragnarok Online figurines.

The kids on Omotesando were really friendly today. Very willing to have photos taken, unlike a few times in the past when I was just ignored or told ‘no’. Which is fair enough, I’d be annoyed at people wanting to take my photo all day too. But it was a relief to have them willing and ready to pose. I think it was the good weather. Everyone was genki. Takeshita-dori was absolutely packed. L bought another pair of shoes in another Lolita shop that we found.

H, the native, had no idea that this was the kinda thing that happened every Sunday in Harajuku. I think she had fun there. She was probably more bored in Akihabara, when L, her sister and I went into otaku mode.

Akihabara on a Sunday was interesting too. The main street was shut off to cars, so there were a few maids posing for photos and handing out flyers with HUGE crowds around them. One of them was practically in her underwear, so I’m not surprised in the least.

Then, to Shibuya for dinner. Mexican, numnumnum. Expensive but hella satisfying.

A purikura session to record the day together, then home to Yokohama.

“Oh wait, we need to get the shinkansen tickets for Kyoto tomorrow”
“Ah, yeah”
*gets a quote for tickets……jaw drops….*
“Um…maybe we’ll go to Nikko instead?”

Ha, that ¥50,000 I had L hold onto for Kyoto wasn’t needed after all. Excellent, more spending money! To Tower Records!

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My job, which is at best filled with a bunch of incompetents, at worst is a fascist totalitarian regime, has this week lost one of the good guys.

There were only maybe four people I genuinely liked at my job, and now the best one has gone “home”, which is really where the heart is.

Ja ne, Magic J.

It’s been short, but hella fun.

I really hope it’s not the last time we see each other.

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