shiny shiny SHINY :D

So. It's saturday, and there's a typhoon coming? so what shall we do? how about walking around Tokyo in the typoony wind and rain trying to find a non-existent kimono and get a new phone?

...yeah, well... I thought it was a good plan...

We wondered around Harajuku in the down pour looking for some possible ideas for halloween costumes (we were thinking of going to the Yamaote line train party: something like the Circle Line...but MUCH bigger...where they have a yearly halloween party in one of the carriages). Anyway, we eventually got to the cool shop, where they sell very very sexy Kimonos...only to find they didn't have any left! grrrrrrr...well... more of a *sniff sniff*. I was sad. No cool and sexy kimono for wayway :( and they won't get any more stock until DECEMBER! Waaaaaaaaaaaa!

So, I sulk away... we have a coffee to warm ourselves up (because our shoes and socks are completely soaked, added to the fact that our trousers have become friends with precipitation and been getting on swimmingly with the whole concept of capillary action). Whilst still feeling unbeliveably sorry for myself about a kimono, or lack there of, I decided that the best way to deal with my current issues was to buy a pair of wellies.

But not just *any* wellies... these are special, magical, wellies. I had been eyeing them up since early this year well before any mention of Glastonbury... and considering the excessive efforts of the typhoon, they were possibly the only thing which would keep my feet vaguely dry....well, from getting any more wet.

ta-da! a pair of cool wellies.

So, the magical boots made me happy again... so happy, I decided the best thing to do was to torture myself with the Japanese language and try to cancel my current phone contract and sign up to a new one, with out the help of a fluent Japanese/English speaker... Hmmmmm! FUN! I think not.

Thus, we head off to try and find an AU shop, to cancel said phone...which involved chasing a very small goose, but we got there in the end...the whole canceling thing was nice and easy. I even got hold of my MNP number (which was effective immediately) for a small handling charge...taking one step closer to shiny shiny.

'That wasn't too bad!' I thought...

HA!

Back into the rain to find the huge Softbank shop of shiny-ness...the whole shop was shiny. mmmmmmmmmm shiny. With in a minute of us setting our now sodden-squishy feet in there we were approached by an eager shop assistant...who quickly discovered that my Japanese was utter tripe. But she kept smiling and being overly helpful. She guided us through the phones... with some great use of universal sign language to get across things like: 'has TV, no international roaming' and 'has no TV but International roaming'. Most of this was pointless, because I was hearing: 'this phone is shiny and new, and this phone is shiny, new, and looks pretty. This phone resembles the common brick because it carries an amazing camera and 3x optical zoom, while this phone is a very cool colour and very shiny' ... etcetera etcetera. After seeing more shiny things than my brain can usually cope with in a day, I chose a セクシー shiny camera by samsung....possibly because it came in a funky colour. The turquoise blue was practically irresistible...

It is most definitely a sexy phone. And I forfeited the ability to do international roaming with the thing, in favour of having a TV (thought it might improve my Japanese - failing that, I can use the antenna to duel with people in the street).

After finally choosing the damn phone I wanted...it got steadily worse. The explanation of contract agreements and special offers is complex enough in your own language, let alone in a foreign one. So, yeah, it took a while.

Greg was patiently sitting beside me (still soaking wet from the knees down, with his shoes making a lovely squelchy sound everytime he put his foot on some thing solid) and translating things about contracts, that I seemed incapable of understanding...It was all very tiring... and it was past 8pm by the time we had exhausted the whole contract business...which was kinda sad, as we were kinda thinking of trying to head for the Yamanote line party thingy..definitely no time to head home and change...and we weren't really in much of a going out state after our little open air shower...

The sales lady had pottered off to get the contract sorted... and came back with some 'presents' for us... I got some weird magnet clippy things...a stainless-steel mug - tiny but cute...and best of all a free 1gb microSD...and some promise of 5000yen cashback after I slay a dragon...or something like that...haven't quite figured it out yet...I'm sure it will be fine.

After the humungus effort of getting my new shiny toy, we gave up on the idea of the Yamanote line party (maybe next year eh?) and opted for dinner...which was nice - the company was excellent, as always...then went home to dry off... which all turned out rather well actually. Greg found out later that this years Yamanote line party was a bit pants... on the account of the gaijins (the people who went to the party, aka. foreigners) acting like dicks... They apparently managed to get the train stopped at Shibuya station for about 20mins because they were busy pouring beer on the natives...hmmmm well done there.