April 2nd Crazy Gaijin stuff

Yesterday we headed to look at an apartment "near" the Musashi Nodai train station, within a 10 minute walk we were told...sure, if you're an Olympic sprinter!
But first things first . Our first clue that the apartment was a bit 'out there' should have been the fact that for the first time ever Gary and I had a whole train car to ourselves! Of course what does a crazy gaijin do if she finds herself riding through Tokyo with her own private train car....?
                                  First, she takes up as much space on a seat that she wants!

                            
                              
                                And then because that wasn't interesting enough...she dances!

Of course her husband isn't a crazy Gaijin.. he sits in ONE seat politely like a good Japanese man.

 

Fortunately, for the trainline, the train stopped at a new station and people boarded before I could do anymore hooliganism's and I had to behave myself again. (By the way, the Japanese word for hooligan is Yankee...I'm not kidding!)

When we arrived at Musashi Nodai we began the "short 10 minute" walk to the apartment.

 

Up hills,

 

 down hills,

 

finally far off in the distance we saw the apartment complexes!

 

Surprise! The apartment was FOUR stories up with no elevator! THAT'S not happening, we're grandparents for crying out loud! So the apartment search continues!

At least on the walk back there were refreshments provided at one of Japan's gazillion vending machines that sell both hot and cold beverages...and soup!

 

At the train station there was a book store. We don't know who or why but we keep seeing big posters and stuff of this chick all over japan...maybe she's from a tv show or something. Anyway, I think she is cool so I took a picture.

 

And then I saw this.

 

Which really makes me want to introduce people to this!

 

 

We re-boarded the train and headed back to civilization! Here's a view from the train window.

 

We decided to head to Akihabara...AKA Electric Town!

 

 

While there I ran into this guy who was there for repairs or something...

 

I was hoping to find an in English rice cooker. Akihabara is home to all things electronic so it seemed our best shot would be there. We found several 'in English' rice cookers but they were all for foreigners taking them back to Australia or someplace with round plug heads and 220 voltage which we don't have here in Japan. However, I did find an electric espresso machine! I was very sad when I had to leave my espresso machine behind in the States so this really made my day! AND...it was cheap, AND since they were out of stock we bought the floor model and got it HALF off! So $20 later we walked out of the store with a little bit of coffee heaven! I just have to dance AGAIN!