After quite a bit of trepidation I’ve given notice on my old place (actually this entry is quite ahead).  We gave verbal notice on the 1st of October and it was confirmed in writing after they accepted my application for the new place.

No going back now as the written termination notice is final! Some good points of the new place is that its brand new and the apartment has never been lived in (wow two in a row, how lucky am I).  Also the building is very very pet friendly, there is even a dedicated pet entrance with wash down area and a dedicated grooming room!

The location also is quiet unique in Tokyo.  The island is a joint venture between the government, local council and private enterprise.  The whole island has been landscaped and designed for human living.  There whole perimeter of the island is one big walkway with trees and right next to the sea/canal.  Its not quite all residential as smack in the middle of the island is the major Tokyo Sewage Water Reclamation station!

Wow I am off for two days moving house and this week the craziness has found a whole new level!

Monday was a catch up day on the issues from the two days off and then before that was even half sorted out we had a public holiday!  I finally got through all my emails on Thursday, just to start on the actual stuff that had to be done.

Its not friday and while most of the stuff is done for this week its been a total nuts week, I did notice the moon is now full again, so my theory of full moon nuts is still getting alot a traction!

The good news is that the apartment does have some sense of order now.  Davina the housekeeper came in on Thursday and did a great job of sorting things out and the place is looking great.

There is still alot of work to be done getting everything stowed away correctly, but at least on the surface the place is looking good and presentable.  I can’t believe what a difference 10 extra sq metre makes. Its fantastic.   The extra space is really making a difference.  My bedroom is so huge compared to the old place and the kitchen in the main room has more positives than negatives.

And its driving me nuts.  There is a game called Evony that i’ve been playing online, and i just can’t get online to keep up with it!

Its also proving really hard not being able to communicate with everyone.  No msn and no cheap phone, or email, or anything.

Hopefully they will hook me up this week and it should be really fast as its fiber to my door!  The fiber connection is right there, just need them to put in a fiber router.

The new place is shaping up really well thou.  The extra space is really noticable, and the new layout makes the most of it.  As soon as the net is hooked up I’ll be able store the rest of the computer gear and get everything sorted out.

Had a couple of friends over for dinner on Saturday night.  Wasn’t entirely sure of the menu other than my new recipe of Satay Chicken.

The new layout with the dining room in the small room worked perfectly!  Its cosy, but very workable. 

We had a wonderful dinner.  Went Thai/South East Asian.  From memory Satay is not a core Thai dish, but worked really well with the rest of the meal. 

Still have some clearing away of things to do, think I’m waiting for the internet connection to be sorted so i can clear away the computer gear and then put the whole main room into place!

Little dog loved the company and was very well behaved the whole night, just slept under the table near his people!  The wine and food flowed and was a great night.

Its been over a week now and I don’t have internet in the apartment yet.  Very odd its going to take three weeks for USEN to install the connection.  I was blown away that it would take so long as everything in Japan is normally really efficient.

We tried to get it installed faster, but a factor of living in Japan is that when something is going to take X amount of time it is going to take X amount of time.  Forget trying to speed it up!

The good news is that from looking at my connection box it will actually be a full fibre connection to the box in my apartment.  Will be interesting to see just how fast everything is with fibre.  My old building was on ‘fibre’ but the distribution within the building was shared.  Honestly I was never unhappy with the connection there it was very fast and most of the time it was waiting for the sites to respond.

I also had really great speed for downloads and torrents.  My connection to work was also really great and just as fast as being there!.

So back on topic, no internet except for going to the common lounges for access.  It was fine the first couple of days, but I’m not starting to feel really cut off from things.

I’ve realised that my life here in Tokyo is very dependant on a good internet connection.  It provides not just my email, but also my TV programs, news and telephone connections. 

I do have a phone connection, but international calling on local telecoms is prohibitively expensive. 

Well all going well, but I have no internet!  Luckly I can get wireless internet in the lounges here for free.  Not a bad thing for work and also the online games i play that need quite alot of attention!

Slow day as its now a relax day.  One thing of note is that on Saturday the washing machine packed a sad after the second load?  I tried everything but it kept coming up with an error.  Damn these computerized appliances.  I followed all the instructions they gave me and it still came up with an error.

I phoned the concierge desk and they told me that a full english speaking person would not be available until Sunday, not big deal at all.  Well an hour later (and we are talking like 8pm and night one of the staff turned up with the maintenance man to have a look at it.

End result was that the outlet filter was completely clogged up with junk (and could not have been me as one load of washing won’t do that).  They were so nice and loved Tonto who was all over them!

Phone call on Sunday from the management to check i was happy as the team who had come at 8pm on Saturday were so worried that there lack of english was a problem.  I assured them that i was completely happy and deeply appreciative of the efforts they had gone to. 

Everything is now falling to place thou and some order from the chaos  is forming.  The main rooms layout is looking good. The bathroom area is in place.  Now it just a matter of sorting out the pantry and closets.  The huge storage cupboard has loads more space in it even with all my books and travel stuff in it and the while I’m not sure of the final bedroom layout I’m going to let the place now fall into a natural flow and go from there.

How the hell did I accumulate so much stuff!  It very scary how much stuff you have!

I’ve started the process of putting it all away, but not at all happy about the layout.  My first thoughts on it were totally stupid and i wasn’t thinking it through.  I think some assumptions based on my old place come into mind.  After sitting and looking at it all, then pulling out the measuring tape I came up with a new plan.  I also wanted to get a nice big TV as lets face it 42inchs of TV is awesome.  There was however no way i could have the dining room table, my desk and tv in the same room.

I toyed with idea of putting the desk into the small room, but after talking with a friend I came to the realization that I spend alot of time at my desk working on stuff, and also like to have the TV on with something mildly interesting to watch (as I am now).

So thinking outside of the box I got to thinking how often do I really use my dining room table.  Trust me I’m not getting rid of it.  A solid English oak table, its not leaving my possession ever!  I love that table!

I’ve taken two days of work to do the move and 9am on the 29th October they arrived (or more specially 9:05am!)

They have started packing everything up, and its now just pack it all and clean behind them.  The moving company was Crown Lines and while I guess it was not the cheapest prices i could have gotten it is the mover of recommendation from my company and they have a good reputation. 

I covered what was involved in the actual move before and given that time was short I didn’t have time to go looking for other quotes and have also heard from a couple of other people who used the ‘cheap’ movers and would not recommend them.

Tonto was around for the first hour of the move and found it a wonderful experience having other people in the house and so many things moving around.  He got into everything and just a little underfoot!  I did however arrange for him to goto doggy day care at Dog Inc (web link to come) and when Yamada-san arrived he was more than happy to go off to play with his friends.  Dog Inc really came through as well and picked him up from the old apartment and dropped him off at the new one!  (washed and groomed!).

The moving team were brillant and finished the pack up at about 2pm.  I had time to go and pick up the new key, get back for final rough clean of the place, then be back at Shibaura in time for them to begin the unload.  Then the chaos began….

Haven’t said much online for a while as I’ve been rather busy with a new project.  Basically finding somewhere new to live!

Its not quite as drastic as it sounds.  The lease was up on my apartment and normally its just fill in a form and its renewed for another 2 years.  I had however been exploring alot of locations and had found Shinagawa seaside which has lots of parts and is next on the Tokyo bay.

An aside and little unknown fact is that Tokyo has loads and loads of canals!  Having explored quite a few of them now it could have been fair to call Tokyo the venice of the east, but alas instead of celebrating this opportunity nearly all of the area’s around the canals has become industrial!  Like major industrial.  I’ll write more on this into another entry.  More below the fold.

While walking back from the Roppongi Hills today we passed the demo centre for the new Panasonic 3D TV. As i had been looking at TV’s today Pete and I thought it would be a bit of fun.

Well blown away was the answer.  More details here.

The sequences of the Olympics Opening Ceremony were stunning and you felt like you were standing on the field!  The soccer game and golf were also just brillant.  Die hard sports fans will be queuing to buy this.  Its a killer technology.

More soon.