Odaiba

We STILL have no water. The pump for the apartment block flooded and they are trying to get all the water out before sorting out the supply to the flats. This is HELL. I've stocked up on wetwipes and bottled water but I can't shower, flush the toilet, do any washing or washing up. HELL! I think if it's not back on by tomorrow I'll have to go to an onsen, but the point is that in this weather, you sweat moving between places and so it's the pleasure of being able to shower before getting dressed and when you get home and before getting into bed that is the whole point rather than the 'just getting clean' thing. Of course the other thing is that I have eczema and need to be able to get the sweat off my skin properly to lessen flair-ups.

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Anyway, enough of that for now. Today I went with a friend to Odaiba. I went once before to visit a themed onsen but hadn't explored the town that time. We got a boat there - a very futuristic looking boat that resembled something from Star Trek, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the ride wasn't too picturesque apart from some nice bridges. Odaiba itself is a sprawling metropolis of greyness, once you get out of the shopping areas. It feels a bit like a large industrial estate. There were lots of queues for things we didn't bother with and we just wandered around watching people and nattering instead.

Oh and we went into two pet shops. The first had tanks with beetles for sale. HUGE beetles. They're very popular pets with kids here as apartments are so small. I did try hard, but just cannot see the appeal of owning a beetle. I mean, as a kid, I had a ladybird for a pet, which is a bit odd, but at least ladybirds are cute. In their own way.

The second pet shop was all kittens. I could have taken a few of them home with me....

I'm starting to no longer be nervous of cicadas. I wish I was a good enough writer to really set down the atmosphere created by cicadas, but I'm not and I can't. Imagine a tree or a bunch of trees or shrubbery with disembodied noises clattering and screeching out at you like some hugely magnified death rattle with the occasional 'voice' rising above the masses and making a noise which you cannot really describe as you've heard nothing like it in your life. Most of the time you hear a loud humming coming on masse. And then the one 'voice' raises about the others in a shrill vibration of short quick noises ending in a long rattle, before the mass humming resumes. Now and then a 'screech' will ring out. If you're lucky the stereo of clattering may calm down to an loud vibration. If you're very lucky, the only knowledge you have of the presence of a cicada is it's noise. And it's a noise you can hear most of the time around you. Sometimes it's the only noise.

Three days to Hong Kong. I'm still checking for messages in my Hong Kong thread (below), so please leave me some more.

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2am update: the water is finally back on after being out since some time yesterday evening. Bliss. I just had a wonderful shower. I feel clean now.