Tuesday 03 January 14:40 Our balcony - I have grand plans for this but currently there is only one little rosemary pot!	Tuesday 03 January 14:40 The view from the other corner.	Tuesday 03 January 14:41 Some of the spectacularly ugly buildings that currently comprise our view...
Tuesday 03 January 14:41 ...hopefully you can understand from this my desire to break up this panaroma of eyesores with some greenery!	Tuesday 03 January 14:41 Demonstrating the slightly stepped nature of this bit of the building.	Tuesday 03 January 14:41 The balcony again.
Tuesday 03 January 14:41 Close-up on the plucky little rosemary plant!	Tuesday 03 January 14:44 Out the front of our apartment is just a row of rather uninteresting doors.	Tuesday 03 January 15:48 So off I went to try and find a garden centre, but I failed rather abysmally. I took a picture of this lamp post so I could check back later that I was in fact in the right place - the green portion there gives the address of this block.
Tuesday 03 January 15:55 The block which was supposed to have a garden centre in, but seemingly didn't!	Tuesday 03 January 15:56 There was this "about to open" store or something nearby - I wonder if this is related?

Wednesday 04 January 16:54 This is around the Hinode area - where Tokyo meets the Pacific. I went for an early evening wander down here by myself. The night time illuminations were quite nice.	Wednesday 04 January 16:59 That's the rainbow bridge over there.	Wednesday 04 January 17:00 More of the same...
Wednesday 04 January 17:14 I walked back from there to Roppongi, a route for which Tokyo Tower made a very handy route marker (especially as it is lit up and night and can be seen from some distance!).	Wednesday 04 January 17:32 I took a number of pictures of the tower along the way...	Wednesday 04 January 17:39 A little blurry, seen through the trees.
Wednesday 04 January 17:41 That's better!	Wednesday 04 January 17:41 Possibly the best of the lot. Note the 2006 lights!	Wednesday 04 January 17:56 I liked the look of these stools very much - unfortunately they seemed to be about 300 quid each!
Wednesday 04 January 19:09 Chie and I met up in Roppongi, and went out for Mexican food.	Wednesday 04 January 19:16 Here's my burrito / enchilada / whatever - and Chie had a chimichanga I think.	Wednesday 04 January 19:16 Same again.

A few random midweek pictures taken with my new mobile (and thus the quality being a bit naff!)

Wednesday 12:53 This is my lunch! Tomatoes, an umeboshi onigiri, some atsuage, a mushroom salad, some ginger (to go on the atsuage) and a KitKat!	Wednesday 19:33 The last little dribble of the Caol Ila 18 year old, which I'd bought a couple of months back.	Friday 08:41 The big crossroads near our apartment block.
Saturday 12:51 The balcony, as seen through the bedroom window.	Sunday 11:09 A "usual suspects" lineup of plants.

Saturday 14 January 12:52 I thought it proper to make an inventory of the plants so far, prior to heading off to the garden centre to buy more.	Saturday 14 January 12:53 Putting them in context a bit...	Saturday 14 January 13:11 Our local Mister Donut, where we had a somewhat unconventional (not to mention unhealthy!) lunch.
Saturday 14 January 13:11 Me enjoying these surprisingly nice, yet quite silly looking, small donut things.	Saturday 14 January 13:39 Me at our local station, and yet another instance of the classic mistake of leaving the white balance on the indoor setting.	Saturday 14 January 14:20 Southern Garden - the little garden centre I had tried to find previously but failed. Definitely managed this time round!
Saturday 14 January 14:46 Me and Chie waiting for a bus in the pouring rain, with our newly acquired tree.	Saturday 14 January 15:01 Chie on the platform of Chitose Karasuyama station, waiting with a fellow passenger who looked uncannily like a tree.

Sunday 15 January 13:07 The state of the Hanging Gardens as of today, following the newly introduced olive tree. They looked much better after I moved them into the sunlight!	Sunday 15 January 13:07 Already the presence of some greenery is helping to diffuse the rather ugly skyline!	Sunday 15 January 13:34 On the way out - our entrance hallway has a little "oriental alcove" featuring some Chinese ornaments.
Sunday 15 January 15:00 A late lunch in Shimo-Kitazawa, where we'd decided to spend the afternoon shopping.	Sunday 15 January 15:00 Lunch was in a sort of Deli place, which was actually not that great...	Sunday 15 January 15:33 ...as a result I felt it necessary to go for "lunch 2" a short while later. A sort of Japanese ran Indian style curry fast food restaurant (?).
Sunday 15 January 17:52 Back at the flat, here we are with our newly acquired stools.	Sunday 15 January 17:53 We were rather pleased about these - suddenly our little counter thing had become a small whisky bar!	Sunday 15 January 20:41 Dinner was also much more fun, thanks to the stools. It is hard to get enthusiastic about cooking when you know your gourmet treat is going to be eaten sitting on the floor!
Sunday 15 January 20:52 Here we are with our main course...	Sunday 15 January 20:54 ...I made a sort of vegetarian version of Boeuf Borgignon.	Sunday 15 January 20:54 This came out rather well, although I say so myself!

Monday 21:40 Yuka and Chie digging into dinner. We only have two stools at the moment, so Chie was relegated to sitting on her big red exercise ball thing.	Monday 21:41 My "plated lasagne". It could have really benefitted from a while longer under the grill, but time was unfortunately somewhat pressing.	Monday 21:41 ...a good helping of black pepper is of course essential.
Monday 21:53 A blurry picture of me and Yuka.

Friday 22:31 The view from the 47th Floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. It was much nicer than this picture from the terrible quality camera in my phone suggests!	Friday 22:31 ...and another one. Hopefully you get the idea at least!	Saturday 00:17 A couple of colleagues, in my manager's favourite bar in Shinjuku.
Saturday 01:56 You can barely make this out at all - it is a picture of a picture. On my previous visit we'd had our picture taken, and I was really pleased to find it on the wall!

Saturday 11:56 I awoke this morning to find snow everywhere!	Saturday 11:56 This helped to make my normally ugly view somewhat more pleasant.	Saturday 12:33 ...I'm not sure this is good for my little collection of plants though!
Saturday 12:33 For some reason I don't really associate olive trees with snow...	Saturday 16:34 Footsteps in the snow.

Sunday 13:19 Allow me to introduce you to Geoff the snowman.	Sunday 13:19 Our large balcony provided ample snow to enable Geoff's construction. When we were first deciding on a place to live, this added benefit never crossed my mind!	Sunday 13:19 In this picture, Geoff appears to be performing some kind of ritual. Probably he is attempting to hide the sun.
Sunday 13:20 A close up on Geoff's face. Note the 5 Yen coins used for eyes.	Sunday 13:20 There he is, in his little corner.	Sunday 13:26 Me and Geoff enjoying a cup of coffee (in Geoff's case, iced coffee of course).
Sunday 13:26 Geoff demonstrating that he is not only of ornamental benefit to the balcony, but also has a practical application.	Sunday 13:26 Me and Geoff again.	Sunday 13:33 Geoff temporarily sported a Mohican.
Sunday 13:38 The cigar, pictured here, was also one of Geoff's more short lived additions (i.e. it fell off).	Sunday 13:38 Hard to make out the cigar here.	Sunday 13:39 There's a touch of mafia boss about him here, don't you think?
Sunday 13:46 Here he is a little later, sans cigar.	Sunday 13:55 I wanted to make sure I'd got shots of him from lots of different angles.	Sunday 14:00 Me taking a picture of Chie through the doors leading out onto the blacony. Slightly interesting effect of reflection here.
Sunday 14:03 I did ask Geoff if he'd like to come inside, but he politely declined.	Sunday 14:32 I think the sun must have gone in here, as it suddenly looks a bit gloomy. Obviously Geoff's earlier ritual must have succeeded, and he's clearly quite happy about it.	Sunday 14:32 Last picture of Geoff from the doorway, taken before heading out for the day.
Sunday 14:49 One of the two stations close to our aparment, I thought it looked sort of scenic with all the snow on the tracks.

Monday 07:48 Geoff still looking fine one day on!	Monday 07:48 Oh and the trees are looking OK too.	Monday 20:58 Later on that, Geoff looking slightly depleted, but still holding up.
Monday 20:58 Can almost see some lights of buildings in the background.	Tuesday 07:38 Last picture of Geoff (it would be painful to watch his demise in its full gory detail!)...

Saturday 14:26 Chie and I had burgers for lunch at Standard Deli in Shibuya...	Saturday 14:26 ...kind of a rarity to find a vegetarian burger in Japan. This was really good - the avocado was a particularly nice touch.	Saturday 17:23 A failed attempt to take a picture of a sunset over the train tracks.
Saturday 18:53 Me and Chie sitting at our new table and chairs!	Saturday 18:53 Errr, not much point to this picture...! I think I was just trying to give an impression of the living/dining room, but it hasn't really come out that well!