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It seems Flickr has now been blocked in the lovely land we will soon call home.

NOOoo..

So annoying.  What am I going to do with all my photos?

Tracy noticed earlier this week she couldn’t see any of my photos, and then I found the relevant article in The Age this morning.

The weather was perfect today for sitting at home with the doors and windows open and doing nothing.A little too warm in the sun, but just right for enjoying the sunbeams bouncing through the apartment.

Weekends just aren’t long enough. I could do with at least another few days like this.

The evening sky is just as pretty behind the Shinjuku buildings, pity I can’t photograph it right.

We went to Kuchaina for dinner again this evening, our local Chinese restaurant with the mysterious tiny potatoes.

The dishes are all delicious, and we always leave every plate virtually licked clean, with only one exception. The sweet and sour dish we like is full of onion, so we both pick around it and leave it on the plate.

I couldn’t stop laughing this evening, when after clearing away our plate, our waitress re-appeared and carefully read from a napkin “don’t you like onion?”.

She then went back and reported to her waiting colleagues “No!”

I appreciated her efforts to communicate with us, it is rare for us to be approached in such a manner here.

There seems to be one very shy English speaker out the back of the restaurant who teaches all the other staff what to say to us useless non-Japanese speakers. Once or twice before we have experienced something similar, just without the use of the napkin prompt. The boys that work there use a slightly different method; when they realise there is something they need to say, they will run out the back and ask the English expert, than dash back out and blurt it out before they forget.

As we paid the bill, we managed to communicate where we were from, and that Yes, Patrick looks Japanese, but really, no, he is not. Really, we are sure. He is from China. Yes, seriously.

Finally, our new friend drew a little love heart on her communication-napkin and pointed at us questioningly. On finding out we are married, she clapped her hands and squealed with glee. So, so cute.

The staff at this restaurant are doing their bit to make it really hard for us to leave this city.

One of the reasons I love living in Tokyo is the fact that we know our accommodation is temporary and that anything we buy will need to be moved soon.

Our accommodation is also simply too small to fit any extra purchases.

These two facts usually save me from the constant need to buy pretty things that I feel in Melbourne, but every now and then I am overwhelmed by all the amazing products available in Tokyo.

This is one of the Metaphys Garden range. They have a number of different shapes and sizes, the small square with rounded edges is my favourite, AND only a little over $30.

I think Sophie might like one.

Something else I have my eye on is the Abitax Pocket, which clips into a bag or onto jeans. My phone and iPod would look a lot healthier if I had one of these. I just cant resist the colours.

I wrote once before about Big Stuff in Tokyo.

I have another item to add to the list.

I think Patrick was a little embarassed when I nearly jumped a foot in the air as we walked alongside Harajuku Station this evening. There was a horrible great worm wriggling its way across the footpath. It was HUGE.

I have seen a few of the worms before alongside Yoyogi park, but they have never been in the process of travelling somewhere. They really are big, about 15 or 20cm long. ewww.

I am not quite sure why they all insist on travelling about on the footpath either.