I'm so bad. This past week I've bought 3 books in English. at the moment, with Bats For Lashes in the corner, I'm reading Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

"The night was so deathly silent that I felt I could hear the sound of the stars moving across the heavens."

I also bought a Japanese kids' book to practice reading, because I'm tired of how long it takes me to decipher labels at the supermarket.

I've just realised that it's already dark outside and if I had gone to Shinjuku after class to watch the sun set from where the guidebooks suggest, though I'd have had to ask friends of what that suggestion is since I don't have mine today, I would probably have just arrived there. Too late.

The sky is clear, the air fresh and the top tips of the tall buildings are golden. But I will not go to gleam with them because I want to work on Japanese. I hope that I'll be able to make simple conversation by the end of this semester.

Today, I wore the plainest outfit since I've been here: brown cords, grey sweatshirt and a green t-shirt underneath. Hence, Chee Seng asking me whether I'm alright.. (lol). It's nice to be noticed.

Yesterday, on the train to Tabata, on my way home, there was a neglected umbrella and a dirty, possibly homeless, man wearing shorts and without an umbrella on the day a typhoon had been forecast to come to Tokyo (it rained all day). So I put the two together. As in most cultures, you're usually meant to leave people that don't ask for your help alone. But the umbrella probably would've just been thrown away if I hadn't given it to him. I waited until we were travelling to Tabata, where I got off and changed lines. before going to the umbrella. It was leaning against the wall by the door on the other side of the row of seats the man was sat on. I pretended that I needed to move closer to the television to consult the information it was broadcasting (a few train lines had been suspended cos of the typhoon). As we came into Tabata Station I stood in front of the umbrella, with my back to it, picked it up and the man sat by the door, at the end of a row of seats, so I hung it on his armrest as I walked past and out of the train. Until a few minutes after I sat down on my next train, I was worried about having grossly misbehaved. I acted against the norm, in a foreign country, and shocked a few people. I was even worried about someone coming after me cos of what I did.

Bought five rings today, despite it officially being the first day of glove-wearing season. Also, the rings are all tighter than when I tried them on in the shop, so it must be pretty cold.