In Japan again.

I'm back in Japan again, just for a month, haven't been back since beginning of summer in 2008. Hasn't really changed much except for the usual: newly constructed homes, shops and demolished or in the process of being demolished old homes and shops.

I borrowed my brother's bike, grabbed my camera and headed out to wander around Shimo-Kitazawa where my family has been living since the year 2000. It's hard to realize that it's been that long. Perhaps me being away at college in Geneva made me forget a little. So I rode around, found my favorite ramen shop and sat down for a bowl and a plate of gyoza. Pretty good for 700 yen.

I was also trying to locate a shop that would replace the small battery in our garage door opener but unfortunately the megane (glasses) and watch shop was closed and so was the light bulb shop.

I spent the rest of the afternoon riding the bike and taking pictures of signs that I found interesting. There's a plethora of strange English signs that adorn little boutiques. The Japanese find strangely put together English signage trendy.

Other than that I've managed to get halfway through two books: "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel and "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams. I was very amused by the irreversible mathematics involving sofas and pink electric monks.

Now that I've got access to a windows operating system on my old desk top, I've managed to install the ETS GRE prep software and will continue studying for it. Also still searching for jobs on monster.com. I have requested an informational package from the graduate college at University of San Fransisco which should be arriving by mail soon.

As for the weather, it's overcast, a bit damp, comfortably cool but not chilly.