2015-03-28: A Man's Home is His Castle

We have secured a new apartment! It is an upgrade. We have 28 square metres now and in 3 weeks will move to a 29 square metre apartment, I might get a pet fish! Plus it is on a higher floor.

I just hope we can still see the mural below. The bird means it's culture, not porn

Cultural Observations: Default Assumptions

When organising the apartment through LeoPalace21 (which I liked because: Lion, Palace, You look Young) I asked if there were any 2 bedroom apartments. 2LDK in the local parlance which is generated as:

• Numbers of Rooms
• Living Room
• Dining Room
• Kitchen

All of which can be tiny and so are also qualified by the square metres.

Bathroom, toilet and hand basin alcove

I figured we might have visitors that want to crash, friends from overseas or something. It also means if I have to work late /early I don't have screens and loud phone calls disturbing The Princess' Slumber.
We were told quite clearly that there was a single 1K apartment available.1 room plus kitchen.

Fortunately we did not come here to eat my cooking

Conrad said "oh the time you are coming is when a lot of people are moving here for work and are using temporary housing in the short term"
Which I was okay with, the logic and local knowledge all gelled.

The room, little desk and bed with tons of storage, we could have material goods! instead I turned it into a teeny tiny server room, I eventually put cable on the power and network cables.

But LeoPalace21 is bloody huge in the Monthly Mansion business, it is rare that you are more than a decently flung cat from one of their buildings. I asked Conrad about this.

Steps to the boudoir, plus coffee, made in our own kitchen, it is not very good coffee.

The Japanese default mode is when you say "do you have X" is to answer truthfully whilst avoiding saying "no" as much as possible. In my case I asked do you have a 2LDK (2 bedrooms, living, dining and kitchen) in your building available. She answered (presumably) truthfully that she didn't. Because I had said or implied "in this building" and not explicitly said "or anywhere nearby"

The Princess in her little fort

It would appear that I should have said "Do you have a 2LDK in any of your buildings" and the answer would have probably been yes. Oh well, we live and we occasionally learn.

Rating: 3/10 (this will be a tricky one to negotiate in different circumstances as I usually am not aware of what I actually want).

Plans, They Progress!

We went to the Izakaya which I hope to get to play behind the counter at. We were recognised by the head dude and he even has specific seats for us now when we turn up as just the two of us.
We sit at the counter with a handy spot to put the crutches.

And the appetiser was potato, he must have realised Polish Princesses can miss the humble tuber at times

I noticed him at one point instructing a waiter how to carry stuff on a tray. Put the heavy stuff here, the lighter stuff here, what do you think the customer is going to do and what will happen to your tray if they grab something off it etc.

Sushi and ginger, typical "types of tuna" starter. I think this is to show the grades they have available.

The waiter was obviously flustered and maybe a little slow on the uptake but there was no yelling at him or harsh tones or anything.

New Favourite. Over the top, too much work but delicious. Crunchy deep fried asparagus, avocado, salmon, roe and sweet white onion with mayonaise

This seems to be fairly common. At another place a waitress was being taught how to put grease proof paper into a tray. Again quite a paternal style of teaching seemed to be the way to go. Nothing like the yelling and abuse I have seen over the years in kitchens for those that are incompetent.

Tebasaki, Chicken Wings, One of my first new Japanese phrases on this visit. Su me no sen, Tebasaki futotsu ku de sai (Excuse me, Two orders of your best fried chicken wings please my good man)

We have half arsed a guess that it is because there are so damn many restaurants and so few young people that need those jobs so the head chef can't be a dick about it or he'll have no staff.

Ewa's Comrade in Arms (hehehe) might have been making a Hitler joke but we don't even understand Tebasaki jokes yet.

Cultural Observations: Hanko

Japanese don't sign for stuff, they have cool little stamps with their name on them which they use instead.

Boring black business on the outside, Red and Gold fancy inside

At first I thought "That's silly it would be trivial to counterfeit" then I realised that in Slovakia I paid for stuff signing my name against Ewa's credit card. Slovakians are aware that Ewa is definitely a Ladies name.
So I guess it works as well as signatures do. And we are getting rid of signatures generally anyway.
We have Hanko now. They make life easier. Mine is all business and stuff. Ewa's is a Hello Kitty one.

Hopefully we don't have to pay for as many times as we signed...

Neither of us have had a chance to use them for real but we did spend some time practicing using them in the restaurant.

Rating: 9/10 (in theory functional, in practice fun)