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furnished!

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Last night we picked up a car share vehicle* and went to a destination in Shibuya to pick up a used IKEA table and chair. It turned out to be the Iraqi embassy, where we met a fellow who was being transferred back to Iraq and needed to unload a bunch of things in a hurry - including a car! It was Mari's first time driving in Tokyo and as I expected we saw a lot of people running red lights. I've noticed that it's become very common, which is new to my experience in this city. The biggest villains are, unfortunately, the cyclists. They simply don't stop unless they absolutely have to (e.g. faced with four lanes of cross traffic).

The ride share cost us about Y2600 for two hours.

*It was a Honda Freed, probably the most common vehicle we saw on the roads of the distant suburb we're hoping to move to; we were disappointed with it. Despite being on the large size for a Tokyo vehicle, it didn't have a lot of usable internal space (largely due to the third row of seats but also an awkward dashboard in the front row) and it had one of those really relaxed wind-shields that cuts visibility and causes glare. Also, the nav system steered us wrong on the trip to the embassy and then on the return trip. Very disappointing.