Starting to feel a bit like a nomad moving around with all my belongings being a suitcase and backpack’s worth. Idea was to try out staying in different areas and if the Airbnb ended up poor, I wouldn’t be stuck for long.

Two weeks per place felt about right.

Couple of days before I was changing flats, my native friend told me there was a typhoon on its way – and on the very morning I was due to check out too… I hadn't really factored that into my itinerary so I hoped it wasn't bad enough for all public transport to be suspended.

My original plan was just to put my suitcase in a locker and burn time until the next checkout.

Had considered booking a room for 2 nights so that it would cover the transition period but it’s at quite a bit of extra cost at 20,000 Yen. Not to mention the ones closest to my next base were all unavailable.

Metro around my initial flat at Iriya was simply too busy so I thought I'd take a taxi this time. Very first one for this trip I might add.

On the morning of my move the typhoon, which was forecast to affect Tokyo between early hours of the morning until lunchtime, didn’t turn out too bad. Heavy rain could be heard battering the windows early morning but by the time I was due to checkout at 11, the rain was fairly light.

I had intended to use Uber to “call” a taxi since I don’t have a Japanese telephone number and I already had an account back in the UK. Unfortunately I only used it for take aways. Now it required phone verification before I could call a taxi.

Next option was the native app Go Taxi but it too required phone number verification or passport with selfie. I was standing outside with the wind and rain blowing into my face so the weather was too bad to be doing that.

With no choice left, I dragged my suitcase towards the nearest train station where there is also a main road. First taxi couldn’t stop and called out to apologise so I moved somewhere where cars could stop more easily. Wasn’t long before I came across a free taxi.

I asked the driver to take me to the nearest JR station, Omori because I was going to have over 4 hours before check-in and bigger JR stations usually have large lockers. The 30 minute trip cost me 9500 yen, a lot more expensive than by train but saves me trying to squeeze onto carriages or toll my luggage around changing trains.

After getting there, I found a row of free large lockers right away and they were just big enough to fit my suitcase.

Spotted some Metaphor gachas. Pretty fun game as a filler until the next Persona game. It was basically fantasy themed Persona.

Another idea I had was to spend the hours at a net cafe and maybe see if they’re a better choice for keeping a suitcase around until check-in. I ended up going window shopping instead while getting to know the area and seeing what's available.

I popped in for a McDonalds because I couldn’t be bothered wandering around in the typhoon to find somewhere quiet. School must have been called off because there were plenty of kids around.

There was also a humped back old lady bringing orders to tables… I kind of felt bad about it but I guess it’s great she could still do work like this at her age.

Maybe fortune wasn’t with me today but I had ordered a tea with my meal. It was even marked tea but inside was coffee…

Also, I thought there wasn't such a thing as a bad McDonalds but the fries were soggy, the burger was too hard and of course, the wrong drink. Guess I was wrong.

Afterwards I decided to browse the Atre shopping centre. Plenty of mainstream comics at the book store so ended up spending a lot of time browsing there.

Other than all the usual mainstream titles, there were some cosy looking titles like “Marriage Laundry” and “Osamaru Ie [Cosy Home]” which will unlikely make it West.

Store chose an interesting screenshot to celebrate 40 million copies of the Apothecary Diaries sold.

Computing books always fun in Japan. Here’s one teaching how to use Python and ChatGPT to fortune tell…

Kind of surprised there are light novels of Doraemon… in the children’s section which was mostly picture books. Don't quite know why when they don't have Furigana in them. Maybe the staff thought it was just another comic or picture book.

Remember buying one of these during one my trips and didn’t know it was available locally too. Still pretty cool as a fancy thermometer that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Nearby was a store selling these small compact umbrellas. Don’t know how sturdy they are though.

Nice Yukatas, something cheaper and more casual than Kimonos.

I saw a big sign for a Book Off nearby, a thrift store so thought I’d burn the rest of my time there. Maybe I could find some second hand station sign gachas.

Premium gacha, some costing over 1000 yen which are bigger than your usual gachas. Don't come across such pricey gachapons in HK. Pretty cool looking Card Captor Sakura ones. Also kind of surprised there were Teletubbies ones too.

The Book Off store itself at Omori Station was huge! Much bigger than the ones I visited in Akiba. Apparently these were the "bazaar" versions of the chain thrift store.

A lot of boxed, pre-owned prize game figures go for 200 Yen. Pre-owned Manga sets were so cheap. Not surprised to find so many people standing around reading books here.

Of course there’s a Doraemon Tamagotchi…

They had all sorts of preowned goods including household goods, clothes and even a vintage type writer.

The Wii Us were going at 1800 Yen… Never did get that console just for Xenoblade X. Not so great condition SNES, Playstations 1 and 2 going for 900 Yen. Think Super Potato offer them in much better condition but at a higher price of course.

Checked out a store called Seria afterwards which turns out to be another 100 yen store. Most of the goods are similar to what Daiso offers. That said, these budget stores have been a great help to fill in whatever the Airbnbs didn’t supply and also cheap enough to throw out later and free up the luggage space.

While there, a song caught my attention. After looking up the lyrics later it turned out to be Ronde’s “Real Feelings” from 2020.

This could be a video game art gallery… Only game I’ve played here is Xenoblade X. Don’t spend much on console games these days, because you can’t hack them to skip the grind which I prefer doing.

Japan fairly much discovered they're far behind with digital technology in the work place during the pandemic, which might be why the uptake with AI seems to be very big. An AI "personal trainer” for ladies…

Not really personal when it's just regurgitating data it's been trained with.

Some more burning time at the super market. Been doing the odd cooking on break days since I’m renting apartments short term now but that will be in another post.

Didn’t know you get bugs in your rice so you can buy these repellents to put with the rice… Not a problem in the UK. And thought Nissin Demae noodles didn’t exist in Japan but they do. Hardly seen the brand around.

By afternoon, the typhoon had cleared up thankfully which meant I had an easier time moving around with my luggage. The trains were also less crowded than Iriya too so I didn't have to feel bad about taking up too much space.

Happened to catch the 5pm test tune as I headed towards my new base too. Nice to see the Omori area still carrying on the tradition. Not something you can hear when staying in the busier areas of Tokyo near the bullet train stations.

And to wrap up the day, I got a 2GB mobile data notice on my phone. Doesn’t look like I’ll be using up the full 15GB before I leave Japan.