Confirm Room, Visa, Shop at Ikebukuro

I had a nice sleep after being exhausted yesterday. Anyway, the outcome is positive so it's worth all the efforts to rush here and there.

Friday morning's breakfast. A little luxurious but I need to skip my lunch so I take this set.


McD's Mega McMuffin. Underneath it is bacon, egg, 2 meat patties and the killer melted cheese. Mmmm....


McD's coffee isn't that bad after all, or maybe I've used to their coffee taste already?


Class ended at 11:45am, "sacrificed" the daily table tennis game and rush to the station to catch a train to the new hostel. Whole train journey took 1 hour+, including switching trains at Ikebukuro station.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm moving out of Tokyo towards Saitama to progress in university this coming March. 

Random stuff saw on the road to the hostel.


The hostel's sign. Domi Kawagoe Kishimachi.


Met with Mr Sato again and he brought me to look around the rooms, and pick the room. Every room's settings and furniture is the same so the main concern is the view out of the veranda and the sunlight factor (called 日当たり in Jap).

View outside verandas from 2 different rooms.



The bed. Pretty basic but it comes with the bed frame, much better than my current hostel which only provide the mattress.


Useful cabinet to keep personal stuffs. I already thought of keeping a few books or music player here heh.


Study area.


I might be moving this shelf down, but not sure whether it's detachable or not. As for the lamp, it can be quite useful so plan to keep it there.


Nothing much about the plain chair. The phone however, might be placed somewhere else to make way for the laptop.


The basin. Glad that it comes with warm water and a half mirror!


Another room that comes with a TV.


At first I chose the room 108, which is currently reside by a Korean university senior. But he'd only move out by end of March so this clashed with my initial plan of moving-in in early March.

In the end I choose the room 221, located at the corner of the building, on the 2nd floor. It's facing the south-west, which said to be kinda warm during the evening (a plus point during winter).


Besides, I may need to move things (eg: travel luggage) around so staying at 2nd floor is generally better than on the 3rd or 4th floor, eventhough the view is better.

Since I had the room confirmed, bid farewell to Mr Sato and trying to walk to the Kawagoe train station. It's also a good way to explore new places as sooner or later I'm staying here.

Blossoming plum tree, signifying winter's ending soon?


A panoramic shot took from a pedestrian bridge.


Just the short ~30 mins walk I walked pass very traditional Japanese residence and then the modern urbanscape of Kawagoe City. It's kinda surreal as things like this seldom happen in Tokyo. Saitama's kinda special after all, manage to blend it traditional and modern together.

Spotted this British. Can you name it?


Finally reached Kawagoe station.


Just beside the station, there's this monument and the [atre] shopping mall.


Taxis waiting beside the station. Noticed the fleets consist of older generation cars instead of Toyota Crown Comfort or Nissan Cedric used as Tokyo taxi fleets.


Cityscapes near the train station.



Railroads branching out. Kawagoe station is a busy station as it's one of the major transport hub around the area.


This spot looks just like in Tokyo.


Pedestrian bridge some distance away.


Walking towards the bridge. This spot would look nice if it's lit up by night.


The reason why I headed towards Kawagoe station is to catch university's shuttle bus to the settle my visa applications. There's a part of the forms which need to be fill in and verified by the university.

Anyway I get it done in no-time and chatted with the staffs there. Ms Tashiro, whom I've met half year ago in Ikebukuro's education fair commented that I'm able to speak fluently hah.

For my visa application, I was being advised to apply for it after I've moved to the new hostel. First I'm gonna make address changes on my "alien registration card" (外国人登録証), and then submit the visa application at the immigration department in Saitama instead of in the one in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Sounded complicated but that's what I'm going to go-through this March.
Thanks to Ms Tashiro again, she's kind enough to print out maps to direct me to the Kawagoe City council (川越市役所) & the Immigration Department Saitama branch (さいたま入管出張所).

On another note, I've inquired about the university's holiday breaks. Although for my year the schedule haven't been set yet, but looking at the year 09/10's schedule I'm kinda surprised that summer holiday is just more or less 1 month, while the spring break is almost 2 months! This would be a good news for me as I might be able to go back to celebrate CNY next year.  :D
Anyhow, this is still not the final schedule yet, will confirm about it again some time later.

Taking train back to Ikebukuro, decided to walk around Bic Camera to check for stuffs, as usual the audio department. I bought this though. 1m extension cable for earphone/headphone by Audio Technica.


Later I moved towards the soon-to-be-closed Sakuraya just nearby to check out what's the deal. Lots of things are off at 20%, including a few headphones, notably Audio Technica ATH-AD500 & ATH-WS70, both priced at 9,980 yen before discount. Actually it's a good deal but after considering that my current ATH-M50 is still functioning well I had no other reason to splash more cash on headphones for now.

Having eaten nothing since the morning breakfast (refer to the McD pics above), surprisingly I'm not feeling hungry yet. Since it's already dinner time, pop into one of the random shops to had my dinner.

Tsukemen.


It tasted still OK, but definitely nothing compared to the Tetsu Tsukemen. The broth tasted too salty and the egg is below average than the usual ones I had before.

And yeah, that pretty much sums up what I've been experience yesterday.  :)