Tokyo - First Impressions

Last night we went to Karaoke (sorry, no pictures) where I reinforced the cold hard truth that I cannot sing. But I did find out I'm some what skilled on the Tambourine. Unlike the states where we sing Karaoke at a bar in front of complete strangers, here people rent a private room. Other than that it's about the same: a bunch of people having a great time butchering songs from the eighties and nineties.
Today, we went to the local state building to register as aliens and get health insurance. In Tokyo each area is considered a "Ward." All foreigners are required to apply for an alien registration card. All citizens and registered aliens are also required to get health insurance. Basically, I will pay a monthly premium (student discount available) and may then visit any doctor for non "luxurious" services at a cost of 30% of the total fee. One thing I noted at the state building is that it provides a really nice crib for parents to lay their infants in while they take care of business - always thinking the Japanese (more on that in "notable items," below).

On our way to the state building, we passed by a temple during services (left). From the sidewalk where I snapped this photo, we could hear the gong(s) and smell the incense. Aside from a few locations, it is free to visit the temples and anyone may take part in services. I'm looking forward to that (blog foreshadowing).

Slot Machine Lunches: As you can see, none of the machine's buttons have any English. for lunch we put our money in the machine to the left and hoped for the best. This vending machine spits out a ticket that one gives to the waitress. Two minutes later a fresh surprise was served. I ended up with a rice bowl, some crispy fried bits, and a bowl of soup that had udon noodles and some meat and veggies. The dish was actually very tasty and quite large, 550 yen (around $5). Although I'm probably going to end up with many culinary surprises, this system ironically cuts down on the language barriers of ordering food.
Notable items: (a) the toilet seats in office buildings are heated (with control devices to adjust settings - no English); (b) whenever one is sick, it is polite to walk around town with a dust mask; and (c) cabs have automatic hands-free doors that open for you.