New apartment

I have moved to Ueda. Last week I hired a van and moved all my stuff to the new apartment. I then went to Tokyo for a week for training for my new job. The training was pretty boring and not very useful. However, I did get to see bits of Tokyo I've missed before; Harajuku and Yoyogi park (those crazy kid's with their strange fashion!), the Japanese parliament, a Da-Vinci exhibition in Ueno and a night out in Roppongi (as terrible as I had imagined). So overall it wasn't a bad deal.
I arrived back in Ueda on Friday. Mark, the previous tennent had left many things:
a CD player, a spare mattress, a lot of food (some had gone off), a kerosine heater, a Bob marley CD, a ski waxing kit, a computer memory stick. Mostly very useful and much appreciated. However there was one notable omission - the key. We had arranged a secret hiding place where he would leave the key (not ideal but there was no easier way of doing it). The key was not there and after 15 minutes of looking I gave up. I had to use all the street smart I learned growing up in an upper middle class area of Malvern and break into my own apartment. One small hand injury, but no property damage, later I got in.
I've been here a day and a half now and have got a key, electricity and gas back on. Best of all, I've just realized Mark never canceled his internet provision and I've got it set up. I'll use it until I get some legitimate internet access of my own. I now have about a week before I start my new job; working in a Junior High School teaching english. By happy coincidence, my uncle and cousin are visiting Japan during this time off. Expect posts about that.