I went to check out Sophia University today, unfortunately, it was very rainy and grey, so I didn't spend too much time actually checking out the campus, but it seemed OK - not overly inspiring, but not overly depressing, kind of typical Tokyo architecture; square and efficient I guess. Anyway, I managed to get application information for there, the only wrench in those works is that you have to take the SATs which is a bit ridiculous, but you can take them here, so if I need to I can (and um, be completely screwed in math!) Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to transfer any credits, because for some reason, you're only considered a transfer student if you have finished two years of uni... (Sophia has an English speaking undergraduate program)

After that, I trekked way out to Odaiba, to check out the Japan Association for Foreign Students (or something like that), and picked up their big booklet on studying in Japan, scholarships, the different types of schools in Japan, etc. This would require a year to eighteen months of intensive Japanese language study, plus sitting the university entrance exams known the world over for being brutally intense, but would have the side benefit of fluency in Japanese.

Alternately (and this is my favorite option at the moment), I might try and swing the visa thing so I could stay here yet study through Athabasca, Canada's Open University, which would be great, lots of English classes, more than one major to pick from, flexible, cheaper, etc. I know I can finish correspondence courses if I put my mind to it (and hey, its a great reason to get a laptop!), etc. So, we'll see...obviously nothing is decided yet, but there are options (which knowing me, is a bit of both good and bad, but really, mostly good in this case!)

After picking up the info, I headed across Odaiba to Venus Fort, which is this themed mall targeted to women, its pretty amazing, and I took lots of pictures, so I think I'll just mostly let them do the talking!




It's a themed mall, designed to look like an Italian city, with the fountains, and the cobblestone streets, etc. Its also for women, so the canned music is all Enya-esque, and most of the stores were of very little interest to me (like the Barbie clothes for adults store), etc. But the mall itself was pretty cool! The sky actually changes from day clouds through to evening clouds which are quite dark, it's interesting! There's also a square where you can get married and stuff, pretty interesting just to wander around in even if you don't get up to too much shopping!
(marriage square)

After I'd basically seen the mall, I headed downstairs to get a coffee and read and wait for Peter, who was driving out to Odaiba after some meetings. While I was there, I tried to get a woman to let me take her picture for street snaps for BAB, but no dice, I need to find some people tomorrow in Shibuya while I'm teaching, I had no luck today - I'd been planning to do it at Sophia, but I think the rain drove everyone away, I didn't see anyone!

Anyway, Peter and I went to have a 'quick' look through Venus Fort, as he'd never seen it, and ended up getting very sidetracked! First we exclaimed over the 'Roppongi worthy wear' at the slutty kiddy klothing shop
And then we wandered over to the huge Toyota showroom/amusement park/activity centre thing, called Mega Web, where we saw tons of cars, some cool simulation games, vending machines for car catalogues (the Prius, at 200Y is the most expensive), and took a magnetic car ride around a track, which was so cool! The car was so cute, a little smaller than a mini, and totally drove itself. We did have to wear seat belts though, (it went about 12k/hr), and wouldn't have been allowed on the ride had we been intoxicated or over exhausted.


(kids had designed a lot of the cars, so they were very cool and colorful!)

We also went to the free car museum,called History Garage, because Peter wanted to see some of the old school cars. I was happy because I got to sit in a Messerschmidt, I've heard rumors that during Grampy's London art school days, he used to sit in the back, with Oma, while his friend tooled the little three wheeler around the city...how fantastic! It was actually really comfortable though - squishy seats! If a little small. The museum was really well themed as well, with different street scenes from 1950's America, etc. Funnily enough, they had a well decorated '50s diner/soda fountain, which sold, of all things, curry and pasta!
Finally, on our way out of the mall, we stopped in a random crap shop, where, among other things, Peter got friendly with some stuffed boobs (yes, this is becoming a familiar sight to loyal blog readers!) and I tried on some kicking glasses!

Our plans for a late movie were thwarted by the fact that the last movie had started around eight, so we went to La Boheme, the Italian version of ZEST and had a nice dinner and talked about school possibilities and stuff which was good.

Drove home, and that about wraps up the day! Lots of photos for you, I love being able to upload straight to flickr from my keitai!

D