Immigration, MacBook, My Garden

Last week I went down to Shinagawa for immigration processing. Time for a new visa extension. While waiting for my number to come up from behind 300 people, I took a walk around the pleasantly gritty industrial area the Immigration Office is in. I had to wonder though, why is this building that all resident foreigners have to visit in such a remote location? At least they could put it somewhere where a train would be sufficient to get there.

A coworker got a new, black MacBook. Looked pretty, but surrouned by the black Dell, NEC, and Mitsubishi laptops and displays, it didn't look so good or original. I'd stick with white, if I was going to get one, which I wasn't. Apart from a little bit of web browsing, emailing and blogging from home I hardly touch my own machine.

In other news, my balcony garden is growing great guns. So many cherry tomato plants (grown from seed by Minako) I don't know what to do with them all. Basil, cilantro, parsley and rosemary doing well. Cucumber growing nicely, although not as nicely as Minako's. Sunflowers (also started from seed, this time by me) surging. Moved them from their second set of pots today.

Even my jalapenos seedlings (seeds, me. Not showing off or anything ;) are coming along, albeit slowly. I got about 60% germination rate from the 24 seeds I planted. Not too shabby. Soon I'll have more peppers than I know what to do with as well! My one tiny Japanese apricot growing on my 5' tree fell off the tree today. It smells great, but to eat it would feel like a bit of a waste. I think I'll try and flavor some vodka with it instead, in a similar spirit to the plum wine making kits in the supermarkets during this season.