I also made swing shoes yesterday!

I went to Joyful Pal, the trusty hardware store that even sells Blu-Tac and found everything I needed.

• 1 pair of blagged Nike trainers
  black wool felt
  leather glue

I figured a pair of Nike look-alikes were okay, seeing as how I only paid US$8 (so the cost-to-consumer is appropriate to the wage-of-shoe-maker, the ratio is much closer to balanced). Total cost: less than US$20. I cut the wool, glued it to the shoes, and now I’m ready for the 5-hour marathon in Tokyo (Shibuya).

Once a month, the swing society has an “A Train” party - where you dance when the trains aren’t running (ie midnight to 5am). That way, you don’t have to worry about a short night. Next Saturday (the 18th) is the day. I’m pretty excited - I haven’t danced since I was in NZ!

so i successfully ordered plane tickets over the phone today. called up airdo and got three return tickets to Sapporo in February (the snow festival). felt pretty good at the end of it. i mean, communication, and i understood most of what she said.

later, I got the faxes about the itinerary, and discovered that they didn’t tell me how to pay them. When I ordered my Australia tickets (eigo de), the fax had instructions about in which bank account I was meant to deposit money. Today’s fax didn’t. I tried calling back, but couldn’t understand the woman on the other side - her voice was too high or something for the phone to recreate so that I could understand properly. I asked for the lady who helped me before, but for some reason (which I couldn’t make out) she wasn’t available.

I have 3 more business days to try and figure this out before payment is due, otherwise, the trip will be forfeited.