A few steps away, we saw this:

Rather unusual, because I didn't think that you'd usually see such stuff at a common pet shop. It almost seemed like jurong bird park to me. But I felt sad for the parrot. The few minutes we were standing there watching it, it was gnawing at the metal non-stop. That particular pole, if broken, would be the one that would set it free. Clever. Much as I wanted to unscrew it for the parrot, I didn't want to risk putting my hand near it in case it bit me. I also didn't want the pet shop owner to come after me. So... I walked away. It made me feel that a parrot shouldn't be chained to its perch at the sidewalk to be gawked at by passers-by. The parrot itself certainly didn't want to be there.

Next, some pictures taken when I was around the Todai area, but have been too lazy to upload.

Today, I decided to go on a shopping trip to Ikebukuro by myself, and it was so much fun! When I wanted to dawdle in a shop for an hour because I wanted to go into the fitting room a million times to try different clothes in different colours in different sizes, it was no one's problem but mine. Being able to go into any shop I want when something caught my eye was fantastic. Sometimes when shopping with friends, I'd see something I'd want to check out, but because my friend(s) is(are) too far ahead and I'd think "forget it", or they wouldn't seem interested in anything in that shop and I'd feel too bad to make them stop to see what I want. You could say today was me day, and I got some serious shopping done:

As for what was inside that bag...:

I was really happy that I could buy 2 pairs of boots at a price at which most people can only buy 1! Everything I bought was extremely affordable, and it just made me want to shop more! So I'm going to look for a pair of booties. When my pair from Singapore comes, together with the pair I'll buy in future, I'll have 4 pairs of boots in all! At my last stop at the socks place, as I was paying I saw a pair of cute gloves at a decent price. Tempting as it was, I didn't have the time to browse anymore, and I'd already unloaded quite a bit of money, so I kinda felt I should stop for the day. Not that I was regretting any of my purchases, or feeling guilty. Nope! Mommy told me to buy more jeans and boots etc to keep warm, so I was just obeying instructions. =D I enjoyed myself so much, I practically can't wait till the next time I go out by myself to shop again.

As for why I couldn't stop to look at gloves, it's because I had to attend this session with the NUS professors, like Prof Shih, and the two heads from USP. I think it's rather pointless, really, meeting with us just because they happen to be coming to Waseda to sign an agreement. Not like we know them. So while I was waiting for Alex and Lynnette, I saw this:

Thankfully the session wasn't altogether bad, even though sometimes there were short periods of awkward silence, during which I had to try very hard to control a smile because I thought it was darn funny. I don't think Japanese expect non-Japanese to speak Japanese, so since I've come to Japan, I've had many people telling me mine is good. But they should attend the Japanese classes from level 4 (or higher), and they'll know that there are many people who can speak like me, or even better. In any case, compliments are good. :)

Oh, I suddenly remember one of the USP guys saying that my dressing seemed rather Japanese (everything I was wearing then happened to be bought in Japan)... followed by a comment that my shoes were too colourful. Hahaha I thought it was hilarious, what's my footwear got to do with him?! Okay, so perhaps all the people there were dressed in business suits and court shoes, but I wasn't too shabby myself, and I certainly didn't come to Japan all prepared with formal (foot)wear! >_<

the salmon brooch