If, like me, your daily schedule involves the Yamanote Line you might be familiar with this advertisement, the latest in a series promoting Tokyo's racetracks, which has been running since at least February (and probably earlier, but that was when the Yamanote Line most recently entered my life, and I have been going round and round in circles ever since).

Now, I don't have much interest in horses except as a potential method of transport and / or protein source following a catastrophic breakdown of civilisation, but see it often enough and it becomes a familiar part of the scenery and I was intrigued enough to check out whether they actually do broadcast a programme presented by a talking puppet equine creature (they do).

So, there I was lying on the floor in my nice new tatami room enjoying the sheer Japaneseness of it all while watching a pirated episode of a British TV series with Hangul subtitles from a Korean YouTube knockoff, when a sudden movement caught my eye.

Yes. One of those creatures. The kind Mr. Foreign Salaryman recently blogged about (warning: contains no-holds-barred picture in graphic detail including the long tendrillic feelers), which caused me a moment of smugness as I've been in this place a week and not yet seen one.

Fortunately it was outside on the balcony.

Unfortunately I have not yet acquired any of the requisite items for an anti-roach rapid deployment arsenal.

Fortunately I have a pair of plastic slippers on the balcony.

Unfortunately cockroaches are quick, wily creatures apt to scurry away at the slightest disturbance.

Fortunately it was a very stupid cockroach and ran in the wrong direction, turned round and came back.

Straight into the path of an expertly (if I say so myself) wielded slipper. One further application was sufficient to ecologically dispatch Mr. Cockroach wherever cockroaches go after entering a deceased status (hopefully somewhere very very far away) and I returned to my illicit TV viewing.

However the thought of a cockroach outside on the balcony, however deceased, was not one I wanted to entertain for very long, so once the programme had ended I found some material suitable for expiditing the aerial disposal of aforesaid insect corpse, when a sudden movement caught my eye.

"Oh noes! Has Mr. Cockroach come back to life?" I thought to myself with a tremor of atavistic fear. Fortunately my angst proved ungrounded, but unfortunately that meant there were now two cockroaches on the balcony. This one was however somewhat more agile than its predecessor and scurried back to whence it came, which appears to be a small hole in the wall between my and my neighbour's balcony, which wouldn't be there any more except that I have no idea where to buy sealant in Tokyo late on a Sunday evening.

This time in the early evening. Accompanied by lots of thundery dramatics, and I'm pretty sure Tokyo Tower was struck by lightning at one point. Not long after I took this picture the skyscrapers in the background disappeared completely, leaving me with the disconcerting impression that I was living in some remote provincial town.

At around 9:45 am I was passing through Shibuya Station on the Yamanote line, blissfully unaware of the commotion going on at the Tokyu line's ticket gates. Fortunately some quick-thinking soul with a video camera was present, and the event was captured for posterity e.g. in this clip hosted by the BBC:

The monkey cunningly resisted all attempts at capture and was last seen heading towards Harajuku, where it presumably is blending in with the cosplay crowds which hang around outside the station.

No doubt this will have been blogged to death by tomorrow, but one interesting snippet which caught my attention was this quote by a Professor Abe of Tama University: "数年前に東京の繁華街に野生のサルが出たこともあり、渋谷に野生のサルが出ても不思議ではない。しかし、人の多い場所に現れたということであれば、ペットとして飼われていたサルの可能性が高い". "Some years ago wild monkeys were observed in Tokyo shopping streets, so it's not unthinkable that it might be a wild monkey. However seeing one in such a crowded place means there's a high probablity it is an escaped pet."

Now, I've seen all sorts of wildlife in Tokyo, including snakes and all manner of worryingly large insects (mainly buzzing around my balcony light), but primates are a new one. I'll be keeping an ear out for rumours of mysterious banana shortages from now on in the hope of discovering my own neighbourhood apes.

The other week I was on a mission to acquire some furnishings for the new Penguin HQ, and had been directed by some kindly souls in the direction of Nakano, where there is a branch of Shimachu. As is my wont, I got off at the previous station (Higashi-Nakano if you're taking notes) and walked, as you never know what odd stuff you might come across, and sure enough I stumbled upon this rather creepy kindergarten:

I suppose it's cute, in a zombie-esque fashion. I'll have to go back one evening to take some really scary pictures.

Yup, been nigh on six months since I waddled off a plane at Narita with nowt but a suit and a smile. Incredible to think now, at the height of summer, but on that day it was actually snowing.

Anyway, the suit is languishing on its hanger while the smile is gradually broadening. Wonder what the next six months will bring?

I was using Google Maps to scout out the area around the new apartment when I noticed an additional button had been added to the top of the map, ストリートビュー (Streetview), which provides a nifty panoramic street-level view complementing the bird's eye perspective of the satellite / aerial images. This is Tokyo Station seen from ground level:

A very useful feature (and would have been more so if it had been launched a couple of weeks back while we were apartment hunting), but on the other hand it's slightly scary - one person I know has discovered himself standing in his open garage, his face and its contents visible to the whole world. I checked out my usual haunts and seem to be mercifully absent. It wil be interesting to see what odd scenes turn up.

The images appear to have been taken in late winter / spring this year; in some areas snow is visible on the ground, while in others the cherries are blossoming. Streetview is also available for other Japanese cities including Kyoto and Osaka.

Orthographical crisis in Tokyo's signwriting industry continues. News and in-depth report at 11.