Now I'll NEVER Know How Far Away McDonald's Is

Many side streets in Japan are so narrow that you might not actually realize one is a street until you pass it and say out loud to yourself "Whoops, I should've turned there."  Once you have said that about eight to ten times, you just turn into the next gap between buildings hoping that it, too, is a road.  It usually is, but after the first four feet or so it usually takes a turn at a steep angle away from the direction you were hoping to go, narrows down to a 1.25 lane street, and dead-ends at a very large and probably several-hundred-year-old stone wall.  That being said, it's still usually helpful to at least know what street your bank is on if you're going to try to take a shortcut to your bank on the way home from work.  Sadly, my shortcut did not pay off, and I got to the bank an hour and a half after they closed.  But, unless my shortcut involves time travel, I'll never get there on time on a work day.  I think I mentioned before that they close at 4:30 and I get off at 5:45.  Also, they close for lunch.  And they don't open until 10am, so I can't zip in real quick before work.

Luckily, the ATM is open until 7.  All I really wanted to do was check my balance, because tomorrow's payday and I was casually wondering whether my direct deposit would hit before payday like it always did in the US.  Unfortunately, my bank in the US usually got my direct deposit around 7 or 8 pm, and the ATM here isn't open that late and my bank doesn't offer online banking.  Oh well.  As they say in Japan, "You get paid on the 27th."

Now, I don't know if you can get these in the US, but did you know in Japan they have toilet covers and toilet floor rugs that mach in such a way that they create a beautiful picture?  This I took at my friend's house:

Isn't that just absolutely adorable?  Of course I wouldn't do it without also getting a matching toilet paper dispenser, shown here on the right (sold separately).  But just think of all the possibilities!

It's rainy and dark outside today, so I'm still in a holding-pattern for taking after-work adventure photos unless I find a good indoorsy place, but I'll get around to it soon.  Until then, here's a picture I took on the way home: