we can reach our destination, but it's still a ways away

Well, we've been gradually ticking items off the todo list for getting me out to Japan. Important milestones so far:

• I have plane tickets: departing 1pm on the 3rd of July, to arrive in Tokyo at 9am local time (Virgin Atlantic cattle class)
• I have a place to live (site is in Japanese but you can click on the photos and the floor plan to enlarge them). If you happen to know Tokyo and want to locate it, try this map. If you don't, well, it's just inside the Yamanote line, which is more or less the Tokyo equivalent of the Circle Line, and apparently about five minutes' walk from the customer office.
• I have a new job title (this is actually the first time we've had to think about this since I joined, but we had to do some business cards): I'm now a "Senior Engineer"...
• And finally, I have a travel soap dish. I had to try five different shops in Reading to find this; finally ended up finding one at Boots. (Readers with long memories may recall that I accidentally left my old soap dish behind last time I was in Japan; perhaps I'll be able to retrieve it...)