Inside the British Council

I write now from the British Council in Tokyo. One of 5 branches in Japan set up by the British government to encourage Japanese students to consider British universities.
Still not quite sure, why I’ve decided to start an online journal. Why am I so insistent on sharing my every thought with strangers, when I’m unable in this moment to tell the ones closest to me how I really feel about anything? It’s a strange kind of narcissism I suffer from. I used to want to be a writer — now I only hope that someone someday tries to publish my journals. Anything I write online is a mere shadow of what I write by hand. 
Welcome to web-based word processing. 
Some things I want to tell you about, in time — electronics shopping in Akihabara, bootleg shopping in West Shinjuku, 2000 years of Japanese culture in peril, the strange dreams a traveller has …
I like to think outloud as loudly as possible.
The only thing talking back to me in Tokyo is the advertisements. 
This century’s advancing …