I'm a blogging fiend.
Monday was the first real day of orientation. Orientation mostly means listening to speeches which vary in relevance to the upcoming job and eating provided meals. There was required stuff in the morning, which I think was mostly just general speeches about how much fun it was going to be and how we need to do our best. Everyone was very enthusiastic and happy to help, which was nice, but it was the second round of speeches that covered these same vague ideas, so it wasn't all that entertaining. Gotta give everybody an E for effort, though. In the afternoon, there were some workshops which were optional (actually almost everything is optional because they don't take attendance at all) which I skipped because I was feeling a little tired of these things, and a lot of the stuff didn't apply to elementary JETs so much. Instead I went to akihabara to buy an electronic dictionary.
Akihabara is famous for its so called electric town, which is an area filled with giant electronics stores, arcades, and the like. A lot of foreigners go there to pick up cheap electronics, but the joke is on them because Japanese electronics are more expensive in Japan. Seriously. I think it has to do with a lack of storage space, but I don't know. Shopping in Akihabara (fall [I don't know] plain) is an experience like none other. The stores are packed so tightly that if you run into somebody else in an "aisle" one of you is going to have to back up. A lot of the stores are 5+ stories high and there are flashing lights and people in costumes trying to give away advertising-laden fans and tissues in front of a lot of stores. The people in costume constantly yell out things like "irasshaimase," and most people just ignore it. If you want an admittedly poor-quality fan or some tissue, though, you can just grab one and walk off. I imagine it is the kind of job that kills people on the inside. I don't generally like the idea of going to Akihabara because it is kind of a trendy place for foreigners and also it is crazy, but it's one of the easiest places to find electronic dictionaries.
I got one in a duty-free (I don't know how this works) shop for around US$ 70. It doesn't have the nice kanji-drawing function in it, but it can still be used as a kanji dictionary using a system of stroke number, radical, and reading lookups. The cheapest one with a writing function I could find was about $300, which is just too much to pay for something like that. I spent too much time looking for cheaper ones, though, so I didn't have time to go to Ueno as I had planned. Ueno has a somewhat-famous giant toystore where I was going to buy Pokemon cards for someone. I had to get back to Shinjuku in about 40 minutes by that point, and the train ride on the Yamanote line is about half an hour.
As a side lecture which is not interesting, the Yamanote line is one of about a trillion lines of railroad in and around Tokyo. It's the central line that goes in a circle, stopping at all the places any visitor would want to go, and acting as the main conduit for commuters who need to switch lines coming and going from work everyday. The problem is that there are no express trains on this particular line, so if you want to go to a station that is on the other end of the line, it will take about half an hour. Also, around rush hour, and any time you are near certain stations like Shinjuku, the trains are so crowded that you will be necessarily pushed up next to a bunch of other people. It's not really that big a deal, but something to watch out for if you haven't been on Japanese trains before. Also, women have been groped so much on the trains that many trains have women-only cars to protect them.
Tokyo's public transit system is (I claim this with no experience traveling in Europe, but still confident in my assertion) the most incredible in the world. There are so many train lines running all over that it is almost mind boggling. There is also a subway system, which is almost as extensive, and buses for everything else. You are literally never more than a block from some form of public transportation in Tokyo. This alone would be impressive, but what is incredible is that everything is ALWAYS on time. The only things that throw the schedule off at all are weather/earthquakes that actually destroy(s) the tracks, or people suiciding by jumping in front of the trains. Nobody does this now because families incur the costs of doing so, which would only bring more shame on them. Keep in mind that at most stations, a train arrives at the station at least once per 5 minutes per line. Also, if there is for some reason a delay, JR issues excuse notes so people don't get in trouble at work. Ridiculous.
The crowning achievement of the Tokyo transportation system, however, is how easy it is to use. Each station has at least one map of the lines. A big red arrow marks the station you are at, which is generally labeled in Japanese and English. You just find the station you want, and look at the number by it. That is the amount you need to pay. You put that much money into the machine, press the button with that amount on it, and get your ticket and change. Put the ticket into the gate and get it back with a hole punched in it. Get on the train, get off at your station, put the ticket in the gate and go about your business. Even if you mess up for some reason, you can just use the fare adjustment machine to fix it. And there are always JR employees whose only job is to stand around waiting for you to ask questions. And they understand English pretty well, generally. I almost feel bad for other foreigners there. Except for the Chinese, because stuff is often written in Chinese, too. And Korean. Japan is so nice to its guests.
But I digress. When I got back, there was a banquet for us, which was delicious. There were tables and tables of food, and tables and tables of beer, ginger ale, and coke. Japanese people love beer and coke like you would not believe. I spent most of the time talking to the Brits, who have a magical way of finding each other in a crowd that is something like 80% American and 20% a mix of Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African, and the requisite Japanese officials. They were all pretty decent chaps and we had fun talking about how British people have funny accents and Americans don't know that countries exist outside of North America.
After the banquet, some of the prefectures got together to go out. Shimane got together and went to a nearby beer garden. We new Shimane JETs had gotten pretty tight over the last two days, so it was pretty sweet. For those unfamiliar, a beer garden is an outdoor restaurant sort of thing where you pay some ridiculous amount, around 3000 yen, that is $30, to sit at a table and have plate after plate of food that ranges from little pieces of meat to plates of fried noodles brought to you over the course of about an hour and a half. And, as long as you stick to beer, unlimited drinks. So, that was fun. Apparently, afterwords, a lot of the prefecture went Karaoke (which is for most people an excuse to drink excessively), but some of us didn't know, so I ended up trying to find some more people to go out with. A guy named Adam, who is from Ireland, and is a new CIR in Shimane and I couldn't find anybody willing to go out, so I ended up just going to bed. Still, a pretty good night in all.
There's just one more day of actual orientation to log, so I'll put that in the next update.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Japanese Course
There really isn't much to do here. Well, there is more to do, but blogging makes it look more like I am working. Not that anyone expects me to do anything at thist point. I just filled out a form to get a Japanese course mailed to me here. It's free, and I had to fill it out, anyway, though I could have said I didn't want the course, so I might as well take it. I can drop it at any time, so it is cool.
I signed up for the advanced course (highest of three levels), so let's hope I'm not in over my head. I've taken intermediate Japanese a couple times now, so I think I'll be good. Anyway, ganbarimasu yo.
I signed up for the advanced course (highest of three levels), so let's hope I'm not in over my head. I've taken intermediate Japanese a couple times now, so I think I'll be good. Anyway, ganbarimasu yo.
Tokyo Orientation part 1
If you are curious as to why the Tokyo Orientation post comes after the first Shimane post, you aren't reading carefully enough. I didn't have access to the internet in Tokyo, so it had to wait until now. I also never got to see my old host family, the Nishiyamas in Mobara, due to a packed schedule, which is zannen, but I have traded some emails with them, and they have wished me all the best and whatnot. I like to put just one word of Japanese into an English sentence so that it annoys everyone.
We arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport around 2:30 pm on Sunday. We took Japan Airlines (JAL), or at least most of us departing from Chicago did. Some people were unlucky enough to get stuck on American Airlines. I say unlucky because apparently American sucks, though I have not personally flown with them, so I do not know specifically. The flight was actually pretty alright. I mean, it was 13 hours long or so, but pretty comfortable. Also, since we all flew out together, we all sat by people we had maybe met in Chicago, or at least people who were doing the same thing as us, giving us a little to talk about. Usually, you end up sitting by some random stranger and only say,"uh, excuse me, I need to pee." It's usually very awkward, like it was the last time, when I got stuck next to some Korean guy who slept THE ENTIRE FLIGHT except for meals. I can't sleep at all on planes, which was no different this time, so that just annoyed me. Also, since he was Korean and I don't speak a lick of Korean (I'm pretty sure nobody but Koreans and the computer that invented Korean actually does), communication was pretty much limited to grunting when I had to get up.
JAL's flight was nice. There were decent meals and we each got a little screen to watch movies and even play games on. Seriously, the remote control connected to the chair became a video game controller when turned sideways. The games were all pretty weak, of course, but I was still impressed with playing knock-off tetris 30,000 feet in the air. I ended up watching most of The 300 and The Number 23. I also watched some movie that I didn't get the title of. At first, I thought it was in French because everyone was making weird throaty noises like when you say "croissant," but after about five minutes, I realized I should probably have at least recognized a pronoun in there, so I thought it was German. I also thought it was set in Nazi-occupied France, but by the end, I became convinced it was Nazi-occupied Denmark. I'm still not totally sure. I was only getting the movie by reading the Japanese subtitles, which is a little difficult. I still sort of got the gist of the story, which was full of twists and depressing moments where people die at the hands of Nazis. It was also full of not being very good. So, take that, foreign cinema!
Anyway, when we got to Narita, we had to go through customs, which is a ridiculous joke of a process. A customs official asks you (usually just by pointing) if you have a yakkan shomei (drug importation form) and then lets you through. Good security, Japan. Then we had to get our luggage sent to our home prefectures and get on a bus to the hotel. It was absurdly hot and humid, which is pretty much Japan's calling card. The bus took about 1.5 hours and took us to the fabulous Keio Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinjuku means "new inn" and Tokyo means "east capitol" if anyone was wondering. The hotel is simply massive and beautiful, easily the nicest place I have ever stayed. Once we were all checked in, there was nothing required of us, so we were left to find dinner in Tokyo on our own.
Shinjuku is one of those parts of Tokyo that you see in pictures, where everything is lit up and there are people everywhere, just milling about the tiny streets. I ended up running into a girl who had never been to Japan before, and I went with her and her two new friends to dinner. I was the only one there that spoke any Japanese, so they were hoping for me to do things. Little did they know the fact that "experts" on Japan will deny. There is no reason to learn Japanese because everyone speaks English. They usually just speak (incredibly) badly or will just avoid speaking because they are embarrassed by it. Also, most restuarants' menus have pictures of the food, so all you have to do is point and maybe say, "onegai shimasu" if you are feeling saucy. We had some ramen, which was pretty good.
Ramen is a huge thing in Japan, unlike in America, for those who don't know. There are ramen stands/restaurants every five feet or so, all claiming to have the best noodle soup in Japan. They are all lying. All ramen is the same, regardless of what Japan snobs will tell you. It is all noodle soup with some meat in it, in the flavor of your choice. If your choice is miso, spicy, or salt. No, seriously. Salt. I'm not knocking ramen, either. It's good and amazingly filling. You pay lik 500 yen (about 5 dollars or less) for a bowl which looks like you could take it down easily, but turns out to be gigantic when you get down to the last of it. Most people don't finish the entire bowl (including Japanese people, who generally hate waste even more than they supposedly hate Chinese people). I generally try to finish it, and I was successful this time. Like I said, I'm not knocking it; it just annoys me when Japanophiles get all crazy for ramen, which is only Japan's second best form of noodle soup. [Cold] Udon is better; this is a FACT.
After dinner, I ended up walking around, heading to yoyogi (period perioud tree?) kouen (park) in Shibuya (I have no idea what this means), where I stayed before, to see the musicians that hang out there at night. Incidentally, the park is home to a giant hobo town, as well. Unfortunately, as it is the very end of the rainy season here, I got soaking wet. I didn't bother to pick up an umbrella because I was already wet and didn't want the hassle of adding another item to my luggage. Since it was raining, nobody was in the park. At least I got to try a kind of beer I have never had, a (I think new) kind of Yebisu in a green can, that claimed to have extra hops or be super hoppy or something. It was nothing special, but I had to at least try it. Yebisu is one of the more minor brands of beer here. I think it might actually be a subsidiary of another company, but I don't remember. Before, I had only seen two kinds of Yebisu, a normal kind and a dark kind. Both are alright, if I recall correctly. Like I said, it's pretty minor, so not something I had a lot of, but I remember a guy from the program I was on last summer going crazy for the dark stuff. To me, it is mostly notable for the little fat fisherman on the cans and the fact that the sound "ye" has been phased out of Japanese for a long time now, so the characters representing that sound are archaic. The cans have "yebisu" printed in katakana on them, but stores usually have them labelled as "ebisu" due to the characters being out of use, and therefore, not on label-makers.
I got back to the hotel sort of late, as I was forcing myself over the jetlag and didn't want to sleep until it was legitimately nighttime in Japan. That sort of worked. That's all for the first day. I like to keep these posts separated.
We arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport around 2:30 pm on Sunday. We took Japan Airlines (JAL), or at least most of us departing from Chicago did. Some people were unlucky enough to get stuck on American Airlines. I say unlucky because apparently American sucks, though I have not personally flown with them, so I do not know specifically. The flight was actually pretty alright. I mean, it was 13 hours long or so, but pretty comfortable. Also, since we all flew out together, we all sat by people we had maybe met in Chicago, or at least people who were doing the same thing as us, giving us a little to talk about. Usually, you end up sitting by some random stranger and only say,"uh, excuse me, I need to pee." It's usually very awkward, like it was the last time, when I got stuck next to some Korean guy who slept THE ENTIRE FLIGHT except for meals. I can't sleep at all on planes, which was no different this time, so that just annoyed me. Also, since he was Korean and I don't speak a lick of Korean (I'm pretty sure nobody but Koreans and the computer that invented Korean actually does), communication was pretty much limited to grunting when I had to get up.
JAL's flight was nice. There were decent meals and we each got a little screen to watch movies and even play games on. Seriously, the remote control connected to the chair became a video game controller when turned sideways. The games were all pretty weak, of course, but I was still impressed with playing knock-off tetris 30,000 feet in the air. I ended up watching most of The 300 and The Number 23. I also watched some movie that I didn't get the title of. At first, I thought it was in French because everyone was making weird throaty noises like when you say "croissant," but after about five minutes, I realized I should probably have at least recognized a pronoun in there, so I thought it was German. I also thought it was set in Nazi-occupied France, but by the end, I became convinced it was Nazi-occupied Denmark. I'm still not totally sure. I was only getting the movie by reading the Japanese subtitles, which is a little difficult. I still sort of got the gist of the story, which was full of twists and depressing moments where people die at the hands of Nazis. It was also full of not being very good. So, take that, foreign cinema!
Anyway, when we got to Narita, we had to go through customs, which is a ridiculous joke of a process. A customs official asks you (usually just by pointing) if you have a yakkan shomei (drug importation form) and then lets you through. Good security, Japan. Then we had to get our luggage sent to our home prefectures and get on a bus to the hotel. It was absurdly hot and humid, which is pretty much Japan's calling card. The bus took about 1.5 hours and took us to the fabulous Keio Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinjuku means "new inn" and Tokyo means "east capitol" if anyone was wondering. The hotel is simply massive and beautiful, easily the nicest place I have ever stayed. Once we were all checked in, there was nothing required of us, so we were left to find dinner in Tokyo on our own.
Shinjuku is one of those parts of Tokyo that you see in pictures, where everything is lit up and there are people everywhere, just milling about the tiny streets. I ended up running into a girl who had never been to Japan before, and I went with her and her two new friends to dinner. I was the only one there that spoke any Japanese, so they were hoping for me to do things. Little did they know the fact that "experts" on Japan will deny. There is no reason to learn Japanese because everyone speaks English. They usually just speak (incredibly) badly or will just avoid speaking because they are embarrassed by it. Also, most restuarants' menus have pictures of the food, so all you have to do is point and maybe say, "onegai shimasu" if you are feeling saucy. We had some ramen, which was pretty good.
Ramen is a huge thing in Japan, unlike in America, for those who don't know. There are ramen stands/restaurants every five feet or so, all claiming to have the best noodle soup in Japan. They are all lying. All ramen is the same, regardless of what Japan snobs will tell you. It is all noodle soup with some meat in it, in the flavor of your choice. If your choice is miso, spicy, or salt. No, seriously. Salt. I'm not knocking ramen, either. It's good and amazingly filling. You pay lik 500 yen (about 5 dollars or less) for a bowl which looks like you could take it down easily, but turns out to be gigantic when you get down to the last of it. Most people don't finish the entire bowl (including Japanese people, who generally hate waste even more than they supposedly hate Chinese people). I generally try to finish it, and I was successful this time. Like I said, I'm not knocking it; it just annoys me when Japanophiles get all crazy for ramen, which is only Japan's second best form of noodle soup. [Cold] Udon is better; this is a FACT.
After dinner, I ended up walking around, heading to yoyogi (period perioud tree?) kouen (park) in Shibuya (I have no idea what this means), where I stayed before, to see the musicians that hang out there at night. Incidentally, the park is home to a giant hobo town, as well. Unfortunately, as it is the very end of the rainy season here, I got soaking wet. I didn't bother to pick up an umbrella because I was already wet and didn't want the hassle of adding another item to my luggage. Since it was raining, nobody was in the park. At least I got to try a kind of beer I have never had, a (I think new) kind of Yebisu in a green can, that claimed to have extra hops or be super hoppy or something. It was nothing special, but I had to at least try it. Yebisu is one of the more minor brands of beer here. I think it might actually be a subsidiary of another company, but I don't remember. Before, I had only seen two kinds of Yebisu, a normal kind and a dark kind. Both are alright, if I recall correctly. Like I said, it's pretty minor, so not something I had a lot of, but I remember a guy from the program I was on last summer going crazy for the dark stuff. To me, it is mostly notable for the little fat fisherman on the cans and the fact that the sound "ye" has been phased out of Japanese for a long time now, so the characters representing that sound are archaic. The cans have "yebisu" printed in katakana on them, but stores usually have them labelled as "ebisu" due to the characters being out of use, and therefore, not on label-makers.
I got back to the hotel sort of late, as I was forcing myself over the jetlag and didn't want to sleep until it was legitimately nighttime in Japan. That sort of worked. That's all for the first day. I like to keep these posts separated.
Shimane and all
Hey, time for those updates.
Today is my second day of work in "O"-cho. "O"-cho (meaning inside go out cloud, I believe) is a town (cho) of around 16000 people. It used to be two towns, but got combined into one, though it is still basically two isolated towns run by one government, from what I can tell. The part of town that I'm in is called Yokota (side field). It is pretty small. Anyway, I work at the local board of education. I even have my own desk and computer.
Yesterday, all the new Shimane JETs (including me) flew into Izumo (go out cloud) shi (city) airport, and were picked up by our supervisors to be taken to our respective towns. I'm the only new JET in "O", which is sort of out of the way. Most of the other jets were going to Matsue-shi, the capital and largest city of the prefecture, or Hamada, about 2.5 hours from Izumo by car. Matsue is only 200,000 people, which still seems like a lot for someone from Carlinville, but is tiny for Japan. That should give you an idea of what Shimane is like.
I have work at the board of education for the month because it is still summer vacation and all the students are out. Summer vacation is only the one month here, so I'm guessing they schedule the arrival of new JETs now for the purposes of getting them acquainted before any actual work begins. Because of the vacation, I don't have any actual work to do, but attendance is extremely important in Japan, to an extent that Americans would consider absurd. So now my work consists mainly of sitting at my desk, and sometimes talking with Jo, whose desk is across from mine. Jo's from New Zealand and has been here for a year. She used to do the job I'm supposed to do, and now has moved up to middle school. She's been extremely helpful because her Japanese is better than mine, and she's been through pretty much the exact same weird things that I am going through now with the new job. None of the stuff is bad, just general Japanese weirdness. It's amusing how the best-intentioned and most sincere help from Japanese people can sometimes seem confusing and even mildly aggravating to more independence-oriented Westerners. It's also weird how Australia and New Zealand are considered Western. Anyway, more on that in a later post. It's great here already.
Today is my second day of work in "O"-cho. "O"-cho (meaning inside go out cloud, I believe) is a town (cho) of around 16000 people. It used to be two towns, but got combined into one, though it is still basically two isolated towns run by one government, from what I can tell. The part of town that I'm in is called Yokota (side field). It is pretty small. Anyway, I work at the local board of education. I even have my own desk and computer.
Yesterday, all the new Shimane JETs (including me) flew into Izumo (go out cloud) shi (city) airport, and were picked up by our supervisors to be taken to our respective towns. I'm the only new JET in "O", which is sort of out of the way. Most of the other jets were going to Matsue-shi, the capital and largest city of the prefecture, or Hamada, about 2.5 hours from Izumo by car. Matsue is only 200,000 people, which still seems like a lot for someone from Carlinville, but is tiny for Japan. That should give you an idea of what Shimane is like.
I have work at the board of education for the month because it is still summer vacation and all the students are out. Summer vacation is only the one month here, so I'm guessing they schedule the arrival of new JETs now for the purposes of getting them acquainted before any actual work begins. Because of the vacation, I don't have any actual work to do, but attendance is extremely important in Japan, to an extent that Americans would consider absurd. So now my work consists mainly of sitting at my desk, and sometimes talking with Jo, whose desk is across from mine. Jo's from New Zealand and has been here for a year. She used to do the job I'm supposed to do, and now has moved up to middle school. She's been extremely helpful because her Japanese is better than mine, and she's been through pretty much the exact same weird things that I am going through now with the new job. None of the stuff is bad, just general Japanese weirdness. It's amusing how the best-intentioned and most sincere help from Japanese people can sometimes seem confusing and even mildly aggravating to more independence-oriented Westerners. It's also weird how Australia and New Zealand are considered Western. Anyway, more on that in a later post. It's great here already.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
First Post from Japan
Sorry for not updating since getting here a couple days ago. I've had sort of limited access. I'm in Tokyo right now, but tomorrow we head to our prefectures. I'll update retroactively, I suppose, when I have a connection in the apartment at Okuizumo-cho. Ok, so that's really all for now.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
It is with heavy heart that I inform you, readers, of the passing of my beloved hamster, Pocket. Tonight, as I went to feed him, I noticed he appeared to be sleeping, and attempts to wake him were unsuccessful. I can only conclude he went peacefully in his sleep. Lately, a growth, most likely a tumor had appeared on Pocket's underside, so his death was not wholly unexpected.
Pocket was not what one would call a typically "good" pet. From the first time I met him, when he was still being cared for by Laurie, he was an ornery hamster. He never liked being touched, a fact attributed to likely neglect. The only time one could reasonably pet him was when he was too busy eating to bite. At one point, he bit Kevbo's finger, leading Kevbo to claim that the hamster needed to be "dominated." This particular incident ended with a still ornery hamster and a bloody finger.
Early one morning, Pocket's water bottle slipped into his cage, giving him a route to freedom. Unbeknownst to me, he climbed out of his cage, somehow down a bookcase, across my room, under a closed (!) door, and down the hallway. Craftily eluding Biteface until I arrived, he managed to make his way about the entire upstairs of our house, foiled only by the gate that blocks the basement stairs. This adventure is still fresh in my mind.
Pocket was a good hamster. He will be missed.
Pocket was not what one would call a typically "good" pet. From the first time I met him, when he was still being cared for by Laurie, he was an ornery hamster. He never liked being touched, a fact attributed to likely neglect. The only time one could reasonably pet him was when he was too busy eating to bite. At one point, he bit Kevbo's finger, leading Kevbo to claim that the hamster needed to be "dominated." This particular incident ended with a still ornery hamster and a bloody finger.
Early one morning, Pocket's water bottle slipped into his cage, giving him a route to freedom. Unbeknownst to me, he climbed out of his cage, somehow down a bookcase, across my room, under a closed (!) door, and down the hallway. Craftily eluding Biteface until I arrived, he managed to make his way about the entire upstairs of our house, foiled only by the gate that blocks the basement stairs. This adventure is still fresh in my mind.
Pocket was a good hamster. He will be missed.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Blah Blah
I feel like I am in the future using the internets. I was talking on a cell phone, video chatting, and reading a blog simultaneously. If you haven't yet, you should read the sweet blog that is in the links section. It details one girl's travails in the exotic land of Switzerland. She's coming back to the US (#1!!!!) soon though, about the time I am leaving for Japan. Less than a week till departure. Packing done: 0%.
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