Little things

Why Japan will turn me into a terrible driver:

People don't slow down at yellow lights. No, they speed up. Also, some turn signals for those going straight go red, but the people turning right get more time so they get out of the intersection. But not always. Soooooo, this leads to accidental turning on reds. Is very confusing. Thus, Japan is teaching me that Yellow means GUN IT! ^_^;;;

Also, people in Illinois and places with road tolls. Yeah, the tolls are annoying. But at least you're not in Japan. Tolls here are anywhere from 20$ to 60$. At one toll place. I'm not kidding. It's crazy. What do they DO with the money??? It doesn't need to go to roads, they're fine.

Looking forward to this weekend, I will get to see friends, see the Nishio Castle and get a tour of a tea factory! Classes are going well, so far Monday is my favorite day as I have some REALLY awesome students on that day.

I also unfortunately have another story idea, but no time to write. Darn you creative brain!

And for amusement, not related to Japan: http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2009/12/graphis-undetectable-comping.html

Quick post

STILL waiting to get internet. Anytime from now to 3 weeks from now (jerks).

Anyway, thought I'd post a picture, or at least a link to one, just to give you all an idea on how things are here ^_^

http://triaelf9.deviantart.com/art/Gift-Japanese-House-145642079

Enjoy!

Saturday Nov 28th

We finally went to sushi today! 105 yen sushi, whooo! Three of us ate for under 20$. There was this awesome toy machine that had little Wii toys: a mini wii, mini wiimote, mini wii games…I WANT THEM ALLLLLL.

While waiting to go into the restaurant, since it was a bit busy, we ran over to the bookstore nearby. WHERE THERE WAS A NEW YOTSUBA BOOK. I about died of happiness. I also got the new Potemayo book and finished off my collection of Chi's sweet home. Brad got Tsubasa book 28.

Went to a party at Julie's house, had lots of fun and lots of food.

Sooo, my birthday is next Wendesday, but I dunno how it's going to go. Doubt there'll be a party or anything. Ah well ^_^

That's it for now! I'll go over Ise once I get internets, so I can show PICTURES!

On Japanese food and other stuff

Japanese food is very interesting. It seems to be a bit hit or miss. For example, the milk here is incredible as is most of the candy, meat and crackers. But then there are some wierd soggy crackers that worry me.

But what I really want to talk about is the salad dressing. Specifically the roasted sesame salad dressing. You know that amazing dressing that some Japanese restaurants have in the states that you wished they put MORE of on the salad and when you finished the salad you were all, damn, I finished it? That's this dressing. And like many Japanese candies, it's apparently filled with CRACK. Because seriously, I can't stop eating it. Even more than usual, I look for an excuse to eat salad. BRAD looks for any excuse to eat salad. This stuff is ADDICTING. And delicious. And AWESOME. Also, the "M&M's" here are very much like the British Smarties, only the candy on the outside is sweet. YUM!

Japanese Television is pretty interesting too. Part of me was surprised that there isn't a channel that plays anime all the time, but then I realized that we had to pay for that channel. Ah well, at least I caught Laputa on TV and Detective Conan. And Fairy Tail. And Brad saw Bleach the other day. There was this one ad though that sticks with me...

It's a Christmas ad. And there's a cat and a duck on the roof of a house. And they dance, then they slip! And fall off into the snow. And then out of the snow pops…

A cat duck. (nekoda-ku!)

Yes.

Apparently it's an aflack ad.

Ah yes, we watched the news and there was this bit where some guy was apologizing about pensions failing or something. The News reporter said: Nihon Kokuu. Now, for those of you who don't speak Japanese, Nihon is Japan and Koku is country. (not Kokuu, keep in mind). So Brad and I, hearing "Kokuu" think "The country of Japan?? The ...pensions are failing? Why us the head of a company telling us that?" Then we realized, oh KOKUU...AIRLINE company. JAL is losing pensions. Oh Japan and its similar sounding words. Like, shinju and shinjuu. One is pearl, the other is double suicide. Whoops!

But yeah. So things are going well, classes are getting better. I hope they keep going well!

Thursday 19th

Last night we had a very nice night out with a friend of Thia's and a student. We went to a restaurant that is very new age and not tooo Japanese (a bit like brewed awakenings). We had croquettes and "pizza." Also, tasty garlic fries with KETCHUP. God, I hadn't realized how much I missed ketchup. They also had Tom and Jerry cartoons playing on a screen (the old ones). It was fun to watch them again.

Today, we went to lunch with the owner of the Okazaki juku at a place called "Louisiana Mama" which was a place with Italian food and a southern American atmosphere. Very weird combination, but GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD pizza. And they have fondue, which I MUST try next time. After, we stopped by a candy store and I tried to get candies I've never tried before, so I could try them out.

Then we got a call from City Hall.

WE HAVE OUR ALIEN REGISTRATION CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

We ran straight to Softbank to get the iPhone, but they told us they they've been out of the cheap phones for a WHILE now. (jerks for not telling us). So we went over to Docomo, as out next cheapest option is now the google phone, cheaper than the cheapest Softbank phone. They took our info and have to run it all (to make sure we're not sketchy or some crap) and then they'll call us back.

And then we got our phones. Google phones! Woo hoo!

A few things...

So a few things over the last few days (aside from mostly taking Sunday off to draw and watch terrible reality shows and some anime).

At Lawrence, the tornado alarm would go off at noon every Saturday, as a test. We took to calling it "happy noon" and whenever it went off, we would all yell "happy noon!"

Japan sorta has the same thing. In Okazaki, there is a siren that goes off at 9pm for a minute or so, so I whisper to myself "happy 9pm" and Nishio has a little tune and announcement that plays at 5, which, as I've mentioned, Brad and I have yet to decode (it's very echoey), which has become "happy 5pm". Heheh.

One of the kids at Okazaki (it's the oldest class, essentially seniors in High school) is kinda…not the best behaved. But when I was telling them my favorite food was soba, he yelled out "You're not American, you should like HAMBURGERS" which explains OH so much about the stereotypes in hetalia ^_^;;;;

We recently got "4.4" milk, which I'm assuming is 4.4% milk, but I could be wrong. In any case, it is very delicious. YUM!

We went out to okonomiyaki at a local place and *DROOOOOOL* it was AMAZING. And totally awesome to watch them do it (we sat at the big main grill and all). It totally brought back memories of Ranma 1/2 and Ukyo ^_^

Today, I went to a student's house to teach, she lives a little way away, so Brad and Thia took the car (Thia went with me to check that I knew the way) and they went shopping while I was in class. Then when they came back, Brad presented me with some flowers he'd bought while he was out! How shocking! It was so surprised ^_^

I've been feeling a bit drained lately, but I suspect anemia is the culprit, so we had meat for dinner. We'll see if I can actually get out of bed tomorrow morning (unlike this morning). Hopefully, internet at some point soon. We either need alien registration cards to get it, or a phone line. We have access to a phone line, but might need to pay for it. Soooo, we'll see. When we get it, hopefully I'll be able to put pictures up for you all to see! I have some great pictures of the amazing spiders that live in Japan. They're frikkin' giant and have the weirdest shapes and the oddest colors. As long as they stay OUTSIDE, I think we'll get along just fine.

That's it for me!

A bunch of days

Otherwise title as, "boy, I need internet"

Tuesday:

Well, Hiromi took us shopping in Okazaki at this HUGE mall called Aeon. No relation to the English teaching company. We got the last few things we needed, including a vacuum cleaner, and then rushed back for class at one. At 8:30 I went with Julie to Okazaki juku (cram school) for classes, which will be once a month. However, it was POURING the whole way there and back, and it was night, so I didn't really learn the way ^_^;;; Thia and I got hungry on the way back, so we stopped by Moss Burgers which, well, lets just say they love their tomato sauce. And onions. Great fries though.

In other news, there are STILL mosquitoes and they find me delicious. No seriously. We've had two in the apartment so far and I have 4 bites and Brad has…you guessed it, NONE. GRRR. Stupid bugs. I'm reacting to the bites a little worse here than at home, maybe b/c the mosquitoes are so damn HUGE here.

Despite the lack of an alien registration card, we've at least decided on what phone we're getting and what company we're going with. Each company has the exact same prices for everything, so really it's about choosing the phone we want. Docomo has the google phone, which is cool, but it's not for free. Not like the iPhone. Softbank has the iPhone and, with this new deal they have, the 8gb phone is FREE. And I don't mean, free on the spot, but you pay for it over your contract, no, totally free. Which then lead to the following statement: "well, if we want the cheapest phone, we should go with the iPhone." Which really amuses me, especially since the iPhone is so expensive at home. But here, totally cheap compared to the other phones. We're really tempted by the google phone, but it does cost money and we're pretty positive we can hack the iPhone so we can take it home and use it with AT&T.

Wednesday, we hope to get to the bank (which we can do with just a passport: hurrah!) Turns out, with the dollar being so weak, investing in Yen is the right decision now ^_^

Anyway, that's it for Tuesday!

Wednesday:

It's still raining and I'm still itchy. Japanese pens are great though! So thin and easy to read when you write with them.

It took a while to get bank stuff worked out. First we went to the Nishio Bank (nishishin) but they wouldn't give us an account until we'd lived in Japan for 6 months. Which is bullshit, of course. So we went across the street and asked to get an account at THAT bank. All they needed was proof of residence, so we went back to city hall (begged them to get us the alien registration card earlier) and got the paper. I then went to class and Brad worked out the bank stuff. We now have a bank account and Cash cards! (essentially debit cards). Two of the girls at the school have the swine flu, so they didn't come for classes which meant I had to fall back on flash cards. Then, the Okazaki juku class was a bit…rowdy. I hear Thursday's is even worse. Joy.

Thursday, is driving time. Well, that's it for now.

Thursday:

Went driving. AHHHHH. I think I'm doing ok, I'm mostly staying on the correct side of the road…I did hit a curb though T_T

We went to the book-off. Some of the Conan books are 105 yen, but the others are 250. So, I think once I get my paycheck, I'll go to the book off, grab them all for 105 yen, then go to the book store near us, who sells them for 200 yen, and get the rest. Ha HA! My clever plan. Otherwise, just classes and the last Okazaki class for today left. Things are starting to follow a pattern. Hopefully we'll get TV soon and internet (very important!).

Anyway, that's it for today, will post more later.

Monday again

Is has been a week! Wowza! here's monday's report:

Got up, hung around, read some manga. Then we went cell phone hunting with Hiromi. Annoyingly enough, (as we suspected) we will be unable to get one until we get our alien registration card. And that goes for pretty much everything else important.

Afterwards, we went to the mall and picked up some groceries. May I just state that JAPANESE MILK IS AWESOME. It's just like milk in Europe, so extra deliciously creamy! We stopped by the bookstore so I could pick up a few books that I couldn't find at the used book store. There a Japanese old lady walked up and said…something to us. Boy do old Japanese people talk funny. Didn't help that she was muttering. I suspected she was saying "is it ok, those books are in Japanese" but Brad thought she said something about it being cold out (I was wearing a t-shirt). Whatever it was, when she asked "daijoubu" (are you ok) we just answered "ee, daijoubu" (yes, we're fine) since we couldn't see anything immediately wrong with us, especially nothing she could help us with. I made a fool of myself at the bookstore, asking for some books, since I ran into the issue I always have when talking to Japanese people in Japanese: I freeze up and all my Japanese goes out one ear. I can understand them, I just can't TALK to them. Is very frustrating. I've finally gotten used to our landlord and his wife, so I'm able to remember more grammar around them and not totally freeze up. I guess I'm just so eager to NOT butcher their language that my brain starts yelling "DON'T SAY ANYTHING! IF NOTHING COMES OUT, YOU WON'T SAY ANYTHING STUPID!" But then I look like a moron, nodding away, but not saying anything. Ah well.

Class went well tonight. One of the students (a high schooler) LOVES detective conan! We chatted about it and about how they butchered it in the US. Perhaps I can work in detective conan into lessons :P For the doctor's class, they asked me to give them vocab that is good for ordering in resturants, for introducing patients to doctors in other countries and "date vocab". The last one should be fun. But any ideas? I was thinking "I'd like my meat medium well" or something, since that's not something you hear in Japanese resturants. Mostly, I need answers to common waiter questions. I'll probably come up with more when I'm more awake ^_^

Well, that's Monday, on to Tuesday with LOTS of driving.

First full weekend in Japan

So, Friday was full of many things, but nothing too dramatic. We finally bought a blanket big enough for the futon (warm and TOASTY!), we bought hanten (traditional coats for inside…or outside maybe) and I picked up some Japanese Bubblicious bubble gum which tastes exactly like the ramune candy. Also, hilariously, the wrappers say "Cadbury's" on them which totally confuses me (bubblicious = American gum, Cadbury's = British chocolate). Yeah. In any case, got some time on the internet and grabbed a few shows that I missed in the states for watching later (wooo) and then went strait into classes starting at 1. BOY that was a trip. Classes from 1-2, 4:30-6:30, 7:30-9:30 (there are many classes in there, I'm just giving you the blocks of time I'm at the school). Luckily it turned out that two boys didn't have class, so we were able to run out and grab dinner (my first REAL ramen!). After dinner, we ran to the cake shop and I grabbed a slice of strawberry shortcake. Good, but not as tasty as Mitsuwa (I don't think they put kiersh in the cake. Sad times!).

Saturday we offered to help Sheon and Naomi, Thia's daughters clean out their father's house where they'll be moving in. It's VERY cluttered, but they said we're welcome to anything they can't keep and I figured, why not help out in exchange!

It was very fun work and their father was kind enough to treat us to lunch midway through. We managed to get two bookshelves and an electric bike out of it all, so all in all, a good day. There were also highly amusing moments like taking doors apart and smashing down a wall. We came back home eventually and had dinner and then watched stuff. Nice slow day compared to the weekdays ^_^

Sunday was another shopping day. We ran all over town trying to find a not OUTARIOUSLY overpriced TV. (most places had 19 inch screens for 800-900$. It was ridiculous!) We finally found one, a 22 inch for 300$, not bad! Now comes the joyous fun of trying to connect to the local television programs. Wheee.

We also went to the local used bookstore: right across the street! I must also mention that that's a DANGEROUS place for it to be with me and my book buying habit. Brad's making me wait until I get my first paycheck to buy them out. Heh, no, just kidding. But yeah, I still really want all the rest of Detective Conan. That's 44 books, or so, so about 60$ probably (the old books are only 100 yen each.) But it's better to buy them in yen instead of dollars converted to yen, so we don't lose money. Thus, the waiting (even if they have SOOO many other books that I want!).

Sunday night there was a party for us at the school. We met soooo many nice people and ate sooo much awesome food! (This one lady made the BEST chocolate cake.) Monday we plan to practice driving (EHEHEH ack) and perhaps go ask about cell phone contracts (we really need our own!) We also need a bank account. Hopefully our Landlord can help us find out what we need to do about that. Mostly, so we can pay him! Then, I teach classes by myself. I hope I do well!

Thursday Nov 5th

(labeling the posts with the ACTUAL date it is here in Japan since this blog won't let me change the time to what it is here...)

This morning we wake up to a less freezing house, since we were able to get the aircon/heater to work last night. After breakfast we hung up MORE laundry (this time, no spraying problems!) Then we see that the electrical people have come and they're doing…something to the utility poles. Hanging more wires or something. But the hilarious part is, as they're doing this, the guy on the ground feeding wires to his buddy above is just standing there smoking. Something about their work, and then watching him just stand around and casually have a cigarette was just really hilarious.

We also put out the moerugomi (burnable trash) today. On the days that the moerugomi goes out, these two black cats go nosing around, pawing at the green net covering the trash. It's so cute! Next time, I'll get a picture.

Yesterday we went to City Hall to get our alien registration card. We spent a good long time deciphering the ladies (Brad did, mostly, I just stared blankly trying to remember my governmental vocab). Amusingly enough, there are more Brazilians in the area, so the pamphlets are written in Portuguese and Japanese and very rarely in English. So, we managed to get health insurance and get the process started for the cards (we have to wait until the 27th or so to get the actual card, which probably means no phones or internet until then. Boo.

In any case, classes were interesting yesterday, I got a bunch of younger kids who know a lot less English. So that was fun. The NyQuil is amazing for getting to sleep, but not so amazing for the drowsy hangover the next day.

Today we intend to do some more shopping, then classes later.

That's it for now!

-Elaine

Wednesday adventures

Today we did laundry. This was hindered by the fact that the hose kept spraying everywhere when water went through it, so breakfast was punctuation by moments of *pshhhh* "Brad it's spraying again!" "I've got it, I've got it!" and the he would run off and babysit the washing machine which was dancing about on the balcony. We pulled everything out of the washer, proud of having a moderately successful laundry washing. Then Brad reaches into the bottom and pulls something out. "What's this?" he asks. I take a look at it and we both realize what it is. It's the little plastic piece that is used to connect the hose to the spigot so that the hose doesn't get loose and, you guessed it, spray everywhere. The whole time it was in the bottom of the washer. Whoops!

Monday afternoon we got the gas hooked up, after a bunch of shopping, which meant that we finally had hot water. It was a big disappointment that morning when I woke up, my lungs all bronchitis-y and all I wanted was a hot shower and all I got was coooold water. We got the hot water, and our gas stove all connected up by the nice gas man who then showed us how to run it. Brad then boiled water! He was very proud of himself. This morning (Wednesday) I made breakfast which consisted of VERY WARM THINGS since it had gotten SO COLD over the night and we wanted to warm up. Our sliding doors face the morning sun, mostly, so we opened the curtains and warmed the apartment up with the sun. Our little bay window gets afternoon sun, so it warms the place up for the night too! Very nice. So after a breakfast of scrambled eggs and tea, we set about cleaning the apartment up and getting everything situated. It's now really feeling like home!

Otherwise, work is going well, I'm really getting the hang of things and all the students are so NICE! Not to mention Thia and Hiromi are so amazingly helpful, showing us around and taking us places. Things I'm really enjoying about Japan: Kotatsu, baths and futons. The kotatsu is just as AWESOME as I suspected. Our bath is just…WOW. So relaxing. Hard to get out and go to bed afterwards, all I want to do is stay in it! And the futon we got is sooooo comfy. We're still looking for quite a few things, but we'll get everything soon. Liz will appreciate this: when we have the bedroom set up for guests, the room is essentially one GIANT bed.

The nights are very cold, especially since we didn't know that our Air conditioner also was a heater. It was at the point last night where I woke up coughing and realizing I hadn't taken my NyQuil (thank you so much, Chris, for the box of cold medication! It's come in handy) and as soon as I stuck my hand out from under the blanket I yanked it back in and thought "screw that, I'll just lie here and cough." But aside from that, things have been going quite well. No idea when we'll get internet up in our place, but, boy will I be happy when we do!

That's it for us here for now,

Elaine out!

Here, in Japan!

So, despite a cold that I managed to catch right before leaving the flight was mostly uneventful. I watched a bunch of movies and didn't get anything else done ^_^;;;

We arrived and crashed. Didn't even have enough energy to get to the store and get FOOD! The next day (monday) we went shopping, big time. We got a nice futon and pad and stuff. and cooking things. Hiromi was kind enough to show us around and even take us out to lunch, even though I couldn't taste still (though I could taste the kitsune in the kitsune udon ^_^ ). Brad was nice enough to draw me a bath for when I got home from work and BOY was it amazing. Seriously, anyone having problems sleeping, just get a Japanese bath.

In any case, class time, must run! Will update later!

Leeeaving

So, we leave tomorrow. I keep thinking I've forgotten to pack something! We're taking less that I took to college though, which is a good sign. My mom and I found her yen from her trip, so I have a bit of spending money. We bought gifts so we're mostly set.

That's about it, just gotta get through this day without imploding from worry about checking in tomorrow and security.

bye for now!

Before Leaving

This is where I will be posting any and all updates on my travels in Japan. I might not have internet for a little while at first, but as soon as I have it, I will keep everyone updated.
Stay tuned!