The .JP Episode 1: Don:t move to Russia
Monday, October 04, 2004 5:11 AM
So I:m randomly sending this to most everyone on my email list. If you would not like to receive further updates on my Japanese exploits, simply reply to this email and let me know. Thanks.
KICKING IT IN THE .JP (Joe: sorry. your .au page was so cool that I had to steal the title.) Epidsode 1: Don:t move to Russia.
Tips from my plane window observations: Don:t move to Russia. Serious. There is nothing there except ugly brown mountains. Previous to Russia, however, I did manage to spot a giant iceburg. With no boats stuck in it from what I could see. I didn:t sleep a whole lot and the in-flight movies stunk, but the Japanese guy next to me did teach me to eat Chinese noodles (think ramen, only better) with chop sticks.
I have safely arrived, although most of you wouldn:t know that, as I have had very limited phone/internet access. I had the priviledge of spending 4 hours in the Osaka airport, as the Nova person meeting me was also meeting a flight that was very late. I spent the night in Osaka and was supposed to make it to Niihama and to my apartment on Friday. Friday morning, a girl named Kineta and I wandered around the narrow, almost cartoon-like streets and ate brunch by stopping at a random place and pointing at food in the plastic display. It was pretty good, too, until we found the tentacles and discovered we were eating octopus. Yum.
Kineta and I were put on a train to Okayama with instructions for switching trains to get to our destinations. As I was switching trains, however, the man who checked my ticket went through an elaborate drawing and signing procedure (yay language barrier) to explain that the train was not running to Niihama because a typhoon had taken out the tracks. Right.... Nova put me up in a hotel in Okayama for the weekend, as I am here for training this week anyway. So I spent the weekend touring the city and won:t get to see my apartment or meet my roommate until the end of the week. Ah well. Call it a weekend holiday in Okayama with the hotel room on the company:s tab.
Random tidbits on Japan:
1) Hotel rooms come with slippers.
2) Don:t eat will walking down the street.
3) Even if you have a walk signal crossing the road, look for traffic anyway.
4) Everyone rides a bike.
5) Everyone carries a bag or purse, even the men.
6) All the girls wear tiny little heels. Even while riding their bike. Even while standing on the pegs on the back of their boyfriend:s bike.
Hope you all are having a fabulous week!
Serena
Q: How do you type an apostrophy on a Japanese keyboard?
A: I don:t know either, but at least it:s not typing in Hirigana right now.
Q: What looks like a cross between a fox and a raccoon, eats vegetables, and meows like a kitten?
A: I don:t know either, but there is a whole family of them living in the rock by the river in Okayama, and they are really cute.
The .JP Episode 2: I live with the boss
Saturday, October 16, 2004 10:02 AM
Despite another approaching typhoon (I collect them), I did indeed make it to my lovely new home in Niihama. Miracle of all traveling miracles, my luggage also made it to Niihama on the same day I did. Amazing, isn:t it?
Notes on the apartment situation: They had said that Japanese apartments/rooms are smaller than American rooms, but I think my apartment is a great size. If you live in Tokyo, you pay a small...okay, maybe not even small...fortune for a shoe box, but Niihama is much much smaller and definitely less crowded. So I have a fabulous (and definitely Japanaese) apartment. We have purple tiled walls in the kitchen (the Japanese seem to like colorful....particularly pastel colorful... Wearing a pink shirt even while carrying a purse is apparently unrelated to gender or sexual preference.) We also have a distictly Japanese shower/bath (more on the Japanese bathing situation later) and tatami floor matts in two rooms. The tatami is beautiful, soft, and fun....and it smells nice and is just....fabulous. I:m a fan.
Although most first days at new jobs are generally pretty stressful, this job is looking pretty good right from the start. Maybe I did learn something in training after all. I work with some very fun teachers, including a girl from Scotland with an accent so thick that the rest of us native English speakers can:t even understand her....
I:m a teacher! How fun is that! And since it is a business and not a school per se, basically all of the students really want to be there...their attitudes are so energizing! I hope I can put half their effort into learning Japanese.
My housing information said that my roommate had moved in 2 months ago, so I was expecting someone who is very new to Japan. It turns out that Amanda has been in the apartment for 2 months, but she has been in Japan for 4 years. She also happens to run the Niihama branch of Nova. So I live with the boss, and she seems to be a fabulous roommate so far.
Japanese bathing: The Japanese shower first, then soak in the tub when they are nice and clean. That way the whole family can share the same bath water. Very efficient. The tubs are much deeper than western tubs, and the floor of the bath room (as opposed to the toilet room or the sink room) is the shower. They also have public baths (a tradition that started when people didn:t have baths in their house), which require getting naked and showering while sitting on a little stool around the outside of a large room (yes, segregated) with your very own shower spigot, bowl, mirror, and stool to sit on. Once you are nice and clean, there are assorted hot and cold spas and a sauna. Very relaxing.....I this past week with a couple of friends. It was really neat, but....well, definitely not American.....
Chocolate ice cream: So I ate way too much ice cream this summer, so now I:m hungry for it all the time. I have been attempting for a week to buy chocolate ice cream, and have not yet succeeded. I have, however, had black honey, poppyseed, and expresso ice cream.
Have a great day, and eat some ice cream for me!
Serena
The .JP Episode 3: Let's play charades
Wednesday, November 03, 2004 4:41 AM
I had my first Japanese lesson on Monday. It was rather interesting, as my teacher doesn't speak English. It took some rather complicated charades for me to understand what she was trying to teach me. My teacher seems very nice, however. She also carefully wrote out everything she was teaching me in Hiragana. If I could read Hiragana, I'm sure that would have been very helpful....
I've been doing some bike riding around the area. The mountains are gorgeous. I went down to watch the sunset by the Sea of Japan today. Wow. From my vantage point, I could see the water, the mountains, Honshu (the main island), and the sunset. Sweetness.
Some fun notes about Japan:Only in Japan can you buy rice and and eggs in vending machines.
Only in Japan does introducing yourself to someone include the phrase "please be nice to me."
Only in Japan will they kick you out of a public bath if you have a tattoo.
Only in Japan does the supermarket clerk bow after he finishes rining up your groceries.
Only in Japan are there 3 or 4 ways to count and at least 2 ways to right everything.
My roommate and I visited her friend Mashu again last week. Mashu always teaches me a few things in Japanese (and she speaks English). While we were talking, her kids were working on their homework. Her nine-year-old was working on math that Americans usually learn when they are 14 or 15! But I guess they have to get them cracking when they're young so they have enough time to teach them all those Kanji (you need to know 3000 or 4000 Kanji to be able to read a newspaper).
Now that the election is over, I'm sure that you will all have several extra hours per day where you had been answering the phone and the door. I think that you should use that extra time to get together with some friends, have a party, and play charades. I've even included a list of topics to help you get started. Have fun!
Possible charades topics:I'd like to open a bank account.
Which Kanji mean "withdrawl" and "account balance?"
Do you know where the city hall is?
I'd like to get email on my phone, please.
Which tram stop will get me to the train station?
Is this chocolate ice cream?
What is the meaning of life?
I'd like the turkey and cheese bagel, please.
Could I spend some of the points on my point card to get a discount?
Cheers!
~Serena
The .JP Episode 4: Let's call it news
Friday, November 26, 2004 8:04 AM
My fun, personal news for the past week or two:
1) I got flipped off by a monk. Yes, it's true. Apparently a certain one-fingered gesture does not have the same meaning in Japan as it does in English-speaking countries. Thus, I get it quite frequently from students pointing to something in their books or scratching their noses. And one of those students just happens to be a Buddhist monk, which makes it all the better. And yes, he does wear his monk robe to school.
2) I used a squatty potty that flushes automatically (a prime example of how Japan is very modern but definitely not western).
3) I thought I tried sushi, and I was very excited to tell you all about it....but it turns out that I was deceived. I ate raw fish, not sushi. They are different. Your raw fish has to be delicately placed over a carefully shapped blob of rice with the wasabi in the middle for it to be considered sushi. I had plain old raw tuna....and raw shrimp....and raw squid..... It's not as bad as you might imagine. It doesn't bleed, which makes it significantly less gross than rare steak. (Okay, so the shrimp was pretty bad. Definitely the slimiest thing I have ever eaten, and I had to pull the head--complete with eyeballs--off first. And I passed on the raw eel. I can't handle cooked eel...)
I hate to share this heartbreaking news with you, but I have been informed that my list of things that only happen in Japan was a fraud! They also occur in South Korea. Apparently. So I will try again:
Only in Japan are you awakened at 7:00 A.M. by a blaringly loud, city-wide announcement of "Ohayo gozimasu!" (Good morning) followed by any vital details for the day....such as updates on the approach of the latest typhoon....or which of the many kinds of garbage are being collected that day....or any missing dogs or cats.....
Only in Japan does the weather forecast in the spring include an update on where the cherry blossoms are blooming.
And only in Japan would you hear the following things on the billingual 10:00 evening news. Please note that I'm not making these up. I did actually leave a notepad by the TV for a week and a half collecting them. Seriously. The news must lose something in translation....and least I'm hoping that's the problem:
-This official feeds an animal. (We're happy for him...)-This man says that there is garbage piling up outside his house. (Good thing this is on the news. Where would I be without knowing that?)
-The woman says that she has managed to clean half of the first floor but hasn't yet been able to clean the second floor. (See comment on previous news item.)
-This nurse says she's glad to be able to help. (I hate those nurses who don't want to help.)
-The baseball team is just getting organized, so it will grow and grow....A park will be built near the stadium. People will be able to move freely between the park and the stadium.
-It feels much more colder tonight.
-This man says he doesn't feel tired yet but is likely to feel tired soon.
-6021 people have been caught for talking on a mobile phone while driving. (Side note: elementary school lunch menus also say things like 'Wednesday: spaghetti, bread, milk, and and apple at 942 calories')
-Her smile is also well-liked. (on a famous person)
-We advise our viewers to be careful in their choice of clothing.
-This man says the floodwaters reached his knees when he evacuated his house. He said this surprised him. (Really?!)
-Baby boomers tend to differentiate between ordinary clothes and clothes for special occasions. This man says that they spend money on both kinds of clothes.
-This girl says she's happy.
-The dolphins demonstrated a healthy appetite by devowering 6 kg of mackerel for breakfast.
-They hope to improve the communication between the players by talking to each other more.
-One needs a heavy coat and gloves. (on the weather in London. Oh really? in November?)
-He was relieved to win. (on a sumo wrestler)
-Several centimeters of snow are expected tomorrow, so people will have to deal with that on their way to work or school.
-It's already affecting the Philippines. (on a typhoon, accompanied by a weather map showing a large typhoon directly over the Philippines.)
-It is important for adults to recover from their mental stress so they can help children recover from their mental stress. (on earthquakes victims)
-This woman says she is glad to finally go home. (as opposed to all the other earthquake victims who were hoping to living in a shelter for the rest of their lives.....)
-This man says with power and water now available, he can maintain a minimun standard of living. (Yep, having only power and water definitely puts you on the bottom of the totem pole compared to the rest of the world's population).
-This woman says that unlike other people, she is not happy. (on a landslide)
-The swans are now grooming themselves in a relaxed manner and will soon fly up into the sky to look for food. (somebody call CNN)
-Now let's take a look at autumn leaves. (Followed by a musical interlude and footage of autumn leaves. This one might even make the 'only in Japan' list.) -She says she was encouraged by the spectators cheering.
-Yoko says she had a lot of fun. (on a good race)
-He had been growing the next generation of painters. (tribute to an oil painter who just died. Yeah, I hear that up and coming oil painters need extra watering.)
-The weather will slowly deteriorate... (The sky is falling!)
-People need coats when they go out now. (Paris weather--in November. Whodathunkit)
-Changes have occurred within the national broadcaster. (Didn't need to know that.)
Hope you are having a fabulous week and a happy Thanksgiving!!! Send me any fantastic, bizarre, or mundane news updates that you have.
Cheers!
Serena
The .JP Episode 5: I'm a gormet.
Tuesday - January 25, 2005 3:39 AM
On my short stint home, I realized three things:
1) Iowa is very, very cold in the wintertime.2) Westerners make so much eye contact and speak so directly that it's scary.
3) All it takes is a nice, long plane ride and I turn back into a normal, competent human being who can speak in complete sentences, order food, ask for directions, read signs..... Sweet.
Being back hasn't been bad either. I also have three very happy success stories from the past 2 weeks:
1) I bought the correct size of garbage bags using the guess method. I was very, very pleased with myself.
2) The Baskin Robbins in the mall where I work has point menus sitting up on top of the counter, just out of eye sight. All I have to do is point to the cone/cup/whatever I want and say "I want one of this" instead of trying to do sizes and options in Japanese. Why did I not discover this very vital detail sooner!?!?!
3) I bought ground beef. Don't laugh. I have been trying to buy ground beef since I got here. I can buy a hamburger almost anywhere, but getting plain old ground beef in the supermarket is another story. Everything looks and tastes about halfway between pork and beef. And since I can't read....well, it's probably something else altogether. But yesterday, but bought a nice, RED lump of ground cow. And it was very, very tasty.
My roommate has been in New Zealand for the past month, so I have been experimenting in the food department. Some of my experiments would even have been considered edible by people who have not been blessed with my iron stomach. Score one for me.
Side note on my roommate: As she is my roommate, I sometimes refer to her as my roomie. But being a Brit, she thinks I'm her flatmate. Does that mean she refers to me as her flattie? Just wondering.
This computer is starting to freak out, so you'll have to wait for another day to find out why I sleep in the living room.
Cheers, Serena
The .JP Episode 6: I love tatami.
Sun, 13 Feb 2005 13:32:44 +0000 (07:32 CST)
I'm sure that you all have been waiting on the edge of your seats since my last newsletter, so I won't keep you in suspense any longer. I sleep in the living room because it is quiet and dark. This should be true for every room at night, you're thinking? Negatory! My room is right next to outdoor hallway between apartments. Not only is the light on right outside my window all night long, but you can distinctly hear every step of anyone walking down the hall in heels. (Approximately 100% of the adult, female population of Japan wears heels.) It also puts me in a prime location to enjoy the 7:00 A.M. blaringly loud neighborhood announcements and the construction across the street. Our living room is in the center of the apartment, so it has no windows, which conveniently keeps the lights and noise at bay while I sleep.
My Japanese teacher was quite shocked the other day when I told her I had slept through all the sirens of a 5 A.M. fire. (We both live within 2 blocks of the fire station, and they had kept her awake for quite a while.) I didn't know how to explain in Japanese that I sleep in the living room, so I just skipped the explanation. Maybe it's a good thing. Afterwards, people told me that she probably would have been horrified to find out that I sleep in the living room anyway.
Besides, our living room is a tatami room. Tatami are the fabulous rice straw mats that Japanese people use for flooring. They are very tightly woven, just the right softness, and smell great. I'm a fan. Only in Japan do I have the opportunity to live in a tatami room.
More only in Japans:
My roommate and I went for a walk the other day through Niihama and discovered vending machine row--at least 18 vending machines lined up side by side. Only in Japan. Japan has 1 vending machine for every 50 people. If you go for a hike in the mountains, you will occasionally come to a spot somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and it will probably have 2 things: a sign warning you that the place is slick in bad weather and a vending machine.
The big Japan vs. North Korea soccer game was 2 days ago, and there has been a lot of hype about it on the news for the past week. They interviewed several fans from South Korea who said they hoped the North Koreans would win or that they would cheer for the North Koreans because they were from the same ethnic group. Only in Japan (and apparently Korea) can you make a comment like that anywhere, let alone on national news, at all. And here, no one thinks anything of it.
And finally.....only in Japan can you pay for the equivalent of $2 worth of groceries with a $100 dollar bill in any store--and no one will even blink.
Have a great week!
Serena
The .JP Episode 7: Sakura and Singapore
Tuesday, April 12 2005 7:15:43 AM
We have finally reached Japan's most famous time of year--the cherry blossoms (sakura). I admit, they are pretty sweet. There are trees all over town that look like a white cloud: no green leaves to be seen on them, just hundreds of white blossoms.
The Japanese people seem almost religious about cherry-blossom viewing. They inform me, very seriously, that it is a Japanese tradition to have a barbeque or picnic under the cherry blossoms. Most of my students have traveled to a large park in the area in the past few days to see them. Don't worry; I did my part by going to the park and taking several dozen photos (yay digital!).
I wouldn't call myself too devoted to the cherry blossom viewing, however, as I missed a few days of their short lifespan by taking off for a holiday in Singapore!
Singapore is a very unique and fascinating city, I mean, country, um, well...island.....place! Singapore is a very interesting place, blending British, Chinese, Malay, and Indian languages and cultures and attempting to mold them into their own special hybrid. Announcements in the subway almost make you dizzy, constantly repeating themselves in English, Mandarian, Malay, and Tamil.
Bilingual people talking to each other switch languages mid-sentence, so you often overhear things like 'Yeah, so do you know what time the kongibiwasha tishimiban glashimorae whenever you want to shibore tarigairmo rigemas itoteme.'
There are all kinds of campaigns put on by the Singaporeans to blend this diverse group into one polite society. Thus, there are signs in public toilets telling you not to shake your wet hands all over the floor and signs in all the subways telling you that graciousness means offering your seat to someone who needs it more. The most outlandish are the laws. Eating or drinking on the subway is penalized with a hefty fine, as is smoking in any building. Spitting outdoors is even illegal. And I thought the ban on chewing gum was strict.....
But, I am pleased to say that my roommate and I fully enjoyed our trip and craftily avoided being caned for one hypothetical piece of gum that may or may not have snuck into the bottom of one of our bags. [We flushed it promptly upon discovery. Hypothetically. Hint: It wasn't me. ;-) ]
Have a fantastic week!Serena