Hazy Cosmic Jive

Life in Japan is especially interesting during Golden Week, when I have no set plans! I'm also way busier than I expected to be, considering the “no set plans” part of the last sentence.

On Friday, Mie and I hit the road for Nagoya Castle, delicious Sukiyaki and an impromptu night of song with some fabulous Turkish men at a kebab restaurant.

Nagoya Castle was in a word, WOW! The castle is about 400 years old, though much of it was destroyed during WW2 and had to be rebuilt and restored afterwards. So in a sense, we're getting a reimaged snapshot of the castle: one piece construction, and one piece memory (which of course always contains its own part imagination). The castle tower is seven stories high, a huge achievement considering the time period. It is mainly made of stone and wood, though of course the foundations are stone (getting a 7 story high building in the 17th century isn't happening without a frak-ton of stone, not that I'm any expert of architecture).

After going to and through the castle, we had some delicious Matcha Ice Cream, wandered around Sakae for a bit (shopping and the like) and then enjoyed yummy, all-you-can-eat Sukiyaki! Sukiyaki is essentially meat and vegetables cooked in a delicious soy sauce based sauce and water. You cook it yourself in a heated pot at the center of the table (or between you and your friend) and then eat, and eat, and eat. I made sure to eat it the traditional way, which meant beating one raw egg into a bowl in front of you and then dropping the hot cooked meat and vegetables into the bowl to languish in the egg for a bit before eating it. Yup, that's a raw egg. I was a bit nervous about the possibility of salmonella, but Mie assured me that Japanese eggs were safe to eat raw, and since I have a cast-iron stomach, I figured, why not? It was much tastier than I expected, and when I finished out my first egg, I used a second to continue eating.

I really can't speak enough about how delicious Sukiyaki is. Both Mie and I ate until our stomachs hurt, and then we waddled back out into Nagoya with the intent of doing some intensive Karaoke to help speed digest the food. But instead of Karaoke, we wound up at a Turkish kebob place singing along with “Jackie” on his guitar and drinking tea. It was a fun time, and the tea was very similar to the tea at Aromatic House of Kebab, so thus delicious as well. Jackie and also had a great time talking about life and times, so we'll probably hang out again.

After Kebob style Karaoke, Mie and I returned to Toyota, where we then hung out at her place until way late. It's good to be getting a social circle here! And I'm loving having this vacation time!

On Saturday, as a spur of the moment thing, Eric decided to come visit me in Toyota. He wanted to do a long trip on his new motorcycle. This gave me a reason to clean my apartment (which was in dire straights) and also to show a new friend around my Japan hometown. As an aside, I utterly love Toyota City. Whenever I go away and come back, walking the uphill windy street to my little Leopalace Apartment, I feel a sense of peace and homecoming. (Even the Tacmate, the convenience store closest to my apartment, and probably the least convenient convenience store here in Japan—closed now for Golden week, the only one in Toyota that is—gives me a ridiculous burst of happiness when I walk past it on my way home.)

So it was fun to show Eric around a bit on Friday, introduce him to VITS karaoke (where the wonderful older woman who works there totally hooked us up in regards to cheaper than average nomihoudai) and then with drunken energy, continue on with vigor and a bit too much excitement onto the Saizeria (spelled wrong I'm sure, and a chain restaurant through Japan that serves dirt cheap and delicious Italian food), finally winding up at Kogame (my Izakaya) where he got to hang out and chill with some of the regulars (including Ito-san and Kato-san who I've been hanging out with since my first day at Kogame). We were quite Yoppara-ii (that's merry drunk. The word I had been mistakenly using to describe the state of being happy drunk was futsuyoi, though that's probably wrong spelling, actually means hung over, which explains why people kept asking me if I had a headache when I thought I was saying I was drunk. Much thanks to Mie for clearing that up.)

Eric and I managed to get to sleep before the sun rose...barely, and more importantly, get up in time for the Golden Month picnic in Nagoya the next morning. We met Mie and her friend Haruka at the Toyota Train station (surprise new person, yay!). Then it was a raucous train ride to Nagoya's Fushimi station (a nice train representative actually came over and with much bowing told us to keep it the frak down!) after which we made our way to the park where the picnic was being held. It was stunningly beautiful weather, bright and sunny and just a little hot. (I made sure to wear sunblock which was a really good decision because our camp area was for the large part in direct sunlight. )

At the park entrance, we realized that we had no idea what to do next, and we weren't the only ones. There was an accumulating group of people, many of whom were foreigners like me (this shindig was put on through some relationship to a Nagoya International Association, though JP appeared to do all of the legwork of setting things up.) I asked some confused looking folks “facebook?” and they said yes (or maybe they asked me, I don't remember) and soon we had a good sized group of people going to the same picnic.

Mie had JP's number in her phone (because she's cool like that) so we set off in the right direction, more or less. Our 50 person picnic was one of a zillion like it going on at the park, so finding our camping area was a bit of a task. Mie had to call more than once to get us oriented, but we made it! And the picnic, as promised, was packed full of great people, great fun and huge amounts of meat. Seriously about the meat. When a Japanese picnic promises meat, they don't play. We had bbq meat from a huge variety of animals, the most unusual being crocodile, which tasted EXACTLY like chicken, not that I pigged out on the scaly animal. Later though, during picture time, I made sure to get as many pics of me dangling the claw over my mouth. It's not everyday you can pretend to eat a crocodile claw.

After the meatfest, we got a group together for drinking and Karaoke which was incredibly fun. First, Sean (an utterly awesome individual) took us to a 280 yen Izakaya, where everything was 280 yen (food, drinks, everything). Surprisingly, more food was ordered, and since it was there, interesting and tasy, I ate even more. Though I did my best to avoid more meat dishes. I'm good on meat for a while. In fact, dinner tonight was veggies with shrimp shumai (seafood is still more meatlike than I wanted today, but it's what was in my fridge). In the States, you think of Japanese food as super healthy but between the massive amounts of crazy good snacks, processed breads, ippai meat in everything, fried food, and eggs (raw and otherwise), I'm sure my arteries are cussing me out every day.

And as yet another aside, today (Sunday) I had to make a firm decision to cut back on my food intake and major up my exercise as my pants are fitting me too tight on the hips and gut (I have no idea how much I weigh. Even if I could find a scale, it would be in kilograms). I also really need to get back to running. I meant to do that this week, but the partying and like made that not happen. Sho ga nai!

Tomorrow though, I've decided to have a real adventure and bike the12 km to a nearby Onsen that Ryuichi recommended. Google's walking directions quoted 2 hours 45 minutes (and seems to follow a relatively straight main road for most of it), so biking should take about half as long, but considering my Japanese land navigation skills, I'm budgeting 3-4 hours, and I only give myself about a 50/50% chance of finding the place. I'm also expecting to go about 20 km one way to somewhere, whether it's to the onsen in question or an abandoned rice field and alien abduction party, who knows? I'm super excited to find out though! Of course, by the time I'm done purchasing the tire repair kit, inner tubes and portable air pump for my bike, it'll probably cost me more than five trips there via bus or train. (I'm so pissed I left all of these vital supplies at home!) But I've been realizing that if I get a flat tire while out biking, I have no idea how to find a bike shop or how I'd get home. And that's SO not good!

But back to yesterday...at the 280 yen joint, we ate and drank and were quite merry. Afterwards, we went onto Karaoke with Nomihoudai (all you can drink), two hours for only 1,000 yen (that's $10). I was totally Yoppara-ii when we finally stumbled out. Which is why I felt like it was a brilliant idea to instead of going home to Toyota, continue wandering around Nagoya and find a club in Sakae to dance at. So Eric, Kanae, Tyrone and I went forth. Later, we were joined by Sean had who missed his train. The five of us had a fine time wandering drunkenly around the city, randomly talking to people, and even hanging out with skateboarders who were doing their thing randomly on the street (I briefly tried to skateboard, but then had visions of myself as a paraplegic and stopped).

Note: After Karaoke, I also did make the intelligent decision to stop drinking, and when I hit the convenience store for a bathroom, I also got some bottled water and food. As much of this entry is about my poor decision making, I wanted to get that one in here.

Things were going well until we got to the Manga Cafe to sleep (at about 3:30AM) and it was full. Which meant we had the option of Karaoke (3,000 yen for 2 hours—way too expensive!), find another manga-cafe, or just keep walking until 5:30am when the trains started. At this point, I was really tired (I'd only slept about 3 hours the night before, and non-consecutively) so I reverted back to my base nature: stubborn and cheap! Just because these places thought they had us by the virtual balls, damn if I wasn't going to keep walking! (usually when I get like this, someone in the group who is more rational takes over the decision making, but I don't think any of us were exceptionally rational at this point) Also, as we were leaving the Manga Cafe, Tyrone realized that he had left his bookbag at the kebob place we'd had 3am dinner at, and since the rest of us didn't stay at the manga-cafe we all went back to the restaurant together. This was a huge piece of good fortune for me, because in my exhausted state, I hadn't realized that I'd left my wallet (with passport) in the restaurant as well.

This was by far the stupidest thing I've done in Japan. I must have put it on the table when I was fishing through it for a pen to write something down. Thankfully (1) it doesn't look like a wallet at all, instead it's a small bag with flowers embroidered on it that Japanese people use to hold tissues. (it's large enough to hold my passport, which is why I bought it). (2) the people at the restaurant asked if we had left it, and I heard “bag with flowers” and my heart dropped.

As an aside, it seems I don't have to carry my passport around with me everywhere, as I'd thought. After this debacle, Sean let me know that a photocopy would work just as well for daily life. So I photocopied it this afternoon and the real passport stays home, in a hidden location. I made sure to thank the man who returned it to me profusely, though I probably came off a bit less gracious than I should have because I was so utterly pissed at myself for being so stupid.

After that, we went back towards the manga cafe area, but at this point it was after 4am, and the prices were exactly the same for staying in the manga-cafes, so we ended up just figuring we could just keep walking and maybe find an all night restaurant. Unfortunately, the all night diner does not exist in Nagoya. In fact, the entire city seems to have a good racket going to get you to spend ridiculous amounts of money to be inside between 1am and 5am, because the trains stop running basically at midnight and they put gates down to close you out from even sitting in the train stations.

We weren't the only zombified looking people wandering around Nagoya in the wee hours. Occasionally, another group of young men and ladies in club clothing would pass by us, sometimes exchanging a konban wa (good evening) or a nod or the like. Also, like the ladies in club clothing, my afternoon wear of skquirt (skirt that's really shorts) and short sleeved shirt with button down blouse as covering was not at all suited to predawn cold. So in addition to be exhausted, we were all somewhat freezing. (though I think Eric and I dressed the least appropriately for our predawn wanderings. We're the newbies)

Even when the sun rose (at 4:45am, first time I was glad to see that happen), it was still freezing. Under the cold dawn light, I had brief visions of Serenity (the movie): at this point, our party was the only group on the street, and we are walking down abandoned streets under an overly bright sun that made the corers of things feel sharp and strange. Whispers of “they all just laid down and died” passed through my mind. At that point, with my feet aching, arms huddled over my chest, and eyes heavy with tired, I turned to Jeff and shared this movie reference, and then said “Sadly, I can understand where they're coming from”.

At about 5am, we made it back to Fushimi, with about another 40 minutes before our station opened. I saw a small restaurant that was OPEN next to the Karaoke place, and even though we'd just eaten less than 2 hours ago, this was like a beacon. So long as we ate something, anything, we could sit down and not be so frakking cold! And the food was like 300 yen instead of 3,000, which seemed more than fair enough for me. So we parted ways with Jeff and Kanae (who it turns out had to walk all the way back to Sakae, which I felt terrible about since we'd been going in the other direction). I ordered and ate the food, as Eric is a picky eater on a good day, a meal that included another raw egg, which I just cracked and ate, scared that if it didn't look like I was eating everything with relish and vigor that they might throw us out.

The train ride home was uneventful (or if there were events, I totally missed them because I was unconscious.) When we got back to my place around 7:15, Eric and I both just passed out. I woke up at about 1:15; Eric slept for another half hour and left around 2ish. I had originally planned to return the visiting favor and crash with him in Ogaki for the night (and thus see another new place in Japan and so some more partying), but neither of us had any interest in that concept after our Nagoya deathwalk. Another time.

As today was a beautiful day, though I was still tired, I wanted to do something beyond sit in my apartment and waste my afternoon, so I took my bike out and decided to find Kosema Elementary School. (Since my mission in life in Japan seems to be to eat as much as possible, as often as possible, I'd like to bike to my schools as much as I can so that I can at least get some decent exercise). This was a fun excursion and was not only easier than I thought to find (I only got very mildly lost 2x) and the afternoon sun (unlike early morning) was warm and welcoming.

Also, while biking, I had a revelation about the Kanji for a song that I've been trying to practice at Karaoke but haven't known the reading of the Kanji for (or the original artist, apparently, as my version is Fukuyama Masaharu and Aiko as a duet, but neither of them have the song listed under their Karaoke collections, at least not at VITS). 居酒屋（いざかや-izakaya). I have no idea why I didn't know these Kanji in combination, as I belong to an Izakaya and izakaya are everywhere, but I don't remember seeing the first Kanji as a part of the combination, and as I have it memorized in it's ON Yomi (“kyo”- residence), I'd been trying to read the combination as Kyoshu + ya or shitsu (first is the correct Japanese reading, the second is the Chinese reading of a different Kanji, but I couldn't think of anything better). While listening to the song and biking, I heard the word Izakaya, and suddenly it hit me: “Duh! This song is all about drinking, the second Kanji is Sake and the third one is “ya” (roof), it's gotta be Izakaya!” On my way back towards my apartment, I tried to go to VITS and do a couple of hours of Karaoke (including this song), but as its Golden Week, they aren't having the 500 yen special, so no Karaoke until next week. Oh well...

This took way longer to write than I'd planned. As the clock approaches 1am, and Dar Williams croons out her cover of David Bowie's “Starman,” I realize it's well past time to go to bed. Especially if I'm planning on getting to this onsen and back before the sun sets tomorrow.

To bed!

BBQ Pics: http://www.facebook.com/vashti.bandy?cropsuccess#!/album.php?aid=2037648&id=1215105662

Nagori Cooking Spray

So today, among other things, I went to the Post Office to set up a Japanese postal bank account. This is common here, and postal accounts are the best because Post Offices here are open very late. They are also happy to have foreigners set up accounts with just the paper you get from City Hall saying you will soon have an Alien Registration Card, instead of needing the card in hand. As the card takes a month to process, and my work schedule seem to make it impossible to go to a local bank, the Post Office account is 100% the right choice. Also, Post Office ATM cards are accepted nationwide, while other accounts apparently aren't. (I have no idea why everyone doesn't just use a Postal Account, but I'm sure there are good reasons)

You think trying to choose a cell phone and buy a cell phone plan is hard if you don't speak the language (and if you do think that, you're right), it's nothing compared to setting up a bank account. Okay, as I haven't successfully bought a cell phone, but have managed to successfully get a bank account today (with the help of Medina, a wonderful woman who spot translated for me when she saw that I was completely lost), maybe these things are a tie. But we're getting ahead.

It's the little things that trip you up in when trying to live and work in a foreign country. For example, certain things just aren't easy to find here, like cheddar cheese, horseradish, and cooking spray. And some things, just because you are a foreigner, take a bit longer and are a bit harder to do. Like setting up any kind of account. Add that with the complication of being barely conversational (conversational is a bit of an overstatement I think) and you get a recipe for constant confusion.

First: the order of things on forms is different here than what I'm used to in the States. This is not just with the bank account form, but also with most forms. In the States, usually the spot for the year is on top, followed by your name, with two separate blanks for last name then first name. Here, sometimes the year is towards the top, but the next thing is usually your address. I can't tell you how many forms I've screwed up by putting my name in the address spot. Luckily I can recognize the Kanji for “name” (氏名）and “address”（住所）(thank you Heisig and Kanji Movie Method!) but sometimes, like at the bank today, these forms do not use the same vocabulary. I couldn't find “address” anywhere on this bank's form. So I had to ask one of the ladies working there for help, which is when I found out that I'd written my name in the address spot, again. (Which is what happens when you go on autopilot).

Another confusion about Japanese forms is that not only do they make the spot for date really small, so it's next near impossible to find, but also at least half of the time they use a different dating system for the year (which has to do with what year we are in the current Emperor's reign I think). I'm pretty sure I was born in Showa 22, and now we're in 53, but that's just a guess hazarded from looking at how people have corrected my paperwork, and not a sure deal (I really should look this up...why haven't I?). Lastly, Katakana and Kanji are the preferred ways of filling out forms. I'm actually still pretty bad with Katakana. The Katakana I don't use a lot, I'm always forgetting. Like NA (ナ）which is easily confused with ME (メ）(pronounced MAY) and NU (ヌ）among others.

A final point of confusion: because I have a middle name and it is listed on my passport, every form I fill out is expected to be filled out as it is listed on my passport (in Katakana, of course), which mean that I have to remember to use my middle name. I never do, because I never use it on forms at home. So usually a kind person has to remind me. And my middle name (Naima) has NA in it, and so it goes.

Oh, and I'm still memorizing my address. I've got the Kanji down, but the actual numbers of my street, etc, I keep forgetting. (Remember, small streets like mine aren't labeled here, so I never use it). I usually keep a copy of my address form in my bag so I can do this...even the Karaoke place requires that you write your address down every time (sigh) but I still don't have it totally memorized yet (wtf!).

But getting through the form aspect is within my Japanese capabilities (with a fair amount of questions, etc). What proved to be beyond me was the followup conversation. I take my number, go to the desk when called, and we're moving along nicely until...there's SOMETHING he (the postal banker guy) can't do. Then it's all “moshiauku arimasen” and “sumimasen” (so very sorry, sorry) but what it is he can't do, I haven't the foggiest idea.

I take a stab at asking, “Bank account, can't do?”

“Janakute. (blah, blah, blah) Moshiaku arimasen. (blah, blah, blah).”

“Bank account,” spread out my arms, “Yes” wave right hand, “or no”, wave left hand.

“You can do the setup here, but I can't give you,” holds out what looks like my bank passbook. “because you don't have the alien registration card.”

“So I don't have a bank account?”

Repeats the same thing faster and louder. (this is no help)

It's clear at this point that we're both getting very frustrated. And here's where my translation angel Medina comes to my rescue. She'd been mailing something at the window next to me, and like a ray of sun from the sky, she asks me “do you speak English.”

“YES!”

“Is it okay if I translate for you?”

(is it okay?! Of course it's okay!!! It's amazing!)

Within one minute, she's found out that what the nice gentleman was trying to say (at 90 miles an hour; I am going to work so hard to speak slowly for my kids...seriously, this was my object lesson): I do have a bank account, but instead of giving me the passbook now, because I don't have an alien registration card, they have to mail it to me.

That's it! I'm pretty sure I have most of the vocabulary necessary to try and understand this concept, but not with the speedy keigo the banker was using, and I was too stressed to remember how to ask for “kantan na nihongo”, ie: easy Japanese, so there we were.

I say “no problem” and we're moving along smoothly again.

It seems at this point, the guy has decided I'm an idiot because I didn't understand the first thing he was trying to say, so he gives me a detailed explanation about how it's important not to make my pin number for my ATM card my birthday or 1234 or something of the like. (really? But I love the ATM password I got from Spaceballs) All of which Medina gracefully translates, and then I have to sit and wait for a bit more before we complete the process. Which gives me the opportunity to chat with Medina. She's a really interesting (and busy person). In addition to running her own English School, she also runs a Church (clearly God sent her to me—I'm not a big church-goer but I know a miracle when I see one. She's from the Philippines but she has lived in Japan for 20 years. Hence her Japanese is top notch, of course.

I finish the bank account process--hopefully the card gets to me because I wasn't sure about my postal code so I told the post office it was most likely theirs, but it it doesn't arrive they'll send it back to the original Post Office, at which point, I can get a cell phone, yay!

After a brief stop at Jusco for groceries (and drying rods which I still don't have, but I seem to be doing okay drying my clothes outside on hangers and over the railing so oh well) and to see if there's somewhere close to buy a printer (I may end up just printing everything at the convenience store...for the next week...sigh...) I figure the next step is to try and find my schools.

I first turned to the materials I was given by Paul at Aisatsu: a train map of every train leaving the two Toyota Stations on one sheet and an incomprehensible bus schedule written in Kanji, of course. Both of these things are probably useful once I actually know where I'm going (I guess).
Next I turn to Google Maps, and am (with some work) able to get decent directions to four out of six of my schools. For the last two “Kosema” (Old Lake Interval) and “HigashiYama” (Eastern Mountain), Google Maps can only give me walking directions. So if I'm prepared to walk for an hour out into the wilds of Japan, I should easily be able to get to these schools. Right. I'm assuming the bus schedule is for these two schools. The bus's last stop is in Kosema Town (古瀬間町) but once I get off the bus, what to do next? And where is the other school on this bus route?

As an aside, I have no idea how anyone gets around without reading some Kanji in Japan. In a big city like Nagoya or Kyoto, sure, it's possible to get by with Hiragana, Katakana and Romanji, but in a smaller city like Toyota (which has English at the train stations, but only at some parts, and nothing on the buses), knowing some Kanji has been utterly essential towards me accomplishing basic tasks. Like running my appliances, setting up my internet, riding the buses, finding stores, etc. And if I was in a smaller town or in the countryside, I think my level of literacy wouldn't handle it at all.

And this is with being familiar in some way or another with about half of the Kanji (though I sometimes forget some), and knowing all of the common component primitives (which I memorized for Kanji Movie Method)! With Kanji Movie Method, I got through about 1,100 Kanji, but the last 200 or so were done in a real rush and didn't stick well. Also, like all of the quick memorization techniques, Kanji Movie Method is incomplete, you learn the meanings, writings, and the ON Yomi. No KUN Yomi. And since I couldn't finish it in the States (2 months isn't long enough), I only have about half of the On Yomi, so some Kanji I've memorized still have additional readings I haven't learned—I really wish I'd been able to finish this but I could only memorize so much in a day. The brain literally taps out...it's annoying. I also know most of the very common Kanji either from my last run through Heisig, from reading Manga and/or attempting to translate song lyrics.

Still, it's not enough. I'm doing my best to create little mnemonics to associate both new readings to Kanji I come across on a daily basis. Some I've already partially memorized and some are completely new to me. The trains are very nice for introducing you to new Kanji in a bite sized way because they usually give you the pronunciations of the next station as well as having a little LCD display of the Kanji for the next station as well. For example, the second Kanji for one of the train stops is 坪(TSUBO), so I think of it as being a little TSUnami that comes through in Japan every night and makes the DIRT EVEN. (the left half is EARTH/DIRT, the right half is EVEN). In Japan, they call these TSUBOs, but noBOdy talks about them. This sort of thing is a fun way to while away a train ride. Another one: Train station, EKI, has a team of horses on the left and a Shakuhachi flute on the right (I think...it looks like a capital R) so I remember a team of horses running through the ShinToyota Station playing the flute and leaving R shaped hoofprints behind. Entertaining and educational!

Having tapped my resources for Japan Land Navigation, I called my supervisor and asked him for more detailed directions. He asked me to email him with the information about the schools, which I did, including the school's websites (maybe he can read them—it's all Japanese to me) It's now Saturday and I'm still waiting to hear back from him. I'm also going to go to the train station Visitor's Center with the bus schedule and see what they can do for me. The people at the Visitor's Center, like the people at VITS Karaoke, are beginning to recognize me. (at VITS, they even automatically give me a Coke...maybe I'm going there a little too often...)

Which leads me to the less stressful part of my day: Karaoke! Yesterday (I started this blog entry last night and am finishing it up today, hence the confusion with time), I went to VITS and found a whole new section of awesome music: Nagori Songs. I found these Nagori songs because I have Nagori Yuki on my Ipod sung by Masaharu Fukuyama called Nagori-yuki. Last week, I thought it meant “bound for Nagori” but actually, what it means is “sorrow at parting with snow.” or “vestiges of snow.” The Kanji are 名 (name) + 残　(remainder), though it is usually spelled out in Hiragana. Nagori = sorrow at parting and/or vestiges of: it's a sad word. I didn't know the dictionary meaning of Nagori when I was singing, but judging by the music videos, which generally (with the exception of NagoriGrass x 2) featured a woman in Kimono staring wistfully at a body of water or beautiful field while standing under and umbrella (and in NagoriAme, there was a line about Nagori Umbrella), and/or a man in Yukuta drinking Sake and looking very serious/sad, I figured the word meant “longing,” and I think there are some aspects to that within the dictionary definition, at least if these music videos have any say it it.

There are a huge ton of Nagori songs: NagoriFune (pronounced NagoriBune = Sorrow at parting with a ship...for pretty much all of these Nagori songs, the first syllable of what is being Nagori'd about is voiced, though typically for the words alone the first syllable is unvoiced), NagoriZake (sorrow at parting with Sake), NagoriGawa (river) NagoriNatsu (summer), NagoriZouZou (This was a rock style Nagori song by the artist Kra with the Kanji for “grass” repeated 2x), NagoriAme (rain) etc. I worked my way through most of the Nagori songs (except the one which I couldn't read the Kanji for what was being Nagori'd, so I'm going to look that up this weekend) before moving to musicals again, where I found out that the “artist” that I'd thought on Monday was the musical Cats is really just all unfiled music. That was awesome, because I even found songs from Beauty and the Beast in Japanese!

After that, it was dinner at home and then off to Izakaya. Great times, too much Shuucho (tastes like gin but apparently isn't) and I got to try Akamiso (red miso) sauce over fish: a delicious specialty of this region. I also tried Ikka, one of the few things in Japan so far I haven't liked. Ikka is squid with liver in a stinky sauce. I'm not calling it stinky, Ito-san who had me try some told me specifically not to smell it because it was stinky. Since he enjoyed it, I thanked him kindly and let him finish it. For some reason though, he was very surprised I liked the Akamiso sauce (he said it was difficult to eat), which is funny because the akamiso sauce tasted like a sweet vaguely honey bbq sauce without the tang...what's not to like? Whereas the Ikka tasted like rubbery squid mixed with bits of liver in a stinky sauce. You get the idea.

Well, that was yesterday! Today I'm off to find these four schools, after which I'm going to head back to the city in time to meet up with Mie for dinner (who hopefully won't stand me up like Arisa did, go figure). With luck, when I return, I won't have spent too long wandering around a rice field.

Futon Adventures, Nagoya-yuki, and Bar Crawling with my Kogame Izakaya Crew

Any one of the things that happened today would be enough to fill a full entry. It's been one heck of an amazing, crazy good day! I woke up around 7:20am and decided that since today was due to be sunny and about 70 degrees, it would be a good time to air out my futon. A futon needs to be aired out for at least a few hours every week, ie: let to soak under the sun, so as to keep mold and critters from taking up residence in it. This also keeps your futon smelling nice. So I put mine out over the railing, facing the sun. This was done with a bit of trepidation because I live on the first floor, and I'm still not sure that if I leave my futon alone (ie: with me not in the apartment), will it still be there when I return. Which is why it aired for only two hours and then went back into my apartment before I left to go to Nagoya.

In addition to nervousness about futon theft, my decision to air out my futon today also lead to a bit of research about futon care in general. I learned that my habit of leaving the futon laid out while I was gone (instead of folding it up), in combination with not putting a mat between it and the hardwood floor was definitely poor futon care, ie: an invitation to mold and bugs. So no more of that.

This morning, I also had some wonderful conversations with my best friend and Uncle Lenny, which was fun and helped ground my day. I also spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Samsung Customer Support: my netbook has an annoying manufacturer's defect that makes the screen go white at random if it is positioned weirdly. In order to get that fixed by Samsung, I'd have to ship it back to the States, then have it shipped back some 6-8 weeks later. I'm not planning on living that long without my netbook (though I do have a mac-book here, so it is feasible to do), so I'm instead looking for a place in Japan that might fix it. Or I'm just going to keep jiggling the screen until it acts right.

After my morning conversations and futon adventures, I set off for Nagoya. I had three stops planned, two of which I made. The first was to Immigration. That required me to take the Blue subway line from Toyota-shi to Nagoya Station, then transfer to the Aonami line to Nagoya Something Else. It was smooth sailing to Nagoya station, and a quick movement through the station to Aonami. At the Aonami ticket booth, something truly revolutionary happened to me: a man (clearly foreign) asked ME for directions and I was ABLE to help him! He was heading to Immigration like me, and he needed help with the ticket booth and which train to catch. He asked me in Japanese, and I answered in my usual crappy Japanese with my usual array of charades style gestures. As we were both taking the escalator up to the train, we got to play another game that has become quite popular for me in Japan: “You look foreign, I look foreign, do both of us speak English?

I asked where he was from, and he said Pakistan. I said America. Then he busted out in English: “How are you!”

Score!

I asked him how long he'd been in Japan. He said 13 years, but that he'd traveled on the Shinkansen from Shikuoka in order to go to Immigration, and hence wasn't familiar with the trains here. I said I'd been here for a week and a half, and that he'd made my day because I'd actually been able to help him with directions. He complimented me on my direction giving ability. And we chatted all the way to Immigration. Because we were there for different things, we ended up parting paths at Immigration, but we exchanged contact information so if we're ever in each other's neck of the woods we can hang out.

My next stop was to find the Altia Head Office so I could drop off my contract. I could easily (more easily) have mailed it, but I wanted to find the place in case I needed it in the future, and since I was in the city, it seemed like a good idea to try it then. By the time I got there (map was missing some key features) I was running short on time to get back to Toyota for my Izakaya party, so I talked for a short time, handed off the contract and hurried back to the train. Still it was a warm interchange and I am feeling excellent about my company.

Alas, I did not have enough time to buy a printer, but Friday, I'll find a place in Toyota. I still need to buy a bike too. There's never enough time.

On the train back to Toyota, I took out my knitting. Knitting is a good way to watch people and things without being too obvious about it, and also to keep the hands occupied while the mind wanders. My knitting was the perfect socializing choice too today as an old lady sat next to me and soon we were in a conversation about knitting. In the course of this conversation, she took over my knitting needles and showed me a new technique for how to do a more effective knit stitch. She had a lot of commentary on the process, little of which I understood, but after about three tries, I did get the physical method of her technique, and it does work better. She said something to the accord of “it will heal your stitches” just before she left the train, heading to parts unknown to me.

I made it back to Toyota in time to make my Izakaya party, and my gosh was it amazing. Huge amounts of food major good company, nomihoudai (all you can drink), etc. My eating habits started out truly appalling. I had no idea how to correctly cook my meat in the boiling water; I used the wrong side of my chopsticks to get food; I spilled beer on my neighbor and forgot to Kampai before taking my first sip of my drink. But all was corrected with smiles and laughter and after a little bit I was eating like a pro.

My 'welcome party' had been grafted onto an awards dinner for their golfing group, so awards were also being given out for everyone on the team: who had the best handicap, etc. At least half of them passed their gifts onto me, which left me with a huge stack of goods and a warm feeling in my heart. About an hour into the dinner, suddenly, everyone was putting on their coats and leaving. It seems this dinner was only scheduled for an hour, and when that hour was up, whether you were mid-bite or drink, that's it, you were done and we were out!

I figured at that point I'd just go home, but after I left the Izakaya, one of my other Jyouren waved me towards him. We were on our way to another club, where there would be drinking, women and Karaoke. This turned actually a hostess club: a club where young women are dressed to the nines and serve customers (almost 100% men) drinks with the intention of getting them to drink as much as possible. While there were many fun aspects (karaoke and camaraderie especially), it was also a really bizarre experience. Certain aspects of it definitely had my feminist hackles up, but when in Rome...

For example, one thing that it seems to be perfectly appropriate to say to women (at least in the Hostess club): your breasts are really big “oppai”. I also got questions about my cup size, and me and one of the other hostesses were compared to each other and agreed to be “oppai”. In the USA, I can't imagine a guy blatantly asking you about your cup size, but it was clear here that none of this was meant with ill intention. There was a distinct line that remained uncrossed, but the placement of it was a bit off from my cultural norms. It's also really weird to be considered large breasted. In the USA, I'm so not “oppai” which I did explain to the guys to their surprise.

The club time also lead to some really wonderful conversations. One of the hostesses “Ran-chan” explained to me that most girls worked at the club at night, and usually had an afternoon job as well. She was a nurse for the elderly. Her great grandmother had had Alzheimers, and that's what got her interested in nursing care. She also gave me information about where to find movie theaters, which was highly useful. Also, with another of the bar regulars (who I've been calling Yakuza-chan, long story), we got into a fairly involved conversation about people from the USA and how outgoing or not they are. Because there was dance music in the background of the hostess club and I had had a fair amount to drink, I was ready to start dancing. But that was definitely 'dame' as was explained to me. It would shock the natives.

We had a fair amount of conversation also about how while women were okay to come into these clubs, they rarely did. Which lead to a conversation about embarrassment, where I explained that I'm rarely embarrassed by anything, but that I was a bit rare for being quite so outgoing. Which was a surprise to him, because he felt that Americans didn't suffer from embarrassment (hazukashii) at all. I explained that it depended on the person. Of my friends, maybe 2 out of 10 are as hard to embarrass as me (or close), another 4 out of 10 can be easily lead to be lead to that if others are acting crazy, and the other 3-4 out of 10 are more reserved. This was very surprising to him, but interesting I think. Also, reading over this blog, it's kind of amazing to me how much communication in Japanese (and mostly Japanese) I've been able to manage over the course of a day. Practice definitely leads to improvement.

Again, after a predetermined period, our time was up and we were rushing to another bar. There we ran into the owner and employees of Kogami, my Izakaya, and had more food and drink. I also ran into two other Japanese men (a little younger than my regulars, but I think a friend of one of them), one of whom, Yamada-san, had spent a year and a half in Kentucky. Both spoke decent English, and we had a long conversation shifting between Japanese and English about life in Toyota, etc. I shared my finding my apartment story, which lead to much amusement. I also exchanged contact info with Yamada-san, so now I have another Japanese friend! (note: he just emailed me back and yes, we are now friends!)

Soon after, we were all leaving the bar and going out separate ways. It was goodbye until next time, waving and heading home slightly tipsy to completely drunk. Ito-san (who had been ridiculously helpful to me all night), walked me part of the way back to my apartment before heading back home himself. And so I continued home, with a bag full of (re)gifts and a light feeling in my heart. Another beautiful day in Toyota. Tomorrow I'm heading for Kyoto to see the Temples under Sakura in bloom. Every day here is another adventure. I go to bed tired but happy, and wake up ready for something new and exciting.

Tomorrow: Kyoto-yuki (yuki in general means snow, but at the end of a destination means bound for that place, as I learned today listening to the train. This helps me better understand the title of a song that I have on my iPod: Nagori-yuki, though I still need to look up Nagori)

Izakaya Nights

I just had my most amazing night here in Japan. My local Izakaya is incredible. I decided this time to bring some of the postcards as well as one of the travel guides I got from the tourist center talking about Philadelphia written in Japanese. I gave the postcards to the people I'd met yesterday and the travel guide to the bar. Then it was a rousing night of great times, with one sad note: Ito-san's mother had died yesterday, at some point while we'd all been drinking. She was eighty four. Nobody expected Ito-san to come out (including me) but he was there, a bit sad and probably drowning his sorrows in alcohol, perfectly understandable. I did my best to express condolences and empathy, but I really don't have the words in Japanese. Hopefully the expression did the trick.

I gave out the postcards and travel guide I'd brought with me soon after Ito-san arrived. They were a hit! Everyone was asking questions. I pointed out on the street map in the guide where my house was, and invited everyone to come visit if they were in the area. One of the regulars really loves the TV series Cold Case, which he knew was shot in Philly, so we had that common point of bonding.

As the night progressed, I asked to take pictures with the other Jyouren (regulars like me) and we sat in the Tatami room and did it Japanese style. I'll have these uploaded shortly. Then, later on, the regulars were talking about a party on Tuesday night. Not only was I invited, but it seems I'm now a guest of honor, and that the party is at least partially a welcome party for me. And then as I was leaving, the owner of the bar gave me two hand-made knitted figurines he had made himself as a present. I was sooo touched. I have a feeling, in retrospect, I was supposed to refuse them a couple of times, (so I hope I wasn't totally offensive by simply thanking him profusely) but I did my best to make it clear (with broken Japanese and sincere gesturing) how touched I was and am by the gifts and also everyone's kindness. I think back to my first night here in Toyota, huddled on a hard wood floor, sleeping atop my towel, wrapped in a snuggie with a coat covering half of my body. I was freezing, tired and feeling overwhelmed. Now not only am I comfortably settled in, but I have friends, a place to go, and a community I'm steadily becoming a part of. Before I left, everyone made it clear, “we are all friends.” That makes me so happy! It's been an incredible day, and incredible night, and now after a shower (to get the cigarette smoke off of me) I'm going to settle in for some incredible sleep.

The Izakaya is closed tomorrow, but I am confident that I will have an excellent day, meet new people, and forge yet more connections as the day progresses. In a little under two weeks, my world is totally different from anything I imagined, and totally amazing. I'm excited to meet my schools on Monday, to teach, and all the other things of my new life.

So far, so great!

JUSTCO + Izakaya = Great Times in Toyota!

I think today was my most fun day in Japan yet! It was not without its mishaps, of course, the major one being my discovery that my company's website's directions for where the Immigration Office is in Nagoya are wrong. The Immigration office has moved, and the building it is now in is a bike shop. But I did get some lovely pictures of the areas between Nagoya and Toyota as I traveled by train, as well as a snapshot of two girls in Kimono who were at the train station. But that's not the real fun. The real fun comes in two waves, domestic and social.
On the domestic front, I found the local post office and got money out of the ATM! Yay! I've spent a fair amount of it today, but most was start up costs so I'm not worrying about that too heavily. Across from the post office, visible through about a block of parking lot was the JUSCO! It wasn't nearly so far away as the guy at the train station said. And with a skip in my step, I started across the parking lot towards in in search of more household items.

What I hadn't noticed on my previous trip but was thrilled to note now is that the JUSCO also has a grocery store on the bottom floor. An amazing and wonderful grocery store! My fridge is now filled with food. Some classics of my repetoire, and some new items that are wholly Japanese. I realized when I trekked it all home that I'd forgotten cooking spray and milk, so I'm going to have to make a run somewhere tomorrow, but overall the trek was great!
As an aside, the big piece of news yesterday that I forgot to mention is that I found the Visitors Center and got an English Map of Toyota. I also have the Japanese one and a Japanese bus map. These three tolls make my getting around so much easier. I only had to ask for directions once today, to the CoCo Curry where I had an amazing dinner (this was not listed on the map). All in all, navigational success!

On my way back from my non-useful trip to Nagoya, I also stopped at the 100 yen store (Hyaku-en-Shoppe) and picked up more household items. I think with one or two more good trips, my house will be stocked and locked and ready to go! As it is, it's an incredible improvement from that first night. And I am so happy!

But the real creme-de-la-creme of the evening came tonight. Over the course of the day, I began to notice that I was feeling a little disconnected and lonely here. I talk to my mom everyday, my best friend almost as much, and others periodically, but those are faraway connections, not the ones that will make me feel at home here. I realized that I was having a hard time getting to meet and know people in part because my poor language skills were having me fall into the trap of only speaking when necessary. So instead of complimenting someone's outfit or hair at random, as I would do in the States, I was just being quiet. I made a decision to stop this and actively make connections. The only way I'm going to learn how to speak good Japanese is to speak a lot of awful Japanese, and the only way to making friends is through the same path. So on my way to the 100 Yen store, I saw one of the clerks was wearing really incredible looking purple heels, so I turned around and complimented her. We had a small conversation, and I began to feel less lonely and more happy as a result.

Sean gave me some great advice to meet locals by going to my local bar, or Izakaya. I tried to go into one bar on the way back home from the 100 Yen Store, and I think (though my Japanese isn't good enough to be sure) that I had my first experience with Japanese racism. The bar was in no way full, though it was somewhat busy, but the clerk told the woman at the door “iranai” when I asked if they had beer. “Iranai” = “Don't need.” I debated how angry I should be as I took myself and my goods back to my apartment, and messed around with my knitting a bit (there was yarn and needles at the 100 Yen Shoppe). I then called my mom, left a message, and after that decided to get back on the horse and find a bar that would want me and my money. I wandered around for a bit, passing a bar with only the staff inside (among others). At first I said to myself, “no, I should go to a bar with more people in it” but my gut told me after about five more minutes of aimless wandering, peeking in windows to see if various stores were a bar or restaurant, that I should go back to the uninhabited bar.

So I did. And boy am I glad I did! The bar staff was so friendly, and within 20 minutes the regulars had begun to trickle in. I felt like I was in an episode of Japanese “Cheers”. Everyone wanted to talk to me, and we had an incredible night of laughter, drinking and fun. One of the regulars, or “jyouren” (as I am now also) even bought me a round of Japanese Sake with a Fugu fin (Kie) in the glass for flavor, something that is not cheap, and we drank until he had to take a cab home. I met a group of wonderful people with whom I felt instant camaraderie. Also, my Japanese is more comfortable and happy already from this one night of conversation. I'm totally going back tomorrow night. Also, Arisa, the girl who helped me find my way to my apartment the first night, is excited to get together with me, introduce me to a good Toyota Restaurant, and we can practice English together (the very least I can do for the fact she helped me drag my luggage all through the back alleys of Toyota). It's going to be so much fun!

In short, I'm feeling like I'm making connections here in Japan. I'm becoming a part of my local communities, communicating, and having a great time!

Life in Toyota is coming together! At last!