Tokyo Day 3: 銭湯 (Sentou)、New Friends, Manga Madness and Robber Karaoke

So after another restful morning at the Manga Kisa, it was time to step back into the bustle of a Tokyo morning. Andrea had two friends coming to Tokyo, so we figured we'd meet up. They had been hiking the old Kiso road that spans from Osaka to Tokyo; in the Edo period this was one of the first national highways in Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu declared this road a national highway in 1602 according to this website: Old Kiso Road.

From what my fiends told me when I was hiking a portion of this road from Tsumago to Magome in June when Kana wonderfully invited me, Ron and Cullen to spend the night at her grandparents' house (I haven't blogged on this but it was a wonderful time and I really ought to...pictures are on facebook though, just click on the picture below), every year representatives from each town/village had to walk to the capitol, generally using this road, in order to pay their taxes in person. According to Google Maps, the route that best approximates (as far as I can tell) the road in question would take four days and 15 hours to walk and is 533 km long. Of course, this is taking for granted modern roads and the Terminator like ability to walk day and night without collapsing. I'm betting 2-3x as long would still be a speedy estimate.

Photos of Vash's Tsumago and Magome Trip:

While waiting for the new additions to our team to arrive, Andrea and I wandered around the fashion area of Harajuku. Most people wandering through this mall were dressed to the nines, Japanese style. I adore Japanese fashions; they're so different from U.S. Fashions and some clothes have such an anime feel that the costumer in me says “oooh!”



The new additions to our team, Steph and Ben arrived at 10am. As a total aside, my best friend Steph (who is married to Ben Moats) had originally planned to come to visit me here in Japan this summer and we had specifically planned to see Tokyo, but that fell through. So it was rather humorously ironic that our party was joined by another Steph and Ben (though the originals are irreplaceable!)

New Steph had lived in Tokyo for four months during college, so she knew her way around and could find all of the awesome shops and places that we would (probably) never have found otherwise. But before we could wander through the shops and things, we had to get clean. This lead us to the Public Bath, or 銭湯 (sentou). This is sort of like an Onsen light, where you have public showers and then the chance to soak in essentially a giant hot tub. If you have Tattoos, many Onsens will not let you in, but Sentous are public property so they can't refuse anyone. (and as over ½ of our team had tattoos, this was an important consideration) Also, Sentous are very cheap, usually around 500 yen plus the cost of a towel and soap (unless you bring your own).

I had a great time at the Sentou! It was not only relaxing, but I got to have a wonderful conversation with one of the Obaa-sans next to me in the tub. She pointed me kindly in the direction of the hot-jets (very relaxing) and we chatted a bit. I'm not 100% sure of everything we talked about, but it was a good time for all.

After the Sentou, we went back to the awesome Manga shop in Shibuya(where I broke down and bought more manga including Book 2 of Monster (which I'll one day be able to read even though it lacks furigana) and another issue of Blackjack (also lacking furigana...what is it with the medical drama manga not having furigana!) and the first two issues of Prince of Tennis, which are a win for the beginner reader, check out my Goodreads Review of issue 1 here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/116260286

Next we decided to grab food and then headed out for Karaoke. We were going to go to one place, but as we were approaching the entrance, we were intercepted by a very energetic (and cute) young man who encouraged us towards his Karaoke establishment which was cheaper and also included Nomihoudai. He freely admitted to stealing us (どろぼ）and as he even let us negotiate an even cheaper price for two hours, it seemed like a win-win. (Besides, the other place was a chain and this was clearly a small business...so go us for supporting the underdog!) It was super fun!

After Karaoke, we went to a 280yen Izakaya (where everything is 280yen, not including the hidden cover charge that many of these places have, usually around 300yen...it's annoying. A drink or so later, we were all dead tired, and as Steph and Ben couldn't check into their hostel until the next day, we all sought out another manga-kisa. This one was less of a win than the usual because it only had the chairs and you couldn't get internet without going through some complicated cell phone process that all of us tried and failed at, but it was comfortable enough and no creepy music (though my immediate neighbors did insist on whispering to each other all night, it still beat the child murder midis or eight straight hours of Eminem---welcome to Nagoya). That said, in Tokyo at least, Moopa Manga-kisa's are the preferred choice. They also don't charge 500 yen for showers (though you do have to buy the use of a towel and shower stuff if you want it).

Another night.

東京 Day 1, Mostly Traveling: 18キップ、電車中、六本木なんて。。。

As I sit here at Kappazushi, enjoying plate after plate of 100 yen sushi and reflecting on my Tokyo adventures last week, it's clear that one entry is not going to to do the trick in regards to capturing the experience. Hence this breakup by day. Besides, dividing the entries adds nice “chapter marks” which I hope will add to the ease of reading. Or at least the ease of writing for me. Who knows?

(total aside: how come some Negitoro ねぎとろ sushi is more negi than others? Note: negi = scallions or onions）

So the first stage of my Tokyo adventure can be roughly described as “getting there with a taste of Roppongi”. Andrea and I (being broke) opted for the 18Kippu (pronounced: Juuhachikippu), which gives you five days (nonconsecutive) in which you can ride any of the non-express trains. This means 急行 and 普通 only, nothing that says super rapid, super rapid limited, or shinkansen. As a result, we basically spent most of Tuesday in transit. Andrea and I met up in Nagoya at the Kanayama station, where we promptly decided to get food and shop. That's where I bought the fabulous black hat with the flower that I'm wearing in most of my pictures. I got it on Andrea's recommendation; Andrea has fabulous fashion sense, unlike me.

We did this languishing in the misconception that my directions for train times and pickups were useful for our 18Kippu. I had been under the impression that as long as you weren't on a Shinkansen, any train was fine. We learned the hard way, through an 45 minute diversion to a train we couldn't ride, that this was not the case. Luckily the man behind the ticket counter was super kind and not only told us that we couldn't use the 18Kippu for the trains that we were trying to catch, but further went above and beyond by looking through his giant book of train information and writing out our entire route, with what stops to go to, how long each train would take, and when they arrived and departed.

Armed with this information and a tiny bit of backtracking, we were off and riding again!

A quick aside about the 18Kippu: traveling with it takes more time, but it is also one of the cheapest ways to see Japan by rail. For 11,500 yen (that's about $115), you get to travel on all local JR line trains (as we said, Futsuu and Kyuukou) for five days, each day equaling one stamp. My 18Kippu paid for itself and then some just for my Tokyo trip, and I still have three more days (good until August 31st) that I can use it. Hence I will be using it to go to Osaka and Mie-ken to visit my friend Susannah who just moved here. The 18Kippu is an EXCELLENT deal. You can buy one at any JR station. Also, if you don't use all of your days, you can sell the remainder at ticket resale stores, where you can also buy partially used 18Kippu for cheap. At least that's what people have told me. I haven't tried it yet, and probably I'm going to use my whole 18Kippu this summer anyway. Anyone can buy a 18Kippu; you don't have to be a student or a foreigner buying it overseas (though there's a great tourist JR railpass too that can only be purchased overseas. I don't know much about it though, because I didn't do this).

The other nice thing about the 18Kippu is that you can get off of the train, wander around and get back on the train without spending more money. So even though you may spend extra hours in transit, this is less onerous than it seems because it also affords you the opportunity to see other interesting places in Japan you may not have explored otherwise. (food is a great motivator, as is the need to stretch one's legs or sit down, depending on how crowded or not the train is or is not.) In short, the 18Kippu gets the Vash seal of approval, which worth about as much as the paper it's printed on, but there goes.

The 18Kippu allowed us many great stops, including in 熱海 (Atami) which is a lovely (probable beach town, considering the last kanji) town with delicious food and lots of cool shops. Though this takes these entries out of order, on our way back, we stopped at a Ramen shop that had some of the best Ramen I've had here in Japan. (and that's saying something because Ramen here is awesome) Though it's a pretty far hike from Toyota, the next time I'm going that way, I fully intend to stop in 熱海 (Atami) for the food if nothing else. 豊橋 (Toyohashi) is also an interesting station, and though we didn't really see the city, it seemed like a bustling place from the activity of the train station.

We arrived in Tokyo at around 8pm. (which meant about 10 hours of travel for me coming from Toyota) I'd been attempting to meet up with two different people in Tokyo, but neither panned out, so instead we figured why not hit Roppongi, which according to the internet would be a useful place to go to find a Manga-Kisaten and other all night clubs and establishments. It's also the foreign district, which seemed like a reasonable place to go for us who were foreigners. Also, it has super easy Kanji: 六本木 (six, book/source, tree).

So in my mode of super cheapness, I decided it would be a good idea to see if it was possible to save the 160 yen for the subway and find out if there was a JR station that could take us to Roppongi so we could use our 18Kippu). As Andrea and I approached the ticket counter, an older gentleman intercepted us and asked us in English where we were going. I told him we were heading for Roppongi, and he told us to take the subway. At that point, I drifted into Japanese to try and explain that I was looking to see if the JR line could take us to Roppongi, in large part because most of the time, even when someone starts a conversation with me in English here, usually if we move into more complicated topics, things get too confusing and it's easier for all concerned to struggle through with my rather awful Japanese (or most common, a mix of the two languages...communication, ya know). This has become automatic for me, so it was hugely surprising when the man, with an expression similar to one he'd wear if I'd shot his dog and was currently wearing the pooch's intestines as a necklace, asked me “WHY are you speaking in Japanese?” (I'm emphasizing the “why” here because that's what he did)

I was really confused and somewhat annoyed. I have wholly appreciated how wonderfully helpful Japanese people are especially when they see a lost foreigner like myself, and I have made great friends from this beautiful, generous tendency of the people around me here (much love, Mie-chan et. al) but I must admit, I really had no idea what to do with that question. In retrospect, I wonder if I offended the guy by implying that his English wasn't good enough. That wasn't at all what I was trying to do. At the time though, I was just ticked off and hiding it (probably poorly, as I'm not good at that sort of thing) and so I responded, in English, “because I learned it?” which was better than my internal monologue which went along the lines of “because I'm living in this country so why wouldn't I make even a base attempt to try to speak the language here and besides who the fuck are you anyway?”

He looked a bit offended and I tried to soften the approach by asking him another question in English, but luckily at that point we were intercepted by a really hot Japanese businessman who also spoke English and was a lot more helpful. (he didn't care what language we spoke and was way cool, hotness aside) Truthfully, I could have scrapped the Roppongi plan and seen if we could all get a drink together but he was clearly in a hurry. Alas.

And the answer to our question was NO.

So we paid the 160 yen for the subway and headed for Roppongi.

Roppongi is a dive.

Okay, it doesn't totally suck. And in keeping with what will probably be a repeating theme in later entries, it does have that wonderfully sleazy feel of a Cyberpunk style place where illicit meetings for-hire Edgerunner teams and illicit corporate representatives meet to discuss business. In fact, Tokyo, namely Shibuya, Akihabara and Roppongi (to an extent) are the only places in Japan (with the exception of Sakae in Nagoya a tiny bit, especially the underground mall and the giant ferris wheel) that make me think of Cyberpunk.

But places like Roppongi are where you get that Bladerunner opening, not the pan-over, which is more Shibuya if Shibuya was encased in a cloud of coal dust, but the part where Harrison Ford is eating noodles in the perpetual drizzle. “They say you Blade Runner...” Now add a bunch of drunk-ass people, women dressed in too-high heels and too-short skirts with the matching toe and fingernail designs, men with one shirt button open, cowboy belts, dress shoes that come to almost points, they travel sometimes in packs and sometimes alone, scanning the merchandise as the working dudes with their shiny heads weild pamphlets trying to sweet-talk this and that person into their club or bar...you get the idea. It's bright with blinking signs and neon. It's doors to club that look like the doors to apartments on Chestnut street in Philly, the apartments that live above stores like Easy Pickins (which no longer exists) and Karaoke places that have that veneer of high class that's like stick-on plastic tile in the swirls of marble. And disco lights.

So yeah.

Most people told me again and again that living in Japan would be like living in the future, but for me living in Japan has been like living in a weird amalgam of the 1950's and 1990's with interesting fashion input from the 70's and 80's. There are also musical annotations from modern Hip Hop, including a solid infusion of music from the 'niggas, bitches and hos genre', which would be troubling if it wasn't put in juxtaposition with a clubbing atmosphere where absolutely nobody has even made an attempt to grab my ass or fondle me in any inappropriate way, something that is a never ending shock to me here. (and this seems to be more of a universal trend than that my USA sized ass is unattractive here) In fact the freshest anyone has gotten with me here was one guy who gave me a kiss on the cheek and offered to buy me a drink. (this was in Nagoya, and my ride was leaving or I would have taken him up on it)

But Tokyo has the future feel. And Roppongi brings the gritty. You know somewhere in one of those buildings, maybe on the upper floors, there's a certain potential for darkness, the screwdriver in the dark, the light scratch of meishi passed across a dark table, not sticky, even the sleeze in Japan does not touch the surface, and in these business cards the slightly raised surface of the plastic information strip, like the one that runs through a $20 bill so that the cashier can check if its real. For most of us the information superhighway is a series of tubes, but for some it's lightening. Someone takes a puff of a cigarette, and the girls and boys who are leaning into each other, bouncing to the music, tossing back 700 yen drinks barely strong enough to qualify, they have no idea. But they're needed. They're as vital to the system as the neon, needed for the yen they throw about to impress each other, needed for their desperation, for their manic desire, for sheer ambiance, and we were a part of it. Andrea and I. We skipped over the surface like rocks thrown over a shiny pool, and the taste of it clung to us as we careened into the opposite shore.

So yeah, it's cyberpunk of a sort. Except safer. Because for people like us, who aren't playing the game, Japan is the fifth safest place in the world.

Andrea and I found a great hamburger place in Roppongi. In keeping with my Tokyo experience, a burger, fries and a hot tea came up to about 1200 yen. Not terrible, but a bit steep. We avoided Gaspanic: the internet warned us that it was THE Gaijin Desperation Meat Market, and instead we ended up wandering around until we found a pub, and later a great Karaoke deal, only 2200 yen for all you could drink and sing until morning. Morning being 5am. Which because Japan is not on Daylight Savings means the sun is well up by that time.

We sang a lot and slept a little.

And so ended Day 1.

Payday and Looking Up As We Walk, or At Least Making the Attempt

I got my first paycheck on Thursday, April 20th. It was very exciting to look in my Japanese bank account and see real yen in there! This check was a bit short because my first two months rent at this apartment were taken out prior to receiving the direct deposit, but I still ended up with more than I'd thought I would. Just the fact that I can stop living off of my savings and stop getting abused by the exchange rate (basically for $100 in yen, I was spending about $108—it adds up) took a huge load off of my mind and stomach. The next step is to figure out how to move some of this money to a savings account so that I don't just spend it all. I really want to build my savings back up while I'm here, not to the extent of not having fun, but at least enough so that I have some of my reserve back again. Having money in savings is what made this trip possible for me. I like having that security.

So having gotten paid, of course the first thing I did was head out with Erin after work and do Karaoke and grab dinner. First we went to VITS where I found out that I had misinterpreted the 500 yen special. I had thought it only cost 500 yen if you were ALONE (hitori) but actually, what it means is that it's 500 yen per person from 4-8pm. So this means that I can actually go to Karaoke with a friend or two before 8pm AND it will still only cost 500 yen (plus whatever drinks we want). This is especially great to warm up a Friday night! I LOVE VITS!

Erin and I had a great time rocking out to Japanese and English songs, including doing a duet of Sukiyaki in Japanese. I had wanted to do this song for some time, but I didn't know the name for it in Japanese: 上に向いて歩こう。

Here's the song on youtube with realtime Japanese lyrics in Kanji with English translation, as well as facts about the song and the artist, Kyu Sakamoto:



I'm not sure about how good the translation is or not. This song is using the Volitional form (arukou) which I've been reading up on because it's been confusing me. My original understanding of the volitional form of the verb was that it simply meant “let's do X” but actually, it's a lot more complicated.

I've found a good explanation of the “let's do” version of this here: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/desire.html#part4

And how to use this in regards to intention, ie: setting out to do something, here: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/try.html#part3

But grammar aside, this is a great song, and very easy to sing! It was also the first and only song entirely in Japanese to hit the Top 40 in the USA, at least according to the above Youtube video. (and that's only the tip of the iceberg in regards to this video)

We also took a stab at the Evangelion theme song (whose name I never remember) as well as some classic music from the 70's and 80's. Just a general good time!

Afterwards we took off for a wonderful Malaysian restaurant that Erin had tried recently. I had a delicious meat and noodle dish. I don't remember what it was, but knowing what you're eating is overrated, such I've learned from Japan.

In short, a great day!

Howl's Moving Nagoya

Of course, I got lost finding the building for training. It was one of those mornings. First, I ran out of my house with everything I didn't need for my day, and next to nothing I needed. Then, in trying for my train, I go to the Shin Toyota Station instead of the Toyota Station (they are literally a block apart connected by an overpass, and I'm always getting mixed up which train leaves from which station) so by the time I get back to the proper station, I've just missed the early train. Now I'm stuck taking the Meitetsu to Chiryu (the one which will get me there on time if I don't have any problems...uh-oh...in Japan, land navigation is ALWAYS problems for me). This set of trains is a trip that I've only done once, in the opposite direction on the day I came to Toyota, where afterwards I spent almost an hour wandering around the city trying to find my apartment. This is not fortuitous.

Worse, as the train is leaving Toyota Station, I reach into my bag to refresh my memory on the map and directions to the meeting place. Nothing. That's right. I forgot the MOST IMPORTANT thing – my printout of name and address of and the map to the venue where training is being held. Two words. Totally Frakked!

I managed to go online with my (super expensive and confusing) cell phone, check my email and get the basic information, directions, etc. (Lord knows how much that cost) to the training, as well as my supervisor's phone number which for some bizarre reason I hadn't entered into my cell...stupid! I also texted another ALT friend in the company to see if he knew the training venue. All of these things counted for naught though as, when following the instructions, I left the train station via the WRONG EXIT. Japan is a bit like Howl's Moving Castle: if you go out the wrong exit, you end up in an entirely different place than you planned with no way back to the proper place without entering the Castle again—a debatable process.

So I'm outside looking for a Koban (police box), seeing nothing (though in my defense I'm not 100% sure what a Koban looks like anyway) so I ask a guy if he sees a Koban. Nope. Then somehow in the process of asking for further directions, he tells me that I'm at the wrong train station and that I should go back to Kanayama. Next, I call my supervisor and but he doesn't pick up his phone. Now, the smart thing to do at that point would have been to go back into the Nagoya Train Station, find the Visitor's Center and ask them for (yet another) English Map and directions.

But I was tired, stressed out and still a bit sick from this cold that I've been barely staving off since since Wednesday--it's been like waiting for a sneeze: I have a cold, no I don't, yes I do, no I don't...FRAK! Just sneeze already! So instead of doing the smart thing, I did the stupid thing, which was run back to the Subway and start back for Kanayama. What I'm going to do after that is a mystery to me. At the transfer station, my brain kicks back in again, so I go back online--luckily my phone plan-- think-cuts my internet fees at around 4 Sen (about $40/month) but that maybe with a different EZ Plan, so who the hell knows how much money I'm spending looking this crap up online anyway. I'm thinking of going to the cell phone company and asking as a part of my today plan.

And yes, my directions did say Nagoya Station, so now, a half hour later, I'm on my way back to Nagoya Station (where I started). There I find the Visitor's Center, find out that my mistake was going out the wrong exit, and five minutes later (English map in hand), I'm at training.

Training, (the parts I was there for) was quite excellent. We gained more teaching tools and learned more about planning dynamic lessons. I really liked the demonstration and practice on incorporating skits into your lessons, as well as how to use the Karaoke tracks of our teaching songs to create your own teaching songs based on different topics. Also, I got some good personal advice on how to be more effective using flashcards to setup students for activities, producing grammar, etc. All good stuff. It was also great to catch up with the folks from orientation! I also had an amazing lunch, for less than 1 sen (under $10) I had an amazing beef and onion dish with salad and rice. It was so delicious, writing about it, I'm having mouth watering flashbacks!

After training, a group of us went out for a night on the town! That is, hours of Karaoke with Nomihoudai (all you can drink). We were pretty bombed three hours later when the Karaoke place told us that we had to go (there was a line). Towards the end Mie joined us. Afterwards, most everyone went their own ways. I hung out further with Eric, Mie, Ben, Pam and others as we went back to the Nagoya station for food (for me and others) and for the train (as three of our party had to catch the Shinkansen to go home). At this point, I was hungry and definitely working my way to really sick, so while I'd have loved to have stayed out longer, I decided to hitch a ride home with Mie. Eric stayed on, with directions to some clubs and the Manga Cafe, so he could party all night. (I'd have loved to have done this too, but I was too sick. Today, after a night at home, I'm feeling worlds better though).

In short, rough start to the day, but good on the followthrough!

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.

Nagoya Day 2: Orientation/Training and Karaoke!

Today offers less pictures because I spent the bulk of my day in Orientation/Training. I can say definitively that our company offers a huge wealth of wonderful teaching materials and comprehensive training that promises to be quite helpful. From listening to the stories of others ALT's in the room starting with Altia who have experience elsewhere, it seems to me that the training and materials here is definitely top-notch. This makes me feel more comfortable, because aspects of the task we're taking in are a bit overwhelming. I'm going to be teaching in something like 5-6 schools, multiple classes in each, and with multiple teachers. It's more than a little stressful to think about the logistics of this, especially things like memorizing my students' names, consulting with teachers about the lesson plans, etc. I think the first few weeks are going to be a bit rough while I get my feet under me. But the attitude of my trainers and fellow ALTs is very positive. If I could handle my first month of Grad School, this should certainly be within my capabilities. I hope.

After training, it was time for Karaoke! Me and three other ALTs from my company were supposed to hook up with the group I met from Interac when my plane came in, but schedules didn't mesh, so we ended up on our own. It was Saturday night, so when we got to Joy Joy Karaoke, the place was booked an hour out. So we put our names in, and then headed out to find some cheap beer. And so I had my first “Kampai” in Japan, toasting with my new friends over frothy mugs of Nama beer. At this bar, they also give you tofu with your beer. It seemed like it was a part of the package, but we found out after we had finished it that we'd been charged more for the tofu than the beer. That was a bit of a downer, though I did enjoy the tofu.

Our number came up just as soon as we got to Karaoke. And so I stepped foot into one of the millions of beating hearts of the motherland of Karaoke, a Karaoke Booth just outside the Kanayama station in Nagoya Japan. The Karaoke booth is a tiny room with two microphones. Inside, the acoustics are great, and there is even a button that allows you to change the key of the song so that you can sing it better. Alas, my knowledge of what key I should be singing in is limited, but I expect I'll get a feel for it once I do more Karaoke.

The place we were at also had Nomi-houdai, which means all the alcohol you can drink (off of their alcohol menu) but in this case the drinks were so weak it was more like an all you can drink random soda selection. In the Karaoke booth, there is a small portable entry screen which allows you to enter the name of an artist and get all of their songs (that the Karaoke place has). Luckily two of the four people with our group knew exactly how to use the machine, so we were able to select our songs on the entirely Japanese menus. Then, once the song goes through (both English and Japanese songs are featured), you read it off of a large, flatscreen which has all of the words written in their native language with Furigana on top. This means that even the songs with Kanji can be read if you can read Hiragana and Katakana.

Unfortunately, while I can read Hiragana and Katakana, I read it like a mentally deficient second grader, ie, very very sloooooowly. So I couldn't really keep up with the Japanese songs I picked though it was fun to try. My rendition of Crystal Kay's “Think of You” was a slow motion disaster. Larc-en-ciel's driver's high was a bit better, in part because I also had a friend join me. I think this is defintely going to be my road to reading and typing in Japanese! What's also nice about the booths is that you really can do lots of songs in an hour, and with your friends the experience is ridiculously fun. Also the sound setup is amazing. In the other sense though, the booths do make Karaoke less of a “meeting people” experience. We are all in our own little booth bubbles, bonding with existing circles of friends. I am definitely going to be doing a LOT more Karaoke in Japan (note from the future: gonna head out tonight, Monday, after our welcome party) but I think that Karaoke is not going to be my vehicle to meet random strangers. I'm gonna have to find my local bar for that. All of these things I'd already suspected, and it is good to have them confirmed.

After Karaoke, we went to a video arcade where we played this mad awesome drumming game. My partner is a professional drummer, so he set it to major hard “muzukashii”. I barely hit anything (as we were playing as partners) but it didn't matter because it was great fun. I especially enjoyed “Train, Train, Train” the song, which was super cute and fun! (and a bit easier to know when to hit the drum).

After that, it was off to bed and ready for another rousing day of orientation! Let's play a game—Yay!

Pictures are Posted to my Facebook Album: Nagoya Day 2

Next Entry: More Orientation and the Long Walk for Hawaiian Food.
Upcoming: It's The Little Things; Musings on Differences between Nagoya and Philly.