Interlude: Hair

I've wanted to write about my thoughts on Japanese hairstyles as I see it for a while now, especially in relationship to my own experiences as an mixed race African American woman in the States, but I've had so many things I've wanted to write about that this one, not being directly related to a travel destination, has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle. But hair musings kind of fit in with this section of my Tokyo trip, specifically in regards to the high fashion mall that Andrea and I passed through while waiting for new Steph and Ben.

I'm not sure what happened to the pictures I took of the various hair extensions and dyes that I noticed in one of the non-clothing stores in the mall; it's possible I didn't photograph them because these same products, namely hair extensions of wild colors and textures, are so common here. The desire to write about Japanese hair also relates to a conversations I've had with multiple people who have commented on the amount and variety of dyed hair colors that are abundant here, specifically in regards to the commonness of blond and lightening hair dyes. That and curly perms, which are also very common here.

In short, the type and variety of hair changing products, extensions, etc, really surprised me when I first came here. A part of this is because when I was a child, I really wanted Asian, or as my grandmother said, Oriental hair. Having long, straight, black hair instead of the frizzy (albeit long) mess I had on my head was something I remember actually closing my eyes and wishing for.

I think a part of this particular fixation came from my grandmother's desire to give me multicultural dolls as a kid in order to give me dolls that looked “like me”. Unfortunately, being so light skinned, the darker African American dolls she gave me (which I am grateful for, don't get me wrong) didn't really look anything like me, and she didn't want to give me brown haired, Caucasian dolls (though I have light skin and brown hair) so ultimately the best compromise (unspoken) became the Asian featured dolls. And they had hair that was naturally straight. No hot comb needed, no frizzy braids that rapidly became full of painful knots. I never wanted to be a blond, but boy did I want straighter, smoother hair.

Of course I'm sure the other part of my desire for more Asian hair is related to African American idea of “good hair”: ie: the straighter and longer the better – this is a much talked about thing in African American studies and not worth beating to death here, but I'm mentioning it for three reasons.

1. Ironically, as much as I hated my hair as growing up (and truthfully had an ambivalent relationship with it until I started getting it braided in Grad School, and then later cut it to shoulder length before leaving the country—two great hair decisions), I definitely have “good hair”. My grandmother was incredibly proud that she was able to take me from being a bald baby that seemed to hold the dubious future of NEVER growing hair to having a granddaughter whose hair went all the way down to her touch her butt. My mother had hair that was equally as long when she was younger, but she cut it, a big regret. (note: I didn't cut my hair until after my grandmother died, that's how strongly I didn't want to disappoint her)
2. I've had more than one conversation with different people (non African American) who have expressed confusion at why Japanese women often go for lighter hair, even blond hair. Until it was directly pointed out to me, it didn't really trouble me or really enter my notice as being unusual. What surprised me was the desire to have curly, full, ie: not straight hair.
3. The hair extension and attachment products you find here are exactly the same ones you'll find in Philadelphia for the stores that serve African American women. For example: the fake clip-on bun, the clip on ponytail of varying colors and lengths, wigs, weave in hair, etc. The only thing missing is the hair-grease (much to my dismay). Of course, Caucasians in the States do use these products (minus the hair grease, in general), but not nearly as regularly or commonly as far as I have seen. And the push to have lighter hair is common across races in the U.S.

Of course, everyone wants the hair they don't have. I think that's a universal; ask a woman what kind of hair she likes, and it's probably the opposite of the kind she has. At least until she's gotten old enough to develop a healthy relationship with the locks she's got. But in the African American community, the emphasis on “good hair” stems from historical pressures related to oppression, opportunity, and a push or desire for “whiteness” that has always felt deeper than a mere stylistic decision. In fact, one of the major thoughts that popped into my head upon seeing the array of hair changing items ran along the lines of "the people here must hate their hair as much as my folk at home".

Which is kind of ridiculous if you think about it. Why can't a person just want different hair because they think it's pretty, or different, or for some frivolous reason? Like in John Varley's "Steel Beach" where people just had sex changes because sometimes you want to try something new.

But in the States, hair decisions are more serious. At least from my experience. Choosing to go natural, get dreadlocks, braids or the semi-opposing microbraids, choosing extensions or not, going blond or not and how one chooses to lighten her hair all sends a message. For example, when I wore braids, there was a sense of relief that went with it because people as a rule didn't ask me nearly as often what my race was (or assume I was either Caucasian or Hispanic). Braids looked good on me, but they also made my life easier. They sent a message in a language that I spoke and understood without thinking about it or even consciously reflecting on it. In contrast, when I cut my hair, more people automatically assumed I was Caucasian.

I know hair here is also sending a message, but like the Japanese language, this unwritten language is also unclear to me. (unless we're talking about drinking, directions, work, how I like Japan or humidity) But it's interesting. Like does going blond and curly indicate a desire to be more International? More white? (because there is a definite favoritism of the Nordic Caucasian look here, IMO) A generational urge to separate from older ways? What does it mean for Japanese of Brazilian descent? Chinese or Korean? Or is it just a stylistic choice without so much baggage (an option that seems ridiculously freeing)?

I don't really know. But it's something that has been in my thoughts periodically, so I figured it was worth talking about.

Some awesome hair I've seen in my time here:

Parking Lot California

That's right, another adventure night in Nagoya. It started, as many such things do, with plans for dinner and clubbing. Maru-chan (who I met through my Japanese classes at TIA) and I decided at our last class that we'd go clubbing in Nagoya. Maru-chan is Brazilian-Japanese, now a naturalized Japanese citizen. This means many things, but the most relevant to me and him is that our common language is Japanese. He doesn't really speak a lot of English, I speak no Portuguese. Luckily, Maru-chan's been in Japan for nine years and thus Japanese is excellent (why we're both in the same class, I'm not sure. Probably because they don't have an A+ class to place him in; I feel the same way in regards to many of my classmates whose Japanese is clearly leaps and bounds above mine, but shou ga nai). This mostly makes up for my rapidly feeling crappier Japanese language skills.

One upshot of this language difference though is that through we talked about going out, both him and I were apparently under the impression that the other was in charge of the planning. So our planning ended up amounting to, “let's get together at Nagoya station and then we'll figure out what we're going to do next.”

We determined this when Maru-chan called me and asked where we were going. Erin and I had already gotten an early start on Nagoya, enjoying delicious kebab, wandering through some very exciting stores like a mecha model store and a build your own doll store that could only have existed in Japan. I

I invited a bunch of folks to join us at the last minute, and some made it out. Makoto-san and his friend (whose name I'm forgetting...sigh...I'm so terrible with names), Erin, Rosa, Maru-chan and his friend Kenji and of course me. Since Makoto-san was there and actually knows his way around Nagoya (as he lives there), he took charge of the dinner plans and after some minor antics we were enjoying a delicious Chinese Food (or Japanese interpretation of Chinese Food—no General Tso's Chicken that I saw, a staple of American/Chinese food, but overall still delicious)

Dinner was great fun (once we all got there, lol) and afterwards about half of our group stuck around for clubbing. We initially were looking for a club called Raggaetown, but once we got there, we realized it was a bar with a tiny dance area and tacky disco ball, no one dancing and all in all, not particularly exciting. Not the least bit because the drinks were also a bit high. So we booked out of there and headed across the street to the ID club, with it's exciting five floors of dancing, and 4 drinks included in your 3,000 yen ($30) admissions fee. That was super fun, and I admit I was more than a little Yoppara-ai when we left. Also, very exciting for me, we ran into Andrea (who I met on the plane) at the club, and so instead of heading back to the car at one as initially planned, we all decided to continue to hang out and do Karaoke (with Nomihoudai). Andrea and I are both from Philly, and as you may remember from my long ago initial blog entries about coming to Japan, while we lived essentially less than a kilometer from each other (maybe half a mile at most) but didn't meet until Tokyo, when we were transferring to the flight to Nagoya.

Andrea and I kicked it, Philly style, accapella-ing some Fresh Prince as we walked to the Karaoke place (Joy Joy), reminiscing about Philadelphia, enjoying the joy and versatility of the word “yo” as well as running through a few more colorful metaphors. We had an excellent time doing Karaoke and imbibing of further colorful alcoholic drinks before Maru-chan and our party parted from the pack, ready to return to Toyota.

But Nagoya was not yet done with us, as we learned when we arrived at the parking lot and it was closed. Gates down, abandoned, truly and completely closed. Turns out, our chosen parking lot was not a 24 hour parking lot. So now approaching four in the morning, we were brushing the possibility of another Nagoya all-night march. But luckily Makoto-san was also there. Makoto kindly offered to put both of us up at his apartment. He actually had two extra futons and enough floor space for us. So instead of walking through the night like last time, we actually got a few hours of sleep. Yay!

We got up around 7:30am and Makoto generously drove us back to the parking lot. Luckily it was open, and things seemed to be looking up, that is until we tried to leave. As we sat in the car in front of exit, Maru-chan put the ticket into the machine. Expecting it to be expensive, he had stopped for money on his way. Unlike in the USA, where regularly paying for something with the equivilant of a $100 bill is very strange, in Japan, a much more cash and carry society, it's perfectly normal. So Maru-chan didn't notice until it was too late that the machine we were using did not take ichi-man ($100 bills). Maru attempted to get the ticket back, but by the time smaller bills had been freed up, it was too late. The machine ate our ticket and we were stuck.

And thus tbegan a rather surreal experience. Maru-chan called the people in charge of the parking lot, and they talked for a while, Maru-chan explaining what went wrong with the ticket process and the like. And they promised to send someone. And we waited. And they called again. More rapid-fire conversation in Japanese. And we waited. And waited. Maru-chan had a TV in the dashboard of his car, so we watched a grainy show about artwork around the world, including slow motion pans over various paintings, with monotone narration in Japanese. Suffice it to say, the battle to stay awake was being heavily fought, its outcome doubtful.

Eventually, a representative from the parking lot came. He accessed the machine, determined how much we owed, took the money and then proceeded to commence the arduous process of getting the metal arm to lift so that we could exit (at last) the parking lot. He had what looked like a hundred keys hanging from his belt. It took many tries, but eventually the gate opened and we were on our way!

The ride home was uneventful (thank God) and when I got home, I decided to do my best to stay awake until bedtime. This seemed like a good plan on three hours of sleep, but the next morning, when I woke up and realized I'd planned all the wrong lessons for the day, it felt considerably less brilliant. Luckily, it was a light day and I was able to get my lesson planning done before I left for school. Phew! And so another week began.

In a sense though, over this week I've caught myself wondering if we are still sitting in that parking lot, dreaming our week with the monotone backdrop of classical paintings lulling us into believing that somehow we have beat the odds. Checked out and even left. Life is but imagination.

Great time all around!

***

For more of Vash's adventures in Japan and abroad, check out: http://vashabroad.blogspot.com

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

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!

Manga-cafe, Tokugawa Museum and Sundry:

So at 4am, Mie and I decided to leave the club (where the party was still going strong) and find some place to crash. Mie had suggested that we could either spend the night at a Karaoke hall or at a Manga Cafe, but since it was so late, we'd probably sleep better at the Manga Cafe. So we went. The Manga Cafe was an over ten story building with places to read Manga, small rooms that you could rent by the hour to watch DVDs, surf the internet, read manga, use Playstation and sleep...as most of the people were doing when we got there. For about $18/person, for seven hours, Mie and I rented a cubicle that was just large enough for both of us to stretch out across the floor and sleep. The floor was padded (more comfortable than my futon actually in regards to padding, and the room had two beanbag chairs which made great pillows.

We had free run of the Manga Cafe too, including being able to read from the huge manga library, watch DVDs, use the internet, or just hang out if we wanted. The Manga-cafe also had cup-o-noodles style (but better) ramen you could buy and free soda and tea as well. This was a great place! Perfect place to go to crash overnight from clubbing (as was obvious by the split of how people were dressed: Otaku vs. Women (and men) in full club gear. I'll definitely crash here again. Also, since the Manga cafe gets regular TV stations, and there is one about 3 minutes from my house, I know how I'm watching my Japanese doramas (without having to wait for them to come up on the Internet), so it was a win.

In the DVD/Sleeping Areas, the Manga-cafe played a form of background music that was like an elevator remix of popular and obscure songs from musicals, anime, US ballads, and TV themes done in the one note style that sounds like a crime drama or Lifetime movie. I fell asleep and had this incredibly weird dream that I was teaching a class, constantly having to leave because I had to pee, and then coming back with the assured terror that while I was gone, SOMETHING HORRIBLE was happening to the children I had been teaching. And that SOMETHING HORRIBLE had something to with them being shoved into shoeboxes.

I woke in a state of terror, heart pounding, and really having to pee, so I got up. I was thinking about my dream (and a bit scared that when I went back to sleep it would pick up where it had left off, as dreams sometimes do), unsure why I was so frightened and listening to the canned music when I realized why what was probably restful for the Japanese people there (the music was clearly designed to be pleasant) was scaring the crap out of me.

Soon I figured it out: If you ever watch a crime drama, Lifetime movie, or police procedural, you'll notice whenever SOMETHING HORRIBLE is happening to a child (usually a murder, or if it's Lifetime, a rape) the music is done in the exact same style. That sort of tinny music box simplification of what is ordinarily a cheerful song. Then the color leaches from the scene, or the lights dim, and it's bad things.

Figuring this out made me more easily able to sleep (and my nightmare didn't come back...phew...), though I kept waking up at random points through the night because I'd recognize a song and the recognition would jog me awake. The most surprising music choice for me was the music box rendition of “I'll Give My Life For You” from Miss Saigon. That's the song where Kim is basically telling her son that she'll kill herself in order to see that he has a better life in America. That's a real winner for restful sleep. There were also slowed down renditions of eighties one hit wonders, Beatles' hits, and music from random movies (but not A Beautiful Mind, which would have actually been the perfect choice. Maybe I missed it). I think for people who aren't familiar with the music (or American Crime Dramas), it's probably just random background noise. For me though, the associations kept returning me to the land of the awake.

That said, I LOVED the Manga Cafe! It was soooo much fun! And my awakeness allowed me the chance to wander around, look at people, and start (when I say 'start' I mean peruse the first 1-2 pages) of two manga: the first issue of Full Metal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) and a manga that was unfamiliar to me “Tegami Nochi” (don't quote me on the last word, I'm not sure I'm remembering it correctly). The second one took place on another planet and had something to do with delivering letters. That's as far as I got, but I did start making vocabulary cards from the words I'd looked up from it, which was helpful in regards to improving my weak Japanese vocabulary. When next clubbing, I'm totally going to make the Manga Cafe my crashplace. With earplugs this time.

Mie and I parted ways after the Manga Cafe: I was meeting up with Hatsue-san to go to a museum and have lunch and Mie had to go home to her family. Still, we had an amazing time, and we're totally going back to either that club or another one, so yay!

There was some confusion in regards to where in Kanayama Station Hatsue and I were going to meet up, but it was soon resolved. Since my breakfast had been a handfull of Koala Bear snacks (made of delicious...you can find these in Chinatown in Philly. They are in a small green cardboard tube that is shaped like a pentagon. Try them; you won't regret!) that I'd picked up at the Conbini the night before, I was pretty hungry. So we stopped at a dirt cheap but filling and delicious corner dive at the Kanayama Station. I tried Akamiso (red miso, very sweet!) sauce chicken Katsu (fried chicken patty cut up basically) over rice with salad and scraped my plate clean. Then we were off to the Tokugawa museum and garden. All things inside related directly to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Both were amazing. The garden was beautiful, full of peony flowers (in Japan they are called Boaton: pronounced like button but the first part more like “Boat”)., huge, stunning koi fish and lovely, planned waterfalls. Also a tea house (for tea ceremony, display, no real tea there) Many pictures were taken. For a while, Hatsue and I just sat by the side of the small pond, watched the Koi and talked. Then we went into the museum and saw artifacts (including armor and arrows) as old as the 12th century. Chinese, Japanese and Korean art was represented. My favorite piece of art was a screen of the four scenes by Kano Tan'yu (sample of his work: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1991.480.1,.2) (note Sample does not do the artist justice, but I wasn't able to get pictures in the museum so it will have to do). It was stunning how much detail, beauty and sheer depth of space could and was captured in so few brush strokes.

Hatsue-san and I made plans to meet again at some soon point, exchanged Keitai information (now that I have one) and I'm totally looking forward to seeing her again. After the museum, I was flagging in energy. I made my way back to Toyota City, puttered aimlessly around my apartment and then passed out. An uneventful end to a highly charged weekend of fun!

Photos: Facebook Album

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.

Nagoya Day 1: Second Half:

It was around 11am Nagoya time when I made it to the Kanayama Washington Hotel. I dragged my luggage onto the elevator and spoke with the woman at the front desk, explaining in rather broken Japanese that I was with Altia Central and that they had reserved my room. Alas, I was soon to discover that I had intrepidly journeyed to the wrong hotel. I needed the Kanayama Plaza hotel, and that was a good 3-4 blocks away. Which considering my travel speed meant a good hour or more of wandering around Nagoya asking people “doko desu ka” until I staggared to my intended destination. The woman at the desk pulled out a lovely map and drew a line from where I was to where I was going. Then she asked if it was okay. I kind of shrugged and said "hai, daijoubu." What was I going to do, take up residence in her hotel lobby? So with a Genki grin I set out again. Once more into the streets of Nagoya.

About halfway to my destination, I ran into a lovely Pakistani man named Suni who ended up giving me a ride to the hotel. I'd never have accepted this ride in Philly, and probably it was poor judgement here, but I did have pepper spray. There is a certain bond that comes from being a foriegner here though. No matter what country you're from, if you're gaijin (ie: not from Japan), there's an automatic point of common ground. In my time here, I've met people from all over the world, so in a way I'm not just learning about Japanese culture but also getting a different and fascinating perspective on the rest of the world.

Once I got settled into my hotel, it was time to venture back out for necessary supplies (namely hairbrush and watch) as well as get my health check done. I went first for the health check, but in keeping with my theme for the day, ended up first at the wrong Mizutani hospital (Mizutani was recommended I go for the health check by my company). The correct one was just around the corner though, and the first hospital had a small map which they gave me. That along with simple instructions got me to the second hospital. They were of course closed on afternoon siesta, so I had to come back two hours later. Which was fine, because this gave me the chance to whip out my hotel map and wend my way to the Donkiyote store (sounds like Don Quixote, I kid you not--which felt appropriate, because in regards to Nagoya navigation, I've totally been chasing windmills).

Don Quixote's store was made of amazing. It was like fifty of those “health and beauty” stores on Chestnut street combined with twenty dollar stores and a few sections of Walmart squashed into one floor of my house. All with multiple TV's going constantly, and a small food section. In short, I was completely in love. In this store I found a watch (which apparantly doesn't work, so I'm going to try my first return probably tonight after training (note from the future: this was all on Friday and it's currently morning Nagoya time...blogging the events of ones life are awfully time consuming). I bought an excellent hairbrush, a nonfunctional watch, some canned mangoes, this incredible peach chewing gum and bottled tea. In Japan, bottled tea comes in a sea of flavors and types. This is also where I got my picture of the famous “Black Man” underwear, that seems to be designed to make a man look more well endowed. I couldn't stop laughing as I snapped the picture. That' s also where I got my canned tuna Onigiri, which I've been informed is actually Tsuna (ツナ）not Shina（シナ）。Thanks Rally! That's a huge difference.

The health clinic checkup was also really interesting. I am very proud that through gestures and broken Japanese, I was able to explain my physical state (in vague, broad terms) as well as some of my family medical history. Luckily one of the nurses spoke some English, which became necessary especially when I saw the doctor because he was wearing a face mask, and between the muffledness of his voice and the fact that I couldn't read his expressions, I couldn't understand him at all. One unexpected event at the health clinic: on the giant flatscreen TV in the waiting room, I saw a commercial for beer featuring the actress who plays Yankumi in the live action version of Gokusen. From what I was able to glean from the commercial, before trying this particular type of beer, she didn't like beer, but now beer is GREAT!

I was also completely amazed by my physical. I got an ear test, eye check, x-ray, and (very) brief physical all for about 4,500 yen ($45). This was the rate without insurance. The same physical in the USA would have costed me over $200 with my crappy insurance, without the X-ray (I know because I called my PCP on this before I left and decided to do it in Japan). In Japan, there are no appointments: you just walk into Japanese clinics and wait. I was admitted to the clinic in under 15 minutes, and was seen in under an hour. The place was really hopping. I think about 30 people were in and out in the time I was getting seen. People with obvious limbs in casts, people wearing “I'm sick” facemasks and a number of healthy looking people as well. This really put our healthcare debate in the USA into a different perspective. I'm sure the Japanese system has it's own flaws (that I'll discover soon, especially when I try to get more birth control...sigh...), but their nationalized system seems a huge step up from what we have (and are probably going to have with this new bill, but hope springs eternal).

Reflecting on my first full day in Nagoya, I can say it's a good thing I enjoy being lost, because my life in Japan is all about being lost. I'm lost in restaurants, only having a vague idea of what's on the menu. I'm lost on the streets, only having a vague idea of where I'm going, and I'm lost in conversation, only having a vague idea of what people are saying. But the other half of this is the magic of having a condensed rush of new experiences that are at points amazing, maybe a little frustrating, and wonderfully strange. It's been ridiculously fun, and I'm so happy to be here!

Photos of Day one posted at Facebook on my profile. Hopefully that link will work.

Next post: Orientation/Training and Karaoke!

Nagoya: First Half of Day 1

Today came in highs and lows. The largest low was this morning's (for me, it was Thursday evening for Philly folks) panicked phone call from my mom that Frannie, our oldest cat, was having severe labored breathing. She's responding to lasix, thank God, but this was my nightmare situation, and it happens within 24 hours of my landing in Japan. The rest of the day basically centered around transportation and sundry tasks related to orientation preparation. I am highly excited that with the help of 5-10 fine Japanese people and one wonderful Pakistani man, I made it from the hostel to the Kanayama Plaza hotel. I did originally go to the Kanayama Washington Hotel, only to find out that it was not the right hotel and then start the long walk to the correct hotel. By long I mean, under five blocks, but with my sense of direction, language, and reading skills, probably another 1-2 hours of wandering around Nagoya.

I am proud to say that I have succeeded in using and understanding the Nagoya Subway system. I decided upon leaving my hostel/ryokan that since I had five and a half hours to kill before I checked in at the hotel that instead of taking the cab to the train station, I'd walk it. According to the hostel website and my roommate, it was only a ten minute walk and it would it save me the 7500 yen for the cab ride. So I set off in the direction that Hiro-san had told me towards what I thought was the Meitetsu Line.

Now, to put things in context, before I left Philly, I printed out google map directions from the hostel to the hotel, as well as for every other place I thought I'd need to go in the first few days. They've been only mildly helpful, in large part because the street maps are grainy and the station names and lines are written in Kanji. Small, grainy kanji. So I've been highly dependent on asking for directions about every 5-10 minutes in order to see if I'm on track. The major problem with asking for directions in a language you barely speak is that you don't know if you're asking for what you think you're asking for. So, for example, I thought I asked where the train station was for the Meitetsu line because I was trying to get to Kanayama. What I got was the subway station. So I'm looking at my grainy map, comparing it to the Nagoya subway map that I thankfully printed as well, and realizing that if I take the Sakura-dori line to Nagoya station, I'll be back in line with my google maps directions. (for however helpful that will be.) And so my luggage and I went underground.

I asked for directions again before descending, and was told to go to the Kokksai Center (cultural center) stop and then take the Sakura-dori line one stop to Nagoya. So I followed signs for Sakura-dori (thankfully in English) until I got to a station. A lovely old woman pointed me to the nearest Sakura-dori station. She probably was giving me useful information in Japanese (like, the fact that I was not going to the cultural center) but I didn't understand it. So I get to the stop, and it's Sakura-dori, but not Koksai Center. At every station, there's a giant map of the subway line above the automatic ticket counter. It has a “You Are Here” in Japanese, which is prominently displayed in Kanji. I had a good feeling that the kanji in question meant “you are here” and a nice person confirmed this for me.

Once I got to Nagoya Station, I was greeted with a station that was five levels deep and connected with multiple subways and buses, and so the confusion began again. But again, with the aid of “doko desu ka” and the ability to follow signs, I made it to the train. My confidence with asking for directions and using Japanese subways is growing by leaps and bounds! Of course, when I got off of the train, I found the Kanayama Washington Hotel with little difficulty--stopping at a vender inside the train to get some amazingly delicious tamago sushi with seaweed wrapped something that was also tasty as heck! Not speaking the language well means you have to be adventurous with food. I rarely know what I'm eating, beyond in the most general sense: looks like sushi, could be chicken, maybe that's an orange, betting that's milk, etc. But it's all been great so far—knowing what you're eating is clearly overrated. Also, thankfully, there are lots of pictures on food and drink, and English abounds, at least in Nagoya, so it's not as confusing as it could be. I have a can of mangos from the store I went to yesterday, and chopsticks, so that's breakfast.

Which is where I'm leaving off today because I have to get showered and dressed for Orientation now.

Day one, second half to come soon!

Food note: I had an Onigiri (rice and something wrapped in seaweed--delicious) yesterday labeled シナ＝ shina, which meant inside the rice and seaweed was Shina. Tasted like Tuna, and when I looked up Tuna one of the selections was シナ = canned tuna. So now I've added Canned Tuna to my list of food vocabulary!