Here are some old entries I wrote but couldn't publish. Forgive the HTML errors. Most of them are supposed to be apostrophes. I'm too lazy to fix them just yet.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Crazy. Here I am sitting in my new apartment with the A/C running. I hope my electric bill isn't ridiculous come the end of the month! I have yet to figure out how to set up my internet. There are some easy-to-follow guides with CDs lying about, but unfortunately I can't read them yet. It would help if I had a dictionary, but those have yet to arrive in the mail. For now I suppose I will go without or simply look like a horrible slacker at work. Except that typing at work means virtually incomprehensible emails as I don't yet know which character set is appropriate.
The apartment itself is pretty nice: hardwood floors, a/c, nice TV with cable, VCR, phone/fax, cordless phone, ISDN box (currently useless), blue pleather couch, table with built-in kotatsu (heater that goes under table in winter--there's no central heating in this country unless you're in Hokkaido or something, it seems), dining room set with roller chairs, boombox, “full-size� refrigerator (it’s tall, but still small inside…), dishes, pots and pans, hutch with magnets to keep doors shut (I was wondering about that in the case of earthquakes), old Vibe magazines, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (now I have to read …the Sorcerer’s Stone), washing machine, dresser, comfy futon in the closet, and miscellaneous other items.
My Japanese is honestly terrible. Everyone has to repeat things several times and sometimes I just nod and pretend I know what they’re talking about (probably not a good idea). I feel good when I do understand, though rare it may be. I have yet to walk around my neighborhood. It’s SO HOT outside and hardly seems appealing yet. I want to finish putting things away before I tackle the outside world, I think. I felt extremely motivated to study while I was at Tokyo Orientation, but now I have none. All I want to do is eat chocolate and watch commercials and English-language movies on television or go to sleep again. Culture shock? Blah.
Anyway, I think I’ll go make a list of things I need to buy for my apaato.
Shoyu
Vinegar
Milk
Bread
Noodles
Ice cream
Rice
Mildew remover
Hmmm… what else? I dunno. Maybe I’ll go study or something…
Friday, August 08, 2003
I’m currently watching a Sophia Loren movie in Italian. I think I can actually understand more of the Japanese subtitles than the Italian, for once. Not like I can understand spoken Italian very much at all.
Anyway, I skipped out on work today because of Typhoon #10 (if you forgot, much as I did, a typhoon’s a hurricane in the Pacific…). I really don’t trust driving my tiny little kei car through the driving rains and heavy winds associated with big storms. The office book-keeper lady thought I was sick or something and I was really confused at first when she kept asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital or wanted to get some medicine or something. I know that sounds extreme, but folks, Socialism’s great! Anyway, you can’t buy like Sudafed and Nyquil over the counter around here as, heaven forbid, you can make narcotics with it. But, I wonder what kind of time off I took today. Vacation time? Weather time? Sigh.
Last night was my welcome party. They got really worried about me because I can’t drink beer or anything especially quickly.
Do you like beer? Have some shochu. Do you like it better with hot water or ice? Either one? You don’t know which one you like better? Anything’s okay? Are you sure you like it?
What didn’t get conveyed by me: “Yes. I do like beer. Maybe Japanese beer isn’t my favorite, but I’ll drink it. I do like shochu. I haven’t had the time yet to determine if I like it better with ice or with hot water, yet. Anyway, I forgot how it tastes both ways."
You’re not drinking your beer. Don’t you like that shochu? I’m okay, really. I drink slowly. Here’s some lemon chu-hai. Do you like lemon chu-hai?I’m okay. I’ve got a lot of beer and shochu left. It’s okay.
Everyone is amazingly nice and helpful. I just wish I could come across as convincing!
And lord, how I wish I could get my internet at my home set up.
My watchband smells bad from all the moisture.
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Things have been much better the past few days. I called one of the teachers that met me at the airport and she’s inviting some other teachers and we’re going to go see the 10,000 fireworks in Miyakonojo—one of the closest cities (30 minutes drive). It should be fun. I hope she brings the teacher she flirts with. He’s hilarious. He kind of looks like my cousin Lyle did 10 years ago, but smaller.
I was beckoned into the library today. “Your friend is here,� Honmura told me. And I looked around the corner and there stood a blond girl a little younger than myself. She seemed pretty surprised when I said “hi.� I don’t think she’s met another gaijin near where we live. Turns out she lives in the same part of town I do and is taking a year off between high school and university in Australia to do home stay here and a year of Japanese high school. We exchanged numbers and I suggested we go see a movie sometime since I can drive and she can’t.
Oyabu-sensei (big bush, he tells me his name means. I told him large shrub was better so as to avoid unfortunate connotations of any sort) gave me a watermelon the other day. Japanese watermelons are tiny and cute. Not so tiny and cute as the bell peppers (they’re like ¼ the size of US ones), but still. For a while I thought he wore the world’s worst toupée, but it turns out I think it’s really his hair that’s been dyed jet black. It kind of looks like the pompadour picture on that vampire wig package I had. Think: 1972. Big, yet streamlined. Never a hair out of place. Maybe John Travolta. Gotta go look at a picture of him first. Oyabu-sensei also helped me buy a denshi-jishou off the internet today. Looks like I’m paying C.O.D.
Pretty much everyone took the day off today for o-bon. Don’t know if there are any public festivities or whatever. People were totally shocked when I told them they do o-bon in California and Hawaii, albeit on a tiny scale. Not that I know what the holiday really means besides hanging out with family and paying homage to ancestors or something.
Anyone have any book suggestions? I’m ordering the Gormenghast trilogy off of amazon.co.jp, but other than that, I can’t think of anything I’ve been wanting to read other than the Harry Potter Moizza left me and the one before it. I finally finished The Quiet American and I read Running with Scissors (Augusten Burroughs) in a single sitting on the plane to Tokyo. I think it took up a mere three-to-five hours of the flight (12 hours from Minneapolis. Ugh. Plus the 1.5 to MN from DIA). I have a whole stack of kids books from the library, including Where the Wild Things Are in nihongo.
And there goes the 9:00 chimey sound. Time to study and get ready for bed, maybe.
Oh yeah. It wasn’t so hot at all the past few days. I even got cold this evening before I put the lights on and wore some jeans. Which means it’ll be a bit chillier here than I was unrealistically anticipating in the wintertime. No more summer clothes, please!
They’re showing WWII memorial stuff on TV now. It’s weird to hear about this stuff from the Japanese point of view. It’s weird to hear about some guy collecting Japanese soldiers things found in the field and trying to find the owners. An engraved pen he had that was found near a body in Okinawa helped positively identify the dead soldier. They then showed a tearjerker piece about how the dead guy’s sister had searched for 56 years to find out anything about him. Unfortunately she died last year.
Okay. That is all.
%%%^66^^%%%%^&^^^***
Here's some NEW stuff:
Sunday, September 7, 2003
I went to a boat regatta today. They apparently have yacht races every month, but this month every year is devoted to taking the foreigners out. So about 6 or 7 people per boat went out. The race wasn't much of one, but was super fun anyway. After rounding the course twice we headed for the nearby island. We jumped off the boat and swam to shore a couple hundred meters from the beach. The water was WAY too hot to be refreshing. It was like sitting in a hot tub or something. But it was still nice cos it was the ocean.
It was a good thing I left super early this morning (6:45) to arrive by 8:30 because I got a flat tire a little ways from my house. Thankfully someone stopped to help me--who actually turned out to be a car mechanic from a nearby shop. He set me up (I had inadequate tools in my car and we couldn't get the bolts off so he went to go get a tool) and then we drove to his shop and he gave me a new tire. I have to go pay him tomorrow. And he called the regatta people and asked if it would be a problem if I got there late, but they said they wouldn't actually leave until 9am. I got there at 8:33, I think. The drive only took an hour or 45 mins, maybe.
An hour drive is no longer especially far to go. It takes me thirty minutes to get to the nearest city, Miyakonojo--which is in the neighboring prefecture. It takes 10 minutes to the nearest Jet, Noele from HI, who lives as far from my house as my work, only in the opposite direction. The next closest Jets I know live 20-25 minutes away in Shibushi, a port town just to the East. Shibushi's full of working class people and lots of dock workers. There are a ton of bars. Have met some really fun Japanese people at the karaoke place I've been going to with the guys in Shibushi and some other people.
So much to write about, but I'm really tired and it's an hour past my bedtime.
Will talk about things later.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Crazy. Here I am sitting in my new apartment with the A/C running. I hope my electric bill isn't ridiculous come the end of the month! I have yet to figure out how to set up my internet. There are some easy-to-follow guides with CDs lying about, but unfortunately I can't read them yet. It would help if I had a dictionary, but those have yet to arrive in the mail. For now I suppose I will go without or simply look like a horrible slacker at work. Except that typing at work means virtually incomprehensible emails as I don't yet know which character set is appropriate.
The apartment itself is pretty nice: hardwood floors, a/c, nice TV with cable, VCR, phone/fax, cordless phone, ISDN box (currently useless), blue pleather couch, table with built-in kotatsu (heater that goes under table in winter--there's no central heating in this country unless you're in Hokkaido or something, it seems), dining room set with roller chairs, boombox, “full-size� refrigerator (it’s tall, but still small inside…), dishes, pots and pans, hutch with magnets to keep doors shut (I was wondering about that in the case of earthquakes), old Vibe magazines, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (now I have to read …the Sorcerer’s Stone), washing machine, dresser, comfy futon in the closet, and miscellaneous other items.
My Japanese is honestly terrible. Everyone has to repeat things several times and sometimes I just nod and pretend I know what they’re talking about (probably not a good idea). I feel good when I do understand, though rare it may be. I have yet to walk around my neighborhood. It’s SO HOT outside and hardly seems appealing yet. I want to finish putting things away before I tackle the outside world, I think. I felt extremely motivated to study while I was at Tokyo Orientation, but now I have none. All I want to do is eat chocolate and watch commercials and English-language movies on television or go to sleep again. Culture shock? Blah.
Anyway, I think I’ll go make a list of things I need to buy for my apaato.
Shoyu
Vinegar
Milk
Bread
Noodles
Ice cream
Rice
Mildew remover
Hmmm… what else? I dunno. Maybe I’ll go study or something…
Friday, August 08, 2003
I’m currently watching a Sophia Loren movie in Italian. I think I can actually understand more of the Japanese subtitles than the Italian, for once. Not like I can understand spoken Italian very much at all.
Anyway, I skipped out on work today because of Typhoon #10 (if you forgot, much as I did, a typhoon’s a hurricane in the Pacific…). I really don’t trust driving my tiny little kei car through the driving rains and heavy winds associated with big storms. The office book-keeper lady thought I was sick or something and I was really confused at first when she kept asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital or wanted to get some medicine or something. I know that sounds extreme, but folks, Socialism’s great! Anyway, you can’t buy like Sudafed and Nyquil over the counter around here as, heaven forbid, you can make narcotics with it. But, I wonder what kind of time off I took today. Vacation time? Weather time? Sigh.
Last night was my welcome party. They got really worried about me because I can’t drink beer or anything especially quickly.
Do you like beer? Have some shochu. Do you like it better with hot water or ice? Either one? You don’t know which one you like better? Anything’s okay? Are you sure you like it?
What didn’t get conveyed by me: “Yes. I do like beer. Maybe Japanese beer isn’t my favorite, but I’ll drink it. I do like shochu. I haven’t had the time yet to determine if I like it better with ice or with hot water, yet. Anyway, I forgot how it tastes both ways."
You’re not drinking your beer. Don’t you like that shochu? I’m okay, really. I drink slowly. Here’s some lemon chu-hai. Do you like lemon chu-hai?I’m okay. I’ve got a lot of beer and shochu left. It’s okay.
Everyone is amazingly nice and helpful. I just wish I could come across as convincing!
And lord, how I wish I could get my internet at my home set up.
My watchband smells bad from all the moisture.
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Things have been much better the past few days. I called one of the teachers that met me at the airport and she’s inviting some other teachers and we’re going to go see the 10,000 fireworks in Miyakonojo—one of the closest cities (30 minutes drive). It should be fun. I hope she brings the teacher she flirts with. He’s hilarious. He kind of looks like my cousin Lyle did 10 years ago, but smaller.
I was beckoned into the library today. “Your friend is here,� Honmura told me. And I looked around the corner and there stood a blond girl a little younger than myself. She seemed pretty surprised when I said “hi.� I don’t think she’s met another gaijin near where we live. Turns out she lives in the same part of town I do and is taking a year off between high school and university in Australia to do home stay here and a year of Japanese high school. We exchanged numbers and I suggested we go see a movie sometime since I can drive and she can’t.
Oyabu-sensei (big bush, he tells me his name means. I told him large shrub was better so as to avoid unfortunate connotations of any sort) gave me a watermelon the other day. Japanese watermelons are tiny and cute. Not so tiny and cute as the bell peppers (they’re like ¼ the size of US ones), but still. For a while I thought he wore the world’s worst toupée, but it turns out I think it’s really his hair that’s been dyed jet black. It kind of looks like the pompadour picture on that vampire wig package I had. Think: 1972. Big, yet streamlined. Never a hair out of place. Maybe John Travolta. Gotta go look at a picture of him first. Oyabu-sensei also helped me buy a denshi-jishou off the internet today. Looks like I’m paying C.O.D.
Pretty much everyone took the day off today for o-bon. Don’t know if there are any public festivities or whatever. People were totally shocked when I told them they do o-bon in California and Hawaii, albeit on a tiny scale. Not that I know what the holiday really means besides hanging out with family and paying homage to ancestors or something.
Anyone have any book suggestions? I’m ordering the Gormenghast trilogy off of amazon.co.jp, but other than that, I can’t think of anything I’ve been wanting to read other than the Harry Potter Moizza left me and the one before it. I finally finished The Quiet American and I read Running with Scissors (Augusten Burroughs) in a single sitting on the plane to Tokyo. I think it took up a mere three-to-five hours of the flight (12 hours from Minneapolis. Ugh. Plus the 1.5 to MN from DIA). I have a whole stack of kids books from the library, including Where the Wild Things Are in nihongo.
And there goes the 9:00 chimey sound. Time to study and get ready for bed, maybe.
Oh yeah. It wasn’t so hot at all the past few days. I even got cold this evening before I put the lights on and wore some jeans. Which means it’ll be a bit chillier here than I was unrealistically anticipating in the wintertime. No more summer clothes, please!
They’re showing WWII memorial stuff on TV now. It’s weird to hear about this stuff from the Japanese point of view. It’s weird to hear about some guy collecting Japanese soldiers things found in the field and trying to find the owners. An engraved pen he had that was found near a body in Okinawa helped positively identify the dead soldier. They then showed a tearjerker piece about how the dead guy’s sister had searched for 56 years to find out anything about him. Unfortunately she died last year.
Okay. That is all.
%%%^66^^%%%%^&^^^***
Here's some NEW stuff:
Sunday, September 7, 2003
I went to a boat regatta today. They apparently have yacht races every month, but this month every year is devoted to taking the foreigners out. So about 6 or 7 people per boat went out. The race wasn't much of one, but was super fun anyway. After rounding the course twice we headed for the nearby island. We jumped off the boat and swam to shore a couple hundred meters from the beach. The water was WAY too hot to be refreshing. It was like sitting in a hot tub or something. But it was still nice cos it was the ocean.
It was a good thing I left super early this morning (6:45) to arrive by 8:30 because I got a flat tire a little ways from my house. Thankfully someone stopped to help me--who actually turned out to be a car mechanic from a nearby shop. He set me up (I had inadequate tools in my car and we couldn't get the bolts off so he went to go get a tool) and then we drove to his shop and he gave me a new tire. I have to go pay him tomorrow. And he called the regatta people and asked if it would be a problem if I got there late, but they said they wouldn't actually leave until 9am. I got there at 8:33, I think. The drive only took an hour or 45 mins, maybe.
An hour drive is no longer especially far to go. It takes me thirty minutes to get to the nearest city, Miyakonojo--which is in the neighboring prefecture. It takes 10 minutes to the nearest Jet, Noele from HI, who lives as far from my house as my work, only in the opposite direction. The next closest Jets I know live 20-25 minutes away in Shibushi, a port town just to the East. Shibushi's full of working class people and lots of dock workers. There are a ton of bars. Have met some really fun Japanese people at the karaoke place I've been going to with the guys in Shibushi and some other people.
So much to write about, but I'm really tired and it's an hour past my bedtime.
Will talk about things later.
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