A Good Day

Today was a good day. (This was actually written a few days ago, just not posted). Not that anything especially exciting happened, just some small things. I got to work and then went with a co-worker to a bunch of the schools I'll be going to. He speaks relatively good English, but still quite a bit in Japanese. So we had kind of a mixed conversation for the 3 hours we were gone from the office and I actually managed to put together what I considered a complex sentence. I felt all proud of myself, lol. Most of the time I get by with simple statements or questions and lots of gestures. So it was raining, and I was driving (uwaa!!), and all these cars were driving all fast and going into the oncoming traffic's lane to pass me when I was already going 10 over the speed limit. So I told him that in America, if it's raining when people are driving, they usually slep down, becuase it's dangerous, but in Japan, it's different and people are still driving so fast. Maybe it still sounds simple, but I was all proud of myself, lol. Also, I met my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) for the junior high I'll be teaching at and had already met him. We'd danced at Yosakoi together, lol. He was on the team. He had told Marisa and me that this one kind of tree that lined the roads smelled really bad or something and then before we actually went up to the tree and started sniffing it we found out that he was joking. Anyway, while I was there I talked to some students and then introduced myself to some kindergardeners. So nothing big, but I drove for hours on narrow roads that the car barely fir on with a vertical drop into water on one side and a wall of overgrown bushes on another and didn't die, and made a small step towards better Japanese fluency. And I found out that my co-workers are amazed at how much I eat because I don't look it. I didn't think I ate a particularly large amount of food, but I guess they only see me when really good food is around and I'm stuffing my face. Oh, and another good thing that's small but still good, is my last 2 meals have been curry. It took a couple hours and a couple phone calls to figure out how to get my rice cooker to work (all the buttons are in Japanese) but I finally ended up with some rice and could have curry. Gotta love the curry.

My Town

So I just discovered that this never actually got posted. SORRY!!! But here is some stuff on my apartment and town that I put together in the first month I was here. So my apartment has some additions like a couch, but it's essentially the same. I’m on the bottom right when looking at the place. You can see my sliding door there. And my laundry hanging out to dry, lol. Also, there is one road that’ll get you there. It’s a 2 way road even though 2 cars definitely can’t fit side by side. As you can probably tell in this picture here. The walk outside my place has a lot of frogs at night so in the morning you can see some of the frogs smashed from the cars on the ground. There's a picture. It's really sad. Then there is a video of my apartment above. I was going to include a video of the walk from my apartment to work (which is kind of long - 7mins) but the video doesn't seem to load. Anyway, towards the end of the walk there is this path that has plants and trees all around where cicadas are always screeching non-stop and I always have a fear that a cicada will leap out and cling to me with its little claws, screeching all the while.
Cicadas can be heard all over the town. I’ve seen a few live ones, and some dead ones on the ground (as seen in the picture), but for the most part they are hidden in the greenery constantly making noise. And they are loud. Outside my back window too where there's the river that runs right behind the bamboo trees. Here’s a video I took of outside my back window while recording the song that plays over the speakers throughout town everyday at 5pm. In the old days, they would have a siren go off at 6am, noon, and 5pm to let the farmers know what time it was. These days they have thankfully foregone the 6am siren. Nowthey only have the siren at noon and have changed the 5pm one to a song. Have a listen.

Now here are some pictures of the different places around town. These first ones are the train station. I go here at least once a week for the 2 hour trip to church every sunday.

This next is Miyata, the supermarket closest to my house that I go to usually for my food.
And last are a couple pictures. The big brick one is the bank next to my work and the other building is my work. Then there is the main road by my house. If you see the orange sign on the left I live like right behind the store that that sign belongs to.

Weather and Hair

Perhaps you have heard on the news about the typhoon and earthquake that hit Japan. The earthquake was actually up north, so I didn’t feel it since I’m in the south, and the typhoon hit the west coast and I’m on the east. So instead we just got a torrential downpour (as some of you experienced through the poor connection online while trying to talk to me – sorry about that). Anyway, don’t worry people, all is well here in Kubokawa. Although, with the recent rain came an increase in what was already humid weather and my hair has become ever more wavy/curly than it was getting. Now don’t picture super curly hair like some type of perm. But it’s started going in ringlets on its own. Weird gross ringlets I think, but ringlets nonetheless. And my bangs that aren’t long enough to form ringlets go about half way, so really they just flip out on either side of my head like little wings. This picture might not look so bad, but believe me, this is on a good day. I suppose it would be mildly amusing if I didn’t have to sport the winged look every day. Straightners do nothing but make you that much hotter when you start your day. Hairdryers too. So I’m going to be getting a haircut soon to trim my bangs and hopefully cure the wing madness and get a cut that actually fits the length (a few inches past the shoulders). I’ll be finding pictures on the internet of styles to show the cutter so if you have suggestions comment and let me know or just leave me a link to a picture in the comment box. Alright. I’m out.

Gaijin Moment

So I had a gaijin (foreigner) moment today while I was in Kochi. One of which will almost surely not be that last. I was on the street car/tram and I had a ¥500 coin while my fare only cost ¥190. So I get to my stop and start putting my ticket in where you put money, then after motioning to put my money in the slot I did, and change came out and I took it and started to get off when again I was stopped, lol. That slot was just to get change, not actually to pay. So by now there are at least 5 or 6 people waiting to get off so I hurry and give the guy 2 ¥100 coins and start getting off when I have to be stopped again because I left my ¥10 worth of change. Lol. After all this happened things came back to me from last time in Japan on bus procedure and such, but apparently a little over a year without it is enough to forget. So, the next time, in order to make things run more smoothly so the tram stays on time (the Japanese public transport os ALWAYS EXACTLY on time), I got my change from the change maker before I got to my stop, and put the money and ticket in the right slots. Now paranoia has set in every time I do anything related to transportation tickets. Well, there’s kind of a constant paranoia and stress that comes with wondering if I’m doing something wrong and/or offending someone at any second anyway, so it’s nothing new, but still perhaps a little more of an acute panic attack than the constant worry that looms over you while living here where social norms and etiquette are so different. Perhaps by the time I get a little more comfortable with it it will already be time for me to go home and then I’ll have to adjust to the old way of life again. Or maybe no one ever is truly ever comfortable with living in a different culture no matter how many years. We’ll have to see! So for now, ganbaru. I’ll try my best and hope my gaijin moments decrease with time, lol.

First Driving Experience

Wednesday was my first day driving in Japan. Really scary. Lol. We went out with Toda-san, the guy in our office that has been handling all o four accommodations and dealing with all our problems. Marisa went first and did a pretty good job, except, because the blinker and windshield wipers are on opposite sides, like everything else about driving in Japan except the break and gas pedals, she kept turning on the wipers instead of the blinker, lol. So after driving for a while down the road toward Taisho and Towa she pulled off on the right and we switched places. So I make a U-turn, and because I was so relieved about not hitting anything, wasn’t thinking and started driving on the right side of the road, lol. Or in other words, the wrong side. With a few screams and flailing hands as I flip the windshield wipers on and off instead of the blinker in my panic, I was back on the correct side of the road…the left. By then, we were all laughing. At least there was no oncoming traffic. Poor Toda-san. He kept saying “bikkuri shita” which means I was shocked essentially, lol. We drove to my junior high school that I’ll be teaching at as well as two elementary schools that I might be teaching at. To get to these places I had to drive on some super narrow roads and make some tight turns, but everything was ok. I had some small freakouts while a car in the oncoming traffic was trying to overtake someone, meaning he was coming right at me and barely made it back into his own lane before we would have had a head on collision, and then I had to swerve into the oncoming traffic while I passed a bike guy. Then, because we stopped at those schools, the bike guy would always catch up and we had to pass him another 2 times, lol. Anyway, there were lots of tight squeezes on two lane streets that are really only big enough to be one lane, but it was all pretty funny. Toda-san seemed to be having a good time seeing us freak out at tight squeezes and such. It’ll take some getting used to the fact that people swerve into oncoming traffic at any time to pass bikes or parked cars or overtake traffic, and of course making right turns the way I would make a left back home, but I think I’ll be able to do it. Now I just have to decide whether to get a car of my own or not.

Yosakoi!!

Tuesday I went to Yosakoi (the dancing festival I mentioned in an earlier blog). I went with the Shimanto Town dance group called Yui to watch them perform. They were good! It was really cool watching the different groups do their dances. We even got to see the first place group from last year. I've put some videos and pictures here. The red, tan, and blue outfitted dancers are the Yui group from my town, and the pink and purple with stripes on the back is the first place group from last year. Any other groups I don't know. You HAVE to watch the video of the really good guys from last year that I filmed (it's the very last video at the bottom of the page).
They are a-MAZE-ing. (the video and sound are off by a fair amount of seconds when I play some of the videos so maybe it will be when other people play it too, which is really too bad, because they are really good) While these guys were hard core awesome, there were other groups that had just students, or had old people and children dancing alike. The little kids dancing were the cutest things ever. After watching a few groups go, it was our groups turn and then we went to the bus to go do the same dance down around six different streets. Marisa and I were all of a sudden given naruko (the traditional wooden clappers used to dance in Yosakoi) and told to follow behind out group and try to do the dance. So Marisa and I, bringing up the rear, paraded down the street in our normal clothes, looking ridiculous as we tried to imitate the people in front of us and do the dance. Lol.
So there I was, the totally conspicuous tall, blonde, white foreigner in normal clothes following a parade of dancers, trying to mimic them. Marisa on the other hand is Japanese American, so she looks Japanese, and doesn't standout as much. But I don't know what would be worse, being totally noticable as a foreigner and making a fool out of yourself, or looking Japanese but still making a fool out of yourself while everyone wonders what's wrong with you (like you should know what's going on). Lol.
Either way, all the people on the streets there to watch the biggest festival Kochi has with people from all Japan coming, were staring. And that's not the whole of it. Throughout the streets there were camera crews filming for live TV all around with the camera men weaving through the dancers getting up close footage of faces and such. They started walking backwards right in front of me filming me as I was trying to dance. And then because they were right in my face, I couldn't watch the person in front of me and would have no idea what I was supposed to be doing. So I was broadcast to who knows where all over Japan, and for sure to my town, lol.
But anyway, even though it was midday, with the sun beating down on us and the humidity at a high from the recent rain, and the sweat was constantly dripping down our faces, it was really fun. So we kept it up and joined in and did all of the six streets that were anywhere between 150 meters to a kilometer in length. We were going to stop at one point, because Marisa's shoe broke, but then the old lady helping us dance in the back, Yayoi-san, up and bought her another pair of shoes from a stand real quick so she could keep dancing. Throughout the streets, along with the cameramen weaving through the dancers were officials that went through and gave medals to the good dancers. I actually got a medal on two of the streets. Everyone in the group kept saying "sugoi! sugoi!" "jouzu" and stuff meaning amazing! great! skillful! etc. but I'm pretty sure it was given more along the lines of me being a foreigner participating or feeling sorry for me rather than for actually dancing well, lol. That night, at 11pm when I finally got home, I was pretty disgusting and sticky from sweat and dirt, but it was still awesome. So I danced through the streets of Kochi all day and won two medals for it. Who would've thought.

We're on the Map!!

The town of Kubokawa in Shimanto-cho where I live is on the map!! If you type this into google maps: 786-007 高知県高岡郡四万十町古市町, click on the marker and zoom all the way in, it should take you exactly to where I am! You can even see my house!!

All you have to do to see my house is look a little to the right just passed the green building and there is a small rectangle with コーポ藤戸 written on it (it reads Koopo Fujito if you recognize that from my mailing address). That's my place!!

Just click on the satellite button to see an actual picture of my building. Or you can just look at these pictures I took of it from my computer screen below.

Here's a list of the readings of the 3 places on the map that I most frequent here in town if you wanted to find them: my house, the supermarket, and my work. Also, I'll be making a blog about my town where I will upload a video I have taken of my walk to work. So look for that in the next few days as well. I'll title it "My Town" to make it even easier to recognize.

I would suggest zooming out 2 clicks before trying to see these places because then you can see all three of them at once.

コーポ藤戸 : This is my building where I live

みやたエイト窪川店 : This is the smallest, but closest of the three supermarkets in town.

四万十町_____センター : This is the Board of Education where I work. It's inbetween the 2 gas stations that show after zooming out 2 clicks. I don't actually know the 4 kanji in the middle to write them, so there are blanks there. Lol. Sorry.







The writing furthest to the right in the very last 2 pictures here, again saying コーポ藤戸, is my house.

Lately

So I’ve finally received furniture and dishes from my predecessor. Now, since I have a stove, I don’t have to eat bread everyday for lunch and dinner, and I have a table to actually eat on. The dishes I got had roach droppings on them so I spent Saturday washing and soaking them in scalding hot water over and over. But now its nice to have them. At work I mostly do nothing but get things set up like banking, cell phone, internet, and doing self introductions to everyone still. Today they had me stand up in front of everyone and they gave me a cake and present for my birthday. That was pretty cool. Tomorrow I will be going with a bus full of kids to Yosakoi up in Kochi city. Yosakoi is a huge festival where different groups have times where they dress up and dance through the streets of the city. I’ll probably post pictures and video of that in another blog after I’ve actually gone so wait for that. It should be sweet. I’ve actually said I’ll participate in an upcoming dance thing like this that happens in November with my town’s team. We’ll see how that turns out, lol. Also, something I’ve been noticing around here is the security measures people take. Or the lack thereof I should say. I think all in all that they only have like 2 police cars in my town. Or at least I heard something like that. People just leave their doors and windows unlocked and open and they leave their cars unlocked and even running with the keys in the ignition while they go into a store because they want it to stay cool in the summer or warm in the winter while they are inside. Lol. It’s so weird.

My Festival Fish

So a few nights ago I went to a festival and played the fish catching game. You get a plastic hoop with a thin sheet of paper over it and you try to catch a fish with it. But if the paper gets too wet, it rips. So you have to be fast and efficient. After trying to catch a fish for a few minutes I got one but since it took me so long it just ripped through the paper and I ended up catching nothing. I guess the stall owner felt bad for me so he gave me three fish anyway. Lol. I actually didn’t want the fish at all, but just wanted to try and catch one, but I took the little guys home with me anyway. So then I was stuck with three fish. I had actually heard that the trauma of the whole festival game with children batting at them all night and then being caught and bounced around in a bag made the fish die really quick, so I thought that the fish would be dead by morning. However, when I woke up the next morning all of them were still alive. Faced with the knowledge that the trauma wasn’t going to kill them, I couldn’t exactly let them starve, so I immediately went to the store and got some fish food. I fed them and an hour later I checked up on them. Two were dead. The third was a trooper and lasted a little longer. Maybe a day, and then it was the toilet for that one too. And so it was, the sad story of my fish’s short lives.

Creatures in Japan

Already I’ve had my fair share of experiences with different creatures in Japan; bugs to be specific. Spiders are everywhere, but thankfully stick to places that are less used. I have a few of them who hang around outside my front door, and I would get rid of them except they eat things like cockroaches and mosquitoes. There is this one kind of spider that is really big, like the size of my palm or bigger that seem to like hanging out around Marisa’s (new CIR) apartment area. One night we saw three of them just on the stairway going up to her place. Here’s a picture, although it’s hard to tell its size since there’s nothing to compare it to in the picture. There was no way I was getting close to that thing. We also found a centipede on the stairwell too, but we think it was dead because it wasn’t moving and the next day there were ants swarming all over it. Then, last year in Japan I had the experience of a cockroach flying at me and landing on my bare leg, and again last night getting a surprise visitor scurrying around Marisa’s kitchen floor. That roach was fast. Luckily my apartment has only seen a couple spiders and no roaches or centipedes.

Cell Phones

So right now I’m in the process of getting a cell phone. I should have one by the end of the day. Cell phones in Japan are pretty crazy. Depending on the phone you can get things like HD video recording, an 8.1 megapixel camera, 3D gaming, a solar panel on the front to charge the battery, and other things like that. The phone I got has the 8 megapixel camera since I don’t know when my current camera will end up freezing for good. With the excitement of looking at the phones though, comes the confusion of setting up a plan. There are three major cell phone providors in Japan: Docomo, au, and Softbank. For those of you with Iphones, Softbank is the only provider compatible, but also has the worst coverage (from what I hear). I went with au. First you pick your provider, then your phone. After that you go through getting a plan for calling minutes, a plan for data (texting, downloading, etc), and then a plan that goes along with your circumstances. Like a special deal (family plan, data plan, friends plan – whatever works best for you). With each choice the other prices change, so it’s like a puzzle trying to figure out wwhat combination is cheapest but will still work for you. On top of that there is the base pay for just having the phone and using the service, and you pay for your phone in installments over the months instead of up front. Also, you can decide on contract time which will also affect the amount of your monthly payment. When the craziness of figuring out a plan and everything is over however, you are left with an awesome phone. Here’s a link to a page of some crazy au phones and here's a picture of the phone I got, the SH001 by Sharp.

Matsuris

So already I’ve been to a few matsuris, or festivals. There is a festival like every weekend in summer in these parts and they almost always end with a fireworks show. The really good festivals are coming up in the next 3 weeks so I should get some even better pictures then, and I will for sure have my camera charged and ready. My camera actually died when I went to the beach this past weekend and I only got a few pictures of the festivals before that. Perhaps all is for the best since I look pink anyway. I didn’t put any sunscreen on until like barely before we left the beach, and we were there all day. At night we went to another festival and watched the fireworks and then I went home while others went back to the beach to camp. There was a chance of rain and I was so tired I would have just fallen asleep anyway so I went home. Plus, I had to find out how to get to church the next day. After finally figuring out where it was, at like 2am, I went to bed and either my alarm didn’t go off or I shut it off, but I woke up at 7am, when I was supposed to be boarding the train. So I missed church, but at least I know where it is now. Anyway, my first festival was in my town and is actually one that happens like 3 weeks in a row. So it’ll be happening again this Friday. I was invited to hang out with a bunch of old drunk men again this Friday at the matsuri, lol. The place I’m in really likes to drink and especially likes women who like to drink. It’s unusual. So here are some pictures of my town’s mini matsuri.

Japanese Driving Tests

So getting a license in Japan is kind of intense. Many ALTs (assistant language teachers) stay for more than a year, and if that happens, your international driver’s license expires and you have to take the Japanese driving test to get a Japanese license. However, it is not as easy as it is in the states. The Japanese almost pride themselves on how their test is better and more difficult than any other foreign driving test so even if you have been driving for years, you still aren’t good enough until you pass the test. Here there is like a simulation driving course set up, and there are 3 different routes on the course you might be tested on, so you have to memorize them all. You go to the driving center with a huge amount of paperwork that has to be filled out just so, and then at 11:40am on the dot they will draw straws to see what order the people will be tested in, and then draw straws to see which route you will be tested with. Then there is lunch for an hour, at which time you get a chance to walk the course. During the actual test you use one of their cars and have to say out loud exactly what you are doing and then any number of things can get you an automatic fail. Also, if you test with an automatic, you only have license for an automatic, and the same goes for manual. Plus, the test is actually administered by real police officers who don’t really want to be there. After the test, they will tell you maybe a few things you did wrong, but not all, so if you fail, many times you don’t even know why. The average amount of times to fail before you get your license is probably around 3 or 4, and you have to pay for every time you go. You also have to pay if you want to practice driving on the actual driving course they have set up, as well as have a driver with you who has had their license for more than 3 years. If you come and have only had your license for less than 3 months you have to take the Japanese written exam as well as attend driving school. There are those few who have passed on their first try, but there are also those who have failed up to 12 times. So start trying for a Japanese license a few months early if you want to drive after your international license expires.