The Lost Blogs

This entry basically consists of my first couple of blogs I wrote when I got to Ofunato... and before I discovered the internet in the nearby community center. Beware... this entry will be extremely long... so, don't worry about reading it if you don't want to... it just basically states my thoughts, feelings, etc. when I first arrived:

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008; 7:41 PM – DAY 00 BI (Before Internet)

Not that I’m so much complaining, it’s more like I was surprised. I’m referring to the fact that they lady that helped us set up in our respective apartments knew less English than I know Japanese… which, for those who don’t know my Japanese level, it isn’t that high. Now, keep that bit of information in mind as I continue with this entry.

The day officially started with us meeting the lady at the lobby. Though it was set to meet each other at 10 AM, Rob and I knew better. We went down at 9:45… and sure enough she was already waiting. Now to defend her (since I don’t want my previous comment to pit any blame on her), it is not her fault she knows very little English, and she was very, very nice!

Anyway, moving along… we checked out and first made our way to the real estate agent. Very cool and nice dude, but again a big language barrier. He went over some stuff, which I basically made out key words and points. We got our keys and made our way to Rob’s apartment (a.k.a.- Spider Manor!). Dude, I seriously think he’ll be visiting my apartment until all those spiders are cleared out. They’re not inside, but to get inside I have to maneuver around many. In my broken Japanese, I mentioned, “くもが大嫌い。。。とても怖い意！” (kumoga daikirai… totemo kowaii!... I hate spiders… very scary). If possible, I would have included my arachnophobia, but would any of you like to take a shot at translating that into Japanese… because I’d like to mention that when I freak out. But, one thing this past week of training was sure to teach us, is that exaggerated gestures go a long way. Well, I was gesturing wildly, but it wasn’t so much on purpose as it was me reacting normally (and I mean Victor-normally) to spiders.

But, I digress… Rob’s apartment seemed nice and big. Next… to my apartment!

If any cliché statements were ever to be true and applied to my apartment… it would be looks can be deceiving!

We pulled up to this shady looking parking lot next to an even shadier looking building. Having just been to Rob’s… I have to admit I was hella disappointed. but, on we went (as if it were much of a choice… heh heh…). I climbed upstairs and opened my door. First came a smell. Not exactly sure…

Oh wait… doorbell… should be my suitcases…

…

… AWESOME! Got my bags now! I could get naked now since I’m no longer expecting anyone… heh heh! Now back to my day…

I wasn’t exactly sure if it was a bad/good/whatever smell… I just know I wasn’t fond of it. Then the lights didn’t go on… two negative things so far. The lady mentioned she’d be back, so Rob and I looked about… and boy were the negative things forgotten (well, to some point since I am writing about them now… meaning it does stand out somewhat). The view itself makes this apartment amazing. Two windows… side by side, look out to a river and nearby mountains… let me add that today was not gloomy! Then add the fact that it is huge!!! It might not be bigger than Rob’s (though I’m almost sure it is), but it is more open, thus giving it more artificial space. The lady comes up with the landlord and I greet him. He also fixed the light situation! I look at the bathroom area (which consists of a toilet room, a sink area with space for a washer, and a pretty big bathing room). Now this bathing room, I call it that because it has a shower/tub, but then it also has a lot of space in front of a mirror. It has a drain to the side, so I’m thinking it’s like those anime bathrooms where you sit on a stool and use the shower head to bathe. And then the mirror could be for shaving… ::shrugs::. But the best feature, if my understanding of Japanese is correct, is that the room can double as a dryer. I don’t think like a dryer dryer, but you can hang washed/wet clothes and dry it as if it were outside, without worrying about rain, falling to the ground, it being stolen, popped on by birds or whatnot… whatever possibilities they might be. I probably won’t use it correctly at first (meaning first 10+ times, but I hope to understand the Kanji or get the control translated eventually. But, that will be enough of my apartment… for now at least.

Hmmm… only 8:44 and I just dozed off… I’m really drained after today. I’ll speed it up until the more critical and draining moments.

We moved along to Ofunato City Hall to register for an alien registration card… or Gaijin Card… simpler calling it that. More of some language barriers since the terminology used in such situations aren’t really studied… just known. But, we survived and moved to lunch. Stuck with chicken katsu… but, hey… I like what I like and after breakfast, I’m allowed to stick to what I know. However, the main highlight was my Japanese. Oh man, it was like that time at the taxi cab ride Rach, Krizia and I had that last night in Tokyo when we celebrated Rach’s birthday… minus the drinking and drunk Rach. My Japanese was on point like Rach was that night.

We then left to go shopping for our apartment… enter spending 30,000+ Yen. I have to make the right calculations later, but I know it was in that area. Who knew curtains were so expensive; besides the futon, they were the most expensive and I had to buy two. So, yeah… curtains overall was the most expensive buy. Plan on buying a fridge tomorrow… and a fan for the bedroom, and hopefully spending for my apartment should stop… until I get some more money that is.

Now… for the chaos and stress. This moment alone is why I was drained of all my emotion, energy, motivation and I guess I had my first, “Why am I here?” thought that is very common to people transitioning to a new life.

We returned to my apartment to drop off my stuff and since I had a gas installation. Not only that… but the real estate agent came as well. There I was… and even though Rob was literally beside me… I felt alone and smothered at the same time. Everyone (the lady, the agent and the two gas guys) talked to me in Japanese at the same time. I still don’t fully understand exactly what was going on… between me trying to explain to the lady that I need a copy of my Gaijin card paper for a cell phone, the agent trying to get me to Hanko (a stamp that works as your signature) papers I already Hanko-ed and trying to explain receipts for something I didn’t pay, the gas guys taking my Hanko and Hanko-ing I don’t know what… which is America I can only compare it to forging someone’s signature… and to make matters worse, it was hot as hell and heat is very distracting for me since I start sweating… MAN!!!!! It’s a miracle I’m alive and well. Everything was eventually sorted… but, I was one second from checking out.

We proceeded back to City Hall where I had some time to vent to Rob. I really needed that. We got the necessary copies needed and moved on to Rob’s. I also began understanding Japanese again… which after 30 minutes of mass chaos, was a much needed ego boost. Rob had similar appointments… but, not with any chaos like I had. I understood what they were telling him, which allowed me to realize what they were telling me amidst the chaos of all chaos. Guess Rob was right about being more able to understand what’s going on when it doesn’t involve you… yeah, that and four Japanese weren’t on top of him… heh heh…

So, yeah… I bid farewell to the lady and refused the drive back to my apartment. I felt like I needed the walk to de-stress and mostly to talk to Rob—even though we were together all day… we hadn’t had much time to talk… not about anything in particular… but, when you’re in our situation, you find speaking only English without confusion or language barriers is just necessary. We are social beings after all. So, I said bye to the both the lady and agent… and threw a bonus… 貴方は私たちに手伝ってどうもありがとうございました！” (anata wa watashitachi ni tetsudatte doumo arigatou gozaimashita!)… not sure if it was the correct way of saying it… but, the gist of “Thank you so much for helping us!” was understood. Yes it was a hectic day and the language barriers were there, but it could’ve and would’ve been worse without their help. I was very grateful. They said stuff like “no worries… it was nothing… etc,” but, I could tell that saying that in Japanese was enough to impress them. They left… Rob and I went for a walk towards my apartment to see the town. By compete chance, we still made it to my apartment regardless of going a complete and different way than shown earlier. We split and I basically got to setting up what I had. Will take pictures once I pick up the clutters.

I then got to writing this… and took a nice long shower in the middle of it since I kept dozing off. With this entry coming to an end… I can once again be in a calm state with no stress. The shower had most to do with it… taking long showers is like my new hobby in Japan… no lie. I feel so relaxed after a long shower. It’ll definitely be my way to keep from losing it. That and writing… I use it as a way to make my thoughts and emotions concrete, that way I can easily deal with them and manage to start each day with a clean slate and fresh new attitude. So, yay long showers and writing… \o/… heh heh…

Well, this entry has been beyond too long! Later and goodnight!!!!!

PS – If you reach this point… da-damn!!!!! Thanks for reading and congrats… I couldn’t even make it to writing this without dozing off like 3 times… let alone read it all. Wow! Anyway… later!

End transmission… 11:04 PM.

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008; 10:11 PM – DAY 01 BI

I’m sure that it is a combination of passing out early, having woken up early in the past week whilst in training, and mostly due to the fact that the sun is up at ungodly hours of the morning… but, I just can’t sleep in until late like I used to. When I woke up this morning, it was bright, even with my curtains closed…

“Great… I overslept…”

I check the alarm clock… 5 AM… 0_o

I though the alarm hadn’t rung… but, no… I was just early… about 3 ½ hours early. I forced myself to sleep several times… but, by almost 9… I just got up. I decided to do a little more unpacking. I then remembered wanting to shave my head… so, I proceeded to that. I then showered and figured since I was still early… I would slowly get ready and organized a bit. The lady told me to be ready by 11:05… but, I knew better. By 10:54, I decided to go outside… but remembered to close my windows and other stuff. Sure enough… that was when the lady showed up at my door. So, I hurried out the door. It was like 10:56 or so. Didn’t quite work out the way I had planned… but, at least I was ready by the time she showed up.

We first went to the Post Office… which in Japan… basically doubles as a Bank. The lady helped us set up our bank accounts. While waiting… Rob and I basically talked about random things. That’s when we noticed another 外人 (gaijin…foreigner). We wanted to talk to him, since I overheard him speaking English and he, too, had a translator… but, they appeared busy and left as quickly as they entered. Oh well… maybe we’ll meet up at tomorrow’s Japanese classes. Don’t remember if I mentioned it… but, there’s a place near my apartment where volunteers (meaning free!) give Japanese classes.

After that we proceeded to an office of the lady’s friend, in order to fax our bank information. Nothing much happened there, so we moved along to some lunch.

Now this moment… this moment right here… that’s when I began to try on some Japanese without any care of making mistakes. I’ve heard that’s the best way to practice. I also figured that after surviving yesterday’s chaos… anything else should be easier. So, at the restaurant… who happens to be a restaurant of her friend… she bumped into more friends. Once we sat down… I busted out with, “ちょっと　夢否.” (chotto yumeina… a rough translation will be “a bit popular”). She laughed and like any Japanese person that was just complimented… she denied it. But, it does make sense. In my broken conversational… or more appropriately, my broken listening skills… according to her and the real estate agent… I believe she owns a bar. There was something about karaoke and working there… but, I only got key words so… not exactly sure if I heard correctly.

Anyway, as we waited for our food… I asked a bunch of questions that came to me. It wasn’t back to back to back questions… but, it was a lot of questions though. I would think of a question, then think of how to possibly say it… then slowly put it together as I said it. For the most part… she understood exactly what I was asking… so, I was feeling quite confident in my Japanese today. I asked questions like… How long does it take to get to Morioka by train/car and how much it would cost… how much does a refrigerator/washing machine/oven/so-and-so item cost… where can we use the internet… where is the library… and a bunch of other small questions. I also mentioned something along the lines of I like baking cakes, but right now I have no oven… so, maybe later on I’ll get one. She understood me pretty well… so, it’s always a good sign.

She then proceeded to showing us around the places I asked about… like the library, where we can go online (which I went to a like two hours ago and it was a complete waste… but, I’ll talk about that later), how to go about using a computer, the train station to get timetables and prices… and I don’t know what else.

Then… back to some more shopping for my apartment. I basically was only looking for a fridge and a fan… since I realized last night that my “air conditioner” doesn’t cut it. It’s like getting someone to blow at you. We came across a recycle shop first. I guess our closest equivalent would be like Goodwill shops and/or pawn shops. I looked at the fridge… but, Rob and I were weary about them since the company told us to avoid used electronics if possible. So we mentally noted the price and moved inside. I saw this table that was pretty cheap… like 1900 yen… so, I noted to return later if possible. We moved along to another store to look at fridges. I found one that I liked (had a freezer and fridge section) and was reasonably sized and priced. Both Rob and I wanted one… but there was only the display one. Rob said I could have it… but, even then… the man mentioned that their delivery truck was broken… so, there was no way of delivering it. It wasn’t very big at all… like probably only a foot or so bigger than hotel fridge’s… but, I didn’t want to impose on the lady’s car. So, no fridge… but I did find a fan I liked for like 3000-ish yen. The trip to that store wasn’t a complete waste.

We moved along to this plaza next where there could be a store for Rob to buy a bike and for me to find a fridge. First, we looked at the bikes… then proceeded to the adjacent store to look for a fridge. I found one that I liked that had a freezer and fridge as well… but, it was a bit more priced than the previous fridge. However, it was still reasonably priced (well, I’m not an expert on refrigerators… so, I guess I should instead say I didn’t mind paying for it). We called a dude who set us up for delivery. I could get it today like I had hoped… but, it will be delivered tomorrow between 1 and 3. I’m excited… I can officially go grocery shopping once it arrives.

We then returned to the previous store so Rob can buy his bike. While the bike was being set up… I was joking around with the lady… in Japanese! It wasn’t like intricate Japanese… but, I did make her laugh. It might not seem to mean much… but, the way I look at it is that since my Japanese isn’t that well, I feel like my true personality can’t be displayed since it’s hard to communicate and be quick with the jokes in Japanese. Since I managed to make the lady laugh a good amount of times today… I felt quite accomplished.

Since Rob planned to take his bike straight to his apartment, I told the lady I wanted to hang out with Rob and would walk along with him to his apartment… and yup… in Japanese! Something along the lines of ロバートさんで　遊びたい。。。それから、私はあるいて… (Robaato-san de asobitai… sorekara, watashiwa aruite…). I know it’s not perfect Japanese, but hey… I’m trying and getting the basic points mentioned. And best of all… she understood me. So, I busted out with another 私たちに手伝って、どうもありがとうございます! (watashitachini tetsudatte, doumo arigatou gozaimasu!... thank you very much for helping us!) She of course mentioned it was no problem… but, she was impressed that I said that.

So, I picked up my fan and walked along with Rob to his apartment which was give or take… a mile away? Not exactly sure… but, sounds about right. We happened to pass by the recycle shop again… so, I mentioned to Rob that I really wanted to buy that table since I wasn’t sure when I’d be in the area again and since it might be gone later on. He mentioned it was no problem… so, I went in and made sure it was okay for me to carry to Rob’s, then on to my house which was about another mile or two away. Seemed alright… so, I bought it and we rearranged things in order to walk to Rob’s (basically Rob offered to carry my fan in his bike while he pushed it and I walked along side with the table. I’m pretty sure we looked quite conspicuous and suspicious… but, it was an adventure regardless.

We made it to Rob’s where we dropped off his bike and then made it to my place to drop my stuff. Though I was sweating, it was mostly due to carrying the table and not do to the heat… it was a rather nice and breezy day today… which I’m very grateful for… heh heh. We arrived at my place and that was when I ran into my neighbor.

Get set for this… it’s quite… well… it’s quite interesting…

I opened the door and she was already ¾ of the way up the stairs. Hearing the door open… she turned and I greeted her in Japanese. Her response… well, she didn’t reply but there was definitely a response. She quickly turned back to climbing the rest of the stairs and hurriedly unlocked and opened her door and just as quickly closed the door and locked it.

…

I know they told us during training that the Japanese are worried about 外人 (gaijin…foreigners) talking to them and them not being able to reply or help out… but, that was also not a response I was expecting. I’ll give her the fact that we are foreigners… but, c’mon… I greeted her in Japanese and with a big smile. Who knows… maybe from her angle my smile was more cynical looking. And there were two of us… but, we weren’t going to attack her. I was just carrying a table and Rob was carrying my fan. Whatever… she now knows who lives next to her. I mentioned to Rob if he thought baking something and offering her some and officially greeting myself might be too much for her to handle… and he said it was best if I just slowly purposely bumped into her in the mornings when going to work. That way I’d be in my suit and I guess look more professional and approachable. I don’t know… I just wasn’t expecting such a horrified reaction to seeing us. And what’s worse… my apartment is just going up this flight of stairs and our doors are the only one up there… side by side. How awkward it’ll be to either be leaving or returning at the same time… but, I digress.

We chilled in my place while I set up my fan and then decided to make our way to a “mall” close by to my house called Sun Lia. It was cool… but, it wasn’t like the Maiya we had gone to earlier this week when we had just arrived to Ofunato. To me… and not all with get this reference… Maiya is Ofunato’s version of Izumiya! Sun Lia, on the other hand, was just two floors. And, the second floor… that only seemed to contain women and children apparel… ::shrugs::. We made it downstairs where they had a small arcade… and man oh man… there was Taiko… or is it Taito? Whatever… there was that drumming game I love so much! I introduced it to Rob… who enjoyed it… but, said that he wasn’t much competition and that I should look into competing against a Japanese person… shyea right… and get my ass handed to me?!? He laughed and said I should go against an 8 year old then… like that would make much of a difference… heh heh. And for those who will also get the reference (and mostly Paola and Jenny)… there were purikura machines next to the Taiko game. Will have to return to it some time later on! For those who don’t know… purikura is short for purinto kurabu… for those who are good at those Mad Lib games (Steph…) it means print club. It’s basically like our photo booths… but a million… Billion… TRILLION ZILLION JILLION KAFILLION TIMES BETTER! You take a bunch of goofy pictures… edit them and add stuff to them… then print them and stick them on whatever you’d like.

But, from there… we made it to the shoes section. I wanted to buy school shoes since… prep yourself for this mom… in Japanese schools… you are NOT allowed to wear shoes that have touched the outside floor. This will include my dress shoes…

So, basically… I can wear sneakers… WITH MY SUIT… to class… as long as they have not touched the outside floor. What a waste… my mom and I bought some shoes for nothing. So, I’ll be going to school in my dress shoes… and then change to sneakers while in school.

I did find shoes I like… but, finding my size… not so lucky in that department. The biggest size I saw was like a 24 (which appeared to be a Men’s 5 ½). I believe I need a 28 or 29. Guess I’ll use the white Sketchers I bought before I came until I’m able to find shoes that fit me. I’m also having difficulty finding slippers for my apartment… they’re usually both small and… uh… hmmm… how to say this without being insulting… kind of not my preference I guess.

We continued on… and found ourselves in the middle of a grocery store out of nowhere. Not exactly if there was like a transition to the grocery store… but, I just remember seeing shoes then seeing food. We bought some fruit and returned to my apartment where we hung out a bit before deciding to pick some stuff up from a nearby store for Rob’s apartment. We then walked back to Rob’s and hung out for a bit there until we decided to check the internet place we had seen earlier and to get some food.

We walked back to my area and made our way to the place… which… I really think my apartment is near a school since I see nothing but students. I had been trying to say konnichiwa to all I ran into (and I think I’ll play a little game tomorrow and create a list to see how many kids/people actually respond back). For the most part… at least from trying all day… adults respond back… even if hesitant they respond… but, kids just stare back. There seems to be a negative correlation between the ages of the kids and how long and more confused they stare back. Yes, I busted out with some psychology for you all… and for those who don’t understand what I meant by “negative correlation”… basically the younger the person… the longer and more confused the person looks.

However, this was not the case at the internet place. Hanging outside was a bunch of kids who looked at us and quickly responded back to our greetings. In fact, they seemed more receptive than the earlier kids. One group of girls even started at us until we looked at them and threw random English sayings at us like, “hi”… “how are you?”… “have a nice day”… etc. I responded back in Japanese… which only made them giggle and laugh… and pretty much surprise them that I knew Japanese. I kept hearing “日本で this and 日本で that” (nihonde…”…in Japanese” as in speaking in Japanese). We went in and tried the internet… but, all I accomplished was an hour of finding out that most of the websites I used and using my e-mail accounts were blocked off. I found it very frustrating since I really wanted to communicate to my mom about my address... but the internet wasn’t letting me. I finally managed to send my brother a message via Myspace… which I found funny since I really don’t use it anymore.

We proceeded to leave at the same time that a group of ladies were leaving. Not sure if they were part of the Tango class going on… but, there did appear to be some kind of even since they were in kimonos for the most part. That’s when a lady took interest in us and asked us questions. I mentioned my Japanese wasn’t very good, but she seemed to understand what I was saying and I picked up some words here and there. There turned out to be four women who were interested in asking us stuff… but, mostly two of them were talking. I managed to tell them that I lived above a ramen store near the river and Sun Lia… and they were able to correctly guess where I lived… which hopefully doesn’t turn out to be a bad thing… heh heh. I figure that if they make it a habit to visit… I’ll start being “away” when they come. It’s possible they just really know the area well, rumors are going around a foreigner coming and living there… but, regardless… I’m going to be on guard.

I then realized something funny… older Japanese women were more receptive and interested in meeting me than my neighbor was… how depressing… heh heh…

Rob and I proceeded to find food… and decided since I took long finding a means of communicating back home online… that we would head to a convenient store. We picked up some food and then split ways.

So, yeah… that was my life today in a nutshell.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008; 12:40 PM – Day 02 BI

Woke up at 5 again… jeebuzzzz. However, it was harder to force myself back to sleep since there were a lot of trucks passing by like crazy.

Just got up around 8 and decided to finish unpacking. Of course, I kept doing more and more different things, so I probably actually finished unpacking about 40 minutes ago.

Things I decided to do while unpacking:

1) Plugging in my external hard drive to clear up my computer a bit.
2) Uploading the pictures I have taken into my computer… then moving them into my external drive.
3) Freeing up more space by moving all my music to the drive… which meant I then had to reorganize my iTunes since all my music had to be located and redirected to the external drive now… that took a long time… and it only involved me fixing 60 songs since I wasn’t up to doing it for all my songs… which is a lot.
4) Washing the dishes I bought.
5) Designating places for various objects… clothes, toiletries, random objects… so and so.
6) And a whole lot more things which I can’t really remember.

I was basically very busy… but, it was worth it since A) it got me to be busy and waste time… B) my apartment is looking more organized and beginning to show sign of life… even if it’s not much just yet.

I still have a paper clutter on the table I bought… a garbage clutter from unwrapping stuff I bought… and I think a small little clutter of random objects in my room that I don’t know what to do with just yet… but, I’m basically done for now.

Just waiting for my fridge to come… should be soon enough. Rob is also supposed to meet up with me sometime around then too… and once I get my fridge… I can buy some groceries and can go eat… I’m hella hungry right now.

Well… will write some more later.

8:37 PM

Got my fridge… よし～！ I basically only have water and orange juice right now… but, it’s here regardless.

Rob came around 3:30-ish… and since neither of us had eaten… we decided to go have lunch. We found this restaurant… and it looked like it had some real good curry, but we decided to walk around before committing. Along the way, we remembered we had to meet up at the city hall tomorrow, so thought it best to look for it. I had a basic idea where it was, but we wanted to make sure. After about 5 minutes of confusion, it all came back to me and we found it okay. We decided to walk back to the restaurant while keeping track of time. We had a good estimate of how long it should take… so, we decided to go into the restaurant. It was empty… except for two people who I believe owned it. They just looked at us and the lady then said something. I didn’t know what it was… but, it wasn’t the usual thing people say when you enter a store or restaurant. Since we obviously looked confused, she walked up to us and kept speaking nicely… but in Japanese. I got the gist that it was closed… so, we went looking elsewhere… with no luck at all. Basically, we just walked around a whole circle and ended up back to my apartment. We probably walked 3-5 miles. I decided to plug in my fridge, since there was something about waiting two hours… just wasn’t sure if that was wait two hours to plug it in or wait two hours for it to get cold… so, I played it safe and just waited two hours to plug it in.

Since it was a bit later... and everything seemed closed (I’m beginning to think that most restaurant open for lunch, then close for like an hour or two to clean up and open right back at 5) including the restaurant beneath my apartment, we decided to just go to a Lawson’s (a convenient store) to get something to snack on. We figured we’d eat eat after our Japanese class.

We made it back to my apartment just after 5 and… as I mentioned before… the restaurant beneath my apartment was now open. So, it looks like if you’re planning on eating out for lunch… you might have to do it before 3/after 5. We vegged in my apartment for a bit and about 20 minutes before the class… we headed out.

We were very excited… but, as we arrived and I saw the schedule… it looked like there was no class. It was all in Kanji, but I know enough to read Japanese class (and, as Rob later mentioned, if it was a Japanese class… it goes without mention that foreigners would take the class… meaning that notices should have been in English at least). If anything, I saw the times and they did not correspond to when the class should’ve been. I asked the man if there was a class, but he seemed like he had no idea of there ever being Japanese classes. I tried to explain that a flyer said there were classes on the second and fourth Thursday of each month… but, I could find the words to describe that. I just said thank you and apologized. We waited outside since we were still early in the hopes of maybe bumping into someone who might take or teach the class… but, when you don’t know who you’re looking for… and with no foreigners in sight… we figured it might have been cancelled… or I also figured it might be that the flyer did not mean the 2nd and 4th Thursday necessarily… but, the Thursdays of the 2nd and 4th week of the month. And since this month started on Friday… then the Thursday of the 2nd and 4th week would have actually been the week before the actual 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. Meaning this would be the “5th” Thursday… if that makes any sense. But, whatever… point is we didn’t have a class today.

So, yeah, we went our separate ways after planning a meeting point for tomorrow.

I basically just did a bit of grocery/dinner shopping after that and returned home. I’m probably going to do some introduction practicing for meeting the Board of Education tomorrow… so… laterness!

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Friday, August 29, 2008; 4:07 PM – Day 03 BI

Today marked my first official day of work… not my first day teaching… but, seeing that I get paid for what I did today… first day of work.

Got ready and left my house like at 7:40 to make it to this plaza, Sun Lia, the place Robert and I agreed to meet up at. I thought I was running late, but we happened to both show up at the same time… given that he had to take a detour… but, whatever.

We walked to the city hall and basically waited until we were picked up. Our helping lady came first… then another dude that I believe represents our company and was to lead us to the schools and in introducing ourselves to them.

We first went to the Board of Education… which was were we gave our first introduction in Japanese. I basically had in mind what to say… but, didn’t over-practice it because then I’d most likely go blank. It ran pretty smoothly and the showed me where my desk is… which, I was confused about at first since they didn’t show Rob a desk and since I had no idea I was stationed at the Board of Education. I later talked to an Interact worker/scheduler who clarified that if I had free time and was sent home… I could just complete my work day at the Board of Education. I think it was mostly a confusion since I believe JET ALT’s worked for and were stationed at the Board of Education… thus, they thought the same applied to us… which, it doesn’t since we’re direct employees of Interact (a difference amongst both companies in case anyone is interested in becoming an ALT).

After that… we proceeded to Rob’s first High School. Not much to say about that since I am not stationed there nor am I working in high schools… but, it was a nice school and we seemed to get some attention from the students. We did later on in the day came across some of the students of that school who were advertising their school’s Cultural Festival this weekend. I’m really excited about that… and for anyone who has seen Azumanga Daioh or any anime/show basically dealing with schools… you should know how interesting/exciting/fun Cultural Festivals are.

We then moved on to my first middle school. Throughout this whole week, whenever Rob and I walk we see a bunch of students wearing varying school uniforms… especially from my apartment. I call the intersection I’m next to… the Intersection of Students… around/after 6… all you hear is students talking and riding bikes laughing and whatever else they do… heh heh. Anyway, I rambled a bit… the point was that we had seen kids wearing purple uniforms… which turned out to be from this middle school.

I introduced myself in Japanese again to the 京都先生 (Kyoto sensei…vice principal) and an English teacher. They were impressed by my Japanese… which actually turned out that every time I gave my little intro… they were all like… “wow!” The only negative thing I had about visiting the schools today was that when they spoke to me in Japanese or I was supposed to talk… I tended to get a bit stiff and nervous… which caused me to break out in heavy sweat… ::sigh::… damn you nerves ::shakes maniacal fist::.

But, it was a cool school and the 京都先生 was really cool and seemed to like me (which is a very good thing when working in a school). I don’t want to get too into the school system… but, basically the 古書先生 (kosho sensei…principal) is more like a figure or I lame-man’s terms… kind of like a mascot of the school. I don’t mean that in a belittling way… it’s kind of hard to explain. But, basically they look after the school and are usually gardening. The vice principal is the big enchilada of the school. Meaning… if you impress the vice principal… you got it set. Especially since everything passes by them… meaning that if someone has a complaint or evaluate you a bit negative… it’s safe to say that the vice principal will fight for you… and, obviously nobody goes against the vice principal… heh heh.

Anyway, he showed me around the school and the students were shocked to see me walking around and tended to get excited. We then went up to the first years and he actually kindly interrupted the class to personally introduce me… and I would say… “Hello… nice to meet you!” Then, after about 3 seconds of silence, I would gesture the kids to repeat what I said and they would… and I would praise them! They seemed a bit overwhelmed… but, it is the first years after all… heh heh.

We then went to my second school, which was the special needs school. I’m not sure who was the vice principal there… but, if it’s the person I think it is… I don’t think I got to really impress him or he’s probably just a quiet person in general. However, the other teacher there… he seemed to take a liking to me… so, it’s always good to have a backer… heh heh. And, it is possible that he might have been the vice principal… he was just dressed in like gym clothes… but, he did seem to control the meeting… which vice principals seemed to be doing at the previous schools we visited.

We took a small break before proceeding to Rob’s second high school. This is when we ran to the students who gave us the flyers for the cultural festival. They were so funny and eager to meet us. They walked up to us and threw random English phrases and tried to explain the flyer. The man showing us around then introduced Rob as their new English ALT… so then they made a surprised excited expression and personally greeted both of us and shook our hands… heh heh. This is why we have to go tomorrow… not that we’re forced or felt forced… it’s just after that reaction… how can we not go… heh heh… they were so excited and welcoming… and it should be loads of fun.

At Rob’s second high school, I still introduced myself and the vice principal seemed interested in both of us… obviously more Rob than me… seeing that he’d be working there. We proceeded to lunch right afterwards… and having overheard that Rob like ramen and I liked チャーシューメン (chaashuumen…that pork ramen I’m obsessed with… heh heh) the lady suggested eating at a Ramen restaurant. Of course… I had some チャーシューメン… mmmmm!

We then made our way to the next city… which is only about 20 minutes away by car and where my other two schools are. We stopped at the Board of Education first… and we introduced ourselves again. They seemed impressed by my Japanese as well, so asked me where and for how long I studied.

Moving along to my next school… more introductions. I guess this was probably where I gave the “worst” impression. I mean… it wasn’t a bad impression… but, compared to the other schools, I didn’t feel like I exactly made a connection. I was also sweating like crazy and was all sorts of uncomfortable. I mostly blame it to the fact that we had just came from eating and I was getting in “nap” mode… so, I wasn’t all 元気 (genki…energetic/happy). But, I can’t even use that as an excuse since company policy is always to get your 元気 on… heh heh. From what I caught… I won’t meet that school next week… but maybe the week afterwards… where I’ll have a ceremony in front of possibly all the kids in order to introduce myself… which usually isn’t the case. No biggie… introducing myself to kids doesn’t seem half as nerve-wracking as introducing yourself to the teachers and mostly… the vice principal.

Now… to the school that I believe I left my best impression. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I knew it was the last school… maybe it was the actual people… but, I was just on like Donkey Kong! It started with the introductions as usual… and it was in front of the vice principal and two of the English teachers. Their English was pretty well too… so, maybe that helped. I felt more comfortable… so, I guess I was more confident in my Japanese and began using it a lot. They were so impressed and said my Japanese was really well, so the female teacher asked where and for how long I studied Japanese. I told her that I took Japanese classes for a year at my home college and was in Ritsumeikan for a month. Apparently they were shocked… and applauded me and congratulated me. It’s funny… in Miami I was there thinking my Japanese sucked ass… but, it isn’t until you actually put it in practice (given I’m forced… but, I could always just shut down completely) that you realize where your actual level is at. Needless to say… I had a major ego boost. In fact, I even began to crack jokes… in Japanese… and they just ate it up… especially the vice principal… man, that dude is one cool guy with one hearty laugh… heh heh. Best yet… I felt comfortable and showed my true self regardless of having a language barrier. The vice principal even asked if I drank… and then invited me to a drinking party. They told us that drinking parties amongst the faculty… and all workers in general is common… but, to actually be invited my first time before I even taught was just awesome. Better yet… was my answer. I told him I drank sometimes, and after he told me to please attend the drinking party with them… I asked いつ (itsu…when). Oh man… he laughed so loud. I was actually asking when since it sounded like he was inviting me to a concrete event… and, yeah… I came across as ready to party! And… luckily… he seems like the partying type and I could tell a connection was solidified then and there… heh heh. I like when you’re funny without even trying. Anyway… this school’s students also gave us the most attention and excitement at seeing us… the English teachers then went on to mention that they have been excited to meet me… and sure enough that is what I got from them… heh heh. They showed me around the school and actually gave me a closet and a spot for my shoes. They told me to be as involved with the students as possible and even scold them when they do bad things… which kind of went against what I was taught in training, but I think it shows how much the vice principal liked me. It’s just a shame I’m only scheduled in that school once… it seems like it might very well be an awesome place! But, I do start off on Monday… so, I’m really excited! I was also told to bring my gym clothes… so, I believe I’m going to be thrown right into the mix with the permission to be with whatever students and classes I wanted to be when I wasn’t teaching… that way I get the most English interaction with the kids.

But, yeah… that was it and then we were dropped off at home. I did throw the very formal and grateful thanks once again… and this time I said it correctly since I looked it up at my book to get an even better reaction… 私たちに手伝ってくれてどうもありがとうございました！(watashitachini tetsudatte kurete doumo arigatou gozaimashita!... Thank you very much for helping us today!). This earned me my last Japanese praise of the day… the dude showing us around the schools said my Japanese was very good and he was impressed and said to please keep learning it… which I mentioned I really wanted to do. He gave me a がんばって (ganbatte…meaning good luck!).

So, that’s it… I think I’m going to nap before I get my lazy butt to doing something. Peace!

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Saturday, August 30, 2008; 10:03 PM – Day 04 BI

I guess you could say today was more of an unproductive day. I set out for Rob’s at about 11:45 so that we can make it to the cultural festival the local high school was hosting.

However, it didn’t quite work out. Rob wanted to go looking for shirts and it turned out that a possible package was going to be delivered to my apartment… so, we decided to go looking for his shirts at Sun Lia and to then stop at my apartment. Sure enough, there was a notice that said I had missed the package… ::sigh::

To make things worse… the notice was in Japanese so I couldn’t make out whether they’d try again and if they did, at what time they’d be back. I wasn’t sure if the fact that it was Saturday meant they would stop working earlier… basically a bunch of wondering and hoping took place… mostly because I knew the package would contain important information from my company.

According to my possible understand, it seemed like they’d be back to try again anytime after 3 or so… so, that basically left me stranded in my apartment. Rob stayed since he didn’t mind… but, I did feel like a prisoner in my own apartment. Seeing that I have no phone or no internet… I knew that I had to stay at my apartment until the package possibly came. I wasn’t sure if they’d deliver on Sundays… so, I didn’t have a choice. It’s not that I really mind being in my apartment… it’s just when the freedom and free will of leaving and returning is revoked… you can’t help bet feel like a prisoner.

We waited and waited… and it was obvious I was getting antsy. There was nothing to do… so I tried playing some solitaire (or as Rob later went on to teach me… when playing Solitaire and flipping three cards as opposed to one… it’s actually called Patience. After that got tiring, I would walk around in the hopes that I’d find something to do. I encountered a spider outside my window trying to build a web… and decided that was no good and proceeded to kill it. Seeing a bunch of spiders live on without problems (::sigh::)… I was a bit worried if the Japanese felt they should be left alone. So, when I proceeded to spray it with some Lysol… meaning smothering it in the gas… I made sure I was behind the curtain and out of view. It retreated quickly and wasn’t sure if it was dead or not… but, I figured if it was still alive, it should know better now… heh heh.

Random Rob-given information (there should be a bit more later):

Since a spider has an exoskeleton, it needs to pause and not move from time to
time to breathe properly. So, if you just continue to have it in defense… and don’t let it take some time to not move and take a breather… it should die… MWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Too bad I’m still scared shitless of them and don’t think I’ll have the courage to keep it moving.

But, yeah… hopefully it died or spread the word to not mess with my apartment.

As 7 rolled closer, I decided to leave a note and a diagram. I wanted to try the restaurant below… and wouldn’t have been surprised if the delivery had occurred while eating… thus the note and diagram. In some broken Japanese, I wrote about eating downstairs and my diagram had an arrow pointing at my apartment, and showing me eating ramen downstairs at the restaurant… Rob said it should be easy to read without a problem.

But, a little after the explanation and diagram… the delivery man came and dropped this ‘UGE! Box. With that done, Rob and I went downstairs to eat.

As I had assumed, my landlord actually worked at the restaurant… in fact, I think he owns the whole building. This is why I made it a point to try and communicate with him and compliment him as much as possible. It looks like he took a liking to me and even mentioned that my Japanese speaking was really well… which, of course I denied. I talked to him a bit and his wife (I believe it was his wife at least) and him were very attentive to us. We then went to go pay… and I’m not sure if it’s because that’s the actual price or if it’s because I live above his restaurant and managed a decent conversation with him… but, we only paid 500 Yen for the mean… which was pretty good since we got the same amount of food at other restaurants for almost double.

I thanked him greatly for the food mentioning it was very delicious… and also proceeded to complimenting the apartment. Hopefully some other… I’ll be able to continue to eat there and will hopefully even manage to bring a present. Anyway, after that Rob and I just split ways and yeah… that’s that.

Laterness!

Hopefully I’ll have an entry about the festival tomorrow.

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Sunday, August 31, 2008; 9:38 PM – Day 05 BI

My umbrella got stolen… I’m almost positive I know who or what group did it. I went to Sun Lia and placed my umbrella where they all were… and had this group of 3 or 4 guys staring at me. When I was ready to leave… it was no longer there. Had to buy another umbrella… that makes 3 umbrellas so far. One was too small… the second was stolen… and now I have another one.

I am not one happy 外人 (gaijin… foreigner).

Tried to calm down and make the Rice Krispies Treats to take to my school tomorrow… it tasted horrible. Not sure if it was the fact that the gas was too high… but, I’m almost positive it was the cereal. I tried eating some that I hadn’t mixed in with the marshmallow… and it tasted pretty bad. It resembled Cocoa Puffs but in no way tastes like Cocoa Puffs… ::sigh::… American food is hard to come by… so, cooking and baking might not be as rewarding like it is back home. I began to throw it away and tasted some that didn’t have much cereal mixed in it… and it tasted more like how it was supposed to taste… but, still not quite the way it usually does. Tried to salvage it… but, it was too much effort and I was no longer motivated.

I went from mad 外人 to helpless/sad 外人.

Tried taking out the trash… that was a mission in itself. Not sure exactly what I’m allowed to just trash and what I have to separate and in which bag it’s allowed to go in and what type of garbage/recycling is scheduled for tomorrow.

I was one motivationally drained 外人.
And, yeah… that’s how a good day becomes a bad one in a matter of an hour or two. I’m having another one of those… “Why am I here?” feelings.

But, no worries… I should be fine… especially since I begin teaching tomorrow. I was really excited about it earlier on… but, after all these incidences… I’m not as excited. But, I know that once I begin tomorrow I should be all 元気 (genki…energetic/happy) again.