Yay! They finally found my computer! At least I think it is mine to use - it turned up on my desk this morning. It is one of those crazy Japanese models with a japanese keyboard, so please forgive any typos! I am writing this on word processing software so that they think I am doing real work - I haven`t been officially offered the use of the internet yet so I am going to sneak around it for the first bit.
It has been a bit of a crazy ride. I can`t believe that it has only been a couple of weeks!!! First, there was Tokyo - I have never seen such a waste of electricity!!! Neon lights stretched up to the sky - stores occupy the first five levels of every building (sorry, I was interrupted - some company is having a function here and I have been invited to go get drunk with them - they are going to put me up in a hotel and all I have to do is be sociable and english speaking... it never ends!!!). Where was I . Oh yah. In Tokyo (and pretty much every Japanese city or town) every inch of space is accounted for - the roads are extremely narrow, and even the alleys are lined with at least a few levels of shops and restaurants. We decided to try one place that looked cheap and had a picture menu on the window. We entered, only to discover that the restaurant was in the basement. We trekked two floors down a narrow staircase, only to wonder if the place was located in hell. It turned out to be a cute little izakaya, and the food was cheap and the booze was plentiful. The next day, we had planned on sleeping in, but discovered that we were wide awake at 4am, ready to go. That has been everyone`s pattern of jetlag - exhausted by 8:30pm, and awake by 4am. I have managed to overcome most of it - I am in bed by 10:30, and up at 7. Apparently, it lasts about 3 weeks. Sorry for the rambling, but my office has about 15 desks in it - everyone sits together - and it is quite noisy and distracting. So, there we were, wandering through Tokyo at 6am and all the lights were still on. We were getting lost in the colourful alleyways, slamming back cans of coffee from the ubiquitous vending machines, when suddenly we found ourselves at the foot of a temple. The noise of the cars had stopped, the birds were chirping, and we wouldn't have known we were in a city (unless we looked up at the sky scrapers). Wearily, we sat down with our coffee, rubbed our eyes, looked at each other and said "holy SH#@T! We are actually here, in Japan!" we decided that we had to go back for a nap. Most of the rest of Tokyo was spent in conferences, with one notable exception: on the last night, I went out with friends from my prefecture to a bar called "Heaven and Hell". We decided to go to the hell part. Again, the booze was flowing, the food was plentiful (they are fond of the all-you-can-eat-and-drink-in-2-hours type of establishment here), and the bathrooms were truly frightening. In the ladies loo, there was a big scary face on the wall facing the toilet. Halfway through your business, it sings at you and moves towards you until it has you pinned on the seat. In the mens room, there is a urinal in the shape of a clown that starts to move back and forth just as you have started doing your thing. It is really quite unique.
Then I arrived in Ikuno, to a wee party with all my bosses. gulp, there were about 6 of them.. they fed me amazing food including the best steak I have ever had - locally bred kobe beef (actually bred in my neck of the woods, apparently cows don't like big cities like Kobe). They asked me if I could drink japanese beer. out came a big bottle. Have I tried Japanese wine? Another bottle. What about Sake? another bottle. I was so sloshed by the time I finished, and quite dejected to find that the toilets only had squats in them. I didn't know what to do, so I took a picture (not of me - I had performance anxiety...). Finally I got to my apartment. It was nice even by western standards. I couldn't figure out how to use anything, so I just fell into bed. The next day was all about trying to look nice for first impressions, despite it being 35 degrees with 100% humidity, stamping forms (signatures are not a legal endorsement here, you get a stamp called a `hanko`. ) for two bank accounts, my contract, my car insurance, and a gazillion other pieces of paper which no one could explain to me. The next day I had to school and was the only person there until noon when my principal cam in to tell me I could go home. I went home, and felt so disparagingly alone. For the first time in my life, I have been utterly illiterate, alone, and incapable of accomplishing even the most minor tasks. What a blow!!! At dinner with my principal that night, I was told that there were 2 new teachers in a town 15 minutes away - he gave me their phone numbers. That night I called them ( they had already been in Japan 2 weeks). We planned on going up the coast to the beach for the weekend, and it was glorious - there were five of us crammed in the tiny apartment of an ALT up there, and even though we didn't know each other, we became fast friends over vats of booze, talking about food and toilets - the two most popular subjects of discussion for any new teachers. This poor girl had a squat in her apartment that was elevated, so not only were we trying to be contortionists while we did our thing, but we had to balance precariously on a little perch at the same time!!!! There is a downside to drinking so much alcohol!!! Another note: her apartment is surrounded by rice patties, which meant that we were awakened by the sound of an air-raid siren at 6am. you see, some towns bought these sirens after WWII to notify the rice pickers when to go out in the field, when to eat lunch, and when to go home. We did not know this and the five of us spent a good while in close quarters under a table until we figured it out. We thought "earthquake" or "tsunami".
The next week I was at my prefectural conference which basically consisted of listening to speeches about things I already knew about, and drinking my face off at night (notice a pattern here???) it was so hot!! I have converted: I walk around with a hand fan and a handkerchief to dab off my melting makeup.
Finally, I arrived at my apartment to stay. I went to a festival that night (it is o-bon period here, where there are celebrations and everyone goes to their hometown to visit their dead ancestors). There were stalls of food and toys, little girls in summer kimonos (yukata), and my host decided to get me some goldfish. Not just any goldfish: I was told these were like fresh cut flowers. I didn`t understand until now: one week later and they are all dead. And the fireworks!!! It was quite a display for such a small town. This past weekend, I went to Himeji (a famous castle city) for our prefectural beer garden on the roof a department store. It was only an hour away by train (my area is so populous that the train consists of only one car, and it is manually driven. I wouldn't have been surprised to see someone shovelling coal). Boy did I shop in Himeji!! I needed a stereo (none of them worked in my apartment), and I found a great t-shirt which said: Showgirls: I wanna be your dog. I think that something was lost (or gained) in the translation.
I went shopping at the 100Yen store (like dollar store) to do up my apartment with candles and picture frames: the last two teachers in it were guys, so I needed to girlify a bit. I also bought a Yukata myself - gorgeous fabric!!!! And I have two matsuri (festivals) this week to wear it to.
Don`t worry, you family people, I am driving on the other side of the road like a pro - they are barely wide enough to have a side to drive on!!! And, the blood alcohol limit is 0.0, so I am not driving after I drink. That`s what trains are for.
Needless to say, I think that I am acclimatized now, and am having fun (perhaps too much)
Please, someone, print this off for my mom to read (she hasn`t yet mastered the internet...)