Hi guys!! I'm borrowing my new roommate Victoria's laptop (she told me I could use it if I wanted to) until I get my own laptop connected to the internet. I wanted to let all of you know how I'm doing in Japan. This is only my second day here, but the first full one.
Fujimi is outside of Tokyo, but it's still a good 2hrs by bus, and then about 5 mins by train, and then a 3 min walk to the apartment from the station.
Victoria took me to the city office in order to register as being here, but it also gives me a paper saying that I've done it so that I can get a bank account and a cell phone, which is waaaay cheaper than a land line, or so I'm told.
I hit the grocery store today and bought one of those noodles in a bowl things, that had little packets of meat in it and mushrooms. It was really good, and I bought this thing that looked like a big bun that was slit crossways at the top and had what looked like eggs in it and had been baked. It tasted like eggs, mayo and bacon in it. I was seriously hungry by the time I got back to the apartment, so I ate that, the noodles and a little thing of garlic bread about the size of a big sausage bun and a small piece of some kind of sponge cake that tastes kind of bland, except for the slight molasses taste, that is. It's light as a feather, though! I also bought something that looks like some kind of doughnut, but I've not eaten that yet.
I'm trying to eat fairly cheap until I get my first paycheque and figure out what is going out and what's coming in, but the grocery store is a fun place to look around!!! Not for the squimish, though, since if there's a few packages of octopus in the freash fish section, you can really tell that it's octopus!!!! They have packages of the little baby ones and they look pretty whole to me. The bigger ones have the suckers still attached. There are also packets of roe bags, fish of every description and the reddest salmon I've ever seen! I even saw these things that had been battered and fried, and I thought they were really, really big shrimp, until I saw the fish tail sticking out
The plane ride kind of stank, since we lost 3hrs going to Vancouver, then gained 10 or 12 on the way to Narita. The part that I hate is that the Air Canada planes don't have an air vent at the seats to get cold air, so I ended up sitting there sweating for 10 hours or so. By the time I got here, I was in dire need of a shower!! I did sleep really well, though, on two futon mattress on the floor. They're very comfortable, and I had a fan in my room as well, which really helps.
One thing I did not expect was that it's so humid here! The air's quite damp and it's really humid and I'm told that in the summer it's way worse!!! Good thing that every room has an air conditioner and a fan. The night air is much cooler, though and when all three bedroom windows are open there's a fantastic breeze that goes through the whole place.
There are also lots of pine trees, rice fields right near the airport, and azelas everywhere, even trimmed into headges. There are also some types of palm trees, so I'm guessing they either die back in winter or else it really doesn't get that cold here. It may be the latter, since both Victoria and Carolyn told me that, being Canadian and therefore used to the snow, I'm likely to be walking around saying "What are you talking about? It's not cold!" LOL!
TV's kind of sad, since we don't have cable and there's probably only 7 or 8 channels. I haven't seen any sumo on the TV yet.
As for anime, I've seen two so far, one's called NANA and the other one, as near as I can remember, is called Zengapen, or Zangpen or something. There's a game coming out based on it, that much I got from one of the commercials, and it looks a little bit like Gundam Seed. Both looked amazing and were just beautiful to look at!! Although I've spent the last half hour or so watching a chimp play with 5 or 6 bulldog puppies. Why that was on tv, I have no clue, but it was beyond cute!!!
My roommates seem really nice and I really like them both, although Carolyn has been planning to leave since well before I got here. I thought she was going in a few days, but now I think she's leaving sooner than that and now I feel a bit stupid for unpacking everything. Her room is one of the two that go on to the balcony, and I'm currently in the front room. There's nothing wrong with it, but I'm facing the balcony where everyone walks along to get to their front door. Which is also kind of OK, but if they are talking it sounds like they're in the apartment!! But, who wouldn't want the room with the balcony?
After being used to my mother's highly stocked kitchen, I have to say that this one leaves a bit to be desired. Mind you, Carolyn told me that no one really cooks, which might explain why I could only find butter knives when I wanted to cut my garlic bread. And the 3 frying pans that all look like they need a good scrub, and the single pot that also looks like it needs a once over. They're not really dirty, I mean there's nothing stuck to them or growing on them, or anything that's been growing there long enough to decide to walk away or anything. They just look a little worse for wear, I guess. The fact that they don't cook also might explain why THERE'S NO TEA POT!!!!!!!!! Horrors of horrors!!!! When you want tea, you have to make it by the cup. I prefer to make a pot and drink out of it all evening, until the last one is strong enough you could stand the spoon up in it! LOL!
Frankly, the whole kitchen looks like it could stand a bit of a going over, and everything in it looks seriously old but again, I'm getting the impression that they use the apartment mostly for sleeping and showering rather than for anything else, which again explains a great deal. So, it looks like I'll be spending many of my evenings here by myself. Not every night, mind you!! And once I settle in a bit I'll probably be out on the town often, I certainly do want to let my hair down a little bit, but not just yet. Fujimi in the day time is enough of a challenge for now! Besides, it's so much quieter and easier to get some writing done when there's no one here.
So, I guess I'll have no choice but to clean it myself at some point, I suppose. Not right now, though, since that's not likely to give them a good impression of what I think of them, would it?? But, like I say, it's not like they're slobs or anything, far from it, but why clean a room you almost never use? But, I don't really feel like it's my apartment as well yet. I feel like I'm visiting or something, but I suppose that will come in time.
Hehe, I just took a nibble of my "doughnut", only, that's not what it is!! It's got some kind of peppery filling or something, which is probably good, and which I might like, IF I WASN'T EXPECTING A DOUGHNUT!!! LOL!!!! Victoria told me to "make [myself] comfortable" when I got back to the apartment. She said "use my laptop, eat my food, anything you want". I thought to myself "Eat your food? What food? I don't remember seeing food in the fridge." Hence the stop at the grocery store on the way back. Ah, well, she was nice enough to offer and the thought was there. It's the thought that counts, right? Anyway, I've just swiped the lone single serving plain yogurt that was hiding out in the back of the 6 or 7 inch deep fridge.
I've been trying to figure things out here, and chuckling to myself a lot. I love it, all of it, even the tiny fridge, but there's something sort of humourous about everything. Like the fact that a lot of smaller streets don't have sidewalks, you just walk along the side of the road and assume that no one's going to hit you on purpose. The locals seem to walk along either side, but Victoria said that in Austrailia when there's no sidewalk, you walk along the left hand side. Seems like a good rule, so I've been sticking to that. Like I say, I find all of this vaguely funny, mostly because I assume that to the locals I must look like a total dork, so I'm writing all of this in the hopes that you guys will find it as funny/enjoyable as I am.
I'm still in a rather steep learning curve, so everything seems really strange (in a good way) and yet some of it seems really familar at the same time. Like, they have Doritos and peanut butter here, and most people who have gardens grow garlic, amoung other things. Stuff like that seems familar, but then I walk past the market are there are hosta leaves in neat bundles for sale. Seems you can eat them, which I did not know. Or maybe it's only a certain type you can eat? Who knows? Also, most people you meet on the street do not speak English, but then there's the one lady I met whose daughter is in Ottawa studying French. The older people are lovely, they don't understand a word, but if you ask them a question, they'll try to explain it in great detail, which really makes me wish I understood them better!! They're so nice!!!!!
One thing that really does make me wonder is the amount of packaging that is used in Japan. Everything seems packaged to death! Ears of corn are each wrapped in plastic and are sold like that. We do that to English cucumbers in Canada, but not corn. I bought a can of shaving cream and the can was wrapped in plastic too!! We have a garbage problem in Hamilton and Toronto, so I can't help but wonder where they're putting all this waste? Some of it is recycled, the bottles and cans, and the biodegradable stuff is burned, it seems, but what about the rest of it?? Surely there must be tonnes for the amount of people here, and considering that Japan isn't all that big, I can't help but wonder where they put it all. If they have some trick that makes it all vanish, can somebody please tell the powers that be in Toronto what it is? They could sure use the help!
Well, I guess I've written far more than enough, so I'll shut up now and get off Victoria's laptop. Suffice it to say that I'm totally enjoying myself and since my training at Nova doesn't start until Monday, I've got a few days to get my bearings and settle in a bit. I love it here, and even though I don't speak the language I really don't feel very nervous at all. I don't know why.
If you're still reading this and I haven't bored you to tears yet, I did have one small question:
Why is it I can't change my email address in my profile? I've tried typing my password, confirming my password, and even giving it a new password, which I don't think it accepted, but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?
Later!
Tammy
ALIVE AND WELL IN FUJIMI-SHI
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DevoVamp
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ALIVE AND WELL IN FUJIMI-SHI
"Ah, the children of the night, such beautiful music they make!" -- Dracula
"God knows, freedom isn't simple." - Anne Rice
"God knows, freedom isn't simple." - Anne Rice
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ZombieBunny
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