Saturday May 24, 1997: 12:30pm
Well, I just got up... and I was planning on running, but it's absolutely pouring out! Maybe I'll be staying in today...
11:30pm
It's STILL raining! Pototoes! Hey, I'm watching a TV show on learning Pascal! OK, I was just checking the channels to see if 90210 was on and this caught my eye. Of course, I've had enough of Pascal so I'll change the channel..
Nothing on. I put the music back on.
I hope it's not raining like this tomorrow because I'd really like to get outside and DO something! I especially don't want to miss my run. It's not that I don't mind running in the rain, it's just that my shoes will be wet for the next week. Ugh.
Well, I figured out the laundry machine pretty easily, but my stuff isn't even close to being dry yet - could it be because I hung my stuff out on the balcony... where the rain is? Perhaps. But it's inside now.
Wow, the rain really cools things down - it was kind of chilly today. I haven't tried to figure out the "hot" settings of the AC, so I had no choice but to be cold. Solution: hot water.
I also cleaned up the apartment today, it kinda needed it. Hey, I also figured out the speakers of my stereo, so now music comes out of BOTH speakers. Oh, the luxury! And, to top it all off, I decided that I was *going* to master the rice cooker. So I took out my kanji dictionary and instruction booklet and set at it. It took me about half an hour, but I think I got it! Well, except for the fact that I didn't wash the rice well enough so there was this interesting crusty skin along the bottom of the bowl. It looked sorta disgusting (read: revolting), but when I gave the rice a good stir -- I couldn't tell in chewing.. Well, a good lesson on rice cooking.
OK, the walls in this apartment are really annoying. NOTHING sticks to them. Not tape, not huge, super-sticky picture backings, not silly putty... so I have posters falling down on me left and right. Oh well, so much for any decoration on my walls.
My plant is still alive. Good. It's gotta last at least a week. 90210's supposed to be on soon...
Sunday May 25, 1997
Today was an exploration day. I woke up at 9:30, but decided that it was too early for me to get up, so I went back to sleep. Next thing I know, it's 12:30! And sunny! So, I went for a run - I tried a new route. This one is also very nice. It's about 12 kms, so just a tad longer than the other one. This one goes along both the Asakawa River and the Tamagawa River. It was just beautiful out, and quite hot.
After that I went down to the local CD/video rental store to see if I could rent some CDs. So my first question is..do you need a membership? So I ask one of the store workers, and he says yeah, you need one. Of course, that's about as far as we could get in Japanese. But I managed to ask if I would be allowed to get one - he asked if I had something that I didn't understand, but then he just said "Passport?" which was OK. Cuz I'd thought of bringing it. So that hurdle was over, but then he brought out the dreaded --- application form. Yoiks! I started out in Japanese, but ended up in English. Another woman in line came over to help because she spoke English.. she was very helpful!
Anyways, I got the card, but since I'd already spent enough time in there, I didn't get a CD. Actually, the membership was pretty damn cheap - only 300 yen! ($3.50)
The rest of the afternoon I spent on adventure number 2 - exploring Hino. First I decided to hike up the "mountain" that I see in the distance on my morning run. Well, it's not a mountain exactly, but it's a pretty large hill. There's a mysterious staircase leading upto some kind of building that looks like a castle tower from a distance. I wanted to see what it was. So I found my way over to the staircase, which surprisingly took me a brief 30 mins. A lot of it was uphill. Then, I tackled the stairs, which also didn't take too long - 106 steps, I counted! As it turns out, the building is just some sort of plant, or something, how unromantic. But just around it is a children's park. It's quite a large hill convered in trees... very green.
And from up there you can see so far... it's just so neat to be that high up above the world - it was a beautiful view. Unfortunately, the path went no further, and I had other sites I wanted to see, so I made a note to go back and explore some other time.
I think I found the rich part of town, or at least a very beautiful part. The houses are quite large, and the gardens really nice. Next stop was the temple I've noticed on my morning run. Wow, this place is neat! I thought it would just be the one building but there are many! And there are many neat statues and shrines. One thing I noticed was that there was a place in front of one of the temples where people were going, throwing a coin into a trough-like thing, then putting their hands together as in prayer, and bowing their head. I guess it is an offering to Buddha or something. Or maybe it's just the Japanese version of a wishing-fountain. Anyways, I decided that I wanted to try it out, so I got out my coin, and away I went! Very fun.
Also at this temple is another large tree-covered mountain. But this one had many paths. So I went exploring in there which was very cool. I guess that there are either graves or shrines up there - but these paths were pretty steep! Well, I've gotta go back there, there's much more to see!
Oh, that 90210 was OLD... wow, it still had Brenda and Dylan in it. But at least they were in university.
Monday May 26, 1997: 10pm
I must tell Jon - I think I have figured out why they call Japan the land of the rising sun. At 6:40 this morning when I was on my run, the sun was almost as hight as Canada's noon-day sun, which means that it probably rises at an ungodly hour of 4 or so... sheesh!
On my Sunday run I think I stumbled accross the local "beach". OK, well, sunbathing spot. It's pretty close to here - on the Asakawa river. That's kinda redundant - Asakawa River, since kawa means river. Oh well, I'm gaijin, so it's accepted!
I set my toast on fire today. I mean, I look into my oven and the thing is engulfed in flames! *whew*, it gave me a bit of a scare.
Today I went to the bank to transfer money to my Canadian account. NOT an easy taks. Hirabayashi-san came with me - we had to go all the way to Tachikawa. He told me that the calligraphy teacher he knows would like to meet with me early in June - sounds like fun! I hope it's not too expensive.
And good news! It seems as though they've found me a Japanese school in Hachioji. It's twice a week, each session 100 mins. Mon & Tues. And best of all, it'll be one-on-one teaching! This is awesome - I'll really improve, I think!
The TV shows here are pretty funny. Funny as in lame. Actually, the dramas are quite - dramatic! I mean, there are multiple suicides/suicide attempts & break ups & beat ups & various other personal disasters all in an hour show! And the next week - it happens again. One almost made me cry today, even if I couldn't understand what they were saying. Right now there are these good-looking guys without shirts on trying to say Japanese tongue twisters. Strange TV, but amusing.
A guy just rapped one. Hey, this is a funny show!
Tuesday May 27, 1997: 7:50am
There's a western-styled house near my apartment. It looks oddly out of place in this world I'm surrounded by.
4:50pm
I like this Java stuff! I'm gonna start bringing this journal with me to work.
6pm
S I just went to the 7-Eleven accross the street from the office to see what it is like. It's just the same as any other 7-Eleven, but with Japanese stuff inside, I guess. Well, I'm in the middle of animating something in Java, so I'd better get back to it. Oh yeah, I went and got myself a Coke Light... hmm..
9pm
Well here I am, recording SMAP from my rented CD to a tape. Ok, so it's in Japanese, but it's pretty good! They're kinda funky. Actually, I got 3 cds - 4 because the SMAP one is a double album. It was the same guy working there as when I got my membership. Poor guy - the trouble I put him through! I looked around at the VCR rentals as well, and there are plenty of English movies - now whether or not they're actually dubbed over in Japanese is another story. I think I'd better ask before I go out and buy a VCR.
The ferris wheel up on the hill is lit up at night - it looks quite interesting up there on its own.
Yesterday I bought a Mai Tai in a bottle. It was really good! And they sell these 400mL bottles of MaiTai, Margaritas, Pina Coladas, Screw Drivers, Gin and Tonics, etc... in the 7-Eleven! Hmm... all my favourite drinks! What *am* I going to do??
The Java is coming along well. This music is great!
Wednesday May 28, 1997: 7:30am
Today I could see Mt.Fuji on my run. I don't usually like to stop on my runs, but when I looked over and saw Fuji there, my feet just stopped. It was just beautiful. Even the closer mountains are dwarfed by its magnificence. It's a mountain alone with no other mountains to distract from its beauty. It's almost as though it's too proud to be amongst the common.
I also thought I saw an alligator in the Asakawa, but it ended up being a school of fish. Believe me, it had me quite shocked!
I hope it's clear like this often so that I can see Fuji more often. Or maybe it's cuz I ran earlier today.. dunno.
6:45pm
Cartoons here don't end in happy endings. Weird. And they do a preview of next week's show.
7:45pm
Well I can finally access my Math account - it's about time! I gave up and asked Hidaka-san who the network administrator was. After a bit of thought he says "For our group, it's Tsurumi-san.", which kinda surprises me because my desk was right beside his for all this time! Anyways, we 3 started to work on it, then Hirabayashi-san comes over and starts to work on it as well. And then Naito-san -- we were all working on it for about an hour. It was so nice of them! Hirabayashi-san was phoning all the Co-op students in Hirooka to see how they'd set up their stuff - and I finally got in!
Then I just had the problem of exceeding my quota because of so many messages. That took me quite awhile to figure out, but once I did, all was well!
Today is a description of Domiru Yamamiya - my apartment building. Domiru Yamamiya (DY for short) is a 2 story building, which isn't anything spectacular. There are 4 apartments per floor, so, 8 in total (I ain't in math for nothin'!). My humble abode is on the 2nd floor, which is perfect. This way I get to keep the people below me awake with all my walking about, buy no one keeps me awake! This is good. Oh, and I have a balcony! It's not exactly spacious, but it's big enough for a chair, if I had a chair.
When you enter my apartment you find yourself in the kitchen. It's got a humungous since and a counter, all in a reflective silvery sort of material. On this enormous counter is a double gas burner table with a mini (and I MEAN mini) toaster-oven-type thing. This mini-oven is the source of much anxiety. It has a tendency to burn English muffins on the top, leave them raw on the bottom, and sets toast on fire. Buy hey, it's my excitement for the day ("I wonder how my breakfast will turn out this morning..."). Then, there's the half-size fridge/freezer, and the washer (that's a clothes washer, not a dish washer). Directly connected to the kitchen is the other room, separated by a sliding glass screen - just like something you would expect to find over here. Now this room has everything else in it.. my bed (futon - folds up all cool and stuff), a low table (the Japanese type), a TV (gets about 9 channels), and my new stereo (oh, it's still cool)
Now, to give an idea about how big this place is... even with my furniture I have enough room on the floor to stretch and do pushups, and just a bit more. Like Jason said, I could get dizzy rolling accross the room.
Oh yeah, there are 3 more things. A closet, which is suprisingly huge. But here's the deal.. it's actually separated into two - heightwise! So, it's function (to hang things up in) is kind of void. But it's separated by a good chunk of sturdy plywood, which makes it *very* tempting to make it into my bed. I mean, that'd be fun! Sleeping in the closet! But then where would I put all my stuff??
Then there is the 2-roomed bathroom. First, the "toilet" room. Almost as small as an airplane. A lonely toilet. A flushing handle with two setting; "big" and "small". And automatic tap running out the back of the toilet into a sink type thing, also on the top of the toilet. This sink only runs when you flush the toilet. Hence, I am more than a bit hesitant to use the thing.
Now, for the "shower" room. A huge square tub - very square, and very deep. At least 3/4 up my thigh. Gas hot water heater (I think I've already talked about THIS thing). A sink. All the water from the sink and tub drain into a lowered part of the floor under the tub, so you could actually see what was going on down there, if you wanted to. I personally DON'T, so I just don't look.
I've got some things up on my walls now, I gave up and bought pegs. I have a Japanese alphabet poster made for a child, so it's got an object beside each letter that starts with that letter - ya know. Hmm... some photocopies sent to me from my sister of her face shoved up agains the photocopier... two batiks from Jakarta, a map of Japan, and a poster of a drawn outdoor scene with common kanjis besied their respective objects. That one came with my "kanji dictionary for elementary school kids"
I mustn't forget all the slippers in each room! I wouldn't want to be uncomforming to Japanese society!
Friday May 30, 1997: 7:30am
I guess dog-commands are universal. I just passed a girl on my run who was saying "sit! stay!" to her dog. I've always wondered about that.
Oh yeah, I forgot penultimate penultimate. Arghaflubapssst!
3pm
I just tried a new route home - it went through rice paddies and wooden paths. plus, I avoided the big hill! I think I'll modify my way home from now on.
Saturday May 31, 1997: 10am
Well, I've managed to get almost 3 hours of sleep. Jason made me because he said I'd be grumpy if I didn't sleep at all. Shouldn't have told him what my mom says!
Last night we met up with no problem at the Ueno station, which is good, because I realized that we had no plan B. It was meet then, or never. We started by trying to find this arcade/market sort of thing and we got lost along the way, but ended up finding it anyways. There was lots of stuff there; squid and friends, clothes (new & vintage!), shoes, restaurants, game arcade places, etc. Tons of stuff. Oh yeah, fake watches were abundant. I didn't feel too much like shopping for anything.
We found an HMV. It was surprisingly large. Big selection of both Japanese and other music. The Japanese CDs were going for almost 3,000 yen ($35), but the others were about 2,100 yen ($25). So, not too bad.
Then came the time to find our PIZZA! We searched for quite awhile before we decided that pizza just might have to wait until tomorrow... so we started to look for Japanese places, but found pizza instead!
I love pizza. Of course, mine was unlike any pizza I'd had before.. the vegetarian option was a "salad pizza", which, to my surprise, was actually a SALAD (lettuce, corn, tomatoes, etc) on a thin pizza crust. Key fact: no sauce, no cheese!
Jason says my apartment is bigger than is. THIS is very cool.
Anyways, this was still pizza, so I was very, very happy.
And then DESSERT! Hmm... we got loose in a Lawson's and just bought a few ice cream/popsicle/frozen stuff things to eat. We walked around Ueno park with our ice cream. I definitely must go back there for another look, but maybe this time during the daytime.
When we got home to Hino (finally) I have no clue what we did, but we didn't sleep until 6:30am. Ugh, because then we got up at 9 so that we would get on our way to view Tokyo.
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