Translators

To my great relief, I finally found work here in Japan. Hopefully this means my days as an unemployable pariah are over. Whew. (In the back of my mind I worry that this company will call and reneg on the offer...)

Anyhoo, despite everyone's assurances that I'm insane, I've decided to commute. The job is in Tokushima City which means well, A LOT o' drivin'! Though with the repeated emails and exclamations of "Really? You're going to drive? Are you sure?" from various sources, I'm starting to uneasily wonder if I've made the right choice. But all this is beside the point.

In order to take this job it means I can't do certain other jobs I had previously agreed to do. After some agonizing over what to do I, perhaps selfishly, decided I couldn't pass up the city job over 2 hours a week if I stayed here. So I hied myself over to the Board of Ed to discuss my options. It had been agreed we'd meet when the/an interpreter was available.

I arrived at the designated time to find that the interpreter had "retired." Whether this meant he/she was sick, sleeping, or had actually retired, I wasn't sure. The most important fact was, there was no one who could speak both English and Japanese. I was ushered in to sit down beside the computer where I sat and was served some green tea, that I drank in small sips. The supervisor sat beside me and turned on the computer. Once it was on, he showed me a translating program via the internet.

Let me tell you, translating words using a dictionary doesn't always work. Things get mixed up and literal translations sound just plain strange a lot of the time. The two of us sat there, typing like mad then clicking that magic button which transferred our words into Japanese or English. We spent equal amounts of time puzzling at what the other had written. One time, when I asked if a class time could be changed I got the response: "It is not easy to say because it is very crowded." When I obviously looked confused, he changed one kanji character and I got instead, "It is not easy to say, because there are many participants." Another mistranslation was: "We will by separately worry by this." (when I expressed concern over what would happen to the adult classes I was supposed to teach) It went on like this for close to an hour, with people periodically standing behind us to watch the fun.

In the meantime, on top of the tea, I was served black coffee. Seeing that all the others were drinking theirs black, and feeling rude if I asked for any sugar or cream, I proceeded to drink it black too. It was strong but I kept sipping it, hoping to get used to the taste. Hell, if they can drink it black then so can I! Between the tea and coffee I was also given some cookies to munch on. It was almost like being at a teahouse.

In the end, we got our respective points across though I still wonder if they think I'm an ungrateful b***h for ditching the classes they had set up for me. If they do, I'll never know it because people are unfailingly polite here.

All in all, an interesting day.

Sports Day

This is a day when students display their athletic prowess. Well, not exactly but something to this effect. The day started out with some ceremonial greetings from both the principal and vice-principal of the school. The students stood quietly in straight, organized lines listening to them. They were dressed identically, in white t-shirts and dark blue shorts, white socks and sneakers. The only difference was the colour of the headband they were made to wear. It indicated what group each student was in. They were organized according to grade and then by gender.

A short warm-up followed which all the students and teachers seemed to know from long practice. Then the students dispersed, chatting at the sides until their group was due to practice/perform. The first event that I watched involved girls and car tires (I can't recall what grade they were in). Basically what happened is that the girls were divided into two groups, ran to the tires and struggled against their opponents to drag them to their respective sides. What was most amusing was when they came down to the last tire, at this point ALL the girls piled around it, pulling and pulling but to no avail. The thing wouldn't budge what with all the pressure around it.

Events that followed were equally mesmerizing. There was an odd kind of obstacle race which involved: throwing balls into a basket, ducking under hurdles, somersaulting onto a mat, rolling an enormous number cube, getting your face sprayed and then dunking your face into flour, finally the students ran past the finish line. There was also a folk dance that I had to stand in for since there weren't enough girls in the San-nen (third grade middle school) class. That was fun, though I had no idea what I was doing for the first few repetitions.

Keep in mind that all this is being done with inspirational music being played in the background. On the sides vendors sold sno-cones (my favourite! the cola flavour was especially good) and takoyaki which are hard to explain. They are bits of octopus mixed in batter and then baked/fried into little balls. It might sound disgusting to the average foreigner but they're actually pretty good.

All in all it was a good day. Thanks for reading.

Culture Festival

Today I accompanied Will to his junior high's Culture Festival. It usually seems to take place on a weekend and is to celebrate...culture as far as I could tell.

The first thing that happened were the 3 different grades each sang a song. As I can't understand Japanese, particularly if sung, I had no idea what the song might have been about. The students are all in uniform here. The girls wore sailor tops with pleated dark blue skirts and white knee socks while the boys wore short sleeved white collared shirts and black trousers. I'm not sure why Japan thought sailor-type outfits were great for girls but there you have it.

After the singing came a brass band performance and then a rap performance by three grade 9 students. Then the teachers sang another song I didn't understand. A trivia game followed and then some milling around. The fun part was the bazaar. We walked around, bought food from different booths that were run by the students and then I bought a ridiculous looking white vinyl purse for 50yen. Why? Because it was 50yen! Ah I love a good sale.

Afterwards was the closing ceremony, that I skipped, and they day was over. While I don't feel like I got an impressive amount of culture in me it was an interesting enough day. Clean up is extremely efficient. The students are really quick to put away chairs and tables that were used for the food booths. It was all done in about 10 minutes.

I look forward to Sports Day or undoukai tomorrow.

Some very random musings

It's another lazy day for me...there have been too many but nevertheless here we go. I ventured into a coffee shop yesterday to sit and well, drink coffee, write, read and enjoy their air conditioning. While there I pondered about the following subjects:

1. Why am I the only girl in this place? Ooh, did I enter a snack bar unknowingly?
2. Nifty Asian made cell phones! Very advanced...and prettily coloured.
3. How almost all things are packaged individually. Ie, cookies are often individually wrapped and then put into a larger package with other individually wrapped cookies.
4. Print Club/Photo Booths and their popularity
5. How this heat is just refusing to leave. Oi.
6. If I go to Kyoto will I be able to see a geisha? Or even more than one geisha?

Going back to #1, snack bars are places where men go to unwind and relax after work. Notice I said 'men' not 'people'. While the name 'snack bar' is innocuous enough the things that go on inside them aren't. Usually when viewed from the outside, you can see a rather nice building with the windows all heavily curtained off. In snack bars there are hostesses. These are women who go around, serve drinks and tidbits, and chat up the menfolk. Before I left Canada, I had to sign a waiver stating that I would not engage in this kind of work (in addition to prostitution and other unsavoury jobs). While hostesses aren't expected to do anything more than chat and harmlessly flirt with the men, there are some who go further, if you know what I mean. *wink wink, nudge nudge* Perhaps not the most desirable of professions.

At #4 I've listed Print Club. What is this you ask? Well, it is a booth designed for taking photo sticker pictures. We don't see too many of these back home, I don't think they're all that popular. What happens is you first choose the machine of your choice and then, the camera flashes away while you assume rather ridiculous (but sexy) poses. Note that this is usually done with at least one other person. Then, you choose how many of the photos you want printed. The real fun with the Japanese version comes from being able to adorn your photos with the most zany, loud and preposterous looking borders, stars, hearts and whathaveyou. Then, voila! You have print club stickers, ready to dole out to your friends. I commonly put mine on my bank card to dress it up some.

Alright, I'm only going to go over those two since the others look self-explanatory. Hope the weekend went well! Cheers,

Typhoon Update

Sorry folks, not too exciting. There was some wind and lots o' rain, but not enough to constitute a flood.

I stayed indoors and taught.

And there is your typhoon update. Today is very sunny and warm.

Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji

At the moment, Shikoku island is being hit by a typhoon. I've never been through any type of severe weather (save the all too common blizzards of Calgary) so this is a new experience for me. As of yet it doesn't seem to be too bad but I hear that it's supposed to pick up tonight. Expect an update when this weather passes! Now onto the subject of my post...

In Japan, three different sets of characters are used for reading and writing. They are:
1. Hiragana - solely for Japanese words
2. Katakana - for English words phonetically written into Japanese
3. Kanji - Chinese characters that are nicely mixed in with both hiragana and
katakana

Where hiragana and katakana are phonetic and relatively easy to learn, kanji is symbolic and the very devil to master. Each character's meaning needs to be memorized, however once you begin tossing different kanji together to make various words, their separate meanings almost become nil and a new meaning needs to be learned. For instance, when the characters for 'heaven' and 'messenger' are put together the new word formed is 'angel'. While the base words for angel makes some sense, other words put together are more obscure in their relationship ie, 'woman' and 'child' becomes 'like'. Though I suppose the reasoning there is all women are supposed to like children.

In addition to having to memorize about a billion combinations of kanji, the Japanese also need to learn which pronunciation to use. There is a Chinese and Japanese pronunciation for nearly every kanji. Take the kanji for 'mountain'. The Japanese word for it is 'yama' while the Chinese word is 'san'. When do you use which? I have absolutely NO IDEA. I just go around making a fool of myself by reading aloud kanji by their meanings in English. As a result the words make no sense whatsoever and I'm left more puzzled than when I started. I'm already pretty confused to begin with.

Writing a foreign language is a task unto itself. My English writing is neat and orderly if I do say so myself. My Japanese writing is probably similar to that of a young child with severe motor-skill deficiencies. I haven't even attempted kanji. There is a certain brushstroke order that is supposed to be followed when writing most Asian characters. Because I'm so fabulous I make up my own rules and as a result, my characters don't look anything like their book counterparts. I think for certain kanji you have to make as many as 23 different strokes to complete the character.

Thus, the conclusion is, I really haven't learned anything. I can read hiragana and katakana but so much kanji is used in written Japanese that any words I might've known are completely overwhelmed by it. Thus, I'm more or less illiterate, yet again in another Asian country. This has been your friendly neighbourhood post.

p.s. The Kanji shown with this post means 'truth'

Ordering when you can't read the menu

Last week I went with two friends to a cafe/restaurant that could only be described as coming straight from the set of the "Flintstones".  Seriously, on the outside it was a yellowish-beige colour and well, rocky looking.  Once you stepped inside the stone-age ambience ended and you were presented with a rather quaint but cozy enough looking restaurant.

I thought that a restaurant like this wouldn't have appealed to men but by far, it was men who populated the cafe.  Businessmen if their attire was any indication of what they did for a living.  Mostly they sat on their own at the tables, browsing through magazines or manga (Japanese comic books).  I was informed, I can’t verify if it’s true because I didn’t have a chance to read over their shoulders, that the popular genre of choice is pornography.  Again, I can’t verify though judging from the selection of manga at the café, it could very well be true.

Literary predilections aside, once the three of us were seated, the task upon us was to decipher the menu enough so that we could order something recognizable.  Two menus were provided, thus providing twice the reading effort.  We pored over the small, short menus as if we were trying to analyze a Shakespeare poem.  Sounding much like a 3 year old child, I would slowly read aloud those characters I could recognize while following my finger on the page.  I don’t think I looked very bright.  I don’t think any of us three looked especially intelligent.  We would squint and scrutinize those words written in katakana (characters used for English words translated phonetically to Japanese) and cheer once we figured out what it meant.  Ie. Ka-pei o-rei was café au lait.  There are no ‘l’ sounds in the Japanese alphabet.

I would judge that it took us a good half hour of study (including consulting my phrasebook) to decode the menu to some degree of satisfaction.  Then, in a show of stunning solidarity, we all ordered exactly the same dish, yakimeshi or fried rice.  We did branch out by requesting different desserts.  I opted for jam and toast, the other two received toast (sans jam) and a biscuit (I think it was whole wheat).  Actually I’m not sure if this was dessert or just another mini-meal served after the main meal.  I’ve learned not to order ice cream as part of a lunch set because it comes out at the same time as the rest of the meal and you’re left with a nice glass dish of soupy cream.  Hmm, perhaps you’re meant to eat it first.

Afterwards, we went on a cheese run.  This is exciting because there is virtually no good cheese to be found in Japan.  Not the likes of cheddar, mozzarella, Monterey jack or etc.  You can find brie and camembert.  Our endeavours were somewhat thwarted when we discovered the cheese available at a designated supermarket really wasn’t much different from what you could find locally.  It was a sad day but I bought some feta to soothe the blow and felt better.

My next plan of action is to go to a department store called Sogo in Tokushima City where I can go insane buying all the western fare that is fabled to exist there.  

Reading a foreign menu is something of a challenge that I think everyone should try at least once in their life.  If you can’t read it at all, just look blank and point to something at random.  You will get some sort of dish, though it may not be easily identifiable.  If you can read even a little you’re pretty much set.  Nevermind that you’re reduced to the point of starvation by the time you understand what you’re reading.

This post was brought to you by Yuri’s laptop and her fingers.  Cheers.

Kobe/Nara/Osaka

Hello again and welcome to the umpteenth instalment of Yuri's frenetic blogging. Brought to you by time and the Toshiba Satellite laptop which is better traveled then a lot of my friends. While that sounds like a plug it isn't. (though I do very much like my laptop!)

Over the weekend Will and I went to visit a friend of his in Kobe, Jun. So, we duly hopped onto a bus, watched the driver wave enthusiastically to every other bus driver during the entire 2 and a half hour trip, then pulled up into Kobe's Sannomiya Station. Having been a small town for the past month, the crowded streets of a big city were almost surprising. That and seeing more than a two lane highway was also quite titillating, though the congestion was something I don’t miss.

Our first night was spent with the Jun’s family where we were welcomed with great hospitality and a home-cooked meal that didn’t end. When I say this I mean that food was constantly being cooked and brought out to us. I’m wondering if I should’ve left food on my plate to signal the fact that I was full and no longer needed to eat anymore. After the food fest, I watched the two guys consume large amounts of alcohol and then we went to sleep on traditional futons.

The next day we were up and off to Nara, a place where there are many temples, a lot of natural beauty and alot of...deer! Oh yes indeedy, deer deer deer at every corner and every turn. Of one of the main roads anyway. I'm not sure what kind of deer they were either. I had thought only fawns had the white spots on their bodies but these deer all had them, whether they were big or small.

Now here is how it worked. The deer were trained to want these special deer crackers. You could buy them from the vendor for 150yen. The deer were apparently trained to not want to eat the cracker's lying on the vendor's cart but once you had them in your own hands, hoo boy, watch out! As most of you know male deer have antlers, and they use these antlers to stab at you until you give them some crackers. No, it's not very nice but telling the deer this does little to make them stop. I even got nipped by one of the does and she left a bit of a bruise. You can make the deer follow you around by holding crackers up in the air and feel like the King/Queen of the world! The deer automatically gravitate towards humans until they realize you have no crackers, then you're left severely alone and shunned by these creatures. Most of the afternoon I watched several people trying to feed the deer though it usually resulted in them trying to avoid being butted and bitten. Some actually ran away, screaming, from the ferocious animals. By some, I mean me. Well, I didn't scream, but I did back away.

We also saw some temples too. I'm not sure what to say about them, being a temple snob since I've seen so many in the past 2 years.

Another thing that I did on this trip was goggle at the unusual fashion sense I saw displayed by both the males and females. Generally, I saw no young Japanese with their natural hair colour. No, it was various shades of brown, red, orange and blond. If they did have their natural colour it was overwhelmed by insidious streaking of the aforementioned colours. Not to mention that the mullet seems to have come back into style here. What starts off as a thick head of hair on most girls (and is sometimes teased into a huge pompadour), ends in thinned out trails. Now, yes, I'm in Japan and I realize cultures are different, blah blah blah, but a mullet never looks good on ANYONE. Not 80s hockey players nor trendy Japanese youth. *shudder* Make up was done with painstaking care. Powder, eyeshadow (alot of green) and lots of mascara. I wanted to know how they applied the makeup without having it run off the face as soon as you stepped outside.

Clothing was another thing. In order to be fashionable here you need to layer like there's no tomorrow. Girls would commonly wear:
1. a thin light coloured tank top
2. a slightly thicker more abrasively coloured tank top, and sometimes
3. a thin, short sleeved button down top, but left unbuttoned
Jeans were usually worn with these layers and in this weather I think that's nuts. During a summer where I'm constantly plotting how to jump from one air-conditioned place to another, jeans are just not an option. Girls also usually wore very girly sandals which I very much liked. No really, I sound sarcastic but I really liked them. I want metallic pink strappy sandals with big blue flowers too! (again, this is not sarcasm)

Men sported alarmingly similar hairstyles to the girls, to the point where sometimes I couldn't tell who was who and would commonly wear:
1. a tank top, and sometimes
2. a short sleeved button down top, left unbuttoned or just the tank top
They also paired their shirt/shirts with jeans. You've already read what I think about that. Men usually wore huge near-platform sneakers on their feet. We won't go into what I thought about that.

So to those of you who wanted or expected the lowdown on a Japanese city, sorry but this is what I noticed more. I also want to say once again what great hosts we had. Only in Asia have I met people who are quite so attentive to their guests.

The Yen

In Japan, the price of living is pretty much what they say it is. Darned expensive. I am lucky because I am currently mooching off of my fiancé who is JET. As far as housing goes, I can’t give you all a realistic price since his place is well subsidized and nowhere near what the usual rent would be. First off, I will describe the yen. It comes in these denominations
1 yen - a flimsy, tin-like coin
5 yen - a more solid, gold coloured coin, with a hole in the middle
10yen -an even more solid, copper coin
100yen - a silver coin, about the size of a quarter
500yen - the biggest coin of all, light gold
1000yen - the smallest paper note
5000yen - the next smallest paper note
10000yen - the biggest paper note

If there is anything larger than the 10000yen note I don't know what it is. Japanese people, I've heard, usually carry about 20000yen with them at all times. This is roughly equivalent to $225 CDN. I don't know about you guys but I was lucky if I had a quarter in my wallet back home. The disarming thing is that loose change in your pocket could easily equal $20. I'm sure this has prompted many people to carefully search under couch cushions. You could come up with next month's rent. I will now relate the costs of some items and irritatingly switch between the yen value and dollar (CDN) value. It keeps you on your toes.

At the supermarket, particularly near the fruit section, I become depressed. The price of apples (my absolute most favourite fruit in the world) is about 2 dollars CDN per apple. Oranges are about the same and grapes go for about 4 dollars per tiny bunch. Actually most fruit are in the realm of the pricey. So what do I end up buying? It’s sad but honestly, I buy peaches that aren’t in their prime so to speak. The supermarket in my town (remember, I only have one!) usually sells fresh ones for the bargain price of 2 for 398yen. When these fresh peaches pass their peak they are packaged into trays of two or four and sold for a lower price. For instance, I picked up 4 not-so-fresh peaches today for the great price of $2! The drawback of this is you need to eat them...FAST. Apparently fruit was meant for the rich (and possibly famous). Perhaps the fruit all have diamonds and gold embedded in them. This could account for the sky high fees.

Video rentals go for what they do back home. Ie, Too Much. After some painful interaction, I managed to open an account, paid 200yen for the membership, was told something about 2 weeks (???) and then went to go pick out a video. I chose "Oceans 12" but, to quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I chose unwisely. Unbeknowst to me some videos are dubbed into Japanese while others are just subtitled. Guess which one I chose? This misguided choice cost me 515yen. Like I said, pretty standard.

For a cost that caught me by surprise, I will now introduce the train. I'm fortunate to live fairly close to the town's train station. To ride into the nearest city (Tokushima), a ride that takes about an hour and fifteen minutes, it costs me 2120yen or about $23 round trip. Yeow, after the economical subway of Seoul this is painful indeed! (a similarly distanced trip would cost $1.50) I've bravely taken this trip twice though both times I felt like I was getting royally ripped off.

Gas is also quite expensive, going for about 140yen per litre. I pulled up somewhat shakily (my standard skills are still not up to snuff) and asked for a full tank. I drive a Mitsubishi Minica, a car so small that I routinely lose it in parking lots bigger than 2 spaces. The grand total? 3014yen! The cost to fill a mid-size sedan back home. I shudder to think what it would cost to fill a hefty, gas-guzzling, environmentally unfriendly SUV.

The last thing I can think of that costs more than usual is lodging. Want a hostel? Sure, it'll be close to $40 bucks for a standard bed. From this you can deduce what an actual hotel would be. If you can't, I don't have a lot of numbers for you but I think they start at $100. It would be good to know someone if you want to come to Japan, that way you can crash at their place instead of paying an astronmical bill.

Aside from the things I've mentioned, prices in Japan are somewhat similar to prices back home. I'm sure if you scoured the country you'd find bargains...even with apples. But this is what I've found in the 3 weeks I've been here.

Stay tuned because I'm visitng Kobe on the weekend. I will update when I return. Cheers,

Three times daily

Going back to Japan now, just a short post about the interesting "alarm" system they have going here.

In Sadamitsu, a melody plays three times a day. It's a different melody each time. At 7am I wake up because of the unfamiliar music that is being played ALL over the town. I'm sure that everyone in every household can hear it. It's not overbearingly loud but at the same time, loud enough to interrupt sleep. I suppose its purpose is to wake people up in anticipation of the workday (yay work!). It also plays, without fail, on the weekends. I suppose to wake people up in anticipation of their days of rest (yay rest!).

At noon another melody plays, this time one that I recognize as "Edelweiss" (from that beloved and celebrated movie, which all people love, the Sound of Music *sarcasm sarcasm*). The purpose of this notification? To tell people that it's time to eat lunch maybe? Or perhaps just to herald the oncoming of midday. Or it could be both! Yes, I've solved that mystery!

The last, again unrecognizable, song plays at 5pm. I was told yesterday that this is because it's time to go home. I haven't noticed that this prompts a huge onslaught of traffic but my house is also on the top of a hill and nowhere near a main street anyway. Also, in a town of this size, there really is no rush hour. Traffic flow seems to remain the same no matter what time of day it is.

If anyone ever comes to visit me in Sadamitsu, you too can experience the wonders of the thrice daily melodic alarms. I wonder if this is a regional thing? Or if bigger cities have them too? Food for thought.

The differences between MEN and WOMEN

In a departure from the usual Japan posts I thought I'd take this opportunity to expound on the differences between the fair and not-so-fair sexes.

I'm not an expert on the subject, nor do I possess a degree in psychology specializing in sex differences in the brain. These are merely my observations about the topic based on my experiences in relationships both romantic and platonic. And here they are! (disclaimer: The following is not representative of either the whole female or male genders, they are only examples…and a lot of it is tongue in cheek)

1. Communication
Where women are avid and almost obsessive in their desire to communicate either with their significant others or with other women, men have a more diffident, casual stance about it. That being, don't reply or acknowledge until the other party thinks you're dead. There are exceptions, namely if the man has a better half who is threatening him into communication. When I asked one of my male friends about his inability to reply to emails, he responded: "But I have nothing interesting to say!" Well, neither do I. I keep a blog to bore people to tears. Emails and phone calls don't need to be wildly entertaining, just to let us know you're THERE. With all the communication mediums out there (email, internet, texting) men should be very scared....

2. Washing the dishes
Okay, not a fun and exciting task but, trust me, women don't have a whale of time doing them either. I confirmed with a girlfriend of mine that leaving dirty dishes in the sink to pile up only aggravated us more rather than the intended effect of aggravating our boyfriends into doing them. Perhaps there really are sex differences in the brain and women are more prone to putting soap onto a sponge and then rubbing the soapy sponge onto used dishes or cutlery.

3. Taking laundry out of the machine
I do my fiancé’s laundry in addition to my own. Why? Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I honestly don’t mind. One time I fell ill and he decided to help me do my own laundry. Since I’d already started the wash, all he needed to do was hang it up to dry (in Asia, we don’t have dryers). He went about it and finished in a suspiciously short amount of time. Later, when he’d left, I got up to inspect what he’d done. I almost laughed outloud because the sheets I’d washed were piled in a clump on top of my drying rack. Okay guys, you heard it here first, objects of the cloth variety don’t dry well when bunched up and, when in humid areas such as Korea or Japan, can even start smelling moldy. Ya might as well leave them in the washer. But it’s the thought that counts.

4. The famous “Oh go ahead. I’ll be fine.” – It’s a fine line
Men take note, when your lady says to you go ahead to do something, you need to study EVERYTHING about the way she said it and the activity you’re taking part in. My beloved and I were hiking in Grouse Mountain a few months ago and I’m like a snail when it comes to hiking anything remotely difficult. I know he’s much faster and told him to go ahead and that I’d see him at the top. I think I actually meant it at the time too. So, he went. The hike was gruelling. The longer it went, the more I expected to see my fiancé waiting to make sure I was alright. Nope, nowhere in sight, that rat bastard. When I saw the sign indicating I’d made it half way (after about an hour and a lot of sweating) I just about started crying and then contemplated going back down. Yeah, that’d show him, he’d really start to get worried then wouldn’t he? I actually ended up making it to the top but got progressively more and more pissed off as I went. Sure, I said go ahead but I mean c’mon, where the hell is he? I related this story to my friend’s fiancée who heartily agreed that I was right to be mad.

Sound irrational? That’s because it is, it’s the beauty of being a woman and saying things you don’t really mean, but not even realizing you might not mean them at the time. Your best bet is to stay put whenever there might be danger of your girl becoming angry. (note: if in a shopping mall “Go ahead I’ll be fine” really means go ahead and will likely even be suggested by the female. We can entertain ourselves for hours by shopping and your presence probably only hinders the experience)

5. Leaving cabinets open
Oi! If there is something that gets on my nerves its cabinets, particularly kitchen ones, being left open or not quite closed. This may be something specific only to myself. If I’m eating dinner and notice that a cabinet door has been left open I’ll stare at it until I can’t stand it anymore and then get up and close it. If my fiancé is cooking, I will actually stand in the kitchen to close the cabinet doors as he opens and then abandons them.

Men appear to operate by the standard: “Well, I’m going to open it again at some point, so why bother closing it?” Dishes and cups deserve their privacy too, so be a pal and close the cabinet doors.

6. Video games
For awhile everytime I called a close male friend I could count on him to be playing his Playstation while he talked to me. This phenomenon remains a mystery to me. The appeal of these games? You’ve got me. I’ve tried to play but I quickly get bored when I can’t pass a level and lose interest, this goes even for the ever-lasting Super Mario series. Perhaps I just lack ambition. Shooting games such as “Doom” and, I can’t even name another one, cease to be amusing after the first two levels, I get sick of pressing one button on the controller over and over. I once sat through (I was attempting to read at the time) my significant other playing the same level on a racing game about 50 times and each time the same horrible euro-pop track emerged. That song is now embedded into my brain for all time.

I will admit to being very fond of a game called “The Sims” but when I offered that up as a video game I played I was met by scorn from my male friends who informed me that it wasn’t really so much a game as Barbie for the computer. Having loved Barbie as a child I could see why I enjoyed the Sims so much. What’s not to like about watching your character learn to feed themselves and play the piano? But still, I can’t play this game with the same devotion that men give to their Playstations.

And these are a few of the things I observe on a daily basis. Thanks for reading.

Humidity and its consequences

Humid heat is one of the things I just can't bear, but bearing it I have been since I don't have any other choice. Though I suppose I could always jump on a plane going home to where it's currently about 9 degrees and raining (Calgary has had one of its worst summers in history). I suppose Korea's climate should have prepared me for this but even that wasn't quite as bad as the misty heat you experience on this island.

I come from a city near the Rockies in Canada. Calgary is an extremely dry city. To the point where your skin will start turning white from lack of moisture and this happens no matter how much you moisturize. This is what I grew up with and where my body is comfortable. When it's hot in Calgary it's still alright. Whereas in humid areas, you can sweat just by standing outside for a few minutes. I tested this, and its true! Thank goodness we have an air conditioner or air kon which I've actually started calling it. Without it I'd cry on a daily basis.

Personal suffering aside there is another downfall to humidity and it has to do with spices kept too long in one's cupboard. Oh yes, I found this out yesterday. Lately, I've taken to cooking, figuring at the age of 26 I'd better be able to feed myself let alone others. When I first arrived at this house, a lot of condiments had been left. Curry powders, salt, pepper, oregano etc. Among these one was labeled "House Seasoning" which I figured was an all purpose deal. I hadn't bothered with this bottle and probably would've continued to ignore it had I not noticed a tiny fly crawling on the outside of it. Upon closer inspection it was revealed that the fly was actually on the INSIDE of the bottle. Somewhat grossed out, I picked up the offending container only to realize I was holding a breeding ground. There were actually a handful of flies crawling around and within the spices clumped at the bottom of the bottle were tons of larva.

It was probably one of the more disgusting moments of my life. Not knowing what to do with it, I set the House Seasoning on the table and then wondered how the hell I was going to throw it out. If you remember from an earlier post, garbage is all separated here. While the bottle would've qualified for the "plastic" category I had good reason to believe that the colony inside wouldn't. There was no way I was opening up that thing to comply with the garbage rules. I didn't want those flies taking up residence elsewhere.

Basically the moral of the story is, if you would like to experiment with flies of the fruit variety, buy House Seasoning, let it sit for at least one summer and voila, the little critters will pop out of nowhere. This would've been useful back in high school when we were trying to cultivate the flies.

Driving in the Land of the Rising Sun

And in passing, why does this particular country get the moniker "Land of the Rising Sun"? Well, actually, I know the answer to that, it's Japan's location in relation to China. That is, farther East, where things begin. Korea gets stuck with the piddling name "Land of the Morning Calm". I guess it's calm since Japan stole the entire sun rising thing, but I digress.

By the time I arrived in Japan, Will had already secured a car. A tiny, white Mitsubishi Minica. Have no idea what it is? That's because cars of this ilk generally aren't manufactured in the States. It's very small and known here in Japan as a k-car (kei-car?). K-car's aren't just Mitsubishis but any car that has a small engine. Those with smaller engines are given yellow licence plates, instead of white, and I think have a break on some taxes. I swear you could fit this car into your pocket.

Japan, as most of you know, operates on slightly different driving rules, that is, they drive on the left hand side of the road. Or to North Americans, the WRONG side of the road. I don't see why the entire world couldn't all drive on the same side but there it is. At first it was strange to look at cars and see the steering wheel situated on the right side of the car but you get used to it surprisingly fast. Since I'm following traffic most of the time, it isn't hard to figure out where you're supposed to be. If I was alone on the road then I think I'd run into some trouble. Traffic lights are also reversed. The red light is on the right and the green on the left (which leaves yellow in the middle as usual). Then, in bigger places, there are some funky lights where the solid red stays but green arrows light up underneath it and traffic seems to proceed as normal. The meaning of this? Who knows? To spice up life maybe?

Driving a colleague home one day to a place called Koyadaira which is high high up in the mountains, I discovered that small mountain roads are only one lane. What happens if one meets oncoming traffic? Well, you slow right down and stay to the side as much as possible to see if both cars are small enough to squeeze through. If you're lucky there is a dip or shoulder in the road to swerve into to let the other car pass. If you meet a truck it is your responsibiity to back up and make room for it. The truck takes priority over all other cars. Luckily, I was just a passenger and Will was the one who had to stress about curves and oncoming traffic. I continued to usefully gape at the narrowness of the road.

In this country, cars are inspected every 2 years. This is called shaken. In order to continue driving your car, you must pass shaken, if you don't then no more driving until you get a better car. While this could be a good thing (you know if you pass that your car is in pretty good condition) it makes quite the dent in the pocketbook, anywhere from about 72000yen to 128000yen per shaken. I believe that if the car is older, and therefore needs more maintenance, then the cost of shaken goes up. *note: if you're interested in price conversions, look up the universal currency converter online*

Our little Minica went through shaken just this past year and won't need another until 2007. At that point who knows how much it would cost? But it's always nice to have some mobility, no matter what country you're in.

Centipedes

I find that any new country I'm in seems to have its own share of wonderfully exotic and rather disturbing insects. They can range from those with long wings, long legs, long bodies and so on and so forth. Are you noticing a trend here? I hate any insect that's long. In China, it was very fast and wily centi or millipedes. In Korea it was the occasional cockroach (hey I'm from Calgary, we don't have roaches there) and what they called "meh-mi" or cicadas which if you haven't heard, can be deafening in the amount of noise they make collectively. I hate bugs. I probably have one of the girliest reactions to them, ie screaming, making a fuss, leaping onto couches, chairs, tables, you get the idea.

Yesterday in the living room of our house, a weird 'plop' noise interrupted my reading. As my gaze wandered the room to see what it could've been I noticed this black, very long centipede making its merry way across the floor. It was even disgustingly coloured, being a pale beige on the bottom, black on top with red tips. Being the proactive person that I am I immediately drew back in horror then whined while pointing at the offensive creature,
"Will! Ew...look!"
He accordingly looked up, though he should really be immune to my whining tones, and heroically grabbed the bug spray. Then he sprayed the centipede within an inch of its life. I've never used bug spray before, but I think I should invent one that causes instant death rather the prolonged agony this one provided. At first the newly sprayed centipede didn't seem affected by the poison. He scurried on even more quickly, seeking refuge behind the bookcase, so Will attacked with the can again. After a little more scurrying, the insect started in on the most horrific writhing and convulsing that I've ever seen. It curled and uncurled at an alarming rate, rolling onto its side, back, then front again. Transfixed, I couldn't stop staring at it, wondering just how much pain it was in. The performance wore on, with the centipede's curls growing gradually slower and sometimes stopping completely. Finally, Will couldn't stand it any more, and took it to its watery grave.

Sometimes I wonder if there'll be any karmic retribution. Will I come back as a centipede in my next life so I can experience the wonders of being slain via poison? I like to think I'd be smart enough not to enter people's houses.

Awa Odori

Over this past weekend, Japan celebrated a holiday called "Obon." It's a time to celebrate your ancestors and is rooted in Buddhist religion. As Japanese legend tells it, a buddhist disciple, wanting to save his mother's spirit from hell, went to the monks and made offerings to save her. Thusly she was saved, went to heaven or zen and her son danced in celebration. (this was an extremely condensed version of the legend) As I understand it Obon is when people travel back to their hometown to be with family. Kind of like our Christmas...but without the religious overtones and gifts.

Remember the part where the disciple danced? This is probably one of the more integral parts of the legend since the major attraction during Obon here in Tokushima-ken is the Awa Odori festival. Literally translated Awa Odori means Tokushima and Dance respectively. I heard from someone that the dance was boring but after witnessing it over the weekend I couldn't disagree more. It's a delight to watch.

Awa Odori is a classical Japanese dance accompanied by similarly classical instruments such as drums, flute, shamisen (a stringed instrument), and gongs. Though there are conflicting beliefs on how the dance came about, I choose to believe it was to welcome the spirits during the Obon season. Traditionally, the dance had men and women doing separate parts. Today, women can perform the men's role but the opposite doesn't occur (when does it ever in any society??) The men, wearing a short yukata (summer kimono), white shorts, a headband and a strange version of tabi (socks meant for Japanese flip-flops), dance low to the ground, a fan in one hand and chanting. The steps are slow but deliberate and look deceptively easy. It's not. You need a good deal of coordination to be able to carry off the dance with the grace that these dancers showed. The women wear colourfully decorated, full-length yukatas, a straw hat, and in addition to the tabi, they also wear zori (traditional flip-flops with two wedges on the bottom). Their dance is performed with straighter posture and both arms in the air imitating the act of picking flowers. The amazing thing is, the women balance themselves on the very tips of their zori the entire time while dancing. With my sense of balance having fled when I stopped ballet, I would've fallen many times over.

The men dance their part first, followed by the women in a very well choreographed set of lines. While they dance they repeat a chant, started by one dancer and followed up by the group. What they say translates to: "Fools are dancing and fools are watching too. Both are fools ,why not dance!" (sorry, the translation sounds so cheesy, you have to hear it in Japanese where it goes perfectly with the music and dance). After the dancers come the musicians, egging the dancers on and occasionally stepping up the tempo to entice the dancers the move more quickly, which was my favourite part of the dance.

In Tokushima City, where I first watched Awa Odori, it's a formal affair. The streets are roped off and the spectators kept a good distance from the approaching dancers and musicians. While this was a great experience, I rather enjoyed Sadamitsu's more casual approach to the festival. The streets are fairly small and narrow so there isn't too much room to sit and watch. As a result, people mill around and you're right next to the action. Everyone has a front-row view and therefore, can enjoy it more. I also enjoyed the sno-cones they sold at virtually every block. Small streets equals easy access to the refreshments being sold during the festival. Nothing screams a good time like readily available snacks and sweets.

All age groups are included in Awa Odori, from toddlers to the elderly, and they all look like they're enjoying themselves immensely. This is the key to a successful performance and it made this former dancer want to kick off her western-style shoes and join in.

I am an Amazon

In Canada, I am of average height or a little over the mean. My size is almost always readily available at any shoe store and clothes of the medium variety generally fit me quite well.

Then I went to Asia.

In China, I had the great pleasure of realizing I was now an 'extra large.' I could still manage to find shoes though my feet were close to being too big for the country. In Korea the infamous 'one size fits all' certainly didn't fit me, always being too tight to wear out in public. For the most part, girls in these two countries were tiny. Thin, to the point of looking fragile, and throw in small bones to complete the picture of waifishness. Although my two Korean-born parents are of the aforementioned small boned elite, I, being raised on wholesome eggs, vegetables, milk and good ol' Alberta beef, came out much larger than either my mother or my father. How exactly this was possible with my genetics is the object of much speculation since cousins of mine, also born in Canada, aren't quite as Amazonian as I am. I'm taller than all the women and some of the men, on either side of my family. During my growth spurt, my grandmother would look at me with a mix of awe and horror.
"How are you going to find a man tall enough for you to marry?" She would often wail. At this point I was only about 13 and still had a lot of growing left in me. My grandfather was also bemused by my vertical achievements.
"Hmm, you aren't tall," He addressed my mother (who clocks in at a bare five feet), "And Jin isn't really above the average (5'8"). What happened to your daughter?" Let it be known that as height goes I'm really a modest not quite 5'7". In Asian standards...HUGE!

Now in Japan, I'm confronted by something new to make me conscious of my size. I'm not sure if it's because the house is old (people seemed to be smaller long ago) but everything is situated very LOW. To wash my face in the sink, I have to really stoop. It's interesting fun to have my butt sticking way out just so I can reach the faucet. The same goes if I want to wash the dishes. If there's a lot to do my back starts getting sore from hunching over. I think I may take to sitting down to chop food to avoid any back stress. I'm close to touching the top of the doorways and the chains for turning the light on are always hitting my head. Though that last is also partly due to my habit of getting in the way of everything. Like I mentioned before, I tower over most of the girls I've met here and am probably comparable to a lot of the men. It's great to be a giant. I almost expect my voice to be deeper.

My Daisy Dukes and Culture Clash

Actually, I don't think my shorts would be short enough to be considered Daisy Dukes, at least not in North America. However, here in Sadamitsu I haven't seen another girl wearing anything quite as high above the knee. The thing I always manage to forget when I'm traveling is that customs and culture aren't the same. I mean this is obvious what with language and greetings but then you get to the more subtle differences. In this case I'm writing about something as simple as clothing. This being my third time living in a foreign country, I think its starting to wear on me.

On my first day in this town, Will and I prepared to go out to register me for my "gai-jin" card or alien registration card. Thinking nothing of it, I had put on a pair of innocent-looking Old Navy shorts. They were khaki-coloured and left a little more than half my thigh exposed. As I was grabbing my purse, Will looked at me.
"Um, maybe you should change your clothes. You know to make a good first impression."
I was indignant. These shorts were perfectly fine, thank you very much. As far as I knew I didn't dress like a ho. I'm a Canadian and we're not indecent people. Not to mention it was about a zillion degrees outside (have I mentioned how much I hate the heat?) and I was suffering from a 15 hour time change.
"You've got to be kidding me. What the hell am I supposed to wear? All my shorts look like this!" I said, exasperated while gesturing to the ones I had on.
"Just something not so short. Do you have any skirts? Please, do this for me. At least for now." He added this last as I was glaring, feeling mutinous and on the verge of saying a flat out "no." With a lot of mumbled complaints I changed into a more appropriate skirt that came down to my knees. I suppose it wouldn't have been good to be considered that trashy ho who came to join Will. I stomped back out into the kitchen ready to fight should more admonitions come my way. None came, either because the skirt was ok or because I looked like I would hit him should he find anything more amiss.

Today I ventured out of the house wearing a pair of my short shorts. Judgments be damned! If I received any askance looks I didn't notice. I choose not to notice things that would upset me. Though now I do wonder if I made bad impressions in China or Korea. In those two countries I wore whatever the hell I pleased. Clothing is just a part of it. I know I must've made numerous social blunders that the people were very forgiving about. Or perhaps they talked about me behind my back, bless the oblivion I live in! But both those times I was living in a large city, not a town where everyone seems to know your every move. When you live in a different country I think you need to adhere to some of their customs and protocol, but where is the line drawn? Clothing is one thing but what about my manners? I'm sure I'm probably the loudest girl here. Hey, I'm pretty damn loud even in Canada. Japanese women are the complete opposite of me. Sometimes you can barely hear them. I'm thinking they view me as this strange and huge amazon of an Asian girl who has a voice box to match (on average I'm about half a head taller than most girls, and alot of guys, I meet here and generally more robust). I'll also be known as the girl who wore those indecent daisy dukes.

Small town Japan

I write to you from my house (well technically not really mine, nor Will's) in Sadamitsu. A town with the towering population of approximately 5000. I should be trying to study Japanese but I'm a great procrastinator and instead decided to update my blog.

For those of you who don't know much about the geography of Japan, Sadamitsu is on the island Shikoku. There are four main islands that make up Japan: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. Honshu is the largest of the four and is where most of the big cities are (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Tokyo) and I'm not on it. Now, I recall after being in Seoul that I never wanted to live in such a big city again. I certainly got that wish!

Sadamitsu is pretty easy to get around. Since I have next to no sense of direction this is a fortunate thing indeed. I really can't get lost, even if I take a wrong turn somewhere. The town just isn't big enough to get lost in. The main road is quite short by Calgarian standards, and is easily walkable. If you lived only in this town and never went anywhere else there wouldn't be much need for a car. While walking about the town yesterday I looked at my map and wished to visit the stationery store (I love pens and notebooks, can't get enough). I missed it during my first attempt. When I did find it I discovered it was half a stationery store and half a sporting goods store. What connection do stationery and sporting goods have? You've got me. But here I guess they go hand in hand.

On my way to the stationery place I passed by another store that specialized in "hankko" or name stamps. In Japan your written signature doesn't seem to matter much. What does matter is this thin wooden cylinder that has your name engraved on one end. You're supposed to carry it with you at all times and use it to "sign" documents (ie, car registration papers, bills, etc.) Having been in Japan for only 4 days I didn't have one yet. Will didn't know how to ask for it in Japanese so being the brazen person I am I decided this was the time to torture some poor storeowner. I went in armed with my Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook and a ready smile. Our resulting conversation went something like this: (note, I had no idea what the man was actually saying so it's what I interpreted he would be asking)
Me: "Excuse me *long pause* I'm foreign *shorter pause* Name stamp. How much is it?"
Man: "Is this a new name stamp?" (I found out the word for NEW later on in the day)
Me: Completely confused, my smile now cemented onto my face, "My name is Yuri. Katakana."
Man: "Yuri-san." And he writes down my name in katakana. I watched approvingly, knowing only the characters for my name and recognizing them. At this point it suddenly occurred to me that I might be doing this all wrong. What if they actually needed my last name, not my first? How do I tell him I don't want to do this right now? Not knowing how to communicate any of the above I just stood, mutely hoping I was doing the right thing, with a feeling of panic welling up that I kept quashing down.

From here I somehow managed to select the stamp I wanted, the cheapest he had, then went through some great pantomimes and sketches to figure out what time to return to pick it up.
Man: "Come back in one hour."
Me: "Eh? Tomorrow?"
Man: "No, one hour. It's easy, doesn't take long to make." After a few reptitions of this and my obviously not comprehending any of it, he gestured to the clock behind him. I looked at the clock and saw it said 12:30pm. I guess my look was as deer-in-the-headlights as you could get because he finally took a pad of paper and drew a clock, indicating 12:30 and then another showing 1:30. This I understood and jauntily took off...and came back at the designated when I picked up my hanko and with more jumbled conversation, where I think I managed to say my parents are from Korea, I somehow received a very nice case (complete with ink pad!) for free. I guess this was payment for pestering him all afternoon.

But in any case, I accomplished this much with next to no language skills. Just think what I could do if I could talk even a little. I'm going to take over Japan...

First impressions of Japan

I have now been in Japan for about 2 and a half days. I'm not doing too bad on jet lag or so it seems, maybe it'll hit me later in the week and I'll become narcoleptic.

The plane ride wasn't so bad. I had my own TV screen and could choose from about 7 different movies that were constantly looping. I could also play video games. Bad ones but games nonetheless. To me, this is high class flying. I've never had my own screen, much less video games. I spent a lot of time losing at Connect 4. That computer was just too smart for me. It made me mad.

Narita airport in Tokyo is huge and if you've been to Incheon in Seoul, it's very similar. I powered through passport inspection but got held up at the baggage carousel. I don't know if Japan is on a make-work program but there were at least 4 people hanging around the carousel making sure everything was going smoothly. Even China didn't have people doing those tasks. After sitting forlornly in my luggage cart (which was free, all that worrying for nothing) I finally hoisted my bags onto it, admist much grunting and puffing, then zipped through customs where they pretty much waved me through. I guess I don't look like a drug pusher or the like.

Will met me at Osaka airport at which point I'd been awake for 24 hours and had no idea what was going on. I couldn't seem to comprehend that I was indeed in Japan and that my Korean was useless here (it somehow registered that English was going to be no help at all). Everytime I attempted to talk, I had to stop myself from speaking Korean. Is this some defense mechanism of the brain? Or was I just really tired?

I'm now situated with Will in a small town called Tsuguri-cho. More specifically some district called Sadamitsu. After Seoul this place is tiny. No one seems to be on the streets at any time. There are only a handful of people at the train station and there is one supermarket in the whole town. No one speaks any English and I think Will and I are the only foreigners in this direct area. Oi. It's also HOT HOT HOT. I'm freakin' in a sauna. I've taken to wearing a damp towel around my neck to make it bearable, sometimes I cover my head with it and ignore any funny looks I might get. I've also taken to wearing skirts since my shorts are considered indecent here.

One of the stranger things here, aside from driving on the left hand side, is the garbage arrangement. And I thought Korea was bad where I had to buy special bags to throw trash out in. I have to have about 5 different bags here. One for clear plastics, one for coloured plastics, one for plastics not fitting into the other 2 categories, glass bottles, bottle caps, paper, food and scraps, and large things like electronics. Everything is separated within an inch of its life and thrown into colour-coordinated bags. Today when attempting to throw out a juice carton I had to consult the chart on the wall to figure out which bag it went into, this was after studying said juice carton for 5 minutes hoping to come up with the answer myself. Consequently, the kitchen is a mess of bags and garbage cans. Another slightly strange thing, our washing machine is outside the house. And the toilet has its own room, the shower and bath are together in a separate room. Why does the toilet get its own room? Is it a special toilet because I can choose from 2 settings?

Anyway, there are some random observations of Japan. I will keep you posted on the happenings here. I can't wait until October when things should be cooling down. Yergh.

Cheers,

Musings from Gate 71

The following is from while I was waiting in Vancouver airport, bored to tears, so I decided to write an entry into my journal to be posted later...like now.

Internet is bloody expensive and being hoarded by 2 people right now so I'm recording this in my journal. This now marks the second time I've traveled internationally, alone.

I'm sitting at Gate 71, and being increasingly surrounded by Japanese people. Now, this should come as no real surprise since I'm heading to Japan but I find myself experiencing the same sinking feeling I had when I went to Korea. Oddly, I think I'd feel a hell of a lot more comfortable if I was surrounded by Korean or even Chinese people.

I'm asking the same questions, ie. What made me think this was a good idea in the 1st place?? Why am I leaving the comforts of home where I'm easily understood? Little things niggle at me too. Like, do luggage carts cost money in Narita airport? Hmm, I should exchange some cash. But what if it only takes coins? I don't have any coins! Or, what if I throw out my back trying to life that huge suitcase of mine?

Oh oh oh, more Japanese people coming, panic panic. Well, I'll write again from across the Pacific.