Week 2: week of frustration

Hey all!

Apparently my city's mascot.

I'll be honest, it's been a hard week.  I started off Monday with four simple things to get done.

1) register at the city hall

2) get a bank account at the post office

3) get a phone

4) see my schools

I figured I could knock off the first 3 Monday, no problem, and get the 4th done Tuesday, leaving me the rest of the week to try and figure something out.

Yeah.

That didn't work.

I ended up getting 1 thing done each day, but of course, since I was TRYING to get everything else done, it all added up to large amounts of frustration.  The city hall was actually the easiest thing. What's that say when CITY HALL gives you the least trouble?
See, when you move anywhere here in Japan,you have to let the local government know, and they mark your ID card and yeah. Not much.   (even residents have to do this.) I thought to myself "that went well, I will now go get a phone."
For my phone, I wanted a pre-paid, because otherwise you're locked into a 2 year contract.  (yes, they still do that here)  Well, only one company does that, and neither of the two stores I checked had English speakers, a translation line, or pre-paid phones.  Well, Ok, Bank account!  I went to the post office, and again, had no English speakers. I finally took a picture of the "account" sign on the ATM and showed that to them saying "Give me".  (complete with hand signs)  AH! The light dawns! so I spent about an hour filling out papers.  Wrong.  They guy behind the counter dug up enough English (and a translation line) to print out the instructions in English, new forms to fill out, and sent me home.  I was frustrated (and tired, city hall is a little over a mile away, so lots of walking) so I just went back to the house and filled out the forms.

TUESDAY! I marched right into that post office and gave them the forms!  All of them! Plus the important papers I had forgotten last time! and they gave me an account! Sure, it took over an hour, but I just spent the time playing on my phone.  Well, I was feeling confident, so I march off briskly to try and get a phone.  I made it as far as the first stop light when I paused, looked around, and the lady who helped me get an account was running after me, yelling, waving a paper in the air!  She had chased me down two whole blocks to return my paper! (and she was obviously not a runner)  I felt so happy about that, I went off with a whole new positive attitude. I was going into Osaka to find the biggest phone store and get a prepaid phone.
I promptly got lost.

I do not think this is a phone store

Very lost.

tempting, but still not a phone.

OH BOY LOST.

No fruit sandwiches in a phone store!

When I finally found myself, (and the store) THEY had the same problem that the smaller stores had. No English, no English line, no pre-paid phones.  I stomped off muttering at them and treated myself to Ramen.
I wasn't sure exactly what to ask for, so I snapped a shot of the plastic model I wanted and just showed the waitress that.  You know, technology has certainly made adventuring easier!

plastic

real. Tastier than plastic.

WEDNESDAY I was finally sick of messing around, went to the phone company's competitor, got a 2 year plan (I didn't CARE anymore) and they're like, "Oh yes, everything's fine only since the post office hasn't given you a bank card yet, you need this PAPER FROM CITY HALL"... FINE! I DON'T CARE! I'LL DO IT!  Then I made them give me a paper with the name of what I needed on it so I could shove that at the city hall people.  Who again, were the most friendly and cheerful and helpful people I've dealt with all week!
I GOT the PAPER, I GOT the PHONE, I went back to my place and WATCHED A MOVIE because I WAS DONE.

THURSDAY was better.  I didn't really want to go out, because it was so bright, but I figured, you know, I really should see where my schools were. So, everything together, off I go, etc. The walk did me good! I visited all 3 schools, they're pretty easy to find.  I visited a shrine.

I love tori arches.

A soul lamp! (to guide the spirits of the dead I believe)

  Pleasant place to rest, as it was really sunny. (and I forgot my umbrella.)
While I was down there, I figured, eh, might as well go see something that caught my eye on the map as I was perusing.  I got there, and what I thought would be a few small shops was a MALL.

This was a small section of the bike parking lot for the mall. Biking is a major form of transportation around here.

hehehehe!  Air conditioning!  There was a big dollar store

we're watching you!

(can I take this back to the phone store?)

and a supermarket and a LUSH and an arcade

and even an import store!

I was cackling internally the whole time in that store.
I'll be honest, I was most excited about finding baking soda and baking powder, but that confuses people.  Hey, now I can make pancakes and cookies! :D
By the time I made it back to the house, my walking app said I had gone about 5.75 miles, and I paused it while I was on the trains!  Slept well.
FRIDAY and SATURDAY were spent much more relaxed.  My goal for Saturday was not to spend any money, as I had spent so MUCH every other day this week.  I accomplished this by staying in and only going on a walk in the evening.  The walk was awesome though! I found a river and walked along that, and at one point I got to watch a swarm of bats directly over my head!  There was also a baseball team of Elementary kids who were setting off fireworks. :)

 I'll admit to fighting loneliness this week.  If I had stuff to do, I could distract myself, but school doesn't start until Tuesday this next week.  I've lived on my own so often, I didn't think that the year + I spent with David and Rachel would throw me off so much.  Thank heavens for Skype.  Modern technology really is a blessing. Could you imagine if I had to rely on letter writing? No one would ever hear from me again!

Well, at least this week is over. I have another to-do list for next week, but as the grand majority of it is "teach school" I can only hope it will go better than this current one!  Have fun all!

Training and new apartment!

Disclaimer. Due to privacy issues, I will very RARELY mention anyone’s name. It’s totally NOT because I have trouble remembering names.  Really.

Osaka

Made it through the first week!  It was…well, let’s be honest, it was training.  Woo.  Actually, I quite enjoyed it. Not to sound like a teacher snob, but it was nice to get an idea of the curriculum, the expected school atmosphere and they gave lots of tips and explanations on culture.  They were big on trying out what we learned, so we did lots of example lessons and you know, I love that we got to TRY the lessons and get immediate feedback, and I’ll admit, I started out rough.  It’s hard to treat adults like kids.  I got better as the week went though, impressing them all. ::buffs nails:: that’s right. I’m awesome. (and humble!)

Re-winding a bit, when I first got in, I was so jet-lagged and tired, I was in a haze.  This was actually a good thing because there was no worrying. There was no panic. There was not even much frustration. There was just a “doo-do-doo, oh look this looks like the right sign” sense.  The written instructions they gave us were pretty good. I made it onto the Airport limosine bus.  Onto the subway. (that was fun with two giant bags) and then OUT of the subway (ONE elevator.) and then I ran into trouble.  The instructions said “turn north.”  I’m like. “I’m in a strange country. It’s night. It’s RAINING.  WHERE’S NORTH?!”  So I turned right.  Guess where the hotel was. To the left. I made it a good half mile before I figured I had to be going the wrong way.  Trek back, FIND the hotel, (it was really close) get up the elevator (I was so tired and thirsty by this point) get across the hall with the carpet grabbing at the luggage wheels and when I’m RIGHT in front of my door someone says “You need help?”  ….”Nah. I’m good. Thanks.”  OPEN my DOOR and…wonder where the heck I’m gonna fit my luggage.  You know that old joke “My hotel room was so small I stuck the key in the lock and broke the window!”?  Now I know why they gave us key cards.  :P  Finally got everything in, drank my weight in water and died on the bed.  Promptly woke up at 4:10 though, of course. Ah, Jetlag.  I did feel better though.

usually I sat on the bed with my computer on the desk

Thanks to Jetlag, for the first two days of training, I just went back to the hotel every evening and tried to stay awake long enough to justify going to bed.  Wednesday, I was feeling better and managed to hook into a group of people going to Osaka Castle.  Sadly it closed just as training let out, but we could still go SEE it. We just couldn’t go inside. And it was PRETTY. 

At one point, we were taking pictures of a boat on the moat when an alarm connected to a camera started going “WOOP, WOOP” and we’re all thinking, “…we did nothing. We’re just gonna…walk away.” 

Thursday, a small group of us went out for Okinomiyaki.  Which is “Japanese pizza” or “Japanese pancake.”  It was really good, but please don’t ask me what was in it.  I’m pretty sure there was some kind of flour, egg and I KNOW there was pork, because I ordered the pork one.  There were these little flakes of….Fish? on top that waved gently in the breeze.  Reminded me of either seaweed…or that live octopus they tried to get me to eat in Korea.  

 Then I showed them the wonder that is the grocery store near us.  The guy in the group was very excited. We mostly lived off convenience store food during the training (better than in the USA) and he was saying “It’s so much CHEAPER at the grocery store!! And there’s MORE VARIETY!” I felt a warm glow at having helped out.

It had a creepy ad in it though

Friday…Oh, Friday.  Friday was when we did our final presentation. We had to pull together everything we had learned and present a 15-20 minute class on a specific idea.  No problems, really, but I DO get performance anxiety when someone is judging me. And of course, I was the 4^th out of 5 people, so I got to stress through 3 presentations, a break and lunch.  It went great, so you know. :) With everyone stressing out and being energetic in such a small room, it was stifling by the time we finished!  (and smelled a little funny)

Friday evening, we went to Donburi (?) a section of Osaka and wandered around. Mostly we were there for the cat café. THAT’S RIGHT! I went to a themed café! It had about 14 cats meandering around it. One was a munchkin, one was a Rex, one was HUGE and most were squashed faced.  They were all so used to being petted, they just LAID there and took it.  I even held onto one’s ear and it didn’t do anything!  They were so soft!

Oh, interesting thing that night, I was STARVING, but I was tired of convini food (convenience store) so I went to the little place across the street and got…a Mexican taco. 

 Last time I’ll make THAT mistake!  The tortilla was undercooked, the meat was vinegary, and the whole thing was WAY too small.  I had to go to a convini after all to get enough that I didn’t try to gnaw off my arm. :P  We saw some models practicing, and some awesome pop culture stores, as well as some great art!  So it was a fun night!

WHAT should I get for Beth?

If you look at it, it's a guy holding lights.

We were torn between "Beautiful" "cool" and "creepy"

It says "American toy and collectibles"

Ok, also about Friday. I had ASKED and ASKED about when we were going to be kicked out of the hotel, and all I got was “training ends Friday” and so I’m like “Ok, I’ll just have the hotel hold my stuff while I’m at training.”  They even had a service that shipped your luggage to its destination for a fee!  I had them call up my share house and get the address from them, then they measured and fussed with a calculator and I was thinking “Ok, if it’s 5,000 Yen, I’m not sure I can justify it.” And they finished. “2,600 yen.” …For both bags? Really?  OK!  I will PAY 26$ not to have to fuss with my luggage on the subway!  Then I got to training and shared my fuss, and they all looked at me blankly and said “the e-mail said checkout is tomorrow.”  …so I’m blind apparently.  :P  But my stuff was off! And I didn’t have to fight the long line of other teachers who were sure to be shipping their stuff off the next day. :) 

Pictured: not line of teachers. Train to Amagasaki

That takes us to Saturday, when I found my share house.  Whenever I used the address on google maps, I got two different spots on the map, so finally I just got to the train station that the share house guy said to get to, and then he said I could call him and he would come pick me up.  Well. I have NO IDEA how that pay phone works, because I TRIED.  Finally, frustrated, overheated and wanting to settle in, I went to a taxi station and showed the driver the receipt for shipping the luggage. It had the address on it IN JAPANESE, so I got there no problem. :) I felt smart! (I had no problem justifying a taxi at that point)

Settled into my room,

still bigger than Anvik

signed over my soul, unpacked everything, went shopping, prepared my first meal in Japan.  It was fried eggs with some raw veggies and toast.

Sadly, the pickles weren't very good. But they HAVE THEM HERE.

 I know, it’s not very Japanese, but I was tired.  Maybe later I will try some more authentic stuff.  And went back out shopping, because even though this place is semi-furnished, it’s gonna take a while to be settled.  By the time I got back (and hauled my giant bags into my room) I was SO TIRED I didn’t want to go to the festival that was happening just across the street. 

is that... a festival?

 It was small.  It was noisy. 

Ok, I went after a rest.  It was ADORABLE.  Looked like it was connected with the local Elementary school, so there were LOADS of kids running around in yukata. 

SO CUTE

Look at them dance!

I walked in and ran into another English speaker. We walked around. I won a balloon yo-yo!  The thing is, they fill a kiddie pool with water, then they put these balloon yo-yos in the water. You buy a hook to catch the rubber band holding the balloon, (It has a loop on the end) and pull it out. The trick is, the hook is dangling on a twist of paper, so you gotta fish, retrieve and pull out before the paper soaks through and breaks!  I figured the trick was to push the balloon a little with the hook to raise the rubber band and then hook it quick.  I got three!  The other ES (English speaker) didn’t get any, and I was only allowed to keep one, so we haggled them into letting us keep one each. :)  

It was night. cameras don't like night.

Later I got cotton candy, and even participated in the dance!  They had a big raised platform with a guy on a drum in the middle and around him, dance four ladies.  People were invited to follow along on the ground. Since the dances were very repetitive, it wasn’t that hard to get the hang of it while staring at the ladies on the platforms.  I finally felt fine with going back home and when the stopped playing the music (it was LOUD) I got to sleep.

Sunday! I think I’m over jet-lag, because I almost slept in today. Except, of course, the fact that my window faces the east…GOOD DAY SUNSHINE! I’m tempted to hang another blanket, but the curtains I have are actually pretty darn good.  I just have to secure the sides….

Anyhow! I google-maps’d it again and it said it was about 33 minutes walking. Well, I’ve done that before. I wonder if the train would be faster? “27 minutes.”  …. Walking it is!  It was a lovely morning and Google walking took me through some really picturesque places! 

 The church is, of course, in Japanese, but there are a few other English speakers.  We have the missionaries translate for us. :)  After church, I was so hungry, I hoofed it back, but it was so HOT by then, and the sky was clear so the sun was punishing, and it was humid and I made it back to the apartment and STILL was more hungry than tired, so I rested while I ate lunch. More eggs. What?! I didn’t get many groceries! That’s something you build up slowly! 

Tomorrow I have to go to city hall and register as a resident, and I gotta get a phone, and… oh yeah! Bank account!  And of course, more shopping.  Just the essentials still.  Which is why I have a rabbit shaped soap dish. Because it cost just as much as the normal shaped one, and I REALLY NEEDED a rabbit shaped soap dish.  I also needed a rabbit print coin purse. :) RABBITS EVERYWHERE! 

Next week will be a lot of exploring, as school doesn’t start until the first. Not sure where to start. Anyone have any ideas?