Rain, Plant Life, & Shoes!

Note: I wrote this a couple days ago, and thought I had posted it - but evidently I hit the wrong button and only saved it. Sorry! Cherry blossom picture to make up for it...


Shoes, shoes, shoes...
I love heels. I love shoes, in general, but I have discovered I especially love heels. At Yao station, near my dormitory, there is a Shoe Outlet store. It always has a sale on, and has some awesome & amazing shoes for around $20. Unfortunately, I am a giant. Well, not really. Their LL shoes generally are a little too large for me, though. How depressing is that?! It's frustrating, because I often see shoes that I really like, during my Osaka travels (which is often, because Japan is all about the footwear & footclothing), but they rarely fit. I've almost stopped trying them on, now. Sigh. Wish I could find a pair of heels here that would fit me.

My rainy adventure...
Yesterday I biked to the gym after work to swim. I've been in Japan for a couple months now, and you would think I would have learned - but I didn't bring an umbrella. When I came out of the gym, the first thing I saw was wet - everywhere. I though, "Oh - it's been raining!" Then I stepped off the sidewalk and out from under the cover.... it was pouring rain.

20 minute bike ride + pouring rain - umbrella = absolutely soaking wet

My dorm manager laughed a little when I came in, and I told him that it was pouring rain and I hadn't brought an umbrella! Oh well...it was fun?

Plant Life
I stopped by the dollar store (when I don't want to go to the gym, I stop at the dollar store first to procrastinate). They had plants! I'm a fan of little cute plants and of pseudo-bamboo plants, so I bought 3. I figured it would be nice to have a little more life and color in my room! Meet my plants. I haven't named them yet, but I will.




Speaking of plant life...I bought a daikon last weekend - daikon are of the same family of radishes, and are usually about the size of 2 large carrots combined. However. This one was HUGE! I couldn't believe how big it was, so I took a picture.



And on another random note - I dropped a glass tube at work today and broke it. Good job, me. Fortunately, my boss just wanted to know that I was alright, and said we'd order another one.

January 23rd

I had my first Japanese lesson today, with Ego-San. Oh, speaking of names…the guy who I called ‘M’ is actually Yoda-San (I don’t know his first name, it might start with M). The other friend I go to work wit his Maurita-San. I don’t know if I’m spelling their names right, I’m just spelling them how they sound to me. Ego-San (Nihongo Sensei, Japanese Teacher) edited my Japanese introduction for my presentation on Friday. I was surprised – there were relatively few and minor changes, and she said it was very good. I’m better at writing in Japanese than I thought! The hardest part of learning a new language is recognizing it when other people say it. I can learn to write it and to say it, but when people speak, everyone speaks in different tones and speeds, so words sound very different from one person to another. That will take the most practice. I think my 3 minute Japanese intro will be shorter than 3 minutes, but I’m not about to try and change it now. I’m just going to work on perfect pronunciation of what I have, speak slowly, and enunciate.
There are a couple things that are everywhere, in Japan. And by everywhere, I mean within 100 metres of each other. These things are: drink vending machines, cigarette vending machines, and ‘Pachinko & Slot’ facilities. The legal age for cigarettes is 18 or 20 or something like that, but the vending machines are everywhere, with no restrictions. Apparently Japanese kids aren’t rebellious and don’t buy things they’re not supposed to… The number of Pachinko & Slot (gambling places) makes me wonder how anyone in Japan has any money. They’re everywhere! That’s it for Japan details today…I got caught up in studying again, and I should have been in bed 10 minutes ago. Speaking of studying – I’m learning! I can recognize most Hiragana & Katakana characters. Now I just have to learn the words…when I recognize the characters, I can put a word together, for instance: ‘mi-ru-ku’. But then I need to remember that miruku is ‘milk’ in Japanese. So it’s still difficult to read. Oh!! Also…I got my ‘inkan’ today! Inkan is a small stamp that is equal to a signature. Mine has three Kanji (Japanese Chinese characters) on it – for ‘Su-Te-Hane’…the translation of my name. The characters mean ‘Red-Heaven-Feather’. It’s so neat! It comes in a little case with it’s own small stamp pad. It will be one of my favorite souvenirs from Japan, I think. That’s it for now…good night! :)

January 22nd

For some reason I’m very upbeat today – not that I’m complaining! Perhaps it’s the covert emails from friends and families, the completed task at work, the wonderful ringo (apple) I had after work, the yummy supper, or my new ability to recognize some Japanese letters. Either way, upbeat! It was rainy today, too – I like rain. Work is going well – I find that I am able to recognize a few more Japanese words every once in a while, I finally figured out the food ticket machine, and I have interesting work to do. It takes me 3 trains, 1 bus, and an hour & twenty minutes to get to work in the morning. The train station is only a 5 minute walk from my dormitory – I leave the dorm around 7:10am. I generally get a seat on the first train, sometimes the second train, and never the third train. From the last train station, I walk around the corner and get on the bus. It stops across the street from work. I have an ID card, which I use for everything. That includes getting into work, logging into my computer, and getting into my dorm. I have a in/out magnet at work – red is out, white is in. When I get in in the morning (around 8:30am), I flip my tag then head back outside to another building to change. I wear a jacket and pants as a uniform – and I have a warmer jacket for when it’s cold. Which is practically all the time. From the changeroom, I head back to the first building to my work area. I share my workspace with my boss, Takemori-San, and another lady, whos name I can’t remember. I’m usually the first person into work, so I grab the key to unlock the office. Because I’m a keener, I usually start working almost right away. Lunch is at 12. I’m generally starving by time lunch rolls around. I wait for Takemori-San, who likes to wait five minutes to avoid the rush, then we walk to the cafeteria building. Examples of all the meals are set out on the table, and I buy tickets depending on what I want. I usually pay 500 Yen (slightly less than $5), and for that I get a main dish (rice and fish/meat or ramen noodes, similar to Mr. Noodles), a salad-type thing, miso soup, and gohan (rice). I’ve discovered that in Japan, a lot depends on your boss. It would be very rude of me to leave for lunch without waiting for him, and it would be disrespectful not to sit with him (especially if he then ended up sitting by himself). Sometimes we sit with three other people who work in our department. I’m very bad with Japanese names, but there are to men and one young woman. She’s pretty quiet. The two men know some English and are a lot of fun. One of them often tucks his chin into his chest and giggles – it’s the cutest thing ever. I don’t typically refer to men as ‘cute’, but this guy is definitely cute when he giggles. There’s always lots of laughing at lunch as we try to communicate. Everyone at the table waits until everyone else at the table is finished eating, then when there’s an awkward pause, someone (then everyone else) kind of bows, then starts to get up. We drop off our dishes and head back to work. I finish work at 5:40, but generally end up staying a few or many minutes late, depending on what I’m working on and what I do (or don’t, as the case usually is) have to do after work. I change again, and wait at the sidewalk for the bus. When I get home, I’m usually starving again, so I eat supper right away. I don’t know if it’s because it’s less food, a different eating schedule, I don’t drink enough water, or I just always feel slightly bored, but I always feel hungry! I’m still trying to find a reasonably cheap and healthy Japanese snack food. After supper I usually hang out in my room and study my Japanese. At least for now. Hopefully I’ll get a life and some internet, soon. I’m starting to feel settled here…maybe I can survive the seven months, after all.  My nails have gotten long very quickly…I have the feeling it’s all the rice I’m eating. Lunch and supper always include rice – at least a fist-sized (my fist, not yours) amount, sometimes more. I think that when I go back to Canada, I will have to buy and cook a lot of rice, or my body will go into shock. I don’t mind, though, it’s very good. I’m definitely a fan of sticky rice (all rice in Japan is sticky) over loose rice. I’ll have to learn to make it, but I think it’s just the addition of rice vinegar or something. Well, that’s it for today! I’ll try to take some more pictures (like of me in my work uniform…hehe) to post with this, when I finally get internet! PS – I’d like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support while I’m here…the first week was really hard, but it was a lot easier knowing people back home were thinking of me (or at least I was pretending they were), and it’s only going to go up from here! Ja matta….

January 21st

I got so caught up in learning Japanese, it’s bedtime and I forgot to blog! I also realized, on my adventure home today, that I’ve been writing mostly about how I’m feeling instead of what it’s like here. It would probably be a lot more interesting to read about Japan, instead of the ramblings of Stephanie’s mind and heart. So here goes…details! But first, my adventure home…all went well until Tsurahashi, when I got on the wrong train – I just walked to the wrong platform because I wasn’t paying attention. It took me several stations to realize that none of the names sounded familiar. So I asked a woman, in broken Japanese, if this train was going to Yao station. My heart (and stomach) dropped when she started chattering in Japanese but was pointing back the way we came. I realized that – yes – I had gotten on the wrong train. I thanked her (that’s one thing I can and do quite proficiently) and got off at the next station. After another broken conversation with a man on a train, I found my way to the platform I needed to be at. I recognized a station name and knew I could go back to there and find my way from that point. Yay! The adventure ended well.
I live in a company dormitory – everyone who live here works for Osaka Gas. Osaka Gas is something like Terasen Gas – there are buildings and centers and labs all over the city. There is a woman’s section and men’s section, and the opposite sex is not allowed in the other section, at all. There are four other women in the dormitory – we are all on the same floor – the 3rd one. At the end of our floor is a bathroom (sinks & toilets). I think there’s another floor up above us that is empty. On the second floor is a TV room, a kitchen area with North American style tables, a bathroom/shower, a kitchen area with Japanese style tables, a bigger shower room, and laundry. On the main floor is the lobby area, the cafeteria, and the mysterious hallway leading to the men’s section of the dormitory. There are 95 men in the dormitory. Yoshida-san and (I think?) his wife run the dormitory. They’re a very kind couple that doesn’t speak English, but we make do between their random English words and my busted up Japanese. My room is a decent size – about the size of my room in Sparwood. I have a cot-type bed, a small shelving unit, a desk with a chair, two closets, and my own little entryway with some shoe shelves. There are also two overhead storage areas. The dormitory is right beside the road, and it’s very loud! I’m used to it now, but at first it drove me nuts. You can hear all the cars going by and everything that’s happening outside. The lobby area has a reception area, and the shoe area. When you enter the dormitory (or any Japanese home), you remove your shoes and put on slippers. There’s a compartment for each person to keep their shoes on. There’s also a message board (which I can’t read), but I did notice a sign that said ‘Welcome’ on it, with my name in Japanese, below. I get suppers at the cafeteria, on weekdays. On weekends and for mornings, I’m on my own. Usually, supper consists of a vegetable-type thing, a salad-type thing, a fish-type thing, rice, and miso soup. It’s all very good and I’m always starving when I get home from work. On weekends, I cook for myself, but I miss the Japanese dinners (they’re pretty yummy). For breakfast, I have toast with butter & tomato slices, a glass of milk, and yoghurt. The bread, milk, and yoghurt are slightly more expensive than I’m used to, but it’s worth it! The train station (Takayasu) is about a 5 minute walk from my house. From there, I can get anywhere in Japan, pretty much. There is a decent-sized grocery store within a 15 minute walk from my house, and several within 30 minutes. I’ve discovered that maps are infinitely useful and provide a universal language. I got Yoshida-san to draw me a map to a swimming pool. I think I found it, but you couldn’t see inside and it looked…special. It was all wooden and Japanese-looking (most things in the city aren’t actually what you would picture Japanese buildings looking like). I didn’t feel like trying to venture inside (it looked very closed), so I figured I’d leave it at that for the day. I’ll put some pictures up of my dormitory, to add to my brief descriptions. I’m off to bed now, more details will have to wait until tomorrow! Oh – and my presentation is now on Friday – ahhh!!







-Photos (in order):
*My dorm room - from the entrance and from the opposite side of the room.
*The main kitchen area I use...
*The Japanese-style table
*Bathroom area - you can't really tell, but the sinks are light pink! Cute.