Typhoon Sunday

This morning the typhoon is worse - still raining, and now with lots of wind. We probably could have gone out yesterday, as today is supposed to be the worst day. So again, we are stuck inside. Its also frustrating because it is still warm, but if we open the windows we get rain in the house. So we’ll keep them closed, I guess, and use fans to help circulate the air. 

After getting our laundry machine fixed, we’ve done a few loads of laundry. The problem, though, is that we don’t have a dryer and in the high humidity and general wetness here, the clothes literally take days to dry. We also only have one small rack to hang things on. We do have some clips for a railing out on the balcony, but of course we can’t put clothes out in a typhoon. I finally realized we can dry the clothes a lot easier in front of the fan, though! Still, not having a dryer is taking some getting used to.

The typhoon warning today ended up being a bit of a dud - in the afternoon it cleared up a lot and even became sunny. However, we still couldn’t go out because Yana was vomiting up everything. I think she was reacting to the new water here, because after drinking it was when her problems started. In the evening she was fine, and hadn’t had any water since the early morning.

A Typhoon is coming...

This morning I actually slept until 6:30am, which was great. I did wake up around 5am, because of the trains, but I fell back asleep. 

Today is Saturday, so its a free day! But unfortunately because of the typhoon we can’t really go out. I’m not sure how dangerous it will be, but its been pouring rain non-stop since yesterday and it might get worse, so we won’t chance it. Some events around here have already been cancelled because of it. 

I spent the day doing some organizing, but I can’t do much because we don’t have anything to organize with. Overall, a pretty boring day. I wish we had been able to go out.

Getting a Cellphone

The view from our apartment, with the train station on the right. 

I was woken up this morning by a now familiar sound of the siren which marks the start of the trains. One disadvantage to living directly beside the train station is that we hear two of these sirens a day, one in the early morning and one around midnight. This is in addition to a small radio attached to the wall of our living room, which plays music at 7am, noon, and 5pm. 

We went out in the morning to try and buy groceries, but discovered that the store doesn’t open until 9:30am, so we walked back home. Around 9:30, O-san came by to pick up his phone, which he has been leaving overnight in case of emergencies. He informed me that I had free time this morning until N-san came to pick us up at noon to go to Tottori city to get cellphones. He also told me that a typhoon is coming this weekend! 

After O-san left, we went back to the grocery store, since it was open now. We got back, ate a bit of lunch, and then N-san and Y-san (another person from the BOE, not really sure what he does exactly) picked us up from our apartment and drove us into the city. Y-san dropped the four of us off at Tottori station, where we were supposed to meet Mayumi, the PA. We were a bit early, but even after waiting Mayumi hadn’t shown up. It had also started raining (a sign of the typhoon to come). Finally, after N-san called her, Mayumi arrived. Justin, Yana, and I got in Mayumi’s car and went to pick up another JET who was getting a phone, S. N-san and Y-san drove ahead to Softbank and waited there for us. However, when we arrived at Tottori BOE, Mayumi was informed that S had been out to eat with her teachers and they were having so much fun that they hadn’t finished, so S would meet us there. So we drove on to Softbank, and Mayumi and I had just sat down to start the procedure, when I realized I hadn’t brought my bankbook, which is necessary for paying the monthly bill. I felt really awful about it, because it ended up that Y-san drove all the way back to Chizu to look for it in our apartment and then had to drive back. Since that took about an hour, we let S get her phone first (she had arrived just after the fiasco started), and then we went with Mayumi and S went to a nearby department store to do some shopping for the apartment. We had just gotten started when Mayumi got a call that Y-san had returned, so we hurried back to Softbank and finally were able to to get the contracts finished. 

After getting our phones, Y-san and N-san took us back to the department store to do some more shopping, but by that time it was late, we were hungry and tired, so we ended up just getting a few more things, going grocery shopping (getting enough food for a few days in case power goes out), and then driving home. However, this meant that we completely forgot to get a few important things, oops. 

Interesting things:

I got my bank account at Tottori Bank, and the mascots are Tom and Jerry. Literally, they are on my bank book and for setting up an account I got a box of Tom and Jerry tissues.

There is EVERYTHING Frozen here. Seriously, everything. Yana picked out a Frozen water bottle at the department store, and there were also bento boxes, cups, chopsticks, water jugs, etc.

My First Day in Chizu

Woke up to these gorgeous misty mountains this morning.

This morning I woke up early, as seems to be the norm when changing time zones so drastically, and to one where it gets light out at 4am. My supervisors were coming to get me at 9am, so I spent the morning cleaning up the apartment a bit (we just crashed last night) and getting ready slowly, so as not to become drenched in sweat immediately. 

When O-san and N-san arrived, they informed me of the day’s plans (sort of, well, as best they could). O-san had also brought a step stool from his house for Yana to use (for the toilet and sink), which was extremely kind as we couldn’t find one in the store last night. 

Firstly we walked to the bank, where I had to set up my account. This is very important, as I get paid directly into my bank account and similarly, most or all of my utilities will be directly withdrawn. Setting up a bank account in Japan is quite the harrowing experience and it takes a looooong, long time. Firstly I had to fill out three forms, but in kanji (Japanese characters) and all by myself. The solution was for N-san to write it out in pencil and I copied overtop in pen. So, impromptu Japanese kanji practice! Then there was a big issue over whether or not I could get a bank account without a phone number of my own. It took a while to file all the paperwork, but finally they could use my personal seal to finalize everything (like a signature)…except that we were then informed that N-san had accidentally put today’s date in the spot for my birthday, so we had to write in the corrections and then stamp it with my seal to confirm. I was then told that it would take 2 weeks to get an ATM card! There are 2 ATMs in my town, and one is in the hospital right across the road from us, which is great (the other is in the bank). It does cost money to withdraw, but only during off hours and weekends. 

After the bank, we walked across the road to the government office, and on the way they told me we were going to meet the “top boss” of all of Chizu’s education! Okay, so that was a great surprise. I’m not sure I dressed nicely enough. We went upstairs and into his office and I awkwardly sat down after almost taking his seat. We chatted a bit and then N-san left and returned a moment later with 3 other people who work in the office, and whose names I’ve pretty much forgotten already. They started introducing themselves and I realized halfway through that I was still sitting on the couch while everyone but the “boss” (we’ll call him Mr. N) was standing. I felt way to awkward too just stand up randomly, so I continued sitting through all their introductions, dying slowly on the inside. Afterwards, N-san filled out a bunch of paper, and I attempted to make conversation with Mr. N and it went alright I think. He showed me some brochures about Chizu and a drawing of the new junior high school which is being built. We talked a bit about Canada and he told me he had been to Petrolia, which is a tiny town in Ontario, oddly enough it is very close to where my grandparents live and I’ve been there myself. 

Next we went grocery shopping at the nearby store, TOSC. I was unsure of what to get, so I ended up getting blueberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, ramen, macaroni, a bag of meat pasta sauce, yogurt, bread and apple juice. It was about $21 CAD. Then my supervisor walked me home and used my seal to fill out some paperwork for internet and water and such. They said I had the afternoon off, to “clean up the room,” which was really kind. 

TOSC, my local grocery store.

Unfortunately there’s not much to do at home. We have no internet, no tv, no books, and hardly any stuff. The stuff we do have doesn’t have a place, as we need to buy some organizing and storage items. Still, its nice to finally have some time to relax, as its been pretty go-go-go since Tokyo for me. 

So I had just settled down with Yana to rest while watching a movie when the doorbell rang. It was O-san and N-san, who had come to say that the schools were closed tomorrow, so we had to go visit today or next week. I said today was fine, so off we went! 

First we stopped at the elementary school, and several girls gathered outside the entrance repeated “kawaii, kawaii” (cute) to Yana. We met a lot of teachers and I can’t remember their names. They also showed me the desk and computer I can use. 

The junior high school is a new school that is still in the process of being built. The amazing thing is that it is almost entirely wood - local cedar which grows on the mountains surrounding Chizu town. The school actually smelled amazing because of it. They brought us into a meeting room to meet the principal and two English teachers, one of whom is the vice principal. We sat here and chatted a bit more than at the elementary school, since the JHS is my base school and I will teach there most often. We also met a lot of the office staff, who all seemed very kind. 

One thing which was funny was that at both schools everyone kept calling Yana “ningyo,” (mermaid) and doll. One man even reached out to touch her hair! Obviously her ego is going to explode here, because everyone fawns over her.

O-san and N-san drove us back to our apartment, where they had to do some work to get our washing machine hooked up to the water. Finally it was fixed, but then we realized we didn’t have any laundry soap, so we had to go out shopping again. O-san took us back to TOSC, but they didn’t quite have what we were looking for, so he ended up driving us about 5 minutes to just out of town, where there is a larger store that is more like a pharmacy. We found some soap there, as well as a few other things we needed and then drove back to the apartment, where O-san showed us how to use the machine. I also asked him about how to sort garbage, as it has just been piling up on counters until then because I had no idea what to do with it. I'm still not sure I know what to do with it.

After that O-san and N-san left, around 6pm. Justin and I made dinner, which was the odd combination of watermelon and pasta with meat sauce. I had bought this sauce which came in two small bags and you squeeze it out onto the pasta. It was “meat” flavour, which was a bit sketchy, but it was actually pretty tasty! However, I’ve found that so far the fruits we’ve eaten here have been a bit tasteless compared to Canada. The blueberries were bland and grainy, the cherry tomatoes were okay, but again, a bit bland, as was the watermelon. But either way, I’m just happy to have something Yana will eat, since she’s so picky!

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Four and First Day in Tottori

Our hotel room.

This morning we had to get up early to catch our flight to Tottori. We packed our suitcases, but didn’t leave enough time for breakfast, so we went straight to check out and then to the 5th floor to meet with the other Tottori folks. We left around 7:20am and took a bus to the airport. I’m not sure if we were the first group to leave, but when we walked out all the other groups in the room cheered us out like we were celebrities or something, which was awesome and hilarious. We got to the airport, checked in, and then had to wait for a few hours for our flight at 10:45am. The flight was good, and it gave us a pretty nice view of Tokyo for a bit.

Tokyo Haneda Airport.

Leaving Tokyo

Leaving Tokyo

We landed in Tottori’s tiny airport and went to retrieve our luggage from the single conveyor. At the airport, my supervisors N-san and O-san were waiting for us. O-san drove us to a restaurant called Cafe Gusto in Tottori city for lunch. We all had hamburg steak sets. Over lunch we discussed what to do over the course of the day. O-san asked me (using a translator app on his tablet - very handy!) what I wanted to buy for our apartment, but I said I didn’t really know what I should buy without seeing what was in the apartment already. They then decided that we should drive into Chizu to see the apartment and then drive back to buy items. I felt really bad about it, but its really hard to express myself completely in Japanese. 

First views of Tottori!

First views of Tottori!

Before we got to the apartment, we stopped at the Chizu government office to register all three of us as residents. It took a few tries, but we finally got it right! They also had all our suitcases there, so those were brought out to the car.

Then we drove like one minute to our apartment building, which is directly across from the train station. There are 2 buildings on the lot, and we live in building 2. Our building has 9 floors and we live on the 5th. There is just one person across from us (so 2 apartments per floor). Our apartment is nice, but its smaller than it looked in the photos we saw! I think its probably about the same size as our house. The wood on the floors and walls is really cozy, but there are some not so nice things, like a bit of mould and air conditioning only in the tatami room (which we weren’t really planning on using). My supervisors showed us around the house, explaining things like the bath to me. Except when he was trying to explain about plugging the bath to fill it up, for some reason his translator was saying something like “it happened after the war.” I have no idea how that worked, but it was really hilarious. 

We dropped off our luggage and then went back in the car. We picked up a stovetop from the government office and then drove around for a while looking for futons without much luck. We kind of wanted a queen-sized futon for me and Justin, but we had to settle for two singles in the end, which is fine. We ended up back in Tottori city to buy the futons, along with other bedding (Yana picked out a Pokemon pillow), and some basic groceries for breakfast. 

Then we went for lunch at an udon restaurant in the city, where Justin and I got tonkatsu and Yana had plain udon, a Japanese food she will actually sort of eat. Then it was time to go back to Chizu. We were all exhausted and everyone fell asleep in the car, except for O-san, who was driving of course.

Back at the apartment, O-san explained a bit about what we would do the next day, and then left us to finally settle down for the night.

Overall, I am really interested to see more of Chizu and Tottori. The mountains are huge, lush, and omnipresent. We drove by a castle on top of a large hill on the way to Chizu, which was gorgeous. I’m really looking forward to our prefectural orientation, when we get to visit the sand dunes and go on a boat tour of the coast!

Oddly I still don’t really feel jet lagged, just tired after busy days. I also feel really calm and completely nonchalant about everything, and I’m not sure if that’s the product of some sort of brain malfunction or an actual sense of ease and acceptance of my new life here. I’ve been holding out for a freak-out moment, so far I’ve felt pretty cool and collected about everything. I am kind of terrified of actually starting teaching, but I know it will get easier with time, so I’m just telling myself to wait out the first few weeks of hardship. 

So that was my first day in Tottori! I will wrap things up here with some random, interesting things I’ve noticed:

The tap in our kitchen is a single lever style and you push down to turn the water on, not lift it up. I am having a lot of difficulty getting use to this and have sprayed water all over myself several times.

At the store, shampoo and soap are all in sealed containers, of course, but there are scent balls hanging beside each one so you can smell what its like without needing to open the container.

I’m really surprised at how much Japanese I actually have retained, even after not using it for 6 years. Its far from perfect, but I’ve been able to figure out most of what my supervisors say and they seem to understand me alright too.