japan times: 8月 2009

The past two days my main activity has been shopping. I ate at McDonald's and managed to get salad dressing all over my clothes. Their salad dressing containers are very confusing.

As you can see it has two stories and is open 24 hours. There is also a KFC near there, known locally as "Kentakii."

The greatest find of my shopping experience was J-Mart, which I assume stands for Japanese Wal-Mart, because that is what it is. You can get everything from towels to garden hoses to liquor, just like Wal-Mart except twice as expensive. I bought towels and liquor.

Yes, J-Mart does have a parking garage. It is very popular.

One super awesome thing I have discovered twice now about Japan is: no one will card me! I have bought alcohol two times, once at a konbini with prominent signs everywhere with UNDER 20 crossed out in a red circle, I assume these said the eqivalent of "we are not going to sell you liquor if you are UNDER 20". In America I get carded buying cigarettes, at hookah bars, even at movie theaters! But in Japan, I am home free. It would almost be more fun if I was not 20, because I'm pretty sure they're not carding me because I'm a foreigner.

Here are some flavored beer-like beverages, which I wish desperately they would sell in cans like these in America:

These are a "gintoniku" Cocktail Partner, something with oranges that I can't read, and Double Lemon Strong Zero. The gin tonic thing tasted like limey tonic water; I will not be purchasing again. The strong zero was very lemony, just as promised, but not very good. The best one was definitely the orange fruity thing in the middle.

At J-Mart I bought some Carlo Rossi California Red Wine, the cheapest, at about $6, of the available wines that I could read. Unfortunately I cannot open it because I'm a weakling, so no review on that yet.

In other news: yesterday I bought a bike! This is very exciting because I can now get places 3 times as fast. It was the "ichiban yasui" bike at the bike store, only 7800 yen. It has a basket and a bike lock and a light. I like it a lot.

I'll put in a better picture later.

DAY 2 - Really exhausting shit

I woke up at about 6 am, too excited to go back to sleep. I had a breakfast coupon for the hotel restaurant, so after I showered and dressed, I went down to the lobby. I had thought to wear those cute hotel slippers in order to be super Japanese, but no! As I approached the restaurant, a nice-looking old man in a suit stopped me and informed me that slippers were not allowed in the restaurant. I was mortified. And this was only the first of the many times I would embarrass myself publicly in Japan.

So I went and changed my shoes. Breakfast was a buffet of both Western and Japanese-style breakfast food. I had eggs and toast; the unidenitifiable vegetables in an awesome bamboo steamer were too adventurous for me.

After breakfast I went back to my room and packed. Oh, I forgot to mention, there was an alcohol vending machine on my floor. Too cool, but I didn't get a picture, nor did I buy an alcohol. I lugged my heavy-ass suitcases down the elevator and managed to check out just in time to get on the shuttle bus back to the airport.

Yet another way I keep embarrassing myself: sneezing in public. This is considered rude in Japan, but I can't help it. In bright sunlight I will sneeze at least twice, maybe up to four times. On the bus to the airport, I sneezed a lot. I have also sneezed several times while walking down the street. I don't know how to stop this! How do the Japanese keep from sneezing? I will get to the bottom of this mystery before I leave, mark my words.

So I got to the airport again and went to the JR ticket counter, where I purchased a train ticket to Mitaka Station. In order to get to Mitaka, which is out in the boonies of Tokyo, you ride the train to Shinjuku and switch there to a local line. I enjoyed the 85-minute train ride despite the businessmen sitting next to me laughing uncontrollably about something hilarious. When I got to Shinjuku station, however, it was really hot and I lugged my luggage around until I located the platform for the Mitaka train. To my dismay, it was located at the top of a flight of stairs with no escalator in sight. I asked 2 service personnel whether there was any way for luggage to get up there, and they did not speak English. I ended up carrying my carry-on to the top of the stairs, leaving it there, and then coming back down for my monstrous suitcase. Fortunately a station employee noticed my plight and helped me haul the beast to the top.

The Mitaka train took about 30 minutes, during which time I was stared at by a variety of small children. But I didn't mind; Asian kids are the cutest! On arriving at Mitaka Station, it was time to locate my apartment contractors' office.

This was easier said than done. That morning I had emailed Itou-san, my contact at HouseMate Shop Mitaka Branch, and asked for directions to the office. However he had not replied by the time I left, and I was stuck in Mitaka without internet or directions. I decided to wander aimlessly until a solution presented itself. I spent quite a bit of time at a McDonald's, trying fruitlessly to access some wireless. I then hauled my luggage down the street a ways, looking for a sign saying "HouseMate Shop." Of course this didn't work. Then I struck upon the brilliant idea of calling my sister and getting her to check my email for me! Why hadn't I thought of this earlier? I went back to the McDonald's and called Sarah, and although I woke her up, she obligingly checked my email and read the directions for me. After yet another embarrassing incident of going into the wrong building, I found the HouseMate office.

Itou-san is very nice, but speaks about as much English as I speak Japanese. He slowly attempted to explain the housing contract to me, with varied success. My favorite explanation was that of the insurance: If my luggage breaks because of an earthquake, I don't get squat. But if my luggage burns up in a fire, I get paid! Nice. I signed a bunch of forms I couldn't read, and then it was off to my apartment.

Another employee of HouseMate Shop drove me and my luggage, and I discovered that my apartment was even further out in the boonies than Mitaka itself. He practiced his English on me on the drive over (and put me in the back seat and my luggage in the passenger seat, don't ask me why), and I practiced my Japanese. It was just like Japanese class: I explained how big was my family, where I was from, why I wanted to go to ICU, whether I like Obama. The employee, whose name I didn't know, helped me haul my bags up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment, and then I was on my own.

At first I was not impressed with my apaato at all. It was really, really hot, and I didn't know how to turn on the air conditioner. Also it is super tiny. It had a mattress on the floor, so I lay down on that to wait for the gas people, who were supposed to arrive between 3 and 5 pm.

Before I could lament my plight too hard, or fall asleep, my door opened and a middle-aged Japanese man walked in. He introduced himself as the oya-san, landlord. I was like, cool. He was like, I need to clean up a little. This was true, because the inside of the fridge was nasty. He was like, aren't you going to go shopping today? I was like, where can I buy some sheets? But we could not understand each other. Then the gas people came, and I was glad the landlord guy was there, because he explained things to them and showed them where the gas things were. I sat in a chair and smiled. After the gas people left, I continued sitting in a chair and watched the landlord clean, because he wouldn't let me help. He does not speak much English so attempts at conversation pretty much failed. After he cleaned, he said he would come back a few hours later to change the sink or something, I really have no idea, and I said, I will go shopping while you do that. So he lent me his bike!

Everyone in Mitaka has a bike. No joke. Bikes are the primary means of transportation. Most of them have a little seat in the back where you can put your baby. The one that my landlord, whose name I learned was Horie, lent me had a big basket in front and a baby seat in back. I assured him that I could indeed ride a bike, which was stretching the truth a little, and off I went in search of household items.

I am really bad at riding bikes. I wobbled a lot, but managed to avoid collisions with other cyclists and cars, and I only crashed once, into some bushes, so that was ok. I rode around the narrow streets of my residential neighborhood, searching in vain for some shops, before following another biker onto a main road. There I found 2 convenience stores (where, incidentally, I can pay my electric, gas, and water bills - gotta love Japan), a McDonalds, and a big shopping-center-type building. Within the latter was my new favorite store - Hard Off.

No joke, this store is called Hard Off. It's a discount store with used items marked down a lot - prices are hard off, I guess. Or maybe it's the opposite of hard on, because they have really cold air conditioning? I bought some sheets, a truly hideous pillow, a pot (which I managed to burn on the first use), some utensils, ugly towels, and 3 cups for 100 yen. I parked my bike in the bike parking lot while I shopped. Then I went to the konbini, where I bought some noodles and onigiri and Fanta. I made my way home without the bike falling over, and I met Horie-san as I was returning his bike. He helped me carry my shit up the stairs, and then explained to me that his son who spoke English a little would come to talk to me. The son came, wearing sandals with socks as many Japanese are wont to do, and said that Horie-san would come tomorrow to do something to the sink, if that was all right. I said it was. Then we all went outside to a shed-like building filled with trash. The Hories explained that I must divide all my trash and deposit it in the right location on the correct day. There was a chart. Although I support recycling, I am pretty nervous about this. I will no doubt mess it up.

I went back to my apartment - which was now pleasantly cool, Horie-san having adjusted the air conditioning for me - and waited for the promised "futon" that Horie-san would bring, which turned out to be a sheet set to go on my mattress. It's a nice one. After Horie-san left, I ate some onigiri and basically passed out, as I have every night since coming to Japan. I have also been getting up early. I am becoming ridiculously healthy.

Anyway -my apartment: you'll have to turn your head sideways, because Blogger won't let me rotate images.