Getting adujusted...

I realize I am a little behind on my blogging, I will catch up! Caution, ramblings ahead...

Japan so far has been a whirl wind of hustle and bustle since I got here. I escape only when I arrive home to my apartment however, I don’t feel like it’s not much of an escape. The bathroom and my kitchen and everything else I was able to cram into this place from home is within a two meter radius of each other... No matter how hard I try I am really always stuck in the kitchen, I really could have breakfast in bed every day if I wanted to.

For some reason the Japanese like to call these tiny apartments “monthly mansions” these are merely much smaller versions of what we know at home as bachelor apartments. I am slowly getting used to it and have picked up a new frying pan and coffee maker to save some money from eating out all the time.

The only problem with cooking inside a sardine can is that anything you cook you will smell like, that day...and the next...so when picking out what you have for dinner you have to realize that if you go with chicken curry it will not only be your dinner, but also your choice of cologne for the next day. One these days I will move out, just waiting to find the right place, a place of course with a few more square feet! Trying to adjust to the small living space has probably been the hardest thing to deal with as of yet.

I have spent a lot of free time just wondering around the city, a good chunk of that time was spent actually hunting down a French press so that I could make some coffee in my “mansion.” Japan is a tea country and in every store I went through I had to ask where the coffee makers were located, my response was, “ahh, follow me sir...” the first few times this happened I naively followed the store clerk through a few isles that were loaded to the ceiling with everything from Royal Dalton Dolls to pace makers, only to be lead to the kettle section where the store clerks would then just point and say “instant,” I would reply in a curious tone, “coffee?” Then he would reply, “ahh, yes, instant.” Not good enough! And so very disappointing. It took me a while but through the grapevine I was told that Starbucks sold a few different kinds of French press’ so I immediately started looking for one. It was somewhat embarrassing asking a Japanese person for directions to a Starbucks, typical gaijin move, but it worked and before you know it I was fixed on a nice caffeine high, smile on my face a French press in hand I strutted home.

After a few days of walking all over the city I took the opportunity to get out and visit the country side for a day. It was a Sunday afternoon and my cousin and his wife wanted to hike up Mount Tokai. It was a good 8 km hike up and down. I would say after the first .25 km the humidity had me sucking for air and I had felt like I had the Mississippi river running down my back side. Despite this we trekked on, walking through the crowds we hiked up the hill.

I consider myself a pretty easy going person, I take most things in life lightly and don’t think of every simple task as a serious objective that must be completed with extraneous effort. This type of lifestyle is at the complete opposite spectrum of the majority of Japanese people here. They must look at me sometimes and really wonder which mental facility I had escaped from in the U.S... So there I was hiking up this mountain in jeans and a t-shirt, not the most glamorous of gear but it got me up the hill. Surrounding me on the hike up were hundreds of other Japanese hikers, who escape their hectic work week to enjoy the outdoors, outfitted with all the gear, they were extremely serious, clambering up the hill in their huge hiking boots outfitted with multi coloured spandex under their hiking shorts and swinging their hiking polls alongside themselves as the manoeuvred up the staircases that had been built for the path.

Despite the heat and the hilarity of the Japanese hikers the forests were amazing, extremely thin but tall trees and forested areas full of bamboo stretching more than 40 feet high just waving in the winds. It kind of had a euphoric feeling to it, relaxing, even though you were huffing up a mountain in humidity that could stop a train in its tracks. I look forward to going back in the fall, the air was thick and it was hard to see the scenery at the top, mount Fuji was slightly visible and in the distance, apparently you can see it clearly in the fall, so thats when I will head back.

On the way down we took a much less public route, with very few Japanese on the way down we headed in this direction to catch glimpse of a waterfall that we had spotted on the map. We did find the waterfall, unfortunately it was being habited by a hoard of men wearing only towels and drinking beer, a perfect bathing spot for a male local, but no place for a gaijin.

...Going into a store here can often be like someone is shining a bring light in your eyes, it almost seems as if each company is having a contest with each other on how bright they can make their packaging... And dare I enter a pharmacy to buy Tylenol, nothing here looks like it does back home. I could be buying a bottle of ex-lax, when all I wanted was dish soap, let’s hope I was the dishes well if I leave any residue I may be in trouble. Is this toothpaste? Wrong again that’s calking for your bathroom tub...

I moved into my apartment the day after I had arrived, the school had arranged a taxi to take me to my new place. In a country full of new age bubble cars and pocket bikes I found the taxi’s to be somewhat comical. The Taxi itself a Nissan model called “Cedric” was sporting an old 1980’s Volvo look, boxy and quite larger than the tiny gas saving “fisher price” cars I saw other Japanese people driving around. Cedric was pretty expensive, that was the last time I had used a taxi, thank god the school paid for it! I will likely have to call upon Cedric if I move again.

School has started and after much preparation day one came and went like a flash of lightning. I have 13 very spirited young students, I am dead tired and I feel like my feet are made of cinder blocks. Heavy and tired I have shuffled home to rest each day only stopping to buy a much deserved beer(s) to quell my mind.

The first day of school was a lot of fun, tiring but fun, the kids showed up with such enthusiasm and energy, extremely eager to start work and happy to be around all their friends once again. Before any introduction I decided to have them complete an activity. Working in groups they were to come in and attempt to put toothpaste back in a bottle (I had squeezed it out previously onto a plate) they were to do this, only with a toothpick. It’s pretty much impossible, this activity lead to a discussion about the difficulty of taking back harsh words and the idea behind respecting our peers, they had a lot of fun doing it and I think really got a good handle around the morality of the activity. They all seem to get along really well, smart and outgoing they have been challenging me every day since then. Week one is almost done, we spent most of the week doing simple activities, making surveys and bar graphs depicting information about each other and introducing the class to different cultures that others found interesting. Next week will get a little more challenging as we start some writing exercises and "serious" math word problems.

I promise to write again as soon as I can, I think by sunday I should be able to send out a smaller blurb of info so that you don't have to read long blogs like this again...until next time.....