Whatever!

You know, with the over-complicated recycling system here, I never did figure out just when I was supposed to take out which kind of garbage. A month ago the whole system changed, but I'm blissfully ignorant. I believe there are now two days a week for combustible garbage (I've loosened that definition considerably, if there's an inferno at the recycling plant one day, it'll be my fault for putting some plastic in the wrong garbage), and still ??one day a month? for papers and magazines (I missed the day and have no idea what to do with my increasingly huge pile, I can't express how stupid this one is).

So I just take my garbage down at random times and leave it there, and hope the landlord doesn't come out.

Anything I don't know how to dispose of (cartons, glass, plastic bottles which I can't squash, etc), I take out to convenience store bin, since it's the only bin on the street. The thing about Japan is, there is nary a public bin to be seen in any street or park. I suppose the councils can't be stuffed taking responsibility for other peoples' recycling efforts, and who can blame them?

Only in Japan... (fortunately)

It's spring, meaning a huge amount of sakura (cherry blossom) related decorations and merchandise across the country. Today, for example, I had a sakura-flavoured cake. And it was quite nice.

Then I saw these in my local convenience store:



Sakura-flavoured Kit Kat! And matcha (Japanese powdered green tea) Kit Kat! How Japanese! I had to try them!

Well, that bite you see out of each one is as far as I got. DisGUSTing. Just about the worst chocolate I've ever had the misfortune to put in my mouth, and that includes Reject Shop Easter eggs.

So I took them to work so Jim could try them. Now this is the guy who eats intestines and says 'wow, good choice'; who wolfs down chicken cartilage, who can look a bowl of natto (fermented soybeans) in the eye without quailing.

And he couldn't eat them either!

The week was so nice...

Why is it ten degrees today? And eleven degrees yesterday?

And raining both days?

It's the END of MARCH. This weather is not fair! Especially on a weekend! And last week was so nice...

I wanted to go cherry blossom viewing!

Suitable for all ages...

Today I went toy-buying for our office so we can amuse the kids that are waiting. Kids' lessons start for real next week. Japanese kids' toys are pretty similar to English ones, just with more Anpanman and Doraemon. I scoured the whole toy section thinking 'okay, now what would happen if a 2-year-old tried to eat this? How much would it hurt if a 3-year-old tried to throw this at me?' Hahaha...

Today I had a 'demo lesson' with a 2-year-old. Unsurprisingly for a child of her age, she was more interested in throwing the ball around and trying to pick up various materials I wasn't using, than listening to my brilliant lesson. On the bright side, one of the words I was trying to teach her was 'pick up'. So every time I could see her going for another object she wasn't 'supposed' to be playing with, I pre-empted her with 'pick up!' so it'd look like she was obeying me. Wow, you understand English so well! Hahaha...

Thankfully every small child I've had to deal with has had a bright and sunny disposition. No screaming and tears yet. :)

Right now I actually only have one definite kid's class, my student is an 8-year-old girl. She is really sweet and her English is pretty good already. Everyone in the office was charmed by her and hoped they'd get to teach her, so I was pretty lucky really.

All the sakura (cherry blossoms) have come out this week, a little earlier than people expected. But it's also been raining a lot. Sorry, back home you'll be jealous to hear that, but it's pretty well been raining every second day here for the last two weeks. I haven't really had much opportunity to enjoy them. It's kind of surprising just how many sakura trees there are scattered around the place; I was oblivious to all of them before, but now they're all stunning.

Go-chui kudasai, go-chui kudasai

On Saturday night I went out for okonomiyaki. We went to this really traditional shitamachi-style restaurant. The decor was really old-fashioned, and inside they had posters of old Japanese shows, and they were selling candy that some of our students remembered from their childhood. The restaurant itself had old wooden tables with hot plates set into their surface so you could cook, or heat, your food before eating.

And what music were they playing in this bastion of traditional Japanese culture? Some kouta or nagauta with shamisen accompaniment, perhaps? No, instead we had Triple M's Greatest Hits. The Boomtown Rats and David Bowie! Later, this was followed by 'Celebrate'. I was just thinking that the music could not get any less appropriate when 'YMCA' came on. Hmmm.......

***

One thing you will notice about Japan is how extremely wasteful it is. As you might expect from the world's most high-tech, gadget-loving and convenient country, there is a phenomenal amount of useless power consumption.

First, you've got the millions of vending machines (they say there is one machine for every 23 people), each one keeping cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot. If that's not enough, some vending machines even have flashing lights, and/or videos playing, even if it's 3am and there's nobody around for miles.

Then the noise. Anyone who lives in the world's biggest metropolis knows how to use an escalator. You don't really need a speaker on loop telling people to 'go-chui kudasai' (take care please). Every street with shops has muzak music playing over outdoor speakers. Sometimes different sections of supermarkets and other stores will have prerecorded announcements playing. Some of these are of limited use (think: the 100 yen store 'irrashaimase! irrashaimase! One price shop!' Like we don't hear irrashaimase enough times from real people!).

And everything must flash. If you have roadworks, it's not enough to just put some orange cones or reflectors on the road. No, you need a sign with flashing lights. (And, optionally, a man whose job it is to wave pedestrians onto the footpath.) Fairy light displays will often be left on all day, though they're barely visible.

The toilets I have mentioned (numerous times) before. Toilets that flush *themselves* multiple times, toilets with built-in sensors and flashing lights, toilets with fake, electronic flushing noises, toilets with warmed seats, toilets that speak. Today I went to the bathroom and there was a speaker near the door saying 'here are the toilets...'

Like, duh.

Getting the short end of the stick

Sometimes beginner-level students confuse the most basic tenses:

Me: Oh, you got a new haircut!
K: Yes, yes! I will look like a gentleman!
Me: You 'will' look like a gentleman? So... now, you don't look like a gentleman?
K (enthusiastically): Oh, thank you!!

I just cracked up.

He was all 'nani? nani?!' ('what? what?!') The manager had to explain to him...

Photos

By the way, I don't post photos of myself or other people on this blog, but if you're a friend of mine and would like to see some, email me and let me know! I usually don't send out lots of photos en masse because I don't know if people will get annoyed by a really big emails in their inbox... :)

I'll take... that one

I just noticed this footnote on my Japanese class schedule, 'for people with a child in the lesson':

'After it, please go to the childcare room of the first floor together with a child, and leave a child in it. At 11:25, please be sure to pick up a child at a childcare room.'

What, any child? I'll take... that one.

Ob-la-di HA HA HA

Last night we had a big party after work, about twenty people came. We went to an Italian restaurant. I love good food, I can't help rubbing my hands together with glee. :)

After dinner, most of us progressed to karaoke. I love karaoke too. :) As the night wore away, people gradually left, until it was just four of us - Jim, me, and two guy students in their late 20s/early 30s. We were there partly because the last train had long gone, and partly to make a night of it. We couldn't go until the first train started the next morning.

There are always lots of other people in the same situation - they can't go home - so karaoke-kan at 4am are always full of slightly drunk people staggering down the hall.

Jim kept putting on older songs I'd never heard of and said 'oh, you'll definitely know this one.' On the other hand, Jim knows virtually no pop songs from the last two or three years. I told him that 'Sexy Back' was one of the most popular songs of its year, and enjoyed hearing Jim attempt to explain to his students how sad this was for mankind. 'Kawaisou humans,' he said. They had no idea what he was talking about. :)

I got to sing a few songs in Japanese, which was pretty cool. :) Jim sang an aggressive Rammstein song in perfect German, he was hilarious and scary. The Japanese staff and students sang some Japanese songs and some English ones, like Rihanna. One of the students, who loves Led Zeppelin and similar bands, sang Stairway to Heaven, Sweet Child of Mine, Living on a Prayer... Funniest of all was K (the 'student who gestures like an Italian' - he really is a loon) who sang Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da at full volume in wavering, LOUD English - when he got to the bit 'of Desmond and Molly Jones - hahahaha', the whole room just lost it.

The two young-ish students who stayed are two of my favourites, they're a similar level, kind of high beginner/low intermediate. (I commented to Jim, 'in a normal world, you ask about people 'oh, what does he do?' or 'how do you know each other?' Here, we ask, 'oh, what level is he?')

With only four of us in the end, and a total of about 5 hours in the karaoke room, we all got the chance to sing heaps and heaps of songs. It was fun. :) I got home in the early morning light, around 6am.

Igirisu

Guess who's going to LONDON for Golden Week?

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

!!!!!

Hugging cats

I don't know about all of you in Australia but there's only so many times a person can listen to Rihanna's 'Please Don't Stop The Music' before you're *BEGGING* her to stop the music...

On Monday a guy I knew from Australia came to Yokohama. He was travelling around Japan generally and decided to come down this way, so I was pretty chuffed to have my first visitor from home. We did the main harbour walk of Yokohama, which was about 4-5km walk from Sakuragicho station along the waterfront to Yamashita Park and then Motomachi.

He's quite a seasoned traveller, and his strategy for communicating here is just to speak English all the time. Actually that worked, most of the time. I have to say, if you don't speak much Japanese, it's probably better than doing what I do. I always speak Japanese, which means they usually speak Japanese back, which means I usually don't understand, but they think I do, etc... Actually, most Japanese people can produce a few words of English under pressure. :)

I mentioned I was missing animals and craving a pet to hug. Well, I got my wish in Yamashita Park. I saw these three:


I sat down so I could pat the grey one on the head. This is what happened instead:


The black one immediately ran to me and climbed into my lap. Before long both were in my lap. I got my fill of cat-hugging.

(Of course I washed my hands afterwards. And put the clothes in the wash. And took the coat to the dry cleaner's on the way home. But it was worth it.)

Actually I'm pretty chuffed. I went into the 'kuriningu-ya' (cleaning shop) for the first time and had a totally successful encounter - asked questions, how much for the coat, when will it be ready, is it okay if I pick it up on Wednesday morning, etc - *AND* understood the answers. Only a couple of months ago, I would have needed a phrase book to do this and would not have had the vocab to understand the answers...

Every time I have an 'unsuccessful' encounter and can't understand people in shops or restaurants, I feel stupid. Conversely, every time I have a 'successful' encounter and achieve some task in Japanese, I feel buoyant. :) Perhaps I should just start *every* encounter with 'nihongo ga sukoshi dekimasu...' so they go easy on me. :)

Mmm, cubic

Recently I started to miss being around animals. I really wanted to hug a dog or cat.

So, I did the only logical thing.

I bought a cubic sheep.



As you do.

Miscellaneous updates

In Japan, of course, I have no car. I'm a pedestrian all the time. Usually I don't mind it (it does have the slightly undesirable side-effect that I'm constantly walking past fast-food places and being tempted...). I do have a few minor pet peeves, namely:

People who walk extremely slowly (especially up/down stairs when you can see your train pulling in at the platform...) or take an age to step onto trains while the 'doors are closing' song is playing and you're behind them.

Cyclists riding on the pavement. This is extremely common and, although they are very adept at swerving around pedestrians, it gives me a fright every time I sense one bearing down on me...

As a pedestrian, anything you take with you, you basically have to carry around all day. I got myself a Big Handbag so I can easily lug around my library of Japanese textbooks and dictionaries.

Now that spring has officially started, I have deluded myself into thinking it's getting warmer, since I dislike carrying my heavy, bulky coat everywhere. As a result I find myself checking the weather in the morning and making arguments like 'well, it's a maximum of 12 today, that's okay, right? You don't really need a coat for 12 degrees...' forgetting that in the evening I'll be standing outside on a train platform that's 5 degrees, shivering in an inadequate suit jacket and thin shirt, pathetically clutching a bottle of hot, vending-machine tea in both hands. (That would be tonight...)

Speaking of clothes, if I had my way, clothes would NEVER STRETCH, and I could go five blissful years never needing to buy ANY new clothes. As it is, I need to replace *most* of my clothes, including those I only bought 4 or 5 months ago. I resent this, because I really do hate shopping.

Even now I'm living in Japan, where shopping is cheaper and has more variety, I can hardly bring myself to do it. I *need* to do it. But every time I try to force myself to go clothes shopping, I end up roaming around the food departments instead, and I end up buying chocolate or cakes instead... hahah...

***

Anyway, I'm rambling on about nonsense as usual. Work is going well. I really do enjoy my job. I like all my co-workers too. March is supposed to be a hectic month, because lots of students like to join for April (April is the beginning of the school year here, I think, so calendrically it's when people like to start new things). Some of my classes have become larger lately with new students; other than that, things are much the same.

We had our first kids in the other day. I did my demo lesson with the 4-year-old kid. Do you know, it's probably the only time in my life I've ever interacted with a child that young. I felt quite positive about it afterwards, even if I'm not sure I taught him anything. Fortunately, he wasn't a shy 4-year-old and he was quite happy and energetic. However, he didn't really pay attention to me and did a lot more running around the room than sitting obediently listening to Teacher. Hahah...

***

I've been studying Japanese quite diligently lately. I take two lessons a week, with different teachers. I still enjoy the Japanese language. Truthfully, I could spend more time at nights studying, rather than surfing mindless rubbish on the Internet and watching Grumpy Old Women DVDs...

***

Here are a few photos of my 'outing' a couple of weeks ago. Actually this is just northern Yokohama, not that far from where I live. I went to see the plum blossoms. Click a pic to see it bigger.


This is kind of very typical 'scenery' in northern Yokohama (well, actually anywhere in Yokohama apart from the city centre). It is actually quite green and tree-y. This is just a random house, I think.


The park was nice. Since it was a Monday, there were lots of older people pottering about, having picnics or painting watercolours of the trees. They were painting some pretty good pictures, actually.




I don't know exactly what this is all about...


I went to the ramen museum in Shin-Yokohama. I ate ramen. But I forgot to take a photo until I was half-finished. I have to say, half-eaten garlic ramen looks really unsavoury...

Spring is here

Spring has arrived in Japan. Of course it's still freezing cold. Nonetheless, there are a few telltale signs that the season is changing. Sakura (cherry blossom) decorations are everywhere - Starbucks is selling sakura cookies, bookstores are selling sakura stationery, gift shops are selling sakura glasses and bowls, etc.

Another telltale sign is all the students wearing face masks (like, surgical face masks - people wear them in public here). In winter, they wore face masks when they had colds to prevent spread of infection; now, they're wearing masks because of hayfever and pollen allergies (but... hayfever isn't contagious...?). Even though there's not a whole lot of nature around, hayfever seems to hit a lot of people very hard, and it's a typical seasonal thing for loads of people to suffer for three or four months...

We've had a few days recently with a maximum temperature of 15 degrees, which is a little warmer than it's been for a while. I've felt a bit more tired than usual lately, I think I always do when there's a change of season.

Finally, the plum blossoms have been out for a while. Tomorrow, I'm going to a Plum Blossom Festival, if it's not raining. Actually, I'm going with the volunteer teachers at the Women's Centre where I learn English. These volunteer teachers are all older women; housewives in their 40s, 50s, possibly 60s - and I was the only student invited, I think. I suppose I must have won my teacher's heart by giving her omiyage, hahah... It should be kind of interesting, a whole day with Japanese speakers who don't really speak English... hmmm...