Welcome to Ota: A Recap

Since it has been a while since I have been able to write, now I must do some back tracking to fill you in on what has been happening here.

The next day after I wrote my last entry, I actually had the opportunity to briefly go out into Tokyo at night. Wah! I loved it. It really was beautiful. Everything on the street lights up, there are so many people out walking or shop employees attempting to lure people inside. I was amused that said employees never even gave us a second glance; lucky us! Even though we seemed to be in a little bit of a lost area of Shinkjuku, I definitely had the feeling, "Ah, Tokyo!" for the first time.

Unfortunately, soon after eating we had to return to the hotel.

The next morning, we got onto a bus and went to Gunma. The trip only took two hours and went by quite quickly. Some people on the bus were getting impromptu Japanese lessons, some slept, reminisced on previous experiences in Japan or with Japanese, and Taylor, another Ota JET, was even teaching himself how to tie his own tie. We did stop once, and everyone rushed to the vending machines, a first experience for many of us. There are so many vending machines everywhere, it is almost a joke. I have already learned to appreciate them though. It is very hot!

In Ota, we had a brief welcome ceremony in which we were introduced to our supervisor. Along with myself, there are two other JET ALTs in Ota, Taylor and Chingyi.

During the ceremony, we were called up to shake his hand but didn't have a chance to talk. At first, we were a little nervous because he seemed very stern. However, once the ceremony was over, we found this to be quite an inaccurate description. It turned out that one of his favorite things was old British and American heavy metal bands. This stern looking fellow! Whenever we are driving with him, he always has the music on, though quietly. What's funny was, even though the music was in English, I was comforted by it because it reminds me of my favorite Japanese band, X Japan! Pretty funny. Since then, I've found that this unintentional lesson of our sensei has been a true one; often times I see Japanese people walking or standing on the street, looking like they are scowling yet once I offer a greeting, their whole face lights up. (of course, I've had other responses as well, but never anything bad).

The next few days were quite busy. After getting our Alien/Foreign Registration out of the way, we purchased cell phones and set up a bank account. I had the ever thrilling experience of paying my rent for the first time. Bye bye 48,500 yen.

I did not get to move into my new apartment until the second day we were there. Mia was still at the apartment, just about to leave. She gave me a whirlwind tour of the apartment, showing me quickly how each of the electronics, such as the air conditioner and rice cooker, worked, then went off to the train station to begin her trip home. I was pretty overwhelmed. The apartment is pretty big, with a kitchen, living room, and tatami room. The tatami room is 6 mats big, the biggest and the nicest in the apartment. The kitchen was a little gross, and it was clear to me that I would be doing quite a bit of cleaning my first few days. This turned out to be quite true... some of it made me wonder how exactly Mia used to live. For example, I found that every glass and dish in the cupboard and in the drying rack next to the sink, was still dirty! It was seriously gross. I cleaned everything and then arranged the cabinet from most ugly to least ugly (I have found that it is quite easy to find cheap, nice looking glasses and dishes, so I'm not sure why everything is so mismatched and uuugly).

In addition to everything in the apartment, I also inherited a bike. I was in serious doubt about this bike when I first saw it, thinking that maybe I would just go ahead and get a new one. However, after giving it a couple tries, I found that, even though the breaks are a little... slow, it works well enough. It has a huge basket on the front, so I can (sometimes precariously) carry all my groceries or other purchases with me. Here you can see the sign for my apartment, Minamigaoka Heights, and that is my bike there on the end. From this distance, it looks pretty good!

A day or so after getting settled in my apartment, sensei picked us three ALTs up again and brought us to Joyful Honda, a HUGE home store. There are two floors and I have only been to parts of the first floor and have yet to go to the second story, so I am not sure what is up there either. What really cracked me and Chingyi up was the liquor store that is on the lower level of the store. The "Joyful liquor store"! Well, who isn't joyful after going to a liquor store!

After being in the apartments a few nights and cleaning everyday, I started to feel a little more at home in my apartment and was ready to cook my first meal. Let me tell you, making a trip to the grocery store for a specific set of items is no small ordeal! First, I get out my cook books and find a recipe I want, making a list of the items. That is pretty standard. However, then I have to pull out one or two dictionaries to translate everything into kana, and then to kanji! It takes so long to meticulously write these tiny, intricate kanji that I am wholly unfamiliar with! However, I figured that, by doing so, I could just find items by essentially playing "Match the Picture!". Once I got to the grocery store, I found this did not work at all! I have no idea what is written on the packages, but it somehow never corresponded with the dictionary definition. It worked out, for the most part, anyway. When I come upon something I cannot find by sight, I apologetically ask for assistance from either one of the other customers (this is chicken, right?) or from an employee (red miso is where?). The kanji prove useful because even though I cannot read them, everyone else can, and it makes my meaning very clear.

This was the result of my hard work, my first Japanese home-cooked meal!"How impressive!" you say, but actually, it is kind of boring. I think I need to make a sauce to go with it. If you could see the pitiful stove that I had to work with though, you would appreciate what a juggling act it is to cook there. Even though I have two burners, one of the burners is too close to the wall, and has burned the wall from past use (a situation I found to be recurrent, actually), so I am not allowed to use it. The stove is pretty scary altogether. It is gas and there are two little nozzle at the back where you have to turn on the gas before turning on the stove, but one of the nozzle isn't attached to anything! I give it a wide birth, in effort not to poison myself to death.

Pictures of the apartment will have to wait though. The Japanese have an extensive recycling system. Almost everything gets recycled. While this is nice in theory, it is also EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. There is nothing that we open or eat that we do not have to sit and wonder how we are going to get rid of the packaging, and the answer is not always clear. Taylor and I decided it was better if we just stopped eating. lol. The result is that I have tons of garbage in my kitchen right now, separated into different bags and trash cans. I want to wait until I can get all of these out of my apartment before I take pictures. The recycling runs on a months schedule though, so it may be a while before I am able to clear it all out.

Wah, I am tired. More later!

Lindsay Baer