momocheri

may 2005

time for another posting from beautiful fukuoka. . . .
life has been treating us well. we've really gotten into the swing of things here, and are always finding new places to go and things to see.

we've been spending lots of our free time with our friends aiko and gareth. gareth is a brit from kent - the county that the leats lived in back when amanda and i were brought into this world. his girlfriend, aiko, is from oita, kyushu. she went to england to study abroad and met gareth there. they moved here shortly before we did, so that they could be near aiko's family for a few years. they're a lovely couple and we have lots in common. aiko makes our lives and adventures a little bit easier since she is bilingual. gareth and john and i are all trying our best to learn japanese and are getting along a little easier, too.


two weeks ago the four of us took a ferry to nokonoshima island in the harbor. it was only a fifteen minute ferry ride to the island. it is a small and tall island with some houses, restaurants, orchards and beaches. we rented bicycles at the bottom and rode all the way to the top. it was quite exhausting and hot, but there is a beautiful garden at the top with a view of the whole harbor and the city. (we got great pictures.) we walked around the grounds and then lounged in the grass and ate ice cream. the ride back down was wonderful. the day had started to cool and the breeze and decline were perfect.

b.k. and lynne - it reminded me of our trip to see amanda in the keewenaw. remember riding our bikes on brockway? remember how my bike sucked? yeah.

so, becuase of that little trip, i've overcome my fear of riding. john and i are going shopping today for bicycles. yay. we're going to get granny bikes with big baskets for shopping and exploring. we've been walking so much the last two months that we're both getting quite slim! although the city is quite pedestrian friendly, we both agree that we'll be able to explore a lot more on wheels. and, as john says, we're sick of being bi-peds. hee hee.

fishing?

may2005

john bought us both fishing poles and tackle. he bought them unused and second hand from a sayonara sale - a gaichin couple that were moving home. a few weeks ago we decided to go fishing and had a classic john & natalie adventure. . . .
we got a very late start to the day, but never the less found a fishing park on the map and headed out. so, in this cosmopolitan southern city you could say that it might be a little odd to see people on the city subway with fishing poles. people were staring at us more than usual, which is a lot - eveyone wearing suits and skirts and john and i in grubby fishing clothes with poles and backpacks. hah. anyway, when we got to our stop we realized that we didn't know how to ride the bus yet, so we got a cab instead. we showed him the map and he laughed. we asked how much and he said about \2500. yes, that's right, about $25.00. a little steep, but we had made it that far so we figured we might as well. as you might imagine, a \2500 cab ride is no short distance. we realized about 15min into the ride along the coast that we weren't going to be able to catch a cab back out in the middle of nowhere. we wrote down the cabbie's number but realized we don't speak japanese so describing where we were was going to be difficult. typical j&n planning. oh well. the drive was so long that the driver turned off his meter at \2500 about five minutes before we got to the fishing park. he was chuckling when he pulled over and opened the doors.
we were on the edge of a two lane country road. mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. the fishing park consisted of a shop with long docks stretching out behind it into the ocean. on one side of the fishing park there was a sightseeing park with no fishing signs posted everywhere and the other side was steep and rocky coastline. so we walk into the shop as the driver pulls away with a grin on his face, shaking his head. as we walk to the counter, the clerk says no. huh? no. the park is closing for the day. sweet. there we are, in the middle of nowhere with our backpacks and poles and no car, no bicycle and no fishing. why you can't just fish next to the park, or anywhere else is beyond us but we don't want to break the law and get deported so we just stand on the side of the road and laugh.
a little old guy with a cooler full of fish comes out of the shop and sees us and chuckles. he motions for us to come over to him and we see that there is a bus stop. yay. we wait with him and board the bus to go back to the city. the bus ride is long and it finally stops in a little town. uh oh. the little old guy with the fish motions for us to follow him, so with lack of a better option we do. then we remember we don't know how to pay. there is some sort of ticket system that we don't quite understand. john tried to pay the driver, but apparently you can only use correct change and we don't have that. all we have is a \5000 note and so finally the driver shoos us off the bus without paying. follow the old guy. he motions for us to get on the bus behind the one we just got off (which is waiting in a growing line of buses because of the stupid gaijin couple that can't pay for their ride. oh wait, that's us. . . )
back on the bus. we know that we can't pay when we get off. we don't know where we're going. the little old guy is smiling and waving goodbye from the stop and we're hoping that he hasn't played some cruel joke on us. we're waving and still laughing of course because we're idiots.
luckily the bus was headed back to the city and to the subway station. we go through the same scenario with this bus driver and finally get shooed off again. and yes, there is another line of busses growing behind us. so now atleast we know how to get a free ride - just a little humiliation.
we took the subway home with lots more staring and walked to the harbor just four blocks from our appartment. it was dark by this time and so we got food at a convenience store and fished on the sea wall in the dark. we didn't catch anything.

experience points: 260. level: 2

13may2005


so, it was one month ago today that john and i woke up in holmes county, ohio and ended up in osaka, japan. whew. the month's flown by!
all is well on this side of the pacific. we've leveled-up considerably here in our virtual video game world. we now have phones, i.d. cards, considerably better communication skills, good tips for future fishing trips, known locations of grocers and markets, and last but certainly not least some local and gaijin friends. hoorah.
golden week was great. i've got some good pictures to send and post once we level-up to "internet at home."

let's go to eating

4 may 2005

well after working since i got here with only two days off, i'm relaxing at the start of a three day break. hoorah. john has to work tomorrow (sucker) because he hasn:t done any additional training yet, as i have. (my school has a heavier load of kids classes - including chubigo: 2-3 year olds! - so they dropped me in kids training right away.)

a quick note here. . . please excuse any mistakes that i making here. the great irony of being a gaijin english teacher is english grammar is first to be no more. after eight hours every time with student, the right way to making sense is difficult to get.


so, golden week is upon us and the city is as crowded as tokyo. people travel in to fukuoka, the largest city in kyushu, from all over the island to enjoy the dontaku (festival, parade, ya-tai, shopping, etc.). the mood is contagious. we're excited and we don't even know why. 29 april was the first national holiday of the week and 3,4, and 5 may are the next three. (i haven't completely figured out what each individual holiday is, but together they make golden week.) schools and work are closed so even the poor kaichin (salarymen) are on vacation. all the streets are lined with paper latterns and new booths. some are food and others are crafts of all sorts. tomorrow will be my first chance to really explore, so i'll tell more later.

as for weather, we got an unusual humid spell just after i wrote last. guess i jinxed us ^ don't tell the natives. it was two days of skin-crawling, gaijin-stinking, hair-frizzing heat that ended with a heavy rain (at night of course). guess we'll get used to that this summer. in the land of the eternally clean, non stinking nihonjin i might have to start wearing deodorant. you wouldn't recognize me - shaved legs, armpits, make-up, suits and now deodorant! hah.

the food gets more delicious every day. we've befriended tomohara, the owner and cook of an itzakaya (small and informal traditional restaurant) close to home. he speaks a little engrish and has taken an interest in john and i.

on our first visit, we were just out exploring in the evening and wandered into his place. he's in his late forties and he had a fluffy terrycloth headband on circa 1986 and a babyblue tom and jerry tee shirt on. we whipped out our handy phrase book and asked what he would suggest for dinner. of course he smiled politely at our awkwardness with the language and replied, "rra;iggoar soijraoigja, s;goigs, ogjoigjsoiggj. slidgjl. sdigjgj. sldkj slidug. hai?" then he laughed. a phrase book is really only helpful to convey direct needs. "i'll have a coffe, please." or "where is the toilet?" learning, "what would you suggest to eat?" is really a mute point if that's all the language you know.

at any rate, tomohara served us beer, a huge dish of ika (squid) sashimi, house miso soup (everyone's is different), pork and kimchi, three side dishes, and rice. to say that everything was delicious and beautiful would be an insult. it was an exceptional meal. we visited with him over dinner as much as we could and he taught us the words for what we were eating. we learned his name and he gave us his business card.
so, how much, you ask? \2300. that's right. about $23 US! it's almost cheaper to eat out in this city.
so we've been back and tomohara writes out the kanji and katakana/hiragana for everthing we eat. he rushes over and corrects our manners when appropriate and gets to practice his english with us in exchange. it's a good relationship. we've a date with our canadian neighbors to visit him again next week.

spring

27 april 2005

have i really not mentioned the weather yet? that's horrible.
the weather here is beautiful. even the most ardent weather complainer couldn't complain. everyday has been sunny and 16 - 19 celsius, or 67-73 farenheit (i think). warm with a cool ocean breeze all the time. it really is gorgeous. we've seen very few clouds, mostly in the early morning. like the rest of the country, the weather is polite enough to only rain in the wee hours of the morning so as not to disturb anyone. it's just heavy enough so that you can hear it and wake up enough to relax in bed for another few hours. we've been told that this will last until june, and then it's rain and typhoons. so we'll see.

john has found his branch. it's a little over an hour's time to commute, but he likes the students and the other teachers, so he's not requesting a transfer. my branch is equally as nice, although it appears to be a bit busier. as far as our schedules are concerned, we arrived in fukuoka on friday, had orientation on monday, training tuesday - thursday, and started work on saturday. so, yeah, it's been pretty busy. tomorrow is the start of our first 'weekend.' we are both scheduled to have thursday and friday off. unfortunately i'm scheduled for kids' classes training on friday, so i'll only have one day off. poor me. i get a three day weekend next week though, so that's fine.

friday is the beginning of golden week here. there are a handful of national holidays that are within 8 days of each other, so nearly eveyone is on holiday. apparently nova will be quiet and we should be able to see some good parades and festivities. what a beautiful place.

wake up

25 april 2005

....so, i don't think that i mentioned our rude awakening on the 19th of april.
john and i were peacefully sleeping at 6:15 in the morning when we were rudely awakened by the building groaning and shaking violently. the general motion was back and forth, but coming out of a dead sleep, it felt (and sounded) more like waking up on a very old rollercaoster - loose bolts and all. we understood immediately what was going on, but are unaccustomed to such things. i tried to stand and grabbed a blanket yelling to john to run to the bathroom - our smallest room. he couldn't find his galsses and as everyone knows this puts him in the same situation as velma in scooby doo when the monster is coming and everyone has to wait for her to do the same.

so we made it to the bathroom. john grabbed a flashlight on the way and we sat on the floor hovered in our blanket and waited it out.


in actuality, i don't think that it could have been much more than 40 seconds? 50? we crawled back to bed when the groaning and swaying stopped. the only real damage was our tv and stand fell on the floor and punctured a tatami mat. that and a bamboo shoot that the last tenants left for us lost it's vase. the thing that amazes me here, is that we actually went back to sleep. the next three hours were filled with regular and strong aftershocks. many of them woke us and we would instantly stand, glasses and blanket in hand and be ready to bolt to the bathroom. the tremor would stop and we'd lay back down and sleep tenuously until the next one.

the earthquake's magnitude was 5.7 and the epicenter was just off the coast of fukuoka. when i think about it now, i'm quite pleased that we were sleeping when it hit. had i been awake, i would have had time to think about the building collapsing and all sorts of other gruesome scenarios. as it was though, we were too sleepy to think of any thing other than the basics.
sometime thismorning there was another aftershock that woke us up again. i have no details on it other than it didn't last long enough to get us out of bed. i guess this is something that we just become accustomed to.

the neat thing about the city is that there was very little damage. (there's even little trace of the march 20th quake of 7.2) just like the stereotype, the japanese workers were out like ants and busy mending every little crack they could find. within two, three days it's difficult to find a trace in the city.
so that's all for now. we weren't going to mention the quakes so as not to worry family too much, nor excite foes too much, but you can all read the news, eh? so life is good here in the east and keeping us on our toes.

first thoughts

we live on the seventh floor of a pretty small building. we haven't met any of our neighbors yet, but apparently there is a canadian couple that works for NOVA on the fifth floor.
the appartment is a traditional japanese one with tatami mats and rice paper screen doors (shoji) between rooms. although it's technically a two bedroom, i think it would be pretty uncomfortable for two strangers. we have a small couch, a tv, and a cabinet in the one bedroom and our futon and clothes in the other. there is only one closet in the whole appartment. we were quite surprised to find that our teeny tiny washing machine actually lives outside on the airing porch. the airing porch, by the way, is occupied entirely by laundry racks and a large futon airing rack, and is no wider than a shallow closet. i'm confident that i'll soon drop the futon over the edge and smother some poor unsuspecting pedestrian.

nova has provided us with the basics in the appartment, like the washer, tv, and sofa as well as new futons, a kitchen table, iron, ironing board, vacuum, etc. the amazing thing is the size of everything. it is all so tiny. the other common factor of the appliances is how cute everything is. as a veteran video game fan, i can't say which inspired which, they all look like monsters from 'zelda' or 'tales of symphonia.' there are smiling anime characters everywhere too, with speech bubbles apparently exclaming how pleased they are with the product. most are japanese but there is some english. . .

i think that our trash can sums it up the best, "9 litter a comfortable life to support. simply receptacle add versatility. way-be. 905."

we made our first outing for groceries yesterday. we made our way into a little store and realized that we weren't even sure if it was a grocer or not. turns out it was a convenient store and we spent nearly $67 on very little food. oops. the tofu and the miso was good, but the canned fish wasn't. john got a bottle of ketchup, much to our relief since it does have natural mellowing agents, and also found some bologna, cheese, and bread (no loaf, just six pieces texas style in a bag. one of the great mysteries of japan. everything is so damn small and they only sell bread the size of a lap quilt and no thinner than the door of a toyota). later the same day we found an actual green grocer - hooray. we saw a mango there for $30. no joke. one mango = 3,000 yen. the cantalopes were only 1,000 yen. we've eaten out mostly this weekend, but will have to master the grocery store soon.

eating out has been an adventure too.

our first meal was in osaka at 7am. we awoke on friday at 5am becuase of the time change and jet speed. nothing was open at first, but we finally found a little diner. we went in and sat down and the waiter brought us tea and started talking to us. of course we didn't understand him. he quickly recognized this and showed us to what looked like a vending machine at the front of the dining room. it was all kanji and pictures, no english and no romaji. so we deducted that we put money into the machine and then push the button of the food that we want. i successfully ordered a miso soup and two other things. the picture was small, but i really thought that it was a fried cake of some sort and i actually thought i was only ordering one of them. at any rate, we sat down and in a little while the waiter brought out the food. john managed to get smoked breakfast sausage and fried potatoes and was nice enough to share.

the mystery dishes that i ordered looked like beans that had been in a tupperware in the fridge for way too long, but with a beautiful garnish of scallions. being the good sport that i am, i tried to eat them. they were firm enough to the touch, but had a stringy web-like structure between them that was actually stronger than duct tape. much worse than too much mozzerella on a pizza, this stuff was making connections on it's own; my mouth, nose, nose ring, chopsticks, hair, bowl, hands, shoulder, napkin, you get the picture. oh yeah, did i mention that it tasted like the forgotten beans in the fridge that i mentioned earlier? wow. i found out later that it's called natto. so begins the list of things never to order when you eat out in japan.