Hey all, my apologies for the silence over the airwaves these past few weeks; I'm going to try to resume regular blogging from now. To start with, I want to talk about what winter has been like so far: it's dry, drier than in Canada, and sunny most days. The air temperature is cold, probably about 2 or 3 degrees, and so if it's windy, it can be quite unpleasant, but the sun is strong enough that it warms one up so that it feels to be at least 7 or 8 degrees in the afternoon. Nights are cold, but rarely freezing.

Thus when it snowed last weekend, it came as a bit of a shock.

Sunny Monday

Monday was sunny and beautiful; I sat in the little park nearby my place and swung on the (admittedly too-low) swings. All the parks here, I've noticed, have clocks - ancient-looking, but solar-powered. Such an ingenious idea: the kids learn to tell time and can't make the excuse to their parents that they lost track of the time at the park. Also good for moms who need to keep track of time whilst minding the kiddies.

Remember bucket swings? Those things are ace. These ones are a little more low-tech than the metal-and-vinyl seats I grew up with, but nonetheless serve the same purpose.

Stuff and nonsense

Ok, I've been failing at posting, but in my defense I was in Tokyo, and then sick. You see, I purchased a toothbrush about two weeks ago and, not understanding Japanese writing, did not realise that it would be like until scrubbing one's oral cavity with a bundle of sticks... and that the bristles wouldn't relax. Long story short, I ripped up every inch of my gums and now have a raging case of coldsores everywhere, so bad that I had to take the day off work so I could just... not talk. I'm going back to work tomorrow but... I'm not sure how well that will go. Smiling huuuurts. I don't want to be genki.

That aside, life's been pretty normal. Tokyo was a blast, but I'm not putting up a pictures post since I got like, zero comments on the last one and I am not doing all that work for no reward, so you'll all just have to deal with it and look at my album on Facebook somehow ;)

This is my neighbour's garden. It smells divine when I pass by, by the way. Flowers in November! Crazy country I live in!

I didn't seem to get around to posting yesterday, for whatever reason. My bad.

This weekend, I didn't do much of anything - on Sunday, Caitlin and I went to see a Noh + Kyogen performance, both examples of traditional Japanese theatre. It was certainly an impressive cultural experience, if a little less than exciting, and I admit to perhaps having fallen asleep a couple times during the Noh section. It seemed that this was less to do with the fact that I didn't understand anything and more about tradition - there were numerous older Japanese people around me indulging the very same pastime, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

The rest of the weekend, I mostly hung about my apartment, cleaning or going to do the groceries. I finally stopped by the temple in my neighbourhood, and it was lovely; peaceful in the autumn afternoon, and pretty much deserted. I'll have to go back there and spend more time; as it was, it was getting dark. I don't feel quite so refreshed as I usually do after the weekend, thus going back to work this morning is going to be more of a drag than normal, but eh, that's life!

What ho, a post!

This is the little shop across from my gym! I sometimes frequent it - it sells yakitori (chicken onna stick) and mitarashi dango* for 50 yen and 30 yen a pop, respectively. I'm not a fan of mitarashi dango, but the yakitori is pretty ace after doing cardio, and I can snack on it on the way to the station. The shop itself is run by an elderly pair and their teenage granddaughter (I think) helps out every once in a while. They just chill in the back of the shop (which I think is the back room of their house, actually) until someone comes by to buy something. It must be a pretty nice gig. The neighbourhood around my gym has such a calm, close-knit feel to it; it's lovely to visit on Friday mornings.


PS: Sorry about not posting on Wednesday. Life was hectic.

*Plain mochi (usually 3 balls to a stick) grilled over a flame until just warm, then smothered in some sort of sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Japanese don't celebrate Thanksgiving, seeing as how the land of the rising sun has never actually been colonized* by anyone except the Japanese, back in the mists of time. This Monday is actually a national holiday, however - something to do with children's sports at school, though I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. In any case, as a Canadian expat, I'm celebrating it in my own way: this morning, I Skyped for about two hours with the family as they had their pumpkin pie and played monopoly (on my end I did laundry and ate pancakes), and I've decided to draw up a list here of things I'm thankful for here in Japan.

I defs. suck at being punctual.

But at least I'm posting, amirite? Also, I'm uploading the pictures to a hosting site and then posting them here - let me know if there's any problem viewing them :)

That's right.

Blog, meet Fromage. Fromage, meet blog. This is my trusty metal steed, my companion in rain or shine, my baby...

A new pair of wheels...

Ladies and gentlemen, I am finally the proud owner of a brand-spanking-new bicycle! Yes, this weekend I finally could no longer stand not having a bike, and C and I trekked out to the Takabata Asahi Cycle and bought me a nice, dark-blue bike with a black basket for 10960 yen. Not bad, taking into account the basket, rat trap, fenders, built-in (bike-powered) light, bell, kickstand, and automatic back-wheel lock that came with it. I bought an extra bike lock so as to be able to anchor it to something, but that only cost me an extra 525 yen. The type of bike is called a ままちゃり (mamachari), and it is what housewives, little old ladies, and college students ride around on, because it's comfy, convenient, and has lots of storage space. I have christened it FROMAGE: le choix, because that is what it has printed on it, and honestly, I don't think I need to be any more creative than that.

Bikes and banks

The season's starting to change. People say that summer here lasts well into October, and I believe it, but the dog days of it are, I believe, starting to finally fade out. I may be saying this prematurely, but I noticed earlier this week that I haven't heard the cicadas... at all. Finally, quiet. And tonight? I don't have my a/c on. That must be the first time since the beginning of June that I've come home and not had to turn on my a/c right away (I probably will once I go to bed just to clear out the air and put on the dehumidifier, but my point stands).

On Monday, I'm going to go and pay a ridiculous amount of money for a bike, but I'm tired of waiting for a windfall or deal to come along, and I have the money required; I'm just going to go and buy a bike at full price, damn the torpedoes. It's really going to be quite indispensable for getting around my neighbourhood, being able to maximize my time when doing groceries, and also for exploring. I've lived here three months and I'm still not really sure about anything outside of my immediate neighbourhood and walk to the subway station. I will of course need to register it, which will be a process and a half, but I'm confident I can make it through.

Speaking of which, this Thursday I spent a total of two hours at the bank, attempting to make an international transfer. I had anticipated that it would take a while, since I have no useful Japanese for banking situations and one cannot expect employees of a national bank in the busiest (most international) section of one of the biggest cities in the country to speak a singel word of English. I waited for ten minutes until it was my turn to go into the little international transfer booth, then waited another 20 minutes for my turn to come up in the queue: when the computer screen came up with the attendant on it, she made me go through all the procedures before awkwardly telling me that I should have filled out a form with my information on it to scan to her... and that was that. The television screen disappeared, and I was back in the queue: I waited another 50 minutes (filling out the paperwork, which had been on my right and that not a single person I had interacted with had bothered to show me was there or even important), repressing the mad urge to attempt to strangle the cartoony avatar of a nice office lady (asking me to wait in the most extremely polite of manners, of course) on the screen.

The actual transaction took all of ten minutes, after which I rushed to work. However, my slaving was not in vain, because the money I transferred actually did end up in my Canadian bank account. What with the yen being quite strong now, I'm quite happy with the results. I'm a little poorer on this end, but as soon as I figure out how, I'll be a little less in debt on the other. It's taken me the whole summer to get to this point, but I'm quite proud of myself. Here's hoping I can say the same in another three months.

On settling.

I know I haven't updated for about a week, but I have an excuse: this week is the first week that has gone by fast; I believe I have just about hit my stride, as far as routine and daily life is concerned. Each day is not a continual series of difficult and exhausting revelations: I might actually start to think of things as typical or usual, soon. That's pretty exciting for me.

The rainy season continues on - I was told by a student today that this rainy season has been unusually hot and not-rainy, but it's been precipitating on and off all day, and tonight when I walked home it was cool and damp to the point of being chilly. Damp cold is a terrible thing.

Trees along the river by my house have burst into unexpected bloom, as have the bushes on the median of the road. The happy coincidence of a clear day and my not working has yet to come along, but I fully intend to take pictures. I'm sure my neighbours think I'm horribly rude and strange by taking pictures of completely ordinary things, but I am continually surprised and delighted by my neighbourhood and thing things therein. For example, C tells me that their students unanimously agree that my area is prime real estate area: I was at first surprised to hear this, but after I thought about it, I realized that during my tromps through neighbourhood streets, there are some huge-ass houses around here, by Japanese standards. Ones with retaining walls and little courtyards inside, or vegetable gardens, or blooming trees peeking over the walls, nestled up under the eaves of roofs shingled with blue lacquered tile.

It's easy to imagine families, generations, as having lived in many of the houses around here. There are quite a few children in my neighbourhood, as well; parks and such are there for them, and I occasionally see them out and about, so it's a real family place. Or, thus I deduce, having had no real experience living in other neighbourhoods in Japan. Time will tell. Just over a month ago, homesick and longing for some sort of family equivalent, my neighbourhood's houses were definitely of comfort to me, just by the fact that they were there: inside each, families sat down to dinner, talked to each other, watched TV, and life went on comfortably and normally for them, even if not for me.

Now, I believe I've caught up with the Joneses, as it were: my life's gradually starting to fall into a denouement from the series of jagged spikes that it's been over the past two months. And that's very comforting.

Fans and flora

First off, happy birthday, Canada. If all that I've been hearing about the G20 summit is true, you deserve a bit of a break.

It's hot again here, although not as hot as it was when I last posted. Unfortunately, my apartment is less than well-ventilated, even with a fan going, and so the cool air outside is steadfastly remaining outside, and I am stuck in here wondering if I should just cave and turn on the air conditioning. I got my remote control for the air conditioner translated today by one of my Japanese coworkers; apparently there's a built-in dehumidifier as well! I'm quite pleased, but right now sucking the water out of the air is just going to leave a lot of hot, dry air. Cooling down is the thing.

Actually, the humidity here has its perks. The wind is soft, almost silky; I can't quite describe it, but there's no edge to it, like in Canada*. I have yet to have problems with dry skin or dandruff, which plagued me back in Ontario, especially in the winter. Also, it smells wonderful outside.

This may also be due in part to the fact that I live in a more suburban area of Nagoya, and a few houses have yards; the ones that don't are given to fervently compensating by cramming as many trees and potted plants as they can into the crevices between the outer wall and their house's wall, so the effect is similar. There are also quite a few communal gardens around here; small plots of lands with corn, potatoes, eggplant, fruit trees, onions, daikon or other assorted fruits or vegetables growing on them. I never see people working on them; regardless, they're quite abundant. Thusly, when walking down the street - especially at night - the air smells of damp greenery and flowers.

I should like to buy myself a plant one of these days; something to stick on my balcony and enjoy when I can. I'm not keeping it inside, though; I'm quite sure that the temperature in here rises well about 35 when I'm not around to turn on the fan.



*I rather enjoy that about the wind in Canada, though, so perhaps it's not such a plus.

Of ARCs and peanut cream

This morning, I woke up early and walked down to my ward office (a mere ten minutes from my house) to pick up my Alien Registration Card. Every foreigner in Japan must have an ARC 90 days into their extended stay in Japan, or they can be deported without so much as a by-your-leave. For me, this means that I no longer have to carry my passport and an official document with me everywhere I go, making my purse that much less crowded. This also means that I can officially open a bank account, which means that I can transfer my cellphone bill to charge my bank account instead of my credit card, and also get paid by direct deposit instead of cash.

This will be a good thing, because I've found out that I'm not very good at budgeting my money when it's in cash. Since Japan is a cash-based society (I have yet to see anyone use a debit card or a credit card anywhere), I will have to learn, I suppose, but having a bank account which tells me exactly how much is in it at all times will be enormously helpful.

I took the opportunity to walk around my neighbourhood more this week, and there are some really adorable streets with wonderful houses and yards. Yards are a status symbol here; these ones are wonderful. Always packed with trees and flowers and shrubbery and things, though; I've only ever seen one grass lawn in my neighbourhood, and it wasn't very impressive.

My local Lawson's (a hybrid of a convenience store and hyaku-en store) is wonderful - I bought my groceries for this week for a mere 1500 yen (roughly equivalent to $15). They don't have much of a selection, but they have fresh fruits and veggies, meat, eggs, drinks, yogurt, rice crackers, chocolate, household stuff... everything you need to live simply, basically. Unfortunately, they lack peanut butter. I bought - foolish gaijin that I am - something called "Peanut Cream", which I assumed was merely a terrible translation of peanut butter - but no! This is actually... a peanut-flavoured gelatinous substance. I would describe the texture as not unlike apple butter, or caramel spread, but without the usual stickiness. It tastes quite good, though the texture is jarring, but I don't think I shall buy it again.

Missives from away

This week has been the longest week of my life so far. I'm sure next week will be even longer, but I knew that when I signed up, so I have no business whingeing about it now. I am to mask my inner emotions and be super genki on the outside, even if I'm stressed and really have no idea what the hell I'm doing on the inside.

I can't read anything. This is such a problem, you have no idea. I've identified the kanji for wheat, and I have written down the kanji for rye and barley, as well, but seriously it's like a treasure hunt every single time I try to read a label of something that might contain wheat. I think I accidentally ate something containing wheat today because my liver has been pinging me something fierce - just random little stabs of pain, saying "Hey, you're eating shit you can't digest!"

Frustrations aside, I've mostly settled into my apartment. My neighbourhood is super-beautiful, even if I do live in the boonies - ie, not in the centre of Nagoya. Whatever; I like it. There's old-style Japanese houses and gardens that smell lovely at night, and a stream and a jogging path. The dog who lives in the backyard across from my front door is adorable. I had a dream last night that I was hugging it - I have been having some very, very vivid dreams lately, the scariest of which was after my welcome party, at which I drank umesshu, or Japanese plum wine, and I blame it entirely.

Tomorrow is my second Japanese lesson. I feel kind of like I'm the dumb kid in the class, because I can't really string a sentence together with confidence, and I have to really think to understand what they're saying. Also there's a dude from the Philippines who is pretty much fluent (I have no idea why he's in the class) and who finds every little thing hilarious, and jokes around with the teacher, and not in a nice way, I think. He also dresses like your typical douchebag, so I think I was biased against him from the start.

I was unable to sign up for a bank account, due to the fact that I don't have my Alien Registration Card yet. This is balls, as I can't get a cellphone until I have a bank account, really. I think I'm going to try to open an account at the bank at Nagoya Station tomorrow, and see if I can cheat the system.