A Typical Day + Oh look it snowed again

So I'm pretty sure we have more snow than Wisconsin now.

BAM

 I don't think Tina wanted her picture taken in this one...

 And of course another one of our mountain

That aside, the purpose of this entry is to identify a problem I've been having lately and explore in depth the reason that this problem has been occurring.  Summed up, we have:

Problem:  My posting on this blog has gotten a bit sparse as of late.

Cause:  I've been too busy to post, sleep or breathe.

Solution:  Get a five day break from school and let my brain relax a little.

(In case you're not reading between the lines quite the way I had intended, I am now on a five day break, during which I can finally post new entries, and would like to explain why I've been to busy to do so.  Thank you for your understanding and tolerance of my bizarre writing style.)

By way of apology for my naughty, naughty lack of amusing Japan-related posts, I'd like to describe a typical day for Tina and I, which should explain somewhat why I've been behaving so poorly.

My alarm wakes me up at 8:30 a.m., after which I usually wonder why I bother waking myself up at this time.  I only come up with an answer to this question about half the time, and if I don't, I sleep until 9 when I can no longer delay or have much of a breakfast.  When I do come up with some sort of reason to get up, it usually involves food or a need to visit the toilet.

After eating whatever I have the energy to make and/or pull out of a package, I make sure all my things are together and go next door to motivate Tina, which thankfully is not very hard.

We spend 3 hours and 15 minutes(ish) getting talked to and attempting to learn Japanese quicker, lest we get fed to any number of the child-sized crows flying around outside the classroom window.  This is typically the hardest part of the day, and if you've ever been in a class of just two people where the teacher rarely speaks the only language you're very familiar with, you might know why.  This is followed by a two to three hour period during which we eat lunch, rest up, and I attempt to cheer Tina up if necessary.  Sometimes before this can happen we are asked to participate in more class or some activity.  The days with more class are not fun.

After we've rested we each go our separate ways for an hour or two until we go out for food and either make dinner or warm up whatever prepared food we've decided on.  This is typically when I get the chance to check my email and do other various routine things.

By the time we're done with dinner it's study time, usually for about three hours each night, after which we may have a small amount of time to spend together before I tuck Tina in and head back to my apartment.  I may go on the internet for a short while, shower and read a book if time permits.

...

Wow that was a lot more boring than I thought it would be.  Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it anyhow.  I was so busy last weekend that I didn't even have time to post then.  We spent Friday evening at one of the program coordinators' houses with our tutors cooking, eating and drinking.  Saturday we did some homework and played video games with our Swedish friend (which I suppose wasn't forced on us, but I really needed the repose), and Sunday we spent most of the day with my host mother and ended up finishing our homework kind of late at night.

I hope to post my entry about food--which at this point should be pretty extensive--tomorrow, and we're going to Tokyo on Saturday, so you can expect to hear about that as well.  Maybe tomorrow I'll work on some computer science like a good little boy. =P

See you all later.

Interesting facts about Japan - Part 1

This may the the final installment of this newly started blog entry category, but in my hopefulness I've labeled it part one.  Here's hoping.

Interesting facts/distinctions about Japan:

- In Japan, the largest amount of money in a single coin is about $6.50.  Hence keeping track of change is much more important.

- Perhaps you’ve heard that people take off their shoes before entering houses and apartments.  People sometimes implement this rule in the US, but almost never to the degree it is used in Japan.  There is a clear distinction between the small space near the entrance to a building where people enter and the area where shoes are not allowed.  Forgetting things before I leave in the morning can be a chore since I have to remove my shoes, get whatever I need and then put them on again, rather than thinking, “It’s okay if I just go in for a little bit with my shoes on,” as I do in the US.

- Technology in Japan is in fact more advanced than in the US.  In general, there are more automatic appliances and energy saving devices present, and safety features on appliances are more common.  In the safety features department, this can be kind of annoying.

- A few cases where technology is less advanced, and surprisingly so:

•       I gather that having a clothes drier in one’s home is uncommon, and that most people hang their clothes out to dry, though to be fair, accommodations for clothes drying have been included with every house and apartment that I have seen thus far, usually in the form of a balcony with a clothes bar and a railing.
•       Furthermore, washing machines are small and relatively ineffective.
•       Here, washing one’s hands after using the toilet seems to be viewed as more of an option than a necessity.  Frequently, I’ve run into bathrooms that are poorly equipped for hand washing, lacking paper towels, hot water, decent hand driers, and the liquid hand soap that Americans are so used to having.  In addition, in people’s homes (including my apartment for example), the toilet may not be located in the same room as the hand washing sink, meaning at the very least that one has to touch a door knob or two before being able to properly wash one’s hands.
•       Storm doors don’t seem to exist in Japan.  As a consequence, my outer hall, where my kitchenette, bathroom, shower and sink are located, is perpetually cold.
•       Deodorant is virtually absent in Japan.  In Tsuru, I’ve been able to find spray deodorant for exorbitant prices, but for the effective, stick form that exists in the US I would apparently have to go to an import store in a major city.

- Japanese people are always complaining about how hot or cold it is.  It seems to be a way of bonding people together; they can all complain about the same thing.  It’s probably one of the most common things you’ll hear if you go to Japan and is a common conversation starter.  A formal variant of this complaint is frequently used at the beginning of letters, saying more or less, “Every day is cold, but I haven’t caught a cold.” Note that the wordplay on “cold” does not exist in Japanese and is therefore not intentional.

- Many things are smaller in Japan, cars included, though one thing that we both find particularly striking is the size of the tires, as shown in comparison to my foot.

Incidentally, these shoes are really comfortable.

- The two most popular potato chip flavors in Japan seem to be “seaweed” and “broth.”  In addition, the only place I have seen corn chips thus far was at a party, and they were smaller and flavored with something I’ve never heard of.

- Despite that and my run in with Ribbon-chan, I can't deny that food is almost always higher quality here.  I think in America we tend to compromise quality for price, a practice that I find highly unfortunate.  While it is possible to find cheap, good food both here and in the US, I think overall the Japanese have the right idea here.  You are what you eat.  Apparently I'm a kilo of rice per week.

Stay tuned for my food entry!  I wanted to write it this weekend, but I'm really sick of sitting at the computer, so I'm going to go say hello to the world now.  じゃ、ね～

I can has resident alien status?

Today we went to the... uh... place with lots of official paperwork where they ask to see our passports, and got our ID cards and insurance cards.  Now I have both a normal ID and a school ID.  I feel so official.

I was actually going to upload a picture I took of all these documents, and although I'm virtually certain that that would be fine, I thought better of the idea anyhow.  You can see them later.

In lieu of that, I thought I would talk about the weather instead.  The weather here is surprisingly close to Wisconsin's weather thus far.  I think it's slightly warmer here though, maybe.  One endearing similarity is that Tsuru's weather seems to be just as temperamental as Wisconsin's.  This morning when we went to class at 9 a.m. it was warm and very nice out.  In fact I think it was the nicest day we've had all week.  Now it looks like this:

My timing on this picture is a bit of a shame, because if I had waited about 15 minutes you would have been able to see more of that large hill in the background.  It's actually quite beautiful.

This weather makes me really happy.  I thought I would miss snow while I was away.

Random:  I'm pretty sure the kid who lives next to us is on his way to becoming a soccer superstar.  He's probably about seven years old and he's always kicking a soccer ball around.  It's still snowing, and I just saw him come out of his house and start kicking it against the wall.  Incidentally, since my father was wondering about the view outside of my apartment, I have taken a picture of it.  The wall in question would be the one on the right.

So yeah, that's it for today, though I look forward to posting a couple more entries this weekend.  I have drafted an "Interesting Things about Japan" entry, and I'd also like to talk about food.

I suppose on more thing I'd like to mention is how great the support here is.  I will eventually, probably near the end of my trip, give a full assessment on Tsuru's program as a representative of the pilot group from St. Norbert (an entire half of the pilot group, in fact), but this deserves immediate attention.

Not that any of these people will likely read this, but I would like to thank our tutors Nanami, Machiko, Youta and Sakura, our friends from Tsuru that came to St. Norbert last year, Keiko, Erina and Aya (though we haven't actually managed to meet up with Erina yet), the program coordinators for JAST, Takiguchi-sensei and Fumi-san, our teachers, Takami-sensei, Shima-sensei, Miyata-sensei, and Inoue-sensei, and Oore-san, the Swedish guy who plays Smash Bros. and Mario Kart with us, for their excellent support and friendship, and I would specifically like to thank both of the program coordinators for showing us that things aren't as hard as they sometimes seem.  I'm sure I'll have many more people to thank as time goes on, but for now these are the people that have me brimming over with gratitude.

Actually I think I'll write a bit more.  I don't get to write much during the week, you see.

Classes are going much better than when they first started.  The pace has been slowed a little bit, and after the first quiz the teachers started giving partial credit on the kanji quizzes.  I often find that the day we learn a new grammar rule I can find useful ways to implement and practice it, which feels wonderful.  A lot of the rest of the time the things we learn in class are ones that I've already started to hear and have been wondering about for a while.  I think I'm truly a philosopher at heart, and all this learning stuff has me very happy most of the time.

On that note, Tina has perked up these past few days.  She decorated Valentine's Day chocolates for our tutors.  I wish I had her skill.



Well, until next time!

The apartment

I promised a photo tour of my apartment.  Here it is.

To start with, we have my door.  It's blue.

Come inside!  I don't have a storm door.  Apparently Japan doesn't have those, which is unfortunate, because my hall is always freezing.  On the bright side I have this neat little mail slot.

As you can see from the above picture there's a slightly recessed area by the door before the main area of the house.  This is for taking off one's shoes.  This area is seen in all houses and apartments that I've been to. Here, no one wears their shoes in the house.  At all.  Usually, the resident's shoes are stored on a little shelf like this one:

And everyone else usually leaves their shoes in the shoe-removal pit.

Now, if you'll look to my left we have the doors for the shower and the toilet.  This separation seems very practical to me.

And if you'll look to my right, we have the door for the hand washing sink.  Putting it two doors away from the toilet, as compared to doing so with the shower/bath, seems pretty ridiculous and weird.  You mean I have to touch two door handles before washing my hands?  No, seriously, what the hell.

Okay, turning around and looking to my left we have the kitchenette.  It has a stove that can heat water or fry things.  It has two separate burners for this.  I'm not sure why.  Next to that is my basket of tasty stuff that came as a welcome present for me, and that I have subsequently filled with more tasty stuff, including tea, the crackers my host mother gave to me, and chocolates.  Next to that there's a decent sized sink, along with a pitiful dish draining area and the cheapest dish soap I could find.  I was amazed to discover that one of the frying pans that came with the apartment, the one shown here, is actually pretty nice.  Tina did not have such luck, but she has a working vacuum cleaner, so we share stuff.

And just to the right of that we have my toaster oven, my unused rice cooker (we always make rice at Tina's), my microwave (700 watt, just like in college), and my refrigerator/freezer.  Tina's refrigerator freezes practically everything on its lowest setting, so for dinner I usually have to carry everything over from my fridge to Tina's so we can cook it.

Behind us I have a closet, but I neglected to take a picture of it.

Entering the inner door, which you'll see in a second from the inside, we have my main room.  I have a desk, a small bookshelf, a computer chair and a TV that I don't watch.  I should actually, because in this context it's educational, but I guess I've just gotten used to hardly ever watching TV and I'm more than fine with that.  Maybe I'll check it out eventually.  Oh, and I have a rug, which is nice.

 On the other side of the room, we have my shelf that I found in my closet and assembled, the frosted glass sliding door that I've become rather fond of, another closet/cupboard and my sleeping cavern.

Basically, it's a lofted futon.  Can't see?  Follow me into my sleep cavern!

There! Now isn't that better?  Overhead there is a bright reading light, and if you look to the right...

...there's the back of my hall closet.  At first I thought this was really weird, but it has come in handy for not having to lug stuff up into the bed, and if I accidentally make it too warm I can crack the door to my perpetually cold hallway.

And that's pretty much it.  If you're wondering at all about Tina's apartment, here are some of the principal differences:

Tina has a mini couch  thing instead of a rug.

Tina has a rickety wooden chair instead of a computer chair.

Other than that, they're pretty much the mirror image of each other.

Thanks for reading/viewing!

Intensive Japanese Class - Off to a Rocky Start

So, I'd like to tell you all about our class(es... I guess),  but I don't have much time because I have to study soon.

In short, the pace here is about 7 times that of our normal Japanese class, and deadlines are infinitely more strict.  A new kanji chapter is covered every day, meaning that we have 12 new kanji to learn every day, and we have a kanji quiz every day for the kanji that were covered two days ago.  The quizzes are out of ten points.  If an answer is incomplete or incorrect, even if the mistake was on a kanji not covered in that chapter, that answer receives no points.  No partial credit is given.  To do well on these quizzes, we have to be able to write each kanji and know all of the different ways it can be read.  Often there are three or four ways, and they depend on the surrounding context.

In addition, we're continuing with the same textbook we were using before we came to Japan.  In America, we covered three or four chapters in a semester, which is about 14 weeks long.  Those same three chapters will be covered in nine class days here, two weeks.

Basically, this is why I had to hold off on some of the blogging I was planning to do.  I await the weekend for the opportunity.  Thank you for reading.

"Life is study." --Kintaro Oe, Golden Boy

Quiet

For the first time today, I went out by myself and wandered around a little bit.  I had been out with just Tina before, which was different than being carted around or hanging out in a group, but I had never really been able to just go wherever I wanted.  Today was the first time I did laundry, and although I have a washing machine in my apartment (utilities included--YESSS!) I don't have a drier.  It is not yet fitting weather for outdoor line drying, so I had to take my clothes to a laundromat to dry them, and that was where my small adventure began.

I found at the laundromat how lucky I really am to have a washing machine to myself.  Although price depends on the load size and washing time, I think the cheapest was 800 yen for a small load for about 30 minutes.  That's over $10 for a mini load of laundry, my friend.  Luckily, drying isn't nearly as bad.  You can get a medium-sized load of clothes dried in 20 mintues for 200 yen, which isn't great, but isn't bad either.

After laundry I went to the yakitori stand that Tina and I had been dying to try.  At 100 per stick, it isn't the cheapest food ever, but it is probably the tastiest.  Waiting for it to be cooked also gave me a chance to stand in silence, people watch and breathe in the smells of the mountain air and of my incredibly tasty food being cooked.  In Japan, one isn't supposed to eat and walk at the same time--it's just culturally weird--so I was extremely pleased to discover that directly behind the yakitori stand was a clean bench that I could sit on (and another vending machine, go figure).  Overall, standing and waiting for yakitori and then eating it was the most pleasant experience I've had all day, one that I'll be eager to repeat.

From there I went to Bukka, the bookstore (that from my perspective is on the edge of town even though I don't think it really is) that Nanami took us to two nights ago.  Bukka's manga section is vast, probably 7 to 8 times the size of most bookstore's manga sections, though Borders, which unfortunately closed, had one maybe half the size.  More amazing still, is that I realized this time around that aside from very popular series, Bukka only stocks the last volume of most manga.  That means that most every shelf is packed with about 20 different manga titles.  The Japanese do like their comics.  Incidentally, Joe, London, they had volume 5 of Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne.  I should take a couple pictures of this manga section, and perhaps I will the next time I'm there with Tina.

Well, that's about it for today.  I'm getting to the point where I feel I can dedicate an entry to Tsuru city in general, so I'm looking forward to that.  Thank you for reading my blog!

Pixxx

Alright, so I promised pictures, and tonight I'm a little short on time, so that's pretty much what this entry is going to be.  I might do another  brief entry later, but otherwise I'll wait until tomorrow to melt your brains some more.  Enjoy:

Back row, from the left:  Fumi-san (serves as a mother figure for foreign students/program coordinator), Tina's host mother, Tina, an unusually large person, Yuma (my host sister), Youta (tutor), Machiko (tutor)

Front row, also from the left:  Nanami (tutor), Sakura (tutor), Nakano-san (my host mother), Takiguchi-sensei (also program coordinator; her English is really good)

 One of the infamous vending machines that are everywhere (and they are)

Some mountains

A better shot at those same mountains

There!  Ya happy?  I'll have more pictures up in the next few entries as well.  See you later! 

A Short Post and Stuff About Japan

Since I have to go to bed soon and my big entry test is tomorrow, I'm going to keep this entry short.  Instead of writing a long entry, I'm going to dedicate this entry as a place for questions, posted as comments, about Japan.  In particular, if you've heard something or know of a stereotype about Japan or Japanese people, please post any questions about it and I will tell you, to the extent that I can after being here as long as I have, whether it's true or not, and what I know about it.  This is directed especially, but not exclusively, to people who are planning to study abroad in Japan, so if you fall into that category, think of some questions, eh?

I may or may not eat a hamburger if you don't.  Yes, that's a threat.

Honorable mentions:

- Yesterday I met my host family.  They seem nice.
- Today Tina and I were finally reunited with a couple of the students that went to St. Norbert last year, Keiko and Aya.  We ate sashimi and sang karaoke.
- I've managed to take a shower every night that I've been here.  I'm very pleased with myself.  I admit that I do not normally do this.

Upcoming topics:

- Japanese McDonalds
- Tsuru City
- Tsuru University
- Intensive Japanese Classes
- Our flight that I still haven't talked about
- More about my host family
- The bookstore near my apartment
- Karaoke
...and more!

In closing, I promise to have real pictures that were really taken in Japan (with a real digital camera!) within the next 24 hours.  (Posted at 11:30 p.m. Japan Time)

Mike complaining: Personal issues communicating

Time in Japan:  7:30 p.m.

So I realized today that it’s harder for me to make friends than I thought.  Or maybe that’s not the right way to put it.  When I have really close friends, I’m super relaxed and even intentionally rude toward them, and it’s great for both parties.  No, really, my closest friends and I frequently call each other terrible names and laugh about it because that’s just how my sense of humor works.  On the other hand, if I don’t click with someone, even if I like them well enough and they like me, I don’t really open up at all.  In Japan, this is compounded by the fact that I’m dreadfully afraid of offending people, even though they seem to be understanding and kind.  I’m also very self-conscious of my Japanese and my mistakes in mixing up polite and casual language, because I still rarely know which I should be using in a given situation.  I think it depends not only on lateral position (Japan has a highly stratified hierarchy of older and younger, senior and junior relationships), but also on the person’s personal preference and level of comfort, both of which I find hard to gauge.  In addition, I’m just not used to it.  In America, I speak informally to the majority of people I know, and enjoy doing so.

Getting back to my problems communicating, because of all this, I’m often not sure how to make my personal preferences known, and whether or not it’s okay to do so.  Since I’ve realized that I’m definitely underemphasizing my personal desires, I am going to work toward communicating them more directly, but I still worry a little bit that I’ll go too far.  I guess I might not know until I do.

Another thing I worry about is breaking cultural norms.  I’ve studied up on them of course, but as with polite vs. impolite language, it’s hard for me to know when I can or can’t do certain things.  Also, come to think of it, I’m not sure what anyone thinks of me.

Alright, so I just realized that this entry is really lame, probably annoying, and definitely full of ANGST, so I’m just going to list off some other random complaints that I need to get out of my system and call it an entry so that we can get to something more interesting.

1.  I find myself tempted to use feminine pronouns because I think I’m secretly a little girl inside.

2.  I wish everyone wouldn’t be so nice to me so as to make me feel indebted to them, and on that note:

3.  I feel like I didn’t bring enough souvenirs.

4.  I miss being able to speak English way more than I ever dreamed I would.

5.  I miss ITG.

6.  I miss not passing out and then waking up in the middle of the night.

7.  Overall, my apartment is really clean, but there are certain parts under the sink that are absolutely disgusting, and I’m not really looking forward to cleaning them.

8.  There are things that I feel I should be doing, but don’t have any time to do, and then when I do have time I forget what they are.

9.  I really want to look through the shojo (girls) manga section at the local bookstore, but I know that that’s a cultural no-no.  I might do it anyway.  Also, at least manga is cheap here.

“Yukkuri shiteitte ne” –That stupid song London was always listening to last year, about a million times (Hatsune Miku) (roughly translates to “Take it easy, okay?”)

Day 1 cont. - Stuff

[SOME DISCLAIMERS:  This will be my last retroactive blog entry.  Actually, it’s only half retroactive.  I finished it just now.  I did the first part when I was really tired, so it isn’t very interesting.  For example, if you read this to hear about interesting experiences, you can probably skip this entry.  If you read this to learn about Japan, you can probably skip this entry.  If you enjoy my sense of humor, you can skip to the part where I apologize for not posting pictures and complain about how busy I am.  In fact, unless you’re my mom (Hi, mom!) and are interested in the raw, boring details about my arrival circumstances, don’t read this, or read it anyway if you like.

One final disclaimer:  If my first three entries have lead you to believe that my blog will be chronological and organized, be aware that that is about to change.  From here on out, I’ll be jumping around quite a bit and what I post about may have happened that day, a few days ago, or is maybe something that I completely forgot to mention from some previous month. *nod*]

I’ll probably keep this short.  I’d like to do more justice to my experiences yesterday (two days ago?  It’s almost 4 a.m.), but I haven’t really had time, and now I’m going to pass out again soon.

Thus far everyone we have met has been very, very nice and helpful.  On the way to pick us up from the airport, the van got a flat.  Rather than be late to pick us up, they got another car and arrived in plenty of time.  On the way to Tsuru, we drove through Tokyo.  We tried to take pictures, but we couldn’t.  I have heard that Tokyo is the biggest city in the world.  I’m very tempted to believe it’s true.  We stopped to eat after that and the leader of the student affairs section, Mr. Shimura, bought us dinner.  After that we were introduced to our apartments and our tutors (AKA the kind student volunteers that attempt to take care of our every need).  Their names are Youta, Nanami, Machiko and Sakura.  We had tea and cake and they showed us how to use the Japanese appliances in our apartment before retiring to their own dwellings and leaving us to take care of ourselves until the following morning at 11 a.m. when we would have orientation.

The apartments are sort of small, but not nearly as much as I was expecting.  The main room is about as big as my room at St. Norbert, and off of that there is a hall with a kitchenette, a toilet, a sink and washer, and a bathroom.  Aside from the kitchenette, all of these things are located in small separate rooms.  It’s as if they split an American bathroom into three parts and then stuck a washing machine in with the sink.  Although there is a small sink above the toilet that activates when it is flushed, it seems to be just for rinsing one’s hands, while the sink in the other room functions as most bathroom sinks in the US do.  The toilet is heated.  In fact, at any given time, it’s probably the warmest thing in my apartment.  The shower/bath room on the other hand, is furthest from the heater and is typically very cold.  I find this highly unfortunate. =(

One thing I was mistaken about is that we are not in any sort of foreign student housing; there is no such thing.  All of the other people in our apartment complex are Japanese students.  In fact, we were also mistaken about there being other American students here.  Someone told us that UCLA students also come to Tsuru, which is true, but their time here does not coincide with ours at all.  I would be a little surprised if this was true, but we may be the only Americans in the entire city.  On that note, we were a little worried that so many of the students would have English skills sufficient that we would hardly have to speak Japanese.  If anything, we should have worried about the opposite.  (If you're curious, this is where the two day break in this entry is) There are a select few people that we can really communicate in English with, and even those people try to speak Japanese to us when possible.  Takiguchi-sensei, the person we had primarily been communicating with about the study abroad program, is completely fluent in English--in fact, probably more so than our Japanese teacher.  Our other primary care-giver (using the word loosely), can speak English as well, but seldom does.  Of our tutors, one can speak English pretty well.  The others don’t seem to be much better at English than we are at Japanese.

I must apologize again for the lack of pictures on this blog.  Since adding pictures requires the convergence of several factors, namely Tina’s presence, free time and a lack of complete exhaustion, I really haven’t been able to get any onto my computer.  Actually, I think it would be very difficult to properly convey how incredibly busy I am.  I’ve never been this busy in my entire life.  Even now I’m dipping out on plans to go to one of the other foreign student’s apartments for a party, at first because I got carsick on the way home from my host family’s house, and now because I’m realizing more and more that I’m desperately in need of free time and that if I don’t get it my head will probably explode.  Or my arm.  Or something.  Besides, I don’t really feel like playing Wii or seeing people, probably for the next four years at least.  (I arbitrarily picked that amount of time; please excuse my delusional mental sense of direction.)  I've been told by many people to seize every day and push my comfort zone, but I'm about to collapse under the weight of all of the days I've been seizing, and my comfort zone almost puked today, so just for tonight I think I'll take a break.

I’m not sure what else really fits in this entry, so I’ll leave it at that, and immediately start a new entry that jumps this topic.  Please continue to support me.

Also, fun fact: apparently, Tsuru University is similar to St. Norbert in the respect that it has more female students than males, at about a 2 to 3 ratio.  Woohoo.

Day One – The 24 Hour Day + Extra:  My first seemingly insurmountable challenge

[DISCLAIMER:  The title lies.  This is from a couple nights ago (I didn't have internet), and I actually really only talk about one thing here.  I swear once I get more free time I'll dedicate a decent portion of it to churning out some blog posts--with pictures.  Until then, enjoy tales of my discomfort: =D]

As I type this it is 1 p.m. in the U.S. and 4 a.m. here.  Right now I’m in MS Word because I don’t know how to get the internet to work.  For this entry, I will repeat  the past day’s events in the order opposite which they happened, following this brief outburst:

AAAHHHHH!  I’M IN JAPAN!

Almost two hours ago I woke up to find that my apartment was freezing.  This shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise. A few hours before that my new Japanese friends Youta and Machiko had kindly showed me how to use most of the Japanese appliances in my apartment (more on this in general in a little bit).  One of those was the heater/air conditioner, which operates via a remote whose buttons are labeled almost solely in kanji.  I don’t understand much Japanese speech and even less kanji, so after they left the only thing I firmly understood was how to adjust the temperature on the heat that was already blasting into my apartment.  The problem occurred because the other thing I understood was the power button, but I thought it was the power button to the remote only, not to the unit itself.  I was mistaken.  I hit the button and my heat went off.  I tried to restore it myself, but I was only met with icy blasts of AC no matter what button I pressed.  Rationalizing that my apartment was warm enough and that it would probably stay roughly that temperature as long as I didn’t open the door, I turned the unit off and proceeded to go to bed.  Two problems occurred to thwart this idea.  First, I did open the door, and second, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea to begin with.

When I woke up roughly three hours later, I wasn’t very happy, and I wasn’t optimistic about my chances with the remote.  I reread all of the things that weren’t in kanji, hoping I might find a button that said ‘hot’ or ‘this button will make your dreams come true,’ but the only buttons not in kanji said time, reset, and good night.  Desperate, I tried to read the kanji again looking for anything I might recognize.  I picked up the kanji for ‘enter,’ the kanji for the ‘shin’ in shinsetsu, which means ‘kind,’ as well as the word ‘unten,’ which I learned means ‘driving’ as in ‘driving a car.’  How incredibly useful.  Maybe I can get a parked car to drive into my apartment if I press it enough times.

I wasn’t able to look up the kanji on the internet, and my apartment wasn’t getting any warmer, so I again resorted to random button pressing.  At one point I got it to at least stop blasting cold air at me, so I stopped pressing buttons and pondered.  There were three buttons on each side, one near the bottom and two near the top, in addition to the power button.  All three on the left had proved useless in any capacity, and the button near the bottom similarly so.  One of the buttons near the top, the one that said ‘good night,’ also fell into this category, and the other top button had not been kind to me prior to this, so I was avoiding it accordingly.  Of the three remaining buttons, one had tried to freeze me, one I had found out through trial and error controlled the oscillation function, and the last, the middle button, seemed to switch modes, but had not yet yielded the hot air I was looking for.  I looked up at the unit, and back down at the remote and pressed it again.  Ta dah!  Hot air.

Idiot that I can sometimes be, I actually tried to turn off the remote again and subsequently removed my heat.  After going through a similar, but shorter process to get the heat back on, I came to recognize the character that displays on the remote screen when my heater is actually making me happy, and I’m confident I now have the knowledge and skills necessary to heat my apartment.  However, at the risk of running out of batteries, I think my remote is going to have to be on display mode all the time.

To prevent this entry from getting super long, I’ll put my first impressions of Japan and of my apartment (aside from this incident =P) in another blog entry.  Thanks for reading.