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Monday, May 4, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
As I woke up, I realized that I didn't have work the next day, this endowed me with an invigorating energy.
With this newfound strength, I rode my bike to the neighboring city of Toyokawa. The two neighboring cities are separated by a large river that stretches far past the horizon. The bridge that came between me and my destination was a long arched concrete structure. This arched concrete dragon made me cringe at the thought of biking up it because I was so out of shape.
After huffing and puffing, I conquered the concrete structure and arrived at my destination. "Where to?", I asked my faithful sidekick, Ray. "To the dollar store!", he replied with enthusiasm. "The dollar store?" you might ask... Yes! Dollar stores in Japan are amazing. And this was the behemoth of dollar stores. There was everything a person could ever want at that dollar store. You could literally start your life in Japan from the various products at this dollar store. The only problem was that not everything was a dollar. (Dollar store referring to the 100 yen shop)
This posed to be a problem when we were checking out. Ray decided that he wanted one post card. How does this pose a problem you might think. Well... if you're buying a two for 100 yen marked postcard, they will not let you leave the store unless you pick up another post card. Yes, they wouldn't let him get a single card for 100 yen because it was two for 100 yen. After talking with the cashier in frustration, Ray gave up and we continued exploring the strange land of Toyokawa.
On Sunday, my host family came to visit. I just showed them around Toyohashi. It was nice seeing my host family again, and I was glad they drove out here to visit. It takes about an hour or two to drive to Toyohashi from Nagoya, so it's a pretty long ride.
We went around town, did some shopping, and hung out. We ate lunch at a decent ramen place near the Yamada Denki. After which they headed back to Nagoya. I hope I can go out to Nagoya soon and visit them.
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Saturday, May 2, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
What makes golden week so golden? No, it's not the spring showers, but the consecutive national holidays that are connected to a voluptuous weekend. I was finally going to have some time to explore Japan... or so I thought. The first three days... I relaxed! "You're in Japan, you should go immerse yourself in the culture!", I could hear some people yelling, but after the first couple of tumultuous weeks, trust me, it's what most people would do. I decided for the first couple of days to just relax, but I also planned to take a trip with some international students from a local college.
This was a bus trip to the beautiful, serene mountains of Nagano. The bus ride took about 4 hours from Toyohashi station to our first destination, but it wasn't too bad. I talked with an Indonesian international student named Sidu. She was interesting and reminded me of a person I met in high school in Japan.
The only problem I had with the trip was that the stops were very brief. The trip primarily consisted of sitting in the bus, only leaving about an hour and a half to explore Nagano.
Everyone was very nice. I noticed almost all of the students had very nice DSLR cameras! They all seemed to be avid photographers, including Sidu.
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Sunday, April 26, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
After a chaotic week of work, I got to explore Toyohashi with my co-worker and new friend, Ray! Having a weekend after a hard week of work is very gratifying, but it also feels very fleeting. I already feel the approaching work week, but it motivates me to have extra fun.
Ray decided to show me around Toyohashi this weekend. Toyohashi is actually quite big. You wouldn't know it unless you traveled around the city; it takes around an hour or so by car to get across.
Anyways, as we were biking around the city we ran into one of Ray's students at a kind of festival that was happening. It seems there's always something being celebrated in Japan. It was actually pretty interesting. It's nice to know that Japanese people are willing to go out and do these kinds of things. I personally would be too lazy to dress up and participate in a festival.
Moving on, we biked to a big shopping complex and game center called Sega. Here we stopped to eat at McDonalds. While we were eating I spotted some 12 year old boys smoking outside. I guess it's pretty easy to obtain cigarettes because you can buy them from vending machines. But it was still pretty shocking.
After we ate we went to play some games at the game center. There were two types of arcade systems at the game center. There were the token based ones which allowed you to try and win more tokens, and there were regular arcade games. Ray played the token based system and he actually won around $300 worth of tokens. He had more coins than he knew what to do with, so he gave some away and transferred the rest to an account with the game center which he could use to access later.
I had a great time and I will definitely try to get back to this place!
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Saturday, April 18, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
Here I am in Toyohashi, Japan! What was I looking forward to the most? (Besides meeting my coworkers) Yes, I was looking forward to my apartment and here it is!
I'm living in an apartment complex called Higashi Mansion II. It's located about 5 minutes away from where I work, so it's very convenient. It's also pretty close to the main train station, which allows me to travel basically anywhere fairly easily. I live on the 5th floor of the apartment complex. It's the top floor and is quite a climb if you take the stairs, but luckily there's an elevator.
I pay around $420 a month for my 1 bedroom apartment which is actually awesome! It's what everyone here calls a 1LDK. Which means it has one bedroom, a living room, dinning area, and kitchen. I don't really call the ledge of the kitchen counter a real dinning area, but I can't complain. I also have a bonus loft area, which is awesome. It's probably because I'm on the top floor which allows for higher ceilings.
I really like this apartment. If only I could get something this nice in the Bay Area for $420 a month. This apartment is going to be my home for the next year.
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
The first two days in Japan were great. Everyone in my training group was really nice. Since there were only 6 people, I got to know everyone.
The first two days were just for settling into Japan and exploring Okayama. It's strange not knowing what you’re getting yourself into, but having people around you who are in the same situation makes things a lot more bearable. We had a lot of fun before training. We had adventures searching for a wi-fi hot spot, exploring Okayama Castle, walking around town trying to find places, trying to comprehend the expensive prices for things, and living in ignorance of how different the training days would be.
Everyone seemed restless finding a wi-fi spot because they wanted to contact their families and tell them that they were okay. They should really just have wi-fi at the training facilities, but we found a coffee place with an unsecured network that everyone could use. When you’re abroad, you really begin to appreciate the awesomeness of skype.
Having our internet cravings satisfied, we all decided to travel around Okayama looking for a grocery store. Why were we looking for one? Well after noticing the expensive prices everywhere, we decided that cooking would be cheaper in the long run. We walked, got lost, had an old man help us, and finally found the store. Luckily there was a Japanese major amongst us so we didn't have to wander completely ignorant of all the signs and maps.
We ended up walking to Okayama Castle. It was quite beautiful. We had lunch in the shade under some trees and then explored the castle.
Okayama castle was pretty interesting. From the top of the castle you can see the whole city. The castle seemed to be surrounded by an endless sea of buildings, an island of antiquated beauty in a bustling modern city. There was an exhibit that gave us the opportunity to wear traditional Japanese clothing. It seemed very hot and made me sorry for anyone who had to wear those clothes during the hot and humid Japan summers.
Second day, everyone pretty much did their own thing. I went with two other people; we ended up renting bikes and rode around the castles garden. It was beautiful and we were able to see the sakura in bloom.
Our last night before training was pretty crazy. It consisted of drinking, karaoke, drinking w/ random Japanese people, and more karaoke. It was an amazing ending to our first two days before training.
Training... I can't say much because not much happened and it's in our contract not to mention anything about what happened. All I can say is that it was hard, stressful, and each day after training we had to prepare for the next day’s training. This was our true introduction to the Japan we would be facing, 5 days a week.
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Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
I got a haircut in Chinatown today with Rachel. The haircut was cheap and decent, so I can't complain. After the haircut I decided to dye my hair with a generic on-sale hair bleaching kit ($5, how can you beat that?). The directions said to leave the dye/bleach in your hair for about 30 minutes, but I figured that 15 minutes would be enough to get it brownish. After 15 minutes... it was ridiculously orange! I mean I'm okay with the hair, but I don't know if my job will think it's professional enough...
Monday, April 6, 2009
Posted by
Digital Katsu
I've uploaded pictures from my recent trip to Stinson Beach. I don't know if this server's stable. It's already crashed once on me while uploading pictures. Wish me luck!
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