Friday, October 03, 2003
My first experiences in Japan
Well, I got my luggage yesterday. I went up to see if it was there at about 10 to noon, and saw the guy unloading it. Looks like everything of mine is here now. I walked around the neighborhood with Vaughn (a guy who didn’t get here till yesterday due to visa problems) and Norm. It was quite interesting. All of the houses and cars are so tiny. The sidewalks are nonexistent in most places, and the streets are very narrow. There are utility poles in the streets, and often if a car meets another car going the opposite way one has to pull right up to the edge of a building and stop so that the other car can get past. They are constantly weaving in and out around pedestrians and utility poles, so it wasn’t all that apparent that they were driving on the left side of the road. Some of the street signs are the same as the signs in Germany, and I was surprised by how much walking around reminded me of Germany. I really didn’t expect that. We walked past several small shops and lots of vending machines. All the machines sold either cigarettes or stuff to drink. Norm bought a bottle of Coca-cola from one, and Vaughn got a can of coffee. He was a bit surprised when he discovered that it was hot. We hadn’t noticed the hot and cold markings on the selections. I’m glad I don’t have to drive here; the drivers are absolutely crazy. The have to cut things so close in order to fit, and they have to stop so often to let a car going the other way get past, and they drive so fast when they have space. It’s as if they try to make up for the time they lose when they have to stop. Oh, the other thing that reminded me of Germany about the streets is that most of the corners had mirrors, because there was no other way to see around them and you’d get hit if you pulled out to see.
I was pretty hungry by the time we got back, and wanted to go out and get something to eat, but then Norm said that he was planning to go out with Vaughn as soon as Vaughn finished his orientation (which was at 4:00 PM). I figured I’d wait and accompany them. Vaughn got back at about 4:20, but he finished unpacking and then we went to try to find Yuta (a Japanese-American from Michigan Tech, where Norm and Vaughn are from). We found him, but then had to go back and get a watch from Vaughn’s room. We didn’t leave the International House until about 6 or 7. They decided we should go down to Sendai Station, and look at the shops around there (Norm and Yuta had to buy alarm clocks. Norm hadn’t brought one, and the one Yuta brought was running really slow. Norm said they probably linked the time to the frequency of the electricity, which is 60 Hz in the US but 50 Hz here. That would mean that the clock counts only 50 seconds every minute, so it loses 10). We ended up walking, despite not knowing how long it would take or if we were going the correct direction. We stopped at an Indian food place to ask for directions, and discovered we’d headed in the correct direction. On the way we stopped at a 7/11, just to look at the stuff. Didn’t look anything like I’d expect one in the US to look like. As we were walking, I saw several McDonald's and one KFC. The McDonald's had a sign that said “McDonald's Hamburger” in Japanese, and the KFC had a sign that said “Kentucky” in Japanese. Interesting how places change their names in different countries. Amanda Lum, who studied in Australia this spring, said there they call McDonald's “Mackers” (sp?).
We ended up stopping at a Japanese restaurant at about 7:30 PM. I got some sort of noodle thing that came with a meat soup to dip the noodles into for 580¥, and drank orange soda called “Qoo” for 200¥. The soda was really good, and the noodle dish was decent. It certainly wasn’t something I’d pay about $7.80 for in the US though. My meal was by far the cheapest of the 4 of ours. The others cost around 1,000¥ (a bit less that $10).
Downtown they had sidewalks. These were interesting for a variety of reasons:
1. People didn’t walk on a set side. They walked on both the right and the left.
2. Most people rode their bikes on the sidewalk. They rode on both sides, and passed on both sides.
3. Everyone was walking really fast. These little Japanese businessmen were passing us all the time, and we weren’t walking slowly by American standards.
4. They all had a yellow strip with grooves running down the middle. Someone suggested it was for the blind, and that made sense. All of the crosswalks also made beeping noises to indicate when it was safe to cross.
We eventually found a department store that had electronics. Yuta looked at their directory, and said that alarm clocks would probably be on the top (the 8th) floor, which was their “best electronics” section. We took the escalator all the way up, but found very little in terms of clocks, so Yuta went to ask where to find them. He had to wait for about 5 min. at the desk before someone came to help him. They said that we should try the 2nd floor, so we went down there and found a bit better selection. All three of the other guys bought battery run alarm clocks, which started at about 1,800¥. I’m glad I brought mine, because I’d feel bad about paying $18 for a tiny, battery operated alarm. We then walked to the bus stop and caught the bus back. If you’re paying with cash (rather than a prepaid bus card) you take a number at your stop, and then pay the fee when you get off. The fee is calculated from the distance traveled. You put your number AND your fee in the same box when you get off. If you have a card, you just run it through when you get on and when you get off, and it deducts the fee from it. I’ll probably get a card.
While downtown we saw several video game arcades (game centers in Japanese, but they usually shorten that to gesen, pronounced gay-sen), but we didn’t go into any of them, so I don’t know if they have DDR. In Japanese “arcade” is a big shopping strip.
Today Group Mori is going to take us to the Ward office and the Bank to get our registration and our accounts set up. Joey went with the group yesterday, and he said they feed us for free, so I haven’t done anything about eating breakfast this morning.
I’m feeling a bit tired. We got back at about 10 PM last night, and I fell asleep lying back on my bed. I woke up at exactly 12:00 AM, and discovered that my right arm was asleep. I got up, put on my pajamas, and went to bed. At about 4 AM I couldn’t sleep anymore. At least one other person also couldn’t, because I heard someone go take a shower. I took some sweatshirts out of my drawer and tried using those as a pillow, and was able to go to sleep again. I’m really going to have to buy a pillow. That bean bag thing just isn’t comfortable enough to sleep on.
I drank the last of my water from Madison last night, so I’m going to fill up my bottle from the kitchen sink today. Hope I don’t get sick.
I was pretty hungry by the time we got back, and wanted to go out and get something to eat, but then Norm said that he was planning to go out with Vaughn as soon as Vaughn finished his orientation (which was at 4:00 PM). I figured I’d wait and accompany them. Vaughn got back at about 4:20, but he finished unpacking and then we went to try to find Yuta (a Japanese-American from Michigan Tech, where Norm and Vaughn are from). We found him, but then had to go back and get a watch from Vaughn’s room. We didn’t leave the International House until about 6 or 7. They decided we should go down to Sendai Station, and look at the shops around there (Norm and Yuta had to buy alarm clocks. Norm hadn’t brought one, and the one Yuta brought was running really slow. Norm said they probably linked the time to the frequency of the electricity, which is 60 Hz in the US but 50 Hz here. That would mean that the clock counts only 50 seconds every minute, so it loses 10). We ended up walking, despite not knowing how long it would take or if we were going the correct direction. We stopped at an Indian food place to ask for directions, and discovered we’d headed in the correct direction. On the way we stopped at a 7/11, just to look at the stuff. Didn’t look anything like I’d expect one in the US to look like. As we were walking, I saw several McDonald's and one KFC. The McDonald's had a sign that said “McDonald's Hamburger” in Japanese, and the KFC had a sign that said “Kentucky” in Japanese. Interesting how places change their names in different countries. Amanda Lum, who studied in Australia this spring, said there they call McDonald's “Mackers” (sp?).
We ended up stopping at a Japanese restaurant at about 7:30 PM. I got some sort of noodle thing that came with a meat soup to dip the noodles into for 580¥, and drank orange soda called “Qoo” for 200¥. The soda was really good, and the noodle dish was decent. It certainly wasn’t something I’d pay about $7.80 for in the US though. My meal was by far the cheapest of the 4 of ours. The others cost around 1,000¥ (a bit less that $10).
Downtown they had sidewalks. These were interesting for a variety of reasons:
1. People didn’t walk on a set side. They walked on both the right and the left.
2. Most people rode their bikes on the sidewalk. They rode on both sides, and passed on both sides.
3. Everyone was walking really fast. These little Japanese businessmen were passing us all the time, and we weren’t walking slowly by American standards.
4. They all had a yellow strip with grooves running down the middle. Someone suggested it was for the blind, and that made sense. All of the crosswalks also made beeping noises to indicate when it was safe to cross.
We eventually found a department store that had electronics. Yuta looked at their directory, and said that alarm clocks would probably be on the top (the 8th) floor, which was their “best electronics” section. We took the escalator all the way up, but found very little in terms of clocks, so Yuta went to ask where to find them. He had to wait for about 5 min. at the desk before someone came to help him. They said that we should try the 2nd floor, so we went down there and found a bit better selection. All three of the other guys bought battery run alarm clocks, which started at about 1,800¥. I’m glad I brought mine, because I’d feel bad about paying $18 for a tiny, battery operated alarm. We then walked to the bus stop and caught the bus back. If you’re paying with cash (rather than a prepaid bus card) you take a number at your stop, and then pay the fee when you get off. The fee is calculated from the distance traveled. You put your number AND your fee in the same box when you get off. If you have a card, you just run it through when you get on and when you get off, and it deducts the fee from it. I’ll probably get a card.
While downtown we saw several video game arcades (game centers in Japanese, but they usually shorten that to gesen, pronounced gay-sen), but we didn’t go into any of them, so I don’t know if they have DDR. In Japanese “arcade” is a big shopping strip.
Today Group Mori is going to take us to the Ward office and the Bank to get our registration and our accounts set up. Joey went with the group yesterday, and he said they feed us for free, so I haven’t done anything about eating breakfast this morning.
I’m feeling a bit tired. We got back at about 10 PM last night, and I fell asleep lying back on my bed. I woke up at exactly 12:00 AM, and discovered that my right arm was asleep. I got up, put on my pajamas, and went to bed. At about 4 AM I couldn’t sleep anymore. At least one other person also couldn’t, because I heard someone go take a shower. I took some sweatshirts out of my drawer and tried using those as a pillow, and was able to go to sleep again. I’m really going to have to buy a pillow. That bean bag thing just isn’t comfortable enough to sleep on.
I drank the last of my water from Madison last night, so I’m going to fill up my bottle from the kitchen sink today. Hope I don’t get sick.
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