Monkey-plates and Zombie-attacks

Yes, I probably do overuse hyphens... but they're so useful!

Anyway, I wanted to post sooner but I got caught up doing some important things like:

 1.  Sending in my absentee ballot registration form for the big election (luckily I'll be able to email my actual ballot)

 2.  Finally sending the IRS my tax documents (don't worry I paid my estimate back in April and then just got an extension for the paperwork)

And most importantly:

 3.  Re-reading (well re-re-reading) the two Heroes of Olympus books by Rick Riordan since the third book in the series is due out next week!  I'm super excited about it and I hope that this series doesn't end up as a trilogy since I want to read more about Percy Jackson and company later on.  Actually I realized recently that I like the Percy Jackson series/world even better than Harry Potter since Rick Riordan's writing style is just so funny.

In other news I've been in Japan for almost a year now (wow!).  I also got plane tickets to go back home in December to spend time with my family (more specifically my cat).  The high temperature and humidity suddenly broke last week so the weather has been quite lovely since then (though a bit rainy at times).  I took a screenshot of the temperature drop from AccuWeather (after setting it to Fahrenheit) so that I would have evidence of this.

Notice that the recorded low temperature from September 20th is equal to the predicted high temperature for the 21st.

I don't want to write too much else today so I've decided to just tell a few amusing stories from school for now.  I'll get back to the big trip (with Mikey) for my next post. 

First a quick one that happened at Shiroharu Elementary school on Monday.  One of the 6th grade classes was about to start and the kids were still chatting as I came in the room.  Suddenly a boy in the back said, "Come here" (in English) in a pretty loud voice as he was talking to his friend and the homeroom teacher (all elementary English classes are required to have the homeroom teacher present) overheard him.  This particular teacher has a good sense of humor so he said, "'Come here'? OK." and went over to the student.  The boy was confused since he didn't know the meaning of the words (he probably just heard it on TV or in a video game).  So the teacher told the class the meaning in Japanese (koko ni koi) and all the kids in the class thought it was very funny.  During the lesson when I called students to the board I made sure to say, "Come here," and so by the end of class everyone knew the phrase.  Then yesterday I had to stop by the local convenience store and as I got out of the car I heard some voices calling, "Come here!"  I looked over to see some of the same 6th graders riding by on their bikes (and apparently calling out their new favorite English phrase). 

Last week at Hashi Middle School the 3rd years had a dialog section in their textbook in which one of the book's characters was over her friend's house for dinner.  The dialog was a conversation between the character and her friend's father and contained phrases like, "What would you like to drink?" and "It's delicious."  So I asked Shingo-sensei if I could also give the students some tips on table manners in the US.  He thought it was a good idea but I only had a few minutes before class to prepare.  I wanted to bring props so that I could show the students what I was describing (how to hold the utensils, where to put the napkin, etc.).  I was able to find a plastic fork which was kind of amazing but there were no butter-knives so I grabbed a pair of chopsticks that were still in their white paper wrapper (I figured I could tell the students to imagine that it was a knife and at least it was the right shape).  I took a tissue with me to be the "napkin" and after failing to find any plate-like object I decided to just tell the students to pretend that my textbook was a plate.

The mini-presentation went well.  I told the students that while using a knife to cut they should hold it in their dominant hand and use their fork to hold down the food.  Since they didn't know what I meant by "dominant hand," I told them that I was a righty (and pretended to write and cut with my right hand) then I called on a boy in the front row who's a lefty and had him hold the 'knife' with his left hand - the kids caught on after that.  The students were surprised to learn that after cutting they would have to switch the fork to the dominant hand to eat.  I also told the kids to keep their elbows down while cutting their food or else they would "look like a bird" (tori mitai desu).  Finally I wanted to tell them to keep their plates and bowls on the table instead of lifting them up while eating (which is the norm in Japan).  Unfortunately the words for "plate" and "monkey" are similar in Japanese (sara vs. saru) so when I was explaining that they should pretend that the textbook was a plate I definitely said "monkey" the first time.  The kids thought that was pretty amusing...

To end the post, a cute story that Anne told me from one of her elementary schools.  She was eating lunch with some of the younger students (third graders I think) and was sitting next to a very talkative little boy who was asking her all sorts of questions about America.  After a few minutes of asking about various topics he turned to her with a serious expression and asked, "Do they have zombies in America?"  Anne was thinking of leading him on but one of the teachers overheard the question and said something along the lines of, "What kind of question is that, of course they don't have zombies!" haha.

On a related topic, the good news for Japan is that during the Zombie Apocalypse we will be relatively zombie-free as 99.85% of the population opts for cremation ; )

Himeji, Hiroshima, and Carp (big trip part 1)

Extra-long post today... hope you enjoy it!

So Mikey ended up arriving about 17 hours later than I had expected at the Kurikoma-kogen shinkansen station instead of Sendai airport.  I wished that we could have spent that time together too but at least I was spared an extra hour of driving... I guess.  We met up around noon on August 3rd and Mikey claimed to not be too hungry so we decided to drive to my place and eat lunch at one of the little restaurants in Minamisanriku.  Mikey was impressed by my driving skills (and my new license) and I tried to point out interesting sites to him along the way.  The rice paddies were an amazing shade of light-green and the sun was bright (it was very humid though so I was forced to keep the windows closed and the AC on).

When we arrived in Minamisanriku I showed Mikey what progress has been made (though nowadays most areas contain leftover building foundations half covered with summer weeds and sea grass).  Some new non-temporary buildings are in the process of being built but there is still no grocery store in town.  The hospital, which had been heavily damaged and was not in use after the tsunami, was also torn down recently leaving an open space a bit closer to the coast.  After the quick tour I brought Mikey to the apartment and showed him around there too.  I had thoroughly cleaned the kitchen area and my bedroom so I was pretty proud of myself (though my brother probably knew that it's not usually that neat).  Since I wanted Mikey to stretch his legs after the long flight we decided to walk to one of the local restaurants down the mountain.

 Along the way we saw summer flowers like hydrangea (some of which were an amazing shade of purple-blue while others were practically white), sunflowers, and white lilies that I didn't know the name of so I took a picture, apparently they are Yamayuri ("mountain lilies" - makes sense).

I convinced Mikey to have a big bowl of fresh miso ramen, which maybe wasn't the best idea since it's served hot and he was very sweaty by the time he finished it...  I also taught him one of the most important Japanese words that I know, "nanika."  I used it at the restaurant while ordering when I didn't know how to say some kanji in the dish's name.  It was a type of miso ramen but since I couldn't read the first kanji I told the waitress that Mikey would have a nanika miso ramen while pointing to it on the menu.  Nanika (or nantoka) just means "something."  Luckily the waitress understood!  After lunch we went back up to my place and relaxed in the AC for awhile.  We also played one of our favorite video games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  After a few rounds though Mikey was starting to look very tired due to jet lag.  He ended up taking a nap but woke up after about an hour and a half to have some pasta for dinner.  During that time I tried to organize what I wanted to pack but I ended up doing most of the packing for our trip on the morning of the 4th anyway.  Some of the most useful items I packed were my printed maps and information about the areas that we would be visiting and my compass.  Oftentimes my Google Maps app on my US iPhone runs very slowly so having the non-virtual tools was handy.  I also packed a pair of happi (summer festival clothes) just in case.

Anyway, on the 4th at around noon we headed back to the train station and traveled from Kurikoma-kogen station in Miyagi to Himeji station in Hyogo (a 1060 km ~660 mile journey that lasted about 6.5 hours).  On the way we slept, ate leftover pasta for lunch, and Mikey played an old GameBoy game that he bought with him - Pokemon Blue - classic!

We finally arrived in Himeji (known for its castle which is unfortunately undergoing external renovation at the moment) around 8 PM that evening and got off the train to find that there was a festival going on near the castle!  The festival was fittingly called the Oshiro matsuri (castle festival) and involved large groups of dancers dressed in yukata, some with fans or other props.  There were also large drums being played, intricate paper lanterns, and booths selling festival food.  Mikey and I thought it would be a good chance to wear our happi but we decided to check-in and drop our luggage off at the guesthouse first.  In the end we went with just our regular clothes since the festival only went until 10 PM and we wanted to catch the end of it.  Mikey got a candy apple and I got some little doughnut-like treats that were glazed in honey.

The guesthouse we stayed at was very traditional- its guests slept on futons on the floor, the building was old and built mostly of wood, there were tons of paper-covered doors, and there was no AC.  It was a hot and humid night which made it hard to get comfortable but I was tired from traveling so I was able to bear with it.

On the 5th we took the shinkansen down to Hiroshima.  Actually the reason we stayed in Himeji in the first place was that there weren't any hostels with vacancies in Hiroshima due to the August 6th Peace Ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park.  We arrived around 11 AM and took the tram to the Genbaku Dome (A-bomb dome) area.

The Genbaku Dome, which was almost directly at the atomic bomb blast hypocenter.

Next we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (the long rectangular building in the background) and spent a couple of hours learning about Hiroshima before and after the bomb.  In this photo one can also see the white tents set up for the 2012 Peace Ceremony and the Peace Flame (center) which will burn until there are no nuclear weapons in the world.

The museum was very informative and we could tell that an effort had been made to tell the story from all sides.  For example, the museum had an area explaining that about 20,000 of the victims killed were Koreans who were being used as forced laborers.  While there I was approached by a Japanese high school student who asked if she could interview me (in English luckily).  She asked me whether I had learned about Hiroshima in school so I told her that I officially learned about it in 6th grade (when my class had read the story of Sadako Sasaki).  She also asked me what my idea of peace was and I told her something along the lines of 'people being able to do what they want without fear of being injured or killed.'

I read that many of the victims of the bomb were middle school and high school students who were helping to build outdoor firewalls in case of fire bombing.  A large section of the museum showed items recovered from students after the blast such as burned school uniforms, metal lunch boxes filled with ashes from burned food, and a couple of watches stopped at 8:15.  Stone steps originally from outside of a bank had been reconstructed inside the museum and a plaque next to it pointed out a dark gray shadow where someone had been sitting before dying in the flames after the bomb.  There were also pictures of the city taken after the destruction when there were virtually no standing buildings and I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Hiroshima then and Minamisanriku now...

Some of Mikey's favorite parts of the museum were the walls covered with Letters of Protest.  These letters are sent from the mayor of Hiroshima to the leader of any country found to have conducted a nuclear test urging them to stop nuclear weapon development and testing.  When I visited the museum there were 599 copies of the letters in total with the most recent two (from January 2012) addressed to President Obama.

After the museum we headed over to Mazda Stadium to see a baseball game between the Hiroshima Carp and Osaka Hanshin Tigers.  Seriously though, in real life which would win?

Mikey and I decided to root for the Carp (mostly because of their funny name).  By the way, is it just me or does the 'C' on the baseball cap look suspiciously like the one from the Cincinnati Reds?

I had obtained some pretty good seats, and they were very cheap compared to any Red Sox game I've gone to, only 2,000 yen apiece (about $25)!

Here's the view from our seats.  It was a nice outdoor stadium and a pleasant evening, though it did drizzle a bit at first.

In honor of the Peace Ceremony, all of the baseball fans were given green or red paper upon entering the stadium.  In between innings they played John Lennon's "Imagine" and told us to practice waving the paper back and forth.  I believe it was before the 6th inning that they played a longer segment of the song and it was pretty moving to see everyone participating.

A clip of everyone waving their paper in time with the song.

I had heard that Japanese baseball games had a different feeling from US ones and it was definitely true.  It was very... loud during the game since one group of fans or the other was always chanting and cheering on their team while they were batting.  As for the game-play, my brother said that there was a lot more bunting than he was used to seeing.

 

Before the Carp came up to bat in the 7th inning, the fans sang their... theme song I guess you'd call it, and released balloons into the air.  It was really cool!

The Carp ended up winning the game, so it was a very fun night overall.

Next time, more about Himeji and possibly even Kyoto!

Getting a Japanese Driver's License - part 3 of 3!

Before I tell you all about my trip with Mikey I thought I should finish my saga about obtaining a Japanese driver's license.  Actually the two stories are kind of connected since, as I mentioned previously, I planned to take my second attempt at a license right before picking my brother up from Sendai Airport.  I printed out directions to go from my place to the Sendai Driving Center (which has parking spaces) to the airport and had even selected a fast food restaurant at which to eat once I had collected my notoriously hungry brother from the airport.

Of course, things didn't go as planned.  I woke up on August 2nd to find an email from my father saying that Mikey's second flight from Atlanta to Narita Airport in Tokyo had been delayed by four hours, so he wouldn't be able to catch the flight from Narita to Sendai.  At the time we thought that Mikey would be able to catch the flight to Sendai the following morning.  As it turned out that flight was already full so the airlines had him spend the night in Tokyo and take the shinkansen up to Sendai the following morning with the promise to reimburse him.

Due to the plane difficulties, I decided to take the bus to Sendai since I wouldn't be picking up my brother from the airport that day after all.  I arrived at the Driving Center with little difficulty since it was my third time there.  I had to retake the eye test but didn't have to retake the multiple choice quiz.  I paid the exact same fees as before.  I was informed that the practical test would follow
 the same route as before too.  I wonder if the test is always the same for foreigners or if I happened to get the same one since I came on a Thursday both times.  Anyway, I was still pretty nervous before the test but luckily I got the chance to observe someone else drive before me (a guy from Brazil).  He... didn't do so well.  Even when he first started the course he tried to turn on his blinker but turned on the windshield wipers by mistake (which is a common mistake since the blinkers are on the right-hand side in Japan).  So, the guy ahead of me didn't pass but I had a chance to calm down a bit before my turn and so I was feeling pretty good.

So, when my turn came I made extra-sure to remember all of my mistakes from before and to avoid them.  During "the crank" I made a wide turn into it so that I could avoid the dips on the side of the road.  When stopping at the stop sign I probably sat there for a good five seconds before turning.  I made sure to check my mirrors constantly.  One thing I noticed was that I had misremembered the part of the course where I was to turn right at the traffic light (where I had entered the wrong lane during my first test).  I thought that the lane-dividing lines there were all white but in fact the line separating the right-turning lane from the left/straight lane was yellow.  And the line separating the two directions of traffic was white...  No wonder I got into the wrong lane before!  Anyway, at the end of the test the instructor told me that I probably should have stayed a little closer to the left side of the road but other than that I had done well.  Then I got the blue paper of acceptance, since I passed! 

After that all was well.  I took the test around 2:30 and after I passed I went up to pay the license fee.

- the total for the day was ¥7160 (as before) + ¥2050 (license fee) = ¥9210 (about $115)

One kinda nice/kinda annoying thing about getting a Japanese license is that they give the real license to you on the day you pass.  In the US they give you a temporary paper license to take with you and they send you the real one when it's ready (I believe it took about a week for me).  While it's certainly nice to have the real thing right away it takes time to prepare the license and take your picture and process everything so I ended up waiting a couple of hours before I had my physical license in hand.  During that time I waited with the other foreigners who had passed (there were three of us all together, we must have broken some kind of record!).  The other two ladies who had passed were from Brazil (one was the wife of the man who had done the practical test before me).  The other girl was about my age and she told me that it was her ninth time taking the driving test.  She said the first seven times she had tried to take the manual transmission test.  She was pleased that she had passed the automatic transmission test on only her second try.  I was duly impressed (and slightly horrified at the amount of time and money she must have wasted during her endeavor).  

At 4:15 we all had our photos taken and within the next fifteen minutes we had our licenses in hand.  Since my US license proved that I had been driving in America for over a year I didn't have to take the green and yellow "new driver" bumper sticker, for which I was grateful.

Next time I'll tell you about my brother's arrival, Himeji, and possibly even Hiroshima.
Look forward to it!

Just so I post one more thing in August...

OK, so my brother came and we had a very good time traveling around and whatnot.  I didn't have much of a chance to post while he was around since we were busy and I also kind of wanted a break from posting.

But here's a quick summary and I promise to write more about the interesting parts later:

We went to four Nippon Professional Baseball games, saw three superhero movies, swam in two water parks, and we fed wild monkeys (don't worry, it was monkey-food!).

What could have been better?

Anyway, apparently there is a tsunami warning at the moment (not a major one) due to the big earthquake near the Philippines.  I'm not worried since we've had plenty of warning and I live on top of a steep hill.  I was actually more worried yesterday morning at around 4 o'clock when an earthquake woke me up suddenly (usually you can hear them coming but since it struck suddenly I knew that the epicenter had to be close).  That earthquake was a 4 on the Shindo Japanese scale according to the Japan Meteorological Agency and a 5.7 on the Richter scale.  Nothing in my room fell down or anything though, it wasn't that big.

That's all for now.  I'll write more soon!

Getting a Japanese Driver's License - part 2 of (?)

Left at 8:45 and drove to Tome. Caught the 9:30 bus to Sendai. Dozed during the 1.5 hour ride. Arrived at Sendai station around 11. Got a quick snack then got the 15 min. subway to Izumi-chuo station. Randomly saw a teacher from my school, what are the chances? Around 11:30 got the number 5-2 bus to the Driving Center. Arrived with plenty of time to spare as the registration process goes from 1:00 to 1:30 so I sat in the foreigner waiting-area along with two guys.

I reviewed what Anne had told me about her test while eating another snack. To pass the time I looked at my JET diary (day planner) that also has random useful information like "How to read a nutrition label in Japan," "How to write an address on an envelope," and "Meanings of the most common Japanese road signs." Of course that last one turned out to be useful for the multiple-choice quiz. Between 1 o'clock and 1:30 I successfully handed in my proof of residence paper (which is a new requirement as of this month since they changed the foreigner registration system), I also passed my eye test and the multiple-choice quiz in that time period. The two other guys didn't pass (but as neither Japanese nor English were their native languages I guess it wasn't that surprising)- the test is offered only in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English I believe. One other foreigner showed up after that and he managed to pass (he had very good English). After taking the quiz I was given a map of the day's course and a booklet that contained tips about the practical (all in Japanese so it was mostly useless to me except for some sections that had pictures).

Here's a slightly skewed photo of the course map they gave me. The Driving center (starting point) is on the right. In the center of the course is a working traffic light. On the right-hand side in the middle of the page you can also see "the crank"- a series of 90 degree turns on a narrow road with small indents along the edges so you can tell very easily when you go off the road. Below the crank is the S-curve, which is pretty self-explanatory I guess (it also has the indented edges).

After waiting around with no indication of when the test would take place, around 3 PM I was suddenly called up along with the other guy who had passed the written quiz. That man was taking the standard-transmission test but since we were the only foreigners there and the cars were going to do the same course we both got into the manual car to observe one of the testers drive the course. I was planning to pay attention to when the instructor put on his blinkers before each turn but he had his hazard lights on so that was no help. He also went straight through the red-light in the center of the course even though it hadn't turned green yet, which seemed odd to me...

Once the tester finished showing us the course he told me to wait for the automatic-transmission car to come. It arrived almost immediately and then it was my turn to brave the course... sigh. I wish that more foreigners had been there that day since I would have requested to go a bit later so that I could observe them driving the course. If multiple people are there then you also have the chance to sit in the back seat while the person ahead of you in line goes (but of course, speaking during the test is prohibited). Before starting the test I asked if I could wear my sunglasses since it was a bit bright out but the tester told me that I couldn't since he needed to be able to see where I was looking... jerk. Also, before getting into the car you're expected to check the tires and all around and under the car (just in case any little kids or animals have scrambled under there in the last five seconds).

The first minute of the test was fine. I successfully got up to 50 km/hr (a whopping 31 mph) when instructed during the first straightaway and I made sure to stay closer-than-seemed-appropriate to the left curb. The car was large compared to the k-car I'm used to driving but it wasn't too bad. I made the first right turn and then a left at the traffic-light before turning into the crank. Almost immediately my back left tire went over the indent since my turn wasn't wide enough. Technically you're allowed to fall into the indent up to three times as long as you back up out of it and then continue but I wasn't quite sure what to do since my tire had gone into (and out of) the indent already. I figured that I had already failed since backing up would mean falling into the indent again. So, I just kept going and successfully managed to stay out of the indent after that (even though I knew it didn't matter at that point since I had already failed). Next I went left and through the intersection headed towards the S-curve. Unfortunately I didn't come to a complete... stop... at a stop-sign. That was just careless of me since even in Japan you're still supposed to wait three seconds... during the driving test. So the tester pointed out my mistake and then I managed to get through the S-curve. When making my final approach to the traffic-light intersection I was definitely feeling depressed since I knew that I had failed. I was supposed to turn right but I didn't get into the right-hand turn lane like I was supposed to since I completely didn't notice it. This may seem strange to you since in the US turning lanes are usually very clearly indicated with arrows and lines (white lines indicate the edge of the road and differentiate between turning lanes while yellow lines show you where the opposing lane begins). But in Japan all the lines are white so at a quick glance it's sometimes hard for me to tell whether a particular lane is on my side or in the opposing lane (especially if a turning lane is on a straightaway or if I'm out of it since I know that I just failed a test).

Anyway, the tester told me that I hadn't passed after giving me another recap of all of the parts I had messed up. He then gave me the pink paper of death (since I had failed) which said something like "go back to staff room." ...

Final recap of my wasted day:

two-way bus ticket from Tome: ¥2300
subway to Izumi-chuo: ¥390
bus from subway to Driving center: ¥170
bus back to Sendai station: ¥550

test "handling fee" (whatever that is): ¥2200
practical test fee: ¥1550

total: ¥7160 (approximately $90)

Getting this whole ordeal out of the way: priceless... I bet you saw that coming, haha.

I signed up to take the test again on Thursday since I'll be in Sendai anyway... picking up my brother from the airport! Next time I hope to tell you more about my planned trip with my brother (whom I will call Mike since I like that name). I can tell you that it will be truly epic since we will stay at five different hostels and travel at least 2,740km (~1,700 miles).