Original Subject Line: "Not to be read by weak stomached-people"
Hi Kids,
Can I just start off by bitching about all this damn smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even sit and enjoy writing you because EVERYONE in Japan SMOKES. And there aren't too many places that don't allow it. I guess that explains the brown and yellow gunky teeth. I will try to be quick about this because if I don't, I might die.
First, let me tell you about the bathroom experience. My first day at work, I got there 3 hours early to prepare (yes, I am a nerd). When it came to be potty-time, I asked Karin where the bathrooms were. She gave me these long, complicated directions, then finished off with, "And they are Japanese style toilets." Now I have heard tales about these toilets but I had not actually seen one yet, I just knew that I wasn't going to like it. But off I went in search of the great Japanese toilet. When I got down to the right floor (yes, my floor does not have its own bathroom), I wound around a few corners and there it was. This thing was probably the next step up on the evolutionary scale of toilets. Although it was not a dirt hole in the ground, it was pretty damn close. Picture a dirt hole filled with porcelin (sp?) and a flusher. Notice I mentioned nothing of a toilet seat. Now picture yourself straddling the hole and squatting with your pants pulled down low enough that you can free the necessary part, but not too low because if you don't have great aim, well, you can figure out the rest. Now throw into the mix the fact that my bathroom door would not stay closed and there was no main bathroom door to the whole john (so passers-by could see in) and you have the ingredients for a horrifying bathroom experience. I'll never be able to pee again. Now compared to the toilets at Virgin Records, it was even more of a cryin' shame. The bathrooms there have a bunch of buttons along the right-hand side. And one of those buttons actually SIMULATES the sound of a toilet flushing. Now I don't know if the purpose of that is for noise distraction or to help people pee (much like running the bathroom faucet) but I found that to be hilarious. Two of the other buttons made me chuckle as well. One said "bidet" (in case you are against wiping) and the other just had a picture that looked like a wide double-you (W) which ended up being a symbol of a butt with water squirting up from below (again, in case you got something against a simple wipe). This toilet did it all. It had a few other buttons but I was not about to find out what they would do to me. I miss my Virgin Records hangout. I.P. Freely there. But one thing I DON'T miss about Shinjuku is the sporadic power-blows of hot stench. You can be walking along and be stopped dead in your tracks from the smell of sewage. I think they must pump it through pipes beneath the streets every half hour or so. If a smell could ever make you forget what you were just thinking, this is it. It literally hits you like a brick wall and you can't think straight for a minute. I have never smelled a dead person before but I imagine that this is the closest thing there is to the smell.
On a different note, I have made another observation about Japanese girls. I have been noticing that many of them are pigeon-toed or their knees bend in towards the center of their body when they walk instead of bending out. I also noticed that they all wear shoes with 1 to 2 inch heals and they have great difficulty walking in them. It's like one of those riddles of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Do they walk knock-kneed because they can't walk in these little spiked heals or do they walk funny in spiked heals because they are knock-kneed? It's just one of those things that I have noticed so often that I can't stop noticing and I begin to wonder.
Well, my second day of work was another good day. I was the only girl there today but the boys learned quickly that I can hold my own so I was not the butt of any jokes. The job is fairly easy if you don't stick to the script. They have a method that they want you to use but I stray from that a bit because in my experience, it confuses people (me, in particular). But as I have said before, it is fun having students that actually WANT to learn. Yesterday, I had a Japanese man who worked for Phizer and he had traveled to the U.S. a lot on business. Since it was just the two of us, I just let him talk instead of going through a lesson. He told me about this diet he was on (this man only weighed 140 pounds to begin with). People here have this obsession with getting fat. Have I told you that I saw my VERY FIRST fat Japanese person 3 days ago? There really are NO overweight people here. Probably because they all smoke. But anyway, he was really cute, he told me he was on a diet because he was getting fat so now he only eats one meal a day and he doesn't eat any rice and in 5 days, he has lost 5 pounds. Oh, they have commercials, too, for weight-loss and even though they are in Japanese, I was watching one commercial and it had a before and after picture of one girl and it was NUTS. I thought the before-picture was the after-picture until they showed the after picture. People are obsessed with weight here so much that even skinny girls are "fat." The girl didn't even have any cheese curd on her butt, let alone even HAVING a butt! I thought American people had a distorted body image, but this place takes it to a whole new level.
OK, now I am just beginning to ramble. What you should walk away with is:
1. Japanese toilets suck.
2. Short, spiked heals are all the rage in Japan and may cause disfigurement in young girls.
3. Japanese people are obsessed with body image when they SHOULD be obsessed with brushing and flossing.
Write soon, Love Rachel
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The P Word
After drinking for two nights in a row (something I don't often attempt at my age anymore), I decided today I needed to replace the bad P word (procrastination) with the good P word (productivity). Of course this decision was made AFTER I rolled out of bed around 10:30AM (or was it 11AM?) I was GOING to wait until March 1 to start my workout regime (that sounded like a good start date...the first of the month...you know, another way to procrastinate), but I decided that today was the day. After eating the last Girl Scout cookie (the peanut butter and chocolate cookie kind), it was time to hit the treadmill. My husband decided that he would join me and work out in the basement with weights while I treaded (that was nice). But every so often he would come over and look at my speed and ask if I wanted to go faster (that was not nice). [Note to self, work out when Mike's not home.]
I walked on an incline for 75 minutes (a little over 4 miles), then recruited my husband to take the dogs for a walk with me (about another mile). When we got home, I was on to the next act of productivity. If I don't cook when the girls aren't here, Mike will eat 3 square meals of tortilla chips and salsa. So I broke out a new recipe I had found online last week for southwest chicken and wild rice soup. It was yummy. (You can even ask Mike. He ate his with tortilla chips). Next, I decided it was time for me to get crackin' on my sister's long-awaited birthday present (yes, her birthday was over a month ago...another fine example of me procrastinating). But since I was on the "good P word" roll, I got to work on not only sketching it out, but also painting the "easy" parts.
So here's where it stands this fine Sunday evening. I hope to finish it by tomorrow, but with my new workout schedule (the one that I am probably going to stick to for a week or two), it will be difficult. But I hope that if I write about it, I will stick to the plan.
("Golfer's Pride"- another knock-off of an Alexandra Nechita)
I walked on an incline for 75 minutes (a little over 4 miles), then recruited my husband to take the dogs for a walk with me (about another mile). When we got home, I was on to the next act of productivity. If I don't cook when the girls aren't here, Mike will eat 3 square meals of tortilla chips and salsa. So I broke out a new recipe I had found online last week for southwest chicken and wild rice soup. It was yummy. (You can even ask Mike. He ate his with tortilla chips). Next, I decided it was time for me to get crackin' on my sister's long-awaited birthday present (yes, her birthday was over a month ago...another fine example of me procrastinating). But since I was on the "good P word" roll, I got to work on not only sketching it out, but also painting the "easy" parts.
So here's where it stands this fine Sunday evening. I hope to finish it by tomorrow, but with my new workout schedule (the one that I am probably going to stick to for a week or two), it will be difficult. But I hope that if I write about it, I will stick to the plan.
("Golfer's Pride"- another knock-off of an Alexandra Nechita)
Letters from Japan: Aug 24, 2002 "First Day"
Hi Kids,
I had my first day of work today and I loved it. It wasn't as chaotic as the place was where I trained so I didn't get too stressed. Can I just pause for a
moment and tell you how much I hate these damn computers. You hit one wrong key and it changes your type into Japanese writing and now that I have it back to normal, the words are in a different font and they won't wrap around to the next line. I'm going to try to ignore this very annoying fact but it won't be easy...
Anyway, about 10 or 12 teachers work at my school. There is one guy from Chicago and the rest of them are from either Canada, Australia, England, or New Zealand. (See what I mean about the word-wrap-around not working?) Anyway, the guys at the school are like one on-going comedy act. We have 10 minutes between each class to prepare for the next class and within this 10 minutes, comedy ensues. I wish I had a camcorder so you could see and hear all that goes on. All I can do is sit and laugh and TRY to do what I need to get done in that brief period of time. But the verbal sparing makes it hard to focus. The one guy from Canada is a crazy redhead with a whole lot of energy. He and the 2 Brits go at it constantly and you never know what's going to come next. There are only 3 girls including myself. Michelle is from Australia (I love her, she swears a lot), and Karin is from New Zealand, she is the one that all the guys tease because she is the quietest one. They have all been really nice and helpful so that also made my first day easier.
On the home front, my roommate is about as much fun as a wet sock. I have more fun with the cockroaches. I don't waste my humor on her, she doesn't laugh. Her boyfriend is coming over tonight so I am hanging out here at the internet cafe right now instead of going home to relax after my first day of work. PLUS, this is the first chance I have gotten to write all day because I went to work at 9:30am and got out at 9:00pm (I went in early so I could be prepared...) I think work will be a good weight-loss program for me. At this rate, I will never have time to eat. I don't really have any funny stories to tell, wish you could have been at work, though, there were plenty of laughs there, but it was a "you-had-to-be-there" type thing. Plus, I feel the pressure of the clock on me because where I am at right now, it costs between 3 and 4 bucks an hour and I don't know how much yen I have in my pocket. I will just have to save all my funny stuff for my days off when I can go to Shinjuku and type my little heart out as long as I want to for the cost of a cup of coffee.I have a few more e-mails to write so I'll write you later.
Love me
I had my first day of work today and I loved it. It wasn't as chaotic as the place was where I trained so I didn't get too stressed. Can I just pause for a
moment and tell you how much I hate these damn computers. You hit one wrong key and it changes your type into Japanese writing and now that I have it back to normal, the words are in a different font and they won't wrap around to the next line. I'm going to try to ignore this very annoying fact but it won't be easy...
Anyway, about 10 or 12 teachers work at my school. There is one guy from Chicago and the rest of them are from either Canada, Australia, England, or New Zealand. (See what I mean about the word-wrap-around not working?) Anyway, the guys at the school are like one on-going comedy act. We have 10 minutes between each class to prepare for the next class and within this 10 minutes, comedy ensues. I wish I had a camcorder so you could see and hear all that goes on. All I can do is sit and laugh and TRY to do what I need to get done in that brief period of time. But the verbal sparing makes it hard to focus. The one guy from Canada is a crazy redhead with a whole lot of energy. He and the 2 Brits go at it constantly and you never know what's going to come next. There are only 3 girls including myself. Michelle is from Australia (I love her, she swears a lot), and Karin is from New Zealand, she is the one that all the guys tease because she is the quietest one. They have all been really nice and helpful so that also made my first day easier.
On the home front, my roommate is about as much fun as a wet sock. I have more fun with the cockroaches. I don't waste my humor on her, she doesn't laugh. Her boyfriend is coming over tonight so I am hanging out here at the internet cafe right now instead of going home to relax after my first day of work. PLUS, this is the first chance I have gotten to write all day because I went to work at 9:30am and got out at 9:00pm (I went in early so I could be prepared...) I think work will be a good weight-loss program for me. At this rate, I will never have time to eat. I don't really have any funny stories to tell, wish you could have been at work, though, there were plenty of laughs there, but it was a "you-had-to-be-there" type thing. Plus, I feel the pressure of the clock on me because where I am at right now, it costs between 3 and 4 bucks an hour and I don't know how much yen I have in my pocket. I will just have to save all my funny stuff for my days off when I can go to Shinjuku and type my little heart out as long as I want to for the cost of a cup of coffee.I have a few more e-mails to write so I'll write you later.
Love me
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 23, 2002 Happy Feet (Continued)
OK, I made it. How frustrating! This will be brief because they messed up my work visa so I have to go search down this damn place on my day off and get it straightened out. My new roommate's name is Helen and she is from Canada but she is Chinese. She has already told me that she will only be around for about a month because her boyfriend is in Japan here, too, working for a different company. She wants to shack up with him, which is fine with me because first of all, I finally got used to living by myself and second of all, she wears Power Puff Girl tee-shirts...how cool can she be? But she has to be there for 1 month before she can put in a transfer request. So for the time being, I have a roommate. My first day on the job is tomorrow. I am a bit frightened because the behind-the-scenes stuff is chaotic. I can handle the actual teaching part. I enjoy that part. But the 10 minutes you have between each class to grade each person, rank them on a scale
of 1 to 5 for 6 different categories, write comments and recommendations, put their files away (which is NO easy task), then pull the next groups' files (again, not an easy task), compare all their files to see what lessons they haven't had yet, find the resource book with the lesson in it (and if you have never taught that lesson before, you are screwed because you have to write your own lesson plans for each lesson) and get to the cubicle where your class is held. Now if THAT doesn't sound horrendous, keep in mind that EVERYONE is doing this so everyone is trying to track
down their students' files and they may have just taken a class so another teacher might still have their file and you have to run around tracking down where these missing students' files are. Hopefully, my school will be a bit smaller than Shinjuku school so it won't be as crazy. But THAT is the part that is stressing me out.
Anyway, that is that. I have a few more e-mails to write before I go on my next expedition to Tachikawa to find the immigration office. I can't believe they are making me do this on my day off...the day I was just going to kick back here at the computer and catch up on all my e-mails. bastards. I have to learn how to swear in Japanese so I can stop offending some of my readers (my sister reads my e-mails to my 5 year old niece...HI CURRAN!) OK, I'm off! Thanks for writing! Love rachel
of 1 to 5 for 6 different categories, write comments and recommendations, put their files away (which is NO easy task), then pull the next groups' files (again, not an easy task), compare all their files to see what lessons they haven't had yet, find the resource book with the lesson in it (and if you have never taught that lesson before, you are screwed because you have to write your own lesson plans for each lesson) and get to the cubicle where your class is held. Now if THAT doesn't sound horrendous, keep in mind that EVERYONE is doing this so everyone is trying to track
down their students' files and they may have just taken a class so another teacher might still have their file and you have to run around tracking down where these missing students' files are. Hopefully, my school will be a bit smaller than Shinjuku school so it won't be as crazy. But THAT is the part that is stressing me out.
Anyway, that is that. I have a few more e-mails to write before I go on my next expedition to Tachikawa to find the immigration office. I can't believe they are making me do this on my day off...the day I was just going to kick back here at the computer and catch up on all my e-mails. bastards. I have to learn how to swear in Japanese so I can stop offending some of my readers (my sister reads my e-mails to my 5 year old niece...HI CURRAN!) OK, I'm off! Thanks for writing! Love rachel
Friday, February 25, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 22, 2002 "Happy Feet"
Yes, today I have happy feet. I am flippin' and floppin' around in my flip-flops on my day off, blisters be damned!
I went out with my friends last night to celebrate our last day of training. Nothing too eventful, there. Of course we wandered around Shinjuku looking for a place to have drinks. All the "foreigner" bars...and by foreigner, I mean English folks, were packed with Japanese people. You would have thought it was a Friday or Saturday night. THIS is the city that never sleeps! We ended up at some bar on the third floor of some building. I attempted to order a non-meat dish (niku ni) or a fish dish (sakana) and ended up with some huge dinosaur toe-nail looking thing. The guy said it was fish but I am telling you, this thing was something NO AMERICAN has EVER laid eyes on before. It tasted like a mix between fish and turkey (it even had light and dark meat, the dark meat tasted like turkey). The texture was even a mix of sword fish steak and turkey, depending on what part you were eating it from. We figured I might be eating whale. I mean, even the bone that it came on was HUGE and not fish like. I think I ate whale spine. Who knows but they got a whole different species of fish out here if that was REALLY fish.
I made it home by midnight and found TWO new roommates. One was a girl named Helen, and the other was a bug named MR. GIGANTIC COCKROACH! This thing was the size of a small mouse and was wearing gym shoes. I never realized how fast those things were. Well, Scabby Knees had warned me that we had cockroaches and she had showed me where the bug spray was. She also told me that the stuff kills cockroaches in a matter of seconds. SO I grabbed the spray and took off after this cockroach who turboed around the kitchen like an Olympic sprinter. I was hot on his tail, spraying like a maniac all the while. Eventually, the spray started taking effect and he flipped over on his back and started doing this long, slow, mellow-dramatic death scene. His tentacles and long frog legs were flailing wildly, then slower and slower. I started to feel bad. But I GRABBED THE BROOM AND THE DUST PAN AND SWEPT HIM INTO IT, THEN TOSSED HIM OUTSIDE (yOU MAY BE ASKING YOURSELF WHY I AM WRITING IN ALL CAPITALS, WELL, I HATE THESE FRICKING KEYBOARDS BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS WRITTEN IN JAPANESE AND IF YOU HIT ONE KEY, YOU CAN't read the board to undo what you did> SEE, NOW IT TYPED IN LOWER CASE BECAUSE MY SHIFT KEY GETS STUCK SO WHEN i SHIFT TO CAPITALIZE, IT STAYS IN LOWER CASE BECAUSE THE SHIFT KEY STICKS!!!!!) i hate this thing, IT'S LIKE IT`S SCHIZOPHRENIC!!!!! I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S DRIVING YOU NUTS, BUT IT IS ME!!! bELEIVE ME, i HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO GET THIS TO STOP!
aNYWAY, SO THIS MORNING, MY ROOMMATE GETS UP AND SHE IS PETRIFIED OF BUGS, ESPECIALLY COCKROACHES. sHE WALKS DOWN TO 7-ELEVEN TO MAKE A CALL AND WHEN SHE GETS BACK, SHE MENTIONS THAT THERE IS A COCKROACH OUTSIDE OUR DOOR ON HIS BACK AND HE IS STILL KICKING. THIS THING NEVER DIED LAST NIGHT! HE'S STILL DYING THE LONG SLOW MELLOW-DRAMATIC DEATH OUTSIDE! sO WE GRAB THE BROOM AND DECIDE TO SWEEP HIM OFF THE WALK AREA, AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT, WE DECIDE TO SWEEP OFF THE GOLOPTIC CICADA THAT IS ALSO PERCHED OUTSIDE OUR DOOR. THIS THING IS THE SIZE OF A SMALL BIRD, NO JOKE! WELL, THE COCKROACH GOES WITHOUT A FIGHT, BUT THIS CICADA HAS A MIND OF HIS OWN. i only got one good sweep in before he started squawking AND SCREECHING AND FLIPPING ALL OVER THE PLACE WITH HIS BIG BIRD-LIKE WINGS. wE BOTH SCREAMED AND RAN INSIDE THE APARTMENT. i GUESS WE WOULD HAVE TO GET ACCUSTOMED TO OUR TEMPORARY NEIGHBOR BECAUSE i THINK i WAS LUCKY TO ESCAPE WITH MY LIFE.
OK, THIS COMPUTER IS PISSING ME OFF. i' M GOING TO MY USUAL PLACE. THIS MAY BE CONTINUED...
(Me and my mystery fish dish...check out the bone on my plate)
I went out with my friends last night to celebrate our last day of training. Nothing too eventful, there. Of course we wandered around Shinjuku looking for a place to have drinks. All the "foreigner" bars...and by foreigner, I mean English folks, were packed with Japanese people. You would have thought it was a Friday or Saturday night. THIS is the city that never sleeps! We ended up at some bar on the third floor of some building. I attempted to order a non-meat dish (niku ni) or a fish dish (sakana) and ended up with some huge dinosaur toe-nail looking thing. The guy said it was fish but I am telling you, this thing was something NO AMERICAN has EVER laid eyes on before. It tasted like a mix between fish and turkey (it even had light and dark meat, the dark meat tasted like turkey). The texture was even a mix of sword fish steak and turkey, depending on what part you were eating it from. We figured I might be eating whale. I mean, even the bone that it came on was HUGE and not fish like. I think I ate whale spine. Who knows but they got a whole different species of fish out here if that was REALLY fish.
I made it home by midnight and found TWO new roommates. One was a girl named Helen, and the other was a bug named MR. GIGANTIC COCKROACH! This thing was the size of a small mouse and was wearing gym shoes. I never realized how fast those things were. Well, Scabby Knees had warned me that we had cockroaches and she had showed me where the bug spray was. She also told me that the stuff kills cockroaches in a matter of seconds. SO I grabbed the spray and took off after this cockroach who turboed around the kitchen like an Olympic sprinter. I was hot on his tail, spraying like a maniac all the while. Eventually, the spray started taking effect and he flipped over on his back and started doing this long, slow, mellow-dramatic death scene. His tentacles and long frog legs were flailing wildly, then slower and slower. I started to feel bad. But I GRABBED THE BROOM AND THE DUST PAN AND SWEPT HIM INTO IT, THEN TOSSED HIM OUTSIDE (yOU MAY BE ASKING YOURSELF WHY I AM WRITING IN ALL CAPITALS, WELL, I HATE THESE FRICKING KEYBOARDS BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS WRITTEN IN JAPANESE AND IF YOU HIT ONE KEY, YOU CAN't read the board to undo what you did> SEE, NOW IT TYPED IN LOWER CASE BECAUSE MY SHIFT KEY GETS STUCK SO WHEN i SHIFT TO CAPITALIZE, IT STAYS IN LOWER CASE BECAUSE THE SHIFT KEY STICKS!!!!!) i hate this thing, IT'S LIKE IT`S SCHIZOPHRENIC!!!!! I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S DRIVING YOU NUTS, BUT IT IS ME!!! bELEIVE ME, i HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO GET THIS TO STOP!
aNYWAY, SO THIS MORNING, MY ROOMMATE GETS UP AND SHE IS PETRIFIED OF BUGS, ESPECIALLY COCKROACHES. sHE WALKS DOWN TO 7-ELEVEN TO MAKE A CALL AND WHEN SHE GETS BACK, SHE MENTIONS THAT THERE IS A COCKROACH OUTSIDE OUR DOOR ON HIS BACK AND HE IS STILL KICKING. THIS THING NEVER DIED LAST NIGHT! HE'S STILL DYING THE LONG SLOW MELLOW-DRAMATIC DEATH OUTSIDE! sO WE GRAB THE BROOM AND DECIDE TO SWEEP HIM OFF THE WALK AREA, AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT, WE DECIDE TO SWEEP OFF THE GOLOPTIC CICADA THAT IS ALSO PERCHED OUTSIDE OUR DOOR. THIS THING IS THE SIZE OF A SMALL BIRD, NO JOKE! WELL, THE COCKROACH GOES WITHOUT A FIGHT, BUT THIS CICADA HAS A MIND OF HIS OWN. i only got one good sweep in before he started squawking AND SCREECHING AND FLIPPING ALL OVER THE PLACE WITH HIS BIG BIRD-LIKE WINGS. wE BOTH SCREAMED AND RAN INSIDE THE APARTMENT. i GUESS WE WOULD HAVE TO GET ACCUSTOMED TO OUR TEMPORARY NEIGHBOR BECAUSE i THINK i WAS LUCKY TO ESCAPE WITH MY LIFE.
OK, THIS COMPUTER IS PISSING ME OFF. i' M GOING TO MY USUAL PLACE. THIS MAY BE CONTINUED...
(Me and my mystery fish dish...check out the bone on my plate)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Works O Fart
Sorry, I just had to write that. My mom never allowed us to say the "f" word when we were little, so I had to write it on my blog as a form of rebellion. Hi Ma! Also, when you say it fast, it sounds like works of art, which is what this blog is about. They are MY works of art. I have posted some of these on Facebook years ago, but now that I have started my very own blog, I wanted to post them here. My mom thinks I am going to get arrested or something for "telling the world" that I copy other artists' work (she literally wrote that in her last email to me about my blog). So yes, it's me being rebellious again. Posting more stuff on my blog that's going to wind me up in prison.
("Irreplaceable II"...Alexandra Nechita knockoff. This one wasn't quite finished when I took this picture)
("The Wine Taster"...another Alexandra Nechita knockoff)
("Adventurous Mind"...another Alexandra Nechita knockoff)
("Boxed Sunshine"...my latest Alexandra Nechita knockoff...I know, I know, I already posted this one on my blog...like TWICE...but I wanted to include it anyway! Sheesh.)
(Don't know the artist or name of painting...but Ma requested that I paint this one for her)
(And again, don't know the name of the artist or the painting, but my aunt wanted me to paint this one for her)
("Irreplaceable II"...Alexandra Nechita knockoff. This one wasn't quite finished when I took this picture)
("The Wine Taster"...another Alexandra Nechita knockoff)
("Adventurous Mind"...another Alexandra Nechita knockoff)
("Boxed Sunshine"...my latest Alexandra Nechita knockoff...I know, I know, I already posted this one on my blog...like TWICE...but I wanted to include it anyway! Sheesh.)
(Don't know the artist or name of painting...but Ma requested that I paint this one for her)
(And again, don't know the name of the artist or the painting, but my aunt wanted me to paint this one for her)
Letters from Japan: Aug 21, 2002
Hey Kids,
Thanks for all your great ideas regarding my intruder. Larry, the booger eating idea just might work. For those who are beyond worry (Ma), I have a number to call to have this looked into. As soon as I find the number, I'll call. I will be getting a roommate TODAY (according to my scabby kneed, floozy ex-roommate). I saw her 2 days ago, I have been wondering if SHE is my intruder, bringing back her johns and "entertaining" them here. YUCK! So that is that.
Unfortunately, I don't have any wild capers to tell of today. McDonald's DOES have fries after all, just not before a certain time (although they still server burgers in the morning).
I found out that all the shoving on the train yesterday is actually done by the train police dudes. I don't know if if it is their JOB or they just take the liberty, but if the train is packed and more people need to get on, they literally shove people in. I wonder what that job description reads like. I don't think that would go over well in America. But I outsmarted the bastards today. When I got on the train, I made my way to the end of one of the cars so that when all the pushing started, I didn't get caught up in it because I was standing securely against the car wall with my swinging hand ring in hand. And if I got crushed against the wall, the door leading into the next car was right there...AN ESCAPE ROUTE! Man, I'm smart! A real problem-solver I am!
My new buddies and I are going to plan a trip to go to the place where the Shogun guy lived. Once we start our schedules, we are allowed to swap days off with people. So we are all going to try to get the same day off and take a trip. I feel like a loser because everyone else has traveled to all these different cities since they got here and they have ll these cool stories and all I can say is that 7-Eleven can provide you with all your basic shopping needs. And with my job starting, life is beginning to feel routine. I wake up, do my homework, take the train to the city, grab a bite to eat, go the internet cafe and write to all you wonderful people, go to work,go home, and lay in bed while I flip through 12 Japanese channels hoping an American show might come one. "Darma and Greg" was on 3 nights ago. That was exciting. Anyway, I guess routine for now is good. But I don't want it to be like this for too long. I need more material for your reading pleasure.
Some people have requested my address so HERE IT IS! Feel free to send me lots of STUFF!
River Stone Eight
2-10-5 Tobitakyu
Chofu-shi
Tokyo-To 182-036
Japan
Thanks for all your great ideas regarding my intruder. Larry, the booger eating idea just might work. For those who are beyond worry (Ma), I have a number to call to have this looked into. As soon as I find the number, I'll call. I will be getting a roommate TODAY (according to my scabby kneed, floozy ex-roommate). I saw her 2 days ago, I have been wondering if SHE is my intruder, bringing back her johns and "entertaining" them here. YUCK! So that is that.
Unfortunately, I don't have any wild capers to tell of today. McDonald's DOES have fries after all, just not before a certain time (although they still server burgers in the morning).
I found out that all the shoving on the train yesterday is actually done by the train police dudes. I don't know if if it is their JOB or they just take the liberty, but if the train is packed and more people need to get on, they literally shove people in. I wonder what that job description reads like. I don't think that would go over well in America. But I outsmarted the bastards today. When I got on the train, I made my way to the end of one of the cars so that when all the pushing started, I didn't get caught up in it because I was standing securely against the car wall with my swinging hand ring in hand. And if I got crushed against the wall, the door leading into the next car was right there...AN ESCAPE ROUTE! Man, I'm smart! A real problem-solver I am!
My new buddies and I are going to plan a trip to go to the place where the Shogun guy lived. Once we start our schedules, we are allowed to swap days off with people. So we are all going to try to get the same day off and take a trip. I feel like a loser because everyone else has traveled to all these different cities since they got here and they have ll these cool stories and all I can say is that 7-Eleven can provide you with all your basic shopping needs. And with my job starting, life is beginning to feel routine. I wake up, do my homework, take the train to the city, grab a bite to eat, go the internet cafe and write to all you wonderful people, go to work,go home, and lay in bed while I flip through 12 Japanese channels hoping an American show might come one. "Darma and Greg" was on 3 nights ago. That was exciting. Anyway, I guess routine for now is good. But I don't want it to be like this for too long. I need more material for your reading pleasure.
Some people have requested my address so HERE IT IS! Feel free to send me lots of STUFF!
River Stone Eight
2-10-5 Tobitakyu
Chofu-shi
Tokyo-To 182-036
Japan
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 20, 2002
Hey kids!
I've had a request from Corey to start writing a title for each e-mail in the "Subject" box. Knowing me, if I start doing that, i will take an hour each day just
sitting in front of the computer starring at the screen trying to think of something clever and I won't have any time left to write. So, Corey, I will try my best, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. I have one hour to write so i will try to fill you in on the latest, then I am off to Day 2 of training.
First and foremost, I have an intruder. Someone has been coming into my apartment when I am gone. i had a sneaking suspicion a few days ago when I thought a rug
was missing and the slippers by the front door were moved and the lights were messed up. Well, yesterday I get home and it is a bit stuffy in my apartment so I
go to open the window and it is already open. Now I KNOW someone has been coming in because I DISTINCTLY remember closing the window during the typhoon two days ago. So now the question becomes WHO, WHY, and WHAT THE HELL!!?? So then i start getting paranoid thinking about how whenever my air conditioning is on in my room, periodically a flash and a little flashing noise will occur. I start thinking that there are cameras in my room and they are on a timer to take pictures of me in my bedroom. Next I am going to see my naked body on billboards in Hooker Alley. I might have a pervert for a landlord and he could be coming into my apartment each day when I leave to check his cameras and do gross stuff. He probably knows when I
leave because he watches his cameras at his mission control station. Isn't there some early 1990's movie about this kind of thing? So THAT is my latest. You all can send me ideas for booby-traps.
OK, off the subject of paranoia, my first day of training was pretty fun. the time flew by, which is always a good thing. I also made a few more friends. There are only 4 people in my training class. The two guys live out by me so I have someone to ride the train halfway home with at night. In Chofu, we get off and take separate trains but I am only 2 stops away from home at that point. Chris is my partner in crime. He actually lives in Nashville, too, so that@s kinda cool. We were split into groups of 2 yesterday and he and I were partners. I was having flashbacks to Sundays in church with my mom and sister when we were kids. Amber and I would get the giggles so bad, I would have to pee my pants and Amber would get the
hiccups. Well, that's what yesterday was like. I was no longer a professional in a foreign country learning a job, I was a kid in church about to pee my pants. Chris is this tall, gangly, red head with glasses and a very dry sense of humor. He is flat, has no passion in his voice and we are supposed to be demonstrating intonation to our Japanese students so they don't talk like robots. The problem is, Chris talks like a robot...I guess the best comparison I can make is Bob
Newhart. That is how he talks. So during our exercise, the more he talked, the harder I laughed, then he would say something funny along with talking flat and I thought i would die. I told him that I was not going to be able to be his partner anymore because now he just opens his mouth and I feel myself already
starting to smirk. To add to it all, the exercises they have us doing are SO CONFUSING. Then after we practice once or twice, they send us off with another
instructor and have us teach the lesson to a real group of students. The last exercise they made us go teach was a disaster! It's too difficult to explain so
you'll just have to take my word for it. The good thing about it was that the last group I was with only consisted of 2 women and they were as cute as can be.
They laughed a lot and smiled constantly and were so excited to be learning. THOSE are the kind of people I want to teach. i just wanted to pinch their little
brown cheeks. So as bad as I was, they either didn't know or didn't care, they were just happy to be there learning.
For dinner break, we went to a little Japanese restaurant that is equivalent to a fast food place, I guess. In the window, there is a display of fake dishes like shrimp tempura, miso soup, beef terriyaki, etc. You look at the different dishes in the window display and decide which one looks good, go into the restaurant, put your money into a vending machine, hit the number of the dish (each meal has a number), a
ticket comes out of the machine, you take the ticket to the cook behind the counter, then you go sit and wait for him to call you. Your meal is ready in about
2-3 minutes. I had calamari tempura with buckwheat noodles in a brown soup. You don't get a spoon either. You drink your soup from the bowl, I felt like was being naughty. You also don't get a knife to cut your huge piece of squid, you just pick up the big blob with your chopsticks and gnaw off a piece. Good thing I had a little experience using chopsticks before I came here, otherwise I would have had to
spear my food.
My train ride here today was CRAZY! Halfway to Shinjuku, we stopped at a local station and I made myself comfortable at the end of one of the benches because lots of people got off at that station. The next thing I know, I am the ONLY ONE on the train. Then the lights on the train turn off. WHAT??? I decide to get off while the getting is good. Just as I get off the train, the doors close. I still don't know what THAT was all about. But on the other rail across the way, the "Rapid Commuter" comes along. Now, I have not been impressed with this experience in the past but now it is my only option. Now, on THIS train, LOTS of people are on it, so I have to stand and hold onto a swinging hand ring. I've done this before, no big deal. Well, 2 stops later the train is jam packed and we come to a 3rd stop. I'm thinking people will see how crammed it is and just wait for the next train...WRONG! the next think I know I am being SHOVED further into the mass. I no longer have a hand ring to hold onto and I almost get pushed down. I start yelling WOH! WOH! WOH! Yes, the crazy American is yelling on the train and NO ONE ELSE seems to mind this senseless act of violence. I almost fall on top of an old Japanese lady who has been sizing me up since I first got on the train. the expression on her face is that of a woman who has just taken a long drag from a liquid lemon. She, too, does not seem to mind that we are being violently shoved into the middle of the train. i did manage to ride the train the rest of the way without a hand ring, it was like
riding a bucking bronco with NO hands. Those cowboys ain't got NOTHIN on me! So I made it here alive and aside from my 2 new blisters that go along with my 4 old blisters, I am fine and I am off to my 2nd day of work. They asked us to be there an hour early (without pay, of course).
Thanks for all your wonderful e-mails. Love me
(My training buddies-Chris is on the right)
I've had a request from Corey to start writing a title for each e-mail in the "Subject" box. Knowing me, if I start doing that, i will take an hour each day just
sitting in front of the computer starring at the screen trying to think of something clever and I won't have any time left to write. So, Corey, I will try my best, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. I have one hour to write so i will try to fill you in on the latest, then I am off to Day 2 of training.
First and foremost, I have an intruder. Someone has been coming into my apartment when I am gone. i had a sneaking suspicion a few days ago when I thought a rug
was missing and the slippers by the front door were moved and the lights were messed up. Well, yesterday I get home and it is a bit stuffy in my apartment so I
go to open the window and it is already open. Now I KNOW someone has been coming in because I DISTINCTLY remember closing the window during the typhoon two days ago. So now the question becomes WHO, WHY, and WHAT THE HELL!!?? So then i start getting paranoid thinking about how whenever my air conditioning is on in my room, periodically a flash and a little flashing noise will occur. I start thinking that there are cameras in my room and they are on a timer to take pictures of me in my bedroom. Next I am going to see my naked body on billboards in Hooker Alley. I might have a pervert for a landlord and he could be coming into my apartment each day when I leave to check his cameras and do gross stuff. He probably knows when I
leave because he watches his cameras at his mission control station. Isn't there some early 1990's movie about this kind of thing? So THAT is my latest. You all can send me ideas for booby-traps.
OK, off the subject of paranoia, my first day of training was pretty fun. the time flew by, which is always a good thing. I also made a few more friends. There are only 4 people in my training class. The two guys live out by me so I have someone to ride the train halfway home with at night. In Chofu, we get off and take separate trains but I am only 2 stops away from home at that point. Chris is my partner in crime. He actually lives in Nashville, too, so that@s kinda cool. We were split into groups of 2 yesterday and he and I were partners. I was having flashbacks to Sundays in church with my mom and sister when we were kids. Amber and I would get the giggles so bad, I would have to pee my pants and Amber would get the
hiccups. Well, that's what yesterday was like. I was no longer a professional in a foreign country learning a job, I was a kid in church about to pee my pants. Chris is this tall, gangly, red head with glasses and a very dry sense of humor. He is flat, has no passion in his voice and we are supposed to be demonstrating intonation to our Japanese students so they don't talk like robots. The problem is, Chris talks like a robot...I guess the best comparison I can make is Bob
Newhart. That is how he talks. So during our exercise, the more he talked, the harder I laughed, then he would say something funny along with talking flat and I thought i would die. I told him that I was not going to be able to be his partner anymore because now he just opens his mouth and I feel myself already
starting to smirk. To add to it all, the exercises they have us doing are SO CONFUSING. Then after we practice once or twice, they send us off with another
instructor and have us teach the lesson to a real group of students. The last exercise they made us go teach was a disaster! It's too difficult to explain so
you'll just have to take my word for it. The good thing about it was that the last group I was with only consisted of 2 women and they were as cute as can be.
They laughed a lot and smiled constantly and were so excited to be learning. THOSE are the kind of people I want to teach. i just wanted to pinch their little
brown cheeks. So as bad as I was, they either didn't know or didn't care, they were just happy to be there learning.
For dinner break, we went to a little Japanese restaurant that is equivalent to a fast food place, I guess. In the window, there is a display of fake dishes like shrimp tempura, miso soup, beef terriyaki, etc. You look at the different dishes in the window display and decide which one looks good, go into the restaurant, put your money into a vending machine, hit the number of the dish (each meal has a number), a
ticket comes out of the machine, you take the ticket to the cook behind the counter, then you go sit and wait for him to call you. Your meal is ready in about
2-3 minutes. I had calamari tempura with buckwheat noodles in a brown soup. You don't get a spoon either. You drink your soup from the bowl, I felt like was being naughty. You also don't get a knife to cut your huge piece of squid, you just pick up the big blob with your chopsticks and gnaw off a piece. Good thing I had a little experience using chopsticks before I came here, otherwise I would have had to
spear my food.
My train ride here today was CRAZY! Halfway to Shinjuku, we stopped at a local station and I made myself comfortable at the end of one of the benches because lots of people got off at that station. The next thing I know, I am the ONLY ONE on the train. Then the lights on the train turn off. WHAT??? I decide to get off while the getting is good. Just as I get off the train, the doors close. I still don't know what THAT was all about. But on the other rail across the way, the "Rapid Commuter" comes along. Now, I have not been impressed with this experience in the past but now it is my only option. Now, on THIS train, LOTS of people are on it, so I have to stand and hold onto a swinging hand ring. I've done this before, no big deal. Well, 2 stops later the train is jam packed and we come to a 3rd stop. I'm thinking people will see how crammed it is and just wait for the next train...WRONG! the next think I know I am being SHOVED further into the mass. I no longer have a hand ring to hold onto and I almost get pushed down. I start yelling WOH! WOH! WOH! Yes, the crazy American is yelling on the train and NO ONE ELSE seems to mind this senseless act of violence. I almost fall on top of an old Japanese lady who has been sizing me up since I first got on the train. the expression on her face is that of a woman who has just taken a long drag from a liquid lemon. She, too, does not seem to mind that we are being violently shoved into the middle of the train. i did manage to ride the train the rest of the way without a hand ring, it was like
riding a bucking bronco with NO hands. Those cowboys ain't got NOTHIN on me! So I made it here alive and aside from my 2 new blisters that go along with my 4 old blisters, I am fine and I am off to my 2nd day of work. They asked us to be there an hour early (without pay, of course).
Thanks for all your wonderful e-mails. Love me
(My training buddies-Chris is on the right)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
DONE!...I think...
OK. I think it took me a total of 9 hours to paint this. That's 9 hours of hunching on the floor and sitting on my legs. You'd never guess the muscles you use to paint. My groin is not happy with me at the moment...but I'll spare you any further details. So here's how "Boxed Sunshine" progressed from yesterday to today (scroll down page to see progression):
(I also found the cleanup to look rather like art)
(I also found the cleanup to look rather like art)
Letters from Japan: Aug 19 (Part 2)
Hi kids!
I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying my adventures. Sometimes I feel like I am just babbling but I have no one else to share all this with so I babble on line. It's cathartic. Anyway, this one will be brief because training starts in an hour. this time I left my place with over 2 hours to spare and found my training sight after only 15 minutes of wandering around (although it FELT like an hour because me feet HURT!!! I neglected to add that all that running around in the typhoon yesterday was done in HIGH HEALS!) So I have blisters on my blisters. And today, I am wearing brand new shoes so I have NEW blisters on my toes to match the ones on my heals from yesterday.
Anyway, enough about my crippling pain. After orientation yesterday, Nichole and I walked to an internet cafe where we ran into her roommate who has been here for 4 months and can speak pretty fluent Japanese. We decided to grab a bite to eat so we
wandered the streets of Shinjuku at night (a new experience for me). I don't think I told you that there is a section of Shijuku that is like Las Vegas where people stand outside all the casinos and yell stuff in Japanese to woo you into their casino. These buildings are several stories high (like maybe 10 stories or so) and they are very narrow with all these colorful signs and stuff. And not far from there is hooker alley...or something like that. Nichole's roommate, Laura, was telling me about it, warning me to stay away from those streets. I wonder how many
times I have already been down those streets in the day time and had no clue where I was. Good thing I had not been there at night by myself. So here I am in Japan and we have Italian for dinner. I have as of yet to have a real Japanese dinner. But Laura said she will take us some place cool for the authentic experience. I don't want to let my sister down! She is expecting me to be the pro on sushi when I return, So far, I have only become the pro on eggs, Doritos, and Snickers. And you'd think with all this walking that I would have shed a few pounds by now but NOOOOOOO, not me! I think I am getting a snickers-belly. They really are a satisfying treat.
Well, I need to head out here. I still want to tell you about orientation but that will have to wait. I'll just say that the first guy looked like a well-groomed Tom Greene with an Australian accent and a lisp; the second guy was a Japanese guy named Cookie with a British accent, the third presenter was just plain creepy and he whistled when he said his "s"'s. The final presenters were Australian women who could not figure out how to navigate PowerPoint. I'll tell that story later. OK, now I am really going. OH!!! And you can all breathe a sigh of relief...I finally had a hot shower...YIPPEEE! I feel like a new man!
Take care and write soon! Love Rachel
I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying my adventures. Sometimes I feel like I am just babbling but I have no one else to share all this with so I babble on line. It's cathartic. Anyway, this one will be brief because training starts in an hour. this time I left my place with over 2 hours to spare and found my training sight after only 15 minutes of wandering around (although it FELT like an hour because me feet HURT!!! I neglected to add that all that running around in the typhoon yesterday was done in HIGH HEALS!) So I have blisters on my blisters. And today, I am wearing brand new shoes so I have NEW blisters on my toes to match the ones on my heals from yesterday.
Anyway, enough about my crippling pain. After orientation yesterday, Nichole and I walked to an internet cafe where we ran into her roommate who has been here for 4 months and can speak pretty fluent Japanese. We decided to grab a bite to eat so we
wandered the streets of Shinjuku at night (a new experience for me). I don't think I told you that there is a section of Shijuku that is like Las Vegas where people stand outside all the casinos and yell stuff in Japanese to woo you into their casino. These buildings are several stories high (like maybe 10 stories or so) and they are very narrow with all these colorful signs and stuff. And not far from there is hooker alley...or something like that. Nichole's roommate, Laura, was telling me about it, warning me to stay away from those streets. I wonder how many
times I have already been down those streets in the day time and had no clue where I was. Good thing I had not been there at night by myself. So here I am in Japan and we have Italian for dinner. I have as of yet to have a real Japanese dinner. But Laura said she will take us some place cool for the authentic experience. I don't want to let my sister down! She is expecting me to be the pro on sushi when I return, So far, I have only become the pro on eggs, Doritos, and Snickers. And you'd think with all this walking that I would have shed a few pounds by now but NOOOOOOO, not me! I think I am getting a snickers-belly. They really are a satisfying treat.
Well, I need to head out here. I still want to tell you about orientation but that will have to wait. I'll just say that the first guy looked like a well-groomed Tom Greene with an Australian accent and a lisp; the second guy was a Japanese guy named Cookie with a British accent, the third presenter was just plain creepy and he whistled when he said his "s"'s. The final presenters were Australian women who could not figure out how to navigate PowerPoint. I'll tell that story later. OK, now I am really going. OH!!! And you can all breathe a sigh of relief...I finally had a hot shower...YIPPEEE! I feel like a new man!
Take care and write soon! Love Rachel
Monday, February 21, 2011
So far...
Well, it worked. I wrote about it, and so I felt the need to follow through and DO it. (Maybe I should write about working out!) I still have about a half day left to finish. The face will be the hardest part (always is). And when I look at them side by side, I see all the places that I messed up. But if you don't compare, I don't think you'd ever be able to tell. Here is what I was able to do in 6 hours (mine is the first picture, the original is the second picture).
The Push
Back when I lived in Nashville, I had a little place of my own. It was a bit pricey for what I made, but I loved the location, and I knew I could swing it, as long as I cut back on my spending. I had furniture to fill it, but nothing for decor. And all the paintings I wanted were too much for my budget. So after browsing the internet for the "perfect piece," I found myself coming back to the same paintings. One by Joan Miro, one by Alfred Gockel, one by Wassily Kandinsky, one by Picasso, and one by an unknown artist. I knew I could buy a poster of some of these paintings, but that doesn't have the life that a real painting has. So I got this crazy idea to paint my own version of these paintings. Mind you, I had never painted in my life (unless you consider paint-by-number in the first grade a real painting experience), but I decided that was the only affordable way for me to have art on my walls. So off I went to Michael's art supplies store to buy paint and canvases and begin my first masterpiece. And that is how it all began.
So why I am telling you all this? Because I need a push. I need to get my butt in gear. I'm hoping if I write about it, I will DO it. I have not painted anything for anyone in over 2 years. And I think I owe my sister about 6 paintings by now. After seeing some of my paintings years ago, my sister asked if I would paint her something by Alexandra Nechita. And since then, all she ever asks for is another painting. Her most recent request is for another Alexandra Nechita called "Golfer's Pride." But first, I need to finish the one I just sketched out. (Before she told me which one she wanted, this was the one I was GOING to paint for her...so I am going to finish that one, first). The one I am going to start painting today is called "Boxed Sunshine." It is also by Alexandra Nechita. I am attaching a picture of the originals (these are NOT my knock-off versions...I'll post those when I am done). Here I go!
(Boxed Sunshine)
(Golfer's Pride)
So why I am telling you all this? Because I need a push. I need to get my butt in gear. I'm hoping if I write about it, I will DO it. I have not painted anything for anyone in over 2 years. And I think I owe my sister about 6 paintings by now. After seeing some of my paintings years ago, my sister asked if I would paint her something by Alexandra Nechita. And since then, all she ever asks for is another painting. Her most recent request is for another Alexandra Nechita called "Golfer's Pride." But first, I need to finish the one I just sketched out. (Before she told me which one she wanted, this was the one I was GOING to paint for her...so I am going to finish that one, first). The one I am going to start painting today is called "Boxed Sunshine." It is also by Alexandra Nechita. I am attaching a picture of the originals (these are NOT my knock-off versions...I'll post those when I am done). Here I go!
(Boxed Sunshine)
(Golfer's Pride)
Letters from Japan: Aug. 19, 2002
(BEFORE WE GET STARTED, THANKS COREY!)
Hey kids,
Man, I wish I had a dict-a-phone so I could just spew forth all that has happened in the past 2 days but because I can't, you only get the abbreviated version which is not as much fun, but here goes...
Yes, today there was a typhoon and today was ALSO my first day of orientation. Fortunately I was HALF prepared because I purchased an umbrella yesterday (no, I have not thrown away my sunglasses, it actually rained yesterday.) Anyway, I woke up at 5:00 am and could not go back to sleep so I got up and made a REAL breakfast (I found eggs, bread, butter, juice, and honey at 7-Eleven yesterday.) Anyway, so I was feeling like a real American this morning for a brief moment. Then I climbed into the frigid shower and was quickly reminded that I am a foreigner...I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET HOT WATER!!!!! I have been talking cold showers since the day I got here and I don't know what I am doing wrong. So after a Wynns-quickie (wink,wink) I jumped out and got ready and looked at the torrential down-pour outside wondering if I should wait it out or get a head start on my day. I decided to head to Family Mart and purchase minutes on my calling card to make a call to the good old U.S. of A. before heading off to my new job. When I got to the Family Mart, I went through the same rigmarole as I did last time but finally was able to put minutes on my card. The real problem came when I realized I needed the actual card to make the call and somehow the card walked out of my wallet between the time I got up this morning and the time I actually got to the store. So at this point, I was so determined to make this damn call that I trudged BACK through the pouring rain to track down this elusive calling card. Of course I found it hiding in my drawer back at my apartment. But before I made this discovery, I emptied out my purse on the kitchen table to dig through all my crap, just to make sure that it did not get caught in one of my MANY maps of Shinjuku. Now this tid-bit of info is crucial because it haunts me later in the day...
So I find the card, throw it in my purse and set out in the typhoon back to Family Mart to make my very important phone call. From Family Mart, I leave to the train station and have no problem getting to Shinjuku where my orientation is. Let me just tell you that the train ride was TORTURE, but that is a whole other story, I'll just say that there was NOTHIN RAPID about the RAPID COMMUTER TRAIN. It was more like driving Miss Daisy on top of being sardined in with a bunch of stinky breathed gunky toothed people.
OK, so I get to Shinjuku and proceed to open my purse to find my directions to headquarters...remember that crucial part I mentioned earlier??? Yes, my directions were sitting on my kitchen table along with my passport and all that other NECESSARY stuff. I figure I've got an hour so how bad can it be...I'll walk up and down a few streets and run into it, after all it's a really big building. Well, after wandering around in the rain for 20 minutes, I decide to go into the post office and ask someone if they know where Nova Headquarters is. Of course the two old Japanese men had no clue but were very helpful with getting a phone number for me. So I called a branch of Nova thinking they could tell me how to get there. Well, apparently 9:00am isn't an operational hour for them so there was no answer. I still have about 40 minutes to find the place, so I continued to wander the streets in the torrential down-pour hoping that any minute I would look up and see his big sign in neon lights saying "Welcome, Rachel!" OK, 25 more minutes pass and I am getting desperate. I finally stop and ask two young guys who are out sweeping water off the sidewalks if they know where Nova Headquarters is. After 5 minutes of trying to communicate, one guy asks for a phone number, I showed him the one the post office man gave me and he pulled out his cell phone and called it. Someone actually answered at the other end THANK GOD!!! So he talks with them for a few minutes and hangs up...WHAT???? I thought he would hand the phone to me and let me get instructions because there is NO WAY I can communicate with him and have HIM give me directions. This SWEET SWEET guy tells me that it is about a 25 minute walk to the other side of Shinjuku and after trying to give me directions, he WALKS ME THERE!!!!! And I don't mean that he dropped me off at the door step, he trudged through the typhoon with me all the way to the building and up to the 23rd floor and to the actual room where they were holding the orientation!!!! Then he turned around and left!!!! I could not stop thanking him, I would have NEVER found that place on my own. I would have had to go all the way back to my apartment, grab the directions, taken the "RAPID" commuter back, then made my way to the place. By then, half the day would have been over. So I just want to say, I LOVE JAPANESE FOLKS!!!! Keep in mind that this boy had to go all the way back to where we came from so for him it was about an hour walk total in this rain storm. Talk about feeling indebted! So I was only about 5 minutes late and they had not even started yet. But of course they ask for my passport and THAT is on the kitchen table, as well. WHO CARES, I MADE IT!!!!!!! I need to go find that guy and pay him or something or get him a gift or SOMETHING!
OK, so that WASN'T the abbreviated version. So I guess I just won't write about the orientation although some funny stuff happened there. But I will tell you that I made a new little friend and she is from Detroit and I am with her now at the Virgin Records Cafe so that is nice. I still don't have a roommate, I think they lied to me. Oh well. MAN people smoke a lot here! They are allowed to smoke almost everywhere. I'm trying to hold my breath as I write this because it is all around me here. OK< I think I am going to make my way home so I can eat and prepare for my first day of training tomorrow. Maybe do a dry run so that today does not happen again!
Thanks for all your e-mails. I was so excited to open my e-mail and see that I had 13 messages waiting for me :) I love you guys!
Hope all is well and write again soon, love me
Hey kids,
Man, I wish I had a dict-a-phone so I could just spew forth all that has happened in the past 2 days but because I can't, you only get the abbreviated version which is not as much fun, but here goes...
Yes, today there was a typhoon and today was ALSO my first day of orientation. Fortunately I was HALF prepared because I purchased an umbrella yesterday (no, I have not thrown away my sunglasses, it actually rained yesterday.) Anyway, I woke up at 5:00 am and could not go back to sleep so I got up and made a REAL breakfast (I found eggs, bread, butter, juice, and honey at 7-Eleven yesterday.) Anyway, so I was feeling like a real American this morning for a brief moment. Then I climbed into the frigid shower and was quickly reminded that I am a foreigner...I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET HOT WATER!!!!! I have been talking cold showers since the day I got here and I don't know what I am doing wrong. So after a Wynns-quickie (wink,wink) I jumped out and got ready and looked at the torrential down-pour outside wondering if I should wait it out or get a head start on my day. I decided to head to Family Mart and purchase minutes on my calling card to make a call to the good old U.S. of A. before heading off to my new job. When I got to the Family Mart, I went through the same rigmarole as I did last time but finally was able to put minutes on my card. The real problem came when I realized I needed the actual card to make the call and somehow the card walked out of my wallet between the time I got up this morning and the time I actually got to the store. So at this point, I was so determined to make this damn call that I trudged BACK through the pouring rain to track down this elusive calling card. Of course I found it hiding in my drawer back at my apartment. But before I made this discovery, I emptied out my purse on the kitchen table to dig through all my crap, just to make sure that it did not get caught in one of my MANY maps of Shinjuku. Now this tid-bit of info is crucial because it haunts me later in the day...
So I find the card, throw it in my purse and set out in the typhoon back to Family Mart to make my very important phone call. From Family Mart, I leave to the train station and have no problem getting to Shinjuku where my orientation is. Let me just tell you that the train ride was TORTURE, but that is a whole other story, I'll just say that there was NOTHIN RAPID about the RAPID COMMUTER TRAIN. It was more like driving Miss Daisy on top of being sardined in with a bunch of stinky breathed gunky toothed people.
OK, so I get to Shinjuku and proceed to open my purse to find my directions to headquarters...remember that crucial part I mentioned earlier??? Yes, my directions were sitting on my kitchen table along with my passport and all that other NECESSARY stuff. I figure I've got an hour so how bad can it be...I'll walk up and down a few streets and run into it, after all it's a really big building. Well, after wandering around in the rain for 20 minutes, I decide to go into the post office and ask someone if they know where Nova Headquarters is. Of course the two old Japanese men had no clue but were very helpful with getting a phone number for me. So I called a branch of Nova thinking they could tell me how to get there. Well, apparently 9:00am isn't an operational hour for them so there was no answer. I still have about 40 minutes to find the place, so I continued to wander the streets in the torrential down-pour hoping that any minute I would look up and see his big sign in neon lights saying "Welcome, Rachel!" OK, 25 more minutes pass and I am getting desperate. I finally stop and ask two young guys who are out sweeping water off the sidewalks if they know where Nova Headquarters is. After 5 minutes of trying to communicate, one guy asks for a phone number, I showed him the one the post office man gave me and he pulled out his cell phone and called it. Someone actually answered at the other end THANK GOD!!! So he talks with them for a few minutes and hangs up...WHAT???? I thought he would hand the phone to me and let me get instructions because there is NO WAY I can communicate with him and have HIM give me directions. This SWEET SWEET guy tells me that it is about a 25 minute walk to the other side of Shinjuku and after trying to give me directions, he WALKS ME THERE!!!!! And I don't mean that he dropped me off at the door step, he trudged through the typhoon with me all the way to the building and up to the 23rd floor and to the actual room where they were holding the orientation!!!! Then he turned around and left!!!! I could not stop thanking him, I would have NEVER found that place on my own. I would have had to go all the way back to my apartment, grab the directions, taken the "RAPID" commuter back, then made my way to the place. By then, half the day would have been over. So I just want to say, I LOVE JAPANESE FOLKS!!!! Keep in mind that this boy had to go all the way back to where we came from so for him it was about an hour walk total in this rain storm. Talk about feeling indebted! So I was only about 5 minutes late and they had not even started yet. But of course they ask for my passport and THAT is on the kitchen table, as well. WHO CARES, I MADE IT!!!!!!! I need to go find that guy and pay him or something or get him a gift or SOMETHING!
OK, so that WASN'T the abbreviated version. So I guess I just won't write about the orientation although some funny stuff happened there. But I will tell you that I made a new little friend and she is from Detroit and I am with her now at the Virgin Records Cafe so that is nice. I still don't have a roommate, I think they lied to me. Oh well. MAN people smoke a lot here! They are allowed to smoke almost everywhere. I'm trying to hold my breath as I write this because it is all around me here. OK< I think I am going to make my way home so I can eat and prepare for my first day of training tomorrow. Maybe do a dry run so that today does not happen again!
Thanks for all your e-mails. I was so excited to open my e-mail and see that I had 13 messages waiting for me :) I love you guys!
Hope all is well and write again soon, love me
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 17, 2002
Hey Kids....I`m BAAAACK!
Bet you thought I died yesterday, at least that`s how I felt. Hey Ellen, ma informed me that that last e-mail you sent me was sent to EVERYONE! Good thing you kept it clean, hey? Just kidding. Anyway, I just want to share with you my frustrations with the train station. Yesterday I wasted a few bucks because I could not figure out how to buy a damn ticket. You walk up to this machine with a million buttons, all with Japanese script and the only thing I know how to do is insert my coins. Once I do that, buttons light up with numbers and I have to press the correct ones. OK, now I have my ticket and I walk into the station but can]t find the train that takes me to my destination. I find a guard dude to tell me what I did wrong, well apparently I just wasted that money because I was on the wrong side of the station and now I have to purchase another ticket at a machine that looks different from the last machine but equally as confusing. Fortunately, a sweet little Japanese girl is picking up on my confused vibes and asks me where I am trying to go to. She tells me she is going to Chofu, too, so she shows me what to do and tells me to follow her. That is how I made it home yesterday (I didn't even TELL you about my confusion of being at the wrong train station altogether before I finally found the JR).
So today, instead of cowering inside all day in my safe little abode, I decide to try this little train trick again. With my tummy full of one hard boiled egg and a snickers I bought the night before, I am off! I manage to purchase the ticket without any hassle from the Tobitakyu station (where I live) and I make it to Shinjuku with only one error (I got on the slow train that stops at every stop instead of the express one which only stops at 2 stops before Shinjuku. (The other one stops 16 times!!!!!) So here I am in Shijuku again and I managed to find this internet cafe accidentally (I had been looking for it for about 20 minutes, then I turn around and look up and see the sign...YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! This place has become my salvation, my one and only contact with the outside world. It is raining today but I still made the trek, even without an umbrella. I have lots more to tell but I have a few people to write individually to and I have to pay by the half hour so this is the end of the road. Ｂｕｔ before I go here are a few more things I have learned about Japan and its people...
It gets so hot and humid here that people walk around with rolled up wash rags to wipe the sweat off their faces. They have their hands full with umbrellas and sweaty rags!
Cleaning ones teeth is not an ordinary practice here. EVERYONE has teeth that are either crooked, brown, and gunky with yellow stuff OR they are just brown with gunky stuff. Even the cute girls have yuck-mouth!
Their books are opposite ours, the binding is on the right side and you open it and turn pages back like you are reading from back to front. Oh and there are 3000 characters in Japanese writing. I don]t think I`ll even TRY to master THAT, the 26 letters in our alphabet stretched my brain enough...I have stretch marks to prove it.
OK, that is all for now. I love and miss you all. Love me
(My daily commute to work)
Bet you thought I died yesterday, at least that`s how I felt. Hey Ellen, ma informed me that that last e-mail you sent me was sent to EVERYONE! Good thing you kept it clean, hey? Just kidding. Anyway, I just want to share with you my frustrations with the train station. Yesterday I wasted a few bucks because I could not figure out how to buy a damn ticket. You walk up to this machine with a million buttons, all with Japanese script and the only thing I know how to do is insert my coins. Once I do that, buttons light up with numbers and I have to press the correct ones. OK, now I have my ticket and I walk into the station but can]t find the train that takes me to my destination. I find a guard dude to tell me what I did wrong, well apparently I just wasted that money because I was on the wrong side of the station and now I have to purchase another ticket at a machine that looks different from the last machine but equally as confusing. Fortunately, a sweet little Japanese girl is picking up on my confused vibes and asks me where I am trying to go to. She tells me she is going to Chofu, too, so she shows me what to do and tells me to follow her. That is how I made it home yesterday (I didn't even TELL you about my confusion of being at the wrong train station altogether before I finally found the JR).
So today, instead of cowering inside all day in my safe little abode, I decide to try this little train trick again. With my tummy full of one hard boiled egg and a snickers I bought the night before, I am off! I manage to purchase the ticket without any hassle from the Tobitakyu station (where I live) and I make it to Shinjuku with only one error (I got on the slow train that stops at every stop instead of the express one which only stops at 2 stops before Shinjuku. (The other one stops 16 times!!!!!) So here I am in Shijuku again and I managed to find this internet cafe accidentally (I had been looking for it for about 20 minutes, then I turn around and look up and see the sign...YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! This place has become my salvation, my one and only contact with the outside world. It is raining today but I still made the trek, even without an umbrella. I have lots more to tell but I have a few people to write individually to and I have to pay by the half hour so this is the end of the road. Ｂｕｔ before I go here are a few more things I have learned about Japan and its people...
It gets so hot and humid here that people walk around with rolled up wash rags to wipe the sweat off their faces. They have their hands full with umbrellas and sweaty rags!
Cleaning ones teeth is not an ordinary practice here. EVERYONE has teeth that are either crooked, brown, and gunky with yellow stuff OR they are just brown with gunky stuff. Even the cute girls have yuck-mouth!
Their books are opposite ours, the binding is on the right side and you open it and turn pages back like you are reading from back to front. Oh and there are 3000 characters in Japanese writing. I don]t think I`ll even TRY to master THAT, the 26 letters in our alphabet stretched my brain enough...I have stretch marks to prove it.
OK, that is all for now. I love and miss you all. Love me
(My daily commute to work)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 16, 2002
Aug 16, 2002
Hey kids!
It`s me again. I have been wandering around Shinjuku for almost 5 hours now looking for an internet cafe. This city is MONSTEROUS! I think it may even dwarf New York City. But it was nice to get out of my apartment. That place is so small, there is only a kitchen and two bedrooms, no family room, no dining room, no NOTHIN! And the bathroom is so small that I head-butt the wall every time I sit down on the toilet. Nice visual, hey? I finally got a decent meal...McDonalds! I have been existing on eggs, coke, Ramen noodles, and Doritos because I can't find a supermarket where I live and I can`t read the menus at restaurants because they are all written in Japanese script. I REALLY am a fish out of water here. My sleazy roommate left and I actually kind of miss her. At least we had interesting conversations, even if I wanted to run out of the room screaming sometimes. She also knew the ropes because she has been here for 4 months. Yesterday was a trip just trying to make a phone call from a pay phone. It took 2 Japanese Family Mart employees and one unwitting customer to finally get me to a phone. All I wanted to do was add minutes to my calling card at Family Mart and make a call. In the end, we were successful but LORD it took forever. I am going to start having everyone call me Tenacious C when I return to the states (there IS a joke there, for those of you who are unfamiliar with "Tenacious D," the goofy singer). Anyway, I have managed to accomplish just about everything that I have set out to do each day, it just takes three times a long to do it. Good thing for me, I have time, time, and more time until Monday.
My new roommate should be here on Sunday which I am very excited about. I NEED HUMAN CONTACT WITH AN ENGLISH SPEAKING CITIZEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you think it would be too much if I jumped up on her the minute she walked in the door and licked her face like a dog? Because THAT is how happy I will be to see her. Anyway, here are the things I learned today about Japan...
1) No one wears sun glasses, instead women carry umbrellas.
2) Everything tastes like Vernors (Coke, Tea, Etc.) I figured they must put ginger in everything.
3) McDonalds doesn`t have french fries, just hash browns (that sucks!)
That`s it for now.
ＬＯＶＥ Me
P.S. Thanks for all your e-mails, that was nice to "come home" to after my grueling 5 hour walk around this God forsaken city! (Here is a picture of my kitchen/dining/living room):
Friday, February 18, 2011
And now, for your listening pleasure...
Seeing as how I work from home, I don't get out much. And since I don't get out much, I don't listen to the radio that often. And since I don't listen to the radio that often, I don't hear much new music, which is really kind of sad since I love all kinds of music. My husband got me turned onto Irish music years ago. There's just something about it that moves me. So I was excited to see these guys on the Grammy's the other night. Although they are not an Irish band and I don't think it's really considered Irish music, it sounds like it to me and it moves me in the same way. I am posting my 2 favorite songs by them. This first one is called "The Cave" and the second one is called "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons. Enjoy!
Letters from Japan : Aug 15, 2002
OK. Call me lazy or self-indulgent (or even a liar since I said I was going to blog only for myself), not sure which it is, but after reading through my old emails from Japan yesterday, I have decided to post them in my blog. I'll start from the beginning and post one a day (we'll pretend like it's Aug.-Nov. 2002 all over again). But first, a little background...
I had lived in Michigan all my life. I taught high school English and Psychology for one year and HATED it. I needed a change...something different (and way less stressful). So that summer, after school was out, I moved with my boyfriend to Nashville. His friend had offered him a job there, and I had a summer of teacher pay still, so I had money and time to look for a job there. I landed a job as a corporate trainer at Sprint only to lose the job a year or so later when they began shipping jobs to India. By then, my boyfriend and I had broken up, I was living on my own, my lease was about to end, and I decided it was the perfect time to do something I had always wanted to do: teach in Japan. And here is where my adventure begins...
Hi ya'll
I finally made it to Japan. The trip was 13 hours by plane and 5 hours from the airport to my new pad (lots of train hopping...reminds me of Chicago but 10 times more confusing.) Never got to sleep on the plane because the Japanese man next to be (the one with the huge booger hanging out of his nose) snored louder than the engines of the plane, plus two screaming babies were on the other side of me so when one wasn't screaming, the other one was. Yes, it was a delightful 13 hours. When I finally arrived at my new place, my soon to be ex-roommate told me how she is picking up extra cash by working as an escort...then proceeded to tell me about her latest 16 hour romp with a Japanese client who paid her $1,000 for her services. She was all excited about that...what do i say...congrats? So now I feel like I am walking around Disease Central because she likes to sit in the chairs naked (like the one that I am currently sitting in to write this e-mail.) I'll have to spray the place once she leaves. My new roommate should be here sometime today. Hopefully, she doesn't have the same aspirations as this other girl. Don't think I can live with that. ANyway, my job starts on Monday so I have a few days to learn my way around this megatropolis. It's a bit overwhelming by yourself but I guess that may build my character...or SOMETHING! I won't have the option to e-mail regularly until I find an internet cafe close to here because this chick is taking her computer when she leaves and I don't want to buy a lap-top and pay for DSL. The object here is to SAVE money. I guess if I can't do that, there is always the escort service...
Write soon, Love Rachel (This is Shinjuku. I took this picture from the building I was working in.)
I had lived in Michigan all my life. I taught high school English and Psychology for one year and HATED it. I needed a change...something different (and way less stressful). So that summer, after school was out, I moved with my boyfriend to Nashville. His friend had offered him a job there, and I had a summer of teacher pay still, so I had money and time to look for a job there. I landed a job as a corporate trainer at Sprint only to lose the job a year or so later when they began shipping jobs to India. By then, my boyfriend and I had broken up, I was living on my own, my lease was about to end, and I decided it was the perfect time to do something I had always wanted to do: teach in Japan. And here is where my adventure begins...
Hi ya'll
I finally made it to Japan. The trip was 13 hours by plane and 5 hours from the airport to my new pad (lots of train hopping...reminds me of Chicago but 10 times more confusing.) Never got to sleep on the plane because the Japanese man next to be (the one with the huge booger hanging out of his nose) snored louder than the engines of the plane, plus two screaming babies were on the other side of me so when one wasn't screaming, the other one was. Yes, it was a delightful 13 hours. When I finally arrived at my new place, my soon to be ex-roommate told me how she is picking up extra cash by working as an escort...then proceeded to tell me about her latest 16 hour romp with a Japanese client who paid her $1,000 for her services. She was all excited about that...what do i say...congrats? So now I feel like I am walking around Disease Central because she likes to sit in the chairs naked (like the one that I am currently sitting in to write this e-mail.) I'll have to spray the place once she leaves. My new roommate should be here sometime today. Hopefully, she doesn't have the same aspirations as this other girl. Don't think I can live with that. ANyway, my job starts on Monday so I have a few days to learn my way around this megatropolis. It's a bit overwhelming by yourself but I guess that may build my character...or SOMETHING! I won't have the option to e-mail regularly until I find an internet cafe close to here because this chick is taking her computer when she leaves and I don't want to buy a lap-top and pay for DSL. The object here is to SAVE money. I guess if I can't do that, there is always the escort service...
Write soon, Love Rachel (This is Shinjuku. I took this picture from the building I was working in.)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Letters from Japan
There was a time...many moons ago...that I lived, for a spell, in another country. I would send emails almost every day to a group of my friends and family about my experiences as a foreigner in Japan. This was 9 years ago. To this day, they still talk about my emails and how I should have published them. I am flattered but not convinced that anyone would buy a book about an American girl's emails from Japan. But I still have them in my Yahoo mailbox and so I thought I would share one I just found. It's kind of like 80's Flashback on the radio, but this is my 2002 Flashback on the blog. This email takes place in Shinjuku, Japan:
I am DISAPPOINTED!!! I come all the way out to the
internet cafe to find only TWO E-MAILS!!! How can I
find inspiration to write when I have NO INCOMING
MAIL!!! And ONE of those e-mails is a PORNOGRAPHIC
PICTURE! (thanks, Josh). Oh well, I am a survivor, so
I will press on, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU!
Where do I begin? How about the train station. This
morning I am standing at the train station in Chofu
waiting to catch the express train to Shinjuku when I
hear, "HELLO!" I turn to see a sharp dressed Japanese
guy in a suit and tie. I've heard about Japanese
people being eager to talk to Americans to practice
their English, but this guy seems very confident in
approaching me (most Japnese people are very shy
around strangers, especially foreigners...also known
as 'gaijen'). I say hello slowly as the thought dawns
on me that he is another Jehovah's Witness... then,
"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!" OK, now I know that he can't be
a JW (I put back my cockroach spray), and I know that
he can't be some dude I met in a drunken stupor at a
bar late one night because I haven't had any late,
drunken, bar nights. I tell him that I don't remember
him but he looks vaguely familiar. "YOU TAUGHT ME
ENGLISH!" THEN it all comes back to me. I have only
taught him once before, about a month ago. He is a
student at NOVA. So then I feel horrible, like
somehow I should have recognized him. I tell him that
he wasn't wearing those glasses when I taught him and
THAT is why I didn't recognize him right away. (He
doesn't know how being in another country has made me
retarded and that I have a special seat on the train
just for me, right next to the pregnant women and
decaying old men). He is on his way to an interview
and my train comes just seconds after he approaches
me, so he tells me to have a nice day and leaves. Why
do I feel bad?
OK, so I get to Shinjuku and come to the third floor
of Virgin Records. There is always competition here
to get an open computer. This place is always packed
and many times I have to wait a while before I can get
on a computer. I ususally sit and drink my iced mocha
at a strategically placed table so that I can get the
eagle eyeview of as many computers as possible. The
moment I see someone stirring from their chair, I
POUNCE! Anyway, there is about a 50 yard distance
from the escalator to the computer area. As I am
walking towards the cash register (you must purchase a
sandwich or beverage in order to use the computers) I
hear quickened footsteps behind me. They are closing
in on me...no, THEY ARE PASSING ME! So I pick up my
pace, this person is NOT going to pass me! I am first
in line!!! But his stubby legs are faster than mine
and he passes me at the last second. Bastard! He
orders his drink and turns to scan the room for an
open computer. The whole time I am swearing at him in
my head. Of course there is ONE open computer and HE
GETS IT! I get my coffee and sit at a table and look
over at the little rat-bastard at MY computer...AND HE
is looking at ME with a SMUG LOOK on his ratty little
face! I can't believe it! Not only has he cut in
front of me and stolen my computer, NOW he is looking
at me and laughing and giving me the "ha-ha" face!!!
I see a woman get up and I race over to where she is
sitting to find that there is no computer at that
spot. Now I have to walk past the ha-ha bastard and
he says something to me. I can't understand him and I
am about to give my usual Japanese phrase "Nihongo ga
wakarimasen" but then it dawns on me that this dude is
not Japanese. "What?" I ask. In a French accent he
repeats, "Where are you from?" This guy steals my
computer and now he is going to hit on me???!!!
"America."
"You have beautiful hair."
"Thanks. You are a short, hairy bastard."
And I walk away. (Ok, so I left out the short, hairy
bastard part, but I DID walk away!) Luckily, a
computer on the other side of the room opened up soon
after my encounter with the short, hairy, ha-ha
bastard so I didn't have to sit at a table and stew.
In other news, I received a notice in my mailbox at
work that I am getting a new roommate THE DAY AFTER
AMBER GETS HERE!!!! I can't believe it! I am going
to have to be creative and figure out a way to
provided bedding for everyone. I ain't sleepin' on no
tiled floor! Michael has been kind enough to offer to
send an inflatable bed but for the price of shipping,
I might as well just buy a futon here. The good news
is that my new roommate is an American so I don't have
to worry about defending the actions of my country for
the last 3 weeks of my stay.
OK, last story from me and I swear I'll be done. On
Wednesdays I work at Nova on the north side of the
train station (Chofu Kita-guchi). The other days of
the week, I work at Chofu Minami-guchi...sorry i just
got distracted. The dude sitting to my immediate
right keeps squeezing a zit on the side of his neck
and now it is bleeding profusely and and he keeps
squeezing and wiping and wiping and sqeezing...and
typing. I'll have to remember not to use that
keyboard next time. Anyway, I have a student named
Masaki whom I adore. He has benn taking English
classes FOREVER and he NEVER seems to progress (kinda
like my ma practicing the same song on the piano every
day for a year and never getting any better...love
you, Ma!). What makes him so cute is that he tries SO
HARD. He studies at home all the time and comes to
class on a regular basis and really puts forth a lot
of effort. Anyway, I really enjoy him and I had him
yesterday when I taught at Chofu Kita-guchi. At the
end of our lesson, I told him that I may not see him
again because I would not be there next week (I am
taking next Wednesday off to pick Amber up) and I
would be leaving for the U.S. soon after. I told him
that if I did not see him again, it was nice meeting
him. Masaki dug deep within himself and pulled out all
the American sayings he could think of from his
limited repertoire..."That's life!...Have a nice
life!...Good luck with new life!" I didn't stop to
explain that "Have a nice life!" is usually followed
by a slamming of the door when one angry lover leaves
the other. I knew what he meant, he was wishing me
well with all the words he knew how. I love Japanese
people. (My favorite pupil, Masaki)
I am DISAPPOINTED!!! I come all the way out to the
internet cafe to find only TWO E-MAILS!!! How can I
find inspiration to write when I have NO INCOMING
MAIL!!! And ONE of those e-mails is a PORNOGRAPHIC
PICTURE! (thanks, Josh). Oh well, I am a survivor, so
I will press on, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU!
Where do I begin? How about the train station. This
morning I am standing at the train station in Chofu
waiting to catch the express train to Shinjuku when I
hear, "HELLO!" I turn to see a sharp dressed Japanese
guy in a suit and tie. I've heard about Japanese
people being eager to talk to Americans to practice
their English, but this guy seems very confident in
approaching me (most Japnese people are very shy
around strangers, especially foreigners...also known
as 'gaijen'). I say hello slowly as the thought dawns
on me that he is another Jehovah's Witness... then,
"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!" OK, now I know that he can't be
a JW (I put back my cockroach spray), and I know that
he can't be some dude I met in a drunken stupor at a
bar late one night because I haven't had any late,
drunken, bar nights. I tell him that I don't remember
him but he looks vaguely familiar. "YOU TAUGHT ME
ENGLISH!" THEN it all comes back to me. I have only
taught him once before, about a month ago. He is a
student at NOVA. So then I feel horrible, like
somehow I should have recognized him. I tell him that
he wasn't wearing those glasses when I taught him and
THAT is why I didn't recognize him right away. (He
doesn't know how being in another country has made me
retarded and that I have a special seat on the train
just for me, right next to the pregnant women and
decaying old men). He is on his way to an interview
and my train comes just seconds after he approaches
me, so he tells me to have a nice day and leaves. Why
do I feel bad?
OK, so I get to Shinjuku and come to the third floor
of Virgin Records. There is always competition here
to get an open computer. This place is always packed
and many times I have to wait a while before I can get
on a computer. I ususally sit and drink my iced mocha
at a strategically placed table so that I can get the
eagle eyeview of as many computers as possible. The
moment I see someone stirring from their chair, I
POUNCE! Anyway, there is about a 50 yard distance
from the escalator to the computer area. As I am
walking towards the cash register (you must purchase a
sandwich or beverage in order to use the computers) I
hear quickened footsteps behind me. They are closing
in on me...no, THEY ARE PASSING ME! So I pick up my
pace, this person is NOT going to pass me! I am first
in line!!! But his stubby legs are faster than mine
and he passes me at the last second. Bastard! He
orders his drink and turns to scan the room for an
open computer. The whole time I am swearing at him in
my head. Of course there is ONE open computer and HE
GETS IT! I get my coffee and sit at a table and look
over at the little rat-bastard at MY computer...AND HE
is looking at ME with a SMUG LOOK on his ratty little
face! I can't believe it! Not only has he cut in
front of me and stolen my computer, NOW he is looking
at me and laughing and giving me the "ha-ha" face!!!
I see a woman get up and I race over to where she is
sitting to find that there is no computer at that
spot. Now I have to walk past the ha-ha bastard and
he says something to me. I can't understand him and I
am about to give my usual Japanese phrase "Nihongo ga
wakarimasen" but then it dawns on me that this dude is
not Japanese. "What?" I ask. In a French accent he
repeats, "Where are you from?" This guy steals my
computer and now he is going to hit on me???!!!
"America."
"You have beautiful hair."
"Thanks. You are a short, hairy bastard."
And I walk away. (Ok, so I left out the short, hairy
bastard part, but I DID walk away!) Luckily, a
computer on the other side of the room opened up soon
after my encounter with the short, hairy, ha-ha
bastard so I didn't have to sit at a table and stew.
In other news, I received a notice in my mailbox at
work that I am getting a new roommate THE DAY AFTER
AMBER GETS HERE!!!! I can't believe it! I am going
to have to be creative and figure out a way to
provided bedding for everyone. I ain't sleepin' on no
tiled floor! Michael has been kind enough to offer to
send an inflatable bed but for the price of shipping,
I might as well just buy a futon here. The good news
is that my new roommate is an American so I don't have
to worry about defending the actions of my country for
the last 3 weeks of my stay.
OK, last story from me and I swear I'll be done. On
Wednesdays I work at Nova on the north side of the
train station (Chofu Kita-guchi). The other days of
the week, I work at Chofu Minami-guchi...sorry i just
got distracted. The dude sitting to my immediate
right keeps squeezing a zit on the side of his neck
and now it is bleeding profusely and and he keeps
squeezing and wiping and wiping and sqeezing...and
typing. I'll have to remember not to use that
keyboard next time. Anyway, I have a student named
Masaki whom I adore. He has benn taking English
classes FOREVER and he NEVER seems to progress (kinda
like my ma practicing the same song on the piano every
day for a year and never getting any better...love
you, Ma!). What makes him so cute is that he tries SO
HARD. He studies at home all the time and comes to
class on a regular basis and really puts forth a lot
of effort. Anyway, I really enjoy him and I had him
yesterday when I taught at Chofu Kita-guchi. At the
end of our lesson, I told him that I may not see him
again because I would not be there next week (I am
taking next Wednesday off to pick Amber up) and I
would be leaving for the U.S. soon after. I told him
that if I did not see him again, it was nice meeting
him. Masaki dug deep within himself and pulled out all
the American sayings he could think of from his
limited repertoire..."That's life!...Have a nice
life!...Good luck with new life!" I didn't stop to
explain that "Have a nice life!" is usually followed
by a slamming of the door when one angry lover leaves
the other. I knew what he meant, he was wishing me
well with all the words he knew how. I love Japanese
people. (My favorite pupil, Masaki)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Getting Started
An old high school friend that I reconnected with at our 20th high school reunion (or was it Facebook) posts her blog on FB all the time. I began reading her blogs and thinking about the old days when I was young and loved to write for hours on end, trying to capture every moment of the day in my diary. I couldn't just write about the "gist" of things, I had to write about every little detail. How else could I "relive the moment" years from now without all the details in place? Details about each new crush and the excitement of the first time a love interest showed an inkling of interest in me? Details about the pain of parents' divorcing (though the details were not for the sake of reliving the moment years later, but rather self-therapy for a traumatized little girl.) The problem is, writing all the details (instead of the gist) takes time.
As I got older, I got "busier"...no time for details. At first I think I got "too busy to write" because I had an insanely jealous boyfriend who would read my diary, and I stopped writing "honestly" for fear of probing eyes. If I didn't have the freedom to write my true feelings, what was the point? So I stopped writing.
Fast-forward 10 years, and I am ready to start writing again. Although blogging is definitely a different writing arena, I'm going to take a stab at it. I have done so many cool things in my life that I wished I would have journaled about (traveling to France, England, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Monaco, packing up and moving to Nashville, packing up and moving to Japan, packing up and moving back to Michigan, buying my first home...all my big life adventures as a single young lady.) All the details of my past lives, floating out there somewhere in space, never to be recaptured or fully appreciated. Sad. So I'm going to try this little blogging gig, and see if we can get the old ball (point-pen) rollin' again :) I shall blog for an audience of one, and enjoy every second of it!
As I got older, I got "busier"...no time for details. At first I think I got "too busy to write" because I had an insanely jealous boyfriend who would read my diary, and I stopped writing "honestly" for fear of probing eyes. If I didn't have the freedom to write my true feelings, what was the point? So I stopped writing.
Fast-forward 10 years, and I am ready to start writing again. Although blogging is definitely a different writing arena, I'm going to take a stab at it. I have done so many cool things in my life that I wished I would have journaled about (traveling to France, England, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Monaco, packing up and moving to Nashville, packing up and moving to Japan, packing up and moving back to Michigan, buying my first home...all my big life adventures as a single young lady.) All the details of my past lives, floating out there somewhere in space, never to be recaptured or fully appreciated. Sad. So I'm going to try this little blogging gig, and see if we can get the old ball (point-pen) rollin' again :) I shall blog for an audience of one, and enjoy every second of it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)