HI All,
Thanks for all your words of wisdom regarding Charlotte. Larry suggested that I should have used the Polaroid to take a picture of my rear end with the words GO U.S.A. on it and left that picture for her along with her camera. Now although I have lost a few pounds during my brief stay, I will never feel comfortable flashing my fanny (as funny as that would have been). Feel free to send your own fanny pictures as I am sure I will have other opportunities to leave her little gifts.
On to other things...yesterday I went shopping at two department stores in Chofu. These stores are 9 stories high. I decided to splurge on myself since I got my first paycheck (which was a pretty hefty check for only 8 days of work). I went into a cute clothing store and found few few cute blouses. I communicated with the store lady in my usual gorilla-grunting Tarzan fashion and she led me to a dressing room. I stepped into the room and she said something and pointed to my feet...OOPS! I am supposed to take my shoes off before entering the dressing room. Faux pas NUMBER 1. Then she handed me something kind of silky, papery. I tossed it on the floor and stood on it as I tried on the 3 blouses. I thought "Man, this thing is slippery. People could really hurt themselves on this." After trying on the blouses, I emerged from the dressing room and saw a sign next to the dressing room for people who did not purchase the book "Idiot's Guide to Japan." It tells you to remove your shoes before entering the dressing room and use the "scarf wrap" to protect the clothing from getting your make-up smeared all over it. OOPS! I was hoping that I did not toss the silky scarf on the ground until AFTER the woman had closed the curtains! I hope they don't reuse those things...someone will be pleasantly suprised with the delightful smell of my feet...But I got a nice blouse out of it so that is all that matters, right? RIGHT? I am getting used to making a fool out of myself, we'll chalk it off to "character-building."
OK, I have a few more minutes to blow here at the internet cafe so I will just share with you whatever pops into my head...(this should be interesting...) I had one student a few days ago that is a police officer. I asked him if they have a lot of problems with Americans as far as being hooligans or criminals. He said that actually most of their criminals are Chinese folks. They have almost 300 police officers learning Chinese so that they can communicate with all of the Chinese hooligans whereas they only have 75 officers learning English. I thought that was interesting. Those damn Chinese...such trouble-makers. I always had them pegged as bad seeds...(joking...just in case any of you are Chinese).
Speaking of Chinese, my roommate (who is a Chinese Canadian) and I talk soemtimes when she is around (her boyfriend "Squirrel Boy" has not spent the night since his last cold shower...). She stays over at his place now. Anyway, her name is Helen and she has 8 brothers and sisters. All her sisters were born in Vietnam and she was born in Canada so her mom named all the older siblings Chinese names and named her a Canadian name. Anyway, she was telling me that she wished that she had a Chinese name like her sisters. One of her sister's names is Tuong Fung Wong (read as Tongue Fung Wung). I'm thinking to myself, "Why would you want to be named Tongue?" Actually, you say the last name first so it is Wong Fung Tongue, which, when said fast, sounds like "One fun tongue." Now I don't know about you, but if I had a name like One Fun Tongue, the pressure to live up to my name would be too overwhelming. Of course, I did not say any of this, I merely listened with interest hoping that the expression on my face did not give me away.
OOPS! Look at the time! Gotta run and catch the bucking bronco to Tobitakyu!
Love Rachel
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Letters From Japan Sept 13, 2002 "Charlotte's Wicked Web"
Hi all,
Yes, can you believe...2 E-MAILS IN A ROW!!!! I was about to give up on this place because the air wasn't on but then something kicked in and air was a-plenty! I left you hangin' with that Evil English chick story so I figured I would finish that story up with you right now...
Ok, so I start my job as the new chick and try to be friendly to everyone (which isn't hard at first because everyone is really cool). Well, apparently I hadn't met this one chick because she was on vacation. Now James gave me a bit of a heads-up by telling me that Charlotte is Charlotte and there is no other way to explain her. I would just have to wait and meet her for myself.
Well, that day finally comes after I had been working for about a week. I introduced myself and she seemed all right. But that was just the first few seconds of meeting her. Each day after that, whenever I would say hi and try to talk to her, I was getting a bad vibe. If she was reading the newspaper, I figured, Oh, she's just really into what she is reading, don't take it personally. But as soon as the guys would come into the room, she would come to life with all sorts of teasing and joking (although it was never light-hearted, she tries to sound clever and sarcastic). So at this point, I think, OK she just craves male attention (the psychologist in me is always analyzing people) and she may feel threatened by me because I am female and may take away from her all the attention she is used to getting (there are only a couple girls at my school and about 15 guys). So I figure she just is not interested in being friends with me. That is fine, I am a bit hurt, but that is ok. Well, a few of the guys announce that the following Sunday, we are all going to go out to welcome the new people (me and Paul).
We all have to work Sunday but I have to work at a different school that day on the other side of the railroad tracks. So after I am done with work, I go over to my usual school and wait for Dave to finish teaching so I can go with him to this Family restaurant because I have no clue how to get there. Dave is this crazy red-head from Canada. He is really cool. SO I sit and listen to him finish up his lesson in the other room which sounds like this...
"Ok, so for next time, if you get a chance to go cow-tipping, bring in a picture and I will give you 50 points. And remember what I taught you about transvestites."
So Dave comes into the teachers' room and I ask him about this point system he has made up. He tells his students that they can get a free tee-shirt if they get 1000 points (mind you, there are no tee-shirts). But Dave is a nut so he amuses himself (as well as others) with his crazy antics. You never know when to laugh at him and when to take him seriously (and just think about his poor students...). I guess after you have been here for a while, you kinda make up your own rules.
OK, that was a tangent, but it made me laugh so I had to share it with you. So we meet some people out by the fountain in Chofu park and catch the train to this city with the family restaurant. Charlotte is already there with James and they have had a few drinks. Charlotte keeps bitching that she can't catch a buzz. Somehow I get stuck sitting next to her and it ain't long before she is trying to make me feel stupid. She would put in a few nasty jabs here and there and I would try to laugh it off like she didn't bother me. Then somehow we get on the topic of accents and I said that I can't differentiate between Australian and English accents and Charlotte took that and ran..."YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN ACCENTS?! THAT'S WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU AMERICANS, YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYONE BUT YOURSELVES!!!!" I looked across the table at Dave and said, "Oh great, am I gonna have to sit next to her and listen to this shit all night about Americans?" The guys were like, "WOOOH, we are staying out of this!" Charlotte shut up after I said that because what I have discovered is that she is a bully and just like any bully, she will bully you as long as she thinks you are scared. Since i had SEEMED so meek and mild mannered at work, I think she thought she was going to be a bitch to me and get away with it. She is this rat-faced red-head with goloptic freckles and she dresses like a 13 year old prostitute in black mini-skirts and pink PowerPuff Girl tee-shirts...SHE WEARS THIS SHIT TO WORK! All the guys come in to work with suits and ties and she dresses like THAT!
So anyway, then instead of continuing on her AMERICANS SUCK rampage, she tries to drag the guys in by saying that they hate Americans, too. That is when they said they were not getting into it and they never said anything like that. Paul came and sat on the other side of me a little later (he missed the whole Americans suck thing) and of course, I can't let it go because I am pissed so when he asked me something, I said, "What do we know. We are just two stupid self-centered Americans." You know me, I had to say that a couple times throughout the night just to let her know that I was pissed and not going to be bullied. She never said another word to me.
So my boss gets there later and I let him know that there is some friction there. Apparently he doesn't care for Charlotte either but I figured this out later when we were leaving. It was me, my boss, and his friend and as we were getting up to go, his friend picks up a Polaroid camera and says someone has forgotten their camera. He hands it to my boss (John, he's English like Charlotte) and I tell them that its Charlotte's camera. So John puts it back on the table and says that Charlotte can come back for it another day. And we leave. HA!
So that is my story and I know I sound evil in it, too, but I was so caught off guard by her meanness that once I got my bearings, the gloves were off! Fortunately, she has not been teaching at my school for this past week so I have not had to control myself around her. I'm sure that that saga will continue, though, and you will hear my rantings about it. I get myself so fired up!
OK, I was going to tell you some other stuff but I think I have prattled on for too long so I will save it for another day. Feel free to e-mail me EVERY DAY!
Rachel
Me and the lovely Miss Charlotte (you can tell by the expression on my face that she has already gone off about Americans)
Yes, can you believe...2 E-MAILS IN A ROW!!!! I was about to give up on this place because the air wasn't on but then something kicked in and air was a-plenty! I left you hangin' with that Evil English chick story so I figured I would finish that story up with you right now...
Ok, so I start my job as the new chick and try to be friendly to everyone (which isn't hard at first because everyone is really cool). Well, apparently I hadn't met this one chick because she was on vacation. Now James gave me a bit of a heads-up by telling me that Charlotte is Charlotte and there is no other way to explain her. I would just have to wait and meet her for myself.
Well, that day finally comes after I had been working for about a week. I introduced myself and she seemed all right. But that was just the first few seconds of meeting her. Each day after that, whenever I would say hi and try to talk to her, I was getting a bad vibe. If she was reading the newspaper, I figured, Oh, she's just really into what she is reading, don't take it personally. But as soon as the guys would come into the room, she would come to life with all sorts of teasing and joking (although it was never light-hearted, she tries to sound clever and sarcastic). So at this point, I think, OK she just craves male attention (the psychologist in me is always analyzing people) and she may feel threatened by me because I am female and may take away from her all the attention she is used to getting (there are only a couple girls at my school and about 15 guys). So I figure she just is not interested in being friends with me. That is fine, I am a bit hurt, but that is ok. Well, a few of the guys announce that the following Sunday, we are all going to go out to welcome the new people (me and Paul).
We all have to work Sunday but I have to work at a different school that day on the other side of the railroad tracks. So after I am done with work, I go over to my usual school and wait for Dave to finish teaching so I can go with him to this Family restaurant because I have no clue how to get there. Dave is this crazy red-head from Canada. He is really cool. SO I sit and listen to him finish up his lesson in the other room which sounds like this...
"Ok, so for next time, if you get a chance to go cow-tipping, bring in a picture and I will give you 50 points. And remember what I taught you about transvestites."
So Dave comes into the teachers' room and I ask him about this point system he has made up. He tells his students that they can get a free tee-shirt if they get 1000 points (mind you, there are no tee-shirts). But Dave is a nut so he amuses himself (as well as others) with his crazy antics. You never know when to laugh at him and when to take him seriously (and just think about his poor students...). I guess after you have been here for a while, you kinda make up your own rules.
OK, that was a tangent, but it made me laugh so I had to share it with you. So we meet some people out by the fountain in Chofu park and catch the train to this city with the family restaurant. Charlotte is already there with James and they have had a few drinks. Charlotte keeps bitching that she can't catch a buzz. Somehow I get stuck sitting next to her and it ain't long before she is trying to make me feel stupid. She would put in a few nasty jabs here and there and I would try to laugh it off like she didn't bother me. Then somehow we get on the topic of accents and I said that I can't differentiate between Australian and English accents and Charlotte took that and ran..."YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN ACCENTS?! THAT'S WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU AMERICANS, YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYONE BUT YOURSELVES!!!!" I looked across the table at Dave and said, "Oh great, am I gonna have to sit next to her and listen to this shit all night about Americans?" The guys were like, "WOOOH, we are staying out of this!" Charlotte shut up after I said that because what I have discovered is that she is a bully and just like any bully, she will bully you as long as she thinks you are scared. Since i had SEEMED so meek and mild mannered at work, I think she thought she was going to be a bitch to me and get away with it. She is this rat-faced red-head with goloptic freckles and she dresses like a 13 year old prostitute in black mini-skirts and pink PowerPuff Girl tee-shirts...SHE WEARS THIS SHIT TO WORK! All the guys come in to work with suits and ties and she dresses like THAT!
So anyway, then instead of continuing on her AMERICANS SUCK rampage, she tries to drag the guys in by saying that they hate Americans, too. That is when they said they were not getting into it and they never said anything like that. Paul came and sat on the other side of me a little later (he missed the whole Americans suck thing) and of course, I can't let it go because I am pissed so when he asked me something, I said, "What do we know. We are just two stupid self-centered Americans." You know me, I had to say that a couple times throughout the night just to let her know that I was pissed and not going to be bullied. She never said another word to me.
So my boss gets there later and I let him know that there is some friction there. Apparently he doesn't care for Charlotte either but I figured this out later when we were leaving. It was me, my boss, and his friend and as we were getting up to go, his friend picks up a Polaroid camera and says someone has forgotten their camera. He hands it to my boss (John, he's English like Charlotte) and I tell them that its Charlotte's camera. So John puts it back on the table and says that Charlotte can come back for it another day. And we leave. HA!
So that is my story and I know I sound evil in it, too, but I was so caught off guard by her meanness that once I got my bearings, the gloves were off! Fortunately, she has not been teaching at my school for this past week so I have not had to control myself around her. I'm sure that that saga will continue, though, and you will hear my rantings about it. I get myself so fired up!
OK, I was going to tell you some other stuff but I think I have prattled on for too long so I will save it for another day. Feel free to e-mail me EVERY DAY!
Rachel
Me and the lovely Miss Charlotte (you can tell by the expression on my face that she has already gone off about Americans)
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Letters from Japan Sept 12, 2002 "The Crazy Gaijen is Back..."
"The crazy gaijen is back and she is on the loose with more crazy tales from the far side!"
Hi Strange Americans!
Have you been craving more stories about insanely drunk Japanese men, wild train rides, and garbled Japanese-English? Then you have opened the right e-mail...read on to satisfy the hunger!
We'll start with a funny little garbled English story because whenever I reflect back on this story, I still laugh. A few days ago, I had a lesson with a Japanese
man that looked like he was about 45 or 50. I could tell right away that he was going to be funny. Usually, when I play "True or False" as a warm-up, students make statements like "I have one sister" or "I have been to America" or "I like soccer" and other students have to guess if it is true or false. The statements are usually pretty bland. Every so often I will get a man who says "I am a woman, true or false" and then laughs hysterically at his own silliness. Well, this latest student (Shigeki)threw me a curve ball when he said, "I love my girlfriend and my wife." Then he burst out laughing so I went along with him and said "false, you only love your girlfriend" and he said "NO, my wife!" and started laughing again. I
STILL am not sure if he was joking about the whole girlfriend thing. I think he was. Anyway, sometimes students just want to talk and not do a lesson which I
like the most because that is when I learn the most about Japan and Japanese people. So we got to talking and he mentioned something about it almost being
September 11th and he said how horrible that was and pretty soon we were both all choked up and had to stop talking because we both got teary-eyed. So we switched topics and started talking about food. They have this stuff called nato here that people either LOVE or HATE. It is made of beans that stink really bad. Then he told me about another Japanese food that was a popular Japanese dessert. He described it to me and i asked him what it was made out of and he said
"beans." Then he told me about another dessert that you can eat separately or combine it with the other dessert he told me about. He described it as having
jelly in the middle. i asked him what it was made of and he said "beans"! I said "BEANS!!!! Bean Jelly??? Beans are not a dessert! What is up with BEANS! I said "No wonder Shinjuku stinks!" I asked if he had ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he said, "penis-butter?" That was it, my head almost hit the table with laughter. I told him that he just said something funny but I was not going to tell him what he said (i didn't want to have to explain what a penis was). After i was done laughing, I said "peanut" really slow so he could say it right. Students always repeat what you say if they have never heard of a word you have used so apparently he has never heard of a PB&J. So next time he comes, he is going to bring me that strange bean dessert and I am going to make him a sandwich...anyone know where I can score some penis-butter?
Another student couldn't remember a word when I asked him a question. He sat there and thought for a minute, then he tapped his head with his finger and said, " I am butt-head." I said, "WHAT? Where did you learn that word? that is not a nice word to call yourself." After I went on for a few minutes, we discovered that his pronunciation and poor grammar really translated into " I have bad head." What he was trying to say was that he has a bad memory.
Yesterday, I had a sweet little nun say she was stupid. I said "NO! Stupid is not a nice word! Don't call yourself stupid." She threw out a couple more words and we figured that she was trying to say that she was simple, lived a simple life, not complex. She was such a cutie pie. Halfway through the lesson, she
pulled out a present for me. I thought she just wanted to show me what her "sister" nun (who is 80 years old) made but she wanted me to have it. i can't describe what it is but it is very cool and really sweet. I guess some of the nuns have a business, they make stuff and sell it, and this was one of the things one of the nuns makes and sells. So I was touched.
Then I had another old woman. James was supposed to have her but he doesn't like teaching her because she is old and blind. I told him that I'd teach her because old ladies dig me. So we ended up hitting it off and she wants me to come over for dinner with Michael when he comes to town. She asked if she can have me as her teacher every time she comes for class. She was so cute. I LOVE JAPANESE PEOPLE. They are just so nice.
Many of my students have a great interest in September 11th. They all want to ask me questions about it and where I was and what I thought about it and share
their feelings about it. Especially the older people. It is sweet because they really seem to care. I wonder how many Americans would care about a year-old
Japanese tragedy. We probably wouldn't even know that it was the anniversary of a tragedy in Japan. It's interesting...They have been televising all sorts of TV shows about it for the past week. It's on as much as the report of Tamachan (remember the seal???)
OK, onto drunk Japanese men stories...I was at the train station a few nights ago talking to Michael on my cell phone when I glanced down to see a man squatting in a weird way on the ground next to me. I took a few steps too my left to distance myself from him because it seemed odd. i continued yapping on the phone, then as I hung up and turned to walk back, I saw the same man with his upper body moving forward while the his feet remained planted on the ground. He fell right over like a cardboard figure blown over in the wind and BAM! smashed his face into the toll
booth. I turned my head away right before impact. His arms did not even come up to break his fall. He was THAT PLOWED! The train police rushed over so i walked away and when I looked back, the dude was getting on the train and squatting down again. It is NUTS how much men drink here! Last night I saw another old man in Chofu park who was down on his hands and knees trying to stand up by grabbing the light pole.
Sometimes he would just be able to lift his head enough to have another swig of his beer while he was on the ground. Poor guy...damn those missing enzymes!
(Please see previous e-mail for that joke.)
A little interesting thing...there are vending machines here that sell girls' panties. I haven't seen these machines but my friend Paul told me about them so i told him that I wanted to find one of the machines and take a picture of him making a purchase. Paul is this kinda frumpy guy from America who sometimes seems to lack a personality, then he will suddenly shock you by doing something totally unexpected and wild or goofy. He's an interesting specimen.
OK, train story. A week ago, I caught what I THOUGHT was the last train of the night from Shinjuku to Tobitakyu. I figured that that was why everyone was cramming onto this train (it was getting late and the train doesn't run all night but i don't know when exactly he stops). So I get onto the train and remembered my brilliant idea of going to the end of a train car and standing against the wall. well, this
time it was so packed that my master plan was null and void. My boobs were SMASHED against this guys back and if i puckered my lips, i would have been kissing the back of his neck! So when we came to the first stop and a few people got off, I turned so that my boobs were smashed against the window and i could look into the next car and see all the other smashed boobs.
Then more people piled in and off we went. i can see how people get crushed in a crowd. Every time the train slowed down quickly, everyone in the train would
lean in the same direction which was MY direction and I would have the air squished out of me because I was already pressed up against the wall. So ANYWAY, by the time i got to the Chofu station, i had to get off the train to catch the local train to Tobitakyu. Now I have ALWAYS caught the train on rail 2. And usually I only have to wait about 5 minutes for it to come. So I waited as I watched one train, then another train, then another train come and go. They were ALL express trains which did not stop at my stop. Then i started freaking out thinking i missed the last rain
of the night (or maybe it was bad Karma for whipping out my camera 10 minutes earlier and taking a picture of all the smashed people on the epress train). So
just as I was about to freak out, my friend Mo came along and told me that the train on rail 3 was going to Tobitakyu. Here I had been sitting and watching all the trains stop and go on that rail and NEVER figured that that was MY train! At first I thought he was pulling my leg and trying to get me to take the wrong train (Mo is a jokester) but I had no choice at that point but to trust him, so I got on it and
lo-and-behold, I got home. See, the last time i took that train, it took me to Hashimoto which is NOT where I live so I just never got on that train again. But
this time it said takafudu. Well, I didn't know that Takafudu was part of the Keio-line because usually trains going to my place say Keio-Hachioji. But Mo
said that sometimes they change rails so if the train says Takafudu, then it goes in the direction of Keio-Hachioji which stops at my train stop in Tobitakyu. Just when you think you have the trains all figured out, you learn something new. It is a complicated beast...but I SHALL PREVAIL!
OK, I think i have yapped on for longer than you care to read so I will withhold my other stories til next time...oh! Just one quick thing, i will write about it in detail next time but last Sunday everyone from work went out to welcome the new people (me and Paul) and we went to a FAMILY restaurant that served ALL YOU CAN DRINK LIQUOR...YES LIQUOR, for less than $5. You heard me right, you pay $5 and drink all night...gin, whiskey, wine, etc. It was a self-serve thing so you just go fill your glass each time after you empty it. Remind me to tell you about the English-rat-faced-bit** who I work with who hates Americans. She made me feel REAL welcome. Anyway, that's for next time.
Saiyunara! rachel
Hi Strange Americans!
Have you been craving more stories about insanely drunk Japanese men, wild train rides, and garbled Japanese-English? Then you have opened the right e-mail...read on to satisfy the hunger!
We'll start with a funny little garbled English story because whenever I reflect back on this story, I still laugh. A few days ago, I had a lesson with a Japanese
man that looked like he was about 45 or 50. I could tell right away that he was going to be funny. Usually, when I play "True or False" as a warm-up, students make statements like "I have one sister" or "I have been to America" or "I like soccer" and other students have to guess if it is true or false. The statements are usually pretty bland. Every so often I will get a man who says "I am a woman, true or false" and then laughs hysterically at his own silliness. Well, this latest student (Shigeki)threw me a curve ball when he said, "I love my girlfriend and my wife." Then he burst out laughing so I went along with him and said "false, you only love your girlfriend" and he said "NO, my wife!" and started laughing again. I
STILL am not sure if he was joking about the whole girlfriend thing. I think he was. Anyway, sometimes students just want to talk and not do a lesson which I
like the most because that is when I learn the most about Japan and Japanese people. So we got to talking and he mentioned something about it almost being
September 11th and he said how horrible that was and pretty soon we were both all choked up and had to stop talking because we both got teary-eyed. So we switched topics and started talking about food. They have this stuff called nato here that people either LOVE or HATE. It is made of beans that stink really bad. Then he told me about another Japanese food that was a popular Japanese dessert. He described it to me and i asked him what it was made out of and he said
"beans." Then he told me about another dessert that you can eat separately or combine it with the other dessert he told me about. He described it as having
jelly in the middle. i asked him what it was made of and he said "beans"! I said "BEANS!!!! Bean Jelly??? Beans are not a dessert! What is up with BEANS! I said "No wonder Shinjuku stinks!" I asked if he had ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he said, "penis-butter?" That was it, my head almost hit the table with laughter. I told him that he just said something funny but I was not going to tell him what he said (i didn't want to have to explain what a penis was). After i was done laughing, I said "peanut" really slow so he could say it right. Students always repeat what you say if they have never heard of a word you have used so apparently he has never heard of a PB&J. So next time he comes, he is going to bring me that strange bean dessert and I am going to make him a sandwich...anyone know where I can score some penis-butter?
Another student couldn't remember a word when I asked him a question. He sat there and thought for a minute, then he tapped his head with his finger and said, " I am butt-head." I said, "WHAT? Where did you learn that word? that is not a nice word to call yourself." After I went on for a few minutes, we discovered that his pronunciation and poor grammar really translated into " I have bad head." What he was trying to say was that he has a bad memory.
Yesterday, I had a sweet little nun say she was stupid. I said "NO! Stupid is not a nice word! Don't call yourself stupid." She threw out a couple more words and we figured that she was trying to say that she was simple, lived a simple life, not complex. She was such a cutie pie. Halfway through the lesson, she
pulled out a present for me. I thought she just wanted to show me what her "sister" nun (who is 80 years old) made but she wanted me to have it. i can't describe what it is but it is very cool and really sweet. I guess some of the nuns have a business, they make stuff and sell it, and this was one of the things one of the nuns makes and sells. So I was touched.
Then I had another old woman. James was supposed to have her but he doesn't like teaching her because she is old and blind. I told him that I'd teach her because old ladies dig me. So we ended up hitting it off and she wants me to come over for dinner with Michael when he comes to town. She asked if she can have me as her teacher every time she comes for class. She was so cute. I LOVE JAPANESE PEOPLE. They are just so nice.
Many of my students have a great interest in September 11th. They all want to ask me questions about it and where I was and what I thought about it and share
their feelings about it. Especially the older people. It is sweet because they really seem to care. I wonder how many Americans would care about a year-old
Japanese tragedy. We probably wouldn't even know that it was the anniversary of a tragedy in Japan. It's interesting...They have been televising all sorts of TV shows about it for the past week. It's on as much as the report of Tamachan (remember the seal???)
OK, onto drunk Japanese men stories...I was at the train station a few nights ago talking to Michael on my cell phone when I glanced down to see a man squatting in a weird way on the ground next to me. I took a few steps too my left to distance myself from him because it seemed odd. i continued yapping on the phone, then as I hung up and turned to walk back, I saw the same man with his upper body moving forward while the his feet remained planted on the ground. He fell right over like a cardboard figure blown over in the wind and BAM! smashed his face into the toll
booth. I turned my head away right before impact. His arms did not even come up to break his fall. He was THAT PLOWED! The train police rushed over so i walked away and when I looked back, the dude was getting on the train and squatting down again. It is NUTS how much men drink here! Last night I saw another old man in Chofu park who was down on his hands and knees trying to stand up by grabbing the light pole.
Sometimes he would just be able to lift his head enough to have another swig of his beer while he was on the ground. Poor guy...damn those missing enzymes!
(Please see previous e-mail for that joke.)
A little interesting thing...there are vending machines here that sell girls' panties. I haven't seen these machines but my friend Paul told me about them so i told him that I wanted to find one of the machines and take a picture of him making a purchase. Paul is this kinda frumpy guy from America who sometimes seems to lack a personality, then he will suddenly shock you by doing something totally unexpected and wild or goofy. He's an interesting specimen.
OK, train story. A week ago, I caught what I THOUGHT was the last train of the night from Shinjuku to Tobitakyu. I figured that that was why everyone was cramming onto this train (it was getting late and the train doesn't run all night but i don't know when exactly he stops). So I get onto the train and remembered my brilliant idea of going to the end of a train car and standing against the wall. well, this
time it was so packed that my master plan was null and void. My boobs were SMASHED against this guys back and if i puckered my lips, i would have been kissing the back of his neck! So when we came to the first stop and a few people got off, I turned so that my boobs were smashed against the window and i could look into the next car and see all the other smashed boobs.
Then more people piled in and off we went. i can see how people get crushed in a crowd. Every time the train slowed down quickly, everyone in the train would
lean in the same direction which was MY direction and I would have the air squished out of me because I was already pressed up against the wall. So ANYWAY, by the time i got to the Chofu station, i had to get off the train to catch the local train to Tobitakyu. Now I have ALWAYS caught the train on rail 2. And usually I only have to wait about 5 minutes for it to come. So I waited as I watched one train, then another train, then another train come and go. They were ALL express trains which did not stop at my stop. Then i started freaking out thinking i missed the last rain
of the night (or maybe it was bad Karma for whipping out my camera 10 minutes earlier and taking a picture of all the smashed people on the epress train). So
just as I was about to freak out, my friend Mo came along and told me that the train on rail 3 was going to Tobitakyu. Here I had been sitting and watching all the trains stop and go on that rail and NEVER figured that that was MY train! At first I thought he was pulling my leg and trying to get me to take the wrong train (Mo is a jokester) but I had no choice at that point but to trust him, so I got on it and
lo-and-behold, I got home. See, the last time i took that train, it took me to Hashimoto which is NOT where I live so I just never got on that train again. But
this time it said takafudu. Well, I didn't know that Takafudu was part of the Keio-line because usually trains going to my place say Keio-Hachioji. But Mo
said that sometimes they change rails so if the train says Takafudu, then it goes in the direction of Keio-Hachioji which stops at my train stop in Tobitakyu. Just when you think you have the trains all figured out, you learn something new. It is a complicated beast...but I SHALL PREVAIL!
OK, I think i have yapped on for longer than you care to read so I will withhold my other stories til next time...oh! Just one quick thing, i will write about it in detail next time but last Sunday everyone from work went out to welcome the new people (me and Paul) and we went to a FAMILY restaurant that served ALL YOU CAN DRINK LIQUOR...YES LIQUOR, for less than $5. You heard me right, you pay $5 and drink all night...gin, whiskey, wine, etc. It was a self-serve thing so you just go fill your glass each time after you empty it. Remind me to tell you about the English-rat-faced-bit** who I work with who hates Americans. She made me feel REAL welcome. Anyway, that's for next time.
Saiyunara! rachel
Friday, March 4, 2011
Letters from Japan Sept 2, 2002 "A Quickie"
As you know, I passed on writing yesterday because it would have been more of my day-to-day drivel so I spared you all. And this one will be a quickie because I still have nothing of interest to share with you. The one BIG thing is that I gave you the wrong number to call. Actually, just leave the 0 off the number. Everything else is correct. I guess you just use that first 0 when you are calling someone in Japan. I also heard from a few folks that those calling cards at Sam's can let you yap for .14 cents a minutes. That's a hell of a lot better than $5 bucks a minute that Michael was paying! Just thought I'd pass that very important tidbit of info your way so I can speak to some natives.
Here's another interesting fact...Japanese grocery stores are underground. They can usually be found in the basement of department stores. Can you imagine going to Sommerset Collections to grab some Oscar Meyer wieners? I guess it is their version of Meijers or Super K-Mart...one-stop-shopping. But the good news is I FINALLY found a damn grocery store. For a while, I didn't think they existed. The bad news is that all the kuso is foreign (please see previous emails for translation...). So I can't read any of the labels. And I really don't think they put much money into advertising because even if they have pictures on the labels, I STILL don't know what the hell it is. So here I finally find the grocery store and what do I buy? DORITOS, BREAD, AND KIT-KATS!!! Yes, all the same kuso I buy at good old 7-Eleven! Also, I had not eaten ANY fruits or vegetables since I have been here (which may be the cause of my other problem) and I thought now that I found the grocery store, I could buy some broccoli and spinach and salad stuff as well as some apples and other fruits. well, they didn't have any broccoli. In face, they didn't have ANY vegetables that looked like anything I had ever SEEN before! And the fruit that I COULD recognize was mega-bucks (cantaloupe was something like 3 bucks a pop) so I said FORGET IT! IT"S CHIPS AND CHOCOLATE ALL THE WAY! I won't even begin to tell you how confusing the store was. I'll just say that there are some things that you can purchase as the checkout line and there are some things that you purchase at the counter and other things that you purchase at other checkout lines and it only gets crazier. People that work there stand around chanting stuff in a monotone voice (much like they do at the department stores...like carnies at a carnival who stand around harassing people to come to their booth and shoot ducks or somethin'.) So it is an experience to say the least. I think I'll stick to 7-Eleven...
Here's another interesting fact...Japanese grocery stores are underground. They can usually be found in the basement of department stores. Can you imagine going to Sommerset Collections to grab some Oscar Meyer wieners? I guess it is their version of Meijers or Super K-Mart...one-stop-shopping. But the good news is I FINALLY found a damn grocery store. For a while, I didn't think they existed. The bad news is that all the kuso is foreign (please see previous emails for translation...). So I can't read any of the labels. And I really don't think they put much money into advertising because even if they have pictures on the labels, I STILL don't know what the hell it is. So here I finally find the grocery store and what do I buy? DORITOS, BREAD, AND KIT-KATS!!! Yes, all the same kuso I buy at good old 7-Eleven! Also, I had not eaten ANY fruits or vegetables since I have been here (which may be the cause of my other problem) and I thought now that I found the grocery store, I could buy some broccoli and spinach and salad stuff as well as some apples and other fruits. well, they didn't have any broccoli. In face, they didn't have ANY vegetables that looked like anything I had ever SEEN before! And the fruit that I COULD recognize was mega-bucks (cantaloupe was something like 3 bucks a pop) so I said FORGET IT! IT"S CHIPS AND CHOCOLATE ALL THE WAY! I won't even begin to tell you how confusing the store was. I'll just say that there are some things that you can purchase as the checkout line and there are some things that you purchase at the counter and other things that you purchase at other checkout lines and it only gets crazier. People that work there stand around chanting stuff in a monotone voice (much like they do at the department stores...like carnies at a carnival who stand around harassing people to come to their booth and shoot ducks or somethin'.) So it is an experience to say the least. I think I'll stick to 7-Eleven...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 29, 2002 "Drunks, Dwarfs, and Disappointed Dames"
Hey Kids,
I won't even bother you with my horror story of my
trip to Tachikawa. Nope, we'll just skip right over
that so that I can keep the swearing in this e-mail to
a minimum...
Instead, we will switch gears to more interesting observations in Japan. Have I told you how much Japanese people drink? Several times that I have gotten on the train after 9:00pm, it just WREAKS of alcohol. You'd think you just walked into a bar. The
air is so thick with the smell of alcohol, you can cut through it with a chopstick. And if you look around while waiting for the train to come, you can see businessmen swaying in the wind. They are so plowed, they can't stand still. Yesterday, I watched some people get off the train in Chofu and they had one guy by the legs. They were dragging him off the train by his legs. Apparently, he was passed out on the floor of the train. Another man almost fell backwards while just STANDING, waiting for the train. I am surprised that more deaths don't occur on the train tracks. One of my students (the man who was trying to lose weight so he could weigh as much as me) told me that Japanese people are missing some enzyme so it doesn't take much for them to get drunk. I was going to ask him if he was sure that it wasn't just the fact that they are the size of dwarfs, but decided against it.
I couldn't sleep this morning because I was told that a package was going to be delivered in the a.m. This was their 3rd attempt at trying to deliver it so I
wanted to be sure that I was there when they came. So I didn't have a good sleep, kept waking up thinking I was going to miss the door bell. Plus, I was excited
to see who the package was from and what it was. Maybe my sister sent me all those goodies she said she was going to send, or maybe Michael was sending me something sweet and wonderful. The anticipation was killing me, like a kid at Christmas. Well, the guy finally came at 11*00am...I had been up since 7:00am. And what was this wonderful, mysterious package that I had waited 3 days for and lost hours of sleep over??? HANGERS!!! Yes, Nova sent me some hangers! Oh, and that is not all, no, the fun doesn't end there. They also sent 2 coffee mugs and a pot. Talk about anti-climactic, I lost sleep over THIS CRAP??? I tried to crawl back in bed after that, but rest did not come easy, so I got up and decided to prepare for my trek to Tachikawa. And as you know from the beginning of my e-mail, things didn't get much better. But tonight I am meeting up with some of my friends from training so maybe this day won't be a bust after all. OH, I have a phone now. I know that calling may not be an option for everyone but you can actually get pretty cheap rates from some calling card services, so just in case, here is my number
81-090-4412-4589.
Love me
I won't even bother you with my horror story of my
trip to Tachikawa. Nope, we'll just skip right over
that so that I can keep the swearing in this e-mail to
a minimum...
Instead, we will switch gears to more interesting observations in Japan. Have I told you how much Japanese people drink? Several times that I have gotten on the train after 9:00pm, it just WREAKS of alcohol. You'd think you just walked into a bar. The
air is so thick with the smell of alcohol, you can cut through it with a chopstick. And if you look around while waiting for the train to come, you can see businessmen swaying in the wind. They are so plowed, they can't stand still. Yesterday, I watched some people get off the train in Chofu and they had one guy by the legs. They were dragging him off the train by his legs. Apparently, he was passed out on the floor of the train. Another man almost fell backwards while just STANDING, waiting for the train. I am surprised that more deaths don't occur on the train tracks. One of my students (the man who was trying to lose weight so he could weigh as much as me) told me that Japanese people are missing some enzyme so it doesn't take much for them to get drunk. I was going to ask him if he was sure that it wasn't just the fact that they are the size of dwarfs, but decided against it.
I couldn't sleep this morning because I was told that a package was going to be delivered in the a.m. This was their 3rd attempt at trying to deliver it so I
wanted to be sure that I was there when they came. So I didn't have a good sleep, kept waking up thinking I was going to miss the door bell. Plus, I was excited
to see who the package was from and what it was. Maybe my sister sent me all those goodies she said she was going to send, or maybe Michael was sending me something sweet and wonderful. The anticipation was killing me, like a kid at Christmas. Well, the guy finally came at 11*00am...I had been up since 7:00am. And what was this wonderful, mysterious package that I had waited 3 days for and lost hours of sleep over??? HANGERS!!! Yes, Nova sent me some hangers! Oh, and that is not all, no, the fun doesn't end there. They also sent 2 coffee mugs and a pot. Talk about anti-climactic, I lost sleep over THIS CRAP??? I tried to crawl back in bed after that, but rest did not come easy, so I got up and decided to prepare for my trek to Tachikawa. And as you know from the beginning of my e-mail, things didn't get much better. But tonight I am meeting up with some of my friends from training so maybe this day won't be a bust after all. OH, I have a phone now. I know that calling may not be an option for everyone but you can actually get pretty cheap rates from some calling card services, so just in case, here is my number
81-090-4412-4589.
Love me
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug. 28, 2002 "Caution: Contains Some Adult Content and Language"
Hi Kids,
Yes, I wussed out yesterday. After all the personal e-mails I sent out, I didn't feel like rehashing anymore. But I am back! But I don't have much to tell. SO I will just share a few more facts and observations about Japan and its people. When I first moved here, (yes, many moons ago) the one thing that bothered me was that people didn't seem friendly. Now, after living in Nashville for 2 years, you become accustomed to certain things, like saying hello to people you pass on the street. But Japanese people on the streets do not even LOOK at you, let alone say hello. At first, I thought they must hate Americans. I decided I needed to do a little research. At Nova, I have a very chatty student that I have had 2 or 3 times now that I absolutely adore. I can't recall her name at the moment but we'll just call her Keiko for kicks. Since Keiko is one of the friendliest and most boisterous Japanese people I have met, I decided to ask her why Japanese people don't say hello when passing on the streets. She said there are two reasons, 1) Japanese people are afraid of me. They are afraid that I may ask them a question and they are embarrassed that they won't understand me (I thought that was interesting) and 2) it's just not their custom to greet people on the streets. It seems like such a minor thing to some people, I'm sure, but that really bothers me. I am almost tempted to say, "HI THERE, MR. JAPANESE MAN, HOW THE HELL ARE YOU TODAY?!" and see his response. I mean, people don't even LOOK at you, like you don't exist. But the funny thing is that they really are friendly in any other situation. I just found that little difference in customs interesting.
Another interesting difference...they don't have TV shows like we do. For example, they don't have sitcoms or dramas. I think they have one soap opera type show but everything else is either news or some severely stupid show that has absolutely no purpose. I wish I could send you a sampling of their shows. You really can't even call them shows, I don't know WHAT you would classify them as but I can see why American TV is broadcasted here, now. For example, one program was just 2 guys and a girl walking around on the streets and the guys were looking for hot girls, then they would find a hot girl and follow her around and freeze frame on different things like when the girl would reach for something, they would pan in on her buttocks and freeze frame and Japanese script would flash on the screen. Then they would send a guy into the same room with the girl and he'd be wearing jogging pants with a fake boner (sorry, this may not be appropriate for older audiences), and he would do things like "accidentally" drop the copy-machine lid on it, then they would watch for the girl's reaction. Need I continue? So as far as quality programming goes, there is none.
Oh, the big, hot news here is that a seal has made his way into some lake around here. I mean, this is BIG news. They have named him and everything (his name is Tamachen). They show him on the news every chance they get. He's not doing a whole hell of a lot, just swimming around and hanging out on a rock, but it is attracting people from all over the place. They come and sit and watch this seal hang out. And the river is wide so they come all that way to see a head in the distance that, for all they know, is a piece of driftwood. I just get a laugh every time I turn on the TV because you can bet your bottom dollar that if he's not on the telly at that moment, he will be after commercial.
For those who have inquired about my roommate, well, she is also working for Nova. She is currently in training. Last night was the first night that dork-boy spent the night at his own place. I think I have found a way to irritate him. Last time he was taking a shower, I was cleaning dishes and when he got out, he was bitching that the water switches temperature if someone is using the faucet. So I will make it a point to wash dishes whenever he gets in the shower (yes, I am a passive-aggressive). On my walk home last night, I was getting myself psyched up to tell them that B.J. was going to have to start paying rent if he was going to eat, shower, and sleep there every night. But that ended up being the night that he finally took his ass home. There is more stuff that pisses me off about him being there but it is gross stuff so I will spare my audience. You can inquire individually if you really want the dirt.
Tomorrow is my day off. Wish me luck as I make my way back to Tachigawa and the Immigration Office. I'm headed home now. Thanks again for the e-mails, even if I don't get a chance to e=mail you right away, I AM reading them and I DO appreciate them.
Love Rachel
Yes, I wussed out yesterday. After all the personal e-mails I sent out, I didn't feel like rehashing anymore. But I am back! But I don't have much to tell. SO I will just share a few more facts and observations about Japan and its people. When I first moved here, (yes, many moons ago) the one thing that bothered me was that people didn't seem friendly. Now, after living in Nashville for 2 years, you become accustomed to certain things, like saying hello to people you pass on the street. But Japanese people on the streets do not even LOOK at you, let alone say hello. At first, I thought they must hate Americans. I decided I needed to do a little research. At Nova, I have a very chatty student that I have had 2 or 3 times now that I absolutely adore. I can't recall her name at the moment but we'll just call her Keiko for kicks. Since Keiko is one of the friendliest and most boisterous Japanese people I have met, I decided to ask her why Japanese people don't say hello when passing on the streets. She said there are two reasons, 1) Japanese people are afraid of me. They are afraid that I may ask them a question and they are embarrassed that they won't understand me (I thought that was interesting) and 2) it's just not their custom to greet people on the streets. It seems like such a minor thing to some people, I'm sure, but that really bothers me. I am almost tempted to say, "HI THERE, MR. JAPANESE MAN, HOW THE HELL ARE YOU TODAY?!" and see his response. I mean, people don't even LOOK at you, like you don't exist. But the funny thing is that they really are friendly in any other situation. I just found that little difference in customs interesting.
Another interesting difference...they don't have TV shows like we do. For example, they don't have sitcoms or dramas. I think they have one soap opera type show but everything else is either news or some severely stupid show that has absolutely no purpose. I wish I could send you a sampling of their shows. You really can't even call them shows, I don't know WHAT you would classify them as but I can see why American TV is broadcasted here, now. For example, one program was just 2 guys and a girl walking around on the streets and the guys were looking for hot girls, then they would find a hot girl and follow her around and freeze frame on different things like when the girl would reach for something, they would pan in on her buttocks and freeze frame and Japanese script would flash on the screen. Then they would send a guy into the same room with the girl and he'd be wearing jogging pants with a fake boner (sorry, this may not be appropriate for older audiences), and he would do things like "accidentally" drop the copy-machine lid on it, then they would watch for the girl's reaction. Need I continue? So as far as quality programming goes, there is none.
Oh, the big, hot news here is that a seal has made his way into some lake around here. I mean, this is BIG news. They have named him and everything (his name is Tamachen). They show him on the news every chance they get. He's not doing a whole hell of a lot, just swimming around and hanging out on a rock, but it is attracting people from all over the place. They come and sit and watch this seal hang out. And the river is wide so they come all that way to see a head in the distance that, for all they know, is a piece of driftwood. I just get a laugh every time I turn on the TV because you can bet your bottom dollar that if he's not on the telly at that moment, he will be after commercial.
For those who have inquired about my roommate, well, she is also working for Nova. She is currently in training. Last night was the first night that dork-boy spent the night at his own place. I think I have found a way to irritate him. Last time he was taking a shower, I was cleaning dishes and when he got out, he was bitching that the water switches temperature if someone is using the faucet. So I will make it a point to wash dishes whenever he gets in the shower (yes, I am a passive-aggressive). On my walk home last night, I was getting myself psyched up to tell them that B.J. was going to have to start paying rent if he was going to eat, shower, and sleep there every night. But that ended up being the night that he finally took his ass home. There is more stuff that pisses me off about him being there but it is gross stuff so I will spare my audience. You can inquire individually if you really want the dirt.
Tomorrow is my day off. Wish me luck as I make my way back to Tachigawa and the Immigration Office. I'm headed home now. Thanks again for the e-mails, even if I don't get a chance to e=mail you right away, I AM reading them and I DO appreciate them.
Love Rachel
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Letters from Japan: Aug 26, 2002 "Brave Rachel"
Hey Kids,
Today was a run of the mill day at work, it was the "getting to work" part that almost killed me (stress-wise). This morning I decided to get up early and go to the Immigration office like I was SUPPOSED to do last Friday. I had a simple map and I figured if I left early enough, I would have time to get lost and found and make my way back to Chofu for work. Well, when my alarm went off, I get up to shower but someone is already IN the shower. No, it wasn't my cockroach roommate, it was my roommate's BOYFRIEND! This dude has been spending the night at our place ever since Helen got into town. He has a place of his own but they have decided to shack up EVERY NIGHT at our place and NOW he is in the shower when I need to be getting my day started. The day doesn't get much better from there on. When he finally emerges from his LONG shower, I go into the bathroom and now my roommate comes in to ask if she can blow dry her hair in there. She had her shower right before his. So by the time I am able to get my shower and eat and leave, I have a lot less time than I planned on. But I look at my map and see that the place is only 19 minutes away by train and I have 2.5 hours still. So off I go to the train station, ask the guy how much it is to go to Tachigawa, he calculates it and tells me. I go to the ticket machine, he comes over and points to a button, so I press the button and select the amount and out comes my ticket. At Bubagaiwa, I have to switch from the Keio Line to the Nambu Line which wasn't too hard. I found my way through the train station and over to the right Line. Once I get to Tachigawa, I get off and the city is really big. I don't know whether to go left or right. I asked a guy to point me in the right direction after wandering to both ends of the station. all I had to go on was that there was a McDonald's on the corner and another restaurant on another corner, and down the street would be Immigration. The problem is, I don't see a McDonald's in the direction that the guy pointed to. So a few minutes later, I stop another man who looks like he works for the station and ask him. I showed him my map and pointed to the Immigration office. After a little communication difficulty, I find out that the place is far from the train station and I have to take a bus. Now I knew about the 2 trains I would have to take, but no one said anything about a BUS! I look at my watch and see that I have about an hour and a half still. But I don't know how long the trip by bus is. The guy said something like 20 minutes but I did not know if he meant by foot or by bus (we had serious communication problems). So he really wants to be helpful so he takes me down to the bus area and shows me what bus I have to take. I thanked him and told him that I did not think I was going to have enough time to get there and back because I still had to go all the way back to Chofu to work. The man told me to wait, so we stood and watched the people get off the bus, then he said something to the bus driver. The bus driver said soemthing back and the man turns to me and says, "Ok, there you go. Get on." WHAT? I just told this man 2 or 3 times that I did not think I had time and I would come back on Thursday and now he is scooting me onto the bus. He had been so helpful that I did not have the heart to say no, so I got on. Now, I am a total ball of stress because I am trapped on this bus, not knowing how long it is going to take and when I will be able to get back to the station. On top of that, there was a lot of traffic so we were stopping at every light. ARRRRRRGGGGHH! I just wanted to jump off at the light but I couldn't, it wasn't a stop. Also, if I got off, how would I get back? I didn't know the bus schedule. So I rode the bus for about 15 minutes before he stopped it and he turned and motioned that this was my stop. I looked at my watch and thought "no way" and I told him I didn't have time. He wasn't sure what I was saying but he eventually sat back in his seat and drove to the next stop. At this stop, everyone that was left on the bus got off. Once again, i was the only one sitting there (does this remind you of another story of mine???) I went to the front of the bus and attempted to communicate with this guy. He was at the end of his route and I didn't know what he was going to do next. I finally asked if I could sit and go with him. He said yes and he turned the bus around and fortunately was making his way back to the train station. After he hit all his stops and all the fricking lights, we made it back to the station. YIPPEE!! I still had about 35 minutes to find my train and get to Chofu. Well, when I went into the train station, the ticket machines were different so I had no clue how to get my ticket. Remember, at the other station, the man had me press a button that I normally never press. I figured that this was for a transfer ticket since I was transfering from Nambu line to Keio line in Bubagaiwa. So I see a button that actually says "Transfer Ticket" and I press the button, that's when the screen lit up with a million buttons written in Japanese script. How the hell was I supposed to know what to press? Just when I think I have crossed a hurdle, another one pops up. Oh, before this even happens, I tried to buy a ticket and couldn't figure it out so I asked the man at the ticket counter how much to Chofu and he says 190 yen. That was a LIE. When I put my ticket through to switch from the Nabu to the Keio line, I set off the red buzzer and the gate slammed closed on me. At that point, I stepped back, then walked quickly through the gate before it could slam closed on me again. Yes, I am a criminal, or at least I WAS because when it did it to me again in Chofu, I ended up going to the counter and paying the guy whatever the difference was. I guess the important part of the story is that I made it to work on time (even had 10 minutes to spare) but I definitely would have been late if I had tried to actually get off the bus and find the immigration office. Life is only easy if you stay within your parameters. rachel no like Tachigawa.
Today was a run of the mill day at work, it was the "getting to work" part that almost killed me (stress-wise). This morning I decided to get up early and go to the Immigration office like I was SUPPOSED to do last Friday. I had a simple map and I figured if I left early enough, I would have time to get lost and found and make my way back to Chofu for work. Well, when my alarm went off, I get up to shower but someone is already IN the shower. No, it wasn't my cockroach roommate, it was my roommate's BOYFRIEND! This dude has been spending the night at our place ever since Helen got into town. He has a place of his own but they have decided to shack up EVERY NIGHT at our place and NOW he is in the shower when I need to be getting my day started. The day doesn't get much better from there on. When he finally emerges from his LONG shower, I go into the bathroom and now my roommate comes in to ask if she can blow dry her hair in there. She had her shower right before his. So by the time I am able to get my shower and eat and leave, I have a lot less time than I planned on. But I look at my map and see that the place is only 19 minutes away by train and I have 2.5 hours still. So off I go to the train station, ask the guy how much it is to go to Tachigawa, he calculates it and tells me. I go to the ticket machine, he comes over and points to a button, so I press the button and select the amount and out comes my ticket. At Bubagaiwa, I have to switch from the Keio Line to the Nambu Line which wasn't too hard. I found my way through the train station and over to the right Line. Once I get to Tachigawa, I get off and the city is really big. I don't know whether to go left or right. I asked a guy to point me in the right direction after wandering to both ends of the station. all I had to go on was that there was a McDonald's on the corner and another restaurant on another corner, and down the street would be Immigration. The problem is, I don't see a McDonald's in the direction that the guy pointed to. So a few minutes later, I stop another man who looks like he works for the station and ask him. I showed him my map and pointed to the Immigration office. After a little communication difficulty, I find out that the place is far from the train station and I have to take a bus. Now I knew about the 2 trains I would have to take, but no one said anything about a BUS! I look at my watch and see that I have about an hour and a half still. But I don't know how long the trip by bus is. The guy said something like 20 minutes but I did not know if he meant by foot or by bus (we had serious communication problems). So he really wants to be helpful so he takes me down to the bus area and shows me what bus I have to take. I thanked him and told him that I did not think I was going to have enough time to get there and back because I still had to go all the way back to Chofu to work. The man told me to wait, so we stood and watched the people get off the bus, then he said something to the bus driver. The bus driver said soemthing back and the man turns to me and says, "Ok, there you go. Get on." WHAT? I just told this man 2 or 3 times that I did not think I had time and I would come back on Thursday and now he is scooting me onto the bus. He had been so helpful that I did not have the heart to say no, so I got on. Now, I am a total ball of stress because I am trapped on this bus, not knowing how long it is going to take and when I will be able to get back to the station. On top of that, there was a lot of traffic so we were stopping at every light. ARRRRRRGGGGHH! I just wanted to jump off at the light but I couldn't, it wasn't a stop. Also, if I got off, how would I get back? I didn't know the bus schedule. So I rode the bus for about 15 minutes before he stopped it and he turned and motioned that this was my stop. I looked at my watch and thought "no way" and I told him I didn't have time. He wasn't sure what I was saying but he eventually sat back in his seat and drove to the next stop. At this stop, everyone that was left on the bus got off. Once again, i was the only one sitting there (does this remind you of another story of mine???) I went to the front of the bus and attempted to communicate with this guy. He was at the end of his route and I didn't know what he was going to do next. I finally asked if I could sit and go with him. He said yes and he turned the bus around and fortunately was making his way back to the train station. After he hit all his stops and all the fricking lights, we made it back to the station. YIPPEE!! I still had about 35 minutes to find my train and get to Chofu. Well, when I went into the train station, the ticket machines were different so I had no clue how to get my ticket. Remember, at the other station, the man had me press a button that I normally never press. I figured that this was for a transfer ticket since I was transfering from Nambu line to Keio line in Bubagaiwa. So I see a button that actually says "Transfer Ticket" and I press the button, that's when the screen lit up with a million buttons written in Japanese script. How the hell was I supposed to know what to press? Just when I think I have crossed a hurdle, another one pops up. Oh, before this even happens, I tried to buy a ticket and couldn't figure it out so I asked the man at the ticket counter how much to Chofu and he says 190 yen. That was a LIE. When I put my ticket through to switch from the Nabu to the Keio line, I set off the red buzzer and the gate slammed closed on me. At that point, I stepped back, then walked quickly through the gate before it could slam closed on me again. Yes, I am a criminal, or at least I WAS because when it did it to me again in Chofu, I ended up going to the counter and paying the guy whatever the difference was. I guess the important part of the story is that I made it to work on time (even had 10 minutes to spare) but I definitely would have been late if I had tried to actually get off the bus and find the immigration office. Life is only easy if you stay within your parameters. rachel no like Tachigawa.
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