Starting tomorrow, I will have been in Japan for one month. It rained all day yesterday, a detail which involved a comic series of errors on my part as I tried to navigate my own bike to the train station while holding an umbrella. This is harder than it sounds, mostly because the umbrella catches the wind (and it’s windy, since it’s raining) and pulls the bike back and forth, a bike which is controlled by only one hand, since the other hand is holding the umbrella. In addition, I had a heavy backpack with laptop in the basket on the front of my bike, which threw off my weight equilibrium even more. So all and all, I almost took out a woman who walked out of a store and did not look where she was going (Hello, Lady, raining outside. Increased stopping distance for bicycles. Pay attention) and almost crashed into several telephones poles. But I got there! Albeit rather soaked from my ten minutes of pride at the beginning of my bicycle journey which didn’t allow me to use my umbrella. Because I’m from Portland and we make fun of tourists who use umbrellas. But the warm rain coating my clothes and an impending meeting with the principle of one of my schools turned this badass Portlander into a rain-pansy in about fifteen minutes flat. My shame is great.
In other news, I have Internet at my house now. Kind of. I need to call Softbank (my cell phone provider) and ask a series of question, including but not limited to, if I use the wifi router you gave me for free, will you start charging me. Because that’s the rumor floating around the ALT set. That Softbank screws you. And it’s a rumor that I would be inclined to believe, because at this point my cell phone plans sounds too good to be true, and I need to check the details. Also, I was supposed to pay the bill on the 16th through direct deduction from my bank account, but I checked today and nothing has been deduced, so…check on that too. So much checking must happen here.
I have now visited all four of my schools, and I am very excited about all of them. The English teachers are all very nice, although I can’t for the life of me remember any of their names. I am at my base school all next week, which includes a welcome ceremony for yours truly, and I got invited to my first enkai today by the Akita High teachers. So next Monday, first work party, for the win. I have been working on my self-introduction lessons, but I can only write about myself for so long before I lose all perspective on what is actually important. I made a Powerpoint, which will help me stay on track. But I don’t do my first lesson until September 5, so I still have much time to work that out. I need to figure out where I can print pictures here. I’ve been told the conbini do basically everything for you, so I’ll check into that.
And I need to find red garbage bags. The trash system here is ridiculous, so “burnable trash,” which was explained to us as “trash you can burn,” goes in the red bags, whereas everything else, which you apparently can’t burn, goes in the green ones. And I have some green bags left from Anna, but no red, and really red is more important, because in this last month I have learned that life goes through way more burnable trash than non. The things I am discovering.
2 comments:
At least you only have 2 trash kinds! We have about 5. Not kidding. Each has to be separated in their own kind of bag. We got a presentation about it at orientation last week that was very helpful!
I also feel the same about the rain! I say, though, the rain is quite different from back home so the umbrella is ok!
In Japan they probably poke fun at the tourists who don't use an umbrella...
Melody Burdette
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