Sunday, October 08, 2006
A little about Kawasaki
I was a little disappointed when I didn't get posted to Kyoto, but I really can't complain about Kawasaki. As my roommate Leslie puts it, we're kind of "out in the sticks." I have all the advantages of living in a big city--I'm a ten-minute walk from a train station where I can go anywhere in the entire greater Tokyo area in 30 minutes--but there's a big bamboo grove on the way and greenery and wide-open spaces all over the place. The Tama River's a few miles away, and apparently there's wonderful parks and gardens along it--I need to investigate on my next day off. I count myself blessed in this regard--downtown Tokyo is very drab and depressing. Every building is some shade of either dull tan or bland gray, the monotony only broken by the occasional blue-grey tile roof.
I take back what I said about Tokyo being rainy. It rained non-stop for DAYS, Wednesday through Friday, but apparently that's something of an aberration. Everyone was talking about it at work the next day, that the storm was just short of typhoon levels. But except for the nasty storm it's been lovely. Saturday and Sunday the weather was PERFECT--it was warm and sunny, with a few fluffy little clouds floating in the sky and a warm, gentle breeze. I could not ask for better. Everyone's really looking forward to the turning of the seasons--unlike in Dallas, the trees actually turn brilliant orange and yellow and purple-red in the fall.
I live on the top of a HUGE hill--I'm definitely going to be in excellent shape by the time I get back, from dragging myself up and down that blasted hill every day. My roommates have been lovely--Pascale, our veteran French teacher, knows a little bit about everything, and Leslie's always smiling and cheerful. We get along very well.
The apartment's actually much bigger than I was expecting--not really that much smaller than most American apartments, and my wardrobe tends to disappear in the depths of my huge closet. The futon's more comfortable than my bed at home, and the duvet is FABULOUS, perfectly fluffy and soft and warm. I'm still not used to the pillow, though--it's much thicker than American pillows, and one half is filled with little plastic beads. I generally just sleep without it most nights. The problem with living in a country as humid as Japan, though, is that everything tends to get moldy. Every few days I have to open the windows and stretch out my stuff so my bedding and curtains and clothes don't get moldy. It takes FOREVER for laundry to dry, too.
I got a Japanese bath! I'm so excited about that. I need to buy a little plastic stool to sit on, though, and that green bath solution Japanese people use. For now I'm just using it like a normal American shower.
The fridge is about half the size of the fridges back home, but since there's just the three of us we get along all right. I've been making a lot of okonomiyaki in the mornings (pretty much pancake mix with carrots and cabbage and whatever else you feel like tossing into it) and after work I nibble on leftovers, or cereal and dried fruit. I may try packing a lunch later, but for now I'm trying to eat out with my coworkers, get to know them a little. There's a supermarket next door to my office, too, but my experiences with their bentou have been... discouraging. I didn't realize it was POSSIBLE to make tempura taste bad. Today I had the most WONDERFUL onigiri--rice balls stuffed with fish and wrapped in what I THINK was salmon and the fish equivalent of beef jerky.
Apparently my roommate Pascale is moving back to France in a couple of weeks. She says she has personal reasons, and I don't want to pry. But when she does, I'm doing some MAJOR spring cleaning. There's years and years of junk built up in the apartment. We have the most RANDOM book collection--everything from Freud to random Japanese mysticism to cheap romance paperbooks--and you can't open half the cabinets without stuff falling down on top of you.
At Kawasaki City Hall there's a group of volunteer English teachers that meet every Friday. I went last week and had a lot of fun. I didn't really learn much because I was with my roommate Leslie that doesn't speak a word of Japanese and we mainly worked on teaching her how to introduce herself. But next week they say they'll move me up to a more advanced class. I can't wait! That was the first time I'd had personal contact with Japanese people, and they were all absolutely LOVELY. It's strange to think that I've lived in Japan for almost two weeks and spent next to no time with Japanese people. There's a sort of English bubble that most Nova teachers spend all their time in--I've only met one or two teachers that speak any Japanese. One of the veterans has lived here for seven years and doesn't know more than the basics like "Thank you" or "How much does it cost?" I can see I'll need to put effort into actually getting out of the English Bubble into real Japanese society.
Still haven't found a church that meets outside of my work hours, but I'm working on it. Hopefully by next week. Still looking for a good phone company and ISP, too.
I'll describe work to you later. Love you all!
|
I take back what I said about Tokyo being rainy. It rained non-stop for DAYS, Wednesday through Friday, but apparently that's something of an aberration. Everyone was talking about it at work the next day, that the storm was just short of typhoon levels. But except for the nasty storm it's been lovely. Saturday and Sunday the weather was PERFECT--it was warm and sunny, with a few fluffy little clouds floating in the sky and a warm, gentle breeze. I could not ask for better. Everyone's really looking forward to the turning of the seasons--unlike in Dallas, the trees actually turn brilliant orange and yellow and purple-red in the fall.
I live on the top of a HUGE hill--I'm definitely going to be in excellent shape by the time I get back, from dragging myself up and down that blasted hill every day. My roommates have been lovely--Pascale, our veteran French teacher, knows a little bit about everything, and Leslie's always smiling and cheerful. We get along very well.
The apartment's actually much bigger than I was expecting--not really that much smaller than most American apartments, and my wardrobe tends to disappear in the depths of my huge closet. The futon's more comfortable than my bed at home, and the duvet is FABULOUS, perfectly fluffy and soft and warm. I'm still not used to the pillow, though--it's much thicker than American pillows, and one half is filled with little plastic beads. I generally just sleep without it most nights. The problem with living in a country as humid as Japan, though, is that everything tends to get moldy. Every few days I have to open the windows and stretch out my stuff so my bedding and curtains and clothes don't get moldy. It takes FOREVER for laundry to dry, too.
I got a Japanese bath! I'm so excited about that. I need to buy a little plastic stool to sit on, though, and that green bath solution Japanese people use. For now I'm just using it like a normal American shower.
The fridge is about half the size of the fridges back home, but since there's just the three of us we get along all right. I've been making a lot of okonomiyaki in the mornings (pretty much pancake mix with carrots and cabbage and whatever else you feel like tossing into it) and after work I nibble on leftovers, or cereal and dried fruit. I may try packing a lunch later, but for now I'm trying to eat out with my coworkers, get to know them a little. There's a supermarket next door to my office, too, but my experiences with their bentou have been... discouraging. I didn't realize it was POSSIBLE to make tempura taste bad. Today I had the most WONDERFUL onigiri--rice balls stuffed with fish and wrapped in what I THINK was salmon and the fish equivalent of beef jerky.
Apparently my roommate Pascale is moving back to France in a couple of weeks. She says she has personal reasons, and I don't want to pry. But when she does, I'm doing some MAJOR spring cleaning. There's years and years of junk built up in the apartment. We have the most RANDOM book collection--everything from Freud to random Japanese mysticism to cheap romance paperbooks--and you can't open half the cabinets without stuff falling down on top of you.
At Kawasaki City Hall there's a group of volunteer English teachers that meet every Friday. I went last week and had a lot of fun. I didn't really learn much because I was with my roommate Leslie that doesn't speak a word of Japanese and we mainly worked on teaching her how to introduce herself. But next week they say they'll move me up to a more advanced class. I can't wait! That was the first time I'd had personal contact with Japanese people, and they were all absolutely LOVELY. It's strange to think that I've lived in Japan for almost two weeks and spent next to no time with Japanese people. There's a sort of English bubble that most Nova teachers spend all their time in--I've only met one or two teachers that speak any Japanese. One of the veterans has lived here for seven years and doesn't know more than the basics like "Thank you" or "How much does it cost?" I can see I'll need to put effort into actually getting out of the English Bubble into real Japanese society.
Still haven't found a church that meets outside of my work hours, but I'm working on it. Hopefully by next week. Still looking for a good phone company and ISP, too.
I'll describe work to you later. Love you all!
|
