Day 1 Japan

Drive to the airport, Auckland, NZ:
After awaking at 4:30am in Auckland, NZ from a glorious 2 hours of sleep (ugh) we headed to the airport in a taxi. Little did we know we were in for quite a ride (mentally though, not physically). Our driver was from Ethopia and his mother was from Yemen and his politics were a little different from ours. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to tell him we were from the US given at how many enemies our country has made around the world—especially that part of it. In any case, we had a very strong discussion about homosexuality—it turns out his sister lives in San Jose (!) and he had been to SF several times. He liked the city but not the homosexuality he saw—and Jim pushed him on that (probably a little harder than he should have). Anyway, so here we were having a tough conversation after no sleep at 5am…whew. When he said he thought homosexuality was worse than killing people I got a little worried and began to imagine him taking us down a dark street, never to be seen again…Anyway, he did take us to the airport with no other event besides our morality discussion and Jim and I do hope that he at least thinks a little about what we said.

Drive from the airport, Kansai to Kyoto, Japan:
Fortunately our landing was super smooth: we sailed through customs, our bags were waiting for us and a man was holding a sign that said “James Stapleton” (whew).
We got into the shuttle we had reserved and our driver began speaking to us in rapid Japanese. We just looked dumbfounded (it turns out it is really hard to remember how to say “I don’t speak Japanese” when you are put on the spot and just learning). Fortunately again, another passenger spoke English and he translated for us. It was a very long (nearly 2 hour) ride from the airport to Kyoto which was surprising to us since Kyoto is a city of 1.5 million people. Perhaps there is not enough room for airports? Anyway, all the other passengers transferred over to other vehicles once we got to Kyoto and our nice English speaking passenger asked the driver what we should do. It turns out that he was taking us to our doorstep thankfully, so we sat tight. As we drove on our driver kept looking at a map with a perplexed expression and then asked us something in Japanese before he sighed and realized that we couldn’t understand his question. It became clear that we were lost as we drove up a tiny side street and stopped outside a building. He pointed to the building like “this is it” but we just shrugged. Jim then gave him the number written down of the woman who was coordinating our housing this month and he looked so relieved. He called her and they talked for a long time and then he made motions to us that we were going to drive elsewhere. We drove again, stopping finally at a Seven-eleven (yes, the convenient store) and there on the curb was Harumi, the woman helping us. It turns out that we needed to get the key from her and the place we had stopped earlier was indeed our apartment. What a relief when we finally (after about 17 hours in transit) arrived to our new home.

First impressions about our apartment:
I was expecting a small apartment and had prepared myself…but nevertheless I was shocked by how teensy it was. It is about 300 square feet which includes the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Basically it is smaller than most hotel rooms in the US and makes our already big 1700 square foot condo in the bay area seem like a mansion. The worst part was that our luggage alone filled up the place! However, after unpacking our bags the next morning and stuffing them under the twin sized bed, our apartment felt more livable. (The bed is a twin, so one of us sleeps on a futon mattress on the floor that can be rolled up during the day.) Our bathroom is so tiny that Jim can’t fit in the shower with the shower curtain closed (hehe). Thankfully there is a drain in the bathroom floor, so he can still take showers, just with the curtain open. As a result the floor gets wet, so I now understand why there were special bathroom slippers, even though the bathroom is standing room only. Other apartment features include a water heater that must be turned on before using hot water, a one burner gas stove top, a ½ sized refrigerator/freezer, a small table and two chairs, a tiny TV (with all Japanese channels of course), a kitchen sink, microwave (yay!) and a very small cupboard.

Food!
I don’t imagine I’ll be doing a lot of serious cooking since I don’t have an oven, much space, etc. Fortunately there seems to be an abundant supply of yummy food that is pretty affordable near us. In our first venture out of our apartment yesterday morning we found (in our extreme jet-lagged hunger) that Seven-Eleven sells delicious hot buns stuffed with beef and mushrooms and that there are several French-type bakeries selling all sorts of sweet and savory bread treats. (We bought sausage rolls, an asparagus and cheese bread-thing, and a raisin bread roll. Yum!) For lunch we bought some ready-made sushi rolls and a hot potato, egg and cabbage pancake type thing from a grocery store. For dinner I bought some potato patties (hot and ready to eat), a piece of fried fish that was incredibly cheap and tasty, and some gyoza (dumplings). I also happily was able to find affordable cereal and milk, so we can even have a taste of home to start our day. So, whew, it looks like we’ll be able to eat (and eat well!) here. 

Misadventures of Sarah
Kumon Center Snafu #1:
Jim had to go in to the University to meet with his professor, so I was left alone to wander. I had seen a Kumon center three doors down from our apartment and recognized them as a tutoring center. When I googled them I saw that they had an English webpage that told about their Japanese language course. There was a number to call but since we don’t yet have phones, I figured I would just pop by the center near us and ask. I entered the building with some small kids who had just gotten out of school and took my shoes off with them in the foyer. (They were looking at me and giggling which reminded me of my Peace Corps days.) There was a clear reception area, so I peeked around to the room where I saw kids milling around, arriving, and three teachers. I said (in my best Japanese), “Good afternoon, excuse me, do you understand English.” To my surprise, everyone just giggled, the kids stared and one woman came over and began speaking to me in Japanese. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out what to do when people don’t speak English, so I just stood there looking confused. I thought she was trying to tell me to speak in English, so I tried that, but that didn’t work. Finally she held up her hand and got a phone and stepped into another room and closed the door. I figured she was calling someone to translate, so I stood awkwardly in the foyer, with kids still staring at me. Eventually the kids lost interest and I began to think I should just leave when she reappeared, said something in Japanese and then returned to the classroom. She was very nice, but I still felt absolutely ridiculous. I put on my shoes and left, thoroughly embarrassed and confused.

Rainbow snafu:
It had been raining and was still lightly raining when I stepped out of a store and saw a vivid full rainbow over the building across the street. It was breathtaking and I was surprised that no one else seemed to notice it. These things of beauty must be shared, so as a couple walked by I caught the eye of the man and pointed to the sky. Instead of following by direction he instead looked shocked and appalled, as if I was completely crazy. I pointed more insistently, trying to get him to look up, but instead he continued to look more and more frightened and shocked. Oh dear. I must seem absolutely crazy.

Kumon Center Snafu #2:
I am either persistent or just plain dumb, so when I saw a second Kumon tutoring center that looked larger than the first, I decided to try again. This time it was upstairs, so I walked upstairs and was faced with a door through which I could see mothers and kids in a waiting room. I went in, removed my shoes and walked to the reception area. Again I said my phrase, asking if anyone spoke English and the women giggled and looked around, looking for someone else in the office. Both the women were wearing face masks but so many Japanese do that I didn’t think anything of it. It was only when I looked through the window into the office that I saw the dentist chair. OMG, I have walked into a dentist office. Everyone is staring at me and I don’t have the Japanese to say, “oops, wrong place”, so I just said “Excuse me. Kumon?” and pointed upstairs. The women giggled, nodded and I got out of there as quickly as one can when you have to stop to put on your shoes…
(Btw, the Kumon center was upstairs but the door was closed and I wasn’t about to have another incident.)


Shopping
Although there were many things in the grocery store that I couldn’t identify, at least I could recognize the general categories: the milk section, the yogurts, the salts, the sugars, the soy sauces (there is a huge, huge section of soy sauces!), the vegetables, eggs, instant noodles (it seems instant ramen noodles are not just for American college students), etc. It seems that with shopping there are enough American brands and random English words on packaging that we can generally navigate around. I was able to buy shampoo and conditioner (although I was restricted to the brands that said these words in English), toothpaste (because I recognized “Aquafresh”), shaving cream, etc. (Funny how I would hardly consider those purchases an accomplishment in the US. Context is everything.) I was excited to find a little alarm clock and hairdryer (both very affordable) in one shop until I went to check out. The store clerk held the hairdryer box and pointed at a corner of the box, telling me something in Japanese. I asked if she spoke English (in Japanese. It’s the only phrase I can say so far) but she didn’t and she kept on trying to tell me something. I was a little worried that it might something important since this was an electronic device, so I didn’t know if I should just say “okay” and move on. Fortunately, the only white person I saw all day (besides Jim, of course) had walked in and saw what was going on. I looked at him with a pleading look (as did the store clerk) and he said, “She wants you to know that if you keep your receipt the warranty is good for a full year.” Ah. The truly funny thing in this is that the hairdryer was about $13—not exactly a huge purchase. I was touched that she felt the need to tell me this info, but really, was it worth the effort? I think this is the first of many, many similar incidents…

[BTW, I completely lost all pride and waited for my translator to check out before profusely thanking him and telling him how happy I was to encounter someone who spoke English. He was extremely nice about the whole thing and assured me that “We have all been there” especially since it was my first day. It turns out he is a researcher at another University in Kyoto and he and his wife are from Italy but have lived in Kyoto for five years. They even have a daughter who was born in Japan (though unfortunately not considered a Japanese citizen since her parents are not). After seeing my helplessness, he gave me his card and said that we could contact him with questions or if we needed assistance. He pointed out the cheap grocery store next door and after a moment’s hesitation I followed him in. (Honestly at this point I was just desperate for someone with whom who I could communicate. Normally I would not be so pathetic.) Thankfully, he was very kind, deciding to give me a brief tour of the grocery store, pointing out how to recognize whole milk, good yogurt, salad dressing, etc. How wonderful to be with someone who could both speak English and read Japanese! He did bow out gracefully but not before I had been able to get cereal, yogurt, spinach, and tomatoes. He also told me that a 20 minute walk would get me to a big mall with an international grocery, a Starbucks and a McDonald’s. He laughed when he said that he and his wife went to McD’s once a month in Italy but go more like once a week here. It seems that no matter how adventurous you are, when in a very different culture it is so comforting to taste the familiar. Thank you to my Italian friend! ]