I had my first 2 days with my group at work, and learned a few things from them:
1. It's really hard to get my PC set up in Japanese. I have it, but it's useless until I get the software installed, and I can't read enough to actually install things.
2. The Japanese keyboard layout is different. The spacebar is about 1/3 of what it is on an American keyboard and the keys next to it change it from typing in English to typing in Japanese.
3. My whole group lives within 1 km of my place.
4. There's a good okinomiyaki place about 1.5 km away, I'm going there tonight.
5. The Honda Life I picked out is a chick car. Watch this video to see the lifestyle Honda imagines a Life driver living: http://www.honda.co.jp/LIFE/imagemovie/index.html
6. Mugen (Honda's main performance parts supplier) makes some parts to man-up the Life. I may consider them. http://www.mugen-power.com/street/life/parts/parts2.html
7. My apartment is very close to the main izaki-ya (bar) district.
Not much else to say. No real plans for the weekend except learning more about my neighborhood.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Shopping & Paperwork
Monday was my first day of "work". Not that I'm doing any real work yet. We met the HR girl who's in charge of taking care of us OAPs. She seems to have her act together, but she doesn't speak any English, so it's going to be hard to get anything done with her. Luckily, the other 2 guys' teachers where there (I haven't met mine yet). We spent a few hours filling out work papers that I couldn't read. I'm much better now at writing my name in katakana. It's actually legible.
Next we went apartment shopping. I was braced for the worst. I expected tiny little, one room shoe boxes underneath the train tracks. It's a little different here. For one thing, they only rent through real estate agents, so you have someone find places for you and take you around to them. Second, their name for a condo is "mansion". So I got a mansion. It's in a great location, about 0.7 km from the train station, overlooking a park. I'm on the top floor (5th) on the end, so 2 sides of the place are floor to ceiling windows. It's 1 bedroom, living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom. The bedroom and living room are only separated by a set of 3 sliding doors, so you can open it up to be 1 big room or close it up and only heat or cool a small area. Here's a picture looking from the bedroom into the living room. That's the realtor (R) and the teacher translating for us (L) in the living room, and I'm behind the big, load-bearing post.
I thought the place would be tiny. They gave us packets with floor plans and locations for each apartment. The spot where it says the area, though, wasn't in any units I understood. I just used it as a relative judgement, so I knew one was bigger than the other. The one I picked was 17.2 somethings. Turns out the unit was 2 tatami mats, those straw floor mats you see in japan. 1 tatami is 90 cm by 180 cm, so 2 is 180 X 180, or about 17.5 square feet, so my place is about 600 square feet, huge for a 1 bedroom in Japan. More about the gizmos in there some other time.
Yesterday, I did city, state, and federal paperwork. I applied for my alien registration card and and multiple re-entry permit. I also got (from work) my inkon. It's a little stamp that's used in Japan instead of signing things. Mine just says "Daniel" in katakana. We also had to register that as my signature with the city.
After what amounts to the Japanese BMV, we went to the car lot to pick out cars. It was awesome. The told us to keep it under 2,000, 000 yen and set us loose. Car shopping is so much fun when you aren't really concerned with the cost. Even if I spent the limit, my payment, with insurance and maintenance, would be around $100/month. I checked how I fit in just about every kind of car they had. I really wanted to get something that I can't get in the US, so that cut out about half of them. Streets are narrow and gas is around $7/gal, so I wanted something small. I turned down the Fit, the Mobilio, the Spike, the Zest, the Beat, and the That's (only car named with a contraction). I finally found a sweet black almost new Turbo Life. It's about the smallest car Honda makes: 660 cc's, 3 cylinders of turbo charged fury in a cartoon car. I had to get the turbo, since it bumps it all the way up to 65 hp. Here's my hot new whip, check out the optional 14's I'm rolling on, the base model had 12's.
Next we went apartment shopping. I was braced for the worst. I expected tiny little, one room shoe boxes underneath the train tracks. It's a little different here. For one thing, they only rent through real estate agents, so you have someone find places for you and take you around to them. Second, their name for a condo is "mansion". So I got a mansion. It's in a great location, about 0.7 km from the train station, overlooking a park. I'm on the top floor (5th) on the end, so 2 sides of the place are floor to ceiling windows. It's 1 bedroom, living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom. The bedroom and living room are only separated by a set of 3 sliding doors, so you can open it up to be 1 big room or close it up and only heat or cool a small area. Here's a picture looking from the bedroom into the living room. That's the realtor (R) and the teacher translating for us (L) in the living room, and I'm behind the big, load-bearing post.
I thought the place would be tiny. They gave us packets with floor plans and locations for each apartment. The spot where it says the area, though, wasn't in any units I understood. I just used it as a relative judgement, so I knew one was bigger than the other. The one I picked was 17.2 somethings. Turns out the unit was 2 tatami mats, those straw floor mats you see in japan. 1 tatami is 90 cm by 180 cm, so 2 is 180 X 180, or about 17.5 square feet, so my place is about 600 square feet, huge for a 1 bedroom in Japan. More about the gizmos in there some other time.
Yesterday, I did city, state, and federal paperwork. I applied for my alien registration card and and multiple re-entry permit. I also got (from work) my inkon. It's a little stamp that's used in Japan instead of signing things. Mine just says "Daniel" in katakana. We also had to register that as my signature with the city.
After what amounts to the Japanese BMV, we went to the car lot to pick out cars. It was awesome. The told us to keep it under 2,000, 000 yen and set us loose. Car shopping is so much fun when you aren't really concerned with the cost. Even if I spent the limit, my payment, with insurance and maintenance, would be around $100/month. I checked how I fit in just about every kind of car they had. I really wanted to get something that I can't get in the US, so that cut out about half of them. Streets are narrow and gas is around $7/gal, so I wanted something small. I turned down the Fit, the Mobilio, the Spike, the Zest, the Beat, and the That's (only car named with a contraction). I finally found a sweet black almost new Turbo Life. It's about the smallest car Honda makes: 660 cc's, 3 cylinders of turbo charged fury in a cartoon car. I had to get the turbo, since it bumps it all the way up to 65 hp. Here's my hot new whip, check out the optional 14's I'm rolling on, the base model had 12's.
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Life (before you ask, no, it's not the Diva Turbo, it's just a Turbo)
Since the sticker was only 998,000 yen, plus 40,000 for insurance, I started adding some options. They threw in snow tires, which I was told I'll never need. They also added an aftermarket, English speaking navi system, and the backup camera, since it's tough to back something this huge in. They told me it will take 3 weeks to negotiate with HGT and to install all my options, so I scheduled delivery as a birthday present to myself.
Well, I've got to finish watching the Browns game (don't tell me who won). Then I've got to go to bed, since tomorrow I actually go to work. Sorry for the long post, but I've been too busy to make frequent short ones. Happy Halloween.Sunday, October 28, 2007
Got here fine
After a week in San Francisco, I finally got here to Utsunomiya safely, if anyone was wondering. We got to the hotel around 8:30 last night, then the current OAPs took us out to dinner, then the local Irish pub, and finally Utsunomiya's version of a dance club. They got us pretty drunk and managed to keep us up until 2 AM local time, which is 1 PM the day before in Cleveland. It seems to have really helped with the jet lag, so if anyone comes to visit, I'll get you good and trashed right away.
Today, one of the current OAP guys took us for a tour of Utsunomiya. I've been here before, but it was a different perspective than I've had in the past. For instance, I was very interested when he pointed out the grocery store.
Here's my week in San Francisco in a nutshell:
- Watched the last 5 innings of 2007 Indians baseball in a predominantly Red Sox bar.
- Toured the "Winchester Mystery House" (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about)
- Went to a bar to watch Monday night football, teamed up with the guy next to me and came in 2nd in a trivia contest. But everyone around us thought it was fixed, so I think I won.
- Toured Alcatraz, and did it as touristy as possible.
- Stayed in a really cool hotel in Japan Town.
- Had 2 days of cultural training that amounted to sitting in a room with the other 2 guys BS'ing, mostly about Japan.
- Walked all over the city and saw most of the sights (China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, etc.)
Tomorrow I go to work for the first time. Nobody is really sure what we do tomorrow, but I think it's mostly getting set up with living arrangements. I'll let you know when I find out.
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