Busy, Busy

I had a really busy day yesterday. Got a lot done, but it was really hectic. Our HR OAP girl and one of out teachers picked us up at the hotel at 8: 30, and I didn't get back for more than 5 minutes until about 1 AM.

First we went to open bank accounts, which we could only do at the branch that Honda does it's payroll through, which was 30 minutes away. It took forever, since we only had one translator for the 3 of us. Actually, took about 2 hours, but they were long hours.

Next stop was Yamada Denki for cell phones. That took another couple of hours, and we had to run out of there to get to the next stop before we were even finished. First we had to figure out how the system works here. In the US they give you a free phone and charge you monthly for the airtime. Here, it's sort of opposite. We pay monthly for the phone, and then the service is on top of that. So I have a minimum of 2200 a month to pay at least, but if I use more than about 20 anytime minutes, it goes up from there. At least that's how I understand it, I may be wrong.

I got a crazy phone. It's got a 3.2 MP camera, GPS, and a TV. A little 3 inch TV. It only gets Japanese channels, but it's a cell phone with a TV. I don't have a clue what else it does. I didn't even know about the GPS until after I checked out.

Anyway, we had to run out at about 1:30 to go through the McDonalds drivethru before Driver's Ed at 2. It was just like high school, but on the other side. Drove around the school's little course for 15 minutes with the teacher up front (with the auxiliary brake) and the translator in back. Then we headed out on the roads. The teacher and translator pointed me towards my apartment. We drove from there to work, with the teacher telling me to slow down, and then back to the school.

After we finished there, we went back to Yamada Denki to pick up our phones. I was thinking it would take 5 minutes, and then they started to try and sell us Internet access. It took about an hour to figure out how it works here, and then another hour for the lead singer of a Japanese reggae band to sell us all the package and schedule installation.

I had just enough time to get back to the hotel and drop things off before we went to a party they had set up for us. I only had the energy to go to stage 2 before I called it a night. I hear it went to stage 3, but I didn't have the energy.

Tomorrow I move into my apartment, and then there's another party to go to. It's supposed to be low key, which is good, because Saturday I'm going to the Tokyo Motor Show and then Roppongi (a big nightclub district)for the night.

Next weekend I have yet another party to go to. This one is for one of the current OAPs that's going home soon. Another guy found out that you can get nomihoudai and tabehoudai (all you can drink / eat) at TGI Friday's, so as a last Japanese hurrah, we're taking him there. Then another wild night in Roppongi.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to update this for a few weeks, so you won't get to hear about any of that. Japanese-Rasta-Internet-Salesman guy couldn't schedule installation until the 18th, so once I move out tomorrow, I'm incommunicado until then.

Insurance

Yesterday we had a meeting to go over our mandatory renters insurance and the other optional insurance policies we could get. They gave us a brochure full of cartoony pictures of various disasters you could claim. One picture in particular caught my eye. It was a guy golfing with a the ball going into the hole.

Apparently, it's traditional here for a guy who gets a hole-in-one to buy eveyone's round of golf, drinks for anyone he sees that day, and send gifts to everyone who was there. This could run into the thousands of dollars, so you can take out hole-in-one insurance. I asked, and it was only 200 yen a month for the lowest coverage, but you didn't get any sort of card to prove it, so I decided to take my chances. I considered doing it, getting someone to vouch for my good shot in exchange for free drinks, and throwing an insurance fraud party, but decided they'd take one look at my swing and catch me.

Tomorrow is the first of at least 2, maybe 3 welcome parties. This one is being set up by my old manager from Ohio, and I'm told it will include "3/4 potatoes". Not the real big guys, but pretty high up people. Which means it's likely to be expensive, since they'll be obliged to kick in a lot more money than us peons. Should come back with something to say.

Also tomorrow, I've got to set up a Japanese bank account. After that, I've got driver's ed. They want to make sure we understand the traffic laws here, so we go to a driving school for the afternoon. I doubt there's going to be anything very exciting there.

Weekend

It was a pretty restful weekend, other than a lot of walking. Got back Friday night and went with Mike (he's here on a business trip from my group back home) to a ramen place and then had some beers at the Lion's Head. It's an Irish style pub that's kind of a gai-jin hangout. I tried to order a black and tan, but couldn't get the point across until they handed me a menu. I figured out that that they called it a half and half.

Saturday, we decided to explore our new neighborhood. We needed to get lunch first. On the way to Lion's Head, I remembered seeing a sign for Genki Sushi, the sushi on a conveyor belt place. We walked that way until we found the sign, figured out it was on the 2nd floor of what looked like an office building, but that doesn't mean much here. We went up and there wasn't a restaurant in sight. Turns out we found the local corporate office of Genki Sushi.

Around the corner from there is a big temple, and when we went in that direction, we found a street festival of some kind going on. Turns out this weekend was the annual Miya Jazz Festival. We got some food from the stands set up and settled in to watch what was happening. There was a band playing, and I got to hear a Japanse woman sing "What's Goin' On". She did Marvin Gaye proud. While we were sitting there, a guy who apparently loved America came up to talk to us. He noticed one of us had a coke, pointed, and said "Coca-Cola!!!". Mike said "Pepsi-Cola!!!". He said "Dr. Pepper". They went on like that until the ran out of soft drinks, and the guy went away.

We went over to my apartment to look around the neighborhood. On our way there, we saw this sign encouraging you to clean up after your dog.

We walked around the neighborhood and went into a place that was sort of like Japanese Wal-Mart. I'm going to have to go back there once I move in to get my place set up. Also checked out a bike shop, a camping/outdoors shop, and Yamada Denki, an electronics place. We ate dinner at an Italian place, walked home, and about 5 miles after we started, I settled in to watch Resident Evil 2, since it was on TV in English.

Today, Joe and I went to check out the local mall, Bell Mall. Kind of an interesting place because it isn't really divided up as clearly as American Malls. There's no real entrance to the individual stores, just a couple of walls. You can easily wander out of one store and into another without noticing.

For dinner tonight, we went to a place 2 doors down from the hotel. The owner somehow figured out that we weren't from around here. He dragged 2 of the waitresses over to us and made them sit down and speak English. I think he realized that if word gets out to Honda in America that they speak English, it will improve business. Anyway, we had a nice chat with the 2 waitresses and a good dinner.