MTG Salvation

So... It's been what, two weeks? And what a two weeks it has been. Words escape me. And yet, words are needed, and so I find myself writing once again.

So, forgetting my prior storyline for the moment, given that it would take an amazingly, amazingly long time to write what has happened since then, and that my laptop is short on battery life... allow me to summarize. Also, whenever I have links to something, those somethings are more than likely pictures. Please click them and browse at your leisure, for they are an important part of the story.

After two days at the hotel, I was shown to my apartment. It was spacious for what I was imagining. More than one room? Three (counting the bath) in fact? Good news. The not so good news was that Yonago is freezing right now, has been for the past two weeks actually, and the majority of buildings in Japan don't seem to have central heating at all. You have a kerosene heater, which gets too hot, smells, takes expensive fuel which is dangerous if spilled, and which only heats generally whichever room it is put in, and I am loathe to put in the tatami room. I've left it off since I got it, relying on my kotatsu, my small electric fan heater, and blankets for the warmth that seems in such short supply in this country. I nearly freeze in the morning when I have to get up (out of the blankets) and at night sometimes if it's especially cold right after I come home, but I'm learning to cope. The main adjustment is getting into the mentality of not living with central heating.

My apartment has all the amenities, at least, except for a washer/dryer. So far I've used a coin laundry for that job, and it's proved serviceable, albeit being utilitarian and expensive. I have a washer, and am in the process of trying to fix it enough to make it workable. It has a small leak somewhere (we got a mat for it just in case before using it at all, so no damage to the floor ) and is exceedingly dirty on the inside, meaning bits of dirt or something or other filter into the water when you run it. As of now, it seems it would dirty your clothes rather than clean them. When that problem is resolved, I'll still be out a dryer, though, so... I'm tempted to use the coin laundry for a good while.

Aside from those two issues, I am amazed with what I have. I have a gorgeous apartment, as you most certainly can see in the photos, with a futon, a TV that gets five channels (network, obviously) and a microwave, kotatsu (table with heating underneath), and fridge. The shower works wonderfully, and of course is Japanese style where you have the option of sitting down to boot. Great stuff.

Teaching... I've started it. I LOVE it. I love it to death, actually. I could write a book, nearly, and perhaps I should, on the difference between my personal fulfillment with regards to this job compared to my last one. I no longer want to think about or remember my previous job. All my time now is consumed with preparing lessons, keeping myself and my apartment clean, fed, and healthy, and generally getting used to Japan. It's taken quite a while just to get the hang of things. QUITE a while.

Even the first few weeks, I had trouble eating much. Of course, everything here is eaten with chopsticks, so that was a challenge in and of itself. Culture shock grabbed me with great binding arms and wouldn't let go. Making it through the first week itself, even though I had no work that week, was almost unbearable at times, and there were nights that I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry and go home. Towards the end of that week, I began eating more and feeling better, and by the end of my first week of teaching, I ate what felt like my first real whole meal equivalent to the amount I would have eaten back at home. At present, the end of my second week of teaching, I can wolf down a whole order of beef ramen and a side of fried rice, no problem. See?

Ordering food here poses the main problem. I've got little way of translating the menu, and most of the menus are outside of the actual restaurants, either on a signboard or a window display. I'm sure they;ve got them inside as well, but I still feel a little embarrassed asking for "that thing", and having acquired a few restaurants with which I'm familiar, I've not been adventurous enough to try any more yet. SATY, a four-story department store three blocks from my house, houses both a McDonalds and a fast food ramen establishment. Those have been my two main haunts so far, although I have eaten at a restaurant at the train station.

Gah... battery, battery. I've only got time enough to write on what my laptop provides me with, as I've yet to aquire internet access at home and must sit ouside in front of the train station in order to write. Before I go, I've got what what everyone most likely has been waiting for from me: massive, massive, and even more massive amounts of pictures. Something around the order of three hundred pictures, I think. Here they all are, organized into nice little groups for your viewing pleasure.

The first set of pictures are from long and arduous my trip from the States to Yonago. Here.

The second set contains pictures of the inside of my apartment. Here.

The next group are of the outside of my apartment and of the train station just two blocks away. Here.

The fourth set contains pictures from my main source of food and supplies, the four-story department store SATY. There is a curiosity shop (much like Spencer's Gifts in the US) on the second floor. Warning - contains ENGRISH! Here.

And finally, the fifth set contains seventy some photos from my trip last weekend to Daisenguchi, which is the town at the base of Mt. Daisen, one of Japan's more impressive mounains. Here.

Enjoy the pictures, everyone. I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again, given my time schedule, and the fact that I must help Mr. Mogil plan many of the lessons for next week. I'll have internet purchased by sometime likely next week, and hopefully have it set up by the weekend.

Respectfully yours,
Andy Plants, from Japan.

(Btw, did I ever relate that my initials are JAP? Weird but true. I go by my middle name.)

Ok, so where was I again? Ah yes. Leaving Osaka on the bus. And so, we continue.

This particular bus was simply taking me to a larger bus station. Nevertheless, I did get to see a large part of Osaka along the way, including the famed (and humongous) Ferris wheel. The city was a lot dirtier and more industrialized than I was imagining. There were some towering buildings, but mostly there were construction cranes, smokestacks, and housing complexes. And boats. Lots of boats.

When I arrived at the OCAT bus station, at which I was to take the 4:20 bus to Yonago, I immediately encountered a problem: the ticket counter had no signs in English. This was the first time since leaving Kansai airport that I encountered this problem, but it was certainly not to be the last. I went up to the ticket counter and tried the words "Yonago e", meaning "to Yonago". They pointed me in the right direction, which was the ticket booth all the way on the end. There, I tried my "Yonago e" again, and this time the response from the lady was "19~20" written on a piece of paper. Hrmm. Must mean "come back in 19 to 20 minutes, I thought to myself. I then proceeded to try various combinations of phrases that I knew in order to procure myself a ticket, but to no avail. I did figure out along the way that "19~20" was supposed to be military time, "19:20", or 7:20pm, which was the time the next bus to Yonago was leaving. Apparently, there were no more tickets for the 4:20 bus, and I watched it leave with much consternation. I found a payphone, and after several tries with what pocket change I had (thank you McDonalds), I managed to reach him on his phone and tell him that I'd be taking the 7:20 bus instead of the 4:20, and to pick me up then. And so, I waited.

When the bus did arrive, I was glad. After all this time, finally, I was on my way to my last destination. Little did I expect that along the way, after about an hour, we would encounter snow. In fact, we encountered so much snow that we could barely see the road, if at all. It was coming down in thick flurries, covering everything in site, creating a winter wonderland out of the mountains, and leaving me in concern for the safety of the bus and its passengers. We traversed winding mountain road after winding mountain road. I lost count of the number of tunnels that we passed through. We passed one unfortunate chap who had spun out and careened over into the guard rail. Yikes. After some time, we got behind a snow plow, which slowed us down considerably, but gave most of the passengers some peace of mind. The bus ended up arriving at Yonago station at 11:40, roughly 40 minutes behind schedule. I was one of the last off the bus, and after I picked up my bags, I mentally took survey of my surroundings.

I was outside of a considerably large bus station, which I presumed to be somewhere near the center of the city. Ironically, it is from this same bus station that I am writing to you now. It was snowing then, and very dark, so I didn't have much chance to look around. There were a few outside booths for travelers to wait in, but most appeared to be locked. A couple of the Japanese passengers from the bus tried anyway. I linked my bags back together and headed towards the main station area, which I hoped (really) to be unlocked. It was.

Inside the bus station were a variety of shops, all closed. I couldn't tell what most of them were, as I had no way of reading any of the signs or displays that were plastered along the walls. There were several waiting areas with rows of seats, most habited by at least a few travelers. I reached the far end of the building from where I had come in, which led out into the parking lot. I decided to check and see if my ride was waiting outside - he was not. Hrmmm. Back inside, I found a payphone after some searching. I dialed sensei's number, and lo and behold, here comes a man walking up to me holding a cell phone up to his ear. I put down the phone and smile. Relief - here at last.

I introduce myself, and he does likewise. Shiratsuchi is of average height for a Japanese man, which means no taller than me, about 5'4. He has a balding head and grey hair around the sides, and looks to be in his fifties. He tells me we are going to the hotel, which I already know. We commence walking - and walking out the door, past the parking lot, and across the street. "Doesn't he have a car?", I think to myself. My silent question is answered when, no sooner than a few steps after crossing the street, he turns left and climbs a set of stairs to the entranceway of one of the semi-towering buildings that populate this area. Ah. The Yonago Town Hotel, according to the sign, although I wouldn't learn that until morning.

Inside, I pay the clerk with my Visa card, and then Shiratsuchi and I sit down and talk for a little bit. He has brought me onigiri - a sort of Japanese version of the doughnut, which are those rice cakes you see people eating in anime, etc - and bottled ocha, or tea. He assures me that I must be very tired (no question there), and after a half-hearted attempt to eat one of the two onigiri, I find myself non-partial to it and decide to head up to my room. He tells me to relax and sleep as much as I can, and that he'll call me in the morning to make sure I don't miss the hotel's free breakfast, although I can sleep again after that. I take my room key in hand, and after some negotiating with the elevator door, I make it to my room, number 701.

I take a quick inventory of the contents - not very spacious at all, but all the important things are there, including a bed - and then plop down and am asleep within minutes. So goes my first night in Japan.

Look for my next entry soon. I'll try to write up as much of this thing as I can over the next few days.

All right... here goes nothing.

After I arrived at the airport, I took some time just to look around and try to take everything in. The airport itself was huge. I had to take a shuttle train (yep, just like you've seen on anime/tv, with the triangular handholds hanging from the ceiling) to get from where my plane ported to the building housing the airport. Customs was a breeze. I only lamented the fact that I had to stand in a ridiculously long line to get there in the first place. Since I was on a flight from Seoul, most of the people standing in line with me were Koreans. It was exciting, well, for me, anyway, to see all the stereotypes and things I'd seen in anime and other media in person. There was the girl trying to look western with boots and a hat, the guy in a full school uniform with the breast-pocket coat-of-arms logo... if you've seen it in an anime, it was probably there. And that was just standing in line.

Once I got through customs, the airport itself was, well, like most of the other airports that I'd been to. After walking around a bit (I have pictures that I'll provide later), I found a McDonalds to eat at. I felt apologetic towards the people in there, for there was little space and I was trying to drag three different pieces of luggage behind me as I went. One of the waitresses offered to take care of my bags for me, bless her. I got a #4 set, which is the double cheeseburger meal. In Japan, if you want the meal instead of just the sandwich, you order it as a set, or "setto". I noticed with a smile that on the menu the toy they were offering with happy meals was a random Pokemon battle disc that fit into a Pokeball to play some kind of battle game. There was a kid with his dad next to me as I sat down that had gotten one, and he was so darn cute pretending he was using it to summon pokemon, and asking his dad questions in such an innocent, serious tone. (forewarning - I guarantee no spellings here to be accurate) "Kyoutsukete, ne?" (We should be careful, right?) he said, pointing to the card. "Koitsu wa abunai" (This guy is dangerous).

When I decided I was ready to leave the airport, I went to the information booth and had them tell me where the bus I needed to take left from. The waiting area was outside, area eleven. Embarrasingly enough, I didn't realize that you had to have a ticket for the shuttle that went to the bus station, and found that out from the guy preparing to take passengers' baggage. I had to run back and get one quickly (thankfully it was from an automated machine and very easy) before the bus left. With that, I boarded the bus and was on my way through Osaka to the OCAT bus station.

*More will be edited in soon. My fingers are getting tired typing on this Japanese keyboard.*

Greetings, y'all.

I believe that's the best phrase to kick this thing off with.

As most everyone who reads this probably knows, I've spent the last year and a half hoping, dreaming, half-assedly trying to one day live and work in Japan. Well, that dream has finally come true. As I write to you right now, I am sitting on the floor of the lobby of the Kansai International Airport in Osaka, thrumming away merrily on the keyboard of my laptop.

The last twenty eight hours have been fairly rough, mostly because I haven't slept for most of them. I was in the air for 18 of them. The rest were spent driving to, waiting on, or connecting to one of three different airports. Hell, I'm not done yet. I'm about to get ready to leave on the hourly shuttle, which will take me to the OKAT bus terminal. From there, I'll take a bus three and a half hours to Yonago, the city where I'm going to be living and working. Once I get there, somebody is picking me up, taking me to my hotel, and dropping me off. Upon arrival, I plan on getting the keys to my room and sleeping. LOTS of sleeping. As in "the only thing that has a snowball's chance in hell of getting me up is New Years celebrations, aka Tanabata" sleeping. I'm feeling the pain right now, and I've got several more hours to go.

So goes blog entry number one. This is just to get things started. Once I get some rest behind me, I'll have pictures, detailed descriptions of nearly everything, and lots of other exiting things to share. Stand by for entry number two sometime in the near future.