dodainjapan

BANKING

2010-11-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

I like change. Now for those of you who know me you are probably thinking, "someone has figured out Donn's password and is writing a blog." But it's true, I like change. No, not the kind where you have to do something different from what you've always done but the kind of change you get when you buy something. If my final cost at checkout was $4.01 I'd give the clerk a $5 bill. Then I'd put the change in a can and about once a year I'd wrap it up, take it to the bank and trade it in for bills so that we could buy something special or go some place special. My total time at the bank might have been 30 seconds.

Daisy is the treasurer for our new church and last summer we had a special activity that we charged 500 yen (which is a coin in Japan worth about $5.00) to attend. So Daisy had a roll of fifty 500 yen coins and a roll of fifty 100 yen coins. She asked if I'd take them to the bank and get bills.

Since I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to communicate at the bank, I asked our secretary if she would call the bank first. They said if I had more than 500 coins there would be a service charge, but I only had 100 so I asked our secretary to write the bank a note explaining about the exchange and off I went.

When I arrived there was no line, so I went to the teller, laid out my coins and gave her the note. She read it and looked a bit confused and started to get out a form. Then she said something to the girl beside her who rattled off some Japanese and she put the form away. Then she asked me for my bankbook (I assume that's what she wanted cause when I gave it to her she didn't say anything else). She looked toward a little room on her left and it appeared occupied with the door closed, so she said something that I took to mean, "Please sit down and wait," so I did.

In a couple minutes the door to the little room opened and a lady left, so the teller gathered up the change, bankbook and a banking card that she had. She took me into this very small room that was almost big enough for what I later discovered was a money-counting machine. It was one of those places that really isn't big enough to change your mind. So anyway she did something to the machine with her card and two places opened up, one for bills and one for coins. But she couldn't just drop my coins in, she had to put them in a basket first and then dump them in.

So the machine counted my money and gave her a slip of paper with a number on it. So now it's back to her window, and between her and the other teller was another machine. She put my bankbook in and entered the secret number from the money machine and voila!! the amount of coins was now entered as a deposit in our account in our book.

It only took about 15 minutes. Why they can't just give bills for change I have no idea. Maybe it's a culture thing and since this is their culture, it probably will stay that way because they don't like change!!!

DRIVING BLOG UPDATE

2010-05-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

OK. So here's the story. I was approaching a green stoplight and traffic was not moving. I was about the 7th car in line approaching the light.

The reason we weren't moving was the traffic on the other side of the light was backed up waiting at a train crossing.

(Please note that the above pictures are not of the actual incident, but only show the typical situation.) So the light turned red and then green again, and still no movement. What I wanted to do was turn left at the light--remember that I'm in Japan and we drive on the left. I noticed car #2 or 3 waiting at the light, pull into the right lane, go around the lead car and turn left since the intersection was not blocked. This is very common in Japan in these situations, and in fact I've done it myself. (Just the other day Daisy said it scares her that I'm beginning to drive like the Japanese.) So I decided I would follow. I pull out, pass the line of cars and turn left, and I'm on my way. Suddenly I hear a siren behind me and being a good citizen, I pull off to allow him to pass...however, he didn't pass but pulled up behind me.

Now I've been told that if you get stopped in Japan, just pretend that you don't speak Japanese, and the police will get frustrated, give up and wave you on. Not a difficult thing for me because I don't speak Japanese. The problem was that the officer, a smiling, jolly character, spoke some broken English. He told me, "You drove on the right side, very dangerous."

So to make a short story shorter, I got a ticket which I thought took a long time to write up. An interesting thing is that in Japan almost everyone has a "hanko," which is a rubber stamp about 1/2 inch in diameter that has your name on it and is your legal signature. I have one but I don't carry it with me, so I had to put my fingerprint on his copy of the ticket. And with one last chuckle, the officer said, with a hint of tongue in cheek, "Have a nice day!"

Anyway, with the current exchange rate, my wallet is about $100 lighter but I was guilty, unlike the time 40-ish years ago in Cumberland, MD, that cost me $27, or the time about 4 years ago in Berkeley Springs, WV, that cost me $154. Of course, there was also the time when I was doing 42 in a 25 zone in Meyersdale PA, and the policeman sent me on my way because he dropped my license into the console of his car and couldn't get it back out without going back to the station. (He mailed me my license.) But those are all stories for a different time.

YOKOHAMA

2010-05-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

In early May we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in Yokohama, a beautiful city located on the Tokyo Bay. Last year on our anniversary we wanted to spend the night at a motel but as it falls during one of Japan's biggest holiday weeks, everything was booked. (Had we known 40 years ago that we would be in Japan, I'm sure we would have picked a different date to be married.) So this time we got smart and booked a room at the Comfort Inn almost a year ago. To get there, we took the Seibu-Kokubunji train line to Kokubunji, then the Chuo line to Shinjuku, then the Shonan-Shinjuku line to Yokohama and finally the Negishi line to Kannai. All-in-all about a 90 minute trip.

We found our motel and left our bags at the desk as it was too early to check in. We walked down to the bay area and went through the Red Brick Warehouse which is now a mall.

That evening we ate at the Royal Host and had some kind of pork and rice. (Daisy had a salad and she was willing to share but I couldn't get past the tuna fish on top.) We picked up some popcorn and headed back to our room where we began watching a movie that had already started. It was obviousy an American movie as it stared Tom Hanks but the speaking was in Japanese. Our TV remote had a button that was labeled "bilingual," but when we pushed it, we heard both languages at the same time which is quite difficult to follow. Finally I double-clicked on the button which changed the language to all English. After almost an hour, we figured out we were watching "The Devinci Code" which, if you haven't seen it, is quite weird in some of the beliefs.

Sunday morning we ate at the Comfort Inn's complementary breakfast buffet. The first thing you encounter is pasta salad and tossed salad which is heavy on the shredded cabbage (after you have picked up your chopsticks or very small silverware). They also had fruit, dinner-type rolls, an apple pastry that was good but not very sweet, little hotdogs that they would call sausage, cornflakes or cocoa krispies (the cereal bowls might hold 1/2 cup at best) and the best part--runny scrambled eggs. We talked about putting them in the microwave to finish cooking but there was a sign that said they would explode.

After breakfast we took the train to an English-speaking church that was located, according to their website, at the top of a hill--and it certainly was. But it was a very good service. The pastor was Japanese but had spent many years in the States. We took the subway back to Yokohama and had our anniversary dinner at TGI Fridays. We had Mexican-style chicken with rice and a salad (no tuna fish) and then took the subway back to the bay area where we walked around the Landmark Plaza which is also a mall. One of the stores was also celebrating their 4oth anniversary so we asked some one to take our picture in front of their sign.

We got an ice cream cone and walked around trying to find a place that Daisy had remembered from 6 years ago when we were there for her birthday, but we couldn't find it.

We did, however, happen on to a very large parade with a large number of the entries being chidren's groups.

We also went to a doll museum which has dolls from all over the world that Daisy really enjoyed.

After the museum we took a 1 hour boat ride on the bay

which was quite nice, and later we again watched the parade for a bit, headed back towards the motel, ate lunch, picked up our bags and reversed our train jaunt and arrived home in the late afternoon.

A very nice weekend. The weather was beautiful and so was my wife. I remember well my parents 25th as we announced our engagement that day. Where does the time go? You can't get it back (and would you really want to?) Spend time with the Lord and spend time with your family. They both long for that to happen.

A Medical Experience in Japan

2010-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Daisy had an attack of trigeminal neuralgia in early March. She said the pain was excruciating. Much worse than having a baby (or two at once in our case). A friend told us that it is sometimes called the suicide disease because of the pain. She has been on medicine and doing much better, but it was suggested by her doctor that she have an MRI to be sure that the trigeminal neuralgia wasn't being caused by a tumor. So I thought I'd relate that experience.

First of all our doctor told us that the local hospital took walk-ins before noon so one of the Japanese speaking missionaries went with us. We thought we were going for Daisy to have an MRI. The first thing we encountered was about a 20-minute wait just to get into the hospital parking lot. Daisy and Lillian finally got out and walked the last 100 yards while I waited to park. She soon discovered that there would be no MRI that day, but that to schedule it, one must go to the hospital.

So after some line standing and form filling in the large waiting area where nearly all patients are processed, we made our way to the waiting "hall."

Note from the picture that it is actually a very large waiting area that services a total of 10 different doctors, five on each side of the hall which are as follows: obstetrics, general practitioner, dermatologist, orthopedics, oncologist, urologist, pediatrics, ear/nose/throat, eye, brain/nerve. Daisy and our accompanying translator soon got to go in and actually talk to an English-understanding but Japanese-speaking brain surgeon who discussed her problem and an appointment for the MRI was set up.

We then made our way back to the first waiting area and paid our bill... of 810 yen, about $9!

The appointment was about a week later and I'll let Daisy relate that experience to you...

Two of my English students were kind enough to accompany us since our Japanese-speaking missionary friend wasn't available the day of the MRI. They asked me the questions on the form (such as if I was pregnant!), and translated the instructions of the technicians. After I had changed into the hospital gown (which I thought was of a little better quality than is standard in the USA!), the technicians handed me some very flimsy earplugs. My friends relayed the information that this was because, "It will be noisy." I was surprised but didn't think much about it. In retrospect, I can't believe anyone would think such flimsy earplugs--or really any earplugs--would be a match for what was to come!

My friends could not come into the room where the MRI would actually be performed, of course, but the techs kindly said, "Nihongo ga skoshi warkarimuska?" ("You can understand only a little Japanese?"), and we were able to communicate with my little bit of Japanese and their little bit of English. In the USA when I have tests done in the hospital , I always FREEZE, but these rooms were so hot, I thought I was going to be sick, so I refused the blanket they wanted to put over me. Since I am slightly claustrophobic, I was a little concerned about being in the MRI machine, especially when they put a helmet-type thing over my head and part of my face. But I was given a emergency button to hold that I could press if I needed to be removed, so that was comforting.

However, it took me only a few minutes to know that I would not press that button because that would mean I'd have to go through this experience again! And as the machine was turned on, being claustrophobic suddenly because a secondary problem. Being told that it would be "noisy," didn't begin to prepare me for the volume and intensity of the noise--but then again, I don't know any words that would have prepared me, except perhaps "jackhammer!" Any of you who've had MRI's of the head probably know that it's like having a jackhammer pounding in your brain. I truly thought I was going to lose my mind from the incessant, relentless noise, and I felt strange for a day or two afterward. I assume there is a good reason for all that noise (I certainly hope so!), but no one has been able to tell me.

Back to Donn...

So the bill for the MRI came to 6,160 yen... about $70.

We weren't able to go back for the results for two weeks as we had other commitments on the day they first suggested. As you can see from the pictures, Daisy did not have the same results that Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean had when he was knocked unconscious by a baseball and the next day headlines said, "X-ray of Dean's head shows nothing." But we are very thankful that the surgeon said that there was no tumor or any growth that shouldn't be.

He said that as we age our veins lengthen and that she had one that was touching a nerve and that medicine should take care of the problem, but there were other options (surgery) if it didn't. So that 20- minute visit to have the surgeon read the results cost us another 960 yen... about $11.

So if you are keeping track, two visits with a specialist and an MRI cost us a total of $90. Japan has national health insurance and we pay 30% of the bill. So for you nonmath majors $90 is 30% of $300--total cost! We know that many people have a lot of concerns about President Obama's health plan (we've been too removed from it to know the issues), but Japan national insurance has been good for us.

Just out of curiosity, if any of you medical people happen to know what a USA hospital charges for an MRI and what it costs to actually talk face to face to a brain surgeon we'd like to know.

DUMPED ON AGAIN

2010-02-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

Well last night it happened again. We got another 35-40 millimeters of snow. Fortunately our previous snow had melted because there would have been no place to shovel it to.

Surprisingly the roads were clear this time and I was able to take Daisy to the train station at noon.

She was able to get a picture of me shoveling so I thought you might enjoy it.

Oops. Wrong picture. That was one someone sent us of the snow in Canada. I don't know how that got in my blog. I guess the computer will only do what it's told.

Here is the correct one.

The 2 pictures are quite similar.

a. Both people have 2 legs

b. Both are holding shovels

c. Part of a house can be seen

d. There are trees visible

I'm sure that there are many other similarities so I can understand how the computer could have made a mistake. I would have deleted the Canadian picture but I posted this before I thought of that. Oh well.

THE BIG SNOW

2010-02-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

I know that many of you back East have just experienced some mighty snow falls, but sometimes it's good to remember those who are less fortunate than you so I wanted to tell you briefly about our big storm.

As I walked past the upstairs window last Monday night I noticed that the ground was white. Well by the time we got up, we had not 22 inches of snow, not 32 inches of snow, not even 42 inches of snow.... We had 50 millimeters of snow and all that day the temperature hovered around zero degrees centigrade. Traffic was backed up in front of the campus which has never happened before. Although we had no command to stay off the roads, I decided to take the train to my meeting that I had planned to drive to.

I thought I'd send you a few pictures so that at least one of us can be thankful for what we have.

"Be thankful in all circumstances for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." I Thessalonians 5:18

Donn Plans, God (and Daisy) Laugh

2009-12-29T05:31:00.000-08:00

First a quick "toilet" blog update. I have been very thankful for our toilet seat covers as we have been awakening to 44 degree temperatures "inside" our house.

But moving on, I know that this may come as a shock to many of you but if truth be told, I really don't have that many brilliant ideas. However, in early November I had one. There are a number of different train lines in Japan, and one of Daisy's students gave us tickets for the Keisei line which begins in Ueno and ends at the Narita airport. Daisy's student had done this before, and we enjoyed going to the airport and just walking around in the many shops.

The tickets were due to expire on November 30th and November was looking like a busy month. But I realized that November was a five-Sunday month and on a 5th Sunday, we don't have any ministry responsibilities, so my brilliant idea was this: go to church in Higashi Kurume, leave our car there, take the Seibu line train to Ikebukuro (about $3 each), take the Yamanote line train to Nippori (about $1.50 each) and use our free Keisei line tickets (saving $10 each) to take us the rest of the way to shop at the airport. Since church (English speaking I might add) is over around 10:45 a.m. and it takes a little less than two hours for the trip, we could eat at the airport and have all afternoon to shop. Daisy reminded me that the kind of gifts we were looking for could probably be purchased in Asakusa, a much closer town, but that didn't seem nearly as exciting as my idea.

Great plan. I was really excited to get going, but as we went to the car after church, I reached in to get my backpack with all my cameras.... it wasn't there. I remembered I had set it in the hall at our house where I would have to trip over it on the way to the door so as not to miss it but... I missed it anyway. I could have done without my cameras, but my backpack also contained the free tickets! This meant wasting close to an hour driving back home to get the tickets, which we did. Then we drove to our local train station (Higashimurayama), parked the car at Ito's (department store that charges for parking) and hopped on the train.

Since we had lost that hour and were both getting hungry, Daisy suggested that we go to Ueno, eat at TGI Fridays

and then get on the Keisei line there. That sounded like a good idea, and fortunately we both ate the same meal cause it was loaded with garlic.

So after we ate we got on the train. I was excited because the train was a limited express, which would get to the airport sooner since it doesn't stop at all the stations. After we got on the train, there were a number of announcements. Now you have to understand that in Japan no one seems to listen to the announcements that occur before each station. They usually announce where we are and other lines that also stop there if one needs to transfer, but all the Japanese seem to know where they are and how to get where they're going so they pay no attention; and besides the announcer always sounds like he swallowed the mike (we think they go to a special school to learn this skill) so even if we could understand Japanese, we wouldn't be able to understand what he says--so we don't pay much attention either.

However, there seemed to be more than the ordinary amount of announcements on this train, and I asked Daisy if she thought they were saying anything important. She assured me that unless everyone starts getting up and leaving the train, they probably aren't. At the 3rd stop (Takasago, 12 minutes into the trip), the doors opened and there was another announcement. In the middle of this announcement, heads began to turn, people looked around and suddenly everyone started standing up and getting off the train. Now as Daisy had mentioned, we've learned that it is not a good sign when everyone exits a train that is nowhere near its destination!

We quickly looked around and I said, "Anyone speak English?" A young lady with her family quickly came over and said, "Do you understand?" We said no, and she told us that the train would go no further due to an accident ahead, and that they had announced we would have to go back to Nippori (the first stop after Ueno) and take the JR train line to the airport. (We had no free tickets for the JR train line!) The lady also said that we might be able to take a bus or a taxi and that the train line would pay for it. This was all well and good, but we had no way of explaining this to those who would be responsible to get us to the airport.

So Daisy suggested that we just go back to Ueno and take a short subway line to... yes you guess it, Asakusa, and do our shopping there, which we did. We were able to find the things we were looking for and had a good time. By the time we got home, we were pretty tired and actually glad that we hadn't gone all the way to the airport.

So my brilliant plan was about as good as the time I tried to...

Tug on Superman's cape, or the time I tried to,

Spit in the wind, or the time I tried to,

Pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger,

etc. etc. (You people who liked 70's music will understand!)

So if I have any more brilliant ideas, I'll be sure to let you know but don't hold your breath.

P.S. At least Ito's didn't charge us to park. We have no idea why, but as is often the case, the exit gate to their parking lot was up so what would have cost us $10 was free!

P.S.S. I didn't have a lot of pictures for this blog so I thought you might enjoy a couple signs that were on one of the trains.

TOILETS

2009-09-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Whereas it is a well known fact that things tend to take on the temperature of their surroundings (well I don’t know if it’s well known and I’m not even sure it is a fact but it sounds good for what I need) and

Whereas many houses in Japan heat during the winter with kerosene and

Whereas open flames and kerosene are not a good combination in a country prone to earthquakes (so heat must be turned off at night)

Be it resolved that going to the bathroom in the middle of the night can be a rather chilly awakening to one’s posterior--our house temp got down to 44 degrees one night.

But the Japanese are quite resourceful. In our house we have toilet seat covers made from a terry-cloth-type material. They come in a variety of colors and can be picked up quite cheaply at the 100 yen shop. Or you can purchase a simple seat that you plug in and it is always warm. (Although in this case one hopes that there won’t be any short circuits).

For those who like to be pampered, you can purchase a toilet seat (for up to $500 or so ) that has additional features. These pictures were taken at the Narita airport in Tokyo. I’ve blown up the instructions so you can read about the individual options. (The airport obviously didn’t spring for the high end model as not all buttons are present.) Some models also come with driers. Warm air will gently blow on your...well you get the idea.

(I don't know why the flushing sound is exclusively for women. I'd like to know but who would I ask?)

Since the instructions for the different functions on these upscale toilet seats often aren't available (or they're in Japanese), sometimes it's tempting to experiment by pressing the various buttons in restaurant or hotel bathrooms. One woman who accompanied Daisy on a prayer trip to Kyoto would tell you that is definitely NOT a good idea. She ended up having water squirted directly into her mouth as she leaned over the toilet, pushing different buttons in their hotel bathroom!

Now if this looks like something that you need in your house, they are available in the States. In fact if you go to http://www.sandman.com/intimst.html you can find info and a very “informative” 5-minute video--the ending is worth waiting for.

Now lest you think that in Japan we live in the lap of luxury, let me show you the other style of Japanese toilets.

From the picture you may be asking, “Where do you sit?” Well duh, why do you think they call it the squatty potty? You don’t. I would like to report that I have now been in Japan for over 2 years total time since we first came in 2001, and I have not yet used one of these. My goal is to keep it that way.

Public washrooms are usually equipped with Japanese style toilets, but the number of public washrooms with Western style toilets has increased significantly, especially in tourist areas. Public washrooms with both Japanese and Western style toilets are also common.

One thing you will want to remember should you come visit us is that because toilet paper is sometimes not provided in public washrooms, it is recommended that you always carry a small package of tissues with you. (People are always giving these away near the train stations.) Similarly, because paper towels or dryers are not always provided, it is recommended that you carry a handkerchief

In conclusion, I can only say that even in the basic functions of daily life, Japan continues to be an intricately woven combination of the very old...

and the very new.

OLD BLOG UPDATE

2009-07-06T23:36:00.001-07:00

Just thought I’d update some old blogs.

FOOD

We saw a new record for the price of two cantaloupes (in a nice box.)—about $265.

UNWELCOME SQUATTERS

Sadly, with the warmer weather the cockroaches have returned. We tried the smoke bombs but that hasn’t had much of an effect, so we have resorted to the “roach motels.” (And an occasional shoe.) As you can see the hotels are quite attractive, and we have had a number of roaches check in. But as you can also see, none have checked out. (Actually they have checked out, in a manner of speaking.)

OBTAINING A DRIVERS LICENSE

Last fall I promised you that I would update you in the spring when I took my driving test. (Well now it’s summer and no one wrote to ask, so either you aren’t reading my blogs or you forgot or you don’t really care, but I’ll update you anyway.) My driving has gone very well so far except for a pole that jumped out and grabbed our car as I pulled into a parking lot.

As you may or may not recall, the first thing I needed was a Japanese translation of my Pennsylvania license. I wasn’t sure how to get to the JAF office (Japanese equivalent of AAA), so a man in our Alpha group agreed to take me. We left at 9:00 a.m. on June 30 and arrived at 10:20 a.m. (This is quite understandable as the office was about 14 miles away.)
The translating took about 20 minutes and $30. The return trip would take us close to the testing place, so I decided that I would take the written part of the test on the way home.

step one - go to the third floor and begin the paperwork
step two - go back down to the first floor and pay $24
step three - go to a different place on the first floor and take the eye test which
consisted of telling the tester which direction the opening in the
circle was pointing and identifying the colors that flashed on the screen:
red, yellow and “blue.” (Why not green? I have no idea. Those of you
who know and may have been concerned about my “color weakness”
problem, I did fine.)
step four - go back to the third floor and pick a date to take the driving test. I
chose Friday, July 3.

I needed to be at the testing center by 9:00 a.m. and having been told that the parking lot fills up quickly, I left home about 6:45 a.m. (After all, the center is about 10 miles and 56 stoplights from our place.) Anyway I arrived at 7:30 a.m. and just killed time until 8:30 a.m. when the window opened on the third floor, and I could let them know that I was there. Other people wandered in, one man was from Ghana and one from Morocco I think. One young man was Japanese but lived in Columbus, Ohio, and said he was taking the test for the fourth time.

Around 9:15 a.m. the “tester” policeman came out and got us (just 10) in order (I would go fourth), and he led us down to the course. (If you have Google Earth you can do a “fly to” 35 41 23.34 N,139 30 55.47 E and see it. You can also fly to 35 45 15.00 N, 139 27 12.83 E and see the roof of our house.) He proceeded to talk about what might have been important but I couldn’t understand him. The trip around the course is no more than 10 minutes, so it wasn’t too long until it was my turn to ride in the back seat and get a feel for what would be expected. (While driver #1 takes the test, driver #2 gets to ride in the back seat.) Driver #3 did a fine job and turned out to be one of the five that passed, and then it was my turn.

I started out of the parking lot and made my first mistake. Since we all drive the same course, I knew that I would be turning left, so I didn’t stop in a perpendicular manner relative to the white strip on the road. The tester proceeded to tell me at length about what I had done wrong. At least that’s what I assume he said since I couldn’t understand, but his many hand gestures told me that I wasn’t perpendicular. I proceeded through the course and thought I did OK, but when I was done he made some hand movements that made me think I might have swung a little too wide around a road hazard.

So it was back to the third floor to wait till everyone was done and when the names were called of those who passed, Townsend wasn’t one of them. (Neither was the fourth timer.) So I got my form, went to another window on the third floor, paid another $24 and came back and rescheduled for Monday the 6th. I found it ironic that I drove myself 45 minutes to the test site, failed a 10-minute test and drove back home.

(Daisy’s turn - While in the process of editing this, I noticed that one thing Donn had neglected to tell you was what a basket case he was between Friday and Monday! He’s never had a problem falling asleep at night, but he was awake by around 4:00 a.m. every morning, lost his appetite at times, and admitted that he’d been over that course in his mind more than times than he could possibly count, even with his math degree! We all have our own customized battles with trust!)

So Monday morning it was the same routine. This time there were only six of us but again I was fourth. We had a different tester and he looked much more stern. (Another guy that had failed with me on Friday said he noticed the officer had a cauliflower ear which told him that he was probably into judo and a “no-nonsense” type.)

This officer also led us down to the waiting area and talked and talked and talked and… I made very good eye contact with him but I didn’t have a clue. At one point I heard Nihongo and wakarimasen which means “don’t understand Japanese”. So I quickly said, “Nihongo ga wakarimasen.” I thought he was asking who didn’t understand Japanese, but I found out later that he was saying that if you didn’t understand Japanese you shouldn’t be taking the test! If you think about it, that was a rather ______ (fill in your own word) thing to say cause if you understood what he said, it didn’t apply, and if it applied you didn’t know what he said.

So I got into the back seat again when the third driver went, and she was pretty bad, so perhaps my driving looked pretty good in comparison to hers! Regardless, the course was the same as it had been on Friday so when it was my turn, I nailed it. (Well if truth be told, the Lord nailed it. I just went for the ride.) The tester was actually very kind and although he only spoke Japanese he would tell me which way to turn (migi-right or hidori-left and as each road is marked with a number he would say that in Japanese but hold up the corresponding number of fingers)

So now I’m a licensed Japanese driver. An interesting side fact is that even though I’ve been driving for 44 years, I have to have a “beginner” sticker on my car because I couldn’t prove that I’ve actually driven in the United States for at least a year. My renewal PA license was issued in ’06 but we got new passports in ’08 and that is the only way that they can tell that I’ve actually been in the country. They did say that if I can bring my old passport in I can have that restriction removed so hopefully I can do that soon.

So come on over. I’ll take you out for a spin and I’ll try to remember to keep to the left.

Pool

2009-05-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

About 1.9 miles from our house (10-25 minutes depending on how we hit the nine stoplights and how much time we spend waiting on trains) is a sports center complex. Part of this complex is a swimming pool where it was suggested that Daisy do some walking to help with pain that she was having. Since we don’t do the language very well, one of Daisy’s students and her husband (one of our Alpha guests) agreed to go with us the first time.

As you enter the separate building which contains the pool, the first thing you need to do is take off your shoes (after all this is Japan) and leave them on a shelf or in a locker if you have shoes that are worth stealing. You then proceed through the automatic sliding door, and around the corner you find the ticket machine where for 400 yen each ($4) we get our tickets. (Blue button on the machine is for boys ticket and pink button for girls). This allows us 2 hours in the pool. Down the long hall and down one floor on the elevator gets us to the desk where they stamp our ticket and say some things that we can’t understand.

Two things our “advisors” had told us repeatedly was that everyone MUST wear a bathing cap (don’t I look cute?), and you can’t use soap to wash at the pool. (We were a little puzzled by that because we aren’t in the habit of washing in the pools in America, but later noticed “no soap” signs in the shower stalls.) Daisy’s student also told her that we weren’t allowed to take our towels out to the pool (there was a rod with towels hanging on it that said “towels” above it so we tend to doubt that rule) and insisted that she rinse her face of chemicals from the pool in an area that looked like mini water fountains, although we didn’t see anyone else doing that.

Since we planned to only walk in waist high water, Daisy (who is very near-sighted) thought that she would be able to keep her glasses on, but her student checked with the life guard and was told she could but only if she had a strap. So before we went the second time, we purchased a strap for $10 only to be told that it didn’t matter, “No glasses allowed.” (Later, we discovered that there are goggles that one can buy (we don’t know where) for a steep price that would be sort of like “prescription” goggles for near-sighted people. Perhaps that was what they were referring to when they mentioned having a strap???)

Daisy also learned another pool “no no” after she got her hair cut. She had been wearing earrings consistently during our visits to the pool, but apparently no one had noticed because her hair covered them. In our first visit to the pool following her hair cut, one of the life guards came to tell her to take off her earrings. Even though we couldn’t understand her words, it was pretty obvious what she was saying!

I had hoped to take a lot of pictures, especially of the “changing of the guard,” for this blog, but last night as I sat in the glassed-in balcony waiting for the life guards to change, a girl came and told me (at least I think that’s what she said), “no pictures allowed.”

In America when it’s time for lifeguards to change, that’s what they do. One gets off the chair, one gets on the chair and that’s it. Not here. The new one stands beside the chair holding a yellow cone in his/her hand while the one on the chair goes through the motions of looking at every space in the room (pool, balcony, behind them, etc.) and all the while moving their hand back and forth in a (to me) puzzling way. The only thing I can compare it to is the sort of motion a priest makes when blessing his people. Then they switch places and go through the routine again.

On the half hour an announcement is made—we have no idea what they say, but apparently it’s not important because no one has come to scold us for not complying. Then at five minutes before the hour another announcement is made and the lifeguard blows a whistle, and everyone must get out of the pool for a ten-minute “rest.” We are allowed to be in the Jacuzzi during the rest period and there is also a spa where one can spend that ten minutes—those are both also available at any other time.

There are two mops hanging in the men’s locker so that when (not if) you drip on the floor after swimming, you can mop it up. Lockers are available for 100 yen (about $1.00) to store clothing while swimming and the money is returned when leaving.

So it’s a bit different than the States but once we accepted the rules, it has become a pleasurable experience. The room and water temperature are kept at 30 degrees Centigrade (since America tried to go metric many years ago I’m sure that you all know that is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit).

So we invite you to come on over and join us for a walk, but don’t forget your bathing cap.

Cherry Blossom Time

2009-04-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have been to Washington DC in April and viewed the cherry blossoms. Those trees were a gift from Japan in 1912. Over here we get to see the real thing. These first two pictures are the view from our bedroom window, as we have 3 large trees on our lot.

Cherry blossom time is a very big deal in Japan. Weather officials are also a part of the hype. The forecast maps went pink in March and April as officials issued predictions of when and where flowers would bloom. A couple years ago they missed their forecast by a couple days and issued a national apology. These predictions are crucial in a country where hanami -- flower-viewing parties at which lavish picnics are consumed, accompanied by beer or sake -- are planned weeks in advance among friends or by businesses looking to boost employee morale.

We heard that some companies would send out employees days in advance to claim a particular

location to party.

On Monday March 30 I went to a park in Ueno, about a 50-minute train ride from our house. Not all the trees were in bloom but I was able to get some nice pictures. Then on Saturday, April 4, we went to Shinjuku Gyoen, another large park with over 75 varieties and over 1500 trees, and the day was perfect. The trees were in full bloom and thousands of people were there. We thought it was interesting that an announcement was made in both Japanese and English that said that it was illegal to have alcohol on the park grounds. It was everywhere.

Some of the people had little box lunches, others had brought grills but the most ingenious group that we saw was at a park closer to our home. A number of young men walked past us with bags, coolers and a generator that was needed to power the microwave that one of the guys was carrying. Sorry I missed that picture. Of course you don’t have to bring your own food. Some of the areas do have vendors that tempt you with fine Japanese delicacies. Those of you that read my last blog will not be surprised to know that the Lord gave me the strength not to yield to temptation.

(Fish on a stick? I don’t think so.)

For you golfers out there, I heard an announcement that one of the local golf courses would be closed on Sunday so that people could walk around the course and picnic under the trees. Somehow I just don’t see that happening in the States!!

So sit back and enjoy.

Food

2009-03-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have heard Daisy say that when it comes to eating, I am very picky. I like to think of myself as “selective,” and in Japan I have learned to be VERY selective. I have never cared for any kind of fish (OK, I can eat tuna sandwiches because enough Miracle Whip can cover up most of the fishy taste), but over here there’s also squid, octopus, seaweed… Now that’s a whole different story! I did try one fish egg once. It was about the size of a pea and when I bit into it, this fishy-flavored juice exploded in my mouth. One was more than enough! I also tried a small piece of squid that I chewed...and chewed… and chewed… Nothing happened except for this seafood taste in my mouth. In Japan they don’t have fish-n-chips because over here, fish are chips. If you would like a potato-chip-like snack, you can buy a bag of small, dried fish, with the heads still on.

We have a food court in the new mall about 25-30 minutes from us (6 miles), and we walk past a lot of strange-looking things on our way to KFC. It could be that we might find them tasty but since we can’t read the ingredients and we can’t ask what they are, we decide it’s better to move on. (Some of their soups look good but we have learned the hard way that they often use a fish-flavored base.)

I’d like to like seafood as it is supposed to be good for high cholesterol people like me, but it’s not going to happen. One of the young pastors who was at the TBS Church when we were here before always wanted me to eat what he called taco salad. Now that sounded fine until I realized it’s spelled “tako” which means octopus… Enough said!

But there is good news. Japan has excellent fruits and vegetables. There are many Mom and Pop fruit and veggie markets in our area--our favorite being Yamato’s. We have been eating strawberries since January and they are much sweeter than those in the States. Lately mikans (delicious Japanese oranges) are in season, and in a few months, their sweet, juicy watermelons will be ready. On the vegetable side, Daisy particularly likes their cucumbers, and I enjoy daikon, which is a very large, mild-tasting radish.

Now the prices of things here were a bit of a shock. If we can find corn on the cob for the equivalent of $1 an ear, it’s a good deal. In some stores a single stalk of celery will normally be more than $1. Most apples are quite large and sometimes will be priced at $1 apiece or more. When you are invited to someone’s house, it is the custom to take a gift; and food is often the choice. The pictures show 2 cantaloupes for over $160 and a watermellon (in a nice box) for about $105.

Many American food items are available here if you search enough stores, but for a price. We recently bought a box of 10 Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets and paid about $4.50. An 18 oz. box of Rice Krispies is $9.00. Five cans of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup are $8.99. Hamburg is about $3.60 a pound. Needless to say, we don’t buy most of these things very often.

A “loaf” of bread can have between 2 and 10 slices. In the 2, 3 and 4 slice loaves the slices are a little more than an inch thick. And unless you buy a real loaf in a bakery, you don’t get the heel slices. Milk and juice only come in 1 liter (quart) sizes. Also it is extremely rare to find any bones in any cut of meat. Think about it. You don’t eat bones so why would a store sell them?

So I am not starving and I am not wasting away to nothing, but it amazes me that a country that eats raw fish won’t eat raw cauliflower. Go figure!

COUNTING

2009-02-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

COUNTING

Whenever one studies a new language, one of the first things to learn is how to count. For instance, way back you learned:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Before our first trip to Japan in 2001 we thought it would be good to know a few Japanese words, so we took some classes that the YMCA classes in Grove City was offering and one of the things we learned was:

Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyu, ju

“What could be easier”? At least that’s what we thought. And that is true--AS LONG AS YOU AREN’T REALLY COUNTING ANYTHING!

The Japanese language, like some other languages (Chinese for instance), uses “counter” words. Counter words describe what is being counted more than the English words with which we count. When I first heard someone count cars I heard ichidai, nidai, sandai. Since I knew that “ichi, ni, san” was “one, two, three,” I assumed that dai meant car. Of course I was wrong as the same counting words are also used to count computer monitors. In English when we count 5 pencils we are saying 5 of them. In Japanese, 5 pencils would be 5 of those long round cylindrical thingies. (This would also include certain plants, ties, bottles, guitars and bullet trains—the very fast trains in Japan).

So here we go. (I’ll limit everything to one, two, three, but those of you who bore easily might want to go back to playing solitaire unless the boss is close by.)

houses - ikken, niken, sanken
buildings - itto, nitou, santou
things - ikko, niko, sanko
tiny things - hitotsubu, futotubu, mitsubu
long things - ippon, nihon, sanbon
that thing - ichimai, nimai, sanmai
chop sticks - ichizen, nizen, sanzen*
kimono cloth - ittan, nitan, santan (or ippiki, nihiki)
bundles - hitotaba, futaba, mitaba
blossoms - hitohira, futahira, mihara
letters - hitomoji,futomoji, mimoji
letter lines - ichigyo,nigyo,sangyo
medicine drops - itteki, niteki, santeki
people - hitori,futori, sannin
small animals - ippiki, nihiki, sanbiki
birds, rabbits - ichiwa, niwa, sanwa**
big animals - ittoo, nitou, santou
fish - ichibi, nibi, sanbi
cups, glasses, spoonfuls, cuttlefish, octopuses, crabs - ippai, nihai, sanbai
airplanes - ikki, niki, sanki
boat - issou, nisou, sansou
ships - isseki, niseki, sanseki
books - issatsu, nisatsu, sansatsu
songs - ikkyoku, nikyoku, sankyoku
motel stay (nights) - ippaku, nihaku, sanhaku
boxes - hitohako, futahako, sanhako
bullets - ippatu, nihatu,sanpatu
tatami mats - ichijo, nijo, sanjo
dishes - hitosara, futasara, misara
bags - hitofukuro, futafukuro, mifukuro
round pears (or any round thing) - ikko, niko, sanko but...
sliced pears - hitokire, futakire, mikire
Japanese swords - hitofuri, futafuri, mifuri
cannons - ichimon, nimon, sammo
cockroaches - I asked how they count cockroaches but was told, "We don't usually count them."

*Those of you who are astute are saying, “Wait a minute... Aren’t chopsticks long things?” I asked the same question and was told it’s because they come in pairs.

**It might be an old wive’s tale, but I heard that many years ago the Japanese were not supposed to eat rabbits but many people liked the taste, so they counted them like birds and proceeded to enjoy the furry little creatures

I’m sure that there are other catagories, but I think you get the idea and understand why we will never learn the language; however, since I doubt I’ll ever have to count cannons, maybe the list is doable after all…

JAPANESE LANGUAGE

2009-01-01T21:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry I’ve been absent---Christmas was very busy.

I thought some of you might be wondering how our language study is going. I’m sure that by now you are saying, “Well, he was there for a year and now he’s been there for over 4 months, so I’m sure that he has mastered reading, writing and speaking Japanese.” My reply would be, “hay, I been workin on me anglish four over 6o yers an I aint mustered it.” Japanese is muzakashi (difficult—you know the saying about old dogs and new tricks).

Wikipedia says, “The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji, and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters called hiragana and katakana. The Latin alphabet, romanji, is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional kanji numerals are commonplace.”

The kanji alphabet is the most difficult. It is claimed that there are 50,000 kanji but only about 2,000 are commonly used. It would be very helpful to learn all kanji, but the basic 1,000 characters are sufficient to read about 90% of the kanji used in a newspaper (about 60% with 500 characters). So needless to say, I read about 0% of a newspaper, although I can recognize the kanji numbers 1-10.

I think I read in a book that the syllable “to” (pronounced toe) can be represented by over 60 different kanji. Also, many times Japanese is written vertically and read right to left; words are not always separated by spaces and little punctuation is used. The picture above was taken at our train station and gives the name of our town in kanji, hiragana and romanji—in that order, top to bottom.

Japanese, like most languages, is spoken vey fast by native speakers and many words kind of flow together to our ears. A few Sundays ago Daisy wrote down the words we recognized from a 45 minute sermon, and we came up with: God, please, now, same, sixteen, # 1, where, but, group, twelve, and, “there isn’t any.” (We hope you find this condensed sermon as edifying as we did.) However, in my opinion, if you were to attempt to learn Japanese or English from scratch, Japanese would be easier. Their vowel sounds are as follows;

a as in father, e as in men, i as in see, o as in boat and u as in food

The basic vowel sounds don’t change. Meanwhile in English we have:

a as in hat, a as in hate, a as in about and I’m sure there are others, and like wise for the other vowels. And read the following list:

thought, enough, through, though, cough, bough

All have “ough” in them and all are pronounced differently. You know them because you grew up with them, but there is no rule to teach them.

But I digress—back to us. The hiragana and katakana alphabets each consist of 46 characters which were originally kanji but were simplified over the centuries. You can clearly distinguish the usually complicated kanji characters from the simpler hiragana and katakana characters. Katakana is used mainly used for writing words borrowed from other languages, and the names of persons and geographical places that can’t be written in kanji.

Daisy is learning the hiragana sounds and is doing quite well at singing the hymns on Sunday. She doesn’t necessarily know what the words mean, but they use many of the old familiar hymns so at least we know the tune. I on the other hand, am getting quite skilled at humming in Japanese or any other language that I attempt.

I am working on the katakana, and it’s rather fun since if you play with the sounds you can “sometimes” come up with the meaning. For instance, the first three lines of the picture show the name of an event that took place here a few weeks ago, written in katakana. The bottom line says the same thing in kanji on the left and hiragana on the right—so I am told. There may be some slight variations but for the most part the sign says in Japanese:

fe su te bar u

o bu

ra i tsu

Now you need to know that all consonants must be followed by a vowel (except for the n) and that the Japanese do not have an l so an r is used and they do not have a v so a b is used. So if we apply these rules to the first line we get…

Fe s te va l or festival

Line 2 would be ovu and if we drop the u we get ov which we would pronounce “of”.

For line 3 we also need to remember that the Japanese language does not have anything that makes a word plural, so changing the r to l we get lai which has a long i sound, add the t and drop the u and we get lits or all that to say:

festival
of
lights

Of course you don’t always know when to change the r or the b or when to drop the vowel, but it’s fun in restaurants to try to figure out what we do or don’t want to order.

So we are working on the language, but long ago a thought occurred to me. Before we made our first trip to Japan in 2001, we took some Japanese language classes at the YMCA in Grove City to learn some survival phrases like “Good morning.” “How much does it cost?” “Where is the bathroom?” etc. The problem is this: Let’s say I go up to a Japanese person on the street and ask them in, not perfect but understandable, Japanese, “Where is the bathroom?” They would probably answer me in Japanese using words that I haven’t learned yet and speaking at a speed that I can’t follow. So I still have a problem. My solution to this is to go up to that Japanese person and say “English?” Then I proceed from there. Most times it works and most Japanese can speak some English. When it doesn’t work, I just hope that the question was “How much does it cost?”

By the way, where IS the bathroom????

OBTAINING A DRIVERS LICENSE

2008-11-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Before I give you some insight into obtaining a Japanese driver's license, I want to add to my last blog about driving. Occasionally we need to go to the Christian School which is less than 7 miles away. The problem is that between here and there, one needs to go through 37 stoplights. Sometimes they are green, sometimes they are yellow, sometimes they are red, and occasionally I would call the color a real deep orange (if you catch my drift).

Now back to the test. First, you have to have your present license translated into Japanese. Then you must go for a written test which consists of 10 true/false questions. Some sample tests can be found on the Internet and here are a few of those questions.

1. If you are in a hurry it is okay if you do not slow down for an ambulance.

2. If you are going to drive a motor vehicle, it is important to know the rules of the road.

3. If you consume only a small amount of alcohol or sleeping medication, but still feel OK, it is acceptable to operate a motor vehicle.

4. When crossing a railway you should gear down so you can accelerate quicker if needed.

5. With a yellow blinking light, you can go through the intersection without paying attention to other drivers.

Some of the questions pertain to road signs. The stop sign is painted on the road and looks like this.

Speed limit signs might be painted on the road or they could be on a pole.

Also on many poles there are mirrors positioned to help a person to see if another car is coming around a sharp turn or a blind curve. This is a picture of the exit from our campus and you can see the one mirror--there are two, one on each corner of the entry to the OMS Campus.

And here is a picture of what I sometimes see as I attempt to leave the Campus.

Of course I have to check the mirror in the other direction as well...but I digress.

If you pass the written portion, then you can schedule a day for your driving test. This is taken on a closed course and 12 people will be scheduled to arrive at the same time to take their test. The order is randomly chosen after everyone arrives. You will know when you complete the course (or sooner in some cases) whether or not you have passed, but all 12 people have to stay until all are done. Also, the next person scheduled gets to ride in the backseat while you take your test, so they can see what the course is like. (No I don’t know what happens if you are the first driver. It seems like a disadvantage but…) Since many Japanese roads are very narrow (see previous blog), part of the test is driving between poles that are hung along both sides of the test road. If you hit one, you have to come back another day to take the test again. There is a charge for each part of the test, and the total cost for obtaining your license is around $75. Of course if you don't pass, you have to pay again for each part of the test that you retake.

To help me get ready for the written part of the test, OMS has a “RULES OF THE ROAD” book in English. One page that I found particularly interesting was the “don’ts” of the road which are as follows:

1) One must not take inherently dangerous actions on the road as indicated below:

· Pedestrians must not stagger drunkenly on the road, or otherwise interfere with road traffic by talking, sitting, or lying on the road.

· Don't rollerskate, skate board, or play catch, etc., where there's a lot of traffic.

· Don't throw or shoot anything into the street.

· It's illegal to damage the road, or to pour wastewater, rubbish, nails, broken glass, or any other item which can interfere with traffic.

· It's illegal to throw cigarette butts, wastepaper, empty cans or any other rubbish out of the car window. One should also refrain from placing any part of his / her body outside the vehicle.

· It's illegal to grab onto a moving automobile or street car.

· One must not flash a light onto the road, as an approaching driver could be blinded.

· Don't pour water on the road when there is a danger of freezing.

2) Don't display goods or place sand, lumber, or other items on the road in a way that can obstruct traffic.

3) It's dangerous when traffic lights, road signs, or pavement markings are difficult to distinguish. It's against the law to erect a neon light, etc., near a traffic light or to post signs which can be confused with traffic signs. It's also prohibited to damage, alter, or otherwise tamper with traffic lights, road signs, or pavement markings.

4) It's a violation of the law to ask a non-licensed individual or person who has had even a single drink to operate a motor vehicle. One should never rush or disturb the driver.

5) It's also illegal to offer alcohol to any individual who will be driving.

6) It's prohibited to ask someone to drive an overloaded vehicle (carrying objects heavier than the legal weight limit), or to sell or deliver objects to a driver that will knowingly overload the vehicle.

Some make good sense. Others bring strange pictures to my mind.

But even if a person thinks they've done everything perfectly, there may still be cause for concern. We were told that one person who didn't pass and asked why, was told,"You didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't like the way you drove."

I'll let you know in the spring how the test went.

By the way, in case you were wondering, the answers to the true and false questions above are:

F T F F F

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS

2008-11-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

The good news is—we have a car. The bad news is—we have a car (actually it’s called a Kei-Van) and that means I have to drive. Over here they drive on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the right side of the car. At least the floor pedals are in the right order, but the turn signal and windshield wiper levers are reversed so occasionally when, at the last moment, I put on the turn signal, the windshield wipers go. Actually I had been driving a borrowed car that our neighbors had let us use and it’s really not too bad, although the roads in Japan can be described with 3 words: narrow, curvy and unmarked. In the US every little alley has a name; not so here, as only the major roads are named.

Many roads here would be a narrow one-way street in the U.S., but many of them are 2-way (as you can see below),

and all cars have side mirrors that fold in if things really get tight! The other problem with the narrow roads is that I am told (although officially unconfirmed) that in our area there is no such thing as a right of way for the utility companies. So since a land owner would not have to allow the company access to their poles, the poles are put out on the road.

Also the shape of a homeowner's lot can be irregular so the road width may need to change suddenly.

And you always must be alert for bicycles and especially motorcycles which do not wait their turn. Motorcycles will pass on either side, and they always go to the front of the line when waiting at a stoplight or for a train. Sometimes on the major highways, they may decide to ride between cars, thereby creating a very narrow third lane.

Getting gas here is somewhat like getting gas in the States in the early 1960’s. When you pull in, an attendant tells you exactly where to stop, and if they aren’t busy you may have two people washing your windows and checking your oil.

Afterwards, someone will stop traffic so that you can safely leave the station.

From the picture, you can see that gas is 142 and that would be in yen. At today’s rate of exchange that would be about $1.45.

Now before you get too excited and think how easy we have it, let me point out that over here they charge by the liter and since there are 3.87 liters per gallon, our gas costs $5.63 per gallon. SO STOP YOUR COMPLAINING about high gas prices.

Probably some time in the spring I will need to get a Japanese driver's license which will require both a written and a driving test. I'll give you some information on how that process will go in my next blog.

HAPPY DRIVING.

ONLY IN JAPAN

2008-10-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

When we were in Japan before, we had dial-up service for our internet connection which made it very hard to send out newsletters containing pictures or to download pictures that friends and family wanted to send us. Knowing that we didn’t want that again, we asked around and were told that J-COM was a good company, and that they had the same type of setup as the States where we could bundle our phone, Internet and TV. We called and a man came out to take our application, and fortunately he spoke very good English.

For various reasons, we were unable to include the phone but got high speed Internet and cable TV and agreed to a minimum six-month term. About a week later the installer came (who didn’t speak English), and a friend of ours was able to be here and do some translating. The remote and manual were both in Japanese, so even though they explained various functions to us, we failed to take notes and soon forgot.

We did remember how to use the remote to turn things on, so everything worked fine until one day Daisy watched a video in the VCR connected to our television. After that, we could no longer get many of the cable channels we’d gotten before, but strangely enough we were still able to get some channels whether or not the J-COM box was turned on!

I called J-COM and asked for an English-speaking person but was told that they would call me back. After various intervals of time, I talked to two different people who had no idea what the problem might be, so they said they would need to call back to schedule an engineer to come to our house. Finally an engineer and interpreter were scheduled to come sometime Friday morning Oct 10.

Friday morning the phone rang and Daisy answered. An unusually jolly Japanese man’s voice said, “Hello, this is Nishioka. I want to come to your house in 30 or 40 minutes. Is it okay?” Daisy was startled and said, “I guess so. Who did you say this is?” “Just call me ‘Nori,” the man said. “It means ‘seaweed!” he added with a rather loud laugh. Daisy hung up with a puzzled expression and told me, “Someone named ‘Seaweed’ is coming to our house, but I have no idea why!” I assumed it must be J-COM since we weren’t expecting anyone else.

Around 10:00 they arrived, the two we knew about and a third in a separate car who was there for the purpose of traffic control (we live in a walled-in campus which has no outside traffic). After about 2 hours of a lot of Japanese and our interpreter saying, “he says…,” they had determined that the problem was in our VCR, which was needed as the TV is an older model which doesn’t have the game inputs that could have been tied directly to their box. So their solution was that we would need to buy a new VCR or buy a newer model TV. Since we didn’t want to do that, we tried to ask whether we could drop the cable but still keep the internet, and therefore meet the six-month agreement. Our interpreter was having trouble with our question, so he made a phone call and then told us that the original person who had signed us up (Tetsuko Tatemichi) would stop later that day to talk to us. They finally left about 12:15.

After they left we discussed our options. Buying a new VCR or TV was not a good option as they are very expensive, and we really haven’t been watching much TV. There are American movies but they aren’t edited at all for language or content, so most of the ones we have started to watch, we gave up on early in the movie. I do watch some sports but we decided that if we could drop the cable portion we would.

Daisy left for class which I was also supposed to help teach, but we didn’t know when Tetsuko was coming and we wanted to get this resolved (rescheduling takes forever). He soon showed up and he knew about our problem, so I asked if we still kept the internet could we drop the cable—he shook his head. I thought that maybe he could tell me in English what each of the remote buttons did, but he quickly said that there was an English version of the manual that he would be glad to provide.

Then (and we’re finally getting to the “only in Japan” part) Tetsuko said he would be glad to go home (about 50 minutes round trip) and bring us a TV that he wasn’t using that had the necessary inputs. It’s rather small but will work fine until we decide what to do when our six-month agreement is up. I’m convinced that in America the person would have said “Sorry, maybe Walmart is having a sale,” and they would have been gone.

We have no idea if all customers are treated this way, but we are thankful for the kindness of so many Japanese people whether or not they know us. I hope that foreigners receive the same kindness in America but…

Cockroach update:

Two more dead, one living but walking with a severe limp.

Faces of Japan

2008-09-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Not much to say. Just a lot of pictures of some beautiful children.

This is my favorite.

Unwelcome Squatters

2008-09-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

In the 38 + years that we have been married we have lived in 12 different apartments or houses. We've never at any time had a problem with cockroaches--bedbugs yes, but that’s another story--until now. We were surprised when we encountered our first one about 2 weeks after moving in since the house had been empty for 2 months, and therefore no food had been left around. I don’t know the standard size but ours are about 1 ½ inches long.

As they are quite fast and can change direction in the blink of an eye, the battle has been quite a challenge. However, great hunter that I am, I have been up to the challenge. Seven have checked into the “roach motel” and never checked out. One sat still long enough for me to bop his (or her, how do you tell) head with the handle end of a butter knife. One I hit with a hammer, after spraying him (or her, see above) with furniture polish. One was on the kitchen counter and the only weapon I had available was a hand towel. Since my long term memory is still functioning, I recalled the high school locker room days of towel snapping and I stunned him enough to flip him into the sink and quickly turned on the garbage disposal.

The cockroach in the picture below, I trapped in the fridge. Well actually it was the old fridge that we had moved into the "monooki" which is a storage area about the size of a 1-car garage that is attached to our house. I had left the fridge doors open so it wouldn’t get moldy, and as I walked by one day I noticed the roach, so I shut the door. A few days later I checked and discovered that he had passed on. An autopsy was never performed to determine if death was caused by asphyxiation, starvation or heart attack.

I’d like to think that I am winning the war, but I’m not that naïve. I read that they can produce thousands of offspring a year so we’ll need to come up with some other methods, but the experience thus far does make for a good blog.

Donn

P.S. Well I guess I have to add a PS. I was ready to post this but last night as we were getting ready for bed, Daisy noticed that we had a visitor in the bathroom. As the weapons from my arsenal (see picture above) were all downstairs, I was in a bit of a dilemma but Daisy came to the rescue and handed me a washcloth that had become a rag. I entered the bathroom, closed the door and prepared for battle. He darted left...I smacked him. He feinted left and darted right...I smacked him again. Actually after about 10 smacks from the dry rag, he pretty well gave up the fight and I threw him outside. Another job well done.

Recycling

2008-09-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

Living in Japan gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “paper or plastic?” For those of you who live in a big city, this would probably not be a big deal, but we lived in the small town of Sandy Lake where recycling was not a priority. Every week the garbage bag filled with paper, plastic, food, cans, small appliances and every other whatnot was set out on Sunday night and Monday morning it would disappear. Even when we started to recycle about 2 years ago, every “recyclable” thing went in the same cart.

But not so in Japan. Here we have a 16 page booklet which we affectionately refer to as our “garbage Bible.” We have many categories and many subcategories.
And it’s not just getting things in the right bags (blue, peach, and gray), we also need to know what day they will be picked up. The schedule is as follows:

Burnable Tues. & Fri. (blue bag)
Plastic bags/Wraps Thur. (gray bag)
Non-burnable 1st Wed. (peach bag)
Bottles/Cans/Hazardous materials 1st Mon. (bins at a different location)
Newspapers/Magazines/Cardboard/Clothing 1st & 3rd Mon. (bundled)
Pet Bottles 2nd & 4th Wed. (semi-transparent bag)

Yard garbage, leaves, twigs etc. are set out with the burnable as long as they’re placed in the transparent or semi-transparent bags; or the twigs can be bundled if the bundle is less than 60cm long and 30cm wide.

Sometimes it’s hard for us “gaijins” (foreigners) to know for sure whether something is plastic or paper (burnable) so the Japanese have symbols on almost everything. However, here’s where it gets REALLY complicated, some items require more than one symbol! For instance, PET bottles (bottles which usually contain water or some carbonated drink), may require three symbols: the PET symbol, for the bottles themselves which must be put in a transparent or semi-transparent bag to be picked up the 2nd and 4th Wednesday, the plastic symbol (on the right) for the lid which must be placed in a gray bag to be picked up on Thursday, and the paper symbol (on the left) for the label which must be placed in a blue bag and picked up on Tuesday or Friday...so if you think you got it all figured out, please come and help clue us in.

Some older things don’t have the symbols mark, and its not always easy to know for sure into which category it falls. When that happens I usually make an executive decision and put it in the burnable bag. After all, anything will burn if you get it hot enough!

Donn