Happy Easter!
I miss you all.
Its just not the same in Japan at Easter time. I should be curled up on the couch, eating hot cross buns at least twice a day - freshly toasted with just a little bit of butter, hot melted - then chocolate easter eggs in the evening, and possibly lighting the open fire for the first time of the year.
Instead, I spent yesterday afternoon chasing my tail around Sendai, thanks to Uchiyama-san feeding me dodgy information. What information? Oh, just the postal address of the Hall I'm in now!
Yes, the address I told you last week is WRONG. Not hugely wrong, but wrong enough to send stuff to the wrong place. The address Uchiyama san gave me was of the Sendai/Miyagi International House, which is the place the taxi driver dropped me off at around the corner last week. This was called to my attention when I was flipping through the leaflets they gave me when I arrived, and I noticed that the address was different to what I thought... quick scurry to the office, and sure enough, the address is different.
Little oompa-loompa at the office promised to phone the Sendai International House and ask them to bring anything that arrived for me around here, which was kind enough, except she packed up her belongings and went home straight away, without calling. I guess she meant she would do it tomorrow.
So, given that its not far, I jumped on the bike and headed around there myself to ask them for myself. (Seems the only way to ever get anything done here is to do it yourself).
They were very understanding of my situation, but, they explained, there was nothing they could do, for my room number (120) doesnt exist around there, and therefore there is no mailbox with 120 on it. They told me that if the postie came and couldnt find a box to put it into, all he would do is take it back to the post office with him - they told me which post office, too, which was helpful, so back on the bike and I skedaddle to the post office, getting there just after 5pm, but all was not lost- there were still oompa-loompas so I was able to sneak in and explain what was going on.
Being very kind and helpful, they promised to hold onto anything that does come for me at the wrong address and phone me, so I can go collect it... which sounds great. I dont want my easter eggs returned to sender :~(
Correct address:
A 120
Tohoku University International House
19 - 1 Sanjo machi Aoba ku
Sendai 981-0935
JAPAN
Now, what would be best for me to do to Uchiyama san now? Do I merely superglue his shoes to the floor when he's not watching? Or do I move his desk a couple of millimetres a day and see how long it takes him to notice something is wrong?
90
Friday, April 09, 2004
Thursday, April 08, 2004
I need a haircut. Its been over two months, so its well time, but I really do think its a shame when I have to budget ahead for a few days for this. Actually, for the next few days, there are far more important things to buy so getting my hair cut will have to be held off a while longer. I'll let you know how I go.
My shopping list at the moment is something along the lines of:
1. Answering Machine (It is truly unnerving after all these years to step back into my room, look at my phone, and have absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone has tried to call me or not. Even Ursula had the voicemail, and mobiles everywhere at least let me know the number that tried to call, even if no one left a message)
2. Toaster oven, for toasting, and hopefully cooking the occasional oven-based goody. Can be had for about 3000 yen new, so thats about three days saving up provided I can stay about a thousand yen under budget until then... not likely..
3. Coffee maker... yeah, its sad I know, but I got so used to having good coffee from Sarah's coffee maker. It was lovely in the mornings to turn on the machine (which had been already filled with coffee and water the night before), lie in bed waking up slowly as the coffee brewed, then have a fresh cup of coffee to start the day....ahh. By my logic, getting another coffee maker (only two days saving up!) might make life here just that little bit better. After the initial outlay, of course, coffee from that should work out heaps cheaper than those little cans of coffee from the vending machine I used to rave about. The cans are still fun, especially to hold for a few minutes to warm your hands up before you drink it, but the fact is, the coffee just doesnt taste very good from them.
4. Rice cooker. Yup, for cooking rice. Rice is great- its the poly-filla of japanese food. No matter how hungry you are, you can always fill up on rice. For a hundred yen or so, you can get stuff to sprinkle on the rice too so it varies the taste - or pouring green tea over a bowl full is also not a bad way to eat. The downside, however, is the actual rice itself is more expensive than it is in Australia. Also, the only cooking implement Ive been able to get so far is a flat-bottomed wok - rather like a frying pan with wokky edges. Its serving its purpose so far - and is also the only method I have to boil water, so I guess I need a
5. Kettle. So I can have water hotter than the stuff that comes out of the tap.
6. Still have to get that stuff Sarah wanted for Melissa... you'd think it would be easy to find in this country.... but the search is proving harder than I thought...
Given all the above, I reckon it will be about June before I can get that haircut... oh well, I'll need another one by then anyway, why not just hold off til then..... Though first I think I need to get myself back to below budget spending... or at the very least on budget. Ive gone over three out of the last four days...
What is the point of going through all this setup expense and hassle, when I will need to do it all again in January in Canberra?? At least next year, stuff like this (kitchen stuff, etc) will be able to be used for quite a long time... not just for a few months. Wish there were some way of paying a twentieth of the price of stuff like my wok, because I'll only be using it for six months, not ten years.... At least when the next ANU student comes here I should be able to help him/her out with stuff... though if they do come in October, well, I'll still be here for a couple of months. Tohoku say that a student will come this October from ANU; ANU say they arent sure what's going on (though.. thats always the case when anyone is ever dealing with Tohoku); I know of one ANU student who wants to come, though I havent heard whether that progressed any further or not... actually that reminds me, I havent heard from Eugene these days. He's supposed to be back in Tohoku now as a normal student (ie, student who can get student discount on the trains and phones, basically everything that they refuse me on), but thats about all I know, so either I will randomly bump into him on campus one day ("Hey - I know you!") or he'll email, or months will pass and I won't see him.
On a more positive note, I finally got my nikuman! I was intending to buy only the carton of milk I needed so I can have something for breakfast (side note- the largest size milk comes in here is one litre... this is not a country suited to wombats), when I noticed that the nikuman shelf was full of... well, not quite full... well, ok, there was one lonely nikuman sitting in it. I was rather hungry, and felt like I deserved a treat, so I splurged and bought it. Actually I took a photo of it, too, which I'll put up on the photos page next time I'm in at uni.
The scholarship people in Tokyo have had a fun few days changing things around... my scholarship has been cut back - though its not really all that much - it works out to about 50 yen (70 cents) a day less, so I can deal with this. However in a stroke of genius, they also decided to move the date they pay out back til the last day of every month. They used to pay somewhere between the 17th and the 20th, (still a looooooong time to wait for the payment when you are instructed to arrive at the start of February and it takes three weeks for money to arrive), but now they have decided that we dont need our scholarship money until the end of the month. This is rather sneaky, because it means that in our last month in Japan, we can't then leave before the end of the month is up, or we dont get the scholarship for that month. (Unless there is some way to get money from your account in one country while being in another country....) A rather sneaky way has just occured to me... needs work though, I'll see how it goes.
Anyway, short of the matter is, I was planning to stay here at the end of the year until the scholarship came through, then take the money and run, heading straight back to Australia before Christmas. Now, given that if I wanted December's money I would either have to figure out a way to get it without actually being in Japan myself, or have to wait until the 31st to get my money. Nope... I will be home by Christmas. That's a promise. I now plan to leave Japan on the 30th of November, or the following day at the latest. Ideally an overnight flight leaving Tokyo about 8.30pm on the 30th. Its a Tuesday, so it shouldnt be too hard to get a cheapish ticket. I know a Qantas flight leaves Nagoya every night at 8.30, so there should be one around then from Narita as well. I see no reason to stay in Japan any longer than absolutely necessary - and collecting November's money is about the limit of it. Any extra day I stay past then is just spending the money I would rather be using to start up properly in Canberra. And guess what... that's only 236 days from today! I can do this!
For now though, I would absolutely love a hot milo in bed, then rolling over and sleeping for the next twelve hours.
91
My shopping list at the moment is something along the lines of:
1. Answering Machine (It is truly unnerving after all these years to step back into my room, look at my phone, and have absolutely no way of knowing whether anyone has tried to call me or not. Even Ursula had the voicemail, and mobiles everywhere at least let me know the number that tried to call, even if no one left a message)
2. Toaster oven, for toasting, and hopefully cooking the occasional oven-based goody. Can be had for about 3000 yen new, so thats about three days saving up provided I can stay about a thousand yen under budget until then... not likely..
3. Coffee maker... yeah, its sad I know, but I got so used to having good coffee from Sarah's coffee maker. It was lovely in the mornings to turn on the machine (which had been already filled with coffee and water the night before), lie in bed waking up slowly as the coffee brewed, then have a fresh cup of coffee to start the day....ahh. By my logic, getting another coffee maker (only two days saving up!) might make life here just that little bit better. After the initial outlay, of course, coffee from that should work out heaps cheaper than those little cans of coffee from the vending machine I used to rave about. The cans are still fun, especially to hold for a few minutes to warm your hands up before you drink it, but the fact is, the coffee just doesnt taste very good from them.
4. Rice cooker. Yup, for cooking rice. Rice is great- its the poly-filla of japanese food. No matter how hungry you are, you can always fill up on rice. For a hundred yen or so, you can get stuff to sprinkle on the rice too so it varies the taste - or pouring green tea over a bowl full is also not a bad way to eat. The downside, however, is the actual rice itself is more expensive than it is in Australia. Also, the only cooking implement Ive been able to get so far is a flat-bottomed wok - rather like a frying pan with wokky edges. Its serving its purpose so far - and is also the only method I have to boil water, so I guess I need a
5. Kettle. So I can have water hotter than the stuff that comes out of the tap.
6. Still have to get that stuff Sarah wanted for Melissa... you'd think it would be easy to find in this country.... but the search is proving harder than I thought...
Given all the above, I reckon it will be about June before I can get that haircut... oh well, I'll need another one by then anyway, why not just hold off til then..... Though first I think I need to get myself back to below budget spending... or at the very least on budget. Ive gone over three out of the last four days...
What is the point of going through all this setup expense and hassle, when I will need to do it all again in January in Canberra?? At least next year, stuff like this (kitchen stuff, etc) will be able to be used for quite a long time... not just for a few months. Wish there were some way of paying a twentieth of the price of stuff like my wok, because I'll only be using it for six months, not ten years.... At least when the next ANU student comes here I should be able to help him/her out with stuff... though if they do come in October, well, I'll still be here for a couple of months. Tohoku say that a student will come this October from ANU; ANU say they arent sure what's going on (though.. thats always the case when anyone is ever dealing with Tohoku); I know of one ANU student who wants to come, though I havent heard whether that progressed any further or not... actually that reminds me, I havent heard from Eugene these days. He's supposed to be back in Tohoku now as a normal student (ie, student who can get student discount on the trains and phones, basically everything that they refuse me on), but thats about all I know, so either I will randomly bump into him on campus one day ("Hey - I know you!") or he'll email, or months will pass and I won't see him.
On a more positive note, I finally got my nikuman! I was intending to buy only the carton of milk I needed so I can have something for breakfast (side note- the largest size milk comes in here is one litre... this is not a country suited to wombats), when I noticed that the nikuman shelf was full of... well, not quite full... well, ok, there was one lonely nikuman sitting in it. I was rather hungry, and felt like I deserved a treat, so I splurged and bought it. Actually I took a photo of it, too, which I'll put up on the photos page next time I'm in at uni.
The scholarship people in Tokyo have had a fun few days changing things around... my scholarship has been cut back - though its not really all that much - it works out to about 50 yen (70 cents) a day less, so I can deal with this. However in a stroke of genius, they also decided to move the date they pay out back til the last day of every month. They used to pay somewhere between the 17th and the 20th, (still a looooooong time to wait for the payment when you are instructed to arrive at the start of February and it takes three weeks for money to arrive), but now they have decided that we dont need our scholarship money until the end of the month. This is rather sneaky, because it means that in our last month in Japan, we can't then leave before the end of the month is up, or we dont get the scholarship for that month. (Unless there is some way to get money from your account in one country while being in another country....) A rather sneaky way has just occured to me... needs work though, I'll see how it goes.
Anyway, short of the matter is, I was planning to stay here at the end of the year until the scholarship came through, then take the money and run, heading straight back to Australia before Christmas. Now, given that if I wanted December's money I would either have to figure out a way to get it without actually being in Japan myself, or have to wait until the 31st to get my money. Nope... I will be home by Christmas. That's a promise. I now plan to leave Japan on the 30th of November, or the following day at the latest. Ideally an overnight flight leaving Tokyo about 8.30pm on the 30th. Its a Tuesday, so it shouldnt be too hard to get a cheapish ticket. I know a Qantas flight leaves Nagoya every night at 8.30, so there should be one around then from Narita as well. I see no reason to stay in Japan any longer than absolutely necessary - and collecting November's money is about the limit of it. Any extra day I stay past then is just spending the money I would rather be using to start up properly in Canberra. And guess what... that's only 236 days from today! I can do this!
For now though, I would absolutely love a hot milo in bed, then rolling over and sleeping for the next twelve hours.
91
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Wombats are supposed to be nocturnal, yes, but no one ever told me freezing was part of the job description!
I was starting to get a little on the hungry side, so thought "Aha! This is the perfect time to go hunting for a niku-man". (A nikuman, for those of you who havent had the pleasure, is a little bread roll with meat and stuff baked in the middle, kinda like a cross between a bread roll and a pastie. Its the closest one can get to pies in this country.) They are tasty (which is good), piping hot (which is better), and cheap! (which is best!). Though at this time of night and it being freezing outside, I think I might even go so far as to say that being hot is bestest...
Begin the adventure.. There is a FamilyMart about two minutes walk from here (the Kaikan), and convenience stores sell nikuman. I rug up in two jumpers and a coat, step outside my burrow (even the corridors are cold), then rush up stairs, out through the foyer, into the cold, dark night air, put my head down and scamper up the hill to the Family Mart.
"Oh, we're sorry, we dont have any nikuman today because todays date, when multiplied by the mayor's birthday gives a prime number. Please come back tomorrow".
Not only did they not have any nikuman, but they had nothing at all in the hot food section, and I cant heat anything up even if I bought something cold... I dont even have the facility to boil water... remind me to rectify that tomorrow.
So, undeterred, I decided to make the trek to the Lawson, which is probably about three times the distance away, in the opposite direction. Down the hill, I stopped to ponder why the storm water drain beneath my feet was making a very very loud sound of rushing water (and, come to think of it, every drain I have encountered in Sendai to date has been doing the same). This is strange for two reasons - one, we are almost at the top of a hill, so I dont see where all this water is coming from, and two, it hasnt rained since Saturday, so I dont see where all this water is coming from.
Oh well, Lawsons here we come.
You wouldnt believe it... you simply would not believe it... Lawsons were out of nikuman too. I bought a cold pikelet and came back to my burrow with my tail between my legs.
Here's something else to add to the list of first-world luxuries I realised today I had taken for granted: the ability to have a shower whenever one wants. Showers here are open from 7am til 10am, then again from 5.30pm til 11pm. Come 11, they shut off the hot water! I dont understand the reason for this... who does it really hurt if they let us shower later at night? Even leave them open til 1am and I would be a much happier wombat, but 11? At least, choosing the evening shower session means I still get my sleep-ins, and all the americans (which, so far, I think accounts for 90% of the people ive met here) all go for morning showers, so one is not required to queue up in the evenings...
Good night, I'm going to go finish my pikelet.
93
I was starting to get a little on the hungry side, so thought "Aha! This is the perfect time to go hunting for a niku-man". (A nikuman, for those of you who havent had the pleasure, is a little bread roll with meat and stuff baked in the middle, kinda like a cross between a bread roll and a pastie. Its the closest one can get to pies in this country.) They are tasty (which is good), piping hot (which is better), and cheap! (which is best!). Though at this time of night and it being freezing outside, I think I might even go so far as to say that being hot is bestest...
Begin the adventure.. There is a FamilyMart about two minutes walk from here (the Kaikan), and convenience stores sell nikuman. I rug up in two jumpers and a coat, step outside my burrow (even the corridors are cold), then rush up stairs, out through the foyer, into the cold, dark night air, put my head down and scamper up the hill to the Family Mart.
"Oh, we're sorry, we dont have any nikuman today because todays date, when multiplied by the mayor's birthday gives a prime number. Please come back tomorrow".
Not only did they not have any nikuman, but they had nothing at all in the hot food section, and I cant heat anything up even if I bought something cold... I dont even have the facility to boil water... remind me to rectify that tomorrow.
So, undeterred, I decided to make the trek to the Lawson, which is probably about three times the distance away, in the opposite direction. Down the hill, I stopped to ponder why the storm water drain beneath my feet was making a very very loud sound of rushing water (and, come to think of it, every drain I have encountered in Sendai to date has been doing the same). This is strange for two reasons - one, we are almost at the top of a hill, so I dont see where all this water is coming from, and two, it hasnt rained since Saturday, so I dont see where all this water is coming from.
Oh well, Lawsons here we come.
You wouldnt believe it... you simply would not believe it... Lawsons were out of nikuman too. I bought a cold pikelet and came back to my burrow with my tail between my legs.
Here's something else to add to the list of first-world luxuries I realised today I had taken for granted: the ability to have a shower whenever one wants. Showers here are open from 7am til 10am, then again from 5.30pm til 11pm. Come 11, they shut off the hot water! I dont understand the reason for this... who does it really hurt if they let us shower later at night? Even leave them open til 1am and I would be a much happier wombat, but 11? At least, choosing the evening shower session means I still get my sleep-ins, and all the americans (which, so far, I think accounts for 90% of the people ive met here) all go for morning showers, so one is not required to queue up in the evenings...
Good night, I'm going to go finish my pikelet.
93
Monday, April 05, 2004
Two of the students here have spent apparently the entire weekend creating a table that is supposed to be of great use for borrowing library books.
Its a chart listing every day between now and the end of the year, paired up with the date that, if you borrow a library book, the due date. For example, if I borrowed a book today, it would be due on the 12th. If I borrowed a book this Thursday, it would be due back on the 15th.
For every day, they have written the date it will be precisely one week later.
Its a rather complicated chart, and I had to have the usage of it explained to me, along with examples.
Doesnt it seem simpler to have written something along the lines of "Books can be borrowed for one week"? Or am I trying to use logic again?
94
Its a chart listing every day between now and the end of the year, paired up with the date that, if you borrow a library book, the due date. For example, if I borrowed a book today, it would be due on the 12th. If I borrowed a book this Thursday, it would be due back on the 15th.
For every day, they have written the date it will be precisely one week later.
Its a rather complicated chart, and I had to have the usage of it explained to me, along with examples.
Doesnt it seem simpler to have written something along the lines of "Books can be borrowed for one week"? Or am I trying to use logic again?
94
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