Adventures in Japan

Again, I am struck by the fact that we are in Japan

I worked my first shift in the conversation lounge yesterday. I wasn't scheduled until Saturday, but one of the regular instructors called in sick. I guess Thursday is a busy night, because there were a lot of people in there. I was very, very warm. Sweating, even. I also drank a lot of water, so for most of the evening it was all I could do not to think about how much I needed to urinate. Near the end it was very distracting. The guys in my group were interesting, though, if not always easy to understand. We talked about the election, of course, and Canadian geography, Japanese geography, China and Korea, what Japanese characters I should use to write my name, and a whole bunch of other things I can't even remember right now. We covered so many small talk/general interest topics, I have no clue what to talk about next time. But topics are usually provided, so I'm sure we'll be fine.

I was paid cash in hand, which was kinda nice, but I think they'd prefer to put the money straight into my bank account. I don't actually have a Japanese bank account yet, but just today I tried to get one at the post office. Yes, that's right, in Japan you can keep your hard-earned money at the post office, just like you would at a bank. Before I went, I looked stuff up on the internet and found pictures of the form I would need to fill out and all that good stuff, but when I got to the post office, I discovered that the forms had changed since the pictures were posted. The pictures weren't clear enough for me to be able to read the title, so I didn't know which form to use. Without a title, I didn't know how to ask for the form by name, and I didn't know how to explain what I needed in Japanese. So home I went. On the way, I passed by a couple of schools (not that the post office was all that far from Orange House, just that there are a lot of schools near here). I could see and/or hear all the kids doing whatever it is they do in their after-school clubs (like baseball, and tennis, and judo, and marching band) and I couldn't help but smile. Something about it was just so cheerful and cute. Like the time Tyler and I were were walking to the subway and a kid ran past us, then stopped to say, "Harro!" And the time we passed a small group of little girls on the street and one of them started singing the alphabet. Today's most amusing encounter was with two girls practising their recorders as they walked home. They were so tiny!

I don't know if either of us have mentioned it or not, but Brian, our bestest friend from Colorado, took a teaching job in Korea. He left on Tuesday. Now David, one of our bestest friends from Scotland, has found a job on the other side of town. It comes with an apartment where he doesn't have to share a toilet, so I helped him move some of his stuff today. That's just how nice I am. He lives in quite the hoppin' little neighbourhood. It's got it's share of neon lights, and apparently a lot of shops around there are open 24 hours. What I thought was pretty cool was that the Shinkansen (bullet train) goes right past his apartment. I watched one from his balcony. It was remarkably quiet (no louder than a car or truck on the street), and REALLY fast. If I concentrated really hard, I could see in through the windows, but if I relaxed even for a second, it all became a blur. Very cool.

Oh, and don't worry about the banking stuff. Thanks to the internet I've got it all sorted out and I'll go back and blow them away with my crazy Japanese language skills on Monday.