Today is my 3 month anniversary in Japan. I can't believe it's been that long already. I haven't even left Tokyo yet. Time definitely flies over here. Probably has something to do with the fact we have 16 hours of darkness and 8 hours of light.
I'm back to looking for apartments again-much sooner than I had anticipated. I called up the Accomodation section the other day to tell them that I had changed my mind and I was going to stay with them for the time being. They responded by telling me that I couldn't stay in my current apartment because the lease had been terminated! That was a bit of a shock. I was like, well have you told my roommate anything because he wasn't planning on leaving and if he knew that our lease had been cancelled I'm sure he would have mentioned something to me.
Anyways we have to move out by July 20th. They said they'd give us a little more time if we needed it. I'm not too concerned-the biggest obstacle to finding a new apartment was always the start up cost. But now that there's two people looking for apartments (way to go Brando) that cost should be halved! So I guess all's well that ends well. Or at least that's what I'll say when we've successfully moved to a new place. My roommate is none to pleased of course and plans on some Robin Hood-like redistribution of company provided furniture and electrical appliances. I'll let you know how it goes!
Again sorry for the intermittent updating. I wonder if anyone ever checks here anymore. I promise I'll be much more faithful once I get my own computer and am able to post my thoughts as I think of them (again, intermittently if you know me.)
In an effort to try to make this blog more interesting (and appropriate for all ages-yes Andrew I'm looking in your direction) I'll try to include a random Japanese fact of the day. More likely than not these "facts" will be nothing of the sort, but rather uneducated observations formed by Western biases - in other words, stuff I'm making up.
Japanese Fact #1
There is no size "small" in Japan. For a country full of small people this certainly seems odd. If you want to buy any type of clothing you have a choice between Medium, Large and Double-L. I'm not sure if this is a sensitivity issue or if they simply don't have a japanese equivalent - just like there is no japanese equivalent for "common sense."
It's been quite a while since I last posted. Part of the reason for this is because I've been a little lazy and the other part of the reason is that since my roommate bought his computer he's been on it constantly. Of course as a computer geek this sends me into a fit of envy so I also plan on getting a laptop as soon as possible. I went last week to Akihabara but the computer I wanted was all sold out. So it looks like I'm going to wait till sometime in July. Rest assured that once I get it I will be posting fairly regularly-or maybe not. I just ordered $150 US worth of games in anticipation of my new computer :)
Anyways I just thought I'd update you on the reason for my absence in case you accidently got the impression that I had gotten a life :)
That's what it feels like today anyways. It isn't even officially summer yet. Coming home from work today I stopped into a store that was selling digital clocks. One of the high end clocks also displays temperature and humidity levels. According to the clock it was 31 degrees Celcius with a humidity level of 55%-at 9 0'clock at night. Just imagine what it was like at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. The Japanese delight in warning me it's only a taste of whats to come. Apparently last summer was a real scorcher-hopefully this summer is different.
It's really the humidity that gets you. Thirty-one degrees isn't actually that bad for the end of June (oops I just realized that actually summer has officially started after all.) The humidity in this country is beyond ridiculous though. They warned us to bring our own supply of anti-perspirant over because apparently the Japanese stuff doesn't work on Westerners. I'm begining to think that the real issue is that anti-perspirant just doesn't work full stop. If only our school would adopt the "Cool Biz" fashion that the government is trying to promote to cut down on air conditioning costs.
'Cool Biz,' ie. business casual will be a failure in Japan because people here are resistant to change. They don't know how to go to work any other way than in a suit in jacket. It's really quite comical. They're being given an opportunity that most Westerners would jump at in a second and they are rejecting it because they can't adapt. I can think of another great examp of this phenomenom. Daylight savings time.
As you have read previously, the longest day of the year has come and gone and I didn't even realize it. The reason for this is that for the longest day of the year in Japan, it is still dark at 7pm. A recent article suggested that if the Japanese adopted the Daylight Savings Time system they would be set to gain an additional 900 billion yen from increased tourism and they would reduce carbon emissions by 400,000 tons per year. What could possibly trump these benefits? According to a government official the fact that it would cost too much to change the timing on the traffic lights and the fact that it's inconvenient to change the clocks offsets these benefits. Whaaa??? I'm sorry but unless they have to get some little japanese guy to scurry up every single trafic light in Japan I can't see how it could possibly outweigh the benefits of an extra 900 billion yen. Oh well these are the same people who want to charge me a months rent to vacuum my tatami mats.
Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, to quote some famous person. My roommate finally got off his butt and bought a laptop. He's leaching wireless internet off of our neighbours and I'm leaching the computer off of him. Doesn't the world work perfectly when we're all using each other? Anyways the long and short of it is that I now have regular access to the internet again, at least for a while.
My apartment hunt continues but I'm thinking of giving up and just staying put. I've found out that the hard truth is that it's expensive to live by yourself in Tokyo. If I was living with 2 other people then it would be super cheap but when you're by yourself there are just too many expenses that eat away at the bottom line. My roommate might want to move sometime in August so maybe I'll try again then. Going to agents usually leaves me in a bad mood and frustrated with the general Japanese populace.
There are so many ridiculous things you have to deal with when getting an apartment here. First off is "key money" which I like to call ransom money. Basically you pay the landlord a gift for him giving you the apartment. It's usually about 1-2 months rent. I'm sorry but if I'm going to be handing out gobs of money every month for an empty room then I am the one who expects a gift! Oh well, doesn't work that way here.
Another irksome payment is the money to get the appartment cleaned before you move in. It's usually about 1/2 to 1 months rent. This is the most ridiculous thing of all. No way should it take $600 to clean a room, I'm sorry. I feel like saying, let me go buy a bottle of Mr. Clean and a mop and I'll clean the apartment myself for 10 bucks. But that isn't the way it works here. I've seen it happen in my apartment. When my roommate moved out a team of 4 cleaners came in and spent about an hour and a half doing who knows what. When they left the room basically looked the exact same as before only there was no longer any more dust on the lights.
The reason why this bothers me so much is because I have to pay $600 just so that the Japanese can go on creating absolutely useless jobs for people. It seems to be everywhere in their society. When they close a road to do construction they put up a big sign blocking the road and pointing out the direction of the new route for the cars to take. But then standing in front of the sign is a guy with a baton pointing cars in exact same direction!!! Can someone please explain to me the sense of employing somebody to do a job that an inanimate object is already doing perfectly well?? Same goes for the uniformed traffic guy who walks around the grocery store parking lot with a baton in his hand and pumps up peoples bike tires. I'm sure people can turn into the parking lot perfectly well without a crossing guard thank you and if they had a flat bike tire then they probably would not have ridden their bike to the grocery store! It's because of this kind of backwards thinking that I'm expected to pay a months rent for 4 guys to dust my room!
I picked up a new phone yesterday. It was free but it's a pretty darned good phone. I can listen to the radio on it and i can upload and download files to/from the laptop by way of infrared. I got tired of the crappy reception of Vodafone and the fact that only us gajins seem to use Vodafone. I got a japanese phone this time so that I can be like my brethern. Not to mention it has awesome reception! :)
Anyways hopefully I can make some more posts and upload some more pics soon!
At least that's what it says on my new T-shirt. It's now my new life philosophy. Bad day at work? That's ok, happiness is a warm puppy. No money left after rent? Hey don't worry! Happiness is a warm puppy!!
If you're wondering, I hit the paydirt when it comes to engrish T-shirts. My local grocery store had a sale on. They were getting rid of tons of these crazy engrish T-shirts for 500 and 700 yen a piece. That's $5 and $7 respectively which is a great deal even if they were just plain!
I'm proud to say that I now buy all my latest fashions at the grocery store. That's something I never expected to be able to say but I'm happy to say it now! So far I've bought 4 T-shirts, a Converse collared shirt, a pair of pants and a pair of shoes at the grocery store-for all of 9000 yen! Oh yeah and then i went back and bought some weird 80's type retro warm up jacket thingy. And I got a hat. I think of it as a "signature" hat because there's probably only one person crazy enough to wear it! I suppose when you're in a foreign country you have the freedom of not having to care about what you look like. I'll try to get a pic some time.
This is actually the first time that I've been online and checked my emails in over a week. I honestly can't remember the last time in my life when I went that long. It's weird how when you have a computer around you are always checking but when that access is gone you just sort of forget about it. Granted, I just wanted to say taht I've gotten all your emails but I don't have time right now to reply to them although I will try to when I get more time. I may just check my email once a week or so.
I got one of my staff to go with me to the Century 21 to act as a translator for me. We're supposed to get a call back from them today and we'll find out whether or not they were able to find any places for me. I was loking for 1 and 2 person places but now I think im leaning more towards a 1 person place. I'm fairly independent (that's a nice way of saying a loner) and I like the stability ofbeing in a one person place. A 2 person place would be super cheap but then what happens if my roommate decides to move and I'm stuck paying rent for 2 people? Not so cheap after all! I think if I make a 2 year commitment to staying in Japan then I will be saving money in the long run-even after having to pay key money (1months rent) and agent fee (1 months rent) ><
I don't have any overwhelming love for Japan-it's a pretty cool place so far but I'm not infatuated by it. On the other hand I really feel no reason why I should want to go back to Canada either!
Anyways I'd like to write more but I got to go! Maybe I will try to update again in another week! So if you find yourself missing me just think-happiness is a warm puppy.
