yay new table!

so today i was told that i had a meeting at 2 pm i should go to the board of education. thought i might be meeting my principle, but no just some paperwork to do and then my supervisor said that he was going to take me to buy a table and chairs for my apartment :) never knew that it would make me so excited to get a table, but it make quite a difference in my kitchen. the only problem is when you are sitting at the table you are looking into the bathroom, haha. so little space. i think i might try and get some curtains or something to divide the space up a bit.



a few things from when my dad was here...
sunday we went to kahimajingu (shrine), it was a hot day but nice to get out and see the sights. the shrine is in the middle of a gorgeous forest. i think that i like going to see the forest more than the shrine, haha.





childrens shrine




random modern art at the temple



so maybe i am starting to get used to life in japan, as this is an unusual aspect of japanese cultrure that i didn't even think strange until my dad pointed it out. the michi no eki, or road side station (a rest stop in the US) is a big a hang out spot here in japan. there are farmers markets that happen there, vendors come and sell food and arts and crafts, bands perform, they have games for kids. the one close to me even has a minature golf type thing. here are a few pics, maybe it will clarify more.

kashima antlers

so my dad arrived this morning and i successfully made it to and from narita airport! this means that i took the expressway, dealt with tolls, and figured out airport traffic and parking. it really wasn't too bad, it only takes about 30 minutes from my apt to parking at the airport.

after we got back to itako, we had some lunch and i showed him around my little town. went to the itako shrine, which i had not made it to yet. its in the middle of a park/forest, which was pretty cool. seemed to be a local hang out spot, some high schoolers were up there relaxing. there was a nice view of itako from above from there too.







see he really made it...


and especially for someone that asked that i include myself in some pictures, here is me and itako! :)


then tonight we ventured to a kashima antlers football (soccer) game against yokohama, which was awesome. kashima won 2-1! the kashima antlers are the #1 j-league team, and there home stadium is about 10-15minutes from me. it was one of the 2002 world cup stadiums too. so the antlers have become my adopted team, seeing as they are so close. hopefully i'll make it to another game. the cheering was quite organized, you would think that they practice! there were lots of large flags, clapping, and even some taiko drumming.













here are a few pics of "ball park" food (curry, calamari, udon, yakisoba....), only in japan would you use chopsticks to eat your "ballpark" food







and here are the people that come around at half time and at the end of the game to collect everyones trash, and everyone collects trash and disposes of it. pretty effecient they really should pick up on this back in the US...

アパート (apato)

so there have been a few questions about my apartment, so i thought that i should post a detailed description. it's still a little bit of a work in progress, still trying to make it feel like home.

first i made a floorplan online that will probably make this easier to understand. you can view at: http://www.floorplanner.com/8tq9zl/Floor plan/itako apt

i tried to make it accurate comparativly by size, but the exact measurements are not right, as i am lacking a tape measure.

alright so when you first walk in there is a pretty big open space and the kitchen is to the right and the bathroom and washer/dryer are to the left. This area is basically part of the kitchen and it is actually quite large and empty. i'm hoping that i can find a table and chairs for out here. it would give me more work top space in the kitchen, and somewhere to eat dinner other than the low kotatsu table in the other room.


kitchen


this shows the kitchen in more detail



this odd box over the sink is how i get hot water. i have to turn on the gas and then the hot water comes out of this box (flame inside, that makes the kitchen really hot-i'll probably appreciate it a lot more in january!)


this is the stove top, also gas powered, also very hot right now! (note:no oven)


alright next onto the bathroom area. everything is in seperate areas. the shower/bath is its own room, toilet in it's own room, and the sink around the corner from those two rooms.



shower room, the bathtub is japanese style, small square but deep, you basically would have to stand up in it.


this is the hot water heater. you have to turn the gas on, turn and hold down another knob while cranking the handle to get the pilot lit, then turn the water on. its a little bit of a pain but works pretty well, the water is pretty hot.


sink, pretty boring. oh, but it is really low which makes washing my face slightly frustrating.


washer and dryer (dryer is also gas operated)


now the living room, nothing exciting, just a tatami room (the traditional japanese wicker floored rooms). it has a large closet, tv (that only recieves 2 stations-usually baseball), kotatsu table (traditional japanese table that you sit on the floor to use), and a book shelf.


on to the bedroom: single bed (sell its slightly larger, strange japanese size-luckily not short!!), desk, shelves, closet there is no hanging space in the closet so i have a rack of hanging things out in my room.


desk area


closet


alright, thats it! hopefully that all makes sense.

oh and don't forget, no indoor shoes allowed inside! leave your shoes at the door please.



my dad comes in tomorrow! picking him up from the airport will be my first time driving on the expressway! should be interesting, i'll let you know how that goes...

gaijin card!

yesterday i finally recieved the long awaited gaijin card (or foreign alien registration card). i dont really understand why it took so long seeing as i am one of two foreigners living in this small town (there are evidently some chinese construction workers as well, but i have yet to see them).

here is what the ever so important gaijin card looks like (its kind of blurry, because of the lamination) notice how mad i look in the picture, i kept smiling and then they eventually told me that i had to look straight faced...


getting my card means that i can start sorting out all of the exciting things in my life: phone bill, internet bill, water, gas, electricity...not looking forward to having to pay the first lot of those. which by the way are paid in cash! everything in this country is paid in cash, which i find so suprising since they are so much more technologically advanced. i will pay all of these bills, which come seperatly obviously, by walking down to my nearest 'conbini' convenience store mine happens to be 7-11. handing the teller the reciept i recieved in the mail that has a bar code on it. they scan the bar code then i pay, in cash, only choice. always having cash on hand is something that is going to take some getting used to.

but finally the most exciting news i finally got my keitai (cell phone)! and let me just say that was once interesting experience. left with quite a headache. if i ever thought that i knew anything about the japanese language, my confidence was crushed in this experience. i honestly thought we could have been from different planets, as i was talking to the sales lady.

first i had to choose a phone carrier, easiest part. i decided to just use the one that most of the other jets in this area, becasue they haven't had any problems with reception, which is the most important thing. next it was time to choose an actual phone. which was overwhelming as there were rows upon rows of phones, in every color, and they did lots of crazy things...watch tv, satelite capability, i don't even know what else. to narrow this down i had them show me which ones were billingual, i would like to understand my phone as much as possible. then i had them tell me which ones would be free with a 1 year contract. stil had quite a few left to choose from. ended up with a bright blue phone by sony, that plays music and
takes pictures that are comparable to my digital camera. hopefully i made the right choice, haha.





anyway, that was the easy part. next i had to try and negotiate my contract with the sales lady, this probably took about an hour. i understood most everything, including that i should choose the 2 year agreement, because the price is so much cheaper, that even if you pay a cancellation fee in the end it is less then paying the full price for only a year (it actually cut monthly costs in half). but there was one aspect that wasn't making much sense to me. it had to do with the internet capability of the phone, which is a feature i dont really use back home, but is neccissary here because that is how people send text messages. and evidently they text much more then calling. to explain how this part worked the sales lady eventually called the companies english translation help line and we got everything worked out (i think!).

in the end i got my phone, and it seems to be working. i ended up walking out and only paying about $8 for my charger and a bag full of thank you gifts, including a pillow, tissues, a fan, and a tote bag (you are always getting thank you gifts here). for some strange reason chargers are never included with your phone here. but thats all you have to pay for. with that being said though, i'm not exactly sure what my monthly payments are going to look like. but i'll see soon enough when i have to walk down to 711 and pay the bill, haha.



wow thats a lot of writing just about a cell phone, but it is just an examle of how long it takes to get some thing done...

so my camera battery died at the welcome party, so i'm still waiting for a few other people to post pictures on facebook so i can steal them, but here are a select few i managed to capture.

Natto Eating: So we played a few games at the welcome party, to get to know each other. the losing team then had to eat Natto, which is a specialty of the Ibaraki region! Natto is fermented soy beans, really quite disgusting. here is a picture of one of the older people forcing a newbie to eat natto, ewww. luckily i was on the winning team





doesn't this just look horrible, i dont think this is a japanese culinary experience i will ever understand!


Karaoke, is way too popular here! everyone's favorite the macarena


more karaoke!

more meetings and welcome parties

yesterday, was the official Ibaraki orientation up in the capital, Mito. Pretty general information was covered, but useful. I think more exciting was getting to see everyone again from orientation, and hearing about how everyone is settling in. sounds like i have a pretty good situation! as most people are having to go into the Board of Education (BoE) offices everyday, with nothing really to do, because school is still on summer break. my supervisor said that there is no reason for us (me and John) to come in, free vacation time!

after the orientation we had some time to walk around and explore mito a bit, was a nice change from the country side of Itako. then there was a welcome dinner party, where we got to meet most of the Ibaraki JETs. Most of them seem like they are pretty cool people, and they seem to have a close community, which will be nice for us newbies. i look forward to getting to know them more!

on the schedule for this weekend...clean this apartment out, and determine where this strange smell is coming from...eww, the heat does not help this situation!

earthquake!

Oh i forgot to mention, welcome back to the pacific! I was awoken last night by the rumbling and shaking of an earthquake. there was a 7.2 earthquake last night off the northern coast of Japan. It wasn't quite as strong down here, but still pretty long and sizeable. earthquakes are going to take a little getting used to again.

O bon festival...

so today we stumbled upon a temple a 5 minute walk from my apartment that was celebrating O bon, the festival of the dead. It was gorgeous, there were hundreds and thousands of candels lit in rememberance of family members who have passed away in the town. suprisingly there was a cheerful feeling among everyone there. also ran into a 1 of the 3 people that would have known who i was. this is a small town! smaller than Guam, and I stand out even more, haha. A few students even came up and introduced themselves to me, which was really nice. these are a few pictures, but they can't even capture the mesmorizing beauty of all of the lit candles...