After hours of blog issues, I am too tired for a real post, but I will put pictures up with some commentary to tide over anyone who finds this blog before I have time for a real post.
Our first week, we mostly just stuck close to home and worked on getting set up. We had to find a desk for Russell, get a bed, a fridge and a stove, find a table - that sort of thing. We also needed to set up a Japanese bank account, register with immigration, get cell phones, get internet, etc. Oh - and find a grocery store. After about a week, we did feel we had enough free time to enjoy the local zoo - which was walking distance from our house. It looked kind of small and cheesy, but I felt it was important to take advantage of "not-working" time and see some local sights. The zoo turned out to be awesome. There were many animals (all sharing a high cuteness factor) and we could get much closer to them than I am used to. Plus, the zoo is easy walking distance from our house.
We also had tasty panda steamy-buns (yes, he's quite edible). They were delicious and on-theme. The zoo is currently hosting two "rental pandas" (panda's on loan from China). They seem to be the big draw.
The second weekend, I wanted to venture further from home, and I had figured out that Himeji castle was close to Kobe. All I knew was that most of the castles in Japan have been destroyed by time or war, and Himeji is one of the few that has lasted. Others have been rebuilt, but other than one extensive refurbishing about 100 years ago, Himeji castle is pretty much the same as it has always been. I also heard that it was THE place to see cherry blossoms - and cherry blossom season was starting. I figured we could beat the crowds if we went a touch early.
Alas, it was a week too early for the real display of blossoms, but you can see them just starting to peek out. The castle was awesome. It was mostly empty inside, except for a few artifacts, but it was still really cool to walk through.
The next week was around April 1st and my starting day for work. I'll post more about work later, but I am really enjoying it so far. The people are great, the students are mostly great (if not too concerned with work) and considering all the horror stories I have heard about teaching jobs abroad, I am very pleasantly surprised at how well everything is going. I'm feeling very lucky.
We did get some cherry blossom watching in the first weekend after school started (but before classes started). Russell and I went to the Shukugawa stop on our train line where I had heard there was a popular cherry blossom park. It was absolutely packed with watchers and picnickers. The flowers were truly out that week and the festival food booths were out to serve the hordes. We tried takoyaki - a round doughy fried pastry with vegetables and octopus meat in the middle - , Russell had an enormous hotdog, and we also tried these pastries that were fried into the shape of fish. Inside they had Ahn (red bean) paste, which is VERY common in desserts here. I like it quite a bit, but I had to get used to it - I'm not used to beans being sweet. I wil post about food soon, too. So far, food has been going VERY well. Japanese food rocks.
One early problem that we had was with heat - or lack thereof. It turns out that apartments in Japan (at least the small cheap ones) don't come with any source of heat. I suspect that isn't a problem for 80% of the year - but we happened to arrive in a cold snap and we were freezing. It was warm in bed (thank goodness) but nowhere else. For one or two days, this was not a problem, but after two weeks we gave up on waiting for the spring to come and bought a space heater. We also began looking in earnest for a kotatsu (or heated japanese table). The space heater was powerful enough to heat our bedroom before bed time, but not enough to heat the whole apartment. Finding a kotatsu turned out to be almost impossible. It turns out, kotatsu are very seasonal purchases - they are the kind of thing that is only for sale right before winter time - not right before spring. None of the stores had them anymore. Finally, we ordered one on Amazon and had it delivered. We were very pleased with ourselves. We even bought a kotatsu futon (thick blanket that goes over the table and keeps the warmth around your legs) at a local blanket shop. The poor owner had to take us up to the attic to find the right kind of blanket - like I said. They are very out of season now. With the kotatsu, though, were were quite a bit warmer. In the photo, you can see Russell getting full use out of the kotatsu.
So that was the first few weeks. I will write more soon. Feel free to post questions or email them to me - questions about our experience, about something I say but don't explain, or about Japan in general. I will try to answer!
1 comment:
Yeah, you guys are there. I was begining to wonder how things were going. Email me when you have a chance. Glad I happened to decide to check your blog this morning.
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