Il Buono
So I went to Kyoto again and had an excellent time. I saw my first geisha, but she was indoors and it was very brief. We also saw the Silver Pavilion which is a beautiful place. I met some cool people in Kyoto and went drinking with them that night. All in all it was a typical night in Japan. At least what a night in Japan should be.
Il Bruto
My company's in bad shape. What they don't mention is that the Japanese staff haven't been paid for this month. Also, people are getting evicted from their apartments. Nova sublets the apartments to their instructors, overcharges them, and we're pretty sure that that money's going towards people's pay. I have read reports from people who said that they left in August and still haven't gotten paid for their last month of employment. There's an announcement on October 5th, so we'll see what that brings us.
Il Cattivo
I've applied to a few jobs in Osaka, and I've even started applying to jobs in Canada. I've got an offer to teach in Taiwan, but the visa would take several weeks to process. South Korea wants teachers bad, but I suspect that would take several weeks as well. Because of the possibility of returning to Canada soon, I have started to sing "I'll be home for Christmas" to myself.
The worst is hearing people at work. A lot of the instructors have quit, and there seems to be less and less people working at Nova everyday. Right now I show up to be able to pay off the money I still owe Nova, but if there aren't any prospects, I just might go traveling soon and explore the world. So I'll keep you all updated, and maybe I'll see you all sooner than any of us would have imagined.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Teaching, Karaoke, and Getting Lost. These things are the pillars of life in Japan.
I'll start with Teaching.
I've been trained in the art of teleconference teaching. I am now an official English teacher. I know how to read English, make funny gestures, get people to read aloud and correct people when they're wrong. Great examples of typical mistakes that Japanese people make are "I go to shopping", "I wasn't gone to Tokyo" and "I have dog".
It's much harder to teach the beginner types. Their accent is usually quite thick, with r and l's switched, and with plenty of words left out, not just a word here and there. They're usually the ones that give you blank stares, but respond best to thumbs up. Whenever a student makes a mistake, you have to say 'almost' or 'not quite', but never outright 'no'. From speaking to various people who have been in Japan for a long time, the word 'no' means a lot more than simply "that isn't true in this case" and can sometimes mean "you aren't right, and never will be". 'yes' also has an extended meaning, the most important one being "I understand".
My first full day of work is tomorrow, I will be given a test to see if I understood the training session and what I've forgotten.
As for fun adventures, everyone will be glad to know that I've gone drinking in Osaka. Something I was surprised to learn is just how much the Japanese love to drink. I cannot emphasize this point enough. Like they love their drinks like the Irish love their drinks, if not more. But here's the awesome thing: There is no taboo with getting drunk. Not only that, but people actually look away if there's public urination going on, it's just impolite to look at people while they're urinating in the streets. It's also impolite to say or look at the people who are passed out on benches and may or may not have soiled themselves.
The second time I went drinking with people from another NOVA branch, we wound up at a karaoke bar. Our group was separated into 2 groups. I had befriended a British guy named Andrew, and him and I would sing loudly at every song even though we were clearly horrible. I had also met a few other people, including some Canadians and Australians. For those of you who don't know, I was very excited to meet Aussies. I haven't really met any actual Aussies yet.
So my group consisted of myself, Andrew, a Canadian girl named Sandy, and about 5 or 6 Americans. We had all you can drink, for a flat rate of 1800 yen. They kept on bringing us drinks, and we kept on pounding them down.
As the night wore on, and I started losing my voice, I went into the other booth which contained the Aussies, a few British people and some Canadians. Now that was a fun booth. We got up on our seats, kept on bringing in whiskey, and pounded them down like there was no tomorrow. I will state for the record, that I was proud of my fellow Canadians in their abilities to drink, have fun and not make asses of themselves. I will also state for the record that the Aussies were with us, shot for shot, singing every song along with us, and just general kick assedness. I was impressed, whereas the British for the most part weren't drinking at the end of the night and the Americans couldn't help but pass out on the table, break glasses and insist they're fine, only to fall on the table again.
Getting lost can be lots of fun, or it can be a frightening experience when you're in a foreign culture whose language you don't know. Here's my story about getting lost in Japan:
Last night I went to a bar after work. I had been to the bar before, but I always went with the guys I live with. They would lead the way, and I would be in awe of all the little shops to the left and right of me. Getting a sense of direction in a country in which you're illiterate is actually much more difficult to get around than a country in which you're not. I left my apartment to go to the bar at 9:45 pm. I got lost on the way, ended up at some strip clubs by mistake, but eventually found myself at the large crab described in the directions given to me. I looked for the bar in relation to the huge crab for a very long time before I just said to myself 'forget it' and started tracing my steps to go back home. This whole thing had probably taken me an hour.
For the next 2 hours or so, I would be wandering Japan, unable to ask them how to get to where I lived, because I couldn't remember my address. I was thirsty, hungry and tired for the whole time. I still don't know where I was, and today I was walking around Osaka and saw somethings that I saw last night, and it hurts to realize that the whole time, I was never further away from home than 5-10 minutes. But here's why my sanity was melting away: I wound up at the crab 3 times that night. That's right, I would get incredibly lost, and somehow, as if space itself was warped, I was back at the giant crab. Not only that, but I got to see the male prostitutes, a yakuza and was solicited for sex twice by a female prostitute (I think, she was speaking Japanese, but seemed desperate). Incredibly however, at about 1 am, I found the bar. After hours of searching for either the bar, or my house, I found the bar while looking for my house. I went upstairs, and walked into the bar. The people were very nice, saw me come in looking tired, and one waiter led me to a table of white people. It wasn't my friends... my friends had left earlier because they started work at 7. And as if by a miracle, I knew the way home and got in at 1:15, which included a stop in a convenience store near my home where I got a Strawberry Sundae. I deserved it more than I've ever deserved Ice Cream before.
You may ask: How did I get so lost? What prevented me from meeting up with my friends?
I was at the wrong giant crab.
I've been trained in the art of teleconference teaching. I am now an official English teacher. I know how to read English, make funny gestures, get people to read aloud and correct people when they're wrong. Great examples of typical mistakes that Japanese people make are "I go to shopping", "I wasn't gone to Tokyo" and "I have dog".
It's much harder to teach the beginner types. Their accent is usually quite thick, with r and l's switched, and with plenty of words left out, not just a word here and there. They're usually the ones that give you blank stares, but respond best to thumbs up. Whenever a student makes a mistake, you have to say 'almost' or 'not quite', but never outright 'no'. From speaking to various people who have been in Japan for a long time, the word 'no' means a lot more than simply "that isn't true in this case" and can sometimes mean "you aren't right, and never will be". 'yes' also has an extended meaning, the most important one being "I understand".
My first full day of work is tomorrow, I will be given a test to see if I understood the training session and what I've forgotten.
As for fun adventures, everyone will be glad to know that I've gone drinking in Osaka. Something I was surprised to learn is just how much the Japanese love to drink. I cannot emphasize this point enough. Like they love their drinks like the Irish love their drinks, if not more. But here's the awesome thing: There is no taboo with getting drunk. Not only that, but people actually look away if there's public urination going on, it's just impolite to look at people while they're urinating in the streets. It's also impolite to say or look at the people who are passed out on benches and may or may not have soiled themselves.
The second time I went drinking with people from another NOVA branch, we wound up at a karaoke bar. Our group was separated into 2 groups. I had befriended a British guy named Andrew, and him and I would sing loudly at every song even though we were clearly horrible. I had also met a few other people, including some Canadians and Australians. For those of you who don't know, I was very excited to meet Aussies. I haven't really met any actual Aussies yet.
So my group consisted of myself, Andrew, a Canadian girl named Sandy, and about 5 or 6 Americans. We had all you can drink, for a flat rate of 1800 yen. They kept on bringing us drinks, and we kept on pounding them down.
As the night wore on, and I started losing my voice, I went into the other booth which contained the Aussies, a few British people and some Canadians. Now that was a fun booth. We got up on our seats, kept on bringing in whiskey, and pounded them down like there was no tomorrow. I will state for the record, that I was proud of my fellow Canadians in their abilities to drink, have fun and not make asses of themselves. I will also state for the record that the Aussies were with us, shot for shot, singing every song along with us, and just general kick assedness. I was impressed, whereas the British for the most part weren't drinking at the end of the night and the Americans couldn't help but pass out on the table, break glasses and insist they're fine, only to fall on the table again.
Getting lost can be lots of fun, or it can be a frightening experience when you're in a foreign culture whose language you don't know. Here's my story about getting lost in Japan:
Last night I went to a bar after work. I had been to the bar before, but I always went with the guys I live with. They would lead the way, and I would be in awe of all the little shops to the left and right of me. Getting a sense of direction in a country in which you're illiterate is actually much more difficult to get around than a country in which you're not. I left my apartment to go to the bar at 9:45 pm. I got lost on the way, ended up at some strip clubs by mistake, but eventually found myself at the large crab described in the directions given to me. I looked for the bar in relation to the huge crab for a very long time before I just said to myself 'forget it' and started tracing my steps to go back home. This whole thing had probably taken me an hour.
For the next 2 hours or so, I would be wandering Japan, unable to ask them how to get to where I lived, because I couldn't remember my address. I was thirsty, hungry and tired for the whole time. I still don't know where I was, and today I was walking around Osaka and saw somethings that I saw last night, and it hurts to realize that the whole time, I was never further away from home than 5-10 minutes. But here's why my sanity was melting away: I wound up at the crab 3 times that night. That's right, I would get incredibly lost, and somehow, as if space itself was warped, I was back at the giant crab. Not only that, but I got to see the male prostitutes, a yakuza and was solicited for sex twice by a female prostitute (I think, she was speaking Japanese, but seemed desperate). Incredibly however, at about 1 am, I found the bar. After hours of searching for either the bar, or my house, I found the bar while looking for my house. I went upstairs, and walked into the bar. The people were very nice, saw me come in looking tired, and one waiter led me to a table of white people. It wasn't my friends... my friends had left earlier because they started work at 7. And as if by a miracle, I knew the way home and got in at 1:15, which included a stop in a convenience store near my home where I got a Strawberry Sundae. I deserved it more than I've ever deserved Ice Cream before.
You may ask: How did I get so lost? What prevented me from meeting up with my friends?
I was at the wrong giant crab.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
I love last minutes adventures.
So I was eating breakfast in my pajamas this morning when I heard a knock at the door. It was the girl who lives downstairs who has just moved in. She asked me if I would like to go to Kyoto with her today. She knew how to get there, and she heard it was nice, and just wanted to go with someone. For those of you who don't know, I love spontaneity.
Kyoto was the capital of Japan before the Edo period, when the city of Edo, currently named Tokyo, became the captial. It is considered to be the cultural heart of Japan with plenty of shrines and attractions. It takes approximately 45 minutes to get from downtown Osaka to downtown Kyoto.
So we went to Kyoto by taking a subway then a train. I'm going to talk about the price to do things, because some people are curious. 100 yen is 0.96 dollars. The subway and train were about 800 yen. The subway system is actually really cool. There are tunnels and stores underground, and you buy tickets. For a certain price, you walk in, a machine punches your card, and when you leave the station, it takes your card, provided you paid enough. There's a police officer or security guard that stands beside the machine in case you're trying to mess with the system. They're actually really nice, and could see that the girl and I were clearly lost. They showed us around, and we eventually found ourselves at Kyoto.
We had a tour book with all sorts of places to go visit. There are far too many shrines and temples to see in a single day, and it was difficult to decide which was the one to go to. We went to the closest shrine, walked the 10 blocks or so, and saw a bit of Kyoto.
People live in small wooden houses. The outside looked worn down, but the inside must be better. We also ran into a few Buddhist shrines along the way. Explored a bit, but we kept on going to the closest shrine.
This shrine was the Toji Temple. It's a 5 story Pagoda, the tallest in Japan, with some temples with statues. It cost 500 yen to enter, and it was beautiful. There was a pond, and nice trees. the pagoda itself was the least impressive part. The statues were really cool and people were praying to them. I haven't seen anything quite like them. Unfortunately, due to Japanese laws, we could not take pictures of the statues.
We then went on to explore more temples around the pagoda, then walked back to Kyoto station. We noticed that they did tours, but those tours cost anywhere from 2100 yen to 9000 yen. We then saw that they had bus routes to various locations, and a day pass available for 1000 yen. By now, it was 1 pm, and we said that it was nice to know that, but today wasn't a good day to buy a day pass. We tried to look at something else to do, possibly indoors because with humidity, it felt like it was a mid to high-30 C. We boarded a random bus, to go to a shrine we didn't really notice on our maps of places to go. The Kiyomizu-dera Temple . Here's an excerpt from the description: "For over 1,000 years, pilgrims have climbed the slope to pray to the temple's 11-headed Kannon image and drink from its sacred spring"
So we thought it would be interesting. The Kyoto bus was crowded, and you paid on your way out. When we arrived, we didn't know quite where to go, but decided to follow Japanese people who left the bus. We kept on going up and up a hill, with tiny shops on each side. They were selling jewels, kimonos and fans. It was interesting to see all the different things that Kyoto had to offer.
When we reached the top, and looked down, we could see all of Kyoto with trees in the foreground and mountains in the background. The temple was beautiful, and before we went in, we saw some people preparing for something. We didn't know what it was then, and to be frank, I still don't know, but it was one of the most awesome things ever. There were people dressed up, playing instruments and some people holding a dragon. We thought it was awesome and then went into the temple, 300 yen admition. There were lavishly decorated 3 story pagodas and some shrines with beautiful statues. There was also purification water, where water was coming out of a dragon's head and people would wash their hands. We then saw the dragon again, and the people were making the dragon do movements. It was almost as if the dragon were a living thing.
We explored the grounds more, and took plenty of pictures. They will be up on facebook soon. We returned to Osaka afterwards very happy with our day, and tired. My recommendation to anyone going to Kyoto is to skip Toji temple and go to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Also, to bring plenty of liquids. I'll be in Kyoto again I'm sure. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Golden Pavilion.
Kyoto was the capital of Japan before the Edo period, when the city of Edo, currently named Tokyo, became the captial. It is considered to be the cultural heart of Japan with plenty of shrines and attractions. It takes approximately 45 minutes to get from downtown Osaka to downtown Kyoto.
So we went to Kyoto by taking a subway then a train. I'm going to talk about the price to do things, because some people are curious. 100 yen is 0.96 dollars. The subway and train were about 800 yen. The subway system is actually really cool. There are tunnels and stores underground, and you buy tickets. For a certain price, you walk in, a machine punches your card, and when you leave the station, it takes your card, provided you paid enough. There's a police officer or security guard that stands beside the machine in case you're trying to mess with the system. They're actually really nice, and could see that the girl and I were clearly lost. They showed us around, and we eventually found ourselves at Kyoto.
We had a tour book with all sorts of places to go visit. There are far too many shrines and temples to see in a single day, and it was difficult to decide which was the one to go to. We went to the closest shrine, walked the 10 blocks or so, and saw a bit of Kyoto.
People live in small wooden houses. The outside looked worn down, but the inside must be better. We also ran into a few Buddhist shrines along the way. Explored a bit, but we kept on going to the closest shrine.
This shrine was the Toji Temple. It's a 5 story Pagoda, the tallest in Japan, with some temples with statues. It cost 500 yen to enter, and it was beautiful. There was a pond, and nice trees. the pagoda itself was the least impressive part. The statues were really cool and people were praying to them. I haven't seen anything quite like them. Unfortunately, due to Japanese laws, we could not take pictures of the statues.
We then went on to explore more temples around the pagoda, then walked back to Kyoto station. We noticed that they did tours, but those tours cost anywhere from 2100 yen to 9000 yen. We then saw that they had bus routes to various locations, and a day pass available for 1000 yen. By now, it was 1 pm, and we said that it was nice to know that, but today wasn't a good day to buy a day pass. We tried to look at something else to do, possibly indoors because with humidity, it felt like it was a mid to high-30 C. We boarded a random bus, to go to a shrine we didn't really notice on our maps of places to go. The Kiyomizu-dera Temple . Here's an excerpt from the description: "For over 1,000 years, pilgrims have climbed the slope to pray to the temple's 11-headed Kannon image and drink from its sacred spring"
So we thought it would be interesting. The Kyoto bus was crowded, and you paid on your way out. When we arrived, we didn't know quite where to go, but decided to follow Japanese people who left the bus. We kept on going up and up a hill, with tiny shops on each side. They were selling jewels, kimonos and fans. It was interesting to see all the different things that Kyoto had to offer.
When we reached the top, and looked down, we could see all of Kyoto with trees in the foreground and mountains in the background. The temple was beautiful, and before we went in, we saw some people preparing for something. We didn't know what it was then, and to be frank, I still don't know, but it was one of the most awesome things ever. There were people dressed up, playing instruments and some people holding a dragon. We thought it was awesome and then went into the temple, 300 yen admition. There were lavishly decorated 3 story pagodas and some shrines with beautiful statues. There was also purification water, where water was coming out of a dragon's head and people would wash their hands. We then saw the dragon again, and the people were making the dragon do movements. It was almost as if the dragon were a living thing.
We explored the grounds more, and took plenty of pictures. They will be up on facebook soon. We returned to Osaka afterwards very happy with our day, and tired. My recommendation to anyone going to Kyoto is to skip Toji temple and go to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Also, to bring plenty of liquids. I'll be in Kyoto again I'm sure. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Golden Pavilion.
Friday, September 14, 2007
The first few days
Let me start by saying that I was crazy to believe that I had somehow beat Jet Lag, that I had found the miracle cure, staying up 36 hours straight. I was wrong. It's currently 3:30 pm, and I've been up since about 2 am. I want to sleep now... because, I'm tired.
Also, please feel free to tell me that my writing's horrible. Leave a comment, say something like "Paul, you never explained what you had to register for in the last post", or "speak English please". Believe it or not, I might actually come back from Japan with worse English than when I left, so this is your chance to make fun of me, and help me!
Osaka's really cool. I haven't gone drinking yet, and I've met the girls that live upstairs and the ones that live downstairs. I briefly met some people at the airport, but they were British, and not the Monty Python kind. They were probably tired, I'll see them on Monday when I start working. My favorites moments include the lady who kept on staring at me, and the man who delivered my luggage who laughed at me when I said Ariagato.
So the apartment's really small. Everything's small here! Lightbulbs, cars, people, all tiny! There are however exceptions to every rule. In this case, the beer cans are huge. 500 mL, but for some reason, they don't have bottles for their beer, at least none I've seen so far. The grocery stores are pretty cool. They're basically exactly like the grocery stores here, everything you need on a regular basis is on opposite ends of the store so you have to go through the whole store to get what you want. The instructions on how to make stuff is all in Japanese, so I buy all the food based on whether it's pre-made, or whether it's got some cute animal speaking and doing each step with a pretty picture. Today I had curry, which had a lot of writing for how to make it, but a picture with boiling water, the curry pouch in the water, with a Koala bear saying "(japanese stuff) 3 - 5 (more japanese stuff)". 5 minutes, and I had the most awesome pre-packaged curry sauce ever.
I had to register as a Gai-jin today, which means foreigner. I walked into city hall, and there was a huge board with all the services that City hall provides. There was an old Japanese man who looked at me, then pointed to number 25, foreigner services. I thanked him, but was a little hurt. Supposedly, I don't look Japanese. It was cool, so now I can open a bank account and get a cell phone.
The other thing I'll talk about in this post are the beds. Now everyone, can you guess why it is that the Kanji symbol for floor in Chinese is the Japanese symbol for sleep? That's right, I sleep on a very thin mattress with sheets on it which is in turn on some tatami mats (which is a nice way to say wood). It's actually comfortable, except the pillow. The pillow's filled with like beans or rice. It's incredibly uncomfortable. My room also has no windows, which isn't helping the jetlag thing. Over the next two days, I plan on buying an alarm clock, some more groceries, maybe go to a bar and restaurant.
Japan's awesome, and it may seem like I'm angry or insulted, but I'm not. Tune in next time at the same bat-Time and the same bat-Channel.
Also, please feel free to tell me that my writing's horrible. Leave a comment, say something like "Paul, you never explained what you had to register for in the last post", or "speak English please". Believe it or not, I might actually come back from Japan with worse English than when I left, so this is your chance to make fun of me, and help me!
Osaka's really cool. I haven't gone drinking yet, and I've met the girls that live upstairs and the ones that live downstairs. I briefly met some people at the airport, but they were British, and not the Monty Python kind. They were probably tired, I'll see them on Monday when I start working. My favorites moments include the lady who kept on staring at me, and the man who delivered my luggage who laughed at me when I said Ariagato.
So the apartment's really small. Everything's small here! Lightbulbs, cars, people, all tiny! There are however exceptions to every rule. In this case, the beer cans are huge. 500 mL, but for some reason, they don't have bottles for their beer, at least none I've seen so far. The grocery stores are pretty cool. They're basically exactly like the grocery stores here, everything you need on a regular basis is on opposite ends of the store so you have to go through the whole store to get what you want. The instructions on how to make stuff is all in Japanese, so I buy all the food based on whether it's pre-made, or whether it's got some cute animal speaking and doing each step with a pretty picture. Today I had curry, which had a lot of writing for how to make it, but a picture with boiling water, the curry pouch in the water, with a Koala bear saying "(japanese stuff) 3 - 5 (more japanese stuff)". 5 minutes, and I had the most awesome pre-packaged curry sauce ever.
I had to register as a Gai-jin today, which means foreigner. I walked into city hall, and there was a huge board with all the services that City hall provides. There was an old Japanese man who looked at me, then pointed to number 25, foreigner services. I thanked him, but was a little hurt. Supposedly, I don't look Japanese. It was cool, so now I can open a bank account and get a cell phone.
The other thing I'll talk about in this post are the beds. Now everyone, can you guess why it is that the Kanji symbol for floor in Chinese is the Japanese symbol for sleep? That's right, I sleep on a very thin mattress with sheets on it which is in turn on some tatami mats (which is a nice way to say wood). It's actually comfortable, except the pillow. The pillow's filled with like beans or rice. It's incredibly uncomfortable. My room also has no windows, which isn't helping the jetlag thing. Over the next two days, I plan on buying an alarm clock, some more groceries, maybe go to a bar and restaurant.
Japan's awesome, and it may seem like I'm angry or insulted, but I'm not. Tune in next time at the same bat-Time and the same bat-Channel.
A quicky before I run out and register.
I went to the grocery store last night and saw the most amazing thing: Colt Whiskey. That's right, haven't had enough of Colt's fantastic Malt Liquor? Well they make Whiskey too, and guess what! It's cheap!
More to come soon.
More to come soon.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
There's no place like home
36 hours with only catnaps, a few cups of coffee, 24 hours of sunlight, and long long plane rides... but I'm in my new home.
My last day in Canada was spent packing and setting up my parents computers. I also went for a check-up and some shots, bloodwork, the usual annual checkup stuff. So that day was boring, nothing to know about it except that I stayed up all night until I was packed. My dad and I left home at 3:30 am to catch the 7:15 plane.
So I was one of the first 4 or so people to arrive at Pearson. We hung out, talked, had fun. More and more people joined. It was a good group, and I'm sad to see us all go to different cities. A handful stayed in Osaka, a few went to Kyoto and Kobe which are close. We weren't sitting together on the plane, we mostly hung out at the airports because we had a lot of time at each one. The highlight however was meeting the British Asian guy who told us stories about having been an English teacher in Japan. He said he couldn't stand it, and the only way he could do it is by getting absolutely pissed on his time off. He was an inspiration to me. His stories were just about how drunk he got and how the Japanese women run after foreign guys. He was hilarious, said Tokyo kind of sucks and Osaka's the best city in Japan. He also recommended not passing out on the streets. If that isn't sound advice, I don't know what is.
The plane ride to San Francisco was alright. It was only 5 hours followed by 3 hours of time to kill in the San Francisco airport. Then there was the really fun flight, the one that's 12 hours, over the pacific, with nothing to see but water.
The plane was enormous, every seat had a tv at the back of someone else's seat so you could watch the movies (spiderman 3, the ex and Fantastic Four: Flight of the Silver Surfer) or tract the where the plane was thanks to GPS, as well as indicate the altitude (11000 meters most of the flight), velocity (about 950 km/h max), distance travelled so far and distanced left (5800 km in all). I wondered if I was dead, and the plane ride was purgatory, or even hell (given enough time). One thing that occured to me during the flight is that since we were going from east to west, we were following the sun, so basically, I saw the sun from 6 am in Toronto to 7:30 pm Osaka time, which comes to 24.5 hours of sunlight. It wasn't a big deal, it was just funny to go from Tuesday to Wednesday without a night between. It's like one long tuesday, then all of the sudden it's Wednesday night, and I'm getting ready to sleep, and it'll be Thursday! For those of you in Toronto, you're all probably not even up for start your Wednesday.
One amazing thing about the United flight from San Francisco to Osaka is that the alcohol is provided with the flight! If only I knew that during the flight... unfortunately I heard about it after the fact.
There was however one kickass part of the flight, landing. After a few hours of sea, and the GPS tracker showing we were close to the coast and close to land, we looked out the window and saw the tip of mountains peaking through the clouds. It was really pretty, and I wish I didn't have four people between myself and the window. We landed at 4 pm, and after customs and all that bs, we got out of the airport at 6:30. We were met by Nova employees and told which bus to take until the end of the line.
There wasn't a big shock coming off the plane. I've been to Markham and Richmond Hill, so I've been around Asian people, it isn't anything new. Let's not also forget I did my degree in Computing. That's there's japanese everywhere that I can't read isn't bothering me. Everyone around me speaking Japanese is not a big deal. I have not suffered any kind of shock, I've only been extremely gleeful at the opportunity to explore a new country and culture. Mind you, the company has been holding our hand since we arrived.
From the airport we took a bus to the station near which I'll be living. I met another Nova employee who showed me how to get to my apartment with a map. We walked to the apartment, but got a little lost along the way. We found our way, because I live in a semi-sketchy one-way alley. The apartment's like a motel, the doors lead to outside, and there are stairs to the fifth floor. I'm beside a Hotel, but that's beside a busy street, and across from a Shinto Shrine with a big ass dragon. I plan on exploring it more tomorrow.
Japanese TV is nowhere nearly as entertaining as SpikeTV and youTube make it out to be. Plus because my IP is originating in Japan, some webpages have been loading up in Japanese. Just small things I didn't think about. I'm told that work is actually walking distance, which rocks because when I applied they said it would take less than an hour of train and bus.
So I'm just getting ready to sleep, and unpack. It's been good times. More updates to come.
My last day in Canada was spent packing and setting up my parents computers. I also went for a check-up and some shots, bloodwork, the usual annual checkup stuff. So that day was boring, nothing to know about it except that I stayed up all night until I was packed. My dad and I left home at 3:30 am to catch the 7:15 plane.
So I was one of the first 4 or so people to arrive at Pearson. We hung out, talked, had fun. More and more people joined. It was a good group, and I'm sad to see us all go to different cities. A handful stayed in Osaka, a few went to Kyoto and Kobe which are close. We weren't sitting together on the plane, we mostly hung out at the airports because we had a lot of time at each one. The highlight however was meeting the British Asian guy who told us stories about having been an English teacher in Japan. He said he couldn't stand it, and the only way he could do it is by getting absolutely pissed on his time off. He was an inspiration to me. His stories were just about how drunk he got and how the Japanese women run after foreign guys. He was hilarious, said Tokyo kind of sucks and Osaka's the best city in Japan. He also recommended not passing out on the streets. If that isn't sound advice, I don't know what is.
The plane ride to San Francisco was alright. It was only 5 hours followed by 3 hours of time to kill in the San Francisco airport. Then there was the really fun flight, the one that's 12 hours, over the pacific, with nothing to see but water.
The plane was enormous, every seat had a tv at the back of someone else's seat so you could watch the movies (spiderman 3, the ex and Fantastic Four: Flight of the Silver Surfer) or tract the where the plane was thanks to GPS, as well as indicate the altitude (11000 meters most of the flight), velocity (about 950 km/h max), distance travelled so far and distanced left (5800 km in all). I wondered if I was dead, and the plane ride was purgatory, or even hell (given enough time). One thing that occured to me during the flight is that since we were going from east to west, we were following the sun, so basically, I saw the sun from 6 am in Toronto to 7:30 pm Osaka time, which comes to 24.5 hours of sunlight. It wasn't a big deal, it was just funny to go from Tuesday to Wednesday without a night between. It's like one long tuesday, then all of the sudden it's Wednesday night, and I'm getting ready to sleep, and it'll be Thursday! For those of you in Toronto, you're all probably not even up for start your Wednesday.
One amazing thing about the United flight from San Francisco to Osaka is that the alcohol is provided with the flight! If only I knew that during the flight... unfortunately I heard about it after the fact.
There was however one kickass part of the flight, landing. After a few hours of sea, and the GPS tracker showing we were close to the coast and close to land, we looked out the window and saw the tip of mountains peaking through the clouds. It was really pretty, and I wish I didn't have four people between myself and the window. We landed at 4 pm, and after customs and all that bs, we got out of the airport at 6:30. We were met by Nova employees and told which bus to take until the end of the line.
There wasn't a big shock coming off the plane. I've been to Markham and Richmond Hill, so I've been around Asian people, it isn't anything new. Let's not also forget I did my degree in Computing. That's there's japanese everywhere that I can't read isn't bothering me. Everyone around me speaking Japanese is not a big deal. I have not suffered any kind of shock, I've only been extremely gleeful at the opportunity to explore a new country and culture. Mind you, the company has been holding our hand since we arrived.
From the airport we took a bus to the station near which I'll be living. I met another Nova employee who showed me how to get to my apartment with a map. We walked to the apartment, but got a little lost along the way. We found our way, because I live in a semi-sketchy one-way alley. The apartment's like a motel, the doors lead to outside, and there are stairs to the fifth floor. I'm beside a Hotel, but that's beside a busy street, and across from a Shinto Shrine with a big ass dragon. I plan on exploring it more tomorrow.
Japanese TV is nowhere nearly as entertaining as SpikeTV and youTube make it out to be. Plus because my IP is originating in Japan, some webpages have been loading up in Japanese. Just small things I didn't think about. I'm told that work is actually walking distance, which rocks because when I applied they said it would take less than an hour of train and bus.
So I'm just getting ready to sleep, and unpack. It's been good times. More updates to come.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
(almost) All Packed and Ready to Go
Hi there everybody,
So I leave early tomorrow morning, September the 11th. I figure it's probably the safest day to fly seeing that security's going to be really tight.
I have gotten my visa, I have medical insurance, and plane tickets. The final price for the plane tickets was 900 dollars with a stop off in San Francisco. Unfortunately I won't have a day to goof off there, which would have rocked, but I'll just have to do the ~15 hour flight from San Francisco to Osaka right away.
I've met some of the people who are going on the same day, and it'll be interesting to see what we're going to be doing on a plane. I know my address yet, and contacted the two guys I will be living with. They seem nice, one guy's been in Osaka since April and answered all my questions, the other one arrive two weeks ago, so when I contacted him he had just arrived.
Once I arrive in Osaka, I will receive my 'hanko', which is my name etched into wood so that I can open up a bank account in Osaka. Then I have to register at City Hall so that I can do anything, including getting a cell phone, borrowing a library book or renting a movie. My friend Martin was nice enough to pass me his Japanese cell phone because they're only good in Japan. (Thanks Martin, it's definitely appreciated)
I'll have 5 days of discovering Japan before training, and I expect to get lost every which way. I'll let you all know what's going on once I get connection to the internet. I still have to finish packing (nine and a half hours before departure), but I've got most of my stuff together and ready to go.
I'll post again in Nippon.
So I leave early tomorrow morning, September the 11th. I figure it's probably the safest day to fly seeing that security's going to be really tight.
I have gotten my visa, I have medical insurance, and plane tickets. The final price for the plane tickets was 900 dollars with a stop off in San Francisco. Unfortunately I won't have a day to goof off there, which would have rocked, but I'll just have to do the ~15 hour flight from San Francisco to Osaka right away.
I've met some of the people who are going on the same day, and it'll be interesting to see what we're going to be doing on a plane. I know my address yet, and contacted the two guys I will be living with. They seem nice, one guy's been in Osaka since April and answered all my questions, the other one arrive two weeks ago, so when I contacted him he had just arrived.
Once I arrive in Osaka, I will receive my 'hanko', which is my name etched into wood so that I can open up a bank account in Osaka. Then I have to register at City Hall so that I can do anything, including getting a cell phone, borrowing a library book or renting a movie. My friend Martin was nice enough to pass me his Japanese cell phone because they're only good in Japan. (Thanks Martin, it's definitely appreciated)
I'll have 5 days of discovering Japan before training, and I expect to get lost every which way. I'll let you all know what's going on once I get connection to the internet. I still have to finish packing (nine and a half hours before departure), but I've got most of my stuff together and ready to go.
I'll post again in Nippon.
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