Stuff

Here's another archived blog. Most of the stuff in here is outdated (the bug is dead and I have the telephoen back) but still....

So far it’s been good. Great in fact: I’ve met some great people, done some great things, and generally felt great about it all. Course, the danger here is that it can’t possibly continue to be great for the entire duration of my stay (however long that may be) and although it is all still, well….great, I’m beginning to imagine how it might not always be so.

I’ve started to understand the idea of ‘culture shock’ a bit, although I wouldn’t use that particular term myself. ‘Culture frustration’ is perhaps more accurate. I’m starting to get a bit fed up of not being able to understand anything, a bit sick of feeling as helpless as a particularly undereducated 4 year old. And it’s not even as if my Japanese isn’t improving, I’ve learnt a truckload of new phrases not to mention a great deal more about the grammar but these are trivial advances when you’re sitting in a restaurant being spoken at in machinegun bursts of a language that has absolutely nothing in common with your own. The culture itself isn’t particularly shocking, just a bit hard to get to grips with when you can’t even attach the correct “goodbye” to the correct situation.

And my supervisor…he’s a lovely chap and has been indispensable but bless him he’s got absolutely zero knowledge of anything more technologically advanced than a desk drawer. And I’m not kidding. Take this example; my predecessor had an internet account where she rented the modem from the phone company who obviously requested it back at the end of her contract. With the former JET in question having left the country, the responsibility of sending the modem back passed onto my supervisor.

He sent them her phone. Her actual phone that she had bought with her own money. Not a rented phone. Not even just a phone: a phone/fax combo. He mistook a phone/fax combo for a modem. He told me that he thought it was a bit odd that the modem had paper in it. Douglas Adams couldn’t make this shit up. That thing was expensive too, about 40000 yen (£200) and I’ll be buggered if I’m forking out the same amount again if the telephone company have lost it/thrown it away in bemusement. You can imagine how hard it is to try to get this guy to help me with setting up the internet. That’s one Japanese stereotype out of the window then.

The apartment too has lost some of its initial sheen. I’ve been to a few other JET houses and they’ve all been, if not bigger then newer. I’ve started applying such terms as “basic” and even “ramshackle” to my pad, which may be a bit unfair with regards to everything except the kitchen. It really is a nightmare to do anything with. I’m not perhaps the best, ahem, cook in the world but there’s hardly room to put two plates down side by side in there. Hmm. I’ve also had my first bug issue. I decided to have a cleanup on Saturday (as most of the rooms didn’t look to have been hovered before I arrived) and while moving the bin a cockroach the size of my face scuttled across the floor and under the freezer. I actually screamed. I may even have swooned. This thing was bigger than most of the plates I own, Christ knows what sort of food it thought I was throwing away as a three course meal wouldn’t have sated it. I immediately armed myself with a Tupperware bowl and a poker stick thing and set about thrashing the space under my white goods. Or rather, I spent an hour working up the courage to. As it happens Percy, which is how I now refer to him, was not to be seen again that night so I closed off the kitchen and dreamt, for some reason, of Spaniards with 8 legs.

Today however, he resurfaced with a friend. I glimpsed him moving between the freezer and washer and proceeded to run screaming from the kitchen once more. A few hours later, for various reasons, I needed to go out so tentatively ventured back into the kitchen, keeping my tootsies as far from any dark areas as possible, and turned the door handle. Christ almighty, something ran from the front door to, yes you’ve guessed it, the back of the freezer. Lord only knows what it was but it was fast and long and, I thought, bluey-white in colour. Now, I still haven’t seen this mysterious presence again but that didn’t stop me from going to the nearest Hyaku-en store (100yen shop) and buying the biggest can of insect spray I could find and nuking my kitchen. My gas detector alarm went off I used so much of the stuff and I can no longer feel my legs. Only kidding, but hopefully Percy can’t feel any of his. We’ve been told not to step on them for two reasons:

1) They may be carrying eggs. One crunch and all the little eggs go everywhere and you have an infestation. Nice.
2) When they get squished they released pheromones telling all their little mates to come and have a party at mine. Again, infestation.

We’ve also been told about Huntsmen (spider that grow on average to the size of an adult’s hand and that beat their prey to death), centipedes (which can kill apparently) and hornets (one of which was buzzing around my windows on the second day here and which could probably have eaten my head whole. I’ve seen smaller cars. They can kill as well and will physically go for you if you anger them/swat at them/if they feel like it). I did however on my travels see a tiny little dormouse running down the road and into someone else’s house. Aw. Lucky bugger.

Oh, and I found the modem. It was behind a cardboard box with a phone/fax combo on it.

More pics, mostly from the Kumamoto City Orientation put on by JET:



Kumamoto Castle. Mmm, pointy.



A view of Kumamoto City from the top of the castle. As you can see, it's not the biggest place in the world (that would be Preston).



Can you see me? This is from the pub-crawl after the second day of the Orientation. The guy in the middle is the other Jet in my town a great bloke from LA called Ellison.



Couple of more recent ones now, this was taken last week (the 3rd of September) and it's me and some of the other Yatsushiro ALTs (plus some of the second and third yearer's Japanese mates)



Me looking rather surprised in a Karaoke parlour. That's an Irish ALT called Dalbhagh (Dalva) in the foreground. She scary.

Anyway, that's your lot. Until next time...