もう疲れたです。今日はスペースワールドに友達と二十人ぐらい行きました。 (I'm still tired. Today I went to Space World with about 20 friends.) 午前十時に着くために、電車とバスを[mobbed]. (We mobbed the trains and buses to get there by 10 AM.) 私たちは六時までとてもつかれましたけど、私はちょっととまりたかったです。 (We were all very tired by 6:00, but I kind of wanted to stay.) The rides were excellent, and much more consistently good than I remember encountering before.
I found that I'm much more tolerant of being twisted and spun and tossed around than the people I went around with. I was ready to ride roller-coasters and spinny rides (like the one below) all day long, but after 3 PM, people kept making sick faces and pointing us toward the baby water rides instead of the actually entertaining attractions. Maybe I visited more amusement parks than average during my childhood.
Regarding the ride above: it's not nearly as painful as it looks, though as you can see, it looks pretty painful. Whoever crafted this piece of work decided that humans can't be trusted to pull down their own restraining harnesses, and that only one harness isn't enough. The result is that the machine straps you in. The first attack drops around your neck and nails you in the crotch. The second comes from in front like a falling mallet, smashing the first into firm position. I wish I had the audio from the first time we underwent the process. But the ride was awesome, so I went twice.
The other rides were great, too. My comments on some of those are in the photo set, and while I'm mentioning it, I may as well mention the photo set I just uploaded for today.
I should also make note about the price. I don't know how much the entry ticket and train transportation cost individually, but together they were ￥５，５００ (~$46 USD). Not bad, I s'pose. I spent another ￥３２０ (~$2.70 USD) on bus fare to and from the train station, and another ￥１，０００ (~$8.36 USD) on food. I could have spent another ￥７００ (check it yourself) on a rather good roller-coaster photo, but I decided to pass.
Just to completely change the subject, I looked at the dates on my photos and found that I've been getting out and seeing Japan once a week since arriving (except last week, which is okay, because one week I went on two trips). And I'm doing moderately okay on money so far.
I didn't get very far with the Japanese. :\
My middle name is "Sleepless," so in an effort to make tomorrow the worst day possible, I uploaded the photos from the Avispa soccer match I went to.
That's the photo from the only goal scored. Woo.
Dang, too tired for even a single word of Japanese now. Sorry.
Recently, I've been ultra-distracted (see my main blog for a partial view of what's been going on). Quick notes:
- 今週、ゴールデンウィークが始まります。今年は月曜日と木曜日と金曜日が祝祭日です。(This is the beginning of Golden Week, a week where (this year), Monday, Thursday, and Friday are national holidays.)
- 明日、JTWの友達と一緒にスペースワールドに行く予定です。(Tomorrow I plan on going to Space World with some JTW friends.)
- インターネットあります！(I have Internet!)
I swear I'll write more (and post photos) when I get back.
It's probably pretty meaningless for me to use words like "tomorrow" with this confusing 13-hour time difference from family, but 明日までに部屋にインターネットあるでしょう (I might have Internet access in my room by tomorrow). Yesterday, they tried to deliver the "Internet box" but 部屋にいませんでした (I wasn't in my room).
今から日本語で書いてみるつもりです。日本語の授業の後で書く練習のチャンスあまりないんですけど、いいでしょうね。(From now on, I plan to write in Japanese. Outside Japanese class, there are few chances for writing practice, so this should be good for me.)
The flight to Japan was my second flight out of the country, only this time, I was alone. It crushed four of the preconceptions I had about flights that long:
- Getting around would be hard because of the language barrier. When there was something that I needed to know to not miss a flight or not get lost, there were written translations, and English speakers. At Tokyo Narita International Airport, every PA announcement was bilingual: they would say the Japanese, sound a tone, and say the English version. I could have gotten around without any Japanese.
- I would lose my bags. I didn't lose my bags. I almost lost my bags when I didn't know to transfer the bags from my international flight to my regional flight. However, one of the staff members called me on the PA, walked me back to the baggage carousel, and walked me back to the check-in counter. That was my first encounter with Japanese-style customer service.
- I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone in English. There were several Americans on my flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. They were headed to the US military base in Sasebo, I believe.
- I would die of boredom before arrival. There were video displays with movies playing constantly for the international portion of the flight. The buttons on mine were broken, but I listened to music endlessly, played Game Boy, and fit a nap or two in there somewhere. I felt like dying every time I saw the airplane icon as it slowly made its way from Chicago to Tokyo, but when I ignored that (and took off my watch), the trip became much more bearable.
I'm in a computer lab on Ito campus, a far cry from Hakozaki campus, where my classes are. It takes 50 minutes to get from Hakozaki campus to here if you take the free, non-stop bus meant for staff members, 90 minutes if you take public transportation through Tenjin, and much, much longer if you come by bike. Anyway, I'm meant to be working on my independent study project. Just checking in.
Virginia Tech is in a terrible state. Thankfully, Jeff is safe. I don't know anyone else there, but my thoughts go out to all of them.
A few days ago I sat on my glasses. With the frames I have been purchasing for several years now, this was not a problem. That frame bends in order to accommodate these accidents. For the new frame that I got on my last pair of lenses, this is not the case. The right arm nearly came off, and I could tell the screw was damaged. Luckily, I brought three pairs of glasses with me on this trip (do it!), so I put on lucky pair number two.
Thankfully, the dorm is across the road from an AEON, a mega-shop with groceries, a toy store, restaurants, clothing stores, a food court, and various other shops, all under one roof. (To those I left behind: think of our mall, only not as winding, and with shops pouring into the hallway instead of sitting behind small entryways.) One of the stores is an eyeglass shoppe, so I took my pair there.
As I walked in, people started yelling いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase - welcome!) at me, and of course no one knew English. I nodded and grunted and pointed at my glasses until they noticed what was wrong themselves. They sat me down at a table and I didn't see anyone for 15 minutes, when the guy came back to say that something was 「悪い」 (warui - bad) and that it would take longer. About 10 minutes later they brought back the glasses, presumably told me that there was no charge, then replied that there was no charge when I asked how much it was.
Then, of course, every person in the store yelled greetings at me as I walked out, as they do in this crazy part of the world. I swear one day I'll get used to it.
Upon arrival, us newcomers and a few tutors hit up Fukuoka Bank for some checking accounts. They could be savings accounts, but I think they're checking. Either way, we skipped a class to do this, so I was all for it. These are my notes for people who, like me, suck at Japanese.
- Take a native speaker. Without practice filling out these forms, a dictionary still won't help you. The bank still used their emperor-based year-counting system, the form assumes (though doesn't require) the use of a はんこ (hanko - personal stamp), and there were plenty of other little traps. Even with our tutors there, we all had to fill out the application multiple times due to mistakes.
- As mentioned above, the application forms assume that you have a はんこ, even though you don't need one. You're meant to sign instead of stamp if that's what you prefer, but you wouldn't know this from looking at the box. One form offered about two square centimeters of space for はんこ/signature.
- You need an initial deposit in cash. Our accounts had a minimum opening balance of ￥１００ (<$1 USD), so it was no problem.
Know that ATMs here have business hours. They're completely closed during certain parts of the day (for us, around opening and closing time), and charge extra fees for use during evenings, nights, and weekends. But they make up for this by allowing you to use your bank book as an ATM card. They fill out the right columns with your most-up-to-date amounts as you make transactions, then spit the book back at you. That was an awesome first-time experience.
I knew before I arrived that I would have trouble speaking to Japanese people. I wasn't disappointed on that front. There are some outstanding English speakers here, a lot of pretty good English speakers, and the rest don't talk to me. Sometimes I make a bus driver or a grocery store clerk talk to me by asking a question in Japanese, but everyone in the JTW community knows enough English that I really haven't spoken much Japanese yet.
Even so, sometimes conversing is hard. I mumble, I stutter, and I use some weird colloquialisms---ask anyone at home, as they already knew this. But as early as the car ride from the airport (oh, so long ago), I've had to slow down and use simpler wordings when talking to non-native speakers.
I found that while a Japanese person speaks casual Japanese sentences with subjects, pronouns, and particles removed, they still need that "cruft" from me when I speak English. So even though they might not understand a complete sentence the first time around, they (and other non-native speakers) need all that context to parse my words.
They would understand if I asked 「どこへ」 (doko e), but not the literal translation, "Where to?" Maybe they're trying to figure out whether I'm asking "where two?" or "wear too?" Or maybe it's something completely different. All I know is that I can repeat a short phrase like that all I want, and some people won't get it until I ask, "Where are we going?"---which, when I'm not careful, sounds more like "wherer we going?" with my accent. When that happens, I have to repeat it anyway.
Because most of the people in JTW come from other foreign countries like France or China, a week after I arrived, I had mostly gotten used to speaking this simpler English. But that caused strange problem. I couldn't stop. I called home and tried to speak naturally, but I couldn't stop speaking slowly and carefully, trying not to use difficult sentence structures. My mom and sister admitted to thinking that I was doing it because of a poor Skype connection, but it was worse than that. Thankfully, I think I'm past that stage and can switch easily. I think I can, anyway. Hopefully I haven't just gotten used to it.
