Brian's Japan Adventure

September 1, 2007

This morning Marc and I both woke up early without an alarm clock. Whether it was excitement or jet lag, I don’t know. But after some instant coffee and orange juice, we got out the bicycles for the first time to meet up with Lui and Shingo at the convenience store on the corner. Marc’s kick-stand was broken and mine had a low tire. We bent Marc’s stand back the way it was supposed to be and there was a pump for mine, so we were able to get those problems out of the way pretty quickly. Hopefully my tire was only low and not leaking, but I won’t know for a while.

We met Lui and Shingo right on time, and they had their bicycles with them. We rode to “Happy Town,” a large department store that isn’t very far away. The first floor was a grocery on the scale of Kroger or Meijer’s back home. The second floor had appliances, and I bought the alarm clock I needed for 1780 Yen. Was that good? I dunno, but Lui thought it was. The store also had a 100yen section, much like one of our dollar stores. We didn’t want to take up too much of their time, and we wanted to see more, so we didn’t stay very long. That place will need further exploration very soon, maybe even tonight. We rode around a bit and then returned home to pick up Lui’s car; he was going to drive us for the things we needed. I did the find that the bicycles the school provided were very comfortable and riding them for a long distance won’t be a problem. They seem to be built for comfort, while bikes back home are built for speed. I guess that’s the difference between the USA, where bikes are for children, and here, where it’s not unusual to see men in suits riding them. I even picked out a few girls in high-heels riding them. Bikes are serious here!

We told them we needed phone cards, and they were VERY helpful in helping us find those. They took us to a place called Deodeo, and we bought 3000 Yen cards. The students who were here before us left their phones behind for us to use. Apparently you need a foreigner registration card in order to buy a phone, and I won’t have mine for several weeks; we’re going to go and apply for those on Monday. Anyway, we bought cards and they both worked with the phones we have. The phones are customized for the original students nd I’m pretty sure we cannot change the names on the account. So if your caller ID shows a call or an email from “Maria,” well, that’s me J. About this time, I asked about Internet cafes, and they didn’t know of any. I asked them where I COULD get on the Internet, and they both suggested the university up the street. The problem is that I am not a student there and not really faculty either; I’m more of a guest lecturer I think. I will have to ask Mrs. Y about Internet access Monday. I SUPPOSE I could learn to live without the Internet, but I don’t want to give it up without a fight. I know I’m a Net addict, but I’m OK with that!

After that, we went to Okayama castle. I knew I’d be seeing this place eventually, but had not really expected to see it on the first day. They surprised us by taking us there. It was a real surprise because I had been expecting to go shopping, so I did not bring my camera. That’s no big deal; just Google Okayama Castle, and there are plenty of pictures online. Most of the castle was destroyed in WWII, but has been rebuilt with air conditioning, electric lights, and an elevator. There were displays of swords, armor and some historical stuff on every floor. The view from the top floor is very nice. I haven’t been here long, but I can already sy Okayama is way bigger than Dayton.

After the castle, we went to a “used and outlet” store that had lots of neat things very inexpensively priced. I was impressed with their huge selection of Mangas for only 200-300 yen. I can’t read any of it, so I didn’t buy any, but if I did, this place would be great. Marc looked at old records. The selection of older videogames was impressive too, but neither of us are really in the market for entertaining toys right now with so much to do. We left there empty handed.

Lastly we went to eat at a noodle shop. We all had oodong bowls with pork flavoring and had some battered shrimp mixed in. They gave us the choice of hot or cold, and we both asked for hot; it came cold. I think it would have been very good hot, but cold was pretty gross. I guess people eat it cold too or they wouldn’t have asked, but I thought it was like eating cold wet spaghetti. Next time, I’ll make sure they know hot from cold.

After the noodle shop, they dropped us at home, and we thanked them profusely for their help. I think they were bored to death shopping with us, but we couldn’t have done it without them, especially buying the hone cards. When we got home we played with our new phones, learning how they work and getting the card numbers programmed into them. They seem like nice phones; hopefully the batteries are strong.

I am fully unpacked now, including the computer. Marc’s still fiddling with his phone, I hear him setting ring-tones. I’m getting caught up on blog writing and documenting today and last night. It’s only 4:30, so there will probably something more to add here later. So far, lack of Internet seems to be the only thing I am unhappy about.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2007 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.