Brian's Japan Adventure

February 25^th, 2008

 Shopping Trip 

I went up to the office first thing this morning and printed out some lessons for the rest of this week.  I have two possibilities that I need to decide between for tomorrow & Friday’s classless. I have one that can be used for BOTH adult classes on Wednesday, and another two that are good for the early Wednesday adult class.  I may or may not need something for the late class for next week, but otherwise, my lesson-hunting days are about over. Unless, that is, I need to find things for next week’s special classes. I probably will, but I don’t know what kind of material yet. Hopefully, someone will explain that tomorrow.

I came back down the hill to the apartment around 10:30, and had to decide what to do for the day.  I’ve been spending way too much time on the Internet recently; I may as well be home for all the use I’m making of my free time here. Besides, the library is closed on Mondays, and I paid for Megalo twice last week.

My “free days” are getting fewer and fewer, and I still don’t have any gifts for the people at home, so I decided to go shopping.  Technically, I could do it anytime after the Library, but that laptop computer gets heavy and bulky after carrying it a few hours. So I decided to make a special trip just for shopping.

I rode the bus downtown, got off at the Tenmaya bus station. I walked from the bus station through the South portion of the Tenmaya Arcade.  I was tempted to go in and pay a visit on “Mister Donut,” but decided I had better things to do. I wandered through the arcade, passing up signs that said Rolex, Gucci, Bulgari, Armani, and the like. Unlike in America (Dayton anyway), folks here actually shop on a regular basis at these kinds of stores. I suspect this is why people say Japan has such high prices. I tell you, if Wal-Mart ever came to Japan, the economy would … well, I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be pretty.

I didn’t really find anything in that half of the Arcade. I’ll check the parts I missed on the weekend. Next, I went into The Loft, and went through their various departments. Finally, on the third floor, I found the perfect gift. I bought it instantly without any debate. The problem is that I don’t know who to give it to. My brother and sister-in-law might actually use this thing, but I know my parents would like it too, although it would sit in the box forever.  I’ll hold on to it and see what else turns up before I decide who gets this one.

I found lots of little toys. Disney is extremely popular here. I couldn’t decide on anything that really screamed, “must have!” at me.  I’ll take a look at the toy department at Happy Town next time I am there. I found the little kids hard to buy for at Christmas, and that situation isn’t going to change now.  They like all kinds of things, so picking “a toy” isn’t hard, but I don’t want to get them something they could just as easily get at home. I left The Loft and went across the street to Cred, but didn’t buy anything there either. I found a few picture books that I could pick up if I can’t find anything else.

I walked on down the road toward the train station. I looked into a neat little antique shop that sells classic Japanese board games. I’d love to pick up a nice Shogi or Go board, but they’re hundreds of dollars and made of incredibly heavy solid wood. I don’t think it’d be worth shipping them home, and I don’t have anyone to play those games with me in the USA anyway.

 Spud Wars 

Passing the antique game shop, I stopped in a Freshness Burger and had their lunch special for 500Y. That was a “salsa burger and fried potato.”  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but they don’t call them “French fries,” they call them “fried potatoes.”  I remember once my students got confused when I used a British-produced worksheet that called them “Chips.” Can’t we all just get along?

Then I went into the train station and had 45 minutes until the train going home. I wandered across the other side of the station and went to “Seattle’s Best Coffee” shop. I had a 390Y Cappuccino and played with my Palmpilot on their wireless internet connection. Nothing much was happening online, which was just as well since I had a train to catch.

 Am I Home Already? 

On the train ride back, I considered my day so far. Nothing seemed unusual or foreign anymore. I had shopping to do and I did it. I stopped for the Internet at a coffee shop, bought train tickets, rode the bus, wandered around town without getting lost, bought what I wanted, browsed every interesting store in town, and didn’t learn anything new or run into any problems at all. I guess I’m used to Japan now; it just doesn’t seem that unusual anymore.

Which leads me to the next question: COULD I stay over here forever?  I think I could do it.  I would need help getting my prescriptions filled the first time, and I might have to go to a bigger city than Okayama to find new clothes and shoes in my size, but I think I could do it if I really needed or wanted to. It seems to me that I’m doing pretty much everything I want to be doing here.  Some things, such as Internet and travel, are a hundred times easier in the States, but I’m getting by here without any problems. I haven’t really been going to any great effort studying Japanese lately, but I am still picking up news all the time. With a little effort, I could catch on to that eventually; I bet another six months would have me talking in Japanese regularly. Still, though, in six more months here, they probably still won’t have burritos.  Have I mentioned that I need a burrito?  Seriously, for all the plugs I’ve given Chipotle, they ought to Fed-ex me a few steak burritos right now!

 Marc is counting the Hours 

When I arrived home, Marc was taking a nap on the couch until his phone woke him up; it was Y-san telling him that his afternoon class was cancelled for today.  That means he has one 50-minute class on Wednesday and another on Friday. I think they should have just sent him home last weekend, and so does he.  If you lost track, he will be leaving for America on this upcoming Saturday, 5 days from now.  She wanted to know if he preferred that she to drive him to the train station on Saturday or not. He’s not sure if he wants a ride or will just walk. I, for one, would prefer a ride, so hopefully I’ll get the same offer when my time comes. 

We talked about who would clean up various rooms before they leave.  He’ll take care of his bedroom and the kitchen.  Since he cooks here and I don’t, that seems fair.  I’ll take care of my bedroom, the living room and bathroom. The living room is really easy, and there’s no point in cleaning the bathroom until toward the end of my stay anyway.  He also mentioned that he thinks he can clean off the “Bandit” stuff from his door with hot water. At least now that’s been discussed, and it appears that he does intend to clean it up.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 1:49 am and is filed under Japan, Teaching. 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.