The title of this post is from a holiday card at a store in Yokohama accompanied by a very dizzy looking Japanese Santa. The Engrish amusement never stops.
I'm just sending out this message to wish you all a happy holiday. I'm getting a little homesick here but it comes with the territory of the first time away from home this time of year. My friends here have been nothing but great in helping me feel better but the Christmas lights and music and cold weather without snow will always get me. I'm leaving for Hong Kong on Christmas Eve for about eight days to see some relatives that will be there and to shake things up a little from the work life. Being back in Hong Kong where everything is culturally familiar to me will be really good for me, not to mention the city is just awesome. Miss you all and hope you're enjoying all that snow for those of you in New England. You really don't know how great it is until you've lived in cold weather with no snow.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
PS. Here is a picture of an enormous apple at a little Japanese market at Yokohama Station. It's red. Like Christmas.
So far, all the picture links I've sent out are a collection of select pictures from everything I've done here. I decided to post all of my pictures on a different photo sharing site for those who are interested in seeing more pics of certain places and things I've been
doing.
Here are the links to my pictures again. The first one is the new one to the expanded gallery. There are also new pics in there too from more recent stuff that I haven't posted in my older links. The next three are my older links that I've sent out already. I will keep updating those as well but consider those as summaries while the new site is the full story.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tanghr
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195593&l=fa231&id=900881
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2188485&l=419b2&id=900881
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186601&l=efb53&id=900881
My first Thanksgiving in Japan and second one away from home (in New Zealand last year) was pretty awesome I have to say. Of course I missed being at home with family, friends, and home cooking, but my friends and I made up for it pretty sufficiently here. Friday (Thursday for you guys) was a national holiday and so my coworkers and I all had the day off. The crew at Kawasaki Berlitz is a really tight group and I am so happy I've been able to become good friends with them too. In the morning, I skyped home during our annual family and relatives Thanksgiving dinner and "sat" at the dining room table with everyone while they ate turkey dinner AKA they put the computer with the webcams running on a shelf next to the table so that I could see them and they could see me. That was really nice and as close as I could get to joining their party from Japan.
Next I and five of my friends went to Costco in Yokohama and stocked up on all the ingredients we needed for Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. Unfortunately, Japan lacks fresh turkeys and the frozen ones couldn't be baked since no one here has an oven. We substituted the big bird with five rotisserie chickens which were fine replacements. Next we went back to our friend, Max, and his girlfriend, Naoko's apartment to cook. We all pitched in and cooked for about five hours straight until there was a feast ready to be
served.
The final dish list:
Five rotisserie chickens
Mashed potatoes
Corn on the cob
Stuffing
Gravy
Assorted garlic veggies
Assorted steamed veggies
Corn bread
Homemade baked mac and cheese
Sweet potatoes
Wine and Beer for everyone
The rest of the crew showed up at four o'clock and so the party started. There were about thirteen people total plus Max's dog and it really was a great time. Adam even has a subscription to NFL Total Access which can show any football game within a week of it being played online. Max hooked up the computer to his big plasma TV and so we had the Thanksgiving day games going on on that during the whole thing.
Hope everyone else's Thanksgivings were just as enjoyable!
Comfortable is the word I would use to describe how I'm feeling these days. After two full months of not being sure where I would be living permanently, what job I would be working, whether I would have enough money to hold me over until I got some kind of income, and making new friends only to watch them go home, I'm finally glad to say all the instability associated with the Nova situation has passed for myself and my closest friends. Even though we didn't get our paychecks for September and more than likely also for October, I think I have enough to get me through to my first Berlitz paycheck at the end of November--obviously living frugally-a.k.a. not eating out, going out too much, or traveling anywhere far.
Some news about Nova--the company filed for bankruptcy a couple weeks ago and has until Nov 9 to figure out whether it can find a sponsor or liquidate. So far the rumors are that they found a sponsor and will be re-opening a tiny amount of schools in the Osaka area next month and slowly rebuilding from there. As for when we will be paid the salary owed to us, I think that we are in the middle of the list of priorities with rent for buildings being the first. I don't want anything to do with Nova anymore besides receiving my final payment and I think that I got out just in time. Right now, thousands of teachers barely have any money to scrape by and many have been evicted from their Nova apartments and are staying with friends. Some can't even afford a flight back home and so are stuck in an awful position. As for finding new jobs, the market is saturated with unemployed instructors since the filing for bankruptcy and the amount of jobs available at other companies don't come close to having enough openings for everyone. I've been told it's really tough to find a job right now. It's really unfortunate. I'm all moved into my Fujisawa apartment with two new roommates, one of them being an ex coworker from Nova and so far it's been great. Fujisawa is also a nice place to live because there is always something going on, it's close to the beach, and still not too far from Yokohama and Tokyo. I have been working at my new job for about two weeks now, and I really like it a lot. My coworkers are all in their 20's and the atmosphere is upbeat and energetic. I love them already and we always go out to local bars after work. Berlitz as a company is already far better than Nova ever was in that I feel like a human being when I'm working there and not a dispensable number. And of course, Berlitz will pay me on time monthly, something I used to take for granted before I came to Japan. Once that happens, I can start saving again and then eventually go and experience some more of the country outside of my local area of Fujisawa, Yokohama, and Tokyo and also some other parts of Asia.
Despite all the bumps in the road since I got here, I regret nothing. Retrospect only leads to being unhappy with the present and to want to go back and change things that have already happened would be a waste of time. The only things to do are learn and move forward. If I had by chance chosen a different date to arrive here, say earlier in the summer, I would not have met the people I have become great friends with, possibly would not have even been placed in this region, and would not have a great new job with a better company as I do now. Anything done differently on my part could have possibly resulted in my coming home much earlier than planned and I am satisfied with every choice I made. I have also learned an immense amount about myself and getting through these first few months has boosted my confidence in that I now know that I can make it on my own. I want to thank everyone who sent me messages and supported me emotionally through the whole thing. Your encouragement played a huge part in my being able to work everything out in this very very different and sometimes difficult country, and I know I wouldn't be feeling half as good about my situation had it not been for constant morale boosting on your part. I know some people here who didn't have that kind of support and watched them break down with anxiety about everything that was going on with Nova as it affected every aspect of their lives. Seeing that only made me think more about how lucky I am.
I updated my pictures since the internet at my new place is much better than the old one. Here are the links for those who are interested, newest ones at the top:
Japan (*_^)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195593&l=fa231&id=900881
Japan <('.'<)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2188485&l=419b2&id=900881
Japan <(^_^)>
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186601&l=efb53&id=900881
When I arrived, I expected to be working with the English conversation school, Nova, and also living in an apartment rented out by Nova. Much has happened since I got here. My company is in ridiculously deep financial trouble, paid instructors late last month, haven't paid its Japanese staff in several months (definitely NOT legal), hasn't been paying the landlords rent for many of its branch schools as well as instructors' apartments yet still deducting rent from their salaries (I know some teachers who have been evicted and have had to return home). Our next payday is this coming Monday, and we can onlyhope that there will be the right amount of money deposited into our bank accounts.
Instead of picking up and going home, I decided I like Japan far too much and that I haven't had enough time to experience it fully. I'm happy to announce that I am quitting Nova on Monday after the payment deadline (teachers who quit apparently get put in the bottom of the to-be-paid priority list and I NEED this paycheck to continue living here) and that I have been hired by Berlitz Japan. If you've never heard of Berlitz, it's an international company that teaches languages all around the world and publishes all those language books. It has an infinitely better reputation than Nova and treats its employees like a good company should. After I put in my resignation, I will continue working for about three more days and then I'm done. I start Berlitz training on Oct 22. It's all a little nerve racking but I guess that's how you feel when you start at any new job.
Obviously, if I no longer work for Nova, I can't stay in the apartment they rent to instructors. And so, I have signed and paid a deposit for another apartment I found through a Nova teacher who also works for a real estate agency. After I move at the end of the month, begin working for Berlitz, and after Nova deposits my final paycheck in mid-November (hopefully!), I will be cut off from that company forever and starting from scratch.
All this responsibility, especially in a foreign country, has forced me to grow up quite a bit. I didn't know I was ready to be fully independent like that but I guess I have to be when I'm forced. And to be honest, after all this instability is over, I think i will be feeling pretty good.
Since I am starting at a new company with a new contract, I will be staying in Japan longer than the initial year I told you all (contract will end next November). At the end of the contract, Berlitz and I can discuss whether I would like to renew and stay longer. I guess that's always a possibility and I could be considering it in the future. But that won't be for awhile.
Anyway, I have a story about what my friend, Rachel, and I did yesterday. First, one of my students told me that there was a free zoo just a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Clearly, we had to go check it out. Nogeyama Zoo is a very compact little zoo but with plenty of animal varieties. Since it's so small, the cages are literally about 3 feet from the path and visitors can get thisclose to the animals. I have to say, it was a little scary to think I could reach over and touch the lions nose, but really cool.
After the zoo, we went to get dinner and decided to just try walking into a local neighborhood, family-owned restaurant and try ordering random food to try. We decided on this tiny little place with only three tables and very sweet old lady named Sato ("What's your name?" = Onamae wa nan desu ka?) working behind the counter. Each table had a grill in the middle of it so it looked like fun. Of course, the whole menu was in Japanese and Sato only spoke it along with a limited English vocabulary of "pork," "cabbage," and "mayonnaise." We decided that ordering in a normal manner wasn't going to happen so we resorted to saying random words to establish some kind of boundary with what we'd eat (Rachel doesn't eat pork or beef and I eat everything). Then, after a little more confusion on both sides, a couple of men who were definitely regulars at the joint came in and knew a tiny bit more English and tried to help us. Finally, one of
them pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and I took them and drew a picture of a chicken for Rachel and a picture of a pig for myself. That got the message across better. Sato then tried to tell us some dishes and while we didn't really understand what she was saying, we caught little words in it like ebi (shrimp), tako (octopus), and of course, pork, cabbage, and mayonnaise and agreed to try it. We had no idea what we had just ordered but we knew we'd have to eat whatever she brought to be polite. It was essentially us being guests in Sato's home and her cooking dinner for us. We couldn't be rude by not eating.
Later, she brought over a bowl filled with a mix of cabbage, shrimp, squid, octopus in some kind of creamy marinade sauce and with a layer of sliced pork laid across the top. She told me in Japanese with many many hand gestures that when the grill was hot, to turn the bowl over upside down and let it crisp on both sides while keeping its round shape. She also told me that she would let me know when to flip it. The dish turned out to be delicious and also my first time eating octopus. Rachel, who normally doesn't eat shellfish, got something
with noodles, shrimp, squid, octopus, and chicken and ate it all. <>
At one point during dinner, the men who helped us asked us if our food was good and we told them yes (tastes good = "oishii") and then I told them that their food looked good too just to be polite. They got really happy and told me I could eat some! We all ended up trading a little bit of our own dishes for each others.
Over the course of the evening, more locals stopped in and Sato bragged to them that she was serving these two gaijin (foreigner) teachers and pointed to us. She was so excited, it was adorable. Everyone was also SO friendly. Eating at this little restaurant was honestly one of the interesting and most fun things I have ever done and Rachel and I left smiling. We plan on trying other places like this one as well as coming back to visit Sato and her husband sometimes.
One more quick note, I ordered my first dish in Japanese at the bar last night! And they understood! It was a shining moment for me for
sure haha. :) In case you were wondering: Yakitore, negishio, o hitotsu to oolong hai o hitotsu. (grilled chicken and spring onions on a stick and an oolong tea)
So that's it for now, the internet that we've been piggybacking off of has been really bad lately so I can't upload my new pictures until that fixes itself or until I move to my new place on Nov 1.
By the way, about 2 hours after i sent that last email out, I am proud to announce I experienced (and survived!) my first earthquake. I was sitting in my 6th floor apartment on my futon when I started to feel the floor shake. Since my window is about 12 feet from the train tracks, that was the first thing that came to mind before I realized the trains had closed down 2 hours before. It was, in fact, a quake and even though it lasted all of 10 seconds, needless to say...it was just plain weird.
Here's to the ground moving being a normal part of everyday life.
That is what I read on some girl's purse on the subway the other day. Just one example of the many ridiculously funny things you can find here. Japanese writers create these phrases and words with the intention of making them meaningful and thoughtful. Whether it's a literal translation of Japanese or an attempt at writing from scratch, they think that this "Engrish" really means something deep and profound when really it makes absolutely no sense. It's fantastic. See attached pictures for more belly laughing opportunities.
So...life in Japan. The only word I can come up with to describe life here as opposed to the United States is just--different. Sure, all cities are essentially the same...pavement, lights, tall buildings. But add in a culture that is a 180 degree flop from what I've known and been living in my whole life and the result is something different.
A few oddities include:
-heated toilet seats that talk to you while you do your business and equipped with a bidet and high speed fan
-an unhealthy obsessive fetish of all things "cute." and that's an understatement
-no piece of fruit in the supermarket is under $2 a piece yet fish can be bought for .75
-the most polite and eager-to-help people this side of the Ritz
-fashion expression that would put the 60's, 70's, and 80's to shame
-sushi for .95 a plate (should be considered the 8th Wonder of the World)
-one balcony for every single apartment in the city for the purpose of drying laundry as dryers are rare and expensive
-one of the easiest ways for a foreigner to get arrested and kicked out of the country is to steal a bike which are commonly left unlocked on the streets
-no shame in any job whatsoever...example: young Japanese girl outside the busy Yokohama Station promoting a bar and wearing a full-head-covering mask shaped like a beer can
-public drinking and drunkenness allowed
-if you heard Japan was expensive, you heard right
-despite boasting those helpful people, sometimes it only applies if you ask for the help first; they claim they are so "shy" that they avoid helping a mother on an escalator carrying a crying baby, a carseat, and several bags of groceries for fear that their offer of assistance might get turned down
-a society so conscientious of not bothering others around that talking on cell phones is banned on public transportation, no washing machines can run after 10pm and all trains stop running at midnight despite the booming profit they could make leaving them running until clubs and bars close
-as wonderfully efficient as almost everything is here, a post system that is most inefficient I have ever experienced in that they will not deliver your mail if you are not home to answer the door even though the mail box is right next to the call box
-communication for simple things like directions or shopping are reduced to single key words, hand gestures, and grunts. And you can forget about normal conversation
-and even though they stop running at midnight, trains that arrive every 5 minutes and at the time posted on the board, on the dot
And as for work, my first three weeks at my company have nothing less than eventful. The students, adults and kids, are great and I really enjoy teaching them. Some of them are hilarious, intentionally and unintentionally. But, if you haven't heard, Nova is under some financial scrutiny and things like people getting paid late, not getting paid at all, and being evicted from company-run apartments are
all too common and far too nerve-racking for me to just sit and wait it out. I have been searching and applying for new teaching jobs at other companies here, most with better reputations than mine. I just need to get through the interviewing process. I have already found
another apartment independent of Nova and plan to move there at the end of October in Fujisawa, about twenty minutes south of where I am now and closer to the beach. I think I'm moving in with two friends of mine along with another already living in the apartment--all guys. The plan is to share my room with one of them to split the cost of rent and save money for a few months since funds are low right now. Could be fun or could be really inconvenient to share a room with a guy...hopefully it's the former. And apparently, it's almost impossible for foreigners to find and rent apartments here since Japanese think all Americans are gun-carrying, burger-eating pigs and the down payments and first payment of four month's rent are exorbitant so I really lucked out with the connections I've been able
to make.
Clearly, all this has tested my sanity and independence further than I ever expected when moving here and I've considered picking up and moving back to Boston a bunch of times since coming. But I think that I definitely haven't seen all that Japan has to offer and so I plan on doing what I can to stay here.
I made it to Japan. I got here last night (yesterday morning for you guys) and took the train from the airport to my apartment by myself. Let me just tell you that the subway system is terrifying if you've never seen it before. over 1000 stops on tons of different lines. That will be one of the things I try to tackle today. My apartment is nice and little and I have 2 other roomates. One is on vacation so I haven't met her and the other one is really nice. She gave me directions to all the places I need to go to get paperwork done but we'll see how I do with those. I start orientation and training on Monday so I will hopefully be able to meet more people then.
For those of you who have been asking, here is my full mailing address:
Heather Tang
#610 Lions Mansion Isezakicho Nishi Dai2
3-81-2 Maesato-Cho
Minami-Ku Yokohama-Shi
Kanagawa-Ken 232-0004
Now you understand why I couldn't tell it to you off the top of my head.
Also, my futon smells like sesame oil.
