Bloggin on the sly (you'll see)

It is almost 8PM on my first full day in Japan. Strangely, it is already starting to feel like home. I’ve already seen my school, met some of the teachers, been to the grocery store, drug store, houseware store, ridden the train twice, and found a local coffee bar. My emotions have traveled the length of the spectrum a few times today. I still feel nervous about using my Japanese because when I get it right, people launch into a super fast and lengthy response to which I repeat “Sorry, my Japanese isn’t very good yet” and bow a lot until they stop talking. When I get it wrong, people giggle and then tell me how good my Japanese is. I’m not sure which one is worse. I have to just resign myself to being embarrassed and go for it or I won’t improve. One of the hardest things to do so far has been walking into stores or restaurants. It sounds weird, but once you walk in, someone will address you and it’s sink or swim.

Today, I saw a “coffee bar” called Monkey. The awnings say Monkey Beer and Monkey Coffee. I liked the sound of that so I ventured in, or at least tried to. Almost all of the doors here are automatic sliding doors but you have to get right in front of the door for it to open. I stood in front of the entrance and nothing happened, so after a few moments I tried pushing on the door thinking maybe it would swing inward. Nope. Now everyone inside the cafe is looking at me trying to get in and I felt my ears get hot. I considered running away, but I live in a small town and I don’t blend in, so it would be pointless not to see this through. So then I tried to (gracefully) pry the door open with my fingers. No dice. I backed up and looked for instructions when the door slid open. A waitress came outside and showed me a small metal plate next to the door. She touched it with on finger and the door opened again. I’m guessing the kanji on the little plate read “touch here to open”. I took a mental picture of the writing and hope to avoid that situation again.

The Monkey Cafe and its impossible entry

Once inside the cafe I sat at the counter and asked for a coffee. It must have sounded convincing because it was answered with a series of questions that I couldn’t understand. Thankfully, questions usually end with “desu ca?” or I wouldn’t even know when to nod or shrug (my two defaults). I answered all of the questions with yes and won a cup of coffee. I was actually very good. I was hungry but couldn’t read the menu so I just pointed to the persons lunch next to me and said “one please.” It was some kind of gravy and meat over rice, a small salad and little egg salad sandwiches. The picture is below, maybe one of my Japanese friends can tell me what this is? It was just ok, but I said “very delicious” (cho oishii) and everyone giggled. I don’t know why that was funny. Best not to know I think.

My first meal in a restaurant

Today I kept up a long tradition (evening #2) of taking a long walk around my neighborhood at dusk. It’s nice and cool and I can hear families talking and even smell dinner cooking. I am thrilled with where I live. I am a five minute walk to the train station and the heart of the shopping district which is filled with lights and sounds and smells, but my immediate neighborhood is all residential. The houses are close together, but they are all distinctive and have beautiful gardens. From my balcony, I hear birds chirping and kids playing and it smells like oranges and pine needles. I love it. I walked for about two hours tonight and found a whole different commercial district I didn’t know about, a huge (and much cheaper) grocery store just a few blocks away, and a graveyard surrounded by park. Hey Cat and Jude, when you come visit, we are exploring the graveyard with wine and flashlights. Here come the visuals.

My street facing my apartment at the top of the hill

And looking the other way towards downtown

House on the corner (can I have please?)
Japanese graveyard a few blocks away

Everyone talked so much about how expensive Japan is, but so far I don’t see it. Most things are cheaper from what I can tell, but then I never paid much attention to grocery prices at home. My lunch was $9 including two cups of coffee (and a hot towel to wash up with!) Not too shabby. I got all of these groceries and supplies (and the awesome bag) for $41:
My favorite thing in this group (and ironically the most expensive) was the hand soap. There were tons of bottles in that isle with no english on them and I was having a hard time distinguishing between lotion and shampoo and hand soap. I bought this one because the picture made it obvious that this is what I was after. It was $7, but the picture on the sticker was worth it alone. Check out the label:
It's a demonic looking Japanese kid with dirt all over his hands. He also has germs and mud attacking him from all angles. This sticker also served as my first decoration in my apartment because it's now on my fridge. Japan is so wacky like this EVERYWHERE. You really don't need cable here. Today I visited three different grocery stores because they are so facinating. Facinating and unknowingly hilarious. All the markets had clubby pop music playing, and the third one had a song with x rated lyrics in English. All these families are walking around picking out cereal with calm smiles on their faces and the lyrics over the loud speaker are "hit me cause I'm bad, f**k me cause I'm dirty" I had to hide in corner and crack up before I could continue my search for salt and pepper. You guys have got to come visit me, this place is awesome. And when you do, here is where you will be staying. Here is the official guided tour of my apartment (with audio!) As the Japanese say, "Please Enjoy."

The official guided tour of my apartment (with audio!)

My apartment is small but I don’t have any furniture so it seems quite roomy. Its very Japanese looking and it makes me smile whenever I walk in. I haven’t had to use the air conditioning yet (although I tried it to make sure it worked). I sleep with my balcony screen doors open so I get a breeze and can here the locusts. They sound totally different here; much more melodic and less machine gunish.

Well before everything closes I’m going to walk my laptop down to the internet cafe and see if they will let me plug in there rather than using their computers. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to post this with some pictures tonight. My internet is set to be installed on Monday the 14th, so it will be a lot easier for me to communicate then. In the mean time, don’t worry about me. I am doing just fine but miss you all terribly.

ps- update: brought my laptop down here and they said no, I had to use one of their computers. I did it anyway. HA. Stupid foreigner doesn't understand the word no.
update 2: I passed the liquor store on the way here. Stoli vodka is 11 bucks a bottle. Yellow tail wine is 9. Did my plane crash? Am I in heaven? People are short in heaven.