Just another Friday morning in Japan

Doggie fetch newspaper

I’m a morning person in Japan. This is ridiculous because at my old job, the hours were 8:30-5:00 and I would drag myself out of bed every morning after hitting the snooze button multiple times. Here, my job never starts before noon and sometimes ends as late as 9:00pm, but I’m up and ready for my day at 5:00am. There are several reasons for this. I’m sure the jet lag and the opposite hemisphere have something to do with it, but mostly, it’s this crackhead of a bird.



He’s outside my window every morning right around 4:30 sounding like a rabid howler monkey. The video doesn’t really do it justice because of the dinky microphone on my camera, but it’s insane how loud this bird is. I thought about making a slingshot, but would more than likely break my neighbors’ windows, giving a whole different meaning to “gaijin smash”. So, since I have 6 or 7 hours to kill before I need to be at work, I’ve changed my daily walk to an early morning one. Here’s what I found this morning on my two hour walk. Note: the first hour was intentional, the second hour was trying to find my way home.

I met this little guy on his way to school. It was obviously show and tell day so I asked him “nan desu ca?” (what’s that) and he proudly showed me a huge cockroach. I would have preferred a hamster, but it makes for a great picture. The young school kids all wear matching yellow hats and backpacks which adds to the cuteness, especially when they are in packs.


Right before I lost all sense of direction, I came across a thick bamboo grove with an overgrown path leading into it. Naturally, I went. I found this awesome ruin of an old Japanese house. It had some kind of old cart rusting inside. A few yards away, in the thick of bamboo, was another building that was too dilapidated to recognize. I hung around for a while but a few large spiders eventually persuaded me to get back to the road.




After being totally lost for a while, I found a shrine right in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. I’m not sure if it is Shintoist or Buddhist but I know a muppet who would know. Mup? Care to comment?

The interior of the shrine was dark and cool and completely hidden from the neighborhood surrounding it. It had a long rectangular pool of water, a hollow tree with what appeared to be its own mailbox, an open shrine with intricate wood carvings and a bell, and two smaller shrines with small statues inside and folded paper tied around them. Observe:

The lions guarding the entrance made me smile

Found the timer function!

Not a bad mini expedition. I’ll post more as I explore. Time to go to work!

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.

Exploring the Victory

Recently, a friend of mine went out of town and offered her place to me so I could have some space to myself and spread out with my thoughts. She happens to live in a building I have been ogling since I moved to Philly 4 years ago. The Victory building at 10th and Chestnut has a long and twisted history, most likely an ironic victim of it's own name. It was built in 1873, designed by architect Henry Fernbach, and is the city's second most famous example of French Second Empire masonry. City Hall is the first. I love them both, but the Victory has a bit of a dark side and is harder to get into, just how I like my architecture.
The Victory used to house a night club on the first floor until 1982 when a four alarm electrical fire started in the basement and destroyed large portions of the interior. Fortunately, the building is as solid as they come. The staircases are cast iron and marble, the walls are 3' masonry and granite, and the whole thing is bolted together pretty solidly. I stayed there for a total of about a week and a half and never heard a footstep, a tv or a conversation from another condo.
The building was owned by sleazy porn king Sam Rappaport, who let it rot on Chestnut street and sprout trees from the roof line. He requested a permit for demolition, but luckily thanks to a few savvy historic preservationists and then Mayor Ed Rendell, he was denied. The building managed to outlive him, and was sold by his estate to a developer who had a better plan in mind than a surface lot.
For 25 years the building was bordered up and known only to the hippie/punk squatter crowd that roamed it's bulk in the darkness. One of my best friends, Cat, was one of those lost teens and tells some amazing stories about the things she saw and heard in her time there. Cat found her way out of both her troubled teenage years and the abandoned husk of the Victory, but the building still finds a way to haunt her dreams. With her husband, some good friends, and a few bottles of red wine in tow, Cat was ready to make peace with some old ghosts and revisit the halls she could once navigate from memory in pitch darkness.

Cat, my Brother Dusty, and Jude

First, it was up the grand staircase to look for roof access. It was surprisingly easy and in a few minutes we were face to face with the menacing lion heads on the cornice 10 stories up. It was raining pretty steadily, but we were undeterred and spent the evening climbing ladders, crawling near the edges and being careful to prop doors open behind us.

Cranky Cornice Guardians

Facing North West from 10 Stories up

The old elevator shaft and crank access from the roof (no longer in use)

Cat abandoned the two hands on the ladder rule in favor for one hand on the beverage.

We took the fire escape stairs to the basement all stealthy like...

And here it begins

We found a myriad of strange things in the basement. First, let me say that these pictures do not do it justice. There was no light in most areas of the basement, so the flash from the camera gives a much clearer view than what we saw most of the time in the narrow beam of our flashlights.

Some of the smaller rooms were filled with debris, defunct plumbing, cobwebs and rats. At one point I followed my brother into a small corridor, mostly because he had my flashlight. We both heard the tell tale screeching noises associated with rats, but of course I thought he was making the noises, and he thought the same of me. When he turned to tell me to shut up, the throw of the flashlight revealed the movement on the floor. We left quickly, with me matching the rats' shrieking noises on the way out. One of these rooms was piled 5 feet high with old rusting office equipment: typewriters, calculators, metal chairs and stools, and some things I couldn't identify through the rust. Oddly, this room must be under the street or the sidewalk because the rain was leaking through the ceiling even though we were in the basement of a ten story building.

Rusting Typewriter. Can anyone identify how old it is?

Key pad from an old calculator

It 's hard to describe the size of the basement and its varying states of decay and repair. Some of the levels had lights and had been cleared while others looked like they hadn't been seen since the fire. One of the cleared rooms housed this amazing old staircase. It seems the fire robbed it of its wooden banister and spindles, but the cast iron structure and detail remains in tact. The basement had at least 4 levels, and just when we thought we had found the deepest section, we came upon another unused elevator shaft door labeled 'level 5'. It seems everything else below us had been sealed off, or we could just be lousy explorers that gave up when our wine glasses needed refilling.

A slightly out of focus portrait of Cat and Jude

Cat crawls up to a burnt out window for the creepiest photo of the evening.

Upon returning to posh condo land, the boys got a little giddy.

And then crashed...

Check me out, I'm a specialist in human

Visa

I'm all kinds of official now! Things are starting to really pick up. Last week I went up to the Japanese Consulate in New York and just a few days later, I have my visa! It was incredibly quick and easy once you have a little thing called a Certificate of Eligibility. Your employer in Japan has to apply for that ahead of time, but it basically says that the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no gripe with me. Aside from the fact that having the certificate makes getting a visa a breeze, I also am quite fond of it because it looks like a birth certificate with Japanese characters all over it and my picture. It was my first official piece of mail from Japan and I ran around showing it to everyone for days.

Certificate of Eligibility

Summer Time

My view from the hammock

Thanks to my friends, my summer is off to a great start. I've been spending a lot of time at Cat and Jude's on the weekends and they've been making it hard to leave. Not only are they some of my favorite people to talk to, but we spend our time playing in the pool, drinking wine on their idyllic back porch overlooking the creek, and while I nap off a hangover in the hammock surrounded by roses, Jude cooks dinner on the grill. They say I should stay there for a while until I leave, I can't imagine why I haven't moved my stuff already except that my pesky job requires getting to, at least for 11 more days.

Cat and Jude's back deck

As I write this, Cat just texted me to come up for a drink on the deck and a swim. Don't mind if I do. Sadly, I was out of touch with Cat and Jude for a while and just got back in the swing with them since December. Now, I spend nearly all of my time with them and will miss them tons when I go. Luckily, these are the kind of friends who can pick up right where we left off.

Pond at Central Park

On Wednesday, I took a trip up to New York to process my Visa. It's the last of the paperwork to contend with before I go. My Brother was kind enough to accompany me, and so the day was transformed from a long errand to a fun day with my Bro. It's a good thing he came along, as my errand would have taken me twice as long without his sense of direction. How it came to be that I can read blueprints but not maps is beyond me. I would have gone in the wrong direction every time AND forgotten the carbon copy at the post office on Lexington. Thanks Dusty! Yes, I'm aware of the absurdity that I cannot navigate New York without assistance, but am planning a solo year long trip to Tokyo. As Scarlett said, I'll think about that tomorrow.

Watching a little softball

Check out the dude crossing the street

Best storefront ever

Fourteen rows behind home plate! You can see the pitch in this one.

Phillies game with Eli and Emily: For three people who could care less about Philadelphia sports, we sure did get the hook up with our tickets last week. We were fourteen rows behind home plate and I couldn't help but feel guilty with all the die hard fans sitting behind me while I marveled at the ring on the player's wife sitting next to me. Aside from the guilt, it was a great night to be outside, and even if baseball bores you to tears, there are plenty of other things to entertain you. Notably, the kiss cam where couples suck face when the camera is turned on them and the kids in the stands yell Eewwww!, the philly phanatic is truly adorable despite his sexually suggestive dance moves, and a couple of the players are great eye candy, if you're fortunate enough to be able to see their faces from your seat. I could. *smirk*

Eli, Emily, Me

We were in the minority of people not wearing red, but we clapped when everyone else clapped, and I felt like we were convincing. I did give us away when at the seventh inning stretch, I looked around blankly and asked "What the hell is going on?"