Portly Regina

(warning: long)

Hello everyone, from Kitakawabe!

The past few days have been interesting, at least for me. I should have pictures in my next update, but we’ll see about that.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? I was in Mito, waiting to ship out. I had about two days of downtime, a great deal of which I wasted benefiting from the unsecured wireless network that my friend Mitch found in the lobby of the youth hostel where we stayed. The computers that the hostel provided had most everything blocked – most email services, Facebook, Livejournal, AIM, Something Awful… in other words, everything fun. Thus, Mitch’s discovery was a godsend. Plus, everybody had left by Friday morning, and while I had a few errands to run, Mito had lost its thrill without a huge group of Americans/Britons/Canadians to raise hell with. (Raising hell generally consisted of going to some restaurant and having our voices be normal American volume, honestly.)

Saturday morning, one of the coordinators for Heart School picked Mitch and me up in the same car, and thus began a day-long journey. First, we went to Tokyo to arrange things for Mitch’s guest house. (Guest houses are basically dorm situations… you have your own room, but you share a kitchen, bathroom, etc. with other tenants.) Tokyo is… confusing. I’ve decided Atlanta highways and expressways are rather simple things in comparison to Tokyo. (And, according to Mitch, L.A. I’ll believe it.) There are about 15-20 highways heading into Tokyo. I didn’t see any awesome Tokyo sights, just lots of roads, cars, and uninspiring tall buildings. The highlight of Tokyo was probably the parking spot that we found while Mitch was finalizing his contract. It was a small garage, which led to a small carousel-like thing that would hold several cars and rotate them around. Kind of weird, but cool.

Once out of Tokyo, we made quick time to Saitama City, where Mitch was based. He had arranged things with the guest house company to stay for a month, while a friend of his looked for a Japanese family that he could stay with. Mitch is all about the immersion. It’s a good thing he didn’t plan to stay 7 months – his guest house room was little better than a broom closet! His extensive luggage barely fit in the room with him.

A little scared by that, I got into the car with the Heart School coordinator and we headed off to Kitakawabe – with a quick stop in at a home center to grab a bike for me. (Think Home Depot with bikes.) Now, both my own coordinator and this lady had never been to Kitakawabe, so they had to use a GPS device that would give them directions. We still ended up getting lost! Finally, we found the place – owned by a company called Leopalace that Heart School goes through sometimes. It is actually pretty nice for a single apartment; it could use some furniture like a desk and chair, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. It is right next to the train tracks, but Japanese trains are fairly quiet. The only major problem I can see is that I am apparently miles away from the grocery store. Also, as I discovered when the coordinator took me to the grocery store, I can’t read a single label. Food is going to be… fun, here. I ended up getting a ridiculous small amount of food, and from lunch on Saturday to lunch on Sunday, I ate nothing but two bananas.

Sunday was a fairly uneventful day. I biked around the city a couple of times, trying to get my bearings. (I got lost three times!) The entire city area is about one to one and a half times the size of the UGA campus. In my freshman year, I got lost there, too – and I had a car AND everything was in English! So I figured out where my schools were, but I’ve yet to figure out where the grocery store is… doh… (when the coordinator took me there, it was night, and we made a lot of turns.)

So then we get to today! The big day, my first day at Kitakawabe Junior High. And what did I do?

Well, very little, actually.

I arrived a bit early, settled down at my desk, and got quite confused by the hustle and bustle. One of the English teachers (there are four, actually – not two!) told me to come outside, where we (the teachers) all stood in a line and welcomed the students as they arrived on their bikes. (“Ohayau gozaimasu” is “good morning!” You can also say “ohayau,” which is what those Yatta guys were saying when you thought they were yelling OHIOOOOOO!) Once that was all finished, we went inside, and I booted up my computer and started studying katakana and hiragana. (They’re the easy, phonetic parts of the Japanese alphabet. 47 characters each… as opposed to the thousands of kanji, which all stand for different words/ideas, and are much more complexly drawn)

At about 9:30, we went to the gym where the entire student body was waiting. The principal, vice principal, and various students gave speeches. Then it was my turn to come up; I delivered the same Japanese phrase that had given me a little trouble a few days back as an introduction. This time I nailed it! (“Konnichi wa. Watashi no namae wa Kyle Hurford desu. America kara kimashita. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” Hello, my name is Kyle Hurford. I am from America. I am very glad to meet you.) Applause, and some stares. It’s going to be weird being the center of attention!

The rest of the day was kind of uneventful. We had a earthquake drill (basically, get out of the building and line up) and some students came up to me and said “Hello!” quite enthusiastically. Then, there were various teacher meetings in the teacher’s room. We had very, very nice (and expensive) catered food. This was my first encounter with raw fish, and I have to say I think I handled it well enough. There was a lot to eat! I managed to at least try everything, and some of it was very good. However, after a very scant diet of fruits, water, and an occasional 7-11 boxed meal, that much rich food on an empty stomach threatened my gastrointestinal well-being. I finished the green tea, cleaned my cup, and drank water for the rest of the day. I got trapped in an hour-and-a-half meeting where I didn’t understand a single word, but I got free eventually and left early – since there was no class after lunch anyway! There were club activities, like soccer teams, etc. I was asked by some of the junior high boys if I played any sports. I kind of fibbed about basketball – I like playing it, but I’m all sorts of terrible at it. I did promise to teach them to play ultimate Frisbee, though. ;)

Once I’d left, I went to get a gaijin card – i.e. an alien registration card. I had some help from one of the members of the board of education that I had met last week! Really nice guy; he’s all about some American music from the 60s. Talking outside, we sang “Getting Better” by the Beatles and “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. I like him, he’s neat. :)

So, that’s what’s been going on recently in my life. I’ll leave you with a few random tidbits about cool/odd things about Japan:

-They have kiwi fruit flavored Kit Kat bars. They are delicious.

-There is a Mario Kart sit-down racing game in arcades over here. Pacman is a playable character.

-The arcade the above game was found in was called YOU’SLAND: MAGIC RAINBOW. It is the pinkest place I have ever seen in my life.

-I took seedless grapes for granted. One of those “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” things.

-Same with a car. Biking everywhere is exhausting but fun.

-One of the first students to approach me showed me a painting of Mario in a city at night. It was awesome!

Next update: elementary school adventures, and pictures!