Moving stuff

Tuesday Sept. 9

So today was supposed to be our 1st car day; however, due to it also being the day to finally move the appliances from the apartment to the house, 1st car day has been bumped back to tomorrow. We left the house at around 10.20, had our friend drive us to the main office where we met up with the boss who was going to procure a truck to move the larger appliances. When I say larger appliances, keep in mind this is a relative term. We had to move the fridge, stove, washing machine, TV, its stand, a desk, and some miscellaneous items. I'm going to provide pictures, but they don't always give an exact representation of size. Here's a breakdown for ya:

Fridge - About 4ft tall, 17in across, 17in deep. It probably weighed less than my bass amp back home, which I'd guess is about 60lbs. Easily moved by one person, though a little awkward as it leaks if not kept upright.

Washer - around 3ft tall. At least 10lbs lighter than the fridge. About the same size in depth and width.

TV - Tube television. I want to say 27in screen. 30 - 40lbs.

TV Stand - About 30lbs. Fits the TV. 'Nuff said.

Stove - The stove's are hilarious. They're the equivalent of a hibachi. Gas powered, there are two burners, and a tiny little oven that looks more like a place to put an optical drive in a computer, though the depth of the cavity goes back a good 8-10in. You could cook a small steak, perhaps a chicken breast... the possibilities are endless! Suffice to say, we shall not be cooking a Christmas duck anytime soon.

This was all transported with the use of a Suzuki truck. It's a little flat nose truck with a bed in the back, the walls and tailgate being about 12in tall. The bed itself was about 4x5ft. Not a large truck by any means. This managed to fit everything listed above plus the microwave (which also function as convection and toaster ovens here), laundry detergent, and the desk (a 3 tiered Ikea special, only lower quality and most likely not Ikea) managed to fit around the multitude of items, as it was fairly open and not a mass of solid wood.

The REALLY interesting part about the truck is that it was not owned by either the boss, a teacher, a friend, or even a casual acquaintance. Nor was it a rental vehicle. It was owned by a hardware store. In Japan, hardly anyone owns a truck for personal use, so when shopping at stores that specialize in lumber, gardening supplies, etc. they LOAN you a truck so that you can transport your purchase home. If you keep the vehicle for more than an hour you're dinged with a fuel charge, but otherwise it's a 1hr courtesy vehicle. So instead of renting a vehicle, the boss went to the hardware/garden supply store and purchased ¥6000 worth of dirt (about $60), took it home, then swung by the apartment so that we could load it up. Dropped it off at the house, then returned the truck. Done.

Type of truck used. The sides fold down as well as the tailgate.

This post is long, but it's a few days' worth

A Few Days In

I'd first like let you all know that, while I tend to be a member of the grammar police in day to day life, that doesn't apply here. I type as a think, in a free-flowing, full of errors and strange tangents, manner. Hope that's not too annoying, because I'm simply too lazy to both write these blog entries and edit them...

So it's Friday the 5th here, and we've been fairly busy so far. Here's a rundown of the last few days:
WEDNESDAY was pretty much just getting here, meeting our American friend here who hired us and has been our guide, a bit of dinner, a trip back to our appartment (with a stop at the corner store nearby), and that's about it. Our apartment is pretty warm (temperature's about 29 degrees right now, and it's MUGGY. Reminds me of Montreal in July/August. We made a quick trip to the cornerstore to grab some drinks (Tropicana grape, water, and a happy little Star soda (pictures below). Laura crashed almost right away (about 8.30) while I tried to stay up a little longer trying to adjust my sleep schedule; I made it about 1 hr (cut me some slack, we'd been up for about 22 hrs). 10.30 came around and our doorbell rang. A LOUD DOORBELL. A household doorbell, that, thanks to our 200sq ft apartment was not even 12ft from us. I get up, go to the door, and there stands a 20-something Japanese fellow (I know, who'd-a thunk it?) and he procedes to explain to me that he's delivering the Japan Times and trying to collect for the subscription costs (this is all in Japanese mind you, though the paper's in English). I let him know that I have no clue what he's talking about, he points to a name on the subscription form (in Japanese), I further demonstrate my inability to help him and finally close the door as it dawns on him that he has no hope in hell of getting any money from me. Then we go back to bed.

Thursday: We woke up and left in search of breakfast, which consisted of Tonkatsu (breaded pork), hamburger (complete with processed cheese. YUM!), a strange hashbrown-like thing (tasted alright and still alive), rice, gyoza (pork dumplings), and a mandarin fruit cup suspended in jelly (it's still in the fridge). This was all found at... 7-11! Yes, Japan has an abundance of 7-11s here. The story we heard was that the company went bankrupt somewhere else, and felt that the Japanese market would welcome them with open arms. That, and they were cutting their losses by selling the signs and franchise rights in Japan.

After breakfast we chilled for a while until we were picked up. From there it was a multitude of errands. First we went to City Hall and filled out our Alien Registration forms. We met a couple of fellow Canucks. The woman has been here for 12 yrs, the guy 5. She's an admin for a school in Tsukuba, and he's a teacher at said school. They turned us onto a couple of useful resources, told us to meet up with them when we're settled, etc.

After this we went and met up with our friend again (someone else was helping us earlier). We went to the liqour store, where we purchased wine, spaghetti, sauce (meh), and a corkscrew. From there it was a quick wander through the mall, which included a gander in the 100 yen store (if you guessed that that's a $ store, give yourself a prize). THEY KICK OUR DOLLAR STORES' ASSES!

Had lunch at a burger place (very good), checked out the Capcom Arcade (mostly crane games and little kiddie gambling machines. They get them young here), and a bakery, where we picked up bread to go with dinner and what I've termed 'Pancake Buns' for breakfast.

Next on the list were cell phones. Softbank is the company the school deals with mostly, and while the phones tend to be a bit bigger than ours back home (I know! Who knew?!?), I think they're more streamlined and stylish. And, apparently, so does Cameron Diaz. She's everywhere a Softbank ad is. Turns out we won't have our phones for a while until our visas are dealt with. Sad, sad, Brian and Laura.

The rest of the evening was pretty much dealing with our house. The realtor's office took quite some time, and I was nautious by the end. Turns out friend's living with us (joke) as we don't speak Japanese. Should be fun. We then went for burger I mentioned earlier (sorry, I forgot about the realtor until now).

AFTER all that, we went and looked at the house. It's nice, though the staircase scares Laura. It CREEPS HER OUT. As do the shower room (not the toilet) and the Tatami rooms (two of them). She blames YOU Caitlin! The living room is fine though, which is where we'll be spending most of our time anyways. We have a tool-shed, and a bicycle. Both are the landlords, but we are free to use them, as well as the tools.

Dinner and bed.

Friday: We were picked up by Yoku, went to the bank with Ken, and found out that we couldn't yet open an account. Turns out we need our Alien Registration cards first. Went home and puttered. Our friend picked us up later and we went for dinner at his favorite Soba restaraunt. Good, but I wasn't quite in the mood for it. I'm sure I'll like it more next time. Though I wasn't overly thrilled with the Soba noodles, the Sake was GOOOOOOOD! I had cold sake, and what we were told just before leaving Canada really is true. Sake outside of Japan. Is. CRAP. It was one glass (about a shot glass and a half) for around ¥800 (just under $8) and though that may sound stingy, it was an excellent type of sake (very dry) and the way they present it to you makes up for the price. They bring the glass and a small wooden box. They but the glass in the center of the box, un-cork the bottle and pour QUICKLY. The sake then flows over the top of the glass, and fills up a good portion of the box. They do this to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are getting the full amount (the glass) that you paid for; and then some. I look forward to going out with him and exploring many varieties of sake, as he is well versed in the multitude of brands.

It's now Sunday, and all we really did was run errands. Laura has already posted about what we did Saturday so I'll skip those details. I'm going to stop typing now so that I can finally post this 3-day blog entry (both in what it covers and how long it actually took me in finishing it. Though to my credit, my laptop died on me and I lost Thurs. and Friday).

Cheers.

Randomness

Oh my God, so oodles of people in Japan carry dogs around with them a la Paris Hilton. These dogs are quite often dressed and totally spoiled, so spoiled that some stores have specific carts for dogs. See example A above. These dogs were dressed to the 9s, wearing jean miniskirts, cute little tanks and styling HIGHLIGHTS. For reals peeps, hair highlights. Of multiple shades, by the way.
Cafe close to the apartment. Apparently all Japanese people are alcoholic.
This was our next door neighbour while staying in the apartment. Friendly for sure.

Company Apt

These are pics from the company apt we stayed in for 3 days. Kinda tight for two ;)



Living Room

Kitchen



Bedroom

House Pictures

Living room

Downstairs bedroom

View from upstairs balcony


Our bedroom



Hallway Upstairs

In Tsukuba

Hey guys! Just wanted to leave a quick note to let you all know that we arrived safely in Japan. Things here are definitely different and not knowing the language is proving more difficult than we imagined. We moved into the house this evening, which is super cute. It's a bit far out from the happenings, but that's the price to pay for more than a 300 sq ft apt.

We also had our first day of observations today (for teaching). Japanese kids are so freaking cute, though they are quite shy around newcomers. All the teachers seem really nice and are quite a diverse group-coming from N. America, Australia, Singapore, Israel, etc...

Brian has adjusted really well to the time difference but I'm still struggling a bit. I'm still waking up at 3-4 am in the morning, but at least fall right back asleep. Food here is quite like Japanese food at home, today I went for ramen which was tasty as hell. We've been for sushi twice, which was good and rather cheap. We also went for soba last night, which I really liked. Brian had some sake, which is SOOO different that at home. Liquor here is ridiculously cheap, like a litre of Malibu is about 16 bucks. They also have crazy candy-like KitKat comes out with a new flavour every couple of months.

Anyways, that's all for now. I do have some pics which I'll try to upload in the next bit. Take care and more later!

Colors

Hi everyone. Some have been mentioning that the colors HAVE to be changed. Though I don't feel the need to bow to your demands (you all better get used to switching to 'Brian's sarcasm voice' in your head when reading, cuz it's gonna happen occasionally - like now. It's not mean sarcasm, just my usual playful sarcasm. Text just makes it sound mean, BUT IT'S NOT), I do agree with you 100% and had planned on doing so from the beginning; I simply had just enough time to create the blog name (and subsequently add this post). I can assure you that my inner geek will take over once we're settled in Japan and blog related maintenance will go from 'to do' chores to 'obsessive hobby'... But not until then.

Just a heads up, there's a good chance we won't have net for a week or so, so check in, but don't expect anything regular until mid-September.

Cheers.