Settling into Sendai II

Hello, house!

So it's August the 18th and I've been at my job for two weeks now (technically 18 days, but nothing before the 4th really counts)! They say the worst thing you can do when coming to Japan is to have a rigid mental picture of how your life is going to be there, and they are indeed correct. That's not to say that I fell into that trap; but life here has been full of unplanned surprises, that is for sure.

You actually have to pull...

Garbage disposal is a big deal in Japan.

First on the list is simply my neighbourhood. Sendai is divided into five wards ("ku"), and I live in Wakabayashi-ku. The ward was hit hard by the events of March 11, but my immediate area is on the extreme Western part of Wakabayashi, so things around me are fairly tranquil. As mentioned before, I live near Kawaramachi station, which is in an interesting point of the city. I am more or less in the exact middle between the downtown core (three subway stops North) and the large mall area aptly named "The Mall" (three subway stops South). The surprise for me is that, as a result of this unique position, I live in a very quiet neighbourhood despite being placed in a very urban area. There are shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and banks (not to mention a great many places catering only to those who speak Japanese) like any other place in Sendai, but it's all much more quaint. I'm actually quite pleased with the area - I am close enough to everything and yet far enough away so I don't have to deal with loud sounds and busy streets. Plus there is a twenty four hour 7/11 literally on the other side of the road from my house, meaning cravings rarely go unsatisfied for long.

The road outside of my house. City of Trees, remember?

Bars in Kawaramachi prefer the "cute" angle to the "cool" one.

Kawaramachi Station!

The second big surprise was that every trip for groceries has thus far been an adventure of its own. You really take for granted, living in a place where everything is in your language, just how much reading you do on a day-to-day basis. Is this package seaweed or parsley? Who knows! There are a lot of different brands and different foods altogether here, so there's very little in the way of familiar stimuli. That being said, it's still a lot of fun, and as long as you are careful and know where to look you are fine. I still have a long way to go, but I have been cooking for myself for two weeks now without incident. 

Buranu Freku! Or something!

Yes, my first home-cooked meal in Japan was pasta. 

That's better! (still no table...)

Smores! YES!

Authentic traditional Japanese cuisine.

Also worth noting is that I spent the entirety of last week at a Sendai Board of Education-hosted orientation. A lot of the information was very helpful, since up until that point most of what I've been told was either incredibly general or just plain inapplicable. Definitely a great way to spend my first full week in Sendai, not to mention giving all of us new JETs some more time to mingle before we start working on our own. One of the orientation days was spent participating in a number of "cultural workshops", which basically meant that we spent the whole day having fun (but also working really hard, promise).

Japanese Cooking Class: Before!

Japanese Cooking Class: After!

Their largest shoe. :(

My work uniform! Or possibly a festival costume. Hard to recall....

Masters of calligraphy (yes, mine goes in the wrong direction...).

Earthquake simulator. Unpleasant.

When I finally started work at my school on the 15th I was also pleasantly surprised at everyone's friendliness, despite me being the only foreigner/illiterate person in the staff room. The vice principal (kyoto-sensei) in particular seems to forget that I don't understand Japanese. Our conversations usually follow a pattern: he says half a million words in Japanese, pauses for my comprehension, remembers that I have no idea what he is saying, laughs, and then proceeds to communicate to me with intricate gestures. Other teachers sometimes use online translators to speak to me, which is always accompanied by at least one hilarious mistranslation. That being said, it will be nice once the English teachers start showing up to work...

Sampling Sendai's famous dish - gyutan (beef tongue) - with a local.

My locker - Nikorasu!

That'll do for updates for now! Hopefully I can get into the habit of blogging little things frequently so I won't have to do these massive posts every once in a while. But I'll probably just get more busy as the weeks drag on, haha.

You can view the whole photo album here!

Bye for now!


P.S.:

Probably the coolest thing I ever won from a cereal box.

Settling into Sendai

Wednesday, August the 3rd: my final day in Tokyo!

All of us new JET employees met up with representatives of the Sendai Board of Education in the lobby of our hotel around 10AM. After that it was a short walk to Shinjuku Station - the busiest train station in the world with an average of 3.4 million passengers per day - for our trip to Sendai City on the bullet train! No pictures of the ride up, unfortunately. I was a sleepy passenger. Snapshots of the surrounding countryside would have been difficult in any case, as we were speeding away at 300 km/h for most of the ride.

Sendai Station! This is the nexus of most of the train/subway/bus
lines and thus acts as the heart of the town, with its own interior shopping area.

Sendai is a fairly big city, with its own vibrant downtown area full of high-rise buildings, shopping areas, restaurants, and busy intersections. It's no where near as big as Tokyo or even Toronto, but with over one million people it still can be called a bustling place. As far as cities goes it's actually really quite nice - the downtown area is compact and very pedestrian friendly, the people seem to be both more relaxed and also less crazy than Tokyoites, the subway system is cheap and very easy for foreigners to understand, and there's an incredible amount of tiny shops in the area just waiting to be explored. Oh, and the trees!

Trees!

More trees!

I only have pictures of the area around the station, but the take home lesson here is that Sendai loves trees, and trees are thus everywhere downtown. Or maybe it's the other way around? In any case, this explains how the city got its nickname - Mori no Miyako - which means City of Trees. But enough about the city; what about where I live??

Home sweet home!

I live just three subway stops, usually between 5 and 10 minutes, from Sendai station in an area named for its own subway station (which seems to be how they do things over here). Thus, when someone asks where I live, I say "Kawaramachi station!". It's actually quite accurate as my apartment is only a five minute walk from the subway station itself.

The entrance, from the other side.

My building stands out a fair bit on the block - it's a oddly shaped chocolate brown tower sticking out amongst the smaller and whiter buildings that surround it. There's a candy-bar related nickname just waiting to be attached to it, but I just haven't thought of it. 

Who likes elevators anyway.

It's hard to describe the entire apartment, especially with pictures, in a short amount of time. Once I am good and settled I plan on doing a video tour, but for now whatever I end up typing here and the attached album will be all we go on!

The front door, with its own little shoe-taking-off area.

Most Japanese apartments are cramped, but I lucked out in that I have a rather spacious place. The rent I end up paying is just karma, I suppose. When you enter the apartment there's a small T-shaped hallway, with the entrance at the bottom, the bathroom/shower/toilet rooms on the left point, and a door leading to the living areas on the right point.

Kitchen, living room, and bedroom, all rolled into one!

The kitchen and living room make up one area, while the bedroom is in another and divided by these nifty sliding doors. With the exception of a fridge, a futon, some blankets, a washing machine, and a few nick-nacks the Board of Education provides, the place is empty. Most people live in pre-furnished apartments and might not even notice these things, but in my apartment these things are all that separate me from a completely empty living area. Which is just eerie. Beyond the bedroom lies the balcony, and in Japan you will find that balconies are much more utilitarian than they are in the West.

You pay for location, not the view! :P

By utilitarian I mean that the idea (or even the physical reality) of lounging on your balcony and watching the sunrise is virtually non-existent here. Your balcony is for two things only, and that is drying clothes and airing out futons. Even its design - too thin for a chair, but the surrounding walls high enough to put out racks for drying without the clothes touching the ground - impose this fact on you. But I will find bar stools and I will become the one person in the neighbourhood who takes his coffee sitting out on the balcony while everyone around me hangs up their clothes or beats the dust our of their futon. Mark my words!

But, finally introduced to my apartment, it was time to go back downtown. Weren't we just there? Yes, but not only is downtown a fun place to hang out, but our arrival also lined up with the yearly Tanabata Festival. Sendai has its own section on that page, so you know it is a big deal. And it is!

The interior of Sendai station.

The whole town is covered in these colourful decorations at this time. The festival also brings a great many people to Sendai to visit, so downtown was much more crowded than usual.

More decorations!

The meaning behind the festival is rather complex, and I have yet to be given a comprehensive answer by anyone. What I do know is that it involves a love story related to the meeting of two stars in the night sky. The rest must remain a mystery for now!

One of these things is not like the others!

The spirit downtown during this time is great, however. There are tons of people, but they are all friendly and genuinely excited for the festivities. A lot of the people whip out their traditional Japanese clothing for this time, adding even more to the atmosphere. 

Walking through the covered shopping area near the station. 

A different covered walkway near the station!

On Friday night the festival had its official kick-off with a massive fireworks show. And we're talking massive, people. They like their fireworks, those Japanese do. So much so, that they pack the streets over their maximum capacity to just get a view of the fireworks!

Remember when I said there were a lot more people than usual?

Things like this extended back very far in  all directions.

Despite the crowds, it was a great thing to see. And what a way to spend your first night downtown in a new city! The other JETs I met up to visit downtown with and I were all getting pretty hungry at this point, so we decided to find a place to eat a little before the end of the fireworks in hopes of beating the crowds. After a lot of searching (it's hard to find something everyone likes for ten people), we settled on an okonomiyaki restaurant. If you are like me and you are thinking "what the heck is okonomiyaki?" the easiest way to describe it is a Japanese pancake. Except instead of sprucing up the batter with chocolate chips or blueberries, you toss in meat and veggies. Oh, and you have to cook it yourself.

Behold! Okonomiyaki!

And it actually wasn't that bad! Cooking it yourself was a lot of fun, and the tastes all mingled together wonderfully. It's not my favourite food here, but I won't hesitate to go back if offered! Astute viewers of the above photo would have also noticed a great deal of foam or "head" on our beverages. I think now is a good time to mention that the art of pouring beer has yet to take off in Japan. Servers will pour your beer directly into the cup, smiling as the drink quickly becomes half foam, and wonder if foreigners' faces' always look that downtrodden. 

I think we'll end my Sendai update here. I have a lot more pictures and experiences to share, but here seems as good a place as any to break. It has yet to really dawn on me that I'll be spending a year living here, but I definitely got lucky when I was assigned to live in Sendai!

As always, you can view the entire album for today's post here.

See you all at my next update!

Tokyo Orientation

(Little behind on the updates; sorry about that. Haven't had internet in my apartment until just recently.)

Self portrait at 4 in the morning.

Tokyo! Quite the interesting place. New JETs are required to spend three days in a hotel in Tokyo for the aptly named Tokyo Orientation, which consists of a lot of speeches, a lot of ceremonies, a lot of workshops, and a lot of sightseeing. Technically it is the beginning of our contract, so I guess that would make this the first few days of my new job. It was all very well organised and tooled to be extremely helpful and informative to all of us.

View of Tokyo from my room.

Tokyo is a very big city, and there is a great deal of things to do and see there. Coming from the other GTA, Tokyo - with an area whose population is more than six times larger than Toronto's - is a big adjustment to make. One important thing to note is that while Toronto is far smaller, it still much more multicultural than Tokyo is. Out of 35 million residents in the city, only 364,000 are foreigners. What this more or less means is that everywhere you go there are two inescapable constants; Japanese and Japanese people.

Japanese and Japanese people, Exhibit A.

It is still a massive hub of business and technology, however, so there are familiar brands everywhere you look.

Japan's take on McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It".

Aside from the informative workshops (the majority of which I had to sleep through thanks to jet lag), the most memorable thing about Tokyo Orientation is going out for dinner in the city every night. We were provided with vaguely Western-styled breakfast and lunch in the hotel (french fries and steamed veggies for breakfast, pasta and miso soup for lunch), but once the evening came we were on our own. The JET Programme draws all kinds of people with all kinds of skills, and one skill where there's a large decree of variance is Japanese language ability. I am firmly in the "little to none" category, which made going out for dinner and navigating the city both a lot more fun and a lot more anxiety-inducing.

Delicious pita "raps". And pizza sand! 

But despite how you might feel about venturing into Tokyo, you still got to eat. On my second night in Tokyo I went to a small Japanese restaurant, the name of which I never really learned, but it's certainly one experience that is going to stick with me for a long time. In Tokyo space is expensive, so everywhere you go you see restaurants, department stores, etc. doing more with less. Another way of putting it is that everything is small and cramped on the inside!

This is with the lens zoomed out.
Expect your personal bubble to be popped.

I somehow managed to land in the seat that also doubled as the menu holder. What this meant was that every time a server needed to grab a menu, they would reach into the back of my chair and grab one. Unfortunately this was never done delicately, meaning that periodically throughout the meal I would feel someone momentarily groping around my back.

It's a tight squeeze. 

One thing I should mention was that the restaurant we went to was very Japanese. There were no foreigners, no English speaking staff, no English menu. Even Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3...), thankfully in use in much of Japan, were not present here. Someone like me would find no success eating at a restaurant like this, but luckily I was accompanied by others who had a much better grasp of Japanese than I did.

I later discovered that the menu I was desperately trying to read was being held upside down by myself...

What we ate is a mystery to me. They dropped a big grilling pot on our table, filled it up with unknown items - the meat involved was liver, I know that much - and started to boil it all up. We were also given an egg to mix into the whole thing after ward, resulting in a thick stew-like dish. It wasn't too bad.

Dig in!

The presence of foreigners in a place so foreigner-unfriendly did not go unnoticed by the other patrons, either. Before long our neighbours (sitting close enough to occasionally bump with my elbows) were trying to talk to us. They offered suggestions in what we should eat and what we should drink. One of them actually worked for the Tokyo Bureau of Waterworks, and boasted in  broken English that Tokyo water was "very delicious". They were impressed when they heard that we were to all be English teachers in Japanese schools, and toasted us more than a few times before the end of the night.

It's cramped, remember?

I have little to say about the rest of orientation. As mentioned earlier I was dealing with a heavy amount of jet lag, so I wasn't able to fully take advantage of being in a city like Tokyo. After three nights of this it was time to get on the bullet train to Sendai City. On our last day we had a bit of time so we were able to climb to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which has a gallery that provides a nice view of the surrounding city.

Too cloudy for a shot of Mt. Fuji, sadly.

And that was Tokyo Orientation! As of writing I am already in my apartment in Sendai, so those of you hoping for a cliffhanger ending will not get your wish today, unfortunately. I'll update this soon with some Sendai-specific information, so stay tuned!

Also, for those of you interested, you can click here to view the entire Tokyo Orientation album.

(I have also updated my last post to show the entire Departure Album)

Bye for now!

Departuring

See you later, back yard!

Without doubt the longest day of my life. I began it at 4am on the 30th of July in Toronto and ended it around midnight on August 1 in Tokyo. The take home lesson was that if you plan on staying up late the night before your flight and sleeping most of the way, bring things in your carry-on to facilitate that!

My lovely assistants!

Rockin' the tourist look.

Apart for a little while. :(

The flight wasn't entirely enjoyable. A window seat is great if you don't plan on standing up and walking about, but on a 13 hour flight you find that such activities are often just what you want to do.

Totomi, my shy (therefore silent) Japanese neighbour.

The only sleep I managed to get was when I dozed off during some of the more boring portions of the films being shown. I got so good at it that I ended up knowingly putting on a documentary I would find boring!

Bye House!

The meals themselves were probably the most exciting part of the voyage, and seemed to get more Japanese the closer we got to the country.

The first was a simple chicken and rice dish that is relatively common amongst air plane food in my experience. It was pretty good.

One Japanese out of Five.

The second was a bit of an enigma in that it appeared to be lunch, but since the last meal I had was dinner, did that make this breakfast? We're getting kind of Japanese with the cup of noodles (delicious) and the chopsticks as the only utensil, but the roast beef sandwich and biscuit are relatively normal.

Three Japanese out of Five.

Finally was breakfast (or lunch?). The best part about this was the ordering; somehow I got a stewardess who's English ability was low enough to be incomprehensible to me after 10 hours in a plane, not to mention one who began our conversation assuming I understood Japanese. After saying "what?" twice (first to get her to stop speaking Japanese, the second out of pure confusion) I settled for "the first one" which ended up being our grand champion of Japanese air plane food.

Five Japanese out of Five.

If you can't see, it's shredded fish (perch) on top of what is basically a hot rice soup. I overcame my initial revulsion and tried some, and found it to actually be pretty good!

After what seemed like an eternity we finally landed in Tokyo (well, Narita) at 5PM local time. I breezed through customs and immigration faster than I had ever before - I must have looked particularly legitimate that day, and my baggage was one of the first to come out of the belt. Those of you who have travelled before know that such an experience in a major airport is more legend then reality.

The luggage carts are very hospitable.

After a one hour bus ride to our hotel in downtown Tokyo it was time to drink a lot of coffee and hit the town around 9PM.

The first stop was at a convenience store not far from the hotel, where the cashiers shouted scripted messages as I picked up a small can of hot coffee (which was really good). Wandering the streets after that was amazing - you are completely surrounded by foreign images, words, and people. We went into a kaiten-sushi restaurant first, followed by a bar where you selected your drink from a touch-screen computer after feeding it some money. Overall a lot of fun, and a great way to end the entire ordeal.

View the entire album here.

I'm in Japan!