To Kansai

Tomorrow Taylor and Paige will be landing in Kansai Airport, so I’m driving down there to pick them up. The plan is to leave at around 9 with Myrie and Jeff so that we can stop in Himeji and get our re-entry permits. I’ll leave them in Himeji and then continue to the island where Kansai Airport is, hopefully getting there well before my sisters get through customs. I’m sure I’ll be waiting for hours, but I’m almost just as sure that I will make some sort of mistake getting there and get lost for awhile. Driving in Japan has so far proved to be not the most straightforward thing, and I think getting to artificial airport island will be a little more confusing than driving on Asago’s one road. Anyway I’m looking forward to them showing up, and to not having to work for the next 6 days.

“What’s the Matter?”

Today the ni nen seis learned how to ask someone what is the matter, as well as how to answer with a variety of ailments. Part of the lesson was that they had to make up a skit with their partner in which they got to ask what was the matter, answer, explain why, and then suggest a remedy. Some of them were pretty creative:

“I have a stomachache. I ate many poison mushrooms last night.”

“I have a cold. I fell asleep in the bath.”

“I have an overweight. I ate too much.”

“I have a cold. I fell asleep with nothing on my stomach.”

“I have a sore nose. I fell out of bed last night.”

Bus to Tokyo

When Marla comes to visit we will be going to Tokyo for New Year’s. Since the shinkansen costs like a million dollars, a night bus is the best way to get there from Himeji (the closest city big enough). Since New Year’s is a huge deal I decided to reserve our seats really early. As it turns out service here is quite different than in North America. I called the bus company and asked about reservations and they said they had to check and would call me back. So a few hours I got a call back, and the woman had two seats reserved for me, which was good. Then she told me when the bus would leave, and then ask if I already knew where. I said I didn’t, and she seemed to get worried immediately. She said that a different guy (I’m gonna assume he’s a gaijin), couldn’t find the bus so he missed his trip, and that she didn’t want that to happen to me. So she told me where it is, and even though I don’t actually know where it is yet, right outside the main station seems pretty direct to me. Then she said she would e-mail me a map anyway, just to be sure. The same thing went for the pick up point in Tokyo. Also, she is going to call me in a couple weeks just to make sure I haven’t changed my mind about going, and to see if I have been to Himeji and know where the pick up spot is yet.

I can’t really imagine a company at home caring much if someone missed their bus, let alone letting it affect their future dealings with customers. Anyway, our tickets are booked, so now everything is set for Tokyo, which I am looking forward to considering my only other time there was mostly full of really boring seminars.

Cooking

So I finally decided I couldn’t take school lunch anymore. My bowl of rice (sometimes the only thing I ate) seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Even when it was full it was usually cold, which really made for an unpleasant lunch. So on friday after not eating a big chunk of fish I told Kakio sensei that I wanted out, as long as I would still be able to eat my lunch with my students. So I think it will take a little while for them to stop making a lunch for me, but I will only be there for 4 days this week anyway so it is no big deal. After that I’ll be making my own food and bringing it in.

Since the kinda food I like either isn’t sold here, or is made really strangely I decided I should make stuff myself. So far I have made chili and pasta sauce, and both turned out well in my opinion. Buying ingredients is a bit frustrating, because everything seems to be measure in grams, even if it is a liquid. Also, a lot of stuff is much more expensive than I would like. Peppers for example cost about  ¥200 each, which seems kinda ridiculous to me. I figure that food is pretty important though, and I am making enough money that I should be able to enjoy my meals sometimes.

Fireman for a Day

Today Kenji, Patrick, Veronica and I took part in Asago’s Fireman for a Day event. In the morning we watched the inspection of the firefighters, which was super formal and well choreographed. Then we spent the rest of the morning going to different Kindergarten classes in Asago and Ikuno.

The Kindergartens were super fun. At the first school I saw the little girl that lives a couple doors down from me, and she waved at me pretty much the whole time. All the kids got to climb inside the firetruck, so they were pretty happy. The firetrucks here are like miniature versions of the ones in Canada, so it took awhile to get all the kids through. After that we played with each class for a little while. This involved a lot of gimme fives (cause that’s really fun apparently), and getting me to lift them off the ground when they jump (which is obviously fun, but really tiring after a few kids).

After we finished at all the schools we had lunch (no fish), and then went to Jusco to learn about their fire safety system. I thought it was going to be boring, but the huge fear of fire in Japan (everything is made of wood and really close together) actually meant that it was really interesting. Instead of just smoke detectors, they have infrared sensors that can tell instantly if a lighter is lit. Throughout the store they have these walls that will drop down from the ceiling to seal off any area that has a fire (apparently there is also a way out if you get stuck in one of those areas. They also have these chains that hang down all over the place, right at my face level, that can pull down a fan from the roof to suck smoke outside. I was pretty impressed.

Then we went back to the fire station and got to use fire extinguishers to put out a small fire, and then walk through a simulated burning building (a fog machine was on inside). After that we saw a demonstration of the jaws of life, along with some other car opening tools. Then we got to go up in the basket on the end of the fire truck ladder, where we could see a lot of rice paddies, and Jusco. Then Kenji and I were allowed to try climbing the training wall they have, which is like Batman style wall scaling. Kenji made it about halfway, and I got to the top but I think that had a lot to do with the guys pulling up on my harness.

Finally they brought us inside to show us the new 119 (like our 911, only backwards and pronounced ichi ichi kyu) system they just installed. The thing cost $1.2 million, which is pretty insane for a town of 35000, but it was really cool. It had these huge screens that showed the exact position of the caller, and well as a bunch of other stuff that was in Japanese.

So I learned that the Japanese take fire safety really seriously, even if everything they use (including the firemen) are like a miniature version of what is used in North America.