The Second Time Around

I've been back in Japan now for about two weeks. It had been over 2 years since I was last here. On the flight over, I was imagining what it would be like to return, and in the end, I was surprised by how easy it was to get right back into the swing of Japanese life. It's almost like I never left. As soon as I landed I began speaking Japanese (although pretty horridly; man I need to practice!)  with all the customs officials and the people at the bus ticket counter. It felt great to be using it again; felt somewhat normal and natural, like I was always using it.

Once I got to Tokyo and to where Melanie and I were staying for a few days, I felt even more comfortable. It was almost like a dream or something.. Did I imagine the last few years I had spent in Oregon? No, but really, it just felt so right to be here.

I arrived in the mid afternoon, and the next morning, jet lagged and all, we were up at at it; things to be done. We headed off to Yokohama to sign paperwork for our apartment. We found the building no problem, and actually,  the lady we had been speaking to via email met us on the sidewalk; she had recognized me from a photo copy of my passport from across the street! Ah the Japanese, so kind and committed to serving their customers 100%. Mel and I thought there would be some complications with us signing paperwork to move in (because who can be sure about anything when you've only spoken via email from across the globe right?!) but after about an hour or so, we had paid (well, Melanie had paid, and I owe her big time for it! Including the money lol) and we were on our way to see the apartment for the first time.

The apartment is in Hiratsuka City (平塚市), about an hour and 20 minutes from Tokyo by train. Hiratsuka is a small city of out 250,000 or so. Yes, I know! Small city?! Only about double the size of Oregon's second largest, right? Well, when you compare that to Yokohama (3.7 Million, only 30 minutes away) and Tokyo (over 30 Million estimated in 2010), We're living in a tiny city! Anyway, it's a pretty nice place. I like it because in about 3 days, I figured out the entire "downtown" area (which in Japan is known as the "In front of Station area [駅前; Eki Mae]). The city was established in the late 1800's, so it was built much like US city, in a simple and easy to understand grid. I would just go out for a walk and see what was around, without much worry of getting lost. We've still been doing that recently, and although Melanie isn't quite sure where we're going (and frankly, neither do I!) I still know how to get us home. It's pretty fun.

Here are some pictures of our little place. It's about 300 square feet, which is actually a touch bigger than lots of Japanese apartments like it.

This is what you see just after you enter. The "kitchen" is here, the main room ahead, and the bathroom/shower through a door to the right. 

The bedroom, dining room, living room area. 

And again from the other side. The TV is actually on a desk that stretches the whole length of that wall. And our little rice cooker below the mirror. We have to plug it in here because there isn't a single counter in the kitchen area.

The toilet and laundry room. I'm super thankful to have our own washer! Not many dryers in Japan though; They hang dry their clothes. It's surprising how fast they dry, even when it's 40 degrees outside. The winter here is rather dry, and the rain will come around June. That's when drying the clothes will get tricky.
Ah, and the toilet is a fancy high tech one! It can give you a good wash, and also has a heated seat. 

And the shower. This whole little room is covered in plastic and there's no place for a shower curtain. The traditional Japanese way is to shower first out side of the tub, and get really clean, then get in the bath to soak. A whole family will use the same bathwater. We don't go that route!

Enough rambling about that... It's been fun to start our life here. The first few days were filled with acquiring new things for our apartment. We needed dishes and cooking utensils, some hand towels, pillows, etc, etc. When we were in Japan before, we used to go to a store called Diaso. It's more or less a Dollar Tree, where  90% of things cost 105 Yen, but some nicer things that cost a bit more. The best part though, is that most things are made here in Japan rather than China (the Japanese pretty much hate the Chinese, so go figure!) and are way better quality than you'd find at the Dollar Tree. We went to that store for more things 4 days in a row, no joke.

On my birthday (the 17th), it was the beginning of a new week and we had a big laundry list of administrative things to do. The first stop was the City Hall. In Japan, even foreigners have to go the the City Hall to get registered as residents, as well as enroll in the National Health Insurance plan. I'm stoked to be part of the health plan here. I would give everything to have it at home for all my family and friends. God knows we could all use it. With the insurance, ambulance rides are FREE! "Wait, free? You mean they don't cost 2 grand and put you into debt?" Nope, not in the slightest. It seems that the Japanese care about each other and the well being of their society. (Ok, sorry if I offended anyone, it's just the way I see it. And, it's my blog so..) We did everything at the City Hall in Japanese, which was super fun. Confusing to the max at times, but fun none the less. There's no way I could have done any of that without Melanie's help. She's got such a better command of Japanese than I do it's not even funny. Thanks baby!

The next on our list was a bank account. I am required by my company to have one so they can do a direct deposit of my pay check which is pretty common here, and we remembered that a cell phone company will want one too so they can take our payment without hassle each month. It turns out that the water company likes to do a direct withdrawal as well (which was some tricky paperwork to fill out! Sheesh!).
So the bank took over an hour, and again, all in Japanese. We got our cash cards in the mail the other day; looking sweet! Japan is more or less a cash only society, so you don't get debit or credit cards from the bank with a typical account, only a cash card which can only be used at ATMs. You get used to it in time...

The last major thing we did was to get a cell phone. It's more tricky than at home in general, and because we had to figure out the fine print of a 2 year contract (which will be fun to cancel in a year!) in Japanese, it magnified things by a whole bunch. When we first walked in, they asked us if we had a "Hanko". You see, in Japan, they don't simply sign their name with a pen; they have a special little stamp that has their last name (in Kanji of course) engraved in it. The stamps are used as a signature in mostly all cases. We told the cell phone guy that we had signed an apartment lease, been to the City Hall to do very important work, and had also opened Japanese bank accounts without a Hanko, but he insisted that we need one for a silly phone. So it was on to find a place to get one. Now, Mel and I both have a cool little stamp that has our name on it in Katakana (one of the 3 Japanese alphabets; usually used for foreign words). Mine says ジョンストン [Jyonsuton].

After getting the Hanko, we went back to the cell phone shop and successfully got a contract. We wanted smartphones because that's how people roll these days, but the price of a plan was pretty steep for us right now. Something like 8,000 Yen/month (about $90 or so). I'm on a tight budget, so I went with an old school flip phone instead. The plans are more or less like home, except on major difference; The plans don't come with minutes! At home, you might buy a plan with say 300 minutes per month and call minutes are deducted from that total as you use them. Here, you pay for every minute you use, and it's SPENDY! 30 seconds costs 21 yen! That's nearly 50 Cents a minute! I can call home via Skype for 1.9 Cents per minute, but it costs 50 Cents to call someone here?! Crazyness... But in the end, we have phones and can stay in touch with our friends here, and each other.

I start work in a couple weeks. I called in the other day to let them know I made it to Japan successfully and they told me that my first week will be training, and that I have to be in Tokyo everyday for it. It costs about $20 round trip to Tokyo and back, so I'm hoping to stay with our friends in Tokyo again. I'm excited to get to work here. It's been about 3 months now since I've had anything real to occupy my time. I'm ready.

Christmas was the other day... In some ways I wish I were home for it, and I bet my family did too. Between Japan and France, this was my 4th Christmas in a row of not being home.
We got in touch with a British friend of ours that lives in a city not far from here, also teaching English, and we went out to spend Christmas with him. We went to Yokohama in the evening and walked around a bit, and then dinner and drinks after that. It was a pretty nice day all in all.

Anyway, that's what's been up with me for the past 2 weeks or so. Thanks for reading! I miss you all and hope you have a great holiday season! I'm thinking of home everyday!