Nihon e ikimashou!

Back for the moment

2004-08-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts, but I haven't felt up to it recently. If you've been reading and wanna see more, leave me a quick note saying so!

Brian

Now she's free!

2004-08-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I talked to bazilsmom today, just before she was planning to mail the cellular phone back to me. It sounds like she survived her climb up Fuji-san, but is none too eager to do it again. I didn't ask for details--I figure I can wait for the blog post along with everyone else.

So by tomorrow I will officially be the only representative from our group at work here. Needless to say, I'm really hoping that nothing unusual happens. While normal is boring, abnormal can be dangerous.

Nothing really planned for tonight--just relax, drink sake till I pass out, then get up in the morning to drive to Mito. OK, maybe not that part about the sake.

Who wants to be a ten-millionaire?

2004-08-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Quiz shows are pretty pervasive here, so it should come as no surprise that there is a Japanese edition of Millionaire here. The format is basically the same, except that both times I've seen it (last trip and tonight) they've not shown the "fastest finger question" except as a quick "here were the results", and they've skipped the first six or seven questions. Now, both times I've seen it they had celebrities, so that may have something to do with it.

The payouts are similar at the low levels, but they don't keep doubling, so that the top prize is 10 million yen (or about $100,000). They also really like to overdramatize it. When they get to the harder questions, it goes something like this:

Japanese Regis: "Final answer?" (yes, he says it in heavily-accented English)
Contestant: "Final answer."
J.R.: rips up previous check and stares at contestant
Camera switches to contestant, who has look of apprehension.
Camera switches to phone-a-friend helpers, who have a camera on them.
Camera switches to relative in audience. All people shown on camera are muttering/crossing fingers/etc. (except J.R. of course)
Camera switches back to J.R., who looks like he might say something.
With no warning whatsoever, they cut to commercial.

Then when they come back, they replay all that before J.R. says "Seikai!" (Right!) or "Zannen!" (Too bad!). This can happen for 2 or 3 questions in a row, too.

Are you curious to know what kind of questions they ask? Here are some sample questions from the final contestant tonight (obviously translated as much as possible):

#8: What does the abbreviation "P.S." mean in an English-language letter? (four Japanese words I didn't know)
#9: What J-league team did 15-year old (didn't catch his name) debut with? (four teams you've never heard of)
#10: What is the name of National Highway #1? (same as above)
#11: From what country does espresso originally come? (US, Spain, Italy, Holland)
#12: In English, what kind of bird is a skylark? (hato, hibari, suzume, fukurou)
#13: What was the original use of tissue paper (i.e. Kleenex)? (removing makeup, treating injuries, blowing your nose, wrapping confections)

(Answers posted in the comments section.)

Ikutsu? (How many?)

2004-08-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I won't be insulted if any of you skip this. When your routine is "wake up, check e-mail, go to work, go to sleep", there are going to be days when there's not a lot to blog about. Since the Japanese language is a hobby of mine, I might decide to blab about it once in a while. I'm certainly surrounded by it (especially with no English-language channels in the apartment).

One of the interesting things about Japanese is the counting system--or should I say systems. They mostly use numbers originally borrowed from Chinese that go like this:

ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu, juu, juu-ichi, juu-ni, etc.

but they also have a native system that goes to ten only (maybe Spinal Tap should use these):

hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, itsutsu, muttsu, nanatsu, yatsu, kokonotsu, tou

Then, to really spice it up, they'll mix and match. The number 4 can be shi or yon (derived from yotsu)--sometimes one is right, sometimes the other, and sometimes they're interchangeable. Or try counting people:

hitori, futari, san-nin, yon-nin, go-nin, roku-nin, ...

Isn't this fun?! Ray-san* (a coworker who's here with me) said the first time he was in Japan, he was so proud of himself for being able to ask for two (ni) of something, and was confused when the woman behind the register repeated the word nihon to him. Ray-san at first couldn't understand why she was saying "Japan". The word hon is a counter for long, cylindrical objects like pencils or scrolls. In Japanese, when you count objects, you always use a counter. It's like saying "two sheets of paper", or "three packs of gum, except they do that with everything. Unless you use hitotsu, futatsu, etc., which act as counters themselves.

Confused yet? Well, this is all very daunting to us, but can be very useful to them. Because there are multiple ways to say numbers, and their language has a limited number of sounds in it (only about 100 possible syllables!), they can do mnemonics for numbers easily. For example, I looked up 1492 in a Japanese study book--the mnemonic was something like "Iyo! Kuni hakken." which roughly translates to "Ahoy! Country discovered." I=1, yo=4, ku=9, ni=2. See? Perfect for memorizing dates for your history exam, telephone numbers of your friends, or the number pi to a ridiculous number of decimal places.

[*Humorously, and appropriately for this entry, rei (pronounced Ray) can mean, among other things, zero. No insult intended, 03!]

Gooooooolllllll!!!!!!!

2004-08-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

While soccer is afforded the same second-class citizenship that it is in the US (it's behind baseball, and probably sumo too), it is still watched here. They have the J-league, which has two flights of 16 and 12 teams. One is in Kashima, which is in southern Ibaraki-ken (and thus probably a bit too long a drive from my apartment). Their national team is one of the two powers in Asia--competitive with European teams, but not a real World Cup threat yet.

The national team is competing in the Asian Cup right now, and they're showing all the Japan matches live. I caught the last few minutes of their last qualifying round match against Iran, which involved both teams pretty much standing around (a draw would see both through to the next round). Apparently most of the match they actually played soccer, but that last bit was a joke.

Then came an entertaining match versus Jordan that went to penalties. Both of Japan's first two shooters missed way high. The Japanese coach (who's Brazilian, I think) complained about the penalty spot at that end, and actually convinced the referee to switch ends, despite heated protests from Jordan. Still, they were down 3-1 with two kicks each left and it looked pretty hopeless, but the Japanese keeper made a couple of outstanding saves and they won.

Then last night was 4-3 thriller versus Bahrain. You don't often get to describe a soccer match as a "see-saw affair", but this one was--0-1, then 2-1, 2-3, 4-3. Each team scored in the last five minutes of regulation. Fun, fun, fun! I'd love to find a random pickup game somewhere to join, but I haven't seen any. I'm not giving up yet.

On a side note, I was IM'ing with Yurigs when he asked how bazilsmom did on the hike. While we talked, they were interviewing Avril Lavigne on TV (through an interpreter, of course). She had a look similar to Bill Murray's in "Lost in Translation" while she was waiting for the translation. But I digress. Somehow Mt. Fuji got mentioned, and they asked if she just liked looking at it, or if she wanted to climb it. She said she'd like to climb it--"it's not that hard, right?" She looked taken aback when they told her it wasn't that easy a hike. Good thing bazilsmom didn't hear that!

Errands

2004-08-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Errands

You don't appreciate how important being literate is until you live in a culture where you aren't. Try going to the supermarket and looking at the box to determine if there's an ingredient you are allergic to or repulsed by. Or selecting the appropriate mode of transportation for the package you want delivered overseas. Or filling out the form properly to exchange your money for the local currency.

Now, I'm not really whining. I speak and read enough Japanese to be able to do all of these tasks--at least with the help of my electronic dictionary (well worth the 20000 yen I shelled out). But if a conversation goes off in an unexpected direction, I will sometimes get the deer-in-headlights look that tells the polite Japanese person with whom I'm talking that s/he is suddenly in for a much more difficult time.

Mercifully, none of my conversations went that way today. I even managed to explain to the bank teller that I had to return home to look up my postal address because I'd just moved here. (Don't ask why the form I filled out needed it.) It's a good thing she didn't try to engage me in a meaningful conversation, though--I could see the headlights coming!

Alone at last!

2004-08-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

With bazilsmom and XDirtPushr finally off to Tokyo, I now have the car and the apartment to myself. Of course, this makes for a dull day. Fortunately, it feels good to just relax at home, as I've been on virtual non-stop travel for a week and a half, having been to Ohio the week before this trip for a wedding and to visit other friends. (BTW, if any of you are reading, it was great visiting! Thanks for keeping the temperature under 100 for me.) The only unfortunate thing is that I am running low on yen, so I have to wait for the bank to open tomorrow to get more. So it's time to load the camera software onto the computer, check e-mail, and do some channel surfing.

Despite my limited Japanese, I can sometimes find a worthwhile TV program to watch, but today is pretty much a bust until I discover that Tokyo Verdy 1969 (a J-league soccer team) is playing an exhibition against Real Madrid, who happens to be touring Japan for a couple of games. For those who aren't in the know, Real Madrid is one of the top teams in the world (they just passed Manchester United in marketing), and include on their roster such illustrious players as Figo, Ronaldo, and Beckham. Beckham is big here. Really, really BIG. As in, "Tiger Woods before he got engaged and slipped to #1 in the rankings big". Clearly, the marketing strategy for Real Madrid is a simple equation: Beckham + Japan = $$$$$$$. Or is that ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥? The game wasn't bad to watch, and while Real was the superior team (as shown in the 4-0 scoreline), FC Tokyo had a fair number of chances. They just don't have finishers of the calibre of their European opponent.

Trekkin' across Ibaraki

2004-07-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

After saying goodbye to the other coworker (who took the bus back to Narita today), I drove back to the apartment to officially move in. We packed up the happy couple's luggage into the car and got in to enjoy a short tour of the highlights of Ibaraki-ken. This, of course, did not take long. Ibaraki-ken is not exactly a tourist mecca. The suspension bridge to nowhere and the waterfall were the highlights. I have pictures, but have been unable to download them yet, so they'll have to wait for a later blog entry. If you're desperate to see the sights, check bazilsmom's blog.

At the end of the day we stopped in Daigo (near the north end of Ibaraki-ken and very close to the waterfall) so that bazilsmom and XDirtPushr could check into a ryokan (japanese-style inn) with an onsen (hot spring). One person on the staff spoke passable English, so between her Engrish and my Japanese, it's possible I'll have some explaining to do to the adventurous couple! I will let her tell the tale (when and if she gets around to it, of course).

To make things easier, I left them the car, walked around "downtown" Daigo for a bit (won't be missing it) and took the train back down to the apartment. This has been fun so far--it's a shame the two of them are leaving for Tokyo tomorrow.

She's free (almost)!

2004-07-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today was bazilsmom's last day at work (for this stretch of time, anyway). Ted is also leaving, so the guys here took us to a restaurant that does shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. For those not familiar, think Japanese fondue. Very tasty--I have to admit that I liked the sukiyaki more. At least they didn't bring out whole fish to eat. (See this entry in bazilsmom's blog if you don't understand.)

The "almost" in the title refers to a promise bazilsmom made to XDirtPushr. It seems they are going to climb Fuji-san Monday night, so they can see the sunrise from the top. One of the Japanese engineers who has climbed it three times brought maps (complete with tightly-packed contour lines), as if to drive home the point to bazilsmom that yes, your legs will be screaming with pain very soon. Fortunately, the maps had to be put away as the food and the sake were brought out. To ensure that bazilsmom, XDirtPushr, and another coworker got to enjoy the evening to its fullest, I volunteered to be the designated driver. Any stories that follow from that are either unpostable or entirely a figment of my imagination. You decide.

Oh, and I had the not-so-fun experience of driving back to the hotel in the dark and rain. I have a lot of sympathy now for bazilsmom's early driving days here. I at least had driven in Australia once, so was used to the left side. Add poor visibility and really narrow roads and it's not much fun!

Not so nervous

2004-07-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Bazilsmom drove down so that we could visit the car rental place and add my name to the list of eligible drivers, then extend the rental for another month. You would think that getting a car here would be a nightmare, but here is a complete list of everything you need:

(1) An international driver's license (obtained at AAA for about $20)
(2) Enough money to pay for the rental

The following are also useful, though not technically required:

(3) Knowledge of which side of the road is correct (here, it's the left)
(4) Literacy
(5) The ability to add 20 kph to the posted speed

On the drive to work, I noticed that bazilsmom is much more comfortable on the roads than she was at the start of the trip. I was so comfortable in the passenger seat that I didn't even flinch when she was forced to swerve close to the railing to miss an oncoming car!

So...very...tired...

2004-07-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I arrived at Narita today with XDirtPushr (that's bazilsmom's husband). We got through customs amazingly quickly and actually were able to catch an earlier bus to Mito than usual. Now, I've flown to Japan numerous times and know the drill--sleep about three hours on the plane, then stay awake as long as possible. Even the two-hour bus ride (yes, two hours--on small, winding roads) isn't too bad.

So I'm looking a bit tired when bazilsmom and another coworker meet us, but XDirtPushr is pretty dead to the world. We both manage to stay awake for dinner at her favorite restaurant in Mito--a mom-and-pop (literally) place that serves a good steak dinner. After that, it's time to get back before the two of us collapse from exhaustion. Too bad he has to also survive a 45 minute drive to their apartment while I stay here in the Mito hotel!