I wouldn't call myself lazy. But I can get in a rut and not pick up the clothes, wash dishes, or organize my receipts for about 4 days to a week before it drives me crazy. Then in one go I can make the apartment spotless. These are just some of the benefits of living alone because there isn't a second person to disagree with my organization style (or lack thereof).
So tonight's example is brought to you by the letter "A" for Awesome. I...
-- balanced my bank book
-- organized my bills drawer
-- set up a budget for October on an Excel spreadsheet and separated it into personal spending and education related expenses
-- did laundry
-- washed dishes
-- vacuumed
-- took a relaxing bath because fall is FINALLY HERE
-- and caught up with all my American TV premieres like The Office and Family Guy.
It is 9:20pm now and I might just go to bed early. Wow.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Bank Statements Revisited
So I got it figured out.
In American checkbooks, I have pages to balance my account.
In Japan, they gave me a passport sized bank book. When at the ATM, I am supposed to insert the bank book, face up in a separate slot from my ATM card. Then when the transaction is finished, the computer inside types upon my bank book the transaction and ejects my bank book and cash card. I can request a receipt if I really need it.
To my delight, the ATM printed all of the transactions that I've made since my first deposit when I got here. So we're cool now.
I still have so much to learn about basic survival here...
In American checkbooks, I have pages to balance my account.
In Japan, they gave me a passport sized bank book. When at the ATM, I am supposed to insert the bank book, face up in a separate slot from my ATM card. Then when the transaction is finished, the computer inside types upon my bank book the transaction and ejects my bank book and cash card. I can request a receipt if I really need it.
To my delight, the ATM printed all of the transactions that I've made since my first deposit when I got here. So we're cool now.
I still have so much to learn about basic survival here...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Culture Shock: Bank Statements
Guess what?
Japanese banks do not send monthly bank statements to its patrons.
Guess who doesn't have a clue about deposits being made on her behalf into her account?
Guess who will be spending the weekend with an Excel sheet, withdrawal receipts, and paycheck notices?
I do NOT like this system! I WANT A MONTHLY STATEMENT!
Japanese banks do not send monthly bank statements to its patrons.
Guess who doesn't have a clue about deposits being made on her behalf into her account?
Guess who will be spending the weekend with an Excel sheet, withdrawal receipts, and paycheck notices?
I do NOT like this system! I WANT A MONTHLY STATEMENT!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More pictures from Mikoshi Festival
Here are some more pictures of my birthday weekend in Tokyo!
There is NO PLACE like home... well... home in Japan.
Yuri won a game like a pinball game. Get four balls in a row and win something special. Get four balls in a row three different ways and win 500 yen ($5)!
Because I was taking pictures of people fishing, I couldn't take pictures of ME fishing!
And everyone at the matsuri! It was SUCH a blast!
There is NO PLACE like home... well... home in Japan.
Yuri won a game like a pinball game. Get four balls in a row and win something special. Get four balls in a row three different ways and win 500 yen ($5)!
Because I was taking pictures of people fishing, I couldn't take pictures of ME fishing!
And everyone at the matsuri! It was SUCH a blast!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The birthday that never ends. =)
I have been celebrating my birthday for a week and a half now! It's been great!
At church today, the services were a little shorter and the church threw me a small, birthday luncheon complete with party favors and a beautiful layered buttered cake with whipped cream icing and topped with fresh fruit like pineapple, kiwi, and peaches. I even blew out 23 candles!
I am much improved since the meltdown on Wednesday. School is going well and I have an ultra-short week because Tuesday is another national holiday (Autumn Equinox) and Friday is Sports Day so I will have to go to school, but I will not have to teach classes. The Mid-Year Seminar for all JETs only a few weeks away so I will be able to see all my friends again soon. I am very much looking forward to that ^_^
The weather here has gotten much cooler thanks to a "typhoon". I hear that Japan gets many of them and this one happened to be just a heavy rainshower. Arkansas T-storms are worse than what we had on Friday night. It rained a little more this morning and I have enjoyed sleeping with the windows open and burrowed under blankets at night.
So again... Happy Birthday to me!
At church today, the services were a little shorter and the church threw me a small, birthday luncheon complete with party favors and a beautiful layered buttered cake with whipped cream icing and topped with fresh fruit like pineapple, kiwi, and peaches. I even blew out 23 candles!
I am much improved since the meltdown on Wednesday. School is going well and I have an ultra-short week because Tuesday is another national holiday (Autumn Equinox) and Friday is Sports Day so I will have to go to school, but I will not have to teach classes. The Mid-Year Seminar for all JETs only a few weeks away so I will be able to see all my friends again soon. I am very much looking forward to that ^_^
The weather here has gotten much cooler thanks to a "typhoon". I hear that Japan gets many of them and this one happened to be just a heavy rainshower. Arkansas T-storms are worse than what we had on Friday night. It rained a little more this morning and I have enjoyed sleeping with the windows open and burrowed under blankets at night.
So again... Happy Birthday to me!
Friday, September 19, 2008
"Hand and Foot" at Work
Of course I am not REALLY playing cards (or To-ram-pu as they say in Japanese) at school, but I try to keep myself entertained at the workplace.
So in the card game of Hand and Foot, each player needs 26 cards at the beginning of every round. The cards can be taken from any number of piles, but there is a catch. If a player can collect exactly 26 cards by calculation of weight, height, and "feel", then that player's team gets 100 bonus points that round. If both team members get exactly 26, the team gets 200 points. Thrilling.
So at work, I have to make a lot of copies... A LOT of copies... I may be responsible for the deforestation of Japan. Well, I use recycled paper at least but still... I have 523 students. Did you get that? FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE STUDENTS! And one, ONE, me!
There are 5 classes of sophomores, 6 classes of juniors, 5 classes of seniors. Of the total 16 classes, I have 13 of them, but only teach 12 times a week because two classes only meet every other week. ANYHOW! The point is 523 students in all, approximately 37-41 per class, and I have worksheets and word banks and gamecards galore.
So in the copy room, I play a little "Hand and Foot". If I can pick up the exact number of sheets of paper that I need for a class, I donate 100 yen (about 94 cents) into my arcade fund. There is a fun arcade on the 2nd floor of JUSCO (Japanese Walmart) that requires patrons to buy tokens to play the games and some are very addicting. My favorite game is the dinosaur-digital slots-push over piles of tokens game. One time, I got a jackpot of 500 tokens! I only paid for 45 tokens and felt that I got my fair share of entertainment from them so I shared my winnings with a lot of elderly people sitting around me who were cheering when I won. The tokens can be redeemed for prizes and I THINK that there is a "black market" of sorts to exchange the prizes for money. But I am too nervous to ask about that... I know they are around the Pachinko places (another story, another time, but certainly worth telling).
What was the point of this post? OH YEAH! Hand and Foot at work... so in the copy room...
So in the card game of Hand and Foot, each player needs 26 cards at the beginning of every round. The cards can be taken from any number of piles, but there is a catch. If a player can collect exactly 26 cards by calculation of weight, height, and "feel", then that player's team gets 100 bonus points that round. If both team members get exactly 26, the team gets 200 points. Thrilling.
So at work, I have to make a lot of copies... A LOT of copies... I may be responsible for the deforestation of Japan. Well, I use recycled paper at least but still... I have 523 students. Did you get that? FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE STUDENTS! And one, ONE, me!
There are 5 classes of sophomores, 6 classes of juniors, 5 classes of seniors. Of the total 16 classes, I have 13 of them, but only teach 12 times a week because two classes only meet every other week. ANYHOW! The point is 523 students in all, approximately 37-41 per class, and I have worksheets and word banks and gamecards galore.
So in the copy room, I play a little "Hand and Foot". If I can pick up the exact number of sheets of paper that I need for a class, I donate 100 yen (about 94 cents) into my arcade fund. There is a fun arcade on the 2nd floor of JUSCO (Japanese Walmart) that requires patrons to buy tokens to play the games and some are very addicting. My favorite game is the dinosaur-digital slots-push over piles of tokens game. One time, I got a jackpot of 500 tokens! I only paid for 45 tokens and felt that I got my fair share of entertainment from them so I shared my winnings with a lot of elderly people sitting around me who were cheering when I won. The tokens can be redeemed for prizes and I THINK that there is a "black market" of sorts to exchange the prizes for money. But I am too nervous to ask about that... I know they are around the Pachinko places (another story, another time, but certainly worth telling).
What was the point of this post? OH YEAH! Hand and Foot at work... so in the copy room...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
First Culture Shock Meltdown
If there is anything more that I wish I had learned in college, it would be the practical things. I do not think I should've been given a college degree if I can't do some minor maintenance things around the apartment such as how to fix a flat tire, what to do if there is a grease fire in the kitchen, how to change my oil, how to check the circuit breaker when the lights go out, etc. Maybe there should be some kind of Life Skills certificate that we have to get in addition to our degree. Not that I want to pay for more hours of college credit... but I think it's a necessary bit of knowledge.
For example, today, I came home earlier than usual because I worked REALLY hard during the day so I could come back to my apartment in time to watch the high-ranking sumo bouts in the evening. Everything is going great: I have my snack, drink, frumpy clothes, start the washing, put away the groceries i just bought and all those domestic things. I was even going to cook a dish for supper that my mom often makes at home: sausage and broccoli. You see... I WAS...
I used the bathroom before heading upstairs and I noticed that it's running a little longer than usual. Then I heard splashing sounds. Not the rushing water of overflow but the pitter-patter of droplets falling. This cannot be good.
And it's not.
Water is dripping generously from the top of the tank and pooling onto my WOOD LAMINATE floor!!! Normally, I would call my Dad but um, hello?, it's 3am his time and I doubt he would know exactly what to do either. So first thing I tell myself is not to panic. I go outside to find the meter thing and maybe find a knob I can turn to shut off the water. I find it, it won't turn, it's too tight.
So I kinda start losing it, the way I start breathing shallow and fast. I run to my neighbor's apartment and ring the doorbell. She is the wife of a fellow Nishiko teacher and as a mother, maybe she'd know what to do. Yeah right, but that small difference of life experience might be in her favor.
She's not home.
Now I'm really getting upset. It's not as though I can call a plumber here and explain to him that my tank is overflowing and I can't stop it. So I try to call my supervisor... and my cell phone dies.
Tears start pooling in my eyes.
Two ladies are coming my way, walking their dogs and I ask for help in Japanese and mime gushing water and they both come over to help. One of them, blessedly, knew a little bit of English and she managed to turn off the water from the INSIDE by using a key instead of a screwdriver. The ladies offered to help me clean up but I couldn't ask for more so I bowed many, many times and kept saying thank you. I then moped up the floor and tried to calm down; I must've been on the verge of hyperventilating because my head was getting fuzzy and I was in a mixture of laughing and pre-crying.
So I started ANOTHER load of washing and I noticed I have some mail.
It was a postcard from one of my Mom's classmate's, Ta-chan. She was considerate enough to write a short letter in the basic Japanese alphabet form so I could read it, but I couldn't fully understand it. As I read it out loud, I began to cry: a big, long cry, the kind you can't control and then start wailing and then the sobbing and funny gulps and hiccups that follow.
I suppose this is what culture shock does to people. That hopeless feeling that I'm not in control, even of the most simplest tasks. There I was on the tatami floor of my bedroom, leaning back against the bed, sumo blaring on the tv, and sobbing over a postcard I couldn't understand; a mixture of gratitude for someone being so thoughtful to write me, someone so kind enough to help me with the plumbing, and an overwhelming sense of lonliness.
Please do not misunderstand me; I am so blessed to be here and am enjoying myself. There are highs and lows and this is just an example of an intense low. Hopefully the weekend will be brighter as some other JETs are planning to see the Batman movie. It would be my 3rd time, but I need to be people and new friends who can understand what I'm going through so I'm willing to pay for that.
For example, today, I came home earlier than usual because I worked REALLY hard during the day so I could come back to my apartment in time to watch the high-ranking sumo bouts in the evening. Everything is going great: I have my snack, drink, frumpy clothes, start the washing, put away the groceries i just bought and all those domestic things. I was even going to cook a dish for supper that my mom often makes at home: sausage and broccoli. You see... I WAS...
I used the bathroom before heading upstairs and I noticed that it's running a little longer than usual. Then I heard splashing sounds. Not the rushing water of overflow but the pitter-patter of droplets falling. This cannot be good.
And it's not.
Water is dripping generously from the top of the tank and pooling onto my WOOD LAMINATE floor!!! Normally, I would call my Dad but um, hello?, it's 3am his time and I doubt he would know exactly what to do either. So first thing I tell myself is not to panic. I go outside to find the meter thing and maybe find a knob I can turn to shut off the water. I find it, it won't turn, it's too tight.
So I kinda start losing it, the way I start breathing shallow and fast. I run to my neighbor's apartment and ring the doorbell. She is the wife of a fellow Nishiko teacher and as a mother, maybe she'd know what to do. Yeah right, but that small difference of life experience might be in her favor.
She's not home.
Now I'm really getting upset. It's not as though I can call a plumber here and explain to him that my tank is overflowing and I can't stop it. So I try to call my supervisor... and my cell phone dies.
Tears start pooling in my eyes.
Two ladies are coming my way, walking their dogs and I ask for help in Japanese and mime gushing water and they both come over to help. One of them, blessedly, knew a little bit of English and she managed to turn off the water from the INSIDE by using a key instead of a screwdriver. The ladies offered to help me clean up but I couldn't ask for more so I bowed many, many times and kept saying thank you. I then moped up the floor and tried to calm down; I must've been on the verge of hyperventilating because my head was getting fuzzy and I was in a mixture of laughing and pre-crying.
So I started ANOTHER load of washing and I noticed I have some mail.
It was a postcard from one of my Mom's classmate's, Ta-chan. She was considerate enough to write a short letter in the basic Japanese alphabet form so I could read it, but I couldn't fully understand it. As I read it out loud, I began to cry: a big, long cry, the kind you can't control and then start wailing and then the sobbing and funny gulps and hiccups that follow.
I suppose this is what culture shock does to people. That hopeless feeling that I'm not in control, even of the most simplest tasks. There I was on the tatami floor of my bedroom, leaning back against the bed, sumo blaring on the tv, and sobbing over a postcard I couldn't understand; a mixture of gratitude for someone being so thoughtful to write me, someone so kind enough to help me with the plumbing, and an overwhelming sense of lonliness.
Please do not misunderstand me; I am so blessed to be here and am enjoying myself. There are highs and lows and this is just an example of an intense low. Hopefully the weekend will be brighter as some other JETs are planning to see the Batman movie. It would be my 3rd time, but I need to be people and new friends who can understand what I'm going through so I'm willing to pay for that.
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