Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Earthquake? What Earthquake?

According to my housemate and the Sunday evening news, an earthquake shook Tokyo on Sunday afternoon. Now, before we go any farther, one has to understand that I am terrified of the idea of an earthquake. I am sure it comes as a result of growing up in Iowa. Not much experience with earthquakes there.

Anyway, while one of my housmates and I were out shopping on Sunday afternoon, we discussed earthquake preparedness. She's from Seattle; she has experience. We discussed having an emergency kit and a plan for what to do if a big earthquake hits. She told me what not do do (i.e. run down the stairs), and the best places to be in our house. While she spent all day reassuring me that an earthquake is not near as horrifying as it sounds, we left our other housemate home by herself. So, as we arrived at our doorstep, she met us at the door, frantic.

"DID YOU FEEL THE EARTHQUAKE????"

We thought she was kidding. We thought she could read our minds. We thought she heard us talking on our way to the house and wanted to give us a hard time.

It turns out, according to my housemate and the Sunday evening news, that an earthquake registering 5.1 on the Richter scale rattled houses and stores in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon. As my friend and I planned how to keep me calm in the midst of a terrifying ordeal, one happened and I missed the whole thing. At 4:05 pm I was inside a department store called Tokyu Hands near the busiest train station in the world. No 5.1 buried deep in the earth was going to make us notice. It didn't reach that far into town, anyway. I talked to other J-3 missionaries who also missed it because of where they were in Tokyo at the time. Missed it completely. ...

I am terrified of earthquakes....

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Japanese Lesson

A couple requests have come in for Japanese lessons. Let's start with the easy one. "Coffee" in Japanese is kohi (proncounced ko, long O sound and hee as if you are laughing). Kohi. Now, as for, "Keep up the good work," which was a request in a letter I got from Madison ... well, I'm still working on that one. I guess one could say, hai which means "yes." I'll keep you posted on that.

See, I'm learning something!

:)

Monday, October 10, 2005

Food (Mis) Adventures

Sometimes I feel like I don't have much to say about Japan ...
I think that means it's become home. I never have exciting
things to say about home. But every day I wake up and I know
this is one extended adventure! For example, how crazy is it
to watch sumo wrestling on tv? Or to go to the grocery store
and not know what I'm buying?

Food in Japan is always a surprise. Everytime my housemates and
I think we know what we're buying, it's something completely
different. For example: My housemate bought a bag of candies and
sweets. Inside almost every one of them was a sweet bean concoction,
either jellied or creamy. Really, it's not a bad taste once you get
used to it (at least the creamy stuff, I don't like the jellied version).
However .... it's the same color as chocolate. So, you can guess how
that went over. And this story is funny now: my housemates bought
a parfait-thing at the neighborhood convience store. Looked like
whipped cream and chocolate pudding. This time, the "chocolate"
was coffee jello. Coffee jello. Now, I love coffee more than anyone
in this country, but I can not grasp the concept of coffee jello.
Japan loves coffee jello.

I just don't get it.

There's a truck that drives by every now and then playing music and
smelling of inscense. He sells baked yams (like an ice cream truck
sells ice cream). Oh, and speaking of ice cream trucks, there is a truck
that we hear sometimes that sounds exactly like an ice cream truck,
but for the longest time we couldn't figure out what it was. Today I
heard it coming and I ran to the window to find out what the mystery is ...

...drumroll please ....

It was the garbage truck. Can you believe it? I nearly fell down from laughing so hard.

The food (and non-food) adventures continue.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Almost a month

It has been almost a month since I got on an airplane and set off on this grand adventure. It sometimes seems like years, while other times, I feel like I just got off the plane yesterday. My Japanese at this point consists of, "Excuse me," Thank you," "Yes," "No," and "Coffee." Half the time I can't remember how to say please or hello, though I know I have learned them. I am really good at saying "excuse me." It's an all-purpose word, and I make my way through stores and trains and the post office saying "Excuse me, thank you." I am sure I am a funny sight. Our language training has started, so I hope to be able to communicate with the people at stores and the post office soon. For example, when I buy groceries, I know that the cashier will ask me if I have a card from the store, so I know to wait for the question and say no. However, if anyone else asks me the same thing, I probably wouldn't understand it. I'm sure the people at the post office flinch when they see me come in. "What kind of trouble is she going to cause today?" they ask themselves. One time, I had to buy a money order, and the woman had the hardest time trying to ask me if I wanted to send it myself or have the post office take care of the envelope and stamp. That was difficult. Mailing a box home was fun, too ... the man kept asking questions and looking up words in his dictionary, while I just smiled. What else is there to do? It took a bit of doing before I relaized that I was supposed to detail what kind of food I was sending, not just that I was sending "food." Tomorrow I am going to try to transfer money into my bank account at home. That ought to be interesting. Wish me luck!

My housemates both have digital cameras, so they have lots of pictures I hope to post on the web soon (as in, within the next month). Be on the lookout for them!