Journal lingqi's Journal: October 28, 2002 - nothing happend today at all! 2
October 28, 2002 (4:03pm)
Actually absolutely nothing to write about... heh... Today can not be any more "regular" as far as a workday is concerned - so...
But the weather was good. I was welcomed by a sunny morning, same bluebird skys and all that, only that it's getting notablly chilly now. I am sure the temperature outside at mornings may be as low as 5 degrees (40-45F) or so, and I am seriously considering one of those long-thermal underwears. (yeah yeah, i am sissy)
What is amazing, is that whilest I am going around and wondering if I should put on a second layer of pants, your everyday Japanese highschool students (girls anyway) are still trotting around in their reduced-length (about mid-thigh) skirts. Their devotion to fashion is very admirable. rediculous, stupid, and completely insane in some ways, but nontheless admirable. I wonder what they will be wearing when it get's REALLY cold. I hear the winter here is dry and windy (okay, no naughty thoughts boys).
Speaking of which - you will always find girl walking up stairs (train stations, mostly I have noticed) with one hand covering their butt. I assume it's to make sure nobody peeks (intentionally or otherwise) up their skirts from the behind. But that really gets you wondering... if it's this much trouble, why did they shorten their skirts in the first place? (comming back to that admirable devotion thing)
Heh... What I did not write down last night is -- actually, background story first:
you guys who know me (or even more unfortunate, lived with / near me) knows that I am about as messy as a... I dunno - I don't think anything terrestrial is as messy as myself. Pigs even, goes on their own little lives rolling in mud mixed with their feces, are probabbly more organized about their mud-puddle than I am at room-cleaning or file-organizing. (Again, to current and prospective employer, boss, significant other, and everyone who think they should be included in this list: I don't mean what I said. in fact, I am making this up completely - as is the next paragraph)
My room right now is full of bubble wrap, styrofoam, corrogated boxes, packaging tape, manuals, plastic bags, warrenty booklets, dirty clothes, clean clothes, all layed out in a post-nuclear sort of way. I have no trash bags and since I don't know what is recyclable and what's not - I have been organizing trash on my floor too (apparently certain trash need to be in clear bags, which I currently have none)...
Now -- remember I told you guys about the couple that came and gave me some gift (I havn't opened it yet - I was going to bring it to the company and have people think up proper return-gifts but did not do that today)... The guy was standing to the side, but his wife was pretty much dead-center toward my door. While I was having a three-sentence chat with her husband, I can see that she had this look of horror in her eyes as she looked into my place. I swear, I could have been breeding frogs and sacrificing goats in my apartment and she would have not looked any different (okay, i don't need any "virgin goat" jokes, in case anybody got a few thought up already). It's like she can not believe something like this can be considered a home, or at least not in this building / country (which, incidentally, I wonder about it (how I can be so messy) sometimes too) - and wanted to run away in fear that it would infect her somehow... It (her look) was funny every time I thought about it, actually - I can just imagine how she would cling to her husband afterwards and tell the horrors that she saw, and how she would never even want to be within a lightyear of my place, etc.
Sigh... really got to clean up the place. The good part is (to certain individuals, and specifically one person (who is not myself)) that there is no way in a billion years will a lifeform (girls especially) want to stay at my place. In fact I think I have seen a decline of insects too ever since I moved in... or they are just hiding under the piles of rubbish? (I am kidding - there were no insects to begin with - but if there were, I probabbly have scared them away anyhow)
Oh - and thanks to everyone who posted / emailed information / websites about trains and stuff - They are greatly appreciated and I will start using them to. If anyone can tell me what kind of trash styrofoam is, it would help a LOT.
speaking of trash: (in japanese it's called gomi)
I started writing some info about trash - but the more i wrote the more I realized that I had no clue what's going on... I will try to understand the trash pamphlet (and calendar) a little more and write up about it.
I got my insurance card today. My understanding is that with it, I can go and get a membership at XAX sportsclub (run by Konami - you know, the company that also did the entire Dance Dance Revolution line). It is somewhat far from my place if I want to walk (2-3km), but only a five minute walk from the mochida-station (it is one station away from kumagaya on the chichibu line, going toward Hanyu). I think I will stop there to check it out.
Will update later.
I have been looking at the mobile phones some more... the 3G phones (Foma, by NTT Docomo) might be capable of dual-network - which means that I can enjoy the lower call-rate of a FOMA phone, their data-availability (and speed - 384k vs 28.8k), and still have the mova (regular mobile phone) coverage area. It is tempting, but will probabbly cost a lot (maybe about 100 dollars per month)... Let's see. Any besides - since embracing upcomming technology will hopefully stimulate the consumer electronic industry (and in-turn the semiconductors and finally the capital equipment manufactures), It's another excuse I am using on myself.
Lastly, some junk info about yesterday's little trip:
The first station I arrived at was Gamo (Ga-mo-u), I walked around (west, north, east) and came back from the minami-koshigaya (south-koshigaya) station. As my understanding goes, minami-koshigaya station is a JR station, while the shin-koshigaya (new koshigaya) station is a Tobu station. They are literally right next to eachother - but as far as I know you cannot go from one place to the other after you get into the stations.
Where I wanted to go (instead of Gamo), was the misato station - which was about 8-10 km east of where I went. silly me.
on thermal underwear and digicams (Score:1)
skip the thermal underwear and just get a hat. Not a baseball cap, but a warm, fuzzy stocking cap... unless it's impolite to wear warm clothes.
(and I only wish it would be 40-45 degrees at some point during the day. cold sucks...*whine*)
it sounds to me like your idea to flee the states wasn't _that_ spontaneous; if I understand correctly, you already had a job offer when you were living in the states, and they're sponsoring your visa or something. Or, having made the decision to move to a place where you don't know the people or the language, did you look for a job from overseas? I only ask because if my master plan happens correctly, in about two years (I'm 20) I'll be financially secure enough to take an extended tour of the land of the rising sun, myself. I have already learned much from your journey. ^_^
oh yeah... way to turn your back on your home, you insensitive clod. here we take you in for ten years and you can't even be bothered to learn about who's on a killing spree or this or that. Hell, I've never been to Japan, and I know that one boy died there recently after falling off a roof where he and a friend were sneaking some beers.
Hehe.
About trash (Score:2)
If you go to your local city hall (shiyakusho), you should be able to find and/or ask for a pamphlet on how trash is divided in your particular location. Unfortunately, there's no single answer; it varies by location, depending mostly on how good the local trash incinerators are and whether there's a recycling program in place. If you can't find that information, you can always just bring a piece of styrofoam along and ask what kind of trash it is.
And yes, going to the city hall means you'll probably have to take a half-day off work or such, though you might be lucky and have one that's open late on one particular day of the week or has weekend hours.
As a last resort, just bag it all up and put it out on burnable trash day; if the trash people don't take it away, it's not burnable trash. (:
Also, and on a completely different topic--I don't know if anyone's pointed it out to you yet, but http://www.t-jikoku.info/metro/ [t-jikoku.info] is an excellent source (albeit in Japanese) of train timetables for the Kanto area, though it doesn't have a "norikae annai" (route information) system like some others do.