Journal lingqi's Journal: December 05, 2002 1
December 5th, 2002 (16:45pm)
Well yesterday's class was better than the first time, I think. My teacher decided that I will be using textbooks from the third grade. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. She also recommend me to read the japanese version of Harry Potter (there are no real japanese children's publications?). It's a sad, sad world, for sure.
Every time I take days off to do stuff, I always drop by the bank to convert some money to yen. This is because (again) that the bank only allows up to 2000 dollars per day for the said conversions.
However, at the airport you can get 10,000 (US dollars) or more (? I didn't understand what he was talking about), at the same rates. So remember to convert all your money at the airport if you have a lot of it. It will make life a lot easier (well, if the rate is good).
Installing the telephone was minimum-effort on my part. The guy came, hooked up a tone-generator* in the jack, and went outside to connect the phone line. Afterwards he came back, he checked the dial-tone and tried calling and recieving a call to / from his cellphone (of course, both worked) and confirmed the phone number. Afterwards he gave me a phone book (I havn't looked at it yet, but I will elaborate if I really run out of stuff to yap about), and he was free to go (after much bowing, etc, of course).
*note: tone generator does just that - generates an audible tone that you can hear if you had a detector. It's used to check which line is which on the other (more confusing, patch-box) end.
Japanese dial-tone sounds different from the US. Instead of the "click-duuuuuuuuu" sound it's a fairly high pitched "beeeeeeeeee." The busy signal sounds exactly like the dialtone except it's broken. It took me a while to realize that the said sound was the busy signal instead of the "waiting for answer" sound. The "waiting for answer" sound is similar to the US.
Speaking of which - I am not sure if I ever mentioned it, but Japan runs on 100V (which I think nobody else in the world uses) single phase AC. A even more depressing part is that western Japan (kyoto (äéf½)/ osaka (åé) and westward) runs on 60Hz (same as US) and eastern (Tokyo (æ±ä) included) 50Hz. Some clocks (like the bedstand alarm clocks) uses the electric signal as a reference so some clocks from the US won't work properly here in the eastern area. Although, the 10V - 15V difference is usually okay for a lot of stuff to handle (I will mention if I break anything).
It is said that originally western Japan bought generators from the US (60Hz) and eastern Japan from Europe (Siemens?) - hence this tormenting difference was forever set. Almost every appliance work in both frequencies (but things like microwaves have a different power-rating in different frequency zones).
Back to the subject of phones. I also asked NTT to come and check the B-Fletz (fibre-to-door internet access) installation. It turns out that it's more like "fibre to your room" (cool). Unfortunately, the phone pipes are already full (nowhere to pull fibre), and the landlord is obstinately against the idea of pulling it through the A/C hole (more on this later). I am in a rock and a hard place, and am seriously considering moving to a different place if ADSL and B-Fletz both cannot work in my place.
Moving is an expensive proposition in Japan. (I have been writing this so long I no longer remember if I mentioned something already or not) Most apartments, besides the usual deposit (æé') and whatnot, would require a "gift-money" or sometimes called "key-money" (ç¼é'). The latter is non-refundable, and former is usually deducted without mercy. There might also be another fee for the real-estate agent (non-refundable), but I can't remember so clearly anymore. Each is about one to two monthes of rent worth. I often read that it is impossible to find a place to live in Japan (on your own, that it) without some 5,000 dollars. I don't think it's that bad (especially here), but that's probabbly true if you want to live near Tokyo. The realestate market has been getting worse, though, so now apartment owners sometimes no longer asks for so much gift-money.
Another thing - I got my electric bill again. I used 134kWh this time, totalling a little over 3,000 yen. adding last month's (did not have to pay because I used too little. ha!) was just 12 yen shy of 4,000.
They said that the auto-debit (å£åæOEæ) is still in progress (æçsä), so I have to pay in post office / bank. The only problem was that on the left side of the actual reciept (top left will say "electricity usage amount information," or "éæ--ã"ä½ç"éã®çY¥ãã"), there is supposed to be a "payment reciept" which you should be able to stick into a "payment machine" at the postoffice (or even ATM in the bank?). I did not recieve this part of the bill for the last two monthes - and have no way to pay, hence wasting a trip to the post office.
I called the electric company and they will re-send the bill. I will update more on this later as the adventure continues. They said that the auto-debit process takes some two monthes, so the december bill will be paid by "paper" as well. It is strange since the gas company took less than a month. My inquiries was met by profuse apologies, and he did not seem to understand that I only wanted to know why, and was not reproaching him or his employer. (by the way - my gas company (Tokai - Tokyo Gas?) offers ADSL service. I mean, what the? I am all for branching into different markets, but from gas to ADSL?)
On the point of money and stuff - I think I already pointed out that withdrawing cash costs service charge if you don't do it at business (I think 8/9am till 5/6pm) hours. However, this makes life very inconvenient. My company (which I assume means many other companies too, for the same reasons) have an ATM downstairs where I can use to withdraw cash. It is an ATM from Asahi bank. The trick is that you actually have to apply (to the company) before you are allowed to use that ATM. The procedure takes a day or two. I tried the withdrawing - no service charge! Happy camper I am.
On replying to comment about learning Japanese and such:
1) I have said it already, but will repeat: please do not learn all your japanese from Anime films. They don't talk right. (Similarly, comics (manga or "æ¼ç"") also.) They might be good for listening comprehension, but cheap Anime usually have horrible english translations and matching japanese to english (when you are not fluent in japanese) may be hard. I am not quite sure how well translated the "official" releases are, though (too cheap to buy them: For example, my set of Cowboy Bebop DVDs costed me only 40 dollars). I know the badness of translation without knowing a lot of japanese by comparing the english translation to the chinese ones (which are usually better), since most cheap anime DVDs are for chinese (hongkong (é¦(TM)æ) especially, it seems) consumption.
2) There are japanese-pen-pal programs. I used to have some links but I have lost them now. However, please becareful. Since a lot of japanese do this pen-pal thing in order to practice up english - so there may be a conflict of interest that needs to be worked out.
3) I have listened to almost the entire set of the Pimsleur Japanese Programs (audio), and have found them to be excellent. The bundle consists of 3 levels with 30 (half hour) lessons each, and each set (level) comes with booklets on small facets of japanese culture. However, even after finishing level 3, don't expect your abilities to be *that* high - but for very simple stuff one should suffice, and they do a world of good for listening comprehension (really). Unfortunately they cost some 700 dollars for the entire set - but maybe your employer is willing to shell out for one? You can always buy / sell on ebay, as well.
4) Take the plunge and move to Japan. Many people do this and try to find job here as teachers of foreign language. The demand has been ebbing, but there is still demand. Though, from what I hear the pay is not the best and there are sometimes problems associated with this sort of things. Working at a place that has overseas subsidiaries and requesting a transfer (there is ALWAYS inter-cultural communication problems between multi-national corporations) would probabbly be a better way - and you will return to be that much more valuable to your company.
5) I heard that finding a significant other who is fluent in the language you intend to learn is very effective as well. I have not tried this method yet, so y'all are on your own. Beware, though - women and men still talk differently in Japan, to a degree. You have to be most careful to make sure you are not ending up talking like the opposite sex. While the "gaijin excuse" is potent, it's still better to avoid tapping its power altogether. At the mean time, dating for the sole purpose of learning another language might be a little of sinister...
Unfortunately I cannot give any constructive insight on Kanji (æ¼å--) characters - though I know for many westerners it is a source of great difficulty. I suspect I will have similar problems if I tried to learn Korean or Arabic, though, and if I ever try I will do my best to tell the tale.
Lastly on the "airc-onditioner hole" thing (part of the "japanese house" eductainment special):
A/C in Japan looks nothing like the ones in the US. There are no window-style A/Cs as far as I can tell. Furthermore, they don't really look like the central-A/C either, so...
However, the operation is pretty much the same as a central-A/C, only that it is not central. There are two units, one for outside and one inside. the outside unit is a shallow almost-square box. Mine, for example, is about 24"x24"x10"(width, height, depth - respectively). From this outside unit a line (probabbly freon) is pulled through a hole in the wall (hence the "air-conditioner hole") and connected to the inside-unit. The holes are sometimes (in my case) pre-made (in the room that does not have A/C).
The internal unit is short, wide, and mounted high on the wall. Mine is about 36"x12"x10"(again, whd). The air is drawn from the top/front and expelled from the bottom, direction of airflow is manipulated by some fins (motorized) on the bottom.
There is always a remote. You can set temperature, function (heating / cooling / de-humidify), and usually some simple (or on expensive models, fancy) timer functions.
Compared to the window-A/C units common in the US, these things are really, really quiet. The only drawback is probabbly that you need one in every room, and thay they are not portable. I know there are bigger ones that can cool a larger area / several rooms, but your cost varies accordingly.
As a per-room environment control apparatus, I think functionally it compares with the window A/C in the US. I must say that I like these better, by a long shot.
Apartment... (Score:1)
First of all, LOOOOVE your journal, stuff that no one else talks about
If finding/moving from apartments is such a hassle, how DID u find your current apartment? Did your company do it for you? Do you pay for it or they do? If you do, do you wish you could have asked them to find a closer place to work, cheaper, etc?