The service in Japan is something else. When we were in the hotel we were constantly impressed. I had a sore throat and I went to the CLAIR office and asked for a lozenge but all their lozenges had medicine in them so they told me to ask the hotel staff. The lady we asked took us down to the 2nd floor to the Convienience store and picked out the lozenges for us. And then picked out chap stick for another girl.
Then when we came to Ichinohe and the gas station attendant actually went out into the road to stop traffic for my supervisor to get out. Not that there was any traffic anyhow.
Ridiculous!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Okawabachi
That's the name of my district. It's really small. I originally thought there was only one blinking street light, but I have so far uncovered 3 on the main road. I've taken to running each morning and moreso than excerise it's become a way for me to meet the people in the neighbourhood. It's so funny how they react. Today I almost kill a teenager. Most people I meet just say "Ohayoo gozaimasu." Good morning. Sometimes people like to pretend they don't see me and look up in the sky. So this group of teenagers was walking by, pretending not to see me and this gurl is looking up in the sky and tripped over a rock. It was funny as hell. Took all my willpower not to laugh at the poor thing but her friends sisn't hold back at all.
My district is pretty small. There's a minimart on my corner which we never succed in buying anything from, because we can never find the person who works there even though the store is open! We live about 20 minutes walk from a shopping complex with a home store, stationery, flower shop, grocery store etc. It's not that far but you have to plan your shopping really well, because you've got to walk 20 minutes with it, so I never take more than I can put in my backpack. The library is on the same compound. I have so far borrowed two books, children's books in Japanese. My Japanese is coming along slowly. The library is cool, because you canalso borrow tapes and DVD's. Promise to try the DVD's and see if any have English voice or subtitles. You can also use internet there.
There's a train station to go out to Ninohe, the neighbouring city/town. I haven't gone up there yet, although the other two ALT's have. We have Obon from tomorrow. Three days off for summer. So maybe we'll go out there or out to Hachinohe, which is an even biggeer city. Next week is two-day Morioka Orientation, so we get to go back to the capital. The BOE is only sending us down the same day and bringin us back up the same night so we only have the first night to run around Morioka. Oh well. Free trip from nowhere land.
Actually I don't mind nowhere land too much. Living sooo far from the grocery store means I don't overspend on groceries and having not much distractions means I have lots of time to study Japanese. My Japanese really sucks!!!! But not for long!!!
My district is pretty small. There's a minimart on my corner which we never succed in buying anything from, because we can never find the person who works there even though the store is open! We live about 20 minutes walk from a shopping complex with a home store, stationery, flower shop, grocery store etc. It's not that far but you have to plan your shopping really well, because you've got to walk 20 minutes with it, so I never take more than I can put in my backpack. The library is on the same compound. I have so far borrowed two books, children's books in Japanese. My Japanese is coming along slowly. The library is cool, because you canalso borrow tapes and DVD's. Promise to try the DVD's and see if any have English voice or subtitles. You can also use internet there.
There's a train station to go out to Ninohe, the neighbouring city/town. I haven't gone up there yet, although the other two ALT's have. We have Obon from tomorrow. Three days off for summer. So maybe we'll go out there or out to Hachinohe, which is an even biggeer city. Next week is two-day Morioka Orientation, so we get to go back to the capital. The BOE is only sending us down the same day and bringin us back up the same night so we only have the first night to run around Morioka. Oh well. Free trip from nowhere land.
Actually I don't mind nowhere land too much. Living sooo far from the grocery store means I don't overspend on groceries and having not much distractions means I have lots of time to study Japanese. My Japanese really sucks!!!! But not for long!!!