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Settling in

Posted: August 2nd, 2006 | Author: | Filed under: Japan | 10 Comments »

日本語の要約：成田に着いてから伊方へ出向いた翌日までの経緯。そのうち和訳も載せる予定。

When we last joined our hero, he was suffering through the Chicago pre-departure orientation. Little did he know (actually, he did know; it was on the schedule) that the coming days would be even more trying yet.

Having greatly enjoyed the privilege of paying to fly from Minneapolis to Chicago, I then was lucky enough to fly back through Minneapolis on my way to Tokyo. I had so much fun standing around, waiting 2 hours to check in, then waiting 2 hours for my plane, then waiting again on numerous other occasions, that the pilot of Northwest flight 19 to Narita decided to do me a favor and announce that the plane does not have enough fuel to make it to Narita; we had to stop in Hokkaido for 2 hours to refuel, and as a bonus they didn’t serve us breakfast. It was a win-win situation. Oh wait, no, it was the opposite of that.

We arrived at Narita at 7 PM. I got to my room at the hotel at 12 AM. What happened during those 5 hours I will leave to the reader’s imagination. (Hint: It wasn’t eating, sleeping, or having fun of any sort.)

The Keio Plaza Hotel is nice. It’s an exact replica of every other rich person’s power-tie board meeting fairyland business dollhouse / insular yuppie eco-dome in the world. Government-established mega-bureaucracies were the children; we were their dolls, err, I mean “lifelike humanoid playthings.” We played our parts by attending presentations that ranged from coma-inducing to somewhat-interesting-but-completely-unhelpful, such as “How to survive rural Japan.”

Yesterday I hopped on a plane and made my way to Shikoku, the smallest island (right testicle) of Japan. My boss, her boss, and her vice-boss were there to greet me. They’re all very nice, although I can’t understand about 80% of what my vice-boss-boss says. It was a whirlwind day of meeting dignitaries, getting into my apartment, and so much yakiniku that I felt pretty sick later.

My apartment is quite kick-ass. It’s got a separate kitchen, three rooms, and came completely furnished. My predecessor left me so much stuff I don’t know what to do with it. Thanks, Josh!

Today has been yet another whirlwind, this time signing form after form after form. Japanese people like forms. At my office for some reason mine is the only computer that connects to the internet via ISDN (8-10 KB/s average speed), but I’m looking at getting internet in my apartment too. The downside: It will probably cost at least $200 in setup fees.

10 Comments on “Settling in”

  1. 1 Unkie Paul said at 0:21 on August 3rd, 2006:

    Not only will it cost you $200-300 in setup fees, but you’re likely to have to wait 3 months for the “application” to go through and the “construction” to take place. At least that’s been my problem, making it impossible to move into our new apartment because I can’t work there. Fortunately, I had the in-laws get wired before we came, so now I get to enjoy (much in the same way you enjoyed your trip to Japan) the pleasures of extended 実家.

    Welcome back.

  2. 2 amake said at 2:28 on August 3rd, 2006:

    Yeah that will be totally awesome. Actually I’m going to beg the JET living below me to let me leech her connection via wifi.

    Good luck with your internet adventures!

  3. 3 R said at 8:54 on August 3rd, 2006:

    “How to survive rural Japan”・・・ってことは，ムカデの撃退法も含まれていたことでしょうね．とにもかくにも，無事着任，おめでとう！！

  4. 4 Molly said at 15:25 on August 4th, 2006:

    You couldn’t understand 80 percent of what your boss said? Remind me never to go to Shikoku! =) I’m glad everything is going all right for you. Have you battled any mouse-eating centipedes yet?

  5. 5 sakomin said at 15:44 on August 5th, 2006:

    Wow, you finally got to Ikata(←is that correct?). yey!! How’s the summer in Shikoku? Would you likely come to like it?
    Hope you enjoy a lot of things there! I guess you will master Iyo-ben(? I’m not sure though;->) soon.
    I’d like to see you who can speak Japanese dialect pretty well some day again. がんばってね♪

  6. 6 amake said at 21:31 on August 5th, 2006:

    Molly > My immediate boss is actually very easy to understand. The incomprehensible guy is old, and has false teeth, so it sounds like a different language.

    sakomin > そう、やっと着いたよ！　四国の夏は猛暑！　白人の僕には耐え難いものであります。伊予弁、がんばるよ

  7. 7 Danielle Kay Weeks ( your cousin) said at 6:27 on August 6th, 2006:

    HI Aaron! err Amake ^_^! Sounds like you’ve had a reallly tiring trip. Umm… when I tried to look up the word “yakiniku” it didn’t let me get the results- so what is it? Keep up da writing!-Danielle

  8. 8 Danielle Kay Weeks ( your cousin) said at 6:28 on August 6th, 2006:

    -Oh yeah I forgot to ask- is Amake your Japansese name? -Danielle

  9. 9 amake said at 18:23 on August 6th, 2006:

    Danielle > Sorry, the yakiniku link was broken; now it’s fixed. Yakiniku is what they call Korean barbecue in Japanese. Basically you get raw meat and cook it on a grill at your table. It’s one of my favorite foods in Japan.

    I got “amake” by combining the first syllables of each of my names. It’s not actually a Japanese name.

  10. 10 Danielle Kay Weeks ( your cousin) said at 18:27 on August 6th, 2006:

    sweet! ^_^

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