Getting a Phone and Transportation

Saturday, April 18

Now that I had a school, my next goal was to get my hands on a Japanese phone.  My poor Android was on its last legs, had a sucky battery, and certainly didn't have international coverage.  Since I was already in the market for a new phone, this sort of all worked out.  

AU was the service provider of choice (not really my choice, but what the heck do I know about Japanese service providers anyway).  Taylor and I made our way towards the nearest AU store, straight out the North exit of Mito Station.  

The view from the North exit 

Mito-chan is everywhere!  

When we got there, I was told that we needed my passport.  Like a dope I had brought every needed document BUT that one.  Welp.  After an unexpected trip back to my apartment, we sat down with an AU representative (who spoke excellent English, I might add) and he spent the next three hours helping us figure out a contract.  

Finally, at 5pm and with a shiny new phone and pocket WiFi in my hand (though apparently the WiFi wouldn't have coverage in my apartment for "a few months"), we left AU, exhausted by the exchange.  My bike would have to be bought tomorrow.  

A bunch of the AETs got together in the evening for dinner and karaoke, so I joined along (and in our quest for a burger place we totally crashed a swanky bar by accident).  Unlike my last karaoke session, my voice was absolutely horrible.  I had a fantastic time.

Sunday, April 19

I got my bike today!  Look how adorable it is!

It's called "Amour."  One of the other AETs owns a bike called "Pigeon."

It's a "mama's bike" style, with just one speed and ample room for baskets and carrying space.  Now they say you never really forget how to ride a bike, which I suppose is true.  But man, did I need some practice remembering how to balance and steer.  I have a bad tendency to drift while I'm riding and start grinding against curbs or bumping into trees (I also think it just has subpar steering.  I can't be THAT terrible with keeping my bike straight...right?).  

One cool thing about most Japanese bikes, though, is their kickstand (you can see it on my bike in the picture).  It's a rectangular bar that simply kicks down along the back wheel and pushes the entire back end of the bike up.  The stand keeps the bike resting completely straight, as opposed to tilting it to the side.  I haven't seen a bike fall down yet with this type of kickstand (unless it's pushed).  It's fantastic.  Why don't American bikes have these? (Or, if American bikes DO have these, then how didn't I know about them before this?)

Now that I had my bike, Taylor showed me how to get to my nursery school and Jr. High along various neighborhood roads.  Dai San Chuu is located along a quiet canal called Bizenbori.  It's such a different sight from home.  I'm glad I get to see it every day that I go to and from school.  

We then rode to Mito station and Taylor showed me how to use the bicycle parking structure there.  It's located just outside the South exit and looks like a small parking structure (with a notable bike icon on the side).  It's free to park your bike there for one hour and ¥150 (or roughly a buck and a half) to park there for the entire day.  If buying the one day pass, the older gentlemen manning the front window like to help you out with that.  Once the ticket pops out of the vending machine, they staple it to your bike.  The bike parking racks look like this.  You can park your bike on the first or second level, though I can imagine trying to get your bike up on the second level is a bit harder.

(I actually did this wrong.  I'm not supposed to park my bike in the slots with the others because of my huge rear basket.  I later found out that I'm supposed to park in a designated spot along the wall.)

We had Subway for lunch after a trip to the Daiso (the much beloved ¥100 store).    

Subway has potatoes.  And they pretty much make your
sandwich according to the menu, not really to how you want it.

Musicians like to sing and play music around the station.
This group was pretty good.

The North entrance of Mito Station isn't nearly as attractive as the South entrance.

Going to Mito 3rd Jr. High School

Friday, April 17

Today we were given our official Mito City contracts in a New Personnel Appointment Ceremony presided over by the superintendent of Souken, the superintendent of the building, and other Souken officials.  We practiced for the ceremony and learned the right steps and procedures (it required much respective bowing in the right direction in the right order to the right people).  The ceremony did not take very long, but it was very nice and official and in the end, we got our contracts.  We are now officially civil servants of Mito City.  That means we have to behave as proper adults when moving about the country, but it's not like I'm much of a delinquent anyway.  Just don't drink and ride your bike.  You won't be a civil servant after that.

We also learned how to introduce ourselves and say which schools we would be working at (we would be reciting this later in the afternoon when meeting our vice principals).  I have two schools:  Mito City 3rd Jr. High (commonly called Dai San Chuu or just San Chuu) and Shiraume Nursery (hoiksho).  The Jr. High will be my main school.  I will only be going to Shiraume on Wednesday mornings (starting mid-May).

Once we had our introductory spiel down, we went through a few of the offices at Souken and introduced ourselves en masse to a bunch of employees who probably had no idea what was even going on or who the heck we all were.  They were good sports about it, though.  I'm sure they were just as relieved as we were to see it end after all 20 of us tramped on through.  

When we went back to the sushi place for lunch, I got a bit daring and finally tried a food I had been hesitant to touch since I first heard about it.  

Natto.  

For people who have never seen or been in the same room as natto before, let me take a moment to describe it.  Natto is made of fermented soybeans.  It's a traditional Japanese food (Mito is famous for it) with an acquired taste.  Its texture and smell can be a bit off-putting to many foreigners (and even some Japanese).  It's very sticky and stringy and hangs from your mouth and chopsticks worse than gooey mozzarella cheese.  It actually reminds me a bit of how you can't seem to get rid of cobwebs or spiderwebs once you walk into them.  I might be describing this food unfairly (again, some people love it), but I could tell as soon as I saw it that natto would not be my favorite food (horrible pun, groan, whatever).

I popped the natto into my mouth.  "Actually, this isn't so bad," I thought for about two seconds.  Then it kinda hit me all at once.  Taste, smell, texture...it tasted like feet.  I really had to force that mouthful down.  Elena asked me if I was crying.  I said no.  I'm a terrible liar.  

Don't let it trick you into believing it's sushi.  It's not.  It's a lie.

Karina's face explains exactly how I feel about natto.

Near the end of the afternoon, we finally made our way to one of the lecture halls in Souken and got ready to introduce ourselves to our future superiors.  After a small orientation and our introductions, the vice principals (or kyoto-sensei) came down to find out which AET they would be taking back to their school.  I met my head English teacher, Ms. Hirotsu and my kyoto-sensei at the same time.  Hirotsu-sensei drove me to San Chuu (which is fairly close to my apartment) and guided me through the school up to the teacher's room.  I saw a few of the students along the way.  As soon as they saw me, their eyes lit up and they exclaimed, "Oh! Kyasarin-sensei!"  It was so exciting!  They actually knew who I was before I even got there!

The previous AET left a beautifully clean and organized desk. 

Dai San Chuu's front gates

A tiny intersection near the school with a park.

A view of the little canal that runs through the school's neighborhood.

When it came time to leave, I told Hirotsu-sensei that I would be able to walk back in the direction of Mito Station since she had given me pretty good directions on how to get to San Chuu in the first place.  I got back there with no trouble and took some time to walk around the station before heading back to my apartment.

Mito is famous for its natto.  Here is a statue to prove it.

Cherry blossom season is officially over.

Mito Station as seen from the other side of the Sakuragawa river.

Adorable turtle melon pan from the bakery in the station!

Souken Training-Part 2

Wednesday, April 15

Today we didn't go to Souken for training.  Instead, we were split up and shadowed other (obviously veteran) AETS at their schools in order to see what an average day on the job looked like.  Elena and I took a taxi to Mito 1st Jr. High and met Laura, whose day didn't quite end up going as she had hoped.  The only class she had ended up being cancelled, so we weren't able to actually observe her in her own class.  She did the next best thing she could, though, and had us crash a few other English classes, so we at least got to see how an AET interacts with a Japanese English teacher.  She gave us plenty of pointers and tips and explained how a typical day goes.  Although her schedule had gotten a little thrown off, it gave me a lot of insight on what to expect of a Jr. High school.  

Now I don't know whether I'm excited or nervous.

Thursday, April 16

Fourth day of Souken training.  I saw my first bento truck, so I thought that was kinda cool.

After a few hours of training, we played a game of Japanese culture Jeopardy.  I only got the Yokai Watch answer (the orange cat character) because Taylor had pointed out how popular it is with elementary school kids these days.  Yokai Watch characters are EVERYWHERE.  They're even more popular than One Piece and Pokemon (which are around 10-15 years old).  

Bradley Collier is our AET representative at Souken.
He coordinates with our boss, Hosoya-san, who is in charge of the AET program. 

Guys, if you see this picture and hate it, I'm sorry.  I think it's great.

Souken Training-Part 1

Monday, April 13

Monday began our first day of training at Souken, the educational government headquarters of the Mito School system.  In the morning, we had to meet first at City Hall, which is out the North exit of Mito Station and by the ruins of Mito Castle.  I actually woke up late (8am), so I had to hustle my professionally-dressed butt all the way there and make it by 8:30.  To my surprise, I covered the distance in 18 minutes (yay me and my short legs).  We applied for our Residence Card, then walked back to Mito Station and took the bus to the Ibaraki Prefectural Building stop to get to Souken.  The cherry blossoms lined the street almost all the way to the Research Center.  

Mito City Educational Research Center (aka Souken)

When we got into the Souken building and walked into the meeting room, we saw that there were books and packets at every table, each with an AET's name on it.  The binders held useful information about school life, life as an AET, how to communicate in basic Japanese, how to get around, various rules, and so on.  The bag with Mito-chan (Mito City's mascot) had a phone book (I couldn't really read it so that's what I assume it is since the pages were yellow) and a set of yellow and blue trash bags.

You might think trash bags are a bit of a strange thing to put in a welcome packet, but there's actually a very good reason for this.

The garbage system in Japan is very meticulous.  Everything is separated into categories:  combustible, non-combustible, PET plastic, and cans and metal.  Depending on where you live, you might even have to break it down even further, but apparently Mito is fairly lax about sorting the garbage.  Regardless, everything is sorted into various trash bags.  Yellow bags are for combustible (food scraps, paper, some plastics), blue bags are for non-combustible (such as glass), and cans and metal simply go into clear plastic bags.  PET bottles (which most vending machine drinks are made of) have to be taken to a specific drop-off site or placed in specified trash cans.  Luckily these can be found next to most vending machines and at convenience stores.  If something is simply too big to be placed in the bags, then you have to put a sticker of the proper color on it.  

As I later discovered, my apartment complex has trash pickup on different days.  Combustible trash is picked up every Tuesday and Thursday.  The others are picked up every other week on a particular day.  Every place is different.  My apartment complex has its own small dumpster for trash collection.  In other areas, it's common for trash to put out near the curb or on a street corner and covered with netting.  It's frowned upon to put trash out too early (sometimes even the night before is considered 'too early') due to the birds and vermin that will tear the bags apart and end up making a huge mess.

The entire system sounds like a bit of a hassle, but since Japan has very little trash floating around (despite the lack of trash cans to be found anywhere; I don't know how they do it), I guess it all works pretty well.

Ms. Haginoya made origami for each of us.

Another thing I found interesting: Umbrella Lockers.
This is a key that goes into a specified slot in an umbrella stand to keep your umbrella secure.
Souken has one at the front entrance.

The umbrella is locked inside the small slot until you put the key in to release it.
Guess umbrella thievery is a common issue.

After the first day of training concluded, Elena and I went back to Mito Station for dinner.  The station is lit up very differently at night and is quite vibrant even when it's not busy.  It makes for a very comforting landmark.

Tuesday, April 14

After arriving at Souken this morning, we went to the Ibaraki Prefectural Building in order to set up bank accounts at Joyo Bank.  While we were completing the process, each one of us was handed our hanko, a personalized seal that is used in place of (or along with) signatures on many major documents.  It would also be used to stamp my attendance book at my Jr. High School.  My name is written on it in Japanese katakana: kya-sa-ri-n.  

In katakana, my name is actually spelled: キャサリン ベルガラ (kya-sa-ri-n be-ru-ga-ra). 

The Prefectural Building also has an observation deck on the top floor.  Naturally, we had to check it out.  It was pretty nice.  You could even see the Mito Art Tower in the distance.

For lunch, we hopped down the street to eat conveyor belt sushi (my first official time this trip).  

I totally assumed the sushi plates were a free-for-all since I had been to this sort of establishment before.  So when I saw some plates rolling on by on these raised red dishes, I grabbed them thinking, "Oh, these are fancy!"  I realized a few minutes later that the raised red dishes were REQUEST orders from another table and that I had just stolen them (oops).  Mental note...if they look fancy, they're probably not for you (unless you ordered them yourself and the little screen starts chiming that your dish is on its way).

I won with the big stack on the right.

One thing I didn't realize about sakura blossoms is the mess they make.  I guess it's a really pretty mess, though.  When Taylor had said that we only had a few days left of cherry blossom season, I didn't know how right he was.  The cherry blossoms disappeared within the week and the trees lost all their shades of pink.

The Apartment and Ohanami

I took some time to go through my apartment on my own.  Besides the larger appliances, some other things were left behind as well...

A jar of change.  This actually proved to be very useful. 

A Japanese Collector's Edition of The Lost World.
Not as useful, but I'll probably watch it. 

This funky postcard of a hungry cat and a kayaker united beneath a rainbow.
Definitely not useful, but highly amusing.

The washing machine is super tiny.
Looks like I'll be drying my clothes on a line.

I'm set on dishes, cups, and silverware.
I'm gonna need a step stool, though.  It's hard to reach all the way up.

Conventional oven, microwave, and a random assortment of snacks.

The toilet seat is heated! That's gonna spoil me. 

The shower/sink area is pretty tiny.  Not a lot of space to put toiletries.

There was also an iron and ironing board, some laundry baskets, laundry detergent, a portable heater, a vacuum, an electric rug, some exercise and outdoor equipment, and a remote to the heater and AC unit that I couldn't read.


Saturday, April 11

I met up with Taylor for the day.  He introduced me to some of the department stores inside Mito Station (such as Excel) and what sorts of commodities can be found there.  Besides the usual fashion and appliances, there are plenty of food places within and around the station and even at the higher levels of department buildings.  Convenience stores can be found at either exit of the station.  There's a grocery store down in Excel's lower level.  Mito Station is my central hub for pretty much anything I need.  Besides Bradley Collier (the AET consultant) and Taylor, I'm the closest AET to the station.

Mito Station's South Exit

A Ghibli store inside Excel

Adorable Snoopy and Belle cake at Baskin Robbins

After exploring the station for a little while, Taylor invited me to a lunch that a friend of his was putting together--an ohanami, or "flower-watching" picnic.  During cherry blossom season, a popular activity is to eat lunch beneath the sakura trees and admire and enjoy the blossoms.  Despite the last few days of gloom and rain, it looked like sun was on the forecast for the afternoon.  

The two of us made our way out of Mito Station's North exit and walked towards City Hall.  

Every city seems to have their own unique manhole covers.

Pale pink sakura blossoms could be found almost everywhere.
Taylor said that we only had a few more days left to enjoy them.  

I became very good friends with Noriko (in the yellow scarf) and Mie (center).  

My first taste of Japanese beer.  It was actually pretty good.

Homemade apple pie!

I gave Taylor's friend, Chisato (in the beige turtleneck) a California Adventure pin as a thank-you gift.

After the ohanami was done, a few of us decided to go karaoke for a few hours.  Round after round of drinks made it a very entertaining session.  My voice decided to be kind to me for once and I managed to belt out a few songs after I had warmed up.  I knew I was scoring some points when I was requested to sing the Titanic theme song.  

My karaoke fan club.  These guys were great.

Near the end of the evening, takoyaki was ordered.  Normally I wouldn't have given much thought to that, or the fact that there were 15 pieces of takoyaki on the plate.  This ended up being a game.  There are usually only 12 pieces of takoyaki in this situation.  The extra three had wasabi in them.  I was fortunate enough not to pick any of those.  Taylor ended up with one, but he downed it like a champ (he also likes wasabi, so that worked out in his favor).