Real Life

This story was going to be about baseball. I had a great time at the Tokyo Dome watching the Tokyo Giants play the Lions of Some-Name-In-Kanji and it was far different than any other baseball game I had ever been to. I even got to see my friends Brian and Alyssa. But I’m not going to write about it. I was even going to tell a funny story about the game. Here’s why:

I had my Word Document open to start writing about baseball, I even had the title picked out, but I remember I needed to get my laundry. Last week I had asked one of the other guys living here to teach my how to use the washing machine—he did and it was very simple. Just two buttons I needed to push. Well, I went down to get my laundry after starting it an hour before, and the water was FULL in the tub and the machine was off. My clothes were soaking in a full tub of water. I didn’t know what to do. I went and got someone to help me, and he thought I put too many clothes in (I didn’t put any more than last time) but I removed some clothes and put another 100Y into the machine.

So I’m sitting here as the Japanese guys is talking to me, and I’ve got about 6 articles of clothing (including a towel) that I’m wringing out in the shower because they are soaking wet. Well, we’re talking and I’m grumpy because my clothes are so soaked, and my hands start to hurt. I realize that the water was full of the detergent (I wasn’t on rinse yet) so I go to the sink and start rewashing the clothes I pulled out. The Japanese guy introduces me to his friend and we begin having a threeway conversation as I wash my clothes in the sink. It turns out they want to go to the bar this week, and even though I probably shouldn’t, I’ve never go out with Japanese people by myself—I really want the experience of doing it without any Americans to “fall back on”. Basically by messing up my clothes (the rest are still washing as I type) I got to make plans for doing something that could be potentially awesome.

My Japanese teacher that I really like from Middlebury is coming tomorrow, and all the Middlebury students are going to meet him for dinner. I will be the first time I talk to him since language school (Takahashi Sensei) so I’m pretty excited. Other than that, work is going well, I work really hard all day long, but I’m enjoying it. I wake up and I don’t dread going to work. I usually don’t like getting up early to go to class or whatever, but I get up around 8 am every day and it’s been fine so far.

There is a little dog next door, however, that is ruining my morning. In Japan, there are no dogs bigger that a football and this one next door is a real yapper. It barks all morning long, making it impossible to fall back asleep in the morning. It also barks at me when I walk by it in the morning. Not saying I would, but giving its size, I bet I could punt the stupid thing a good 30 yards. Oh well. I think I heard my washer go off. Now I get to figure out where to hang my clothes. No clothes pins like last time, I have this weird hanging device that will probably do the trick.

I”ll try to post to pictures later.

Okay this is gonna turn into a mini double post, but I calmed down and I’m going to write a few observations about the baseball game. One, I brought in TWO beers and tons of food to the game. When the guy checked my bag, he saw the two beers and said something to me and pointed to a corner. I figured he told me to throw them away, so I walked over to where he pointed. Instead, they had a line of ushers who offered to pour your beer from your can into a cup. Then had all these tools to make sure it was a really good pour. I couldn’t believe it—not only did the let me bring in beer (which lost them revenue because I would buy a beer from them) they also paid for cups and ushers to enhance my experience—which didn’t cost me a thing. This was amazing. By a measure of comparison, the guy poured my 500ml can (it’s larger than a regular “can”, about the size of an Arizona Ice Tea) into a tall cup and had about 2 inches of room before the top. Later I poured my second can into the same cup, and had so much foam that I had to wait for it do die down when I still had half the can to pour. These guys were pros.

The game was pretty cool. The fans were amazing. Chanting, cheering, and screaming the entire time. There were cheerleaders between innings (this was a rumor beforehand), and there was even a few homeruns. The home team (Giants) where losing 4-1 in the bottom of the 9^th but managed to get within one run, with a runner on third, before losing. After the game it was the most crowded walkway ever—just about a billion people walking to the nearest train station. A very uncomfortable ride home. Anyway, I’ll try to put up a picture of Brian, Alyssa, and me if I can get a copy (we asked a random person to take it for us) but in the mean time, I’ll put an old one of us up, from last year’s language program so you can have an idea of who I went to the game with.

Brian, Alyssa, Brian

This is a picture from just about a year ago to the day. The three of us met up this past weekend in Japan and went to a baseball game.

Washing Machine Trouble

I'm clearly not loving the washing machine. My first picture was gonna be me flipping the washing machine the bird, but that would have been too crass.

Welcome to Japan!

Well, I’m back in Japan and I’m getting used to working instead of studying/playing. I’m enjoying my work, even though I’m pretty busy all day long (for example, today I got on the train heading to work at 9:13am and I got on the train to come home after dinner at 9:13pm).

My work at Japanesepod is basically re-organizing the older podcatsts. I’m currently working with the old “Beginner” lessons and trying to turn them into a curriculum. It’s a huge task, but I have a lot of input (I’m pretty much organizing it how I would do it) so it’s very interesting. Plus, I’m listening to podcasts about Japanese for pretty much 8-9 hours a day, so I’m improving, little by little.

Our office is pretty small; we located on top of a cell phone store (5 floor) in downtown Akasaka (across the street from a large shrine), which is the main business district of Tokyo, right in the heart of it all. We share floor space with a translating company, and our section is “walled” off by a row of tall plants. There are a handful of other interns, and a total of about 12 people working for Japanesepod. At any given time, though, there are about 8 people there (others either are only work night/morning; are in the recording studio; or only working part time).

On Tuesday, everyone was going to be there for the whole day, so we needed to reorganize our desks to fit everyone. Peter, our boss, spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out the best way to move the desks—everyone had their own opinion until he finally said, “We don’t need 4 people trying to figure this out.” We ended up moving the desks so that 4 desks “faced” each other, because this way there was the most space for people to sit.

Yesterday, when we came in, the boss of the other half of the room (the translation company) came over to express a concern. This guy’s name is Robert and he’s Polish, but he speaks Japanese, (everyone else in his company is Japanese, and he speaks Japanese all day long) English, Polish, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean. Anyway, he comes over and speaks to Peter in hybrid English/Japanese and explains that the company boss (the guy who owns the 5 floor and the 6 floor) came by the day before and saw the new arrangement of desks and insisted it be changed. Unbeknownst to Peter or anyone else at Japanesepod, it is against company policy to face away from the shrine. We explained this was the only formation where everyone could have a desk, but they literally wouldn’t let our desks face each other. When I came in today, the desks had all been rearranged in a more “feng shui” appropriate style. Our business was actually interrupted because the most productive way to form our desks was “disrespectful”. Welcome to Japan!

Neighborhood

This is around where I live.

bathroom

The sink/toilet combo. We all share the bathroom, but that doesn't seem to be a problem because no one is ever around.

Desk

When I put my chair next to my bed like in this picture, I make my desk. There's no place for my legs though. . .

Chair

This is my chair. It's on my bed in this picture.

Closet

This is my storage. I have lots of storage in my room. I actually wish I had less and instead my room was bigger.

Room

This is my room. My bed is the white thing that takes up most of it. There is a tiny tv, and I leave it on when I'm home to practice listening. At the moment there is a very odd talk show on, but what else is new.

Back in Japan

I'm back and I'm putting up pictures.