日本のアパートへようこそ

Status report:
Still alive!
I've signed up for classes now. I'm in Japanese IIIa. The highest is VI, which is all chinese students. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Also taking some cultural stuff and one class that will be getting me out of the classroom and into the community, which should be exciting.

Got a tour of Machida city and campus. I did purikura, which I would describe as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That is to say, it's something that I'm only ever going to do once in my lifetime. And never again.

Next order of business: Observations.

1. I am an illiterate bumpkin.
Not that this is bad, really! It is exactly as expected. But still, it's a little humbling. Not knowing what's going on for four hours straight can be exhausting.
At least I knokw a little Japanese, so I can kind of fumble my way through more basic interactions. Just barely.

2. Japanese people hang out in cars for unknown reasons.
I seriously don't know what the deal is with this. I'll see a guy sitting in a parking lot, in his car, by himself, with the engine running. Just sitting there. Saw a guy watchign TV in his car once, and another guy sleeping in his. With the engine running!
Anyone know what the deal is here? It seems kinda wasteful.

3. Japanese restaurants have insanely fast service.
I've been to a number of restaurants here, including one italian food place. The food comes ridiculously fast! The kind of time that you spend chatting while waiting for food to come in a restaurant back home, is instead spent after you finish eating. It takes some getting used to.


And now: Photos!
Welcome to my tiny Japanese apartment.

This is the view as you come in. There's a tiny kitchen on the right and a tiny bathroomy area on the left, but that room back there is well over half of the total space.


The bed is not uncomfortable at all! Even with that tiny pillow. It's basically a western style bed, though.


The little box on the right is the washing machine, which I haven't had to muck with much yet (that's tonight). On the left is the mysterious, cryptic Japanese shower setup. There's no curtain! It talks to me! It talks to me!

Overall, the place really doesn't feel that small. It's about the same size as the dorm rooms back in Ridgeway, and I have it all to myself.

Next: I went to a local shrine today to do some photo-taking. This place is within walking distance of my house!

Here's the entrance. On your way out, there's a pair of messages written on the two poles, but I can't read them.


After entering, this is immediately to your right.


Here it is closer up!


This thing is to the right of that red building. I don't know what it is, aside from the fact that it's a list of names. Monks, maybe? I don't know!

All right, going in!

This fellow is inside the red building, on the right as you go through it. There's a similar dude on the left. He has a bow.




Near as I can figure out, the kanji on the pedestal means observance.


I think this is where you're supposed to drop money into it and make a prayer for good luck.

Someone gave one of them a mitten!

I dunno what this is. Some kind of things with writing on them have been hung up here. Prayers?
Well, there's a whole lot of these pictures, so I'm just gonna dump the rest of them here in pseudo-random order:














See you next time!