Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Aimee's Journal

Hello from Japan!

I am here! (click thumbnail for balcony view)

The flight were long... but not horrible. Happily, we both popped sleeping pills and managed to sleep for about 6 hours of the longer flight. We got out of Vancouver about a half hour late and never made up the time; by the time we got to Osaka, we were about 45 minutes late. It was about 4 o'clock pm Japan time, so about 20.5 hours later than when we left! Long time....

After we went through a very very quick bit in customs, we hopped onto the shuttle train to go to Shin-Osaka, the bigger trainstation where we would catch the Shinkansen - the Mighty Bullet Train! The Shuttle train was neato, though. It was very very clean. It had been coming from one way, and Mandy and I looke din and were like "Man, we're gonna be riding backwards...." Then all of the sudden... the rows of seats swivelled around! Small thing, but it was very cool.

The Bullet Train is neat to. It had a lot of cars... and we walked through most of them because the first 10 or so are reserved seating. We had open seating in cars 1-5. But of those, only three were non-smoking (the smoking ones were gross just to walk through, yuck!). The train itself was very clean and not very crowded - the seats were comfortable. It was hard to believe we were going something like 160mph. In Nagoya (Na-go-ya) Station, we were met by our landlord, who took us back tot he apartment.

It's a nice apartment. It's big enough, though the rooms are verynarrow. The one bedroom is too claustrophobic for either of us, though, so we've moved both futons into the bigger room. The futons were an adventure in themselves, because they're basically a pile of mats and bedding that somehow go together. I stilldon't think we have them right because we have nothing to use as a reference. However, the night is warm and thye're basically acting as a barrier between us and the tatami mats. The tatami (ta-ta-mee) mats make the floor softer and the rooms more fragrant. They sort of smell like alphalfa. I think it's pleasant, though Mandy says they make her feel like a hampster. ;)

We had Easy Mac for dinner - I packed it in my carry-on. :) It's not much, but it was enough to fill me up for the night. My body is soooo confused on the time right now! It doesn't help that it gets dark early around here....

Our apartment is very different - everything is gas powered, like anything with hot water. The toilet is delightfully Western. Our landlord, Taka, showed us how to use everything, and we have instructions in a little handout on our coffeetable. Oh!! Surprise good news! We have a couch! We weren't supposed to....

One thing remains confusing. The toaster oven. The first settling is "toast" ("to-su-to") the second is cookies, I think ("kukkii") and the third..... rubber nipple? Any guesses?

View image

I'll take pictures tomorrow when it's light out.

Posted by Aimee at September 22, 2004 11:44 PM