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

Sightseeing like a tourist.

We've had a houseguest for a week or so. Today we went to Nagoya Castle, a rather picturesque area that is (weirdly enough) on my way to work. The original castle burned down in WWII, so the castle there now is a reconstruction made from concrete. It's very pretty. On the top of the castle there are two big gold statues of stylized dolphins. One is male and one is female - the main difference is size. They're sort of the symbol of Nagoya - so most "souvenir" type things from Nagoya are either the dolphin, an onigiri with a tempera shrimp sticking out the top, or the Aichi-Expo 05 Characters. The giftshop had cute souvenirs - including a plushie cute gold dolphin.

The first picture is of one of the tower houses on the corners of the castle complex. The next two are of the main building itself, and then the last is... well. Me riding on a full-size replica of one of the dolphins (yes, you're encouraged). Why? Because, well... if I didn't, what would have been the point? ;) Unfortunately, I don't have many picture of the castle because photography wasn't allowed inside.

We also made a trip back to the orchid garden, and I got many beautiful pictures. Here are a few:

We also went to see the temple at Osu Kannon the other day, but none of my pictures came out. :( Maybe next time!

I also finally got a cell phone. It's uber cool! It's the basic, bottom-of-the-line phone from Vodaphone. But it's still really nice compared to the one I had in the states. It has a 1.6 mp camera on it... not great, of course, but nice for quick shots. And it has a macro. Weird. It also slides open, rather than flipping open. It does text messages, music, etc. It gets FM radio. And that's the el cheapo one. Fun for me!

My first earthquake.

We just had a short, sudden earthquake. It was really startling! And it took a a moment to place what was actually going on. Mandy and I were sitting on the floor, and then there was loud rattling from our doors and shaking. We were like, "What...." Leap! "Earthquake! Doorframe!" Turn off the heater, to the doorframe!

It only lasted maybe half a minute, though.

And like Mandy said, the Japanese were probably completely unfazed, whereas all the gaijin were like "Omigod!!"

EDIT: Well, maybe it was a middlish one. This is from the Japan Times online:
"TOKYO — A magnitude 4.4 earthquake jolted central Japan on Sunday evening, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the 6:59 p.m. quake. The agency did not issue a tsunami warning.

The quake measured 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Kani, Ginan, Kasamatsu and Yanaizu in Gifu Prefecture and Nishi Ward in Nagoya, Inuyama, Komaki, Iwakura and Oguchi in Aichi Prefecture. (Kyodo News)"

We are in Nishi Ward in Nagoya! Wow, our ward got mentioned specifically!
(Actual Article here.)

Lazy, lazy, lazy...

Well, my vacation is coming to an end here... and it has been wonderful just to be able to relax and do pretty much nothing. The prospect of going back to work tomorrow fills me with dread, though....

Mandy's Christmas presents from the States finally came yesterday, so we celebrated little Christmas by opening those things, and I also finally opened the gifts from my own family. Thank you Daddo and Judster for the jacket, and thanks Jude for the scarf. I was just thinking I needed a scarf, and now I not only don't need to buy one, but I have a furry one unlike anything in Japan. :) So cool. Thank you, Mandy's family, for the maple sugar candy and Gingerbread House kit. I will make the house soon, I think, and then I will post pictures. Thanks, Becklet, for the darling green things.

Here is a pic of the gallery o' Aimee green.

Since coming here, I've come to actually like raw seafood. Yesterday I got this powerful need for something yummy and aquatic, so I got this beautiful bento. It's raw crab on a bed of white rice, with lovely other things. I didn't eat the roe, though, I just can't stomach it.

And here's Mandylope. (If she's gonna post a pic of me, I'm gonna post a pic of her. So there. MWA HA HA HA HA....)

And a last parting thought:
Steak-flavored Doritos curls.
Don't knock it till you try it.

Wanna see something surreal?

Today we watched the ball drop in Times Square on CNN.
It was surreal because it was 2 in the afternoon here, with blue skies and sunshine.

Happy New Year again!

Long post for two holidays!

Well, my lovelies, sorry I've been neglecting to post.

I'll start with Christmas! Christmas Eve, Mandy and I chilled around the apartment and did some cleaning and last-minute gift wrapping. That evening, we went to the Orchid Garden (see previous post) and enjoyed the many kinds of orchids. It's kinda funny - everyone here treats me like they expect that I can understand Japanese, and Mandy like she can't. So the woman gave me a regular Japanese pamphlet, and Mandy one with English. I'm not sure if I'm offended not to get special treatment, or flattered because I must seem confident or something. Anyway. The garden was beautiful and there were so many kinds of orchid. Since it was Christmas, there was a special performance of some gaijin jazz band. They weren't bad, but they weren't particularly good either. And because of them, the lights were down low, so it was difficult to see the orchids. There were all a mass of chairs and people set up in the middle of the atrium, so we couldn't see a lot of the flowers. Still, it was really cool. I plan to go back during the day to get some better pics and all. They also had a pretty intense outdoor "illumination" display of Christmas lights. It was pretty, and seemed very friendly and familiar.

Everywhere we went, there were loads of young couples. In Japan, Christmas is a couples holiday, or a holiday for young children. They get into the whole Santa thing for children, and give giving for young children. But basically, the bulk of Christmas is for couples. So when we went out, the streets were full of couples going out for a special Christmas date. One of my students told me that on Christmas, young Japanese people don't even like to go out alone because they feel like losers. As he put it, on Christmas he "stayed home and felt devastated" and then went out to go skateboarding with his guy friends.

Christmas day, we both had to work early. Stupid company. Instead of being relatively dead at work, we were completely booked. Work seemed really long, but it wasn't horrible or anything. It was all relatively easy, I guess! Then we went home and opened our stockings to each other and presents. It was very fun. We had been just picking up all sorts of little things all month, so by the time we got to opening them, we didn't even remember half the stuff in them. We also got to open and play with our new Volks dolls, yay! I talked to dad on the headset and it was pretty cool, I got to talk to him while he opened the big box I sent them for Christmas. It's weird that midnight for us is about 10 am Christmas morning for New York.

Boxing day I worked in Sakae, which was kinda fun because I like the Sakae staff for the most part. They're all pretty pleasant, though they seem to have some unrest between the teachers, staff, ATs, ect. Which means that people are always complaining in the breakroom. That kinda annoys me, because one of the key complainers is very high-handed because he's been with this company (as a lowly teacher, I might add) for several years now. And the guy he was complaining about has never been anything but nice to me with a good sense of humor. Anyway, though, it's my last Sunday at Sakae for at least a month, as I'm going to be at another school on Sundays.

Monday and Tuesday were non-descript. Mandychu and I have

--midnight mark!-- Happy New year!

Anyway, Mandy and I have been enjoying the first few days of our break. Our schools are closed until the 6th of January, but our normal weekend days fall such that we don't have to go back to work until the 8th. It's glorious knowing I don't have to go to work tomorrow. ;) Life is pretty good at the moment, though it will be hellish the first day back! Yesterday and the day before, we took time to get prepared for the new year. Doing things like getting last minute shopping done, and buying groceries. We got mochi cakes! Everything, including banks, supposedly closes from January 1st to 4th. I'vebeen seeing a lot of thingssaying that stores will be open, but all of the banks will be closed for sure on those days. As will ATMs. They don't quite get the purpose of ATMs here, I feel.

Today we didn't even bother to leave the apartment, save tog et some milk at the convenience store. Have I ever written about the milk? It's kinda weird. Here, the milk has a much higher fat content than home. Their "low fat" milk is something like 2.5%, somewhere between American 2% and whole milk. Normal milk is about 3.7% fat. It's sort of like drinking half and half. I also think it's pasteurized differently, so it has a different flavor. It's not very good to drink, but it's awesome in things like pudding and Campbell's Tomato soup. Mmmm. It also makes good Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa. Anyway. Tonight's dinner was grilled cheese and Campbell's Tomato soup. It was lovely. We watched some movies, and then from about 11 o'clock on, we've been watching a Japanese variety show. The costumes are really pretty cool, and the music is pretty interesting. At 11:45, they sang Auld Lange Syne and shot off confetti thingies, and then after that they showed various shrines around Japan ringing their bells. They ring them 108 times for the sins of the past year.

At midnight, we drank Chanmery (children's champagne) and have been chilling since. :) It's taken me an ungodly long time to write this!

Oh, it snowed this morning! This is apparently very rare in Nagoya. A student this week told me that she went to Kyoto this week and say snow, and it was the first time for her to have ever seen snow. I'll bet she was shocked!

Oh, and Tatami Chicken says hello and Happy New Year!
Welcome, year of the chicken!