Nicole's Adventures in Japan

Monday:
My Apartment is currently 72 degrees. Very nice and comfortable it was such a nice day after school today, I went for a short bike ride, but got a little lost looking for the river my friend told me about and decided to head home before I got any more lost. And since you are now reading this you know that I have since found my way home. I know I am basking in the beautiful sunshine, however I do worry a little about the humidity that will come later this year.
Tomorrow will be a slow day at work it is called health day and at this point you know just about as much as I do. So needless to say I will fill you in when I know more. With all this nice weather and not so nice weather I am getting better at riding my bike, however my shins still show some evidence of needing to get better. When it does rain all these very talented Japanese people are able to ride their bikes and hold an umbrella all at once. I have not mastered this trick yet so when it rains my new rain jacket does a very nice job for the to half, but I have had some very wet pants two mornings last week. Absolutely drenched. Crystal (other female teacher, teaches at JR. High) and I have agreed that while we might get wet on our bikes we don’t think we would be any better off walking or walking and standing to catch the bus to school. So for now I will stick with riding my bike.
Tuesday:
Well as it turned out they didn’t need me to help so basically I hung out in our English Teachers Office working on lessons for next week and chatting with people. So since I didn’t help I am not sure what all health day includes. I think it is like a health checkup, since they have socialized health coverage in Japan. It is a pretty slow week so far!

I hear that there has been some not so nice weather back home even some snow. I can't believe it. The weather has been really nice and this weekend was the best weather that we hav had since I got here. It was in the low 70's. My friend Crystal who works at the Jr. High and I spent the day riding our bikes and walking around Nagoya.
It started as a search for a parade to celebrate Princess Haru and if google were working I would give you all a history lesson. However our internet at school has been on the fritz and I don't have internet at home yet. So you luck out no history lesson, or you could go look it up for yourself. As we were searching for the Parade we wondered over to Nagoya Castle in search of more information about the Parade. On this occasion we decided not to go into the castle, but walk around the castle. It is a beautiful walk and I got my fix of all things green and beautiful. Part of the walk had trellises covered in wonderful smelling Lilacs. It is spring here and many of the flowers are in bloom. I got some great pictures here is one of my favorites.

Another picture I took was of three TV towers. There are TV towers everywhere, and they are not hidden at all, they seem to be part of the culture.

After walking around Nagoya Castle, we made another attempt to find the parade. We did find it and it was really interesting. You knew it was coming because there was a a lead police car. Our parades take up the whole street and they get blocked off, not so here. Actually it is only one lane of a very busy four lanes one way street. People don't wait around like for our Rose Festival Parade, but it is very impromptu they just kind of stop to watch as it comes along the street. The costumes and the dresses were very beautiful. The Princess of the parade was very beautiful. At the end of the parade there were a bunch of girls doing a dance routine it was really cute some of them were really young.
The Parade was really cool and Crystal and I had fun wondering around. Actually before making it to the a Castle we ran into an Earth Day Celebration, in the park way. There were a lot of Japanese Hippies, it reminded me of Portland and our Saturday Farmers markets.

On my first real attempt at cooking in my kitchen I discovered that, apparently using my one electric burner, microwave, and toaster oven all at once does not agree with my apartment. ( I might even have had the electric tea kettle going) The power had the audacity to go out. Fortunately for me I remembered to pack a flashlight and I even managed to remember where the safe place that I put it was for just such and emergency. As I had only once used the breaker to turn the electricity on the day I moved in it took me a minute to find the breaker and switch it off and on again. I know you are all thinking my apartment isn't very big and how can I forget where such and important thing is well, of course that is because it was nearly in front of my face and it I were a bit taller I would see it every time I walk to the bathroom. Well in any case I now know where it is and I know that having all three appliance going at once is something that ought not to be attempted. I was trying to cook spaghetti.
It was quite a balancing act to try and have it all warm at once. First I cooked the 1/4 of pound of beef that cost me $3.00. Then I added the spaghetti sauce $3.00, and a can of diced tomatoes $2.00 to stretch the spaghetti sauce a bit further. Then I heated all that together while in the Electric hot water pot I boiled water so I could poor it into a 2nd pan when I was done with the sauce and cook the noodles. In the toaster oven I had a piece of bread with butter that I was toasting to go with my salad I had made first. Cooking in my kitchen requires some planning. I makes me think of Grandma Bee trying to cook for all of us in her Motor home.

This one is probably going to be on the short side. Mostly I wanted to give you an idea of what my apartment looks like. So I took a video of my apartment. I apologize if anyone gets seasick watching it. I tried to move slow and capture the apartment as quickly as possible so the download of the video wouldn't take forever. Well after two weeks I am finally in my own place and it is slowly starting to take shape. It is hard finding a balance of making a place livable for a year without spending a small fortune. So far I haven't spent much, but it isn't quite home yet. Finding a place for all my clothes you saw on the floor is my biggest challenge. I have no drawers only a hanging rack so far. However, there is another small obstacle of Buying things, I have to carry what ever I buy to my apartment. No car and getting a Taxi can be an interesting proposition. As I found out when I moved my luggage and some other apartment supplies from the apartment I started in because my current one hadn't been cleaned. It took about a week. I think they used some kind of chemical that took time to dissipate because my a place still kind of smelled when I moved in. However with all the nice weather we are having I have been leaving my back door open to let in the fresh air. Don't worry Grandma I lock it at night and when I leave. Plus I am on the second floor making it difficult to access, especially when your hands are full of groceries or housing supplies. No actually my hole in the wall is growing on me. Here is the video

Hey Everyone,

Well since last writing, I have learned a lot. It is still very overwhelming

Bike riding- there are no rules, as you can see in the picture there are lines on the sidewalk and markings for pedestrians and bikes. In Japan cars drive on the left side of the road like in England and Australia. So one might think that bikes and people would walk on the left side of the sidewalk. However this is not true, from my brief experience there does not appear to be any rules that are strictly followed. It is very crazy and at times a bit frightening. Just the other day I was biking down the sidewalk headed home from school when two kids about 6 or 7 darted out of the building I nearly ran them over. I can’t believe more people don’t get hurt in bike accidents. Oh yeah helmets like don’t exist. (oh wait I saw one person wearing helmet today, but he was riding a 10 speed bike) All new bike come with a lock already built into the bike and you have to register them with the city. If yours gets stolen you can report it to the police and maybe, but not likely get it back.
This morning I was at the Subway/train station near my apartment on my way to Tokyo, where lots of people ride there bikes to the station and catch a train. While I was sitting there waiting for my friend I saw the oddest thing. I almost took a picture maybe some other morning. People had parked their bikes near each other, but then four guys who must work at the station came along and piled in one next to the other leaning against the wall your bike might be in five or 6 deep by the time you get home from work or school, good luck. It’s like a needle in a haystack.
Finding your bike would be even more difficult because many of them are all the same color and there are two styles of bikes. So essentially everyone’s bike looks like each others making it important to personalize yours some how. I am still working on that.

Another cool feature your bike comes with is a light. It runs on friction, when you switch it on it touches the front tire and works when you are riding your bike. But during the day if you leave it on people give you funny looks. Well that could also be the fact that I have blue eyes, brown hair and am white. I have also discovered that the dollar store or the 100 Yen store down the street from my apartment has some very handy bike accessories, I haven’t figured out what they all are. I did buy a seat cover for the rain that is going to start in a couple months, so far this week though the weather has been beautiful. Sunny and low 60’s

Since writing the above it has rained and man when it rains it pours. Next time it rains I will have to try and take a picture. Portland gets rain, maybe every once in a while we get it like this but seriously even with an umbrella you are drenched, it started about 2pm and did not stop till after 8pm. A little taste of what is to come later I guess.

Another side Note: I stayed this last weekend in Tokyo. I was helping WYS the company that hired me with an introduction weekend for inbound and outbound exchange students. It was a quiet weekend, and good practice for school. We all stayed in the Olympic village from the 1960’s I think. They keep up the facilities and use it for all kinds of meeting and things. There is a park next to the village, part of has a Japanese Shrine that was really neat. I saw a wedding party leaving part of the shrine, the whole group was in traditional Japanese dress. It was beautiful. Then the other part of the park is open to the public, to have picnics, bike ride, walk around. Since it was the last real weekend of the Cherry Blossom festival there were tons of people out and about, some picnicking, others playing pick up games of soccer, volleyball, throwing baseballs around. It was great fun to people watch. The most exciting part of the whole weekend was my first earthquake in Japan. They are more common then back home. I was up in my room on the eighth floor of the building, laying on my bed watching a movie on my computer when I first noticed my bed shaking and then the whole room was shaking. When I asked about it later no one seemed to be bothered by it. It was the biggest one I had ever felt. Don’t ask because I don’t know how big it was.

PS: I totally recommend coming to a Cherry Blossom festival in Japan. Beautiful and the park is an experience.