experiences – Page 25 – goinggaijin.com

Efficient

Last Saturday I went out with my friend to see this year’s Kyotographie Photo Exhibition. It was spread out over the inner city, so we had a lot of walking to do all day and in the evening we were both exhausted…

Anyway, on our way to one of the venues, there were lots of fire engines going in the same direction, and we noticed all of a sudden six or seven helicopters hovering over the part of the city we were heading towards. And then, we saw the smoke.

A huge sand-colored cloud of smoke blew through the streets and hung over the low buildings of Gion. Nearby Shijo street – one of the main thoroughfares – was closed for all traffic, there were at least 15 fire engines, two firemen were perched on a long ladder to get an overview, and a few others were sitting on a nearby roof as well. However, the main action happened somewhere deep inside the narrow side streets of Gion. At first we thought that one of the temples was burning, but we asked a policeman and he said that it was just a normal house.

In Japan, fires are extremely dangerous. Even nowadays, many private homes are still made of wood, and in a typical modern residential area, the houses sit next to each other almost touching wall-to-wall. One of the first new words I learnt when moving into the old guest house was “kaji”, the Japanese word for blazing fire. Especially old houses burn very quickly, often, there is no time to attempt putting it out yourself. It’s best and safest for everyone just to get out of the building, alert the neighbours and call the firefighters.

The ones of Kyoto must be especially well-trained and efficient, because when we passed by the spot on our way back less than an hour later, everything was over already. When I checked the paper later that night, it said that in total six houses were damaged, but nobody got hurt. The fire had started in a restaurant – a quite famous one to boot with three Michelin stars – when they had closed after lunch service.

Equally efficient were the media (immediately present with camera teams on nearby buildings and in the helicopters I mentioned), as well as google. When I looked for the restaurant later that night on google maps it said already “Permanently Closed”.

Philosophy

A friend of mine has come back to Kyoto for two weeks or so, and we spent yesterday afternoon strolling around the Arashiyama and Higashiyama mountains of Kyoto. It is always nice talking to him, mostly because we learn from and challenge each other. He, as another mathematician, is also very observant, something I’m not used to anymore in my other friends.

For example, he said that when we were walking around at Higashiyama, that he could feel that this was “my” part of town; he said that I was “walking differently”. I thought about this and indeed, I felt more relaxed there than in Arashiyama where we had gone before. Altogether, I have been to Arashiyama only three or four times. It is quite far from my place (about an hour away, no matter how I’d go there) and it is always very crowded, which I don’t like at any time – it stresses me. This is probably because the interesting area of Arashiyama (especially to the east of Togetsukyo bridge) is rather small, and there are not many other routes where you could avoid all the people. And then I also wanted to see the bamboo forest, which is essentially only a single long path winding beneath huge bamboo trees (?), so again, no place to avoid all the selfie-shooting people. At least we went during the week…

We had matcha and chocolate at my friend’s cafe, and dinner at a tiny little fish restaurant. And for some reason, we started talking about the purpose of life. I am against the motion that everybody has a specific, earth-moving purpose in life, like so many people seem to think. What if not – that doesn’t mean life is wasted. Maybe somebody’s purpose is simply to drive a bus in a tiny town for 25 years. What’s wrong with that? Besides, if there’s that huge purpose you’ve made out for yourself – what happens if you can’t achieve it for whatever reason? Can you change your purpose? I prefer John Lennon’s take on this:

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

We also talked about the funny ways life takes sometimes. He says he goes with the flow, and that he thinks I’m trying to fight it. I’m not sure he is right. I do like to be in control, and I always liked to do my own thing, but at the same time, the first truly independent and conscious decision I made was to give up academia and settle in Japan. Before that, I did the things as they showed up, sometimes put in front of me by other people. Maybe I’m now trying to compensate for that former lack of control? I’m not sure. Japan has changed me, I am much more self-confident now than I was ever before. I cannot change all the circumstances, but I still try to do my own thing.

And he said: “I’m not sure that you are where you should be and that you’re doing what you should be doing.” Actually, I’m not sure about the latter either. I could pour much more effort into things, but something is indeed holding me back, and I don’t know what it is. However, I do believe that at least right now, Japan indeed is the place to be for me. I feel safe here, a very peaceful feeling. Probably my personal growth spurt has something to do with that.

Missed…

Today, I’m very tired again, I’ll go to bed soon! After my usual three appointments today, I had a fourth one: A Japanese friend’s Polish friend has an exhibition starting tomorrow, which means that the opening party was tonight. My Japanese friend wanted to introduce me to her Polish friend, so I got invited (the event seemed very low-key and laid back). Even though I didn’t really want to go, because I’m usually exhausted on Tuesday nights, I did visit the gallery anyway, business networking and so.

Unfortunately, I must have been too late, because my friend wasn’t there (anymore). And because I can’t really walk up to people and say “Hey are you the Polish friend of…”, I didn’t stay long after I took a look at the exhibits. I’m not a big fan of modern art but some of the pieces were quite interesting! Maybe I should give modern art a try after all?

Celebrations

It’s Golden Week plus the weekend afterwards – Japan takes a time out until next Monday. I’m quite happy to catch up with a few things in the coming days, maybe visit a new shrine or temple for a new event, or finally go see the Kyotographie Photo Exhibition… On top of the holidays for everyone, I have my own anniversary:

This Saturday, May 5th, I will celebrate 5 years in Japan!

Wow! I don’t think I should say “I made it”, since business is still a bit wobbly and not where it could or should be, but I can definitely state “It was worth it”!

I have come to this country without help from anyone, I have opened my own business, I have made new friends… Overall, in the last 5 years I have grown in ways I would not have thought possible, and the best thing: I feel so much more secure and confident in my skin than ever before! Even if this doesn’t work out in the long run, I am sure I can just do it again and start over elsewhere. And even though I have my setbacks, like last month, I don’t regret my decision one bit.

Life’s good!

Summer Pets

While I am still endeavouring to japanify myself, so to speak, there are plenty of Japanese customs I will never make my own. One of the weirder things, which is extremely popular with kids, is to get pets. Yeah, you may think that’s not really weird, I mean, all the kids like pets, but have a look at what I mean and think again:

So, these enormous beetles – a number of different species – are very popular with kids to keep as pets over summer, in fact, you can start buying them now. The children are responsible for feeding them and cleaning their boxes, which is relatively easy I think, and since the beetles will die in autumn, it’s a short-term activity as well.

I am not sure what to think of pets like that. These large beetles – I have seen some up to 10 cm long – are indeed interesting, but at the same time there’s no way I would let one inside my home voluntarily, cage or no cage. I have enough of the bugs that visit me without my permission, thank you so much.

Shocked!

The Kyotogram situation is worse than I thought. Today, we were to meet the boss to sign the termination of our contract by the end of May. It turned out that not only the Kyotogram project will be shut down, but that the whole Kyoto office will close!

All of the projects initiated in Kyoto will be terminated, and the department will move back to Osaka headquarters by mid June. Everybody heard only this morning, so people in the office were in shock. At least nobody of them will lose their job, and it seems that they will remain one department and keep working together, on whatever new projects.

While this hurts, from a business perspective it does make sense. Apparently the Kyoto branch office was opened two years ago, and after this time you should start seeing some sort of (minimal) profit. According to the head of Kyoto office “the numbers were good, but the profit was not”. Nowadays it seems that companies are (or must be?) much less patient when waiting for a profit, so I am not surprised that they do that. I did not know that the whole branch – which had initiated a number of new projects – had not made enough profit to keep itself going, but I am relieved to see that the failure with the Kyozutsumi was not the main reason for the shutdown.

Anyway, back to square one: I need to find something to make up the loss of that income, the faster, the better…

Overzealous

Finally, it is getting summer! The weather has picked up, and if the forecast is correct, there will be up to 29 degrees on Sunday! I’m so thrilled – time to get out my T-shirts.

Because it is almost summer, the trees around my apartment are now showing their fresh leaves. In Japan, it is customary to cut back trees and shrubbery during winter, and interestingly, this is often done rather brutally – for my European eyes at least – and I always wonder how the plants manage to bounce back during the next growth season.

However, it is not looking good this year for some of the trees in my apartment complex. Apparently, somebody from the gardening company got carried away and produced this – I took the photo yesterday:

Those are very sad-looking trees, don’t you think? I doubt they will survive this onslaught – I mean, how could they without any leaves or smaller branches left? They were cut several months ago, but for some reason, this is the only row of trees that was treated thus, the other three rows were not even touched. I wonder whether somebody made a serious mistake and was told to leave (and not come back), or whether this was done to try out something or other. In any case, those trees will not give much shadow for at least this year.

Bad Day

Ever since I started my own company which essentially provides me with an excuse to do what I like, I have greatly enjoyed my working life. Of course, there are always things I don’t like doing as much as others, but in general, I am quite content with the way things are going. So, I think this is the first day in a very long time where I can say with utter conviction:

Today was not my day!

It started out in the morning when I had received an invitation to provide a voice sample for a deeply religious text. Not just spiritual, but religious in the sense of “look deep down into yourself to find out god’s plans for you”. I’m an atheist, always been. Besides, how deep down am I supposed to look – wouldn’t that require a microscope and a very sharp knife? I’m not sure if I should price myself out of this one. As you’ll see in a moment, I do need the money, and it would be quite a large project…

Things went downhill further when halfway to the bus stop I found out that I had forgotten my umbrella. The whole idea of taking the bus in the first place was because by the time I was to go home, it was supposed to rain; and I didn’t want to get soaking wet on the bike. Not taking the umbrella would have been counterproductive, so I had to return to fetch it… In the end, I was late for my Japanese class, but because I’m usually on time, my teacher takes the few days when I’m not in his stride.

The big blow came in my afternoon Kyotogram meeting. I had barely entered the office and sat down on the table when the big boss jumped up from his own desk to come over and talk to my colleague and me. He brought bad news: After the complete disaster with the kyozutsumi project (only 2 – in words: two – sets sold), the headquarters in Osaka (who were greatly responsible for the failure) decided to shut down Kyotogram completely. Right now, it is unclear when this will happen and what we’ll do until then, but the boss said that the earliest we can close up shop will be by the end of May. Which means that I will have to find a new, steady job, which is not easy, most freelancing jobs are one-time only or at least far and in between.

And to top things off, my Tuesday evening German student informed me today that he would like to suspend his German classes for the time being, meaning: for the next 6 months or so. He needs to take an English test in September or October this year, and since he is very busy with little free time, and he absolutely must pass that test, he would like to focus on his English until then. At least he has decided to employ me as his English teacher, which is nice (I’ve never taught anyone the TOEIC before), but at the same time it will decrease my income since I charge less for English than for German classes (because there are so much more people teaching English in Kyoto). He did offer to pay my German rates, but I didn’t think that was fair to him.

And finally, when I went home, it was raining just as predicted.

So, that was my day. Or rather: it wasn’t. The only part that was enjoyable was my Japanese class. The grammar basics of how to turn verbs and adjectives into nouns are relatively simple, so for once I didn’t make a complete fool out of myself. I think my Japanese teacher appreciated it.

And I will now turn my back on this day and appreciate a piece of chocolate. Thank goodness today’s over…

Visitor

Sorry for missing the last two posts, but I was very busy: I had my first visitor from Austria! Of course she came with a whole suitcase of Austrian goodies just for me which are now filling my fridge and freezer – THANK YOU SO MUCH!

In return, we went out together on two days, it was her third time in Kyoto already, but even after living here for 5 years, we could still find things neither of us had done before. On Sunday afternoon, after a late lunch at a running sushi, we went to an exhibition, and in the evening, we visited the lightup at Kodai-ji and Entoku-in temples, both founded by Nene, the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and both considered national treasures for their gardens. The weather was a bit chilly after dark, so there were not many people, but from that one visit I prefer Entoku-in: more space to sit and contemplate.

On Monday I left my friend to explore the city, we just met up quickly for dinner when we had Okonomiyaki and made plans for Tuesday. We spent most of Tuesday walking a stretch along Lake Biwa: In the morning, we took a train to Omi Takashima, and from there walked to Shirahige Shrine, which has a nice torii located in the lake. It’s not as impressive as the one at Miyajima, but it’s still a nice place to visit. However, the enthusiasm is a bit dampened by the Nishi-Omi Highway that runs between the lake with the torii and the main shrine buildings and is a bit dangerous to cross.

We wanted to walk further south, but since the only way at this point is by walking along the highway, we went back to Omi Takashima and took a train two stations south to Omi Maiko. From there, there seems to be one beach resort after the other (with pine trees on the beach, very Japanese), so there are many little roads nearby the lake. Of course, it is way too cold for swimming still, so the beaches and restaurants and little pensions were all but deserted. However, in summer, it is clearly a hot spot teeming with families and youth.

Although we only walked a path the length of two train stations, this part of the trip took us almost two hours. Together with the two hours we walked to and from the shrine, this was the longest hiking trip I have done in a long time. When I finally came home, I was completely exhausted… I did enjoy the day though, and it may be worthwhile to take another trip along the lake on the bicycle one day.

My friend has since left me to my own devices again, and is now taking a serious hiking trip from Osaka all the way to Ise Shrine. I had a great time, it’s always nice to be pushed out of my comfort zone, and who knows, next time my friend comes to visit, I’m just as big a fan of hiking as my friend. 😉

Square One

In the last few days, I’ve suffered a couple of setbacks, unfortunately. One private, one business; they are not seriously serious, but still things I’ll need to take care of and find a workaround for.

Personal first: As you know, most of the people who rent an apartment (or even a company office) need a guarantor to do so. The guarantor is required to pay for costs the tenant may not be able (or willing) to pay. This can be missed rents, damages to the property on moving out, etc. When I moved in here, a friend of mine was so kind to be the guarantor for my apartment. He made clear that this is the only one apartment he would ever be guaranteeing for, but since I wasn’t planning on moving anywhere else for the time being, I thought I was settled.

Well, about a month ago, I received an email from him where he told me that he had suffered some hardships, and that he cannot be a guarantor for anybody at this point. So, he asked me to release him from the contract. Obviously, I’m not happy about that, but then again, he’s a friend doing me a favour, so I agreed. I did ask him to talk to my landlord though, and I was hoping the landlord would agree not to have a guarantor for the rest of my lease.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen: I received an email today that he insists on my getting a new guarantor. Dang it. So, I’m back to square one: how to find a guarantor. Of course, after some three years more in Japan, I have a number of friends I might be able to ask for this favour. Still, a good guarantor is a person of “good standing” to which the landlord must agree, and somebody like this may be a bit more difficult to find. There are also companies who act as guarantors (chiefly for foreigners), but of course, they come with a fee attached. I have not yet spoken to anyone, but it’s something I need to start doing relatively quickly.

And then there is a business issue: I have tried to get a Japanese credit card associated with my business account. Usually, I don’t shop online, but there are always things you cannot pay for otherwise, for example web hosting for my What’s Up in Kyoto homepage. My accountant helped me filling out the application form, and last Friday I spent an hour at my bank to get the final kinks sorted out and my hanko at all the right places. I was promised a decision within a month.

They were much, much faster than that: Already yesterday I received a phone call (two, actually, the second girl did speak English) telling me that there’s no way I’m getting a credit card from them. Why? Because Japanese credit cards are reserved for Japanese and foreigners with permanent residency in Japan. Well, I’m not going to magically turn into the former, and the latter will take at least another 6 years, so it seems I’m out of luck for this one as well.

Not even the mention that the card was meant for the company and not for me did help because “the company is you, really”, which is true in a sense, but also bullshit in another sense. The infuriating part of the call was her tone of voice when she said “I’m so sorry” – if you are indeed that sorry, sweetheart, then try to find a way to make it happen after all. But it seems that the girl was too low in the hierarchy to make decisions like that, and unfortunately, my go-to guy in the bank who seemed to be a bit more flexible, must have a new job in another branch.

As you can see, I’m back to the starting point with two things. As I said above, neither of them is extremely bad (what would my landlord do if I cannot find a new guarantor – kick me out?) but both of them require efforts and possibly money that I wouldn’t have needed to spend. I hope life in general will go more smoothly again soon