experiences – Page 55 – goinggaijin.com

Fireflies

Last night, after a very busy day (I’ll tell you on Friday), I had my first soroban class that is the requirement for my visa. We have decided that in the beginning, I will join the last class of the day that has only teenagers clicking away, and which lasts for an hour, starting at 7 pm. I haven’t practiced in a long time, so I needed a bit of time to remember how to do division and especially multiplication, and I made many mistakes. Oh well, I have lots of time to improve.

When I finally went home after some extra training and a bit of chatting, it was already 9 in the evening and I took a small road that runs next to a little brook to get to the river and walk home along it. The brook is rather small and it runs through a residential area that is very quiet, with one-way streets left and right. Every now and then there are little bridges crossing the water, and although the night was cool (it had rained shortly before), I could see people standing on the bridges and staring into the dark bed of the brook.

It is often better not to show too much curiosity, but at some point I could not restrain myself any longer and I went onto a bridge myself to look down. It took me a while to find out what the people found so interesting, and I was glad about the Japanese couple next to me who kept staring down so intently, I might have left after all, completely clueless…

There were fireflies! I had never seen fireflies before, they don’t seem to live in the part of Austria I am from, so I was very surprised. They were of the greenish glowing variety, very nice, and very bright for their tiny size. I watched a bit, but left when it got too cold. The most interesting part about this was that the people who watched were doing so in complete silence, which is very unusual.

Pet

Tonight, I was chatting with one of my housemates in our kitchen for a while. He has told me that today, he had seen his first cockroach of the year (I haven’t so far, but I am sure they will become more numerous soon). Having finished our conversation, we left the kitchen, through a small corridor, one side of which is essentially one large shelf, currently mostly empty. I don’t know what exactly caught my eye, whether it was movement, or just an odd shape… Anyway, I took a closer look – and then I started running, because from the corner of my eye, I saw this:

I hate spiders. The photo does not really do it justice, because it is hard to estimate from it the real size of the spider. Believe me when I say that from toe to toe, so to speak, it is about the length of my hand, probably around 12 – 15 cm, which makes the body alone around 4 – 5 cm long. Have I mentioned that I hate spiders?

My housemate told me that it has been on the shelf for several weeks, but this is the first night I have seen it too. He is quite relaxed and claims it eats all the mosquitoes and we should just leave it.

I have relented so far, although I really hope the thing will not climb up to my bedroom. And if it does, it’s fair game. We had an equally large spider around the kitchen last year, and I only saw it once, thank goodness… Why can we not have nicer pets? I wouldn’t mind adopting any of the geckos from outside the house that sometimes – but only very rarely – find their way inside. They would eat mosquitoes too and are much less scary…

Hairy

When I was in Tokyo this week, I spent quite some time in the trains and subways there. Whether it’s a bus, a train, a subway… any type of public transport in Japan is covered in advertisements. They are placed above the windows, next to the windows, hang from the ceilings across the aisles, and I am sure the only reason they do not cover the floors is that public transport is popular and usually crowded. Most ads come als old-fashioned posters (these days often with QR codes for them ubiquitous smartphones), but in Tokyo’s subways there are video displays above the doors announcing the stops – and in between the stops, they show little clips – advertisements, of course. Sometimes, however, we get something with a more educational value though…

With great interest I watched a little comic that went like this: A young woman with long hair sits in front of a computer, typing away. The hair eventually falls into her eyes and she brushes it back. The second time she has to do it, she flips it back more violently, her boss, who stands right behind her, gets the whole load smack into his face. Afterwards, we get to see a little instruction of how to tie your hair up and out of the way, and the clip finally concludes with a row of woman happily typing away, undisturbed, and a boss, obviously equally happy about all that increased productivity.

So far, so good, but for somebody not educated in proper office lady etiquette, it does raise a few questions:

Why are only women targeted? Surely, there are men with long hair too. I do admit that they won’t be working as typists though…
It’s all about productivity, right? Pity I did not get to see that clip where the chaps are invited to take fewer smoking breaks…
Why is a woman’s hairstyle anybody’s business? As long as she adequately, professionally dressed for the job at hand and gets it done at the end of day…
If my boss stands so closely behind me to get my hair into his face when I move – he may consider himself lucky I don’t wear extensions with steel reinforcements…

I am glad I don’t have these type of problems. Even if I was an office lady in Japan, I have had a short haircut ever since I moved to Asia for the first time. And it seems to get shorter every year. The only thing I regret about this is that now I need to have it cut more often…

Skytree

I am back from my trip to Tokyo, and I’m rather tired now. I got everything done and even had some free time to do some sightseeing. Tokyo is a very modern city, and instead of historically and interesting sights you have in Kyoto, you need to go into another direction to find interesting things to do in Tokyo. So, I chose the most modern sightseeing spot you can find Tokyo right now to spend a few hours there yesterday afternoon and early evening.

I went to and up (and then down again) the Skytree. Isn’t it fantastic: The Skytree was built over four years, and since its official opening on May 22, 2012, is the highest tower in the world, standing 634 m tall. Its main purpose is that of a broadcasting tower; it was built so high to avoid interferences from all the skyscrapers in Tokyo. And while they were pouring the concrete, they also built a shopping mall beneath it (of course), an aquarium, a planetarium,… The Skytree has two observation decks, the first one is called Tembo, where there are – actually on three floors (called 340th, 345th, and 350th floor) – a 360 degree view over Tokyo, a souvenir shop (of course) and a restaurant, as well as two cafés. Smaller attractions there are holes in the floor of the lowest deck, and very cool interactive maps of the surroundings where you can zoom in and out, change the view from day to night, and look at the history of the city.

From the Tembo observation deck you can take one of two elevators an extra 100 m up to what is called the Tembo galleria, a wonderful walkway that takes you up in a spiral to the highest point you can reach in the tower as a visitor: the so-called sorakaba point at 451.2 metres. Needless to say that this is exactly the spot to take a selfie… The galleria is very nice, especially if you like steel and glass, but I think it is only worth the extra 1000 YEN on a very fine day, because the view is the only thing you have up there. I am sure the view is spectacular – if it is clear enough, that is… Although it did not rain yesterday, it was very hazy, and once again, I could not see Mount Fuji.The tower became very crowded just before sunset, and Tokyo by night is indeed quite a sight! Once again, the whole experience is very organized: People leave and enter the tower and even the two decks on different floors, so people in/out, or up/down will never get in each other’s way. You can buy an advance ticket which allows you to enter the tower without queueing up for a ticket (and, according to the space that is allocated, the queues can be very long indeed), but they are more expensive than if you just go and wait in line. I did not have to wait, as it was Tuesday afternoon, but I guess that the Skytree will become very crowded in the weekends.

Okay, a few more facts about the Skytree to satisfy the nerd in me (and in other people as well): As mentioned above, it is 634 m high, the numbers can be read in Japanese as “mu-sa-shi”, which is a nod to the old name of the area in which the tower stands. At the base, the Skytree’s cross-section is shaped like an equilateral triangle, but the higher you come, the more and more round it becomes – this progress is depicted in the elevator as you go up, by the way – and the Tembo observation deck on 350 m already has a circular cross-section. This makes the base very stable, and the top is such that it can withstand high winds easily. Depending under which angle the Skytree is viewed, this change of diameter shows a different shape from below.

At the centre of the tower is a 375 m high concrete pillar. This and the steel structures surrounding it can move independently to absorb up to 50 % of the shock from earthquakes. Interestingly, this appears to be an ancient way to construct high buildings – traditional five storied pagodas were built using the same principle.The tower is painted a special type of white, also coming from old, traditional sources, and in the night it is lit by LED’s in two different styles that alternate daily – the purple one I saw uses a colour that is reminiscent of the old Edo court, when the Shogun and the samurai were still in charge of Japan. There are four elevators to the Tembo deck, and, if you can believe the display in them, their maximum speed is 600 m/min. Well, we did not travel very long, that’s for sure. Two more elevators – this time with a glass door and a glass top to “heighten anticipation of the visitors” lead to the galleria in 450 m height.

Account

Today I crossed another thing off my list: opening a bank account. Once more, the experience was pleasant as everything was rather organised, except for a tiny little hiccup (which was entirely my fault), but the clerk managed it bravely (and in a rather un-Japanese fashion).

I opened an account with Shinsei bank, as I have heard that they are the most foreigner-friendly bank, and also because you can withdraw money from essentially every ATM in the country free of charge. It took me a while to find their branch on Shijo street, and when I entered, all I could see were the ATMs. I looked confused, so the security guard that was there (every branch of every bank seems to have at least one) approached me, and when I said I wanted to open an account, he pointed up the stairs to the office. Interestingly, on the ground floor, there were only three ATMs and a drugstore playing noisy music.

Anyway, once upstairs, I presented my brand new zairyu card and asked to open an account. The clerk pointed me to a computer and helped me enter all my information: Name in Katakana and roman alphabet, address, occupation,…

The little hiccup occurred when we came to the field “phone number”. I don’t have a phone, neither mobile nor landline and I tried to explain that to the clerk. She answered essentially “no phone, no account”, which I found odd (and I am seriously wondering if I could get a phone without a bank account, by the way) and tried to convince her that a phone number is not necessary, after all, they could send me an email… Nope, she insisted, no phone – no account. I relented and asked if I could give her the number of my landlady and she said if the landlady would be okay to receive my phone calls from the bank, that would be all right with them. Unfortunately, I did not bring the piece of paper where I noted down my landlady’s phone number, and I don’t know it by heart as we usually communicate per email… So, I asked whether I can just enter any number, and if it was okay to change the phone number later once I knew the correct one. And – I was already prepared to leave and start afresh on Monday – the clerk said yes to my scheme! Honestly, I did not expect that, kudos to that clerk!

After filling in the online form and checking the Katakana over and over again (I have a difficult last name, at least for Asians, and I used a way of transcribing it so that the pronunciation will be correct), I had to wait a few minutes for another clerk to take over. I had to sign the account application form, where instead of my signature I chose to use a hanko, a Japanese seal. I know that this means I’ll have to bring the hanko every time I go to the bank, but as I do most of my stuff with internet banking anyway, I hope it won’t be too much hassle as long as I’m not turning senile and keep forgetting the thing…

After that, we were almost finished. I was immediately issued with a bank card (I could choose between some 10 colours and went for the black although I have to admit the bright orange one had something too…), received a comparatively small pile of extra paperwork, and was promised that everything I’d need for internet banking would be sent to my address in a registered letter within 10 days. After asking about transfer limits, and being instructed about how to register for a credit card, we were finished and I left very happily. Interestingly, I was never asked for an initial deposit. The whole procedure (including the fight about the telephone number and answering my questions requiring two clerks) took maybe 30 minutes and I can start banking right away. Once I have any money, that is…

Insides

We are having a serious attack of builders in the house. Well, actually, it’s only one elderly guy, but he’s everywhere and nowhere, making lots of noise or none at all, all the time, or not at all… and it has been going on for the whole of last week, and he is not yet finished. I have no idea what the general plan is (we are usually not told anything unless we specifically ask), but one of the bigger things he has been doing was to replace the ceiling in one of the upstairs rooms.

The ceiling is a very simple construction of very thin wood planks (I guess less than 5 mm thick) nailed to a frame, so replacing it is very simple. It took him two days: One to remove the old ceiling, and a second one to put up the new one. I know this does not sound very fascinating, but these 5 mm of wood are the only thing between the upstairs rooms and the roof. As the house is around 100 years old, the construction of the roof is very interesting indeed – have a look:

The main beams are just trunks of more or less straight trees, and it does not seem as if much has been done to make them more fit for the purpose, like nowadays, when you cut them into long rectangular poles. Also, look at the roof: No insulation, only wooden shingles (and I bet they are not very thick either), and on top of that the roof tiles.

An interesting feature on both ends of the house are two large triangular pieces filled with small stones. I wonder what that is good for – maybe to keep the roof on the house during typhoons? Before you ask, yes even in Kyoto we can have very heavy storms, although the winds are not as strong as on the shore.

Do you see the cables winding so leisurely along the roof? Hello electricity! It does seem scary somehow, don’t you think? My housemate’s assertion that this is how it was done everywhere else as well only that it was usually better covered up, may be correct, but does not really make me feel better.

Finally, look at the top of the wall here: This looks like thin bamboo sticking out, doesn’t it? The house is old enough to essentially only consist of a wooden frame between which are earthen walls – and this bamboo wattling is used to hold the mud together better, I presume. (I think the correct architectural term for this type of house is “frame house” and the inner workings of the walls are called “wattle and daub” but I’m happy to be corrected on this.)

It is interesting to see, that the basics of construction have not changed much in the last 100 years or so. Think about it: nowadays, instead of wood and bamboo we are using steel, and the mud has been replaced by concrete, but besides that… In any case, I did not expect the house to be that flimsy, to be honest. At least I now understand in detail why it is so unbelievably cold in here during the winter…

Sleep

I don’t know why, but for the last week or so I have been terribly tired. The only thing I really want to do is to sleep – and when I wake up, I want to sleep some more. One of my housemates says he suffers the same, and blames it on the change of seasons. It is not too hot yet, mostly it’s one sunny day followed by an overcast one; also I don’t mind the heat. It does get light very early though, somewhere around 4 am, and there is one curtain missing in my room. My housemate says I may be waking up too early and not getting enough (REM) sleep, but just looking at my schedule, it does not appear to be the case; beside, I was always able to sleep at any time and any place. Anyway, I’ll have my routine blood test next week, so if there’s something physically wrong with me, I guess they’ll find out then.

South

Yesterday, I was up and out early because I wanted to check out another location where aikido training is held, near Kyoto station. The training started at 9 am, but because the bus did not go quite as far as I had expected, I had to walk farther than planned, and thus came a bit too late, which I found embarrassing… It was lovely watching the training though, and I think I will join this group; they all seem very nice (I have hardly ever met unpleasant people on the mat) and what I can judge from only watching, they are quite good as well. Interestingly, the whole atmosphere seems very relaxed, something I have never encountered in any of the Japanese dojo I visited before.

Anyway, after watching the training I walked around in the area. Toji temple is close by, a famous Buddhist temple sporting a large and famous pagoda, a bit south-west of Kyoto station. It is a large temple complex, with several large halls, the pagoda, an additional museum… One of the halls had an exhibition of large cloths painted (or dyed?) in dark blue – I think it was indigo, but I am not entirely sure. They were beautiful, and probably very expensive – there were some rather exquisite kimono to be seen, but none of them with a price tag. Other things were for sale, small fans and purses, for example, but I did not buy anything. Afterwards, I went to the station and, because I was looking for a Muji store in the nearby Aeon mall (which I did not find anyway), I had a belated lunch there – in a Korean restaurant. I enjoyed it very much; unfortunately the custom of serving unlimited side-dishes is observed in Korea only, which, given that my body cannot tolerate kimchi very well, was probably a good thing after all.

I then took a bus to City Hall, went to the Muji store there, did my shopping, and then walked home. After more than six hours on my feet, I was rather tired, but… we had a builder over to fix one of the rooms, which he did all afternoon yesterday, and all day today as well – and he did it rather noisily… I took some amazing pictures of the interior workings of the house and its roof by the way – I’ll share them with you in a few days, promised!

Excursion

Yesterday I went to Kobe to visit some friends of mine – fellow Austrians. We did not do anything exciting, just strolling along the harbour a bit, dropping in to an exhibition of photographs taken by sailors all over the world (there was a stunning picture of a crescent sun rising over the ocean – we guessed it was taken during a solar eclipse, but we were not sure), and we looked at the city from the viewing platform of Kobe city hall, which is located on 24th floor.

I did not find the city very exciting, it’s rather typical modern Japanese. Kobe is a very old city, and its biggest attraction are some very old houses built in Western style, that form a small neighborhood close to the mountains. My friends said, however, that it would be interesting only for Japanese – apparently the whole city has a somewhat “Western” feeling to it, and the Japanese come here when they want to feel a bit exotic. As I said, to me it seems like an average Japanese city though…

We had dinner together – chili con carne – and we drank and talked and enjoyed the view from their 10th floor apartment… it was nice to speak in Austrian again. I left with the train shortly after 11 (one of the last ones) and when I arrived in Kyoto more than an hour later, I found out to my horror that the last buses in my direction also leave shortly after 11… By that time, the drizzle to which I had left Kyoto had stopped, so I walked home. I arrived around 1:30 – and consequently spent half of today in bed.

Photograph

Welcome to the latest episode of our beloved drama “Fun With Immigration”. You know that I finished my paperwork last Wednesday, and I did not expect anything to happen within at least a week, if not two.

But, lo and behold: This morning I found a letter from the Immigration Office on my doorstep. I was excited and nervous – but also a bit suspicious, as it was not my self-addressed envelope I had to give them together with all the other papers.

The letter – all in Japanese, of course – asked me to bring a single photograph, 3×4 cm, not more than three months old to replace the photograph that was on my application form, which was older than three months (about 2.5 years, actually) and thus could not be used. How on earth they found that out? Well, the first time I was there I was asked if they could make a copy of my passport and the photo in the passport and on the application form are identical. Note that the passport copy was NOT on the list of required documents, hence I thought I could get away with it… (This incident reminds me of a similar one in another country where I was asked to provide a new birth certificate because my original one was “too old”…)

So, once again, I went to the Immigration Office this morning, used their photo booth which is conveniently located in front of the entrance and handed them a brand new photograph, less than ten minutes old. I just hope this will do the trick…In any case, the day was not entirely wasted, as I have found out the following things:

They are actually working on my visa!
The government says “jump” you ask “how high?”
In Japan, people (at least foreign ones) age beyond recognition within three months.
Whenever I have photos taken, I’ll better start making the effort and wear makeup…