Nishinari-Ku, Tengachaya

When I first arrived in Japan, I remember being so shocked when I got on the train from the airport. I had been met by a company representative who helped make sure I had no problems getting onto the right train, and was supposed to meet someone at my stop (about an hour away), but for the train ride itself I was on my own... and the foreignness of everything was still making quite an impression.

First of all, there was the absolute lack of ethnic diversity. There were no other foreigners present, everyone on the train was Japanese. Being American, I was completely unused to a monogenous culture and seeing that left quite the impression.

Another thing was the little differences; some airline personnel was sitting across from me on the train, wearing her extremely cute uniform (which I daresay most Americans wouldn't be caught dead in, since most of the company uniforms in Japan ought to be slightly embarrassing for adults to actually voluntarily put on), and sipping on something out of a bag. I later discovered this to be a popular vitamin supplement. Something I had never seen before, and again, just the simple unusualness of it really struck me.

Then, of course, there was arriving at my station. I met the other person easily, and they helped me get to my new residence, which was actually quite close to the station and within easy bicycle distance of two major areas of the city of Osaka. (I'm in a sort of residential in-between area.) Walking around after dark, the entire area had a sort of forlorn feel to it, a run-down quality that caused me a bit of concern. We also passed a few crazy-homeless-looking people, which again caused me to question my new locale.

Not that I had anything to worry about; the stereotype about how safe Japan is, if you're a non-Asian male, is actually quite understated. (As an aside, one night after working overtime until 2am on a Friday, I bicycled home and passed through a group of 30+ young men on bicycles. Upon seeing me, an obvious foreigner and easy target, not a single one of these 30+ obviously intoxicated young men so much as cat-called a single insult. I can't imagine the same being said for 30 young men from any Western country, where a group-mentality sort of coward's courage would combine with an easy, solitary target, for at the very least some antagonistic language.)

As far as young females go, watch your back in Japan at all times, especially after dark. Every female friend of mine has at least one story of being randomly stalked, and three or more of casual molestation. The sense of entitlement in the mind of the drunken salary man is quite appalling, but try not to let an outspoken minority make you think all Japanese are like that. Otherwise people mike think Americans are all like this.

Anyways, my first impression of Tengachaya (my neighborhood) was not so hot, but I have apparently arrived in the midst of some urban renewal; a year before there were a bunch of construction sites and related debris, with many of the roads quite rough looking and in dire need of repairs. Now most of the construction sites have been replaced with shiny brand new buildings, mostly brand new high class stores, restaurants, and a giant indoor soccer field.

Also, I get awakened every day to the sound of the construction workers going to town on all of the roads hereabouts; every day, my neighborhood is looking nicer and nicer. Also, the homeless-crazy-looking guys are, turns out, just retired guys who love to hang out together in the parking lot of their apartment building and get trashed on sake. Not exactly the best of neighbors, but this is surprisingly less of a dangerous combination than you would think; they are quite polite and don't bother people, just minding to themselves while looking all sorts of crazy.

Also, when I first arrived, I wasn't particularly impressed with my apartment, but nor was I disappointed; nothing overwhelmingly good or bad about it, just a new place. Since that first impression, I have come to realize how freakin' awesome this apartment is! We have a huge dining room/living room space, a huge kitchen, a huge bathroom, and three large rooms. The apartment building has very thick walls between separate apartments, and we are located on the end of the building - no noise complaints about our loud and late-night gaijin ways. And best of all, its for the same price or cheaper than all of the terrible apartments that my co-workers were given by my employer.

Now, of course, the apartment is no longer a NOVA apartment, though someone forgot to tell payroll that and they double-charged me for December and January, in spite of my having paid those months' rent directly to the landlord. On the plus side, whenever (if ever) I see another real paycheck, I won't even know what to do with that much money. I am appalled at how wasteful I was when I first got to Japan, but now I've had a crash course on how to live in Osaka on the cheap, and I'm going to use my newfound knowledge to save up tons and tons of cash so that I can blow it all on new video games and other geeky stuff!

I wish I could go into details, maybe even show some links of the stuff I'm going to buy, but alas I have to go get ready for work. Till next time!

Saikiin wa taihen desu ne!?

Lately, I've been very busy!

I'm working two part-time jobs in addition to my full week at NOVA, and have some private students on the side as well. To be honest, I probably couldn't handle this if I was teaching lessons constantly at my main job... fortuitously, however, I actually do not usually teach as we don't have enough students. Mostly I develop new lessons, though I've also been learning some Chinese in my spare time.

I've recently made quite a few friends on the Chinese language team and am starting to really desire to see China next. I feel like Chinese in many ways have a lot more in common with Americans than Japanese ever will. And although I'm not done with Japan yet and am still really enjoying myself, I am beginning to chafe under parts of Japanese culture that I've come to understand and now recognize daily. Everything is so subtle, so very subtle... and being American, it is basically the direct opposite of my native culture.

Interestingly, the more I learn about Japanese culture, the more I learn about American culture as well. It is so hard to understand our culture from the inside, but by living abroad, mixing with "foreigners" and living in a foreign country, I feel like I can finally begin to understand what being an American actually means. This was one of my original goals in coming to live in a foreign country, so I am happy.

By the way, response to (dad's?) question: I am indeed working in the same building, although the work floors are a little bit jumbled now and we are compacted into half the space in order to save on rent. Scuttlebutt says that we're supposed to relocate to another area someday soon, but they've been saying "any day now" since I've been back.

An interesting note, however, is that after November 2008 there probably won't *be* a Multimedia Center for me to work from anymore, as this company (rather ingeniously) is going to open up teaching centers in actual foreign countries; they can pay high school kids minimum wage to teach English lessons from North America, England, New Zealand, Australia, etc instead of paying us what I'll laughingly refer to as "the big bucks".

I wonder how one knows when its time to move on? I have a financial goal that could act as a rough barometer, I suppose. Save up enough money and then it's time to go to China? Coincidentally, the other day I was visiting my host family and they taught me some Kanji, which really whetted my appetite for learning the Japanese alphabets. After a year and three months, I'm finally wanting to learn how to read and write!

In any case, things have been hectic here as always (I'm slowly beginning to realize that this is what people refer to as being an adult), and I need to get some sleep.