First Saturday in Okazaki

Saturday, May 22, 2010, 6:44p.m.

To start, here is a picture of the outside of the home that I’m staying in. It’s the tall white one that says “Music & Dance" and has a picture of a piano on the side. 

Every morning since arriving in Japan I’ve woken up naturally around 6:30a.m. I make myself go back to sleep even though I feel wide awake. I don’t think it is necessarily the time change that is messing with my eternal clock, but I have a feeling that it is the sunshine. By 6:00a.m., the sun is blaring through my window. It also sets considerably earlier than in Missouri right now. At the moment it’s not even 7:00p.m. yet, and the sun has already gone down. I’m not complaining about my early rising though. It was nice to get up early today, and I felt like I got a lot of things accomplished.

Last night I received an e-mail from the teacher who I am taking private lessons with, asking if I could meet her at the school at 10:00a.m. this morning to receive a different textbook for our lessons. She gave me the new materials and asked if I had time to go to the bookstore with her. The day before I had asked if she could make me a list of classic Japanese novels of which I could read translations, since I’m interested in Japanese literature as well. It was neat (and somewhat terrifying) to ride in her car. The steering wheels in Japan are on the right sides of cars and the driving lanes are absolutely tiny. And even in the city traffic seems to move very quickly.

After we came back from the bookstore I spent several hours studying at the school with Lee and his friend. I feel pretty prepared for my classes on Monday, but I still have quite a bit of studying that I need to do before my private lesson on Wednesday. Around 1:30p.m., Lee and I walked to a nearby Ramen restaurant to have lunch: my first Japanese restaurant experience! The menu was entirely in Japanese, and even though we could read some of the words, we really couldn’t understand enough to know what we were ordering. We randomly picked two items and Lee pointed at the menu to order when our waitress came. It was good and inexpensive, only 300 yen, which is just a little more than $3.00. I was actually really surprised by how cheap the food at this restaurant was, because so far it has seemed to me that the price of living in Okazaki is higher than Midwest America. 

During lunch I got to know more about Lee. I had already known that he was from Singapore and that he was thirty-two years old. But today I learned about his career goals, family, and life in Singapore. Until recently, he had worked as a bank trader in Singapore, but visited Canada and fell in love with snowboarding. He moved to Canada and took classes to become certified to teach snowboarding. Japan is the closest place to Singapore that has snow, so he is learning Japanese because he hopes to find a job as a snowboarding instructor in Japan. He also explained a bit to me about various languages spoken in Singapore and the country itself. The prices of housing and automobiles are unbelievably high, because the country is so densely populated: you could drive from one end of Singapore to the other in less than an hour, but it has a population of over 5 million. Lee also explained that Chinese is spoken in most homes, but is becoming less common because English is now the predominate language in schools and work places. It is really interesting to listen to him speak to his friend William, who is also from Singapore, because they slide back and forth between Chinese and English without even noticing.

After lunch I headed back to our homestay by myself for the first time and didn’t get lost. I stopped to take a few pictures along the way.

Most of the houses are absolutely beautiful. Many have gardens that are unbelievably intricate.

This is the Okazaki City Hall.The taller building is a hospital. 

I registered to go on a trip with the school tomorrow. Here’s the description:

“Matsudaira-go and mountain trails
Today we visit Matsudaira-cho, origin of the famous Matsudaira clan. In the 16th century, the main clan line experienced an abrupt change in status as Matsudaira Motoyasu, who changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the first Tokugawa shogun. The Matsudaira Toshougu commemorates Ieyasu's birth as the well where Tokugawa Ieyasu (then Matsudaira Takechiyo) was consecrated as a baby can still be seen. Many parents still bring their newborns to be blessed here.

We next visit Kougetsu-in, the Matsudaira family temple. The main building and tower were built by the founder, Matsudaira Chikauji in 1377. The temple also has a footprint of the Buddha on display. If time permits, we will hike up to the castle ruins. Please wear good walking shoes.

We then visit the crash site of a B29 bomber that was shot down after bombing Nagoya during World War Two. Although part of Toyota City, this is still a remote farming area. The memorials to the crew of the B29 have been placed by local residents.”

I’ll be sure to take pictures!

A few last notes:

(1)    Tax is included in all of the prices in Japan.

(2)    The name “Paige” is difficult to pronounce for almost everyone here. I am solely known as “Paigey.”

(3)    Tipping at restaurants (or anywhere else) is unheard of.

(4)    You can buy ice coffee or tea with milk in bottles almost anywhere. It’s delicious.

(5)    I think I am actually growing fond of biking. However, it is supposed to rain tomorrow, and I will most likely change my mind about this.

(6)    This is a picture of a notebook that I bought for class today. The front says, “The note book having horizontal ruled line and being able to fold up us the best for arranging sentences.” I’m not sure why I liked it so much. 

My bedroom sans roommate: