Day 19 in Japan – Running With It

Today was my first full day at the new school. I caught the train from Okubo station to Uozumi station and managed to do the unthinkable in the 4 minute train trip – I lost my ticket! I am pretty sure that I didn’t remember to pull it out of the machine when I walked through the gates, and then hopped on the train and didn’t realise until I was standing at the ticket gates at Uozumi and couldn’t get through. I almost cried. The lady behind the counter could obviously see that I was a sad gaijin and let me through without a worry, but I hope that it makes me a lot more careful in the future. Had time for breakfast in a bakery at Uozumi station, and met a few other gaijin there. They were American engineers who worked for Caterpillar, which apparently has a big plant nearby.

Today was my first full day at the new school. I caught the train from Okubo station to Uozumi station and managed to do the unthinkable in the 4 minute train trip – I lost my ticket! I am pretty sure that I didn’t remember to pull it out of the machine when I walked through the gates, and then hopped on the train and didn’t realise until I was standing at the ticket gates at Uozumi and couldn’t get through. I almost cried. The lady behind the counter could obviously see that I was a sad gaijin and let me through without a worry, but I hope that it makes me a lot more careful in the future. Had time for breakfast in a bakery at Uozumi station, and met a few other gaijin there. They were American engineers who worked for Caterpillar, which apparently has a big plant nearby.

I caught my first bus in Japan to get to school – the Number 10 Taco bus. To catch it I just have to look for the mermaid icons on the side of the road. Here you pay when you get off the bus, so I had an awkward few moments when I first got on trying to pay the confused driver. Finally got to Akashishimizu Senior High School and had a full day of work in an almost empty staff room. Akashishimizu really is in the middle of rice fields, and I have no real internet access atwhen I’m at school there, which helped me to get a lot of work done in my 8 hours there. I didn’t move from my desk even once, because I didn’t know where anything was, and there was no one there to show me anything. But it was a good, work-filled peaceful day.

On my way home, I made what may be my most important discovery yet in Japan. And possibly the thing that may prove the origin of my downfall. They make tiny, bite-sized chocolates here, and sell them for 20 yen at conbinis! 20 yen! That’s like 30c! It’s exactly what I always thought should exist – just enough chocolate to knock off a craving, but not so much that you have to feel really guilty. That is until you realise that I pass 2 conbinis and a supermarket on my way home – three bite sized block of chocolate could be a little more guilt-inducing?

I meant to go veggie shopping, and tried a new little family-run place, but it turned out to be a fair bit more expensive and smelled like pee, so I didn’t buy anything fresh from there. I felt bad wandering through their shop for 10 mins without buying something, so I ended up with some powdered milk tea (Royal brand, of course – it’s the best!). Haven’t attempted to make any yet, but if it’s anywhere near as good as the bottled stuff, I will be drinking a lot more tea.

After the chocolate discovery, I realised that maybe I needed to start doing a bit more exercise if I want to keep eating all of the new foods I discover and still fit into my only work clothes, so for some reason I decided to go for a jog. I think this is an indication that I was probably dehydrated, over-sugared from the chocolate and probably heat-affected as well and this was BEFORE I went running in the 37 degree heat. I got so many strange looks trundling myself along the street. To be fair, a firetruck-red-faced, fluorescent-white-legged grinning fool with pyjama shorts on going for a run would probably have attracted a few stray glances in Australia as well. I must have looked so funny to the poor Japanese!

I only ran for 30 mins (read: 20 mins of running, 10 mins of promising myself I would start jogging again when I got to the next corner) all up but it felt like an hour. My way home took me past my gardener friend (Sumino-san), who flagged me down and gave me a HUGE bag filled with goodies (goodies and more goya, anyway). Sumino-san is so nice – I am trying to think of something nice I could do for him in return. I scared a lady just before I got back to our house – there was a really sweet old lady bent almost double pushing her shopping home. I thought “here is a chance to get rid of the goya (not making that mistake twice)”, so I tried to ask her “Do you like goya?” in Japanese (anata no suki goya desu ka?). I think she thought I was either selling something or trying to attack her (it is the day before Obon, so maybe thought I was some demon spirit trying to force cursed vegetables onto her), and she gave me this horrifed open-mouthed look for a full second before she started saying “iie” (no) over and over again in a scared old-lady voice. She kept going for quite a while after I had taken off back down the street. Sorry lady, I just wanted to get rid of goya! Maybe she just hates goya as much as I do?

Used some of our new veggies to make a lovely stir fry for dinner (thankyou, Sam!) and Skyped home for the first proper time. Realised that Sam is starting to get really brown over here – I think it is the brownest I have seen him in 8 years. Ooooh, and writing that makes me realise that Tuesday was actually our 8 year anniversary and we both forgot. Oops!

Food highlight of the day: Has to be bite sized choclate with milky innards for only 20 yen. SO PERFECT FOR ME