First Impressions

Well, this is the first time I tried adding pictures before typing instead of inserting them afterwards. I'm getting frustrated with trying to move them around, so just know they are in reverse order of what I wanted. The above is a picture from my balcony this morning. Needless to say, when I first got here to Japan, I was struck by how industrious Osaka looks. I suppose it makes sense - it's right by the water, there is lots of fishing and trade and such. So as nice as it is that we live right by the water on our own little island, the sight isn't necessarily the prettiest. At least not in the daytime.

When I arrived on Monday afternoon, a man named Senichi Yamamoto greeted me at the airport to pick me up. Many of the Japanese people here, including him, have asked me if it was my first time to Japan. Hai - I say. "Oh you speaku Japanese?!" iie - (no) is my response and then I continue in English saying that I am starting to learn, but not enough to have a conversation. I am impressing a few people with my limited language skills though :)

We picked up Roel (pronounced Rule - not Raoul), my lovely Dutch counterpart and then made the 30 min drive to Kaigandori house. My new home!

Now i could give you a detailed - blow by blow account of what we did that night and then the following 2 days, but to maybe shorten the length of this post a bit and save you from reading for a good 20-30 minutes, I'll just stick to thoughts and occurrences and information you might like to know.

So, I told most of you all that I was going to be in a Hello Kitty show - well that's not true. The first night Roel and I were given our scripts and lo and behold, we are in a Sesame Street show :) Now, apparently, interest in Sesame Street goes all the way up through high school here in Japan (especially with the girls). Probably something to do with the "cute" puppets. Everything here is "cute" by the way. From illustrations on packaging to warning labels in elevators to ads for different stuff. Everything has these cute animations. And sounds. Lots of little jingles and sounds here. You might hear a little tinkling song and shortly thereafter see a truck turning down the road and think "ice cream man!" but you would be wrong. It's the garbage man.

Back to Sesame - Roel and I were both told Hello Kitty and were put in Sesame and Aaron and Max (who got here last night) were both told Sesame and are in Hello Kitty. I guess someone got their wires crossed somewhere. I'm not too bothered by it - I'm still makin some good money in Japan :) I also learned yesterday that I'm going to be Prince Charming in the Magical Starlight Parade! The link provided shows you the last part of the parade - the Cinderella part - you don't have to watch the whole thing, but you'll get the idea. Throughout the year, I'll be part of different things so I'll have various rehearsals to keep me busy. With late summer, Halloween, and Christmas, my most busy time will be between August (busy season) and January 10th (the end of Christmas).

I like my room - it's a nice size. As far as things to make it "homier" I am slowly working on that. It's rather creamy/beige but there is something called "dozo" which is basically "it's yours" or something like that. It can be used in conversation to be like "go ahead [and speak]" but in this case it refers to a room of discarded items from other USJ performers who are getting rid of stuff at the end of their contracts. At any time, I can just go down there and pick stuff out of boxes and baskets and piles of things to help spruce up my apt! From decor to kitchen utensils. Everything besides what originally comes in your room has to go at the end, so it's like Goodwill for the new performers but free!

My neighborhood, as I said before, is a bit on the industrial side around the edges, but it's cute. Except for the Japanese characters on awnings, you would think you were in a quiet area of Astoria, NY the way all the buildings are. And the way they light things at night is very pretty. I think evening is going to be my favorite time here. Things get quiet because most of the traffic around the house is work traffic and people heading to their factories and stuff - but there is a shopping area with a giant Ferris wheel attached to it that is beautifully lit at night.

I'll talk about this in the caption of the pic with the yellow towel, but bathrooms and showers here are pretty awesome :)

The atm that I use is cool. In America, our banks give us books to keep track of our transactions. It Japan, you have the same thing, but you stick it into the ATM and it prints all of your deposits and withdrawals for you! Very cool :)

The vending machines here are awesome. They kind of look like those old fashioned cigarette machines, but they have drinks - and you can get them cold OR hot. Blue labels are cold and red are hot! Why can't we have that?

Their transit system is very cool, clean, and 98% always on time. The Japanese are big on punctuality. To them, if you are supposed to be somewhere at a specific time, it's rude to be late. It says to the person who IS on time that their time isn't important to you. It's very selfish. So there really isn't "fashionably late" over here.

As I said, everyone over here has been very nice. The Japanese are very polite and for the most part very honest. In all cases for USJ performers who have lost wallets over here (even in Tokyo), they all got them back untouched! You don't find that in America often. Now, I'm sure there are bad apples and instances where that doesn't happen, but in general, and in the case of everyone who has worked here, if you lose something, it will either be sent back to you or held where you left it so you can pick it up!

Full sized grocery stores are kind of hard to come by. But all servings and things are rather small. Most people stop by the grocery every day to pick stuff up. There are things I recognize and things I don't. It's hard when buying sauces or canned goods. Produce is fairly easy. Either you recognize the vegetable/meat or not. And fish is CHEAP! I had 2 fresh salmon filets for about $4!

I guess that's all that I got for now. I got my cell phone yesterday. It does a lot of things which is cool I guess, but for doing so much, the graphics sure do suck compared to our phones.

I'll caption all of these photos (remember they are in reverse order!) and I'll write more soon I'm sure. Love you all!

This picture is sideways - but it is of my shower. It's a whole room!! Apparently it's Japanese custom to rinse off before getting in the bath - but they have given me a whole room to do so in. I just shower :) but there is also a full length mirror in there and little containers for soap and shampoo. I LOVE my shower. The toilets are also cool. Flushing one way is less water for pee and flushing the other way will do the full tank for poo. And a lot of the public toilets have heated seats and a jet spray to clean you afterwards - bringing back the bidet. Ha! Oh and they are big on sorting trash here too. REAL big. EVERYONE recycles.

A view of my room from the front door

My wee kitchenette. No oven (a microwave on top of the fridge), one gas burner and everything else underneath that counter, above the microwave or in my all-purpose shoe/linen/pantry closet by the front door.

This is a view from USJ of the Ferris wheel near my house. If I lived on the opposite side of Kaigandori, I would have a view of this as well.

I didn't get a picture far back enough to see the Universal arch but this is the main ticketing entrance of the park with the Hollywood dreams coaster in the background

A billboard on the citywalk

The lounge area in the house - this was taken the night we arrived. It was kind of messy, but it has everything.

From the lounge looking into the front hall - again messy because they are preparing all of the rooms for the newcomers.