days to remember

26/10/07

I like to do window shopping here. Well, actually most of the time you can just do window shopping here. Their technology is so advanced that everything is very high tech, sometimes you can’t even find the very common stuff we use back in Msia. Take for example, we wanted to find a broom to sweep floor. But you can only find vacuum cleaner at costly prices in super market. In the end we found the broom in 100 yen shop.

There’s this DeoDeo department store which sells all kinds of electronic stuff. From tooth brush to shaver to TV to air con or cell phone, name it and you can get it. They have all kinds of heater, with the price varies from 2000++ yen to 30,000 yen. We bought two, the cheapest one of course. But regretted later when we found 2nd hand heater at even cheaper price in the recycle mart. After all, we are using it only for this winter.

I saw this dish washer here, very interesting! Just put your plates and bowls inside and it will wash them clean, and dry them up for you, you don’t need to worry about it. Of course, it’s not cheap. If i’m not mistaken one would cost you about RM1800 or RM2000 like that.

I told you before how expensive are the fruits here, right? Just look at the price in the photos here, simply multiply them with 0.03, you get the figure in RM. This big juicy apple cost you ~ RM9 for one. Wipe your eyes, ya, it’s RM 9 for one!

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25/10/07

Introducing to you my apartment; it costs us 50,000 yen per month to rent it, which means RM1, 500! And this doesn’t include the furniture and the bills. Thanks to Prof Okuda and his family, we need not spend too much on the furniture. But then there are still quite a lot need to buy.

We are staying at the right corner, ground floor. There’s two rooms, equal in size I think. You can have a clearer picture of how it is like with the picture and layout of the house.

This is the view from my apartment. You can see that’s cemetry just opposite our apartment. For Japanese, they believe that their ancestors protects them, so they are not afraid. Actually it’s also a common scene here.

I don’t know if every house in Japan has a bath tub. But Funato san told us that Japanese has this practice of sharing the bath tub water in a family. They will soak themselves in the warm water for about 10 minutes after taking shower. Then the person will cover the bath tub (i don’t know what they call it) so that the water can keep warm for the next person to use. Otaka san told me we must take bath instead of taking shower so that your body can be stronger and warmer. oh well, unless there’s really such a need, otherwise we don’t wanna waste water like that.

The water bill here is very expensive, as the government treated the water for you, you can drink directly from the tab. But that is not all. You have to pay extra 50% for the water you use, meaning multiply the amount of water you use with 1.5, that is your water bill. Why 50%? The extra money is for the government to treat the wastage.

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24/10/07

This morning I actually took the courage to take bus alone (initially wanted to cycle but didn’t as not familiar with the way) from the university to SunSquare, in downtown, to attend the Japanese class there. Along the way to the bus station I took some pictures, these are the common scene here. The paddy fields, (you can find it everywhere, even a small piece of land they would not waste it1) the trees, (I don’t know what’s the fruit’s name in English) flowers, and this plastic bottles which i still can’t figure out the purpose of hanging them there. They look cute to me.

Lydia brought me to the class and left as she’s expecting a guest to visit her. The level in that class is too high for me, I hardly understand any words they said! They already can read the Japanese sentences and fill in the blank for the grammar and vocab exercise. Anyway, Lydia said I have to memorize all the Hiragana and Katakana first then I would be able to catch up. That’s tough. I hate memorizing.

Today finally I met a lonely lady in Japan. Why ‘finally’? I’ve heard many times from Father Chris about the lonely wives in Japan who walks the dog everyday and you almost can see them everywhere. but so far the first and only person I found walking the dog here is an old man nearby my apartment. maybe this is just a town yet so there are not so many of the lonely women walking dogs?

I met her at Lydia’s place — After the two hour dummy class I went to Lydia’s place again where I was invited to join for lunch as her guest was interested to know me, and guess what, her hometown is just one hour drive from mine – Sarikei~ what a surprise to meet people coming from the same place as I do! her name is Otake san.

The whole afternoon she shared with us of her life. she worked in Sibu for few years before so she knew Sibu quite well too. I said ‘knew’ because that is over 20 years back and there’s too many changes occurred, not only in Sarikei but also Sibu. then she went to work for 7 years in KL, and there she met her husband, working in the same company. She’s a Christian who used to pray to marry a Christian man but eventually she fall in love with Japanese.

She struggled a lot after going to Japan. At that time there wasn’t so many of the foreigners in Japan, and there’s no free Japanese language class like we have now, all she knew was her husband. That was a tough time, she had to pay to learn Japanese, and travel by train to attend the class, and she has no friends. The Japanese are very polite, but they hardly open their hearts to accept other people. it’s not easy to make true friends with Japanese.

Nevertheless, she stayed here for more than 20 years, with two daughters in high school. her husband has been transferred from places to places, so she stayed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.. and now in HigashiHiroshima. only the last 2-3 months she started to join this international community club, and get to meet more people. before this all her life is about house works, children, husband, and shopping (or window shopping she said). but I didn’t dare to ask if she had or has a pet. from the conversation, I guess no.

Now that she’s so used to the life here, this is her home. Life here is much more comfortable compare to Msia. The facilities, the systems, the benefits, etc.. (I totally agree with it!) Coming back to M’sia she only feels like a guest, not a member. Her parents passed away already, and everything had changed in Msia. Yet she didn’t give up her nationality as a Malaysian. After all, this is where she was born and grew up.

She also brought me to cheap stores to buy food. When new friends bring me to new places to buy stuff, things are getting cheaper. That’s really nice of them. But it’s not easy for me to go there often, as it’s far.

Buses are really punctual here. When it’s mentioned in the time table bus is coming at 4.49pm, the bus is there. And the stations they are stopping, the price and etc are stated very clearly on their digital board. But it’s not cheap though. For me to travel to downtown cost me 540 yen, this is more than RM16. Once you get on the bus, you have to pay 150 yen already. But it’s very comfortable, fast and efficient. Again, Japan offers you good quality and good services, and you pay for them.

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23/10/07

We found out the location of the church here already last week but Funato san said it’s very far and it’s not easy for us to get there. As we were unsure of how to go there, we miss the mass last week. After studying the map we should be able to go to the church this Sunday by taking bus and train then walk for about half an hour. Hopefully it won’t cost a lot to go there.

I’ve not been cycling for years since primary school I guess. Now I got the chance to pick it up again. I tell you, it’s a tough task. You hardly find any road that is flat, everywhere you go the road will be steep, either going up or down hill. Going down hill is of course easy, you don’t even need to cycle. But going up hill is extremely tough. It’s much worse than walking on your feet. At certain parts where it’s too steep for me I have to come down and push my bike instead. I have to admit that cycling is making my legs (esp. my laps!) pain even more than the time before I get my bike.

Everything is very efficient and systematic here. But then there are also things that are not so efficient. We want to apply for streamyx at home, but they need to take about 3 weeks to one month’s time to have it done. While in Msia, you just need 1-3 days to do it. So it’s hard for me to online still at the moment. Though Prof said I’m welcomed at the lab to surf the internet but then it’s not so nice to go often too.

This is Alvin’s lab; I found some interesting stuff there. Japanese like plants. Normally you can see green plants or flowers outside of the houses or sometimes inside. But this little Halloween plant attracts my attention. I wonder why it needs a pot with soil as it’s not a living plant. Anyway, they are not only fond of plants but also animals. See that snake with a clip on it? There are different types of birds, tigers, dogs, crocodiles, lions etc on each person’s desk. Perhaps those are the souveniors they got from trips, I don’t know.

The sun sets very early here, at 6 pm it’s totally dark here. And 6 am the sun is up. During winter the day time will be even shorter. The temperature was lower last week, but this week seems to be better. We don’t feel that cold.

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22/10/07 – Mon

Today Funato san brought us to a recycle mart and finally I get myself a 2nd hand bicycle which cost around RM150. There’s no worry of buying 2nd hand things in Japan. They will examine properly and fix the stuff before they re-sell it again. So I’m going to get my bike tomorrow morning as they will only send it by then.

We bought a 2nd hand TV at the same price with my bike. The TV box we bought is not compatible with the port here, and we kept on having problems with watching DVD. Otherwise we’ll have no entertainment at home lo. We saw a whole shelf of the porn movies at the recycle shop. I think that’s funny. They don’t sell other tapes but just the porn.

We went to attend the Japanese language class at International House in the university at night. It’s on the other side of the uni so we took about 30 minutes walking there. Half way walking there’s two guys came forward asking us about the direction to the International House. So coincidentally they are also going for the Japanese class. Their name is Jim and Greg. coming from L.A., they are working in a company in downtown. Americans are very out-going and daring people. They adapt themselves easily everywhere.

The class started at an unexpected way. The instructor (who actually can’t speak English) asked us to make a big circle and started by throwing a snoopy doll to one of us saying ‘konbanwa’ (good evening). So we gotta keep the ball rolling by saying ‘konbanwa’ if the doll is on our hands. Then she start the 2nd round by introducing herself, and so do we. Then the 3rd round is where we are from, so on.

The girl standing on the right is our instructor. A very cute and pretty girl. The others who are standing behind us are helpers, but they hardly express anything.

I found it kinda weird as they didn’t explain to us the meaning, it’s the students besides us explaining to us. Some of the students, like Jim & Greg, they have been here for few weeks so they know more than us. When there are students who don’t understand what is going on, the instructor have difficulty to explain, the other students will explain. This is very awkward to me.

On the right that’s Jim, on the left that’s Greg. they picked two person each round to act on the conversation they created. It’s funny when you see a guy wearing an apron which is obviously too small for him. ;D

They didn’t start by teaching us the Hiragana or Katakana, but they are helping us to be able to communicate in Japanese. Nevertheless, they do put in efforts to teach us, with pictures, and the items they prepared, and even acting, we do learnt sth. They make sure every students speak. Japanese used a lot of foreign words, especially Chinese and English, modified into their own pronunciations. And I find Japanese put in a lot of words in their sentences, making the sentences very long. That’s why you find them talking a lot while we can actually conclude in few sentences only.

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21/10/07

We went to a Muslim’s apartment in SunSquare as they are having the Raya open house today. A Chinese from UTM, Kho brought us there. SunSquare is at the downtown of Higashihiroshima, the apartment where Miss Funato wanted to book for us initially. It’s quite far from the university but convenient to go to the shops nearby, and it’s near to bus terminal, railway station. quite a number of foreign students, especially the Malaysians are staying there. we met quite a number or Malays there. Kho said there’s about 40-50 Malays from M’sia stay there.

The Muslim’s house we are going to is actually a Chinese lady called Jasmine, who can speak Chinese. I think she is a marriage convert. Her family is not here, she is here for her PhD. There are also some foreigners and Japanese visiting them for the open house. We enjoyed the nasi lemak with super spicy sambal, fried mihun, curry, super delicious popiah which I took a lot, cake, nice drinks which i don’t know the name.

After eating we went over to Kho’s apartment which is just a few doors away. His 4 month old baby girl is really a cute one! and I have to say that she’s growing like a 1~2 years old baby’s size. They shared with us quite some of their experiences as they have been staying here for 2 years already. By the way, Kho is also doing his PhD here, his wife Lydia followed him here.

Their apartment is quite small compare to ours; the one we are staying in now is twice the size of theirs. but I think that’s good enough already, as our apartment is a bit too big for us, and the bigger the house is, the more energy you need to heat up the place. I actually imagined a very very small apartment, where you may even need to store your mattress in cupboard after you wake up so that you can have space to walk and do works. But instead it’s much bigger than what I thought. Maybe the place we stay is not so developed so you can have more space in the house.

Lydia told us that the tour in Japan itself is so expensive that even the Japanese themselves can’t really afford it. That makes us wonder if we can have a look around in Japan before we go back… but the good news is we might have a free autumn trip on 11/11 which is organized for the international students. I’m looking forward to that.

Kho then brought us to few places to buy cheap stuff. It’s cheaper compare to the stuff we bought in YouMeTown so we bought a lot of stuff. We were over thrilled to find a packet of about 10 garlic only cost around 200 yen. Rice is also much cheaper so we bought another 10kg of rice at 2980 yen.

After we reached home Prof Okuda came to send us his bicycle. He has an extra one back in Hiroshima City and he purposely went back to bring it here for us. I have to say we are really blessed to have these people that brought us to many places and helped us in many ways. Though we didn’t manage to attend mass today, but He still looked after us so well.

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20/10/07
it’s getting colder and colder everyday… when it’s cold people tends to sleep a lot… or maybe that just apply to the two pigs here. =p

today we just have our meals at home, simple and nice. but a bit failed… we finished cooking, excited to eat, only to find out that the rice is not cooked! we can’t read the Japanese words, we actually set the rice to be cooked only after 6 hours~ after dealing with the cute little rice cooker for about half an hour, we decided to cook the rice on stove for this time. I look at the food getting cold, feel like a puppy waiting for owner to feed. huhuhu… We used heater to keep the food warm, but actually it didn’t help much. It was indeed a nice meal as the food itself is already nice, unlike M’sian food, too much of the preservations.

After asking the others only then we know that the rice cooker here takes like 40 minutes or more to cook. It put a big question mark in my mind as I thought Japanese are very efficient and want everything to be fast?

do you think the 4 season fruits like grapes, apples etc are cheap here? no! a little bit of the grapes cost you 798 yen or ~RM24! in the end we bought some banana at about RM6. that’s funny. but it’s not cheap as well.. one banana also costs you like ~RM1.

today we decided to put heater outside of our bathroom so that it can welcome us with ‘warm air’ after we take bath, otherwise its freezing cold after coming out from the bathroom. we bought some stuff from the 100 yen shop, one of them is the cloth to cover the toilet pad, so that it’s not so cold when you want to do business in toilet. it’s very cute!

wanna add on to the hygienic of the Japanese. In YouMeTown, the public toilet have this piece of paper that you can place on the toilet bowl when you use it. then flush away just like that after you use. it’s again sth new to me!

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