Trip to Enoshima

Four pictures of my trip to Enoshima with Khing-san.

http://picasaweb.google.com/grout7/Enoshima#

Khing and I visited Enoshima, a small island south of Fujisawa. We saw lots of surfers on the way. There's a bridge - Khing says it reminds him of Mont Saint Michel. We walked up a steep street between shops. We bought a potato cake, a fish cake, and a tasty grilled substance on a stick that we couldn't identify.

At the top of the little town area, you start up the steps for the temples. For ¥150, you can ride a series of escalators to the top. Most people take the steps. As you walk, you pass several shrines, a temple, more restaurants and shops, and some houses.

At the far end of the island, you descend to the rocky shore. We thought that when we got to the far side of the island, we could return by walking around the island at sea level. But, Enoshima is too rocky for that. The only way back was up all those stairs, across the top of the island, and back down the way we originally went up. The juggler passed us on the way back down.

Is It Still A River?

Most of the streams I've seen in Japan are in cement channels. Of course, I've mostly been in urban areas. Japan has lots of wild and steeply descending streams elsewhere. This is the river right by our apartment-to-be in Fujisawa.

It doesn't look like a living river, but this fellow is doing OK:

And here are some carp:

That's Not Milk

Here are the sake selections at Khing's Palace. The stuff in the three-liter carton isn't as good as the 1.8 liter bottle. I know, it could just be the psychology of drinking out of a box, but I think the bottle really is better.

The cool think about sake is that it varies widely. It can taste clean or rich or yeasty or lots of other things that I can't name. Somehow it always tastes like sake, too.

Food Day At Work

At home people bring in donuts. Monday Kanno-san brought eggs and Ono-san brought persimmons. The eggs were boiled in an Onsen or natural hot spring. They're popular for bathing, but apparently you can cook in them, too. They are white inside and taste like regular hard-boiled eggs, but I guess the minerals in the onsen turn the shell black.

I remember Mari-chan saying how she missed the persimmons in Japan and couldn't find them in the US. The only persimmon I ever tried in the US was unpleasantly astringent. The first one of these I cut open was juicy and super sweet - it was awesome. The second one wasn't quite as good. I ate them for breakfast during the week and I bought a couple more at the grocery store today - I think I'll try them in my oatmeal.

Mixed Nuts

I bought this big can of mixed nuts at the drug store near work (
¥880). On the front it says, "Crown nuts and fruit - Mixed Nuts - Delicious...Any Time - Crown Foods Co. Ltd. Yokohama." That's the only English on the package. I can't even figure out how much it's supposed to weigh. The selection of nuts is wild: two kinds of peanuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, corn nuts, garbonzo beans, and pistacios IN THE SHELL. It's like they put land mines in there to make sure you're looking at what you're eating before you put it in your mouth.

I'm enjoying them with my Eco Choco. I haven't yet found top-notch chocolate here, but this one's not bad. The only thing I can decipher from its package is that it's Rainforest Alliance Certified and bitter. I wouldn't have called it bitter, just moderately dark. The other dark chocolate I tried, "Meiji Black," is dark in color but sweet. It's excellent in my oatmeal.

What Is It?

In Japan, you have to get over the idea that you should know what something is before you put it in your mouth. This morning at Denny's, I had a breakfast soup with various items in it. I didn't know what most of the things were, but the whole soup was yummy. A little reasearch tells me one of the items was lotus root, like in the picture. It had a lovely crispness, a bit like a water chestnut.

I Think They Have Those

Here's how Dante decided it's OK to go live in Japan for a while:

"So, Dante, what do you think about going to live in Japan for a while?"
"I don't want to go."
"Why not?"
"Because they don't have computers there."
"Oh, I think they do have computers. And we'll take ours with us."
Looking thoughtful. "Do they have TV?"
"Yes, they have TV, too. And, you know what? At school in Japan, they speak English."
"Really?" His eyes widened.

So, Japan is better than Spain, because he doesn't have a computer in Spain, and Japan is better than Minnesota, because at school in Minnesota, they speak French.

Education Center, No Less

While apartment hunting in Fujisawa, I noticed this sign announcing the Lego Education Center on the third floor of this building. You can see the giant lego stickers in the windows from the street. I didn't go up, but we'll definitely take Dante.
I wonder if Legos are marketed in Japan as being educational?

Apartment Hunting

Thursday, I visited 5 possible apartments. I picked my favorite and told my helper, Takamura-san, to take it. He called our agent, who called the landlord's agent, who called the landlord. Sadly, the landlord didn't want to rent to a short-term gaijin, so it's back to square one. Monday, Takamura-san will have a try at my second choice.

The apartment listings are all on the agent's computer, but he always prints them out to show them to us. This is frustrating, since the writing is mostly incomprehensible to me, and I can't use online translation to help out.

Here's the location of the one I hope to get Monday. It's the one that says グリーンハイツ　(guriin haitsu) or Green Heights.

http://tinyurl.com/grnhts

STRAGE Against The Machine!

There's a closet door at work boldly labeled STRAGE. I like to shake my fist and holler STRAGE! as I walk past it.

At first I thought it a strange error, but now it makes sense to me. The author must have been aware of the bizarre practice in English of leaving out the vowels that always appear between consonants in Japanese. He just got a bit carried away with his application of this English practice. He may even have been aware that STR is a common consonant combo.

Koban

I had an interview (if you can call it that) with a Japanese policeman yesterday evening. I was alone at Khing's apartment when the doorbell rang, twice. I opened the door for a policeman. He asked if I spoke Japanese (in very clear English). Happily, Masako, who lives across the parking lot, had seen the policeman there and walked over. She explained that I didn't speak Japanese and did all the talking.

Turns out, he was investigating an ongoing feud on the second floor. He and his partner were interviewing neighbors about noise or other disturbances. Masako explained that I had only been there about a day, and that they wanted to talk to Khing. So, she called Khing on her cell phone and asked him what he had seen and heard, then relayed his answers to the policeman.

Two things impressed me about this incident. First, the policeman was the calmest, quietest, person I've ever met. His voice was so smooth and pleasant and his manner so polite that it was impossible not to like him. Second, I thought the contrast with police in the US was interesting. There, police who received a complaint about noise would come around, tell the two families to shut up, then come back after somebody got shot. Less facetiously, they'd see if a crime had occurred and arrest the perpetrators. Here in Japan, they saw their job as restoring harmony in the neighborhood. Masako, when she volunteered to call Khing and interview him herself, seemed to see that as her job, too.

This made me wonder if Japan has more police, so that they have time for this sort of thing. Actually, they have fewer than we do. Japan has about 1.8 cops per 1000 residents, while the US has about 2.18 cops per 1000. I guess there is just less crime to keep the police busy.

Ready to Fly

The suitcases are sitting by the front door - got to get up early for the airport.

The whole endeavor seems a bit crazy. I don't doubt that things can and will go wrong, but I don't really care. I guess we've got the big stuff covered.

I'm excited, but when someone asked what I was looking forward to in Japan, I wasn't sure. I guess it's just making a life with my family in a new place.