I've been up for about four hours. Nothing new for me in Japan. The jetlag frog has me in its clutches. When I've been over in the past, I've always woken up early for the first couple of days. But usually I'm staying at my sister-in-law Yoshie's house. There I can creep out of the house, and grab a hot canned coffee or two from a 24 hour vending machine at the side of the road, and go for a walk. Usually, I'd go out among the rice fields, and stop at a shrine or temple, or just polk about the town. Once, I remember calling Yuka after I'd been out for 2.5 hours. I'd walked through town and up into the mountains, and I needed instructions regarding which bus to take to get home.
Apartment pictures: hallway, bedroom 1, bedroom 2
Not this time. There's work to be done. I finished transcribing a couple of chapters of William of Newburgh's Historia Rerum Anglicarum that Ben needs to have so he can translate it for our vampire conference. UNFORTUNATELY, I didn't photocopy all the pages I needed. So I wrote an email to the always lovely and ever talented Mudsey to grab the book out of my office and to photocopy, and hopefully fax, the missing pages to Larry's office.
Of course, I was watching TV, and saw the pictures of something streaming across the sky, accompanied by the words NASA and Texas, and bits and pieces of the Japanese from the announcers I could figure out. Strange feeling, as I was sitting alone in a bachelor apartment typing back in 1986, just before I moved to Japan for a year, with the radio on behind me, when I heard about the challenger disaster. My uncle was a senior engineer on the space shuttle program, responsible for the heat shield team, and he'd passed away the previous summer. So I've always had a special interest in the space shuttles, even though I find the whole space exploration thing a real problem.
You probably don't care about my reminiscing about this. What about the cool apartment Larry and Atsuko (larry's partner) arranged for me. I've got a tiny apartment about 15 minutes on foot from Larry's house, and 25 minutes on foot from the university. Views one and two show the inside of the main room, and view three shows the entrance way. It is about three times larger than the one I had when I lived in Japan in the mid 80s. So it is luxury plus. TV. Washing machine. Japanese style bath. Everything looks brand new, and the heater keeps everything toasty. Only the main room is heated. The kitchette, bathroom and toilet are unheated... wise. Of course the toilet seat is heated.
Larry took me out to a 100 yen store, and we picked up some necessities. Bowls, cups, glasses, chopsticks, cutlery, and the sort of foods you can get for 100 yen. Dried seaweed soups and stuff. I have some rice in the microwave as I type, and I'll probably sprinkle some soup mix over it, and that's breakfast! Nummy.
It is friggen cold outside. Not like it has been in Toronto, but I want to go out and explore here, and just walk about. I know it will be a challenge today, but as soon as the sun's up, I'll head out, probably in the direction of the university, to see what I can see. Larry's going to call me this afternoon, and I'll probably go out with he and Atsuko for dinner.
And tomorrow, I'll start in at his office, to see if I have some workspace. He told me that they've approved my internet access, so I'll be able to post these blogs in rapid succession, and get email sent out. What fun!
Just got back from that "little walk when the sun's up" but it took about 5 hours. Didn't get lost. That would be too easy. Walked the 2.5 km up to the university. More on that when I recover. Then walked back. Then continued on downtown for another 3km. Looking for something to eat, on a Sunday at 10:30am besides eating from a 7-11. Ended up with KFC, which is better here than in Canada. Did some real shopping: carrots, peppers, satsuma (oranges), bokchoy, fresh noodles, bottle of wine. I can start eating civilized.
Larry called me on his cell that he's loaned me to say we're going out for sushi tonight! And asked if I wanted to go to a snow festival. I need some sleep though. Got 3.5 hours to do it.
Oops. Didn't need that 6am wake up call for the 7am shuttle bus to catch that 8:20am flight. It's a 2:20pm flight. Was looking at the return flight, not the outgoing one. I forgive myself in the name of laggedness. That was after getting to the hotel. Shared the bus from Narita airport to Handea airport (90 min) with an Austrian woman named Britta. She was with the 2012 winter olympic committee. Or 2010. She spent the entire trip, when not explaining the intricacies of olympic committees, alternating between trying to make her cellphone work in Japan and wedging a wad of swedish tobacco under her upper lip. I remember it as snuff, but she had another name for it. Just the thing for long journeys.
I think I watched Spider Man 3 times last night. Made it worth the 1500 yen it cost to see it, but I just couldn't sleep, after not sleeping for the last however many hours it had been since I had last. Did get some down time between 11 and 3 local time. I think hotels are all about maximizing usage. I guess that's why I don't make an ideal guest. Had to have a shower and a bath. Watch a movie thrice (well, I think I saw it in sufficient fragments to count as merely two in total.). If I'm charged 1700 yen ($24) for breakfast, I might as well have three of them. Strangely enough, I did. A western one, then a Japanese one, then a fruit and salad one. Oh, four. After being so good, I had a plate of sausages and french fries (the Japanese version).
[Pictures: hotel room, view from buffet, Mount Fuji from the hotel, out my hotel room window, Haneda Airport, Cyber Cafe 1, Cyber Cafe 2]
It is now 8am. That is 6pm Canadian time. And I've got 3 more hours to poke about until checkout. Time to find an international telephone and let yuka know I've arrived safely. When I talked to Alan last night (he's in Tokyo) I asked him to email yuka to let her know I'd arrived. But still... can't call too often when abroad. Especially since I totally suck at remembering to send postcards. (Though if you want one, email me your snail mail addy!).
Yuka! I called Yuka just now. And she got the email from Alan telling her that I arrived. Not too much has changed in Canada over the last 24 hours. She seemed to get a kick out of my observations on being back in Japan, for the first time since 1995. I'll get to the observations later on, but they're joyful and sympathetic observations... not the "gee, they don't do it like this at home" sort.
Wow. I overheard a great conversation from some guys explaining how to get from the hotel to Akihabara (do a web search), the greatest electronics shopping district in Japan, and probably the world. Alan's promised to take me through his favorite haunts if I can get back down to Tokyo during my trip. This guy was explaining how he was able to get from here to Akihabara for 390 yen. Everyone else was paying 1200, so they gathered around to hear. Turned out that he was from the Cook Islands, and the other two were from the Philippines and Brazil respectively, in for a conference on Airline security. A real growth business. Don't know much about the Cook Islands, beyond what you get from high school geography, so it was a neat discussion on comparative cultures. They use New Zealand for all their foreign affairs, and all that.
Then it was time for the bill. First time I've ever paid $291 for an evening's stay (though that included the luxury of a single beer, breakfast and a movie). No wonder people can't travel if it is not on business. But then again, I guess I AM on business. Not looking forward to next year's tax time, that's for sure.
That's enough for today. I want to keep every day's post under 500 works, otherwise no one will bother to read them.