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This is what my new vacuum is called and I find it highly amusing.

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Just sittin by the river under Skytree way too early in the morning.

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Colds Are Not Fun- Japan Edition

For good reasons colds are not fun. They are even slightly less fun when you don’t know where to go to get cold meds or how to say what’s wrong. Lucky for me though, I have some awesome JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English). First, when I started to sniffle one of my teachers took that time at the end of the day to write down my symptoms on a sticky note for me to take to the drug store (which luckily is right next to the station). She was also very adamant about the fact that I needed to get ginger ale because ginger causes the body temperature to rise and that helps you get rid of the cold (You will come to see sweating out the cold is a thing here).

So by the end of that work day armed with my sticky note and feeling quite awful, I went and got cold meds. I tried at first to use Japanese, but language becomes harder when you’re sick, so I just showed the lady at the register the sticky note. It worked I got cold meds, but cold meds here are not as strong as they are in the US. In fact, Nyquil and dayquil are illegal here (so don’t bring them!!). Once I had the meds I also needed a cold mask, or one of these

Yes, you will see many of these once it’s flu/cold season. While yes I understand the point and It’s pretty smart, I am not particularly a fan of them. So once I had those two things and some kleenex I went to the grocery, got ginger ale and headed home. I then slept from 7:30-5:30.

I probably shouldn’t have gone to work the next day, but it’s hard to judge what’s acceptable absence and not when you’re new at a place. The teachers were immediately worried, but I’m also the school’s first JET and we have a day quota fill. Since I was there they didn’t want to send me home because I would’ve come for no reason. So they put me in the nurses office and I stayed in one of the beds (just like you see in manga) for the day. They were incredibly nice. (Luckily I didn’t have any classes to teach.) The vice principal gave me soup and my supervisor brought me ramen to “sweat out the cold.”

That was the worst day of my cold lots more sleeping done that night.

Friday I felt well enough to go to school, and I just had one class thankfully. My nose is still pretty stopped up, but I think I’m getting over it. Hopefully it’s gone soon!

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earthquakes are a thing here and they still freak me out

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one of the best things about traveling are meeting people. i just was on a train to kamakura yesterday and a lady who sat next to me, in japanese asked if i was going to kamakura (yes). and then asked where I was from and upon hearing i was from the US told me all the places there she’d been and i only really understood about 30% of what she said, but still better than nothing

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Guess who went to Kamakura this weekend

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K, everyone! Here is my apartment! I finally got it done this weekend!

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Things learned in the 3rd and final part of the great bike epic:

1. It's good to go and try to do things yourself, but once things don't go the way you planned/ there is too much of a language you don't speak, it's really nice to have awesome teachers at your back (One of my main co-teachers came over from school, this is exam period, they are so busy!!!)

2. After waiting over the weekend to get your bike back, having the people not be able to find it and say they think it was probably stolen is not a good feeling (neither is losing the equivalent of $20 while trying to find the bike in the dark) 3. I'm worse at not showing how I feel than I thought I was 4. My teacher gave me chocolate today because she could see said I just looked so depressed last night 5. A good portion of the female teachers find out your bike is missing 6. The school nurse knows the ropes of reporting stolen bikes, so she says she'll go check the station with you and and the chocolate teacher one more time and then go report it 7. You get to ride the school bikes, yes, the school has it's own bikes 8. How to get to school from your house on bike (it's a good thing to know, and it's really close) 9. Bikes get dragged to the side of the parking area and wedged between the fence and the concrete posts so you don't have to report it was stolen! And you get to take it home and run back to the station 10. Bike epics can end happily even after you're sure they had ended sadly

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Things learned in part 2 of what is becoming the great bike epic:

1. This apparently happens to every bike owner at some point or another so says my supervisor 2. The policeman gave the wrong phone number 3. But teachers are more than willing to try and figure out where the bike was taken 4. Komiya-sensei is very good at figuring it out and finds it on google maps 5. My school is less than a 10 minute walk from where they took my bike 6. The teachers decide to try to get me out of paying the 2000 yen fine and type up a letter for the vice principal to sign, which he does 7. The bike place is actually open in the evenings and on weekends 8. You have to wait a day to get your bike registration number from home (oh and you need your hanko, residency card, and bike key) 9. Even though it's grey and drizzling on and off the walk to the bike place after school isn't bad 10. the bike place is not easy to find and hidden behind a huge Asahi beer warehouse 11. If you stare confusedly through a window at people someone nice will come out to help you and end up walking you where to the bike place is (I seriously wonder how often that must happen to her) 12. The bike storage area is under a bridge, and there are so many bikes there that you now believe it happens to everyone at least once 13. Two old men sit in a little koban type thing and are confused as to why you're there, so the letter from school is real handy so they go help you look for the bike 14. Old Japanese men will not slow down how fast they are speaking 15. It apparently takes 5 days or so for the bike to get to the place and I have actually learned enough Japanese to decipher that I needed to come back on Monday

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Things Learned today:

1. You cannot park your bike where all the bikes are parked 2. The Koban isn't where you go to try to take care of the ticket you get and to get the boot off your bike. 3. If no one is in the Koban you open the door and use the phone (after waiting half an hour and then deciding to try and translate the sign using google translate) and have a very broken conversation with the policeman on the other side 4. They send someone to help in 5-10 minutes 5. Before the policemen get there a very nice old lady who runs the jazz bar, La Petit Rose, across the way comes out with her two friends to see if you are ok and then drags you into the her place for orange juice while you explain the bike situation and they try to tell you where to go, but can't, so you continue to wait for the police 6. The police are very nice and give addresses of where to go, but they are in Japanese 7. The company that compounds bikes is only open while you're at work (of course). 8. The three women find out your age then try to set you up with one of the police officers. 9. After that you go back to finish your orange juice and have Japanglish conversations and you meet piano technician, Jun-san who frequents La Petit Rose. 10. Parking your bike in the wrong spot leads to actually knowing people in your neighborhood 11. You have a really nice landlady who wanted to let you know that she made a spot for you to park your bike which you no longer have because it's compounded at the train station and you feel bad

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One of the first year girls is walking around with a small black cut out of a cockroach trying to scare people. She was sorely disappointed when I just stared at her hand. I’m sorry hun, but I’m an archaeologist, it’s gonna take a lot more than a paper bug to freak me out. I will say that she scared some of the male teachers though, hehe

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Adventures in Cooking

Today I tried to make one of my favorite dishes from home. Beans and rice, southern style with red beans and sausage and cumin, granulated garlic, granulated onion, oregano, and a few shots of tabasco. This is the meal I love so much I would ask to have it for my birthday despite the fact i it was so regular. So I wanted to be able to make it here for obvious reasons. The only problem is is that the same foods that are readily available in America are not in Japan. One of these being red beans, or at least unsweetened red beans. The re bean paste and sweet beans used in traditional Japanese sweets are readily avaiable all over. I made the mistake of buying some, and thought I’d give beans and rice a try anyway. Let’s just say sweet beans don’t work well in something that’s supposed to be more flavourful. It kinda cuts out the other flavors. So that’s adventures in cooking and I guess I’ll have to try again next time!

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This is from the super moon a few nights ago. We didn't get the awesome lunar eclipse on this side of the world, but I did get to go to the autumn moon festival at an Edo period garden in my area!

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Around Tokyo!: Ueno Zoo and University of Tokyo

Here is a look at some of the residents of the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo’s famous Ueno Park! The last picture is the central clock tower found at UTokyo the campus is open to the public and their are many open grassy areas for picnics!

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okonomiyaki, yum, yum

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The students in art club at my school painted this awesome mural for a local business!