On Sunday, I went to visit a local church, Calvary Chapel Iwakuni. Since it was Easter, it was packed pretty full. The service was nice and I got to take part in a church picture that they take once a year after Easter service. After the picture, they had a potluck with lots of delicious food. I hung out for a bit and mostly talked to a pair of missionaries that were assisting the church. I also talked to the pastor for a few minutes before I headed back home to do laundry.
Monday was the scheduled orientation for all the people new to the base. I woke up bright and early and headed over to the meeting place. There were probably about fifty people in attendance. The first part of the morning consisted of many presentations, ranging from fairly short to somewhat long, mostly about what to expect from life on base, some of the more important offices, and the rules for people on base, some of which only applied to the military people. After all the presentations, there was a brief information fair, where people from many of the other offices and service providers on base came with papers to hand out and information to give. Most of the information was fairly inaudible, since everyone was competing to be heard over one another. I visited the few booths that were of interest and applicable to me, since many either focused on families with children or military members. Then we were given an hour for lunch, so I headed off to the food court to grab some grub before heading back for the second part of the orientation, the tour of the base and the city.
We all boarded the bus and headed off to explore the base while our tour guides gave a quick overview of the buildings as we drove by. We only made two stops on base, at the gym and the lounge for the Single Marine Program. We got a guided tour of the gym, which being on a military base, did have many useful facilities. They have everything from a pool to a place where you can rent all sorts of equipment for sporting purposes for free. The SMP lounge wasn't quite as exciting to me, since I would never be able to return again, so I took a quick look and headed over to the nearby Marine Mart to grab something to drink and a light snack before we headed off to the city.
We were joined by a new tour guide for this part of the tour, a member of the Cultural Adaptation team, who gave us all a small map of the city with several points of interest along our route labeled. She tried her best to give us a quick description of some of them as we drove by, along with a brief tutorial about how to ride Japanese buses(which of course I already knew, given my experiences on Saturday). The bus stopped at the local train station, where we broke into two groups, one to take a tour of the train station and the other to have some free time to do some shopping at the nearby stores. My group was the first to go into the train station, where our guide explained how the Japanese train system worked, including how to get to Hiroshima. That information was actually useful, since I'll have to go to the immigration office there, hopefully soon, to change my immigration status so I can stay in Japan. After that, it was our turn to go shopping. I was really tempted to buy a kendama at the 100 Yen store, but I refrained, at least for the time being. A 100 Yen store is basically the equivalent of a dollar store in the States.
Tuesday was back to work and some more training. And that takes us to the end of week one. Look for more in a few days.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Japan - Week One
It's hard to believe it's only been a week since I arrived in Japan. For me, my adventure in Japan really started when I arrived at the gate for my flight at the international terminal of the Los Angeles airport. Naturally, it was at the far end of the airport, but when I got there, the announcements the gate attendants made were done in Japanese first, followed by English. That was the first hint that I was leaving America behind. When it came time to board the flight, I got another culture shock, as we were all herded onto a bus, which drove a fair distance to our waiting plane. Along the way, I saw a giant plane painted with characters from Hello Kitty. I was extremely grateful that we passed it by and I wasn't submitted to the indignity of arriving in Japan in such an extremely uncool fashion. My only regret is that I wasn't able to get my camera out and snap a picture as proof of the weirdness. I did manage to snap a picture of a Pokemon themed airplane while I was waiting at the Tokyo airport for the flight to my final destination to prove the phenomenon was real.
After landing in Iwakuni, I was met by my boss, who gave me a quick tour of the base. I ran some small errands and then simply crashed into bed. Wednesday was almost entirely given over to running errands like filling out paperwork, picking up some needed things, and taking a look at a potential apartment. Seeing two dead cockroaches on the floor quickly squashed my desire for that apartment. They weren't little cockroaches either, but big honking ones, just laying there on the kitchen floor.
Thursday was my first day on the job. I got a whole bunch of information crammed into my skull and met some of my co-workers. Afterwards, the two Japanese ladies working in the library took me apartment hunting, where I saw a much nicer and cheaper apartment, albeit without furniture, but also fairly close to work. Unfortunately, I still need to get some paperwork done to change my immigration status before I can even apply to rent an apartment. Afterwards, we went out to an okonomiyaki restaurant called Sobatamaya. Okonomiyaki is a traditional Japanese dish that is often referred to as a Japanese pancake. In my understanding, it would be more accurate to call it pancake-shaped stir-fry with cabbage. However you think of it, it's pretty delicious, at least in my opinion. We started off sitting Japanese style around a low table, but ended up moving to the counter area because some lame foreigner couldn't get comfortable sitting at a table like that, no matter how hard he tried. I disavow any knowledge or relationship to that guy, just for the record. Thanks for the awesome welcome to Japan, Shuho and Yuri!
Friday was a fairly uneventful day. I went to work, where I learned a lot more about my job responsibilities and procedures. After getting off, I relaxed in my hotel room in anticipation of my big plans on Saturday.
Saturday was my real first solo excursion into town. I walked to the local bus stop, where I took the bus to the train station, where I changed buses to take me to the Kintai Bridge, a local landmark of some renown and one of the three most famous bridges in Japan. A round trip ticket from the train station to the bridge is 500 yen or about $5.
There is a fee for crossing, which can be paid for by itself or combined with a trip up to Iwakuni Castle, which is on a mountain just beyond the bridge. I strongly recommend springing for the package deal, which is fairly affordable and comes with discounts for some of the other attractions in the area, including a 20% discount on a visit to the Iwakuni art museum, which is located in the complex just beyond the bridge, near the rope-way up to the castle. Unfortunately, I only noticed the discount coupon after going into the art museum. I blame jet lag for failing to notice the coupon, by the way. Be prepared to be handed a lot of brochures along the way when you visit attractions in Japan, since each stop seems to have an informational pamphlet for you to read. And yes, they do have English and Japanese versions, in case you were worried about that.
After crossing the bridge, you emerge into a traditional looking area, with all sorts of ice cream places and street vendors selling food, including lotus root croquettes,a local delicacy. There are enough things to see in the area that you can really make a day of it in the area. Besides the bridge itself and the castle, there is also an art museum and a small enclosure where two white snakes, local to the area, are kept. On one side of the area beyond the bridge is a temple, complete with a Japanese garden. The garden was really peaceful and isolated. I was able to sit there for a good five minutes before anyone else came along, which was really surprising, given how many people were there. On the opposite side is a graveyard, along with another temple, if I remember the maps correctly. I didn't actually go on that side because it was getting late after I explored the one side and I wanted to get back before it got dark. That plan didn't actually work out(more on that later).
After I visited the art museum and looked at all the cool weapons and armor on display on the second floor(including some really weird looking helmets with crab claws and bunny ears coming out of the top), I headed to the rope-way to take my ride up to the castle(there is also a hiking trail that takes you to the top, for all you cheap/athletic types). Even with the rope-way, you still have to hike a little way to the castle, either along a paved road leading to the top, or along a more rough path on the right side. I took the paved road up and the more natural path coming down so I could see what both were like. On the paved road side, there is an abandoned well you can stop and look down into a little.
A little ways beyond that, you arrive at the castle itself, which is quite a nice-looking building, even if it is a bit on the small side.
The interior is a museum with various Japanese artifacts on display. The top level is an observation deck, from where you can see pretty much the whole town down below. It's really a stunning sight and well worth the trip up there.
After coming down, I explored the surroundings a bit more, then headed back to the bus stop to get back on base. I stopped in a souvenir shop and bought a set of postcards to commemorate the trip along the way. I made it back to the train station okay and with some time to kill, explored some of the shops around the area. I stopped in at this excellent local curry place and got a bite to eat. I was surprised how affordable the meal was, only about $8 in American money. Here's a picture, just to make you jealous:
Ordering food in Japanese places is surprisingly easy, even if you have no knowledge of Japanese. Many places have plastic models that you can point to for ordering. The curry place had English menus. Otherwise, the menus also usually have pictures for you to point to and order from.
After enjoying my delicious meal, I returned to the bus area so I could head back. Unfortunately, I ended up getting on the wrong bus and was forced to wait for almost an hour outside the bus terminal before a bus back to the train station came along. Probably I could have walked back in that time, but I decided not to risk it since I had almost no idea where I was. Eventually, another bus came along and I headed back to the train station, only to have more time to wait. I checked my map of the downtown area and decided to check out the electronics store listed there. It was basically the Japanese version of Best Buy, only a lot more loud, in every sense of the word. After checking out the insane prices on Blu-ray movies in Japan, I headed back to the bus stop and got on the right bus this time and was home in short order.
After landing in Iwakuni, I was met by my boss, who gave me a quick tour of the base. I ran some small errands and then simply crashed into bed. Wednesday was almost entirely given over to running errands like filling out paperwork, picking up some needed things, and taking a look at a potential apartment. Seeing two dead cockroaches on the floor quickly squashed my desire for that apartment. They weren't little cockroaches either, but big honking ones, just laying there on the kitchen floor.
Thursday was my first day on the job. I got a whole bunch of information crammed into my skull and met some of my co-workers. Afterwards, the two Japanese ladies working in the library took me apartment hunting, where I saw a much nicer and cheaper apartment, albeit without furniture, but also fairly close to work. Unfortunately, I still need to get some paperwork done to change my immigration status before I can even apply to rent an apartment. Afterwards, we went out to an okonomiyaki restaurant called Sobatamaya. Okonomiyaki is a traditional Japanese dish that is often referred to as a Japanese pancake. In my understanding, it would be more accurate to call it pancake-shaped stir-fry with cabbage. However you think of it, it's pretty delicious, at least in my opinion. We started off sitting Japanese style around a low table, but ended up moving to the counter area because some lame foreigner couldn't get comfortable sitting at a table like that, no matter how hard he tried. I disavow any knowledge or relationship to that guy, just for the record. Thanks for the awesome welcome to Japan, Shuho and Yuri!
Friday was a fairly uneventful day. I went to work, where I learned a lot more about my job responsibilities and procedures. After getting off, I relaxed in my hotel room in anticipation of my big plans on Saturday.
Saturday was my real first solo excursion into town. I walked to the local bus stop, where I took the bus to the train station, where I changed buses to take me to the Kintai Bridge, a local landmark of some renown and one of the three most famous bridges in Japan. A round trip ticket from the train station to the bridge is 500 yen or about $5.
There is a fee for crossing, which can be paid for by itself or combined with a trip up to Iwakuni Castle, which is on a mountain just beyond the bridge. I strongly recommend springing for the package deal, which is fairly affordable and comes with discounts for some of the other attractions in the area, including a 20% discount on a visit to the Iwakuni art museum, which is located in the complex just beyond the bridge, near the rope-way up to the castle. Unfortunately, I only noticed the discount coupon after going into the art museum. I blame jet lag for failing to notice the coupon, by the way. Be prepared to be handed a lot of brochures along the way when you visit attractions in Japan, since each stop seems to have an informational pamphlet for you to read. And yes, they do have English and Japanese versions, in case you were worried about that.
After crossing the bridge, you emerge into a traditional looking area, with all sorts of ice cream places and street vendors selling food, including lotus root croquettes,a local delicacy. There are enough things to see in the area that you can really make a day of it in the area. Besides the bridge itself and the castle, there is also an art museum and a small enclosure where two white snakes, local to the area, are kept. On one side of the area beyond the bridge is a temple, complete with a Japanese garden. The garden was really peaceful and isolated. I was able to sit there for a good five minutes before anyone else came along, which was really surprising, given how many people were there. On the opposite side is a graveyard, along with another temple, if I remember the maps correctly. I didn't actually go on that side because it was getting late after I explored the one side and I wanted to get back before it got dark. That plan didn't actually work out(more on that later).
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| Iwakuni art museum |
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| Japanese garden |
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| Kintai bridge from top of castle |
Ordering food in Japanese places is surprisingly easy, even if you have no knowledge of Japanese. Many places have plastic models that you can point to for ordering. The curry place had English menus. Otherwise, the menus also usually have pictures for you to point to and order from.
After enjoying my delicious meal, I returned to the bus area so I could head back. Unfortunately, I ended up getting on the wrong bus and was forced to wait for almost an hour outside the bus terminal before a bus back to the train station came along. Probably I could have walked back in that time, but I decided not to risk it since I had almost no idea where I was. Eventually, another bus came along and I headed back to the train station, only to have more time to wait. I checked my map of the downtown area and decided to check out the electronics store listed there. It was basically the Japanese version of Best Buy, only a lot more loud, in every sense of the word. After checking out the insane prices on Blu-ray movies in Japan, I headed back to the bus stop and got on the right bus this time and was home in short order.
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