moving through

It was a few days ago now.  I was moving quickly behind Katie in the train station, but keeping up.  Suddenly, when I beeped my train card over the reader, the gates slammed shut and I walked right into them.  I bet I had a funny look on my face, because Katie smiled and said, “You got this!”  And she was right.  I walked over to the “Fare Adjustment” ticket machine and squared away my debt.  Now I know how to do that.

When Todd was looking for an apartment a few months ago, he included places that were not in Conway.  We were discussing the pros and cons of the various communities–location, price, washer/dryer, traffic, parking.  Todd said he liked one apartment best and the price was best, but he didn’t like it there.  But he said he had been wondering, was it just because it wasn’t Conway, the area he’d lived his whole life?  Would he like it after while if he lived there and got used to it?

Yes, I thought.  Almost anywhere can become home.

That said, I have been to many places where I’ve thought, Yeah, I could live here.  It’s those intangibles–the vibe, the tone of the people….maybe tangibles too.  Is there a Starbucks nearby, for instance 🙂

Could I feel that way in Japan?  Osaka?  Naniwa Ward?

So many of you have been so amazing–urging me on and giving me the thumbs up!  I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, even if sometimes I wish it was over, haha!  Seriously the new experiences combined with having to push myself to do something so big (for me) is excellent!  Knowing you all are there and only a plane ticket away is huge though!

My mom pointed out in our phone call the other day that it’s not like going out of state, or Canada, or even Europe.  Everything here is different.  I can’t even unwind watching sports.  This very minute on TV is sumo wrestling, live.  They just went through some type of ceremony where 20 wrestlers at a time came out in large colorful drape-like skirts.  Am I at EPCOT?!

To help normalize the atmosphere, I have a basketball game on YouTube–bless the people who post those entire games!  And I’m staying home today.  It is 48 and showers all day, completely overcast.  I washed some laundry, no longer afraid of the machine.  Katie got me the cutest Curios George shirt–I’ve always been a fan 🙂  She wore it a couple times and there’s macaroni and cheese on it LOL, so hopefully if I wash it now we will have a day warm enough to wear it with my awesome arm covers soon!

The food I have had has been good–some amazing!  It is still one of the biggest challenges for me though.  Yesterday I thought I’d go to a movie and maybe get pancakes first.  One the plus side, I found the pancake place I had seen the other day without too much trouble.  I should have looked at the menu though, because the downside was 1400 yen for pancakes.  Guess that’s a specialty item here!  So I ordered what looked like a reasonably sized veggie omelet.  It was good, but huge!  And again it came with a salad.

I swear it was a lot bigger than you can tell in this picture–like a 4-egg omelet.  I tried so hard but only ate like half.  I tried to hide the rest under some lettuce and my napkin–no to-go boxes here!

When a lady sat next to me at lunch, the best I could do was smile 🙂  In another situation I might have said hi, how are you, and maybe that would’ve lead to where are you from, or can you believe the price of cantaloupes!?  But the language barrier is just that.

Stuffing myself with eggs and salad had given me a stomach ache to be honest, so coffee was what  I needed.  A young woman struck up a conversation at Starbucks, asking where I was from.  I complimented her English and she smiled and said it was because she had lived in Australia for a year.

It was while paying for my tall drip, that I discovered my credit card was not working.  Huh.  This is a “travel” credit card that my bank suggested was best for my situation, meaning no additional changes for paying in foreign currency.  I checked online and there is no obvious method to get in touch with the bank–either a phone call or stop at the bank is required–sure!  So move that to the Hassles to Deal With category.  I was trying to see the screen she was showing me.  Here’s what I mean about how there will be like 10% of the words in English, but not enough to tell you what it’s saying.  At least it was clear my coffee was ForHere:

(Ok, still watching the Sumo tournament.  It looks like a very serious process, including a “referee” in an elaborate kimono thing.  Some of the guys are so big they can’t walk easily.  Kids are lining up as they walk in to cheer on the men.)

After coffee, I went to another movie, The 15:17 to Paris, about the attack on a train in France in 2015 which was thwarted by 3 Americans.  The theatre was packed–I was completely sandwiched in on all sides.  Every single person looked Japanese and I did not hear any English.  It occurred to me that maybe it was dubbed in Japanese; wouldn’t that be funny for me haha!  But when it started it was in English alright, with subtitles.  Even the parts in French had English and Japanese subtitles.  The audience seemed to appreciate the movie, but I wondered what they thought.  Even this morning, the news is still showing the video of the students running out of the high school in Parkland, immediately followed by images of the inside of a gun store, with rows and rows of huge weapons.

(Sorry for the interruption, but my doorbell just rang.  For some reason it does not make me afraid here.  It happened my first week and through typing in google translate by me and the guy at the door, we determined he was trying to “lower my electric bills” and I was trying to say “this ain’t my house.”

Today it was a guy in like a utility company uniform.  He tried to explain something, but no luck.  He gave me this form, with areas checked off at the top.  It looked pretty important to me, so I messaged a picture of it to my host.  He said “Thanks, Don’t worry about it.”  Maybe it was another sales call but the uniform was a trick!)

After the movie it was still raining, but I decided that if it’s not cold and raining, no problem.  Soon I was bumping umbrellas with my Japanese friends and headed toward a  “Pub.”  Probably some Americans there watching soccer, right?

Well, no, but it was cool anyway!  There was one other white guy and ultimately only me and a bunch of young people speaking Japanese.  One came up to make my acquaintance.  Kinda cute and nice, but I think he probably thought I was more Katie’s age, poor guy!  There was, however, American baseball on TV!  For all I know it was a fake, like me watching basketball now haha!  But I stayed till the end of the game and the Angels beat the Rangers.  Oddly, I thought, they kept showing the dessert in Utah in between innings ???

I guess it’s like Florida–if it’s 94 and humid it doesn’t keep us from living our lives, we just complain about the weather more!  Same as my cousins in Upstate New York.  If the roads are plowed, you go to work, hating winter, but still.  The rain here doesn’t slow anyone down.  The city was alive and exciting and I felt really lucky to be here!

Photo:  View from pub window