Pocari Sweat, SoftBank, and clear plastic umbrellas

As you've probably already guessed, these are some of the strange, yet very common things we've encountered in our daily lives in Japan to date.
From the instant we stepped out of the plane, vending machines of every sort surrounded us. They are more than a common convenience in Japan and sell everything from drinks named "Pocari Sweat" (sounds tasty...) to calling cards and batteries and yes, even cigarettes and alcohol.
On our first night here, Scott purchased a bottle of beer from a vending machine right around the corner from our house for 300 yen. Imagine a convenience like that in Canada! Unlike Canada, however, the vending machines all have hours of operation. They open in the morning and most, especially the ones that sell alcohol, shut off at 11pm. Most of the machines that sell regular drinks stay open for 24 hours and that's a good thing considering how humid it gets during the day. Although most Japanese are immune to the humidity, they still carry sweat towels around their necks for those really sticky days. I'm not really sure how the men manage to dress in full suits everyday in this weather. Tomorrow is our first day of training, which means we'll have to dress in our work ensemles too for the first time and grin and bear it through the heat.
The weather here has been relatively enjoyable so far. I'm not really a fan of how humid it gets in late September, but fortunately, the Fall has just begun! Yesterday was the Fall Equinox in Japan and it's considered a national holiday here, so everyone got the day off work! Wouldn't that be nice, eh?
It also rained yesterday, which wasn't so pleasant because Scott and I were in the midst of carrying our groceries home. The supermarket is located about 12 minutes away from our house and is very close to the Kishinosato subway station. It was a real adventure walking aimlessly around the store like the "gaijins" that we are. Some stuff was familiar, although most of it was not. In an attempt to pick up a quick bite to eat for lunch, we accidentaly grabbed some marinated pig intestines thinking it was chicken. Ha! We were so very wrong. One bite into the "chicken" confirmed that it was, indeed, something we didn't want to be eating. Lucky for me, Scott did the taste test...so I didn't have to try anything! :) While I'm on the topic of food...the Japanese food isn't all that tasty. Yesterday, we met our friend, Paul (from Queen's), for dinner at Namba and I ordered a rice bowl with chicken and eggs. Sounds good, right? Well, when it got to the table, all I recognized was the rice. The rest of the bowl was full of what looked like Grade E chicken and contact lenses. Ya...don't ask! I took one bite and that was about it. We opted for a sundae at McDonald's ("mcdonarudo" in Japanese) after that. They do sell some familiar things at the grocery store though, like Haagen Dazs ice cream. We bought some yesterday and while it provided a temporary taste of home, the container was so small. Everything is so compact here. I'll get to that later!
Within minutes of feeling raindrops, the Osakans all have their clear plastic umbrellas opened. Some are conveniently placed on umbrella stands, which are attached to bikes. The transparency allows them to see perfectly as they're riding their bikes through the traffic. Since the Japanese are professional multi-taskers they like to be doing as much as possible, all at once. The umbrella stand frees a hand so they can write text messages on their swanky cell phones or read a book. It's quite crazy to watch. We still haven't witnessed a bike accident and it's surprising considering EVERYONE here owns a bike. It's more common than walking and driving. At most subway stations, there is even a Bike and Ride section. Think Park and Ride, only for bikes. Two people usually ride one bike. Whether it's mothers and their children hanging out of the baskets or girls sitting on the back of their boyfriend's bike...it's all a common sight! The sidewalks are even divided in half--one side for bikers, one side for walkers.
The Japanese are very organized and meticulous. Every object seems to have a designated spot, but I guess this stems from the fact that their living conditions are considerably tight. Scott and I went to buy some bedding yesterday at a store called NITORI (turquoise sign in picture) and when we got there, we pretty much concluded that it was a Japanese IKEA. They had floors and floors full of everything you could ever dream of for your home--all at a great price. Let's just say we were happy because we got some funky new sheets for our bed.
The mattresses in Japan are much narrower than North American sizes. Pretty much everything is smaller--the clothes, the food portions, the cars, the phones, the apartments, and even the people. For example, a standard loaf of bread has only 6 slices, package of Oreos has 18 cookies as opposed to like 30 or whatever they have in Canada, and a container of ice cream is about 200 ml. I guess it's true what they say--good things come in small packages--because today, we got some sweet, sweet cellies at a store called SoftBank.
SoftBank is one of the major cell phone companies in Japan, providing well over 70 per cent of the population with phones. It's like a BellWorld to us. Its major competitors are Au and DoCoMo. After conducting some research, we decided to go with SoftBank because of the great phones, cheap plans, and of course, because Cameron Diaz is their newest spokesperson. Every store had her face plastered on the walls and videos of her speaking Japanese (!) on a cell phone.
We took the subway into Abeno today because we needed to go to our ward office to register for our "gaijin" cards. This card is a requirement for all non-Japanese in the country and we must carry it with us at all times. Technically, we need this card in order to get a cell phone, but it takes about a month to be issued. We found out from a friend that we could get a piece of paper saying that we don't have our gaijin cards yet and this still enables us to get a cell phone contract. Anyway, it worked, and we're in love with our new toys! Scott and I had a great experience getting our phones today. After roaming around Namba, trying to find a SoftBank with the phone Scott wanted, we almost mistakenly stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall SoftBank store with the nicest people. Although the sales people couldn't speak English well, they went to a shop around the corner and got a man to come over who spoke English flawlessly. He explained the contract with us in detail and made us both feel more confident about what we were doing. He even gave us a present at the end--some Japanese aromatherapy! Our basic contract will end up being about 2000 yen (about 20 dollars a month) yay! Scott and I ended up getting the same phone--the 706SC. I got a pink one, and Scott got a silver one. Check out the phone here: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/706sc/. Our SoftBank experience was definitely the highlight of our day! If you feel like calling us, let us know and we'll give you our numbers! :)
Well, I guess that pretty much sums up our latest adventures. I'd better get going because we have our first day of training tomorrow. I can hear Scott snoring in the other room--I guess he's out cold.

Miss you all!
xoxo
Jo & Scott

Having fun...and getting lost in Osaka, part 2

Well today was a busy day for us! We woke up at 4am (ewwwww) since our circadian rhythm is still out of whack and couldn't get back to sleep, so we got up and pretty much stayed up all day...and it was hard. The fact that we left the apartment pretty much all day made it easier and I'm glad we managed not to nap because now we'll sleep tonight. We headed out the doors around 10am and made our way to the subway station near our house (Kishinosato), which is about a 10 minute walk. Since our training for work starts this Wednesday, we decided it would be a good idea to scout out where the company headquarters was located (see picture).
We met our new friends (Laura and Colin), who also work for the company, at the headquarters and then dashed around Osaka like mad tourists, snapping pictures at every moment. Lucky for us, the headquarter office is located about three subway stops from Kishinosato at a station called Namba. Namba is a very popular area for entertainment and dining and is very bright, colourful, and busy (think Queen street in Toronto times a thousand). Dotonbori is a famous part of Namba and is is basically a huge labyrinth of busy side streets with street vendors, as well as fancy stores. They have everything from kitschy 100 yen stores, which are bascially Japanese dollar stores (see picture of what we found there! haha) to electronic stores, and fancy boutiques. It's a mish-mash of everything! We made our way through Dotonbori all day and ate at a nice restaurant shortly after we arrived in Namba. Colin ordered pig intestines and only found out after he started eating them! Scott and I really enjoyed the food and that was probably a good thing because it was our first taste of authentic Japanese cuisine!
After lunch, we explored a bit more and that's when we found the most exciting part of our day...in the distance, we saw a huge ferris wheel that overlooked the city, so we decided it would be fun to go on it. For 500 yen each (about 5 dollars), we enjoyed a fabulous ride on the wheel and also got a bird's eye view of the city. It was definitely a great way to see the neverending city and just how densely packed Osaka is (see picture).

Although there were many fabulous moments of the day with new friends...there were also some not-so-good parts. For me, today was the day that I really felt different and the people around me and they also made me aware of this. Between the many stares and being called "gaijin", which means "alien" or "foreigner" almost constantly, we definitely felt out of place. There was also a slight sense of racism as we got closer to the busier area of Osaka (Namba). Scott and I both find that people are frendlier and willing to help out in our neighbourhood. Before coming to Japan, I had heard that Tokyo in particular was racist, but had never heard anything like that about Osaka. I was appalled when we were waiting in line for the ferris wheel and one father said to his son "yana", which means "bad" and pointed at us. In the entire day, we only spotted about 5 other caucasians (it's about a 1 to 500 ratio in Osaka). Personally, it feels so comforting when a stranger smiles at you--you get a sense of familiarity and understanding even though you don't ever know the person.
As the day came to an end, we headed back to the Namba station, bought our tickets, said goodbye to Colin and Laura, and hopped on the subway. At this point, we were both exhausted and wanted to get home to rest. When we reached Kishinosato station, we took a wrong exit (there are about 5 per subway) and since our housing agent didn't give us a beighbourhood tour or show us around (still mad about that), we didn't really know how to navigate our way home. So, to make a long story short, we got lost once again. After walking around aimlessly for almost an hour, we just decided to get in a cab. But did we get home? Nope. We got lost. Yep, that's right....LOST.
You'd think a cab driver would know his way around a little better. As a sidenote, Scott and I always carry around a piece of paper with our address in Japanese on it, so that if we get lost, we can ask for directions. So, when we got in the cab, we gave the driver the sheet of paper and thought everything was fine until he started going through all these back alleys and was constantly muttering Japanese. So then, he pulled over in an alley (at this point I was pretty freaked out) and called someone on his cell phone and asked how to find where our apartment was. Well, apparently, the person on the other end didn't know either, because we got lost again. After pulling over in a second alley, he got out of the car and started asking random pedestrians for directions. He called someone again and then started driving. Luckily, after about 30 minutes, we made it to our neighbourhood. I was just thankful we arrived home safely!!! Scott and I both concluded it was his first day on the job.
So our busy day was an adventure to say the least. Although it's only our first few days here, we're slowly starting to recognize our surroundings. It's going to take awhile I think...especially at night.
Well, hopefully we don't get lost again tomorrow. Third time's a charm, so I guess we'll just see what happens!

We'll post again soon! Write us--we'd love to hear from you!

Jo & Scott

Arriving and Getting Lost in Osaka

Hello from Osaka!!!

So, after a total of 15 lovely hours on a bloody plane, we arrived in Japan! Fortunately, from the airport, we only had to take a train to meet our housing agent who drove us to our apartment. Also, we travelled with 3 other people that will be in our training group, 2 of which are another couple and shared our train ride. After we got all moved in we decided to go check out the local corner store where we walked around aimlessly trying to figure out what was what, when one of the clerks decided he'd had enough fun watching us and started talking to us in English... so it was great to have someone tell us what the hell we were buying, and it was tasty!!!

Now, the apartment... when you think of Japanese housing what do you think of? Tiny, clean and... as everyone's told me... tiny. But, our apartment is actually quite spacious and very nifty!! It has a huge bed, in between a queen and king (oh and mom, the mattress is the same size, so the queen size sheets don't fit!!) We have a pretty big living room with a futon (ie. come visit and stay here!!!) and then there's the shower room... it's an entire room dedicated to a shower!! Getting water everywhere and not worrying about it is absolutely amazing... then there's the "dipping bath" where you can just sit and chill out in lots of water... haven't used it yet... may be a cramped fit. Our toilet is hilarious yet oh so economically and eco-friendly! You wash your hands with the water that goes into the tank for the next flush!!! I was pretty impressed with that.

Okay, now I'll stop talking about our apartment and get to the fun stuff... our mad walking trip!

We slept like crap last night... woke up about four times and stayed up at 6AM here... 5PM is what our bodies thought it was. So we got ready and headed out the door to see what we can figure out about our little neighbourhood... naively thinking we could find our way back. HA!

After a big loop, we decided to check up some small streets and see where they led, then find a main street and see where that would take us... well after about 20 minutes into this I decided I could have been in Tokyo and not known the difference... but we kept travelling. Oh, we also had a map that our housing agent gave us of how to find things around us.... too bad the map was an utter piece of garbage and North was South and East was West... unbelievable!!! Well, that just made things worse and since we didn't find this out until the end of our travels and since we still wanted to figure things out, we kept on truckin'.

We wandered around a main street for a bit (but to be honest you couldn't tell, I was expecting such a different city scape than what was offered), we decided to just get groceries (our secondary objective) and take a cab back to our place. This is where we found out our map wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.


Well, that's been our first few hours here so far. It's 11:30 AM and we're already tuckered right out... but since we have to wait here from 2-9 for one of our bags to be delivered, we may as well nap and chill and just plain relax!! One of us may be on msn too since we're stealing the internet from someone around here so holler at us!

Well, see ya later!!!

Scott and Jo

We're off in 13 days!

I looked at my calendar today and couldn't believe it! In less than two weeks, we'll be half way to our final destination (well, our destination for at least a year)!
We're going to be leaving from the Toronto airport on September 20 and after an excruciatingly long flight, we'll arrive in Osaka on September 21 at approximately 6:30 pm. And you think that the over-tired, jet-lagged travellers can relax after the flight? Nope. We will have to navigate our way through the labyrinth of colourful train lines to meet our housing agent, which is about 30 minutes away from the airport. I'll have to admit, I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be an adventure nonetheless!
The good news is, we found out that we'll be living right in Osaka, which is the second largest city in Japan. For those of you who aren't familiar with the geography of Japan, Osaka is located on the island of Honshu (the biggest island) in the southern region. And yes, this means it's going to be hot and humid in the summers (averaging about 30 degrees from June to August) and cooler, but still humid in the winters (averaging about 3 degrees from November to March). It doesn't help that we have to wear full suits to work everyday, but I think our bodies will adapt...eventually!
Because Osaka is so big, it's broken down into wards (called "ku" in Japanese). There are 24 wards in the city and we're going to be living in Abeno-ku. From the sounds of it, Abeno is a nice area and is located just a short walking distance to many major attractions. We're going to be steps away from several temples and shrines and many beautiful gardens. For more information, you can check out: http://www.city.osaka.jp/abeno/english/facility/facility.html.
In other exciting news, we also have a place to live! We picked our apartment over email (yes, that's right...we were presented with several pictures and had to choose one). Although it may sound a little sketchy, we are both fairly confident that our living arrangements will suit our new lifestyle in Japan. As you may be aware, living arrangements in Japan are tight. Our place is a 1LDK, which means it has one bedroom, a living area, dining area, and kitchen. Here are some pics of the new pad!














We hope all of you are keeping well and we'll be blogging more when we arrive! Stay tuned! :)
Jo & Scott