In week 3 Elizabeth started going to school on her own. Finally, I had time to actually start doing some of the things I planned to do while I was in Japan. And as luck would have it, there was a parent-teacher conference at the school. It was, most certainly, all in Japanese. I did have a translator with me, but I don't think I have ever felt so useless as I did in that meeting. The teacher introduced me quite suddenly in the middle of the meeting to all of the other parents in the room. I had to stand up, and was expected to say something. Improvisation has not usually been my strong suit when I am tense even in my native language, so something terse that was polite came out of my mouth but I don't have a clue what it was. And Elizabeth had her first ear infection this week which meant we had to explore the realm of children's medical care in Japan. I had already meant my new Rheumatologist a week before and had an excellent experience with her. We also got to visit the closest Immigration Office, which was a 20 minute walk, 3 train rides which took an 1.5 hours, and another 20 minute walk to get to the office and reverse direction to return home. But before we could get to the office, they went on lunch break. So we had to wait the hour out and entertain Elizabeth while feeding her the little bit of gluten free food we had brought. This was a poorly planned trip, it really was the worse excursion planning we have had in Japan. When we finally got to the first desk (first of 3), Kurt had a lengthy discussion in which we learned that the form that was filled out by the company Kurt works for, with all of the attendant documentation including digital picture, was the wrong paperwork for E's visa. They gave us a different 8 page, front and back form to fill out along with a few different documentation requirements. We were in that office a total of 40 minutes and after the entire trip, it took us most of the day to go there and return and now we had to go back again! When I said I wanted to experience culture in Japan, I did NOT mean the Immigration Office and the trains.
Week 4 was blissfully less time at E's elementary school and more time to get the pile of paperwork settled down to a reasonable mountain. I believe we ended up at the City Hall at least twice during this week for various visa and health insurance reasons as well as returning to the Immigration Office. It was more then a bit frustrating to be emailed and told that we had to return to City Hall once again to complete some other form or turn in some piece of paperwork. The total mind-blower was the trip Kurt and I made to City Hall to bring them a carbon copy of a form we originally filled out and filed in that office building. The request came from a different office in the building (same floor, just next door!) and apparently they were unable to acquire the information from the other office. This just totally ticked me off because not only is this a complete and utter waste of time, but I already had to walk E to school in the heat and humidity and now I had to go in the opposite direction (right past our apartment) to bring this form in and we both had to appear. Utter ridiculousness. But the Immigration Office in week 5 was by far the worst. Kurt returned with the second form filled out and all the possible documentation they could want. And guess what, it was the wrong form too. But thankfully, since the form is entirely in Japanese and the officer knew Kurt had already been there once, the officer helped him fill out the supposedly correct form and submit it. I wonder if will really be the right form. We should find out in 1-2 months. Nothing like some suspense in life to keep things interesting. But at least the officials have been very courteous and helpful.
Week 5, was fortunately a true improvement over week 3 and 4. Although I had to bring E to the ENT several times during week 4 and 5 for the ear infection, this was a much better and shorter amount of time to waste then the City Hall or the Immigration Office. This is how Kurt got elected to go to the Immigration Office alone the second time, so that I could bring E to the ENT 3-4 times this week. This is also the last week of school for E until September 3rd. Much to our surprise (and chagrin), we learned that there is a 5 week break in school during the summer in which they still go to the school swimming pool 2-3 times a week for required class time. What exactly is the point here, are we tethered to school or not? A bit frustrating to the parents who were finally starting to enjoy the fruits of that 630 am wake up and get-ready-for-school routine. We also heard that our boxes were arriving from Boston this week, which was the cause of much joyous celebration for the 6 year old. Seems that she was tired of playing with the 10 or so toys she had for the 4 weeks we had been in Japan. But, by the end of the 4 weeks, she was really appreciating those newly arrived toys and books. I don't think Kurt nor I saw her for 3 or 4 days other then at meals since she was off of school by the time the boxes actually arrived. I was barely able to get the boxes open to verify what was in them before she would scuttle off with the entire box. So E ended up having a few (several) things in her room that didn't quite belong, like a hard drive, a few of my books, a small hammer, a pair of pliers and a garlic press to name a few. I walked into her room to see how bad the mess was, and to figure out how I was going to contain said disaster. The disaster was certainly there and the garlic press was in the middle of the floor like all of the other toys scattered around. I was wondering to myself why it was there and what she could have possibly wanted with a garlic press when I realized I needed to check her boxes for other misplaced items.
We ended Week 5 by going to our first saki bar with our neighbor and one of Kurt's Japanese associates whom he has not seen in 10 years. Yes, we took E too. It was the family friendly sort of bar I was told by the neighbor who had suggested it. And it was a fascinating and enchanting experience. The bar only had 8 seats and covered about a 20 foot by 10 foot area. The walls floor to ceiling were packed with various types of liquor and in between were all these miniature statues and various curious knickknacks. I have never seen a bar quite like this one. Every time I looked around, I would see something else I had not noticed before. The master of the bar only speaks Japanese, and lucky for us, our neighbor knows him well and speaks enough Japanese to get by better than we would. The master first served Kurt and me saki champagne. It was very different, tingly like champagne, not bitter and not sweet. I am not a big fan of carbonation though so we moved on quickly. We tried 7 or 8 different types of saki, both ones the master recommended and some our neighbor had tried and enjoyed. I tried saki from all over Japan and the variety was astounding. I did not know saki could have as much variation with only 3 ingredients. In between tastings, the master served different types of Japanese snack food like sushi, sashimi, sea urchin eggs and seaweed, mango pudding for E, melon with whiskey and kelp chips. The master's specialty is Japanese whiskey and although I would have loved to try it, whiskey is one of those questionable alcohols that may or may not be made with grains containing gluten. I think I will just stick with exploring saki for now, in all of the myriad variations available, in the most interesting bar I have ever been in.
A day in the life of Jacqueline. Never seems to be short on interesting factor, although maybe a bit long on the possibility factor. Regardless, there rarely seems to be a lengthy set of dull minutes at any given time.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Week 1-2, Japan
Immediately upon arriving, I wanted a shower and food. It was 9 pm Saturday night and dear ole Kurt went out to find the food, and I tried to figure out what was up with the hot water. When I turn on the hot water, no hot water actually comes from the tap. But the entire rest of the apartment was set-up for us. There were 2 towels, sheets, duvets and blankets for 3 beds, a kitchen towel and a roll of toilet paper, which was more then I actually expected. I did pack a towel for the 3 of us to share the first night. But, I couldn't locate the switch or button or even the unit of hot water. No shower for me, made the beds, ate something we thought was gluten-free and went to bed. And slept like a rock even though the bed was as hard as a rock.
On Sunday, day 1, Kurt made contact with one of the 3 people we vaguely knew before coming to Japan to ask about the hot water heater. Paul was so helpful. The hot water heater is electric and is controlled by a panel on the wall near the kitchen, which is labeled in Japanese of course. The gas stove was also tricky, but it is at least, gas. The flame is so high that I could easily singe my eyebrows on a regular basis if I so desired or, more likely, was not paying attention. There is no oven, much to my chagrin. My oven in Boston is a primary source of meals for us and we did ask during negotiations and were told "Everything is provided." This is the standard answer we received on many, many questions about what we could expect in Japan. Now, it's even laughable. We do have 5 plates, 4 dessert plates, 4 forks, 4 spoons, 4 butter knives, 4 juice sized glasses, 4 tiny tea cups, 1 chef knife, 1 shorter knife and something we now know is a dish rack. There were also 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 huge plastic bowl and 1 smaller stainless steel bowl and a strainer. So all in all, the kitchen was OK, except for the missing oven and no measuring devices. There is a tiny toaster oven which doesn't do much but can toast bread and bake french fries. If I had known what to expect, I would have chosen what I shipped a bit differently, including a can opener that can not be mistaken for a weapon and also removes the first third of the can. The can opener provided reminds me of exactly the type that Popeye uses in his cartoons to open his spinach and it takes about as much strength and coordination. It can be comical and hair-raising, but mostly we are taking unnecessary risks with our fingers when we have to use the contraption.
One big improvement is the washer and dryer in the apartment. It's small, but I can work with that. Much of our laundry is hung outside on hangers to dry in an effort to save money. In general, we have a 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen, dining room and bathing room. I think the grand total if space is about 650 sq feet. There is a lot of storage, more then what we have in my apartment in Boston, but which is totally useless here. Tenants in the building are only allowed to stay for 1 year. It just makes me wonder what the designers of the apartments thought people might need to store for such a short period of time.
On Sunday afternoon, Paul gave us a short guided tour to the local supermarket called Ito Yakado. It's actually owned by the 7-11 Corporation, the same convenience store we are so familiar with in the US. And they have several convenience stores around Japan as well. The supermarket is actually a department store like none I have ever seen. There are 5 floors, the first of which is food and household goods, the second is all mens and womens clothing and shoes, the third is children's clothing, shoes, stationary, electronics (tiny area), a book shop, towels and craft items. Reminds me of a Super Wal-mart, but much more expensive. The fourth and fifth are parking. The first time we went to the grocery side, it was a Sunday afternoon and it was thronged with people. There was barely enough room to maneuver the tiny grocery cart. I was having trouble keeping track of Elizabeth in the crowd even though she was always just next to me, much less trying to read labels and decipher the kanji, katakana and hirigana letters looking for wheat, gluten or milk. It took us 2 hours to buy a minimum amount of food and we mistakenly bought several items that had a secret dose of wheat. And then a 1 mile hike back to the apartment. Thankfully I had thought to bring along our wheeled carry-on luggage to tote groceries.
Here in Japan, MSG is not looked down upon as a terrible secret spice as it is in the US and other parts of the world. It is also made from a different product and fermentation process. It took us 3 or 4 days to figure out the MSG in Japan is made with wheat...yikes. And not only is it made with wheat, it is sprinkled on top of or incorporated into many foods, including potato chips, sausage, meats, bacon and most savory dishes. This was the source of my illness for the first 10 days in Japan.
On our first Monday we had to register with the city as aliens. I am officially an alien, you now know my secret! And we also registered Elizabeth in school, much to most everybody's surprise. I fully intended to get her into school ASAP so that she could start learning Japanese. But, we didn't know this yet, Elizabeth would only be in school for 5 weeks before the summer break and apparently it was anticipated we would wait until September to enroll her. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the school principle, assistant principle and our translator. Elizabeth got to meet her future classmates and we had a brief tour of the school as well as watched the swimming class. Elizabeth did not want to leave school that day, which was very promising. Wednesday was Elizabeth's first day of school and she was so excited.
Cheesy grin and all.
I went to school with her for the entire day, and the entire next week, all and every day followed by slowly decreasing amounts of time at school in the second and third weeks. I was exhausted the first 3 days, mostly due to jet lag and gluten exposure. I didn't have much to do except constantly direct Elizabeth in what was expected in class. Which is to say, she needed my constant undivided attention. Even though we did several things repeatedly, she still did not understand what to do. In all fairness, it is her first experience with formal schooling, and all in a foreign language which neither of us had any knowledge of previously. So she had to learn by following, something Elizabeth has never been terribly adept at and something the Japanese culture strongly encourages. I'll get more into the cult of conformity in a different post.
For those curious readers, the same subjects are taught in first grade in Japan as in the US. Reading, writing katakana and hiragana (Japanese alphabet), basic addition and subtraction, manipulation of numbers, science (plants and such so far), arts and crafts, music. This so closely follows the same subject matter I covered at her age I was a bit surprised. They do assign a lot more homework, sometimes 20+ arithmetic problems and copy work in katakana EVERY SINGLE DAY. This follows very closely to what we did in home school, so I don't get too much hassle from Elizabeth but there are afternoons when it takes an exceptionally inordinate amount of time to finish. Plus Elizabeth is expected to keep up her English skills by reading and copy work every day (assignments from me). Thankfully, she is ahead in math so we don't usually spend a lot of time figuring out the problems, but we spend more time re-writing the answers because her numbers are unreadable. The Japanese children, by contrast, have extreme control of handwriting, especially for the katakana and hiragana which are more difficult to write then the English alphabet. In public with their parents, the children are usually well behaved except for the very young, but school is a different matter. The children are just as wild and rambunctious in school as their counterparts in the States which, from what I was expecting, is a bit different and a big relief. Elizabeth seems to fit right in with her classmates on the rambunctious scale, even with a language barrier.
On Sunday, day 1, Kurt made contact with one of the 3 people we vaguely knew before coming to Japan to ask about the hot water heater. Paul was so helpful. The hot water heater is electric and is controlled by a panel on the wall near the kitchen, which is labeled in Japanese of course. The gas stove was also tricky, but it is at least, gas. The flame is so high that I could easily singe my eyebrows on a regular basis if I so desired or, more likely, was not paying attention. There is no oven, much to my chagrin. My oven in Boston is a primary source of meals for us and we did ask during negotiations and were told "Everything is provided." This is the standard answer we received on many, many questions about what we could expect in Japan. Now, it's even laughable. We do have 5 plates, 4 dessert plates, 4 forks, 4 spoons, 4 butter knives, 4 juice sized glasses, 4 tiny tea cups, 1 chef knife, 1 shorter knife and something we now know is a dish rack. There were also 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 huge plastic bowl and 1 smaller stainless steel bowl and a strainer. So all in all, the kitchen was OK, except for the missing oven and no measuring devices. There is a tiny toaster oven which doesn't do much but can toast bread and bake french fries. If I had known what to expect, I would have chosen what I shipped a bit differently, including a can opener that can not be mistaken for a weapon and also removes the first third of the can. The can opener provided reminds me of exactly the type that Popeye uses in his cartoons to open his spinach and it takes about as much strength and coordination. It can be comical and hair-raising, but mostly we are taking unnecessary risks with our fingers when we have to use the contraption.
One big improvement is the washer and dryer in the apartment. It's small, but I can work with that. Much of our laundry is hung outside on hangers to dry in an effort to save money. In general, we have a 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen, dining room and bathing room. I think the grand total if space is about 650 sq feet. There is a lot of storage, more then what we have in my apartment in Boston, but which is totally useless here. Tenants in the building are only allowed to stay for 1 year. It just makes me wonder what the designers of the apartments thought people might need to store for such a short period of time.
On Sunday afternoon, Paul gave us a short guided tour to the local supermarket called Ito Yakado. It's actually owned by the 7-11 Corporation, the same convenience store we are so familiar with in the US. And they have several convenience stores around Japan as well. The supermarket is actually a department store like none I have ever seen. There are 5 floors, the first of which is food and household goods, the second is all mens and womens clothing and shoes, the third is children's clothing, shoes, stationary, electronics (tiny area), a book shop, towels and craft items. Reminds me of a Super Wal-mart, but much more expensive. The fourth and fifth are parking. The first time we went to the grocery side, it was a Sunday afternoon and it was thronged with people. There was barely enough room to maneuver the tiny grocery cart. I was having trouble keeping track of Elizabeth in the crowd even though she was always just next to me, much less trying to read labels and decipher the kanji, katakana and hirigana letters looking for wheat, gluten or milk. It took us 2 hours to buy a minimum amount of food and we mistakenly bought several items that had a secret dose of wheat. And then a 1 mile hike back to the apartment. Thankfully I had thought to bring along our wheeled carry-on luggage to tote groceries.
Here in Japan, MSG is not looked down upon as a terrible secret spice as it is in the US and other parts of the world. It is also made from a different product and fermentation process. It took us 3 or 4 days to figure out the MSG in Japan is made with wheat...yikes. And not only is it made with wheat, it is sprinkled on top of or incorporated into many foods, including potato chips, sausage, meats, bacon and most savory dishes. This was the source of my illness for the first 10 days in Japan.
On our first Monday we had to register with the city as aliens. I am officially an alien, you now know my secret! And we also registered Elizabeth in school, much to most everybody's surprise. I fully intended to get her into school ASAP so that she could start learning Japanese. But, we didn't know this yet, Elizabeth would only be in school for 5 weeks before the summer break and apparently it was anticipated we would wait until September to enroll her. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the school principle, assistant principle and our translator. Elizabeth got to meet her future classmates and we had a brief tour of the school as well as watched the swimming class. Elizabeth did not want to leave school that day, which was very promising. Wednesday was Elizabeth's first day of school and she was so excited.
Cheesy grin and all.
I went to school with her for the entire day, and the entire next week, all and every day followed by slowly decreasing amounts of time at school in the second and third weeks. I was exhausted the first 3 days, mostly due to jet lag and gluten exposure. I didn't have much to do except constantly direct Elizabeth in what was expected in class. Which is to say, she needed my constant undivided attention. Even though we did several things repeatedly, she still did not understand what to do. In all fairness, it is her first experience with formal schooling, and all in a foreign language which neither of us had any knowledge of previously. So she had to learn by following, something Elizabeth has never been terribly adept at and something the Japanese culture strongly encourages. I'll get more into the cult of conformity in a different post.
For those curious readers, the same subjects are taught in first grade in Japan as in the US. Reading, writing katakana and hiragana (Japanese alphabet), basic addition and subtraction, manipulation of numbers, science (plants and such so far), arts and crafts, music. This so closely follows the same subject matter I covered at her age I was a bit surprised. They do assign a lot more homework, sometimes 20+ arithmetic problems and copy work in katakana EVERY SINGLE DAY. This follows very closely to what we did in home school, so I don't get too much hassle from Elizabeth but there are afternoons when it takes an exceptionally inordinate amount of time to finish. Plus Elizabeth is expected to keep up her English skills by reading and copy work every day (assignments from me). Thankfully, she is ahead in math so we don't usually spend a lot of time figuring out the problems, but we spend more time re-writing the answers because her numbers are unreadable. The Japanese children, by contrast, have extreme control of handwriting, especially for the katakana and hiragana which are more difficult to write then the English alphabet. In public with their parents, the children are usually well behaved except for the very young, but school is a different matter. The children are just as wild and rambunctious in school as their counterparts in the States which, from what I was expecting, is a bit different and a big relief. Elizabeth seems to fit right in with her classmates on the rambunctious scale, even with a language barrier.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Arrival in Japan, day 1
We have arrived. Well, it took me 3 weeks to get back to posting because I was so ill so that should indicate exactly how interesting our lives have been recently. Japan had a few surprises for us in store despite all the reading, research and questions posed beforehand.
First, at the airline counter for check-in, the counter front piece fell on my mother's foot and severely injured her foot. She is now almost completely recovered, 3 weeks later, after a visit to the ER at home upon landing. I have no idea what happened except to say that one minute she was next to me and the next she was crushing my arm and about to fall. The counter front-piece is that portion of the counter that when standing at the counter, it hides everything behind the counter. For some reason, it was not secure. The airline did get her a wheelchair and arranged seating for us that would prevent her from having to limp too far down the aisle. They also arranged a wheelchair at her next flight, and the paramedics checked her over before we left. Usually, at check-in, I would have asked about our meals which would have prevented the next problem.
On the plane trip over, the airline did not have out gluten-free meals. Normally, under other dietary restrictions, (maybe other then diabetes) not having your special meal is not too big of a deal. But being celiac means that if I get gluten, I pay for it dearly. Milk is also an issue and although cheese is usually ok, if I am in a celiac flare it is also a no-no. Normally lasts for at least 2 weeks, this time it seems to be for a bit longer (more on why in the next post). First I get the stomach cramps and the intestinal cramps than the terrible painful result of that (no details!). I think you can use your imagination on that part. Then the other, not so bad effects: red skin, fuzzy brain, small bumps on my skin which usually itch, headaches, tiredness (borders on exhaustion some days but varies widely), swollen joints, inflammation all over, red eyes...I think that's all the symptoms but I'm not sure. My rheumatoid arthritis (RA) usually flares up at some point for 4-5 days and I increase pain medication and hope that the day of my Humira shot gets here fast and that this exposure won't trigger a full-blown RA flare for several weeks.
I fail to understand why, when I explain to the flight attendent that I cannot eat gluten because it will hurt more then it's worth, why do I feel guilty? I didn't forget my meal. I called the airline and requested the meal. The flight attendants did their absolute best. And usually we carry gluten-free meals and snacks with us on the plane but this time we didn't because we had too much other stuff to deal with (mostly 8 injections of Humira at a retail cost of $8000) including the immigration issues. Well, we did get some food, mostly from first class: rice, cheese and some fruit. And the flight attendants make their own group lunches in flight and they had salad which I was completely happy with if a bit hungry. Elizabeth on the other hand, poor girl, did not want what they had offered. We had to bend the rules a bit and I know she paid for it (although not with tummy cramps thankfully). But 12 hours with no reasonable amount of food and knowing we had no food waiting for us was severely depressing.
After a 3 hour flight, followed by a 12 hour flight, a 2 hour bus ride and 15 minutes of taxi, we were all zombies but present in Wakoshi, Saitama, Japan. Just trying to keep my head up and my feet moving, my daughter from complaining too much and my husband on the focused track of getting us to our new home. It was a lot to ask. Then poor husband had to go out again to find us something to eat. I don't even remember what it was we ate.
Next, I'll post about the interesting search for hot water, gluten-free food, evil-evil MSG and the first days of first grade in Japanese.
First, at the airline counter for check-in, the counter front piece fell on my mother's foot and severely injured her foot. She is now almost completely recovered, 3 weeks later, after a visit to the ER at home upon landing. I have no idea what happened except to say that one minute she was next to me and the next she was crushing my arm and about to fall. The counter front-piece is that portion of the counter that when standing at the counter, it hides everything behind the counter. For some reason, it was not secure. The airline did get her a wheelchair and arranged seating for us that would prevent her from having to limp too far down the aisle. They also arranged a wheelchair at her next flight, and the paramedics checked her over before we left. Usually, at check-in, I would have asked about our meals which would have prevented the next problem.
On the plane trip over, the airline did not have out gluten-free meals. Normally, under other dietary restrictions, (maybe other then diabetes) not having your special meal is not too big of a deal. But being celiac means that if I get gluten, I pay for it dearly. Milk is also an issue and although cheese is usually ok, if I am in a celiac flare it is also a no-no. Normally lasts for at least 2 weeks, this time it seems to be for a bit longer (more on why in the next post). First I get the stomach cramps and the intestinal cramps than the terrible painful result of that (no details!). I think you can use your imagination on that part. Then the other, not so bad effects: red skin, fuzzy brain, small bumps on my skin which usually itch, headaches, tiredness (borders on exhaustion some days but varies widely), swollen joints, inflammation all over, red eyes...I think that's all the symptoms but I'm not sure. My rheumatoid arthritis (RA) usually flares up at some point for 4-5 days and I increase pain medication and hope that the day of my Humira shot gets here fast and that this exposure won't trigger a full-blown RA flare for several weeks.
I fail to understand why, when I explain to the flight attendent that I cannot eat gluten because it will hurt more then it's worth, why do I feel guilty? I didn't forget my meal. I called the airline and requested the meal. The flight attendants did their absolute best. And usually we carry gluten-free meals and snacks with us on the plane but this time we didn't because we had too much other stuff to deal with (mostly 8 injections of Humira at a retail cost of $8000) including the immigration issues. Well, we did get some food, mostly from first class: rice, cheese and some fruit. And the flight attendants make their own group lunches in flight and they had salad which I was completely happy with if a bit hungry. Elizabeth on the other hand, poor girl, did not want what they had offered. We had to bend the rules a bit and I know she paid for it (although not with tummy cramps thankfully). But 12 hours with no reasonable amount of food and knowing we had no food waiting for us was severely depressing.
After a 3 hour flight, followed by a 12 hour flight, a 2 hour bus ride and 15 minutes of taxi, we were all zombies but present in Wakoshi, Saitama, Japan. Just trying to keep my head up and my feet moving, my daughter from complaining too much and my husband on the focused track of getting us to our new home. It was a lot to ask. Then poor husband had to go out again to find us something to eat. I don't even remember what it was we ate.
Next, I'll post about the interesting search for hot water, gluten-free food, evil-evil MSG and the first days of first grade in Japanese.