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.
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