It's actually not all that tricky driving on the "opposite" side of the road. At least that's what I discovered last Wednesday after renting a car to get a better view of the city. (There's only so much you can see when you're restricted to the bus route). The car we rented was microscopic. It was a 3-cylinder Daihatsu "something-or-rather" that had a top speed of 140 km/hr. At least that's what the speedometer went up to. I couldn't get the thing to go any faster than 70 km/hr before the entire vehicle started to shake - and that was going downhill! Going up was another story - I'm surprised it actually made it up some of the hills we put it up against - but slowly it made it up (a la "Little Engine that Could). I don't think any of the Japanese noticed our incredible lack of power or speed due to the fact that the speed limit around is 50 km/hr! Even the highway-ish road is that low. In some areas it was down to 40 km/hr. Granted the terrain is hilly and windy (wind-y) but even up in Haliburton and on the way through the mountains to Banff the speed limit is at least 80 km/hr (I think...?) I guess they just error on the side of caution around here. Either that, or their cars aren't powerful enough to bother making a higher speed limit.
But yeah, as I was saying, driving on the left side of the road wasn't as difficult as I was anticipating. After the first few minutes it started to seem natural and there was really only one incident when our lives were in any sort of danger - and that was when Amy decided to drive :P Haha okay I kid, I kid. All in all I think it's something I could get used to. (Even distinguishing between the windshield wipers and the turn signal... eventually... maybe... Okay is there really a reason why *that* has to be opposite in the car???). The experience made me realize how much I miss having the freedom a car provides.
Last night I took yoga for the first time. That was an interesting experience as well. It was actually pretty fun. The instructor was so spunky it made the class pretty entertaining. Think Ms. J but under 5 feet and Asian - and spunky. Uh, okay, maybe not so much like Ms. J, but there was something about her that seemed familiar...? I'm pretty sure she was over exaggerating everything for mine and Amy's benefit. She knew a few words of English, like "recenter", "pose", and "stop", so she used those frequently. Kinda nice of her, making us feel less like outsiders.
There was another person in the class who could also speak English - we learned that the embarrassing way. Apparently she spent 5 years in Minnesota getting her Master's in Psychology. I can only imagine what she thinks of us now haha. Before class started we were trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing... Whether or not we needed a mat and if we were supposed to be barefoot or not... One woman had her shoes on still and then the English-speaking girl came out with no shoes, so we were discussing this when she acknowledged that "no, I'm not wearing shoes - am I supposed to be?" At least we hadn't said anything bad! That wouldn't have been a good situation.
I guess a lesson is to be learned here - that we shouldn't assume that people don't understand us. Although most of the time, I'm pretty sure they actually don't.
In other exciting news, me and Amy have planned a trip for Okinawa! Those of you unfamiliar with the area need only know it's a tropical paradise that's located halfway between Japan and Taiwan :P We're going there for four days at the end of June. That happens to be Japan's rainy season, so everyone please keep your fingers crossed for good weather! ...After all the hoops we jumped through trying to get the days off I really hope we have prime sun tanning weather.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Japan - Day 85
Last week was Golden Week here in Japan; a week where many people get time off of work and school to enjoy a number of holidays. Unfortunately what this meant for us was - nothing. Well actually that's not entirely true - Amy and I did manage to get two days off together instead of just one, so we decided to head off to Hiroshima for a couple of days to get a wider perspective on Japan.
I can't say it was the most "uplifting" of vacations I've ever taken, but it was definitely a memorable experience. One of the places we visited was Peace Memorial Park. In memory of those who died after the "Little Boy" was dropped there in WWII. The park is centered around the Atomic Bomb Dome - one of few buildings that survived the blast - at least enough of it did to be recognizable. Despite is past tragedies Hiroshima has moved on and rebuilt and is now bustling full of tourists as many other Japanese cities are.
Actually, I was surprised at the amount of tourists/foreigners that there were in Hiroshima. I'd gotten so used to being an extreme minority here in Oita that the site of other gaijin really threw me for a loop. It was weird being able to eavesdrop on conversations and actually understand what people were saying! But I was torn - part of me was happy to not be constantly stared at by the locals, but the other part of me was jealous that they weren't. ...If that makes any sense.
On the second day of our trip we left Hiroshima for the nearby island of Itsukushima. More commonly referred to as "Miyajima" (meaning Shrine Island), Itsukushima is designated as one of "Japan's 3 Top Views" and home to the famous Itsukushima Shrine which was built out over the water about 500 years ago. During high tide it looks like the shrine and its torii (gate) are floating - unfortunately Amy and I got there when the tide was out and everything was just covered in mud. Nonetheless it was still pretty amazing. The landscape itself reminded me a lot of British Columbia (as I'm finding many Japanese cities do - Oita really reminds me of Vancouver actually). Miyajima is also home to hundreds of tame/wild deer. They're considered to be "divine messengers" of Itsukushima Shrine, but there's nothing all that divine about them. They're really quite annoying (in a cute, Bambi sort of way). All they do is follow people around and try to steal they're food. In that sense, they're more doglike than deerlike really.
Back at work and finally back to normal working hours - this past week went by fairly quickly (unlike this entry). Today on our day off we went to Kitahama Termasu in Beppu which is the only hotspring around where you're actually allowed to wear a bathing suit and then went and saw the movie "Babel." Despite not having the luxury of (English) subtitles, and not really understanding 3/4 of the dialogue I thought it was a really good movie! Considering it's all about miscommunication and language barriers I thought it was actually pretty fitting not being able to actually know what everyone was saying. I could pick up on some of the Spanish alright, but the Japanese and Arabic (I think it was Arabic - they were in Morocco...?) were totally lost on me. It was a really good story and I don't think I missed out on a whole lot of what happened. ...That being said, I think I'm still going to have to download it and watch it with English subtitles later, just because I'm the type that needs to know if I actually did miss anything important :P
Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I joined the local gym today too. We're starting to run out of TV shows to watch and need something else to occupy our time. It's a pretty decent gym - they have a pool, sauna, jacuzzi, plus an aerobics room, equipment room, and a number of tennis and racquetball courts too. When the temperatures start rising even higher in the summer that pool is going to seem pretty luxurious after work! (Even though we have to wear a shower cap - I won't get into that now though).
I can't say it was the most "uplifting" of vacations I've ever taken, but it was definitely a memorable experience. One of the places we visited was Peace Memorial Park. In memory of those who died after the "Little Boy" was dropped there in WWII. The park is centered around the Atomic Bomb Dome - one of few buildings that survived the blast - at least enough of it did to be recognizable. Despite is past tragedies Hiroshima has moved on and rebuilt and is now bustling full of tourists as many other Japanese cities are.
Actually, I was surprised at the amount of tourists/foreigners that there were in Hiroshima. I'd gotten so used to being an extreme minority here in Oita that the site of other gaijin really threw me for a loop. It was weird being able to eavesdrop on conversations and actually understand what people were saying! But I was torn - part of me was happy to not be constantly stared at by the locals, but the other part of me was jealous that they weren't. ...If that makes any sense.
On the second day of our trip we left Hiroshima for the nearby island of Itsukushima. More commonly referred to as "Miyajima" (meaning Shrine Island), Itsukushima is designated as one of "Japan's 3 Top Views" and home to the famous Itsukushima Shrine which was built out over the water about 500 years ago. During high tide it looks like the shrine and its torii (gate) are floating - unfortunately Amy and I got there when the tide was out and everything was just covered in mud. Nonetheless it was still pretty amazing. The landscape itself reminded me a lot of British Columbia (as I'm finding many Japanese cities do - Oita really reminds me of Vancouver actually). Miyajima is also home to hundreds of tame/wild deer. They're considered to be "divine messengers" of Itsukushima Shrine, but there's nothing all that divine about them. They're really quite annoying (in a cute, Bambi sort of way). All they do is follow people around and try to steal they're food. In that sense, they're more doglike than deerlike really.
Back at work and finally back to normal working hours - this past week went by fairly quickly (unlike this entry). Today on our day off we went to Kitahama Termasu in Beppu which is the only hotspring around where you're actually allowed to wear a bathing suit and then went and saw the movie "Babel." Despite not having the luxury of (English) subtitles, and not really understanding 3/4 of the dialogue I thought it was a really good movie! Considering it's all about miscommunication and language barriers I thought it was actually pretty fitting not being able to actually know what everyone was saying. I could pick up on some of the Spanish alright, but the Japanese and Arabic (I think it was Arabic - they were in Morocco...?) were totally lost on me. It was a really good story and I don't think I missed out on a whole lot of what happened. ...That being said, I think I'm still going to have to download it and watch it with English subtitles later, just because I'm the type that needs to know if I actually did miss anything important :P
Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I joined the local gym today too. We're starting to run out of TV shows to watch and need something else to occupy our time. It's a pretty decent gym - they have a pool, sauna, jacuzzi, plus an aerobics room, equipment room, and a number of tennis and racquetball courts too. When the temperatures start rising even higher in the summer that pool is going to seem pretty luxurious after work! (Even though we have to wear a shower cap - I won't get into that now though).
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