This also means that, ta da!, I can bother people with my blog posts on a more regular basis! Gotta say, before this, trying to do anything at the local convenience store was not my cup of tea. Especially since I could only use their WiFi for an hour each day. An hour to take care of work, personal emails, and communications with my apartment coordinator was not enough. But yeah, now I can post blogs in my spare time, look into writing competitions, study Japanese, get in touch with friends and family, and otherwise better myself with my nearly limitless access to the web! (Read that all as “I will be browsing web comics and looking up cat videos every night.”)
Yet last week I promised more information on the move to Japan, did I not? I mean, this is technically a travel blog after all, by the furthest stretch of the definition. Well, first I would like to blame any grammatical errors, typos, or just plain bad writing on my apartment’s table, as it is the wibbliest table that ever did wobble. No, I can’t actually blame any of that on this crummy table, but I really want to. I’ve already spilled three cups of tea just by typing or turning book pages too enthusiastically.
The company I work for stuck me in a tiny apartment that, as a part of the lease, includes some “rental furniture” that I didn’t ask for and never wanted to pay for. While the refrigerator and clothes washer are nice to have, I could have gotten others for cheaper in the long run and everything else is either poor in quality or superfluous. For example, they “rented” me another induction stove when one comes built into the apartment itself. Why would I need two?! I don’t have any counter space to begin with! The wibbly-wobbly table pulls triple duty as my cooking prep area, writing desk, and dinner table. Definitely wouldn’t trust a TV on this thing, if I ever get one to play games with that is.
However, I have been so busy with the transition and settling in that video games have largely been a distant thought. I talk about them with coworkers and friends, but when I get home, I’m usually too preoccupied with feeding myself, laundry, and various other things. I’ve had the time, but I often find myself writing or reading or going out and wandering my new surroundings. Besides, I’m starting to think of this whole experience, if not careers and life in general, as something like a giant game anyhow. I mean, yes, people say “Life is a game,” but they each mean something different and often they never elaborate. For some, it’s about playing other people and out-planning them to get what you want. For some, it’s about competition and earning greater status. Me? I’m seeing this as something akin to an RPG. That means “Role-Playing Game,” for the less geeky and more socially and psychologically adjusted among you.
Even on my way over here, I could not help but think of traveling in terms of a video game. While flying over the Korean Peninsula, I thought “Huh. Between this and my flight over Russia, among other things, I have circumnavigated the globe.” I half expected to hear a “ping” at any moment and find a little achievement badge titled “Globetrotter” hovering above my head.
While at the hotel where my company was housing us for training, I thought “This is a lot like a tutorial in a video game.” The training was fun and supportive, the setting cushy, the stakes minimal, and everything about what I am supposed to be doing in the next year was more or less explained. Oh, and there was a silent, intimidating threat in the form of my new job looming over the entire thing. Company employees even showed us how to navigate the public transportation, which is unfortunately as close to a Fast Travel mechanic as I’m probably going to get in this life. Once they got us to our apartments, though, we were more or less on our own: Welcome to Level One, kids.
Like an RPG, I found myself surrounded by other characters (also known as “people”) with lives of their own, various skills, and story lines independent from, but similar to mine. Some people had been playing for longer and had managed to achieve one goal or another, be that to get a better job or start a family or whatever.
Living here, though, I find a lot of things are unavailable to me as a foreigner, which makes my own goals seem distant. For one, I am illiterate. I can enter a bookstore and browse their selection, but I can’t even read the titles. If I buy something, there goes some precious money and there goes even more precious space in my shoebox apartment. All the while, I gain no benefit from the purchase because I lack the skill required to utilize it. Furthermore, there are also various restaurant and store owners who will not serve “Gaijin” (foreigners, esp. those of Western descent) because we cannot read the menus or otherwise communicate. They also anticipate that we will be rude, loud, messy, and sometimes do not want to serve foreigners simply because we are not Japanese. I imagine that those last people account for relatively few of those who have refused me service. Or at least I hope so.
Either way, though, if I invest more time in “training” my Japanese Reading “skill” then, like a game, I will have more areas and resources available to me. If I invest time into buffing up my Japanese Speech “Skill,” then I will have more access to services and I’ll hear about other interesting places and resources I might never know about otherwise. More points in my Teaching “Skill” would mean fewer complaints in my job report, less exhaustion, and hopefully a better recommendation when all is said and done.
Also, very much like the start of an RPG, I am making very little money. Aside from only receiving a little more than what counts for minimum wage in my home state, I have to wait two MONTHS before my first paycheck. Think that’s crazy? Yeah. I do too. We were told something about Japanese laws requiring foreigners to work at a job for a whole month before we receive any payment. Perhaps this is to prevent migrant workers from flitting about and destabilizing the job market? Beats me. I’m just speculating. The real kicker, though, is that my company also has a policy on only paying for the work done the month before, or something along those lines. So, in short, even though I have been working billable hours since March 17th, I won’t get a paycheck until mid May. They did warn us that startup expenses would be steep, but it was not until we were practically on our planes for Japan that we found out it was because we weren’t getting paid. Guess that’s why they were so insistent that we set aside at least $5,000 for when we got here. That’s the money we need for rent, commuting, and food until nearly June. We get reimbursed for transportation costs, luckily enough, but, once again, those don’t come until our paychecks do. When that first paycheck hits, though, it’s going to feel like a sledgehammer of cash. It won’t be very much, really, but it will feel like a lot.
So these next two months are going to be rather lean. On the bright side, contrary to popular belief, food in Japan is SUPER cheap. I mean, yes, the average pay is lower than in the states and minimum wage is lower, so that drives the prices down, but seriously? A dollar for a box of tofu? A dollar for half a liter of soy sauce? Less than a dollar for a whole daikon radish or a head of cabbage? Wow. That almost offsets the pricy rent and utilities bills.
I’ve also made a little game of finding where I can get the best deals. While exploring the area, I have found a multitude of stores. Some are national chains, some are family owned. There’s even a little grocer not five minutes from my house. Each has different prices for their products, though, so I’ve been keeping tabs and figuring out when I will be in each area for business so that I can buy the cheap goods while there. It’s an efficiency and resource management game! It sounds bland, but it’s entertaining! It also gives me an excuse to wander and fill in those shaded-in parts of my World Map. Again, Fast Travel would be super convenient, but you take what you can get, no? Such wanderings have also earned some interesting local finds!
Yesterday, for example, I went on a run, as usual, but got completely lost for about a half hour. Not so normal, for me. Much like the vast majority of places built before urban planning, my town has a bunch of winding streets that snake through the cluster of hills that it is built on. Aside from getting turned around at every opportunity, I encountered one dead-end after another and then night fell. Again, normally my sense of direction is pretty solid, thanks to years in the Boy Scouts and how I just enjoy this sort of thing, but man does this place look different at night. While trying to find my way back, I noticed some soft pink and red lights floating above the hill before me. Break lights from cars? They weren’t moving though. Shop lights? Kind of spread out. Once I gained the summit, sweating and panting, I looked around, wondering what I had seen. From the top of the road, though, I could detect no hint of the lights and ran on.
Until I caught a glimpse of them as I passed the next street.
I doubled back, peeking my head through a simple stone gateway that marked a small parking lot. Within stood a dozen or so trees, with cars carefully nestled amongst them. Hanging from lines suspended between the branches hovered paper lanterns, lit from within by small electric bulbs. Through the pink and red paper, diffuse, soft colors illuminated the gravel and the leaves, staining everything in rosy hues. Tip-toeing in, I scanned the area, half expecting a cross Japanese local to shout at me for trespassing. I found a stone path and followed it for a few feet before I noticed the house set on the property. Through a frosted window, I could see a sink faucet, sponge, and other domestic objects. Convinced that I had stepped into someone’s yard, I nearly turned around before I realized that the “house” was actually the back of a small temple.
Just a few steps forward and I could see a traditional, Shinto-styled temple. Cherry blossoms fluttered in the branches above me, the occasional petal tumbling down as a breeze shook the boughs. Looking down and following the path, I found the shrine itself standing at the end. The wood was dark with age or artificial staining; smokey in the dimness, with paper talismans hanging from the front entrance’s archway. I stood at the edge of a small courtyard, it seemed, with the shrine at the far end and other structures framing the gravel-covered space, including the building that also served as a house.
Sudden, acute awareness of my foreignness kicked me back to my senses. The terror of accidentally trespassing and the knowledge that I was still lost at night with a dying phone sent me back on my run. I wish I had taken pictures for you guys. Thing is, when I finally gave up and opened Google Maps a few minutes later, the app said I was only seven minutes from my apartment. The shrine could not have been that much farther!
With that in mind, I tried to find it again tonight, hoping to see the lanterns and the cherry blossoms. Problem is, the shrine I found on Google Maps was the wrong one. This temple, far nearer my place, is called Komagata Tenmangu. Again, no idea what that means, but this was a far more foreboding locale. Almost entirely unlit at the top of nearly fifty stairs and guarded by stone hounds, whose pale fangs and wide eyes gleamed in the gloom, I was tempted to turn back right then. It did not help that I was also, once again, surrounded by houses. I did not want to seem a trespasser or look like the clueless foreigner/borderline tourist that I am, so I took a couple quick pictures and went on to try to find my original goal. No luck, I’m afraid. Went wandering around for a good hour, but to no avail.
Returning to my apartment, I opened Google Maps again (thanks to my WiFi!!!) and I think I’ve found the right place, finally. It’s called Shirahata Jinja and it is almost equidistant from my apartment to the furthest I explored tonight. Damn, but it is hard navigating this town at night! I’ll try again tomorrow.
Until I get those pics, though, here’s a little preview of what I’ll write about next week!
In the meantime, I have some studying and other work to do. If I’m going to thrive here, I really need to work on my language proficiency and I also hear other writing projects calling my name. Gotta level up my fiction and other works if I want to make a living as a writer some day soon!
I’ll talk with you all soon. Have a good week!
Song of the Week: “Shell” by NateWantsToBattle is but one song from an entire album inspired by one of the great video game classics: “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” If you enjoy this tune, you might want to check out the rest of his album!
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