Archive for category Life in Japan
Japanese buses are f**king confusing!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on March 9, 2015
When people think of mass transit in Japan they usually think of trains first, and for good reason. Trains are by far the most famous and most efficient way to get around the country and the major cities. But not all cities are big enough to have great train systems like Tokyo or Yokohama. Enter the bus.
After living in Winnipeg, I am very used to riding the bus. Winnipeg Transit is usually on time, and provides decent service along major routes and is really cheap. Before anyone in Winnipeg starts complaining about this one, I would suggest that you try another city’s bus system first. Anyway, I figured that since I mastered the train system with no previous exposure to trains, buses would be no problem. Was I ever wrong!
There are two main kinds of buses in Japan. One is what is familiar to most people in Canada. You pay a set fare when you enter the bus, and exit when you reach your destination. No problem here. On the other type of bus, you have to pay based on the distance traveled. You board the bus by the rear door and take a ticket. Your ticket will have a number of the stop that you entered the bus. As the bus travels, there is a large digital scoreboard at the front which has the stop numbers and the current price. For example, I get on at stop one, so underneath the one, it says 150 yen. At stop two the board is updated with a higher price for people who boarded at stop one and a base price for people who just boarded. (Seeing it is much easier to understand than reading this.)
When you want to leave the bus you press the signal button and you insert your ticket in the reader at the front of the bus beside the driver. The readout displays how much you owe, and you insert that in change into the coin slot. If you have a 1000 yen bill you can put it into the bill slot. The bill slot will break your 1000 yen bill into 9 x 100 yen coins, 1 x 50 yen coin and 5 x 10 yen coins. You then insert the correct amount of change into the coin slot and leave the bus. Despite the fact that vending machines, train ticket machines, and EVERY OTHER MACHINE WHICH TAKES PAYMENT allows you to pay with bills, this bill slot only makes change for you.
Last Friday I rode the bus from Mishima station near my school to Ooka station near the Penpal’s house. I didn’t have enough change, but I had a 1000 yen bill and NONE of the information I just typed. First I tried to stick my ticket into the bill slot. Fortunately the driver was able to rescue it and put it in the right place. The display read 270 yen, so I inserted my 1000 yen bill, took all the change (1000 yen) and tried to leave the bus. The driver stopped me, and then I realized that I hadn’t yet paid. Fortunately, most bus drivers are used to people (especially foreigners) being confused with this system and are very patient and friendly about the whole thing.
To make things even more confusing, in Nagoya city there are two companies that run buses in the city. One has the previously mentioned system of breaking your bill and then you pay. The new company accepts payment with bills and makes change. Two different systems in the same city. Even the Japanese are confused by that one. In the mean time, I think I will try to stick to the excellent train system where I can insert any bill and coins by the handful, or my bicycle that I can drive on the sidewalk and park nearly anywhere. buses are just too f**king confusing.
March 9, 2005 – Epic bike ride
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Shizuoka on March 9, 2015
Some of the 1000 trees near Senbon beach in Numazu
Today the weather was amazing. I got off my lazy ass and onto my bike to go exploring. I started off towards the docks and the beach, went by Senbon forest, started off towards Izu, and looped back around. In total I was riding for about 2 solid hours.
I seriously love the ocean.
March 8, 2005 – Room setup never ends
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Ooka City Plaza on March 8, 2015
Today I spent time once again trying to organize my room at Ooka City Plaza. My room is the smallest of the three bedrooms, and has an awkward shape. That combined with the sheer volume of stuff I am trying to keep in there makes it difficult to get the way I want it.
Today my closet got attention. The closet is large enough that I had at one point considered setting up my futon inside and turning it into a private sleeping area. However, recently it has become a storage area for empty boxes. I cut down the boxes I didn’t need, and organized the rest to make the rest of the closet more usable. My next project is to organize, sort, and throw away some of the random stuff that is currently stashed in my giant suitcases. It is surprising how much stuff a person can collect in a year and a half.
Progress on my room is always very slow. At this pace I will probably just finish finding the ideal setup right before I move back to Canada.
March 4, 2005 – Surprise English!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, The Penpal on March 4, 2015
Another easy day at work with almost no students coming for class AGAIN. After work I went for coffee with The Penpal at the nearby Newton Cafe. The waitress is a student at NOVA, so I decided to give her some free English practice by ordering in English. I completely caught her off guard with this, but overall she seemed happy to have a chance to use English outside of the classroom. I told her that since I knew she worked at the cafe, I would come back and order in English again.
Instead of using the train to get home, I decided to try out the bus with The Penpal. Unlike the train system, Japanese buses are very confusing and not user friendly. I will write about it in more detail in the next week or so.
March 2, 2005 – Lazy
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on March 2, 2015
LAAAAAZY.
(2015 Update) Living in Japan for 3 years was the biggest adventure of my life. However, since I was working and not just sightseeing for 3 years, there were some days where I just didn’t do much of anything. Having a day off doing laundry and playing video games while living on the other side of the planet is still pretty damn cool.
NOVA Apartments
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 28, 2015
My second home in Japan was an apartment building called “Ooka City Plaza” in Numazu. Coming from the dormitory style gaijin house known as Hello House East, it was a big change. I will write more about the details of Ooka City Plaza in a future post.
Getting an apartment in Japan can be difficult if you are not Japanese. There are lots of up front fees, language barriers with contracts, and many reports of real estate agents not wanting to rent to foreigners. In order to keep the flow of conversational English teachers coming to the country, NOVA rented apartments all over the country for the use of their employees. NOVA would then place employees in their apartments, and deduct rent from the monthly salary payment. The rental charge was higher than what you would pay for your own apartment, but still reasonable considering the apartment was ready to live in.
Living in a NOVA apartment was a convenient option for new teachers. The apartments were fully furnished and stocked with kitchen supplies. All new residents got their own futon and pad, and a very useful guide for living in a Japanese apartment. The guide was written in English with illustrations, and covered everything from regular maintenance to garbage disposal rules to getting along with your neighbours.
Most of the apartments had 3 bedrooms and and one bathroom. NOVA made money if the apartment was filled to capacity, so they always tried their best to keep all of the rooms full. The apartments themselves were small by most foreign standards, but decent enough for Japan.
Other than finances and convenience, the other main advantage of NOVA apartments was that you would be living with other English teachers. This provided a built in support network of people who knew the area, and also understood the challenges of living far away from home. NOVA would often rent several apartments in the same building, creating small communities of teachers in an area. As long as everyone was getting along it was a good way to counter the effects of homesickness.
I have a lot of good memories from my time in my NOVA apartment. Other than some disagreements with roommates (which could happen anywhere), it was a good place to live while I was teaching in Japan.
February 23, 2005 – Me? Cooking!?
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 23, 2015
I did some exploring on my bike today and took some new pictures. I love being able to get around town!
Also, for the first time in a long time, I did a proper grocery shopping at Seiyu. I am usually pretty lazy about preparing food, so I thought that having some ingredients in the house would make me more likely to cook something at home instead of just eating out like usual.
There is a basket on the front of my bike, but it wasn’t nearly big enough for the amount of food that I bought. Balancing shopping bags on a bicycle while riding on narrow streets is not easy (or safe). Thankfully, Seiyu is not very far from my apartment.
After finding space to put away my food, I cooked for myself for about the first time in 3 months. It was a nice change from my regular diet of convenience store bentos and izakaya food. Hopefully I can keep this up.
(2015 Update) Nope!
February 18, 2005 – Sick day
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 19, 2015
My first day calling in sick since I came to Mishima school. I spent a relaxing day trying to settle my stomach, sleeping, and watching Friends on DVD.
THEY WERE ON A BREAK!
February 16, 2005 – More computer upgrades
Posted by Barniferous in Greater Tokyo Area, Life in Japan on February 16, 2015
Today I made a quick trip to Kawasaki City to do some shopping at Yodobashi Camera. I know that there are some electronics stores in Numazu, and probably a closer Yodobashi Camera in the area, but it’s nice to get out of town and check out some of my old familiar places on a day off. Plus the train ride allows me some time to read.
Yodobashi is a huge store, so it’s easy to spend a few hours simply exploring. There were so many cool things that I wanted to buy, but I stuck with the things that I needed: a new keyboard, USB memory card reader, and a DVD burner. I have limited hard drive space on my used desktop, so the burner will help me backup my data, as well as make copies of things that I am legally allowed to. Remember kids: don’t illegally copy DVDs. And definitely don’t use software to remove Macrovision or region codes from things. That’s super bad.
After I returned home, I opened up my desktop computer and started the upgrade process. Like most computer upgrades, what should have been an easy exercise of “open the case, put in the parts, install drivers” turned into several hours of troubleshooting by trial and error, creative cursing, and promises to buy a new computer in the future. Eventually I got everything working and rewarded myself with a beer or two.
February 3, 2005 – Friends and bad haircuts
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 4, 2015
Today was Setsubun, which I explained in detail here. Since I didn’t participate in any of the usual traditions, it was just a regular day for me.
During the day I went for a haircut at QB house near Seiyu. QB House is famous for their traffic light sign outside the store that indicates how long you have to wait, and for their 10 minute, 1000 yen haircuts. The barber who cut my hair was extremely friendly, and turned a simple haircut into an energetic show. Unfortunately friendly does not cancel out a communication barrier. I now look like a cross between an English soccer hooligan and a reject from a punk band.
Thanks to the internet, I was able to finally start watching the final season of Friends. I have liked the show for a long time, and it’s going to be good to see how it ended. Friends is one of those shows that probably stayed on the air a year or two longer than it should have, but there were piles and piles of money to be made.
Speaking of money, don’t EVER download TV shows from the internet for free. It’s just plain wrong. It is your duty to sit through at least 6 minutes of commercials during every 30 minutes of entertainment. If you do accidentally find copies of downloaded TV shows on your computer, you are pretty much obligated to look up a list of the show’s sponsors and go buy their products.
Regardless of how you choose to legally view Friends, it is a show that I always recommend to students who are looking for more exposure to conversational English. The characters on the show mostly talk about jobs and relationships, and there are usually a lot of visual clues to help fill in the context of the conversation. Other than the really wacky episodes with monkeys or dance routines, Friends is a fun way to practice listening to natural English conversation.
(2015 Update) I was excited to find that friends is now available on Netflix. However, they took the original 4:3 picture and trimmed off the top and bottom to completely fill today’s 16:9 standard. Yes, in the interest of filling up the whole screen, they cut off part of the picture. Everyone please stop doing this!!!
Drinking in Japan 
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