Hello from Japan!
From Shibuya, to be more exact. Shibuya is one of the cities of Tokyo. Tokyo is so big that it has cities within its city. I’m living here with about 12 million other people and lots of cute dogs. Yesterday as we were out walking we saw many dogs with their owners. The Japanese tend to have the little, cuter toy breeds, and the expatriates (that’s people form other countries) tend to have the labs and other larger breeds. We spotted a tiny black and white dog in a girl’s purse on the subway.
The day we moved into our home, Tokyo was enjoying record high temps. It was 40.9 degrees Celsius on Thursday. (That’s over 100 in Fahrenheit) It was just as hot on Friday, our move-in day. Walking into the outdoor temp after being in air conditioning was a bit shocking, like walking into a wall. Have you ever been in a sauna? It felt like that. Anyway, we met our neighbor/landlord when we arrived, without the benefit of a translator, and there we were, bowing and smiling, and there they were, bowing and smiling, until one of our assistants rushed over to help us out with introductions. After we met, we went into the house that felt hotter than out-doors, and continued with introductions and friendly, polite banter. It’s a little hard to keep the smiling face on when your face starts to drip. The alarm technician arrived very quickly, and was explaining in Japanese how to work the system with help from a translator. He then made the alarm sound, and I guess he hadn’t told the folks at the company that he’s be demonstrating, because a security guard showed up after about 3 minutes. He looked grumpy and our landlord looked embarrassed. Meanwhile, we were all sweating profusely, waiting for the air conditioning to begin to work. After a time, our guides, Yuki and Kayo took us on a walk to the neighborhood grocery store, a chain called Marusho. There we bought some food- but not too much, for we had to carry it all back to the house. Most Japanese who live in the urban areas shop for their food almost every day. Many people live in tiny apartments and don’t have space for a lot of storage, so shopping daily or every other day is necessary. We have a bit of storage, so I expect to shop a bit every day at first, as we build up our pantry, and then not as much later on. Food is more expensive here, and it comes in smaller packages than I’m used to. It will take some getting used to.
We won’t own a car in Tokyo. We live about a 5 minute walk from a subway station on the Chiyoda Line, and can get anywhere in the city by using public transportation. If we decide to take a trip out into the country, we can rent a car. Cars are driven on the left-hand side of the road here, the opposite way from the US. I’ll gladly leave the driving to someone else, thank you!
Currency is in Japanese Yen. The paper bills seem to have large quantities on them- 100 yen is about a dollar, 1,000 yen is about 10 dollars, and 10,000 yen is about 100 dollars. Somehow TEN THOUSAND YEN sounds like more, doesn’t it?
There are very noisy cicadas here, and they have a very different sound pattern from the ones in Trumansburg. They chirp in a pattern of 4 or 5 repeated tones, with the last one long, and falling off in pitch. The crows here are also very noisy, and have a very human- like sound. They sound like they are laughing very slowly and deeply, saying, “WA, WA, WA…” They are bigger and have larger beaks than their US cousins.
If you want to k now what time it is here in Tokyo, just add one hour to the time it is there and think ahead- If it’s 9:00 in the morning there, it’s 10:00 in the evening here. While you are going home after school at 3:00, we are sleeping in our beds.
Sayonara, for now. Sayonara means “goodbye” in Japanese.
More later,
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