Taking the 'L' Plates off and using language to get things done!

This is where I came out of Chiba JR Station - this is far less crowded
than when I arrived on a Saturday night.

I came here briefly in ’98, but coming back with a basic grasp of the language is giving me so much more pleasure. In the last couple of days, I’ve got my residence card registered at the city municipal office, started a health care account, opened a bank account, moved into an apartment and had the gasman come and connect my utilities. Also, I managed to get my internet connection set up; that was quite an achievement because my Macbook Pro doesn’t have an ethernet port or CD/DVD drive; so had to buy an adaptor … knowing the kara/made (from/to) sentence structure allowed me to articulate that I needed an adapter (which I figured would be like most modern words spelled out in katakana アダプター… adaputaa) thus said, アダプターはUSBからLANまでがありますか。/ adaputaa wa USB kara LAN made ga arimasuka … do you have an adapter from USB to LAN? And of course, got lead around the shop looking at all sorts of USB adapters, but no LAN connection.

So one guy went off to get another guy and I explained again … but they both looked a little confused … and each time I explained with more and more detail and they went off and got the more senior staff member to come along. In the end, the top tech guy came along and to my astonishment, he just asked one question; “Macbook Air ga arimasuka” … and immediately led me to where there was a whole shelf of USB to LAN adapters! Of course he then wanted me to buy the fastest one, so because it was my birthday I thought, “fine - treat myself to a birthday present.” Got home, but couldn’t get it to work because it needed a driver installed … oh dear … now I had to go back to the shop and explain that the driver was on the CD-ROM and my Macbook doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive. So today’s morning challenge was that; but managed to tell the whole story (which was now becoming like ‘the little old lady who swallowed a fly” song) in great detail and with a few questions about had I tried this … that … oh OK … and so I said I’d like to buy an older adapter because the operating system ought to support it … so once again, found myself having a technical debate about which vendor was most likely to have their adapter supported by OSX 10.9.

There was a happy ending. I came home today with the replacement adapter and ta-daa; I was all setup with broadband internet access! Sat there for a good few minutes just smiling because when I thought about it; I would more than likely have had just as many problems if this had happened in England if I'd gone to Curry’s or PC World. That was, for me, a super very YAY moment in my language learning adventure.

Then when I got home from my afternoon wander around Chiba park, there was a note from the post-office that I couldn’t read (didn’t understand a lot of the kanji) - but given the context and the information I could read, it seemed to be one of those notes that the post-office leave when they can’t deliver something. So I went off to the nearest post office to ask what I needed to do. It turned out to be that I hadn't written a name plate by my letter box and so they couldn't deliver in case I didn't live there. So we went through a form and apparently they'll attempt to deliver my mail tomorrow.

But just as important as getting that issue resolved; I ended up chatting away with most of the staff in the local post-office … and found that my local postman is a Liverpool supporter … so I said that I was a Chelsea fan, but please don’t burn my mail!!! Anyway, once more, loads of praise on my ability to speak Japanese (which, of course, you get if you can say the most basic things anyway, but for me it’s always encourages me to learn more, become more articulate, be able to have deeper, more interesting conversations) and I left the post-office feeling yet another buzz from the experience.

Arriving in Japan

I'm mooving away from England!!!

I arrived in Narita Tokyo at 8:02pm on Saturday 27^th September. Having pre-booked a rental mobile phone in advance, I had 58 minutes to clear immigration and customs before the mobile phone rental office shut. At both immigration and customs, the officials were all very official until I responded to their questions in Japanese – suddenly they were very welcoming and wishing me an excellent time in Japan. Thankfully, I got to the mobile phone rental office two minutes before it shut! Thinking about it, I reckon that if I hadn't spoken any Japanese whilst clearing immigration and customs; the process might have taken a few more minutes; so in my mind, picking up the mobile phone at Narita saved me from having to take two 40 minute train journeys the following day. Getting from Narita to Chiba was pretty straight forward, again, by speaking a little Japanese it was just that little bit more reassuring to know I was heading in the right direction (also reminded me of walking around googlemaps on the Add1Challenge) ... or at least, smiled to myself thinking, 'yep, that practice is paying me back with interest!'

So I got to Chiba, came up the escalator and for just a few moments, I felt like I was in the film Blade Runner. It was literally overwhelming to the senses; neon kanji in every direction, an ocean of busy Japanese salarymen and waves of fashionable teens cheerily giggling and chatting simultaneously on their mobile phones and their peers. And there I was, dripping with sweat on account of wearing my heaviest winter clothes to save a couple of kilos on my baggage allowance. I somehow managed to be about 3kg's overweight on my main suitcase, slightly overweight on my cabin case and I was carrying enough electronics in my 'laptop case' to shutdown Heathrow security for a bank holiday weekend! I couldn't get my bearings at all; so for a couple of minutes I sat down and hunted around for my map. In two minutes, I must have had a dozen Japanese glances of “should I help this poor gaijin (foreigner) out, or would be an insult? ... oh I don't know, I will help if he asks ... even if he speaks English ... but he has to ask ... oh, but maybe he doesn't want to be a nuisance ... only he shouldn't think that, I want to help him out ... oh what a dilemma ...” I kept smiling and saying, “daijoubu da” (I'm fine).

Eventually, having studied the map for a few minutes, I was still perplexed. So I fired my flare gun expression, “sumimasen ...” (excuse me) ... and rather than just pointing me in the right direction, this Japanese guy (Yoshi) walked and talked with me, popping into a Family Mart to ask the shop assistant if he knew where this mysterious hotel was located! That made me feel slightly less of a nuisance; because hey, I'm a lost little foreign Johnny and here was a native Chiba-ian equally confused as to where the hotel was. Mind you, apart from 'love hotels', why would a local know the location of all the hotels in a city!!?

Anyway, the Family Mart assistant pointed us towards the hotel and suddenly, it was glaring out of the street saying, “Yeah, don't you feel like a pair of idiots ... I was here all the time and you've basically walked a big circle around me!” So, I thanked my rescuer and was soon in a lovely hotel bedroom. That lasted for about two minutes as I was hungry and thirsty; so off to the Family Mart I went to buy familiar Japanese snacks; Strawberry flavoured Koara Machi! (for those uninitiated with such things; these are little Koala shaped biscuits filled with a sort of strawberry angel delight-ish filling). I sat outside the Family Mart thinking; “I could probably live quite happily on Koala March”; but that wouldn't be very adventurous now would it!

Six more sleeps ...

It seems I've managed colour-co-ordinate myself with my luggage.

Hello Blog, I'm sorry you've been somewhat neglected for the last few weeks. I've been living in a nightmarish version of Groundhog Day in which I fill boxes with toot and then transport boxes to the economy storage facility ... aka, my parents loft. Originally, I thought it would spare me the small fortune that storage facilities charge and fiscally, yes, I've saved myself a fair few coins. But I'm still paying ... only the currency is guilt and sad looking parents whenever they ask, "How many more boxes are you going to bring over?" and I sheepishly reply, "maybe another two or three car loads ... er ... I don't know." Note to self: It's always two and a half times my estimate. Mind you, at one point, I thought that maybe it would just be better to buy some petrol, build a toot-fire (similar to a bonfire, yet exclusively toot), dowse with petrol and check a match at it. I suggested that, but apparently I shouldn't be stupid. I'm not sure it is stupid. I've certainly come to the conclusion that I'm not as sentimental as I used to be ... but I still have a sentimental threshold; who can discard anything created by children; I just can't throw away things like that.

My living room without quite as much toot as it would ordinarily have.

Anyway, after three weeks, the flat became clear and my Groundhog Day experience shifted gear into a new phase of pesky "to do" lists and yes, more boxes and recyling bags. Ahead of me is six more sleeps before I climb aboard the winged crystalis. One hopes I'll emerge in glorious rainbow colours, though I'm telling myself that in reality, I'm probably a moth. Consequently, I'm still not particularly excited, nor am I particularly stressed about things. It's probably the effect of Groundhog Dayism; everything is about completing "to do" lists and ironing things. I've actually started enjoying ironing; it's like respite from the tedium of putting toot in boxes. I'm half expecting to arrive in Japan feeling like a battery hen freed from my cage and feeling at a loss with my new found freedom from boxes and packing tape.

Its usually an insignificant spark that lights the touch-paper to my excitement. I wonder what it will be. The last time I was in Japan, it was the brilliance of Japanese user experience ... only at the time I didn't know it was called user experience ... it was just "hey, that's really cool ... I like the way they've really thought about this ... I love the way they've noticed this small little detail that makes the whole experience of using it joyful." In England the announcements on railway stations always perpetuate fear of exploding unattended baggage, but in Japan, announcements ring out like Christmas cheer. Of course, the last time I was in Japan I hadn't got a clue what was being said, but I liked to think that they were saying, "if you see a suspicious package left unattended, please report it to the station master ... because it might be a mysterious portal into a parallel universe in which dancing glitter bears, space kittens and paisley sugucorns."

Anyway dear blog, six more sleeps to wonderpan ... and I've missed Doctor Who tonight, so I'll watch that and go to bed.