Woho, I’m an alien. I’m a legal alien I’m a German man in Japan…
To be honest I didn’t find a way to get my foreigner’s registration card without having a permanent address here in Japan. However Jim and Heath were nice enough to use their address to get myself registered. It is once again one of these situations in which I am asking myself how I am supposed to give all this back to the couchsurfing community? Because Jim and Heath asked me if I’d like to do it this way. I did not even ask for it.
It’s Friday, Friday, fun, fun, party, party…
I once again face the challenge of finding my new host’s station. After straying around again my desperate look must have caught the attention of a slightly drunk owner of a recycling company. He is just on his way back home from his work party and once again someone is not only explaining the way to me, but is also guiding me to the right station. However we end up at two wrong stations along the way. Well, this is not his fault. It’s the alcohol’s fault.
I need a Hiro!!!
Hiro is my new host. He works at Japan’s telephone network. I asked him to stay for two nights in his flat. But it will only be one. Why? Originally he wanted to go to an Onsen (hot springs) hotel together with a friend of his and stay there for a night. But since his friend had to call it off a new “victim” had to be found. And this “victim” is me. “It is okay, Simon, you are invited. Of course you don’t have to pay for the hotel!” Slowly Japan is becoming creepy to me. If it goes on this way I will be promoted to a Yakuza boss (Japanese Mafia) after all.
Actually I’m welcomed by Hiro like a Yakuza boss. In his Lexus limousine with integrated TV-Set he’s taking me to a restaurant and of course there’s no chance to pay for the bill by myself! I like the restaurant’s concept. Every table is equipped with a grill in its middle. And the buffet is loaded with bite-sized cuts of meat for everyone to take.
But all this is of course not enough for the Yakuza boss so I’m getting invited to the public bath. This is deeply rooted into Japanese culture. I think it can be compared to the Roman bath culture. The Japanese people enjoy their baths naked and separated by gender. Often it’s mothers with their daughters and fathers with their sons. But even if I didn’t bring my family with me I’m still being granted access :)
Hey, what is the girl doing here in our department? And she’s dressed that’s not fair! She works here. Wait a minute. That gives me an idea. Perhaps the baths here are also offering jobs for males in the girls section. Hmm…
No matter where you look at you’ll see the man’s best unit everywhere. Many of us might have stumbled over the penis map that recently has been rife on the internet. I wonder how those who have compiled this map took their measurements. Did they really measure the size on about 1.000 People of all their countries each to get a representative result? How did Japan do once again?
Oh… I see. Hm, well yes… Well I didn’t take any measurements personally and really don’t have any interest in doing so here, but well according to sense of proportion I can at least confirm the result for this bath here. Well, … *giggle* I don’t really want to brag but … he he… Okay. I’m going to stop it right here. Because of all of those wonderful things that happened to me here so far I really haven’t earned the right to poke fun. As the saying goes: It’s not about size it’s about the technique. And here the Japanese people are far more advanced than we are. How if not because of this would Japan have made it to one of the largest industrial countries of the world? There! And even in the public baths Japanese people can’t wave the high tech. As there is one bath in which you sit down between two electric diodes. I wonder if this is supposed to be relaxing or something for masochists…
Sometimes it does not even have to be complex technique. It all starts over with such small things like lining up in a queue/line.
queueing with IQ / A line for the Metro line
It works at every platform, every escalator everywhere! Juvenile scrambling as we know it from our western countries is to be sought in vain here. And even in the metro Japanese people don’t have to prove constantly that they can shout the loudest in their cell phones – as many stupid/silly Germans do all the time. Making a phone call in the Metro is prohibited. Epic!
Saturday.
On our way to Kinugawa
Hiro and me packed the car. We’re heading off for Kinugawa to the Onsen hotel. It’s about 100 km (62 miles) north of Tokyo. Fukushima is only 165 km (102 miles) away from there.
During a short break Hiro shows me a 100 Yen shop which are very popular in Japan.
100 Yen Shop
Eyecandy
Our hotel rooms smell like hay. “That’s the Tatami mats on the floor”, Hiro explains to me. When entering the room I’m thinking to myself: “Well done but the guys forgot to put beds into the room.” After a little while Hiro tells me that the beds are being made while you are eating in the restaurant.
Hayhotel
Hotel with history
View from our room
mad mattresses
Fact! When coming back from the Restaurant, two mattresses like entities are lying on the Tatami floor. And this is how I’m spending the first night of my life in Japan in a hotel without a bed. A sacred duty of every hotel room: to have a water heater and of course different sorts of tea. Hiro is pouring me a cup. Hm… I don’t know how they did it but the tea tastes exactly like the floor smells like. Like hay :)
Cool Kimonos
Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not complaining and don’t want to sound arrogant. I had the best weekend so far in Japan thanks to Hiro! It was simply awesome! Thank you Hiro! For everything!
Also very interesting are the signs on the way back. The in Japan omnipresent raccoon dog tanuki. Ohh how cuuute!
Tanuki
Umbrella savety requirement
And even the fact that umbrellas are required on the highway/motorway seems a bit strange to me.
How may I imagine that? Maybe like on the photo?
Pan Tau in Japan. Photo by Hiroyuki Ochiai
So that I can’t get lost in Tokoy’s metro system once again Hiro is taking me to my next host by car on Sunday straight to one of Saitama‘s outskirts, Kawagoe. Brandon, a 23 year old American who has already lived in Japan for two years and will return in November. He’s showing me very interesting videos he made about Japan. After a late meeting we have an impromptu dinner and it turns out that Hiro is not only a very kind person but also an adept cook.
Brandon also works as an English teacher. But he has no problems leaving his flat to me while he’s heading out for work on Monday. However I’m also heading off for the city soon as I have to register for my work and travel stay at Shibuya city hall to get my alien registration card. Convenient: The person in charge speaks fluent English. And even for all other matters they have an interpreter. Unpleasant: it will take two weeks to issue the card. The lady is handing me a form and tells me it can be used as an equivalent substitute for the card but I doubt that…
After my return to Brandon’s he is guiding me through Kawagoe.
Entrance to Kawagoe Temple
Temple bell on the temple ground
Kawagoe Temple
He shows me the temple and the old town.
historic houses
House and Toki no Kane (Tower of Time)
I’m also discovering nice shops with crafts
Japanese majolica and terrakotta
It is Tuesday and my first job interview will be today. It is at one of Tokyo’s big four language schools. And – oh wonder – even if I’m not an English native speaker and their ad said only for native speakers, and despite the fact that I called them and they must clearly have heard my German accent they invited me anyway. So what do we learn from that. Just check the native speaker box when applying for the job.
While Brandon is getting ready for his work he is asking me: “Simon, you want to go to the job interview dressed like this?”
I’m wearing black trousers/pants and a decent light blue long sleeve shirt and wonder what’s supposed to be wrong with it: “Yes!”
Police officer with German accent looking for a job in Tokyo. photo by Brandon Lamb, U.S.A.
“Don’t you have a suit?” he’s asking me almost appalled.
“Is that really necessary? I mean I’m not applying at a bank!”
“Well job interviews in Japan without a suit are an absolute no go!”
“Aaaahhhh what am I to do?”
“Here, I can lend you my slacks. And my neck tie. This is how you can at least feign ignorance.”
Fits like a shoe!
I’m going to have my second job interview on Wednesday. However the first one in my life for which I am taking off my shoes. That’s a custom in many houses here in Japan. Once again a position as an English teacher. This time in an after school daycare. Also once again Brandon is cutting me some slack with his slacks.
It’s evening and I’m moving again to my new host. Celine, a German! She studies Italian and Japanese.
What a wonder… It is Thursday and the language school invited me to a second job interview. Strange isn’t it? All this even though I am not a native speaker, neither do I have a Bachelor nor a CELTA certificate. Sometimes I wonder if the companies have a look at the application form at all. Much to my surprise I’m realizing that the daycare pays way better…
So what do we learn from that? No matter if you are a native speaker or not apply anyway! And if it turns out that a daycare then even pays better, what did you lose?
Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for good web page hosting services, Brandon Lamb for his videos, taking a photo of me and for the text revision, Hiroyuki Ochiai for taking a photo of me and of course once again to all my hosts.