I'm back from Fuji! It was so nice there (as far as weather goes); dry heat, and cool as you went up the mountain. I miss the weather there. It's blazing hot here, and humid to boot. Humidity makes me unnnnnhappy.
I was just looking today at the poster they have for the dress code here. So here in Japan, there's this campaign called 'Cool Biz' which basically dictates appropriate dress code in the summer during the hot weather. Instead of wearing the full suit, businessmen and teachers alike are allowed to not wear their jacket and tie, or dress a little more casually in some situations. 'Super cool biz' - they introduced that this year - dictates that shorts and jeans, as well as polo shirts, are okay in the workplace. My schools are only doing cool biz, but a lot of teachers just wear polo shirts anyways.
The reasoning behind this, is so that workplaces can save on power by not having to put the air conditioner so low. When it comes on, it's set at 28 degrees Celcius (that's a warm 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Setting it this high means that it's still a little warm inside, so wearing long sleeves or jackets is really really really warm still. Hence the cool biz. Everywhere saves on energy, nobody is completely baking (since after all, it's still cooler and drier than outside the room) and hooray, the power bill is lower too. Basically, it's an alternative - I don't want to say excuse, though sometimes when it's still hot inside it feels that way- to using the air conditioner at a really low temperature. Oh, and before I forget, workplaces (at least, at schools) aren't allowed to actually turn on the air conditioner until it hits 30C or a certain day of the year. Some places are a little more flexible on that last bit, especially where it gets warmer faster. Like at my schools. Takahashi is supposedly one of the hottest places in the whole of Okayama Prefecture (we have the valley to thank for that); it makes going to Niimi exciting because it will be noticably cooler usually.
So that's cool biz. Makes sense, right? Personally, I'm thankful for the relaxed dress code. But, get this. So it's a summer thing, right? This year, the dates for cool biz are from May 9th until October 31st. That's pretty much May to November. NOVEMBER. It's going to be hot until NOVEMBER. Does that mean fall is going to be November only? Another fast fall this year I suppose. But seriously, NOVEMBER. That's like, half the year that we're in cool biz! And then in the winter, we have - you guessed it - warm biz. Sweaters and socks are OKです。This is because there's no central heating in places (very few schools and classrooms have actual heaters like we have in the states, but have instead kerosene heaters).
As if the weather in Japan weren't extreme enough! Even if it isn't, these kind of things compound the sense of 'oh god it's hot' or 'my my it's FREEZING COLD' so that when you compare it to places that are warmer or cooler (and by that I mean hotter or colder) it's sometimes less comfortable since the other places are actually better equipped to deal with such weather.
That's indoors, anyways.
And at least in the summer, there's always shaved ice, or かきごり (kakigori). Love that stuff. It's... kind of healthy. Healthier. Than ice cream anyways. It's just ice and syrup after all... right?
Also, Fuji post to come! It's just kind of long, and I still need to download my pictures :3
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
富士山： Let's Mount Fuji Pt. 1
This last weekend, I got the crazy idea into my head that I was going to climb Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest and most famous & iconic mountain with other people from my prefecture (and Hiroshima). What's more, because people who are in unnaturally good shape planned the excursion, the plan was to hike overnight and get there by sunrise, then hike back down, get back on the bus, hit up an onsen, and come on home. Seriously. I know I'm not in fantastic shape (or even good shape) but, my biggest complaint about this hike is that there were three different groups of hikers.
There were the people who were pretty fit or really skinny, or had really good stamina. These are the people you see doing sports and stuff, though I think even if I was in good shape, I would have still been part of the slow group. Most of the people in this group reached the summit between 1:30-3 o'clock, well before sunrise. These were most of the people who organized the trip. They were also among the first people who were back down the mountain. They made it up the mountain in about 5 hours or so.
Then, there were the people who weren't necessarily in shape, but weren't out of shape too badly either. Or maybe they were out of shape, but they were skinny enough to where it didn't matter too much, or they had more stamina wee. They were the moderate group. Most of them barely made it to the summit in time to start heading back down. Most of these groups were either standing in the line to reach the summit (apparently there were a lot of people close to the summit), had just made it up for the sunrise around 4:20; either way, they barely made the estimated time to get to the summit. And if they barely made it up, then what chance did I, in the third group, have?
The third group was the slow group. Yeah, we were not in shape. I didn't think I was in THAT bad shape though - I mean, I still bike to work and stuff, and walk to work, and finished doing the Shimanami Kaido bike ride. I'll admit that I'm overweight, and fatter than is probably healthy and that I'd like to be, and that I don't exercise as much as I did in college because I don't have scheduled classes or an easily available gym and I hate running. But I didn't finish the bike ride last (and I finished it in the first place). It just so happens that I'm ridiculously slow when it comes to going up things, especially rocky areas. The question of how far up Fuji then, was not a matter of stamina and CAN you, but more a matter of time. The people who were skirting the edge of the moderate and slow group - most of my friends. They made it up to the summit around 5:30, right at the time it was recommended we leave the summit. So yeaaaahhh I was even slower than that. I would have been left behind.
The hard part though, was being able to estimate how long it would take you to get up the mountain. A lot of the people in the moderate and slow group had never climbed/hiked a mountain before so had no idea how long it would take. Finding a climbing buddy (which was really good to have) also was difficult because of this, and because it was hard to estimate how fast you were going to go.
Once we were there too, I suppose there was another group - the 'oh snap son altitude sickness' group. The altitude at Fuji affected people differently - some of us got headaches, others felt nauseous, and pretty much everyone at some point on Fuji felt breathing get much much harder. Mine just happened to come relatively early. I'll touch on both of these in the next post, probably.
Anyways, on to what happened BEFORE Fuji - the equipment and set up and stuff.
PRE-GAME SETUP
I didn't actually start to worry that oh hey, I was going to go climb THE BIGGEST MOUNTAIN IN JAPAN until about a week before we were leaving and when getting supplies was entering into that crucial stage. Emails were sent out over facebook recommending what things to buy (or borrow) and I was like 'oh snap, I don't have X, Y, and Z' so it was off to sports stores I went since I was silly and didn't ask my co-workers at school earlier. I was going to ask at my base school since they were the only people I was going to see twice before I went, but they ended up having a holiday on the second day so I was like weeeeeell to the stores I go!
This was the advice of the organizers, annotated with my thoughts along the way. Most of it was really good advice.
Definitely definitely recommend getting hiking boots. They don't have to be expensive, just something with good tread on them because as you're going up or down the rocks, something with grip will come in extra handy. I actually found mine at the local hardware/home store that sells everything (Juntendo, whose name is constantly reminding me of Nintendo) for pretty cheap. The laces were pretty crap, and it had been a while since I had worn shoes with ankle support, but I'm really glad I had mine. I'm pretty sure I would have died without them.
Ditto to the wind-and-water-proof shell, though make sure it can go over all your stuff. The things I have double as rainy season/rain gear since I have to bike/walk to work, so it's extra handy (especially now that rainy season has ended).
Actually though, I found that it was still pretty chilly at the bottom of the mountain; chilly enough to where I started the hike out in hiking pants and my thermal long sleeve under my shirt at the bottom. So warm really mean 'warm as compared to the top of the mountain' rather than 'warm like a summer day.'
I spent soooo long trying to find good pants to hike in. Like literally, I have jeans and capris, but that was it. I didn't want to destroy my jeans either. I got a pair of track suit pants (which are more expensive than I thought! But mine were on sale) for general use and walking around with in the fall/winter - I decided not to use these on the hike though. I also got a pair of hiking pants from the Sports Chalet in Kurashiki - they were pretty pricey, but they're light, flexible, I actually wouldn't mind wearing them in the heat, and more importantly, they fit. Seriously. It's ridiculously hard for me to find pants over here, and I'm just out of range of normal young people size in the states (hooray women's sections). Japanese women, and most Japanese men, are really skinny.
I did however, succeed in finding 3L men's rain pants to wear. And the hiking pants were LL and they were super super stretchy so that somehow managed to work.
In retrospect, thick pants would have been really good, since there were places with rocks, and rocks on those stretchy, thin, pants made me worried.
Related: damn, water is HEAVY. On a good note though, your pack will be ridiculously light coming back down.
I brought way way way too much food with me. Rice balls were really good, and the dried fruit was nice to snack on, but we didn't really eat much during the hike itself. We kind of munched on the dried fruit and meat, as well as Calorie Mate. This was the first time I had calorie mate, so I tried the chocolate flavor. It basically looks like a biscuity cookie. And it is like a dry, dry, biscuity cookie. I was super glad I still had water left.
What food I didn't eat eventually got squashed at the bottom of my bag. Someone else brought bananas that also got smashed at the bottom of her bag. Oops.
Most of the huts/stations on the Yoshida trail have bathrooms - decent bathrooms (though I heard from my friends that the one at the summit was disgusting)- attached to them, and they all had toilet paper, so next time I would skip out on that. They do, however, ask for a 200 yen donation for upkeep, so make sure you bring change.
The hiking sticks were really really cool, and useful if you don't already have poles. Pretty much every hut and station along the way offer stamps/brands for 200 yen, so you can actually spend quite a bit on the brands if you aim to get them from as many stations as you can. Just know though, if you're doing the night climb that some of them might be closed or not giving out stamps during the wee hours of the night. My friends also said that at the summit, you can get two different stamps too. They're pretty badass; they're burned into your stick with an iron rod.
I also brought a small first aid kit - and by that I mean band-aids, neosporin, tape, and wrapping for under the tape. Oh, and headache medicine, but I put it into a smaller bottle.
I was super freaking out right before the climb because I wasn't sure if I had everything, but now, in retrospect, I probably packed too much. I did end up putting on all my layers (save the rain pants), but that might have been in part because we were going slow enough and resting often enough to where it was getting kind of chilly. But yeah, it as long as you keep moving, you actually stay pretty warm throughout your hike until you get to bits where you slow down or rest.
I, along with a couple other people, brought cannisters of oxygen. The guy who organized the trip said (with a touch of distain and contempt since he's a really fit dude) we shouldn't need oxygen, even those of us who weren't in good shape cause we were all young and blah blah. I talked to someone else, who recommended bringing some with, and I found it was a good idea. It helped some of us with altitude sickness or tiredness - when I started to get really short of breath, take a swig of oxygen and everything is good again. Slight headache? Oxygen away! It doesn't help everyone though - my friend and climbing buddy tried it on her headache and nausea, but it didn't help one bit.
Yeah though, that was just the set up! Another one of my friends who's done Fuji has told me that she went with far less preparation, but since we were doing a night climb... to not be prepared implied that there was a chance that we would die on the mountain.
More to come:
bus ride
rest stops
Starting out.
gandalf stick & good headlamps (or not good headlamps)
altitude sickness
zigzag paths & small goals
guys who brand sticks
price of water D:
water is HEAVY
rocks of stupid annoyingness
hooray rock climbing... in the dark!
8th station
Friendly people
Going back down
ohmyjesus hornets and other flying things
Nearly getting lost
hiking downhill on the way over...
hiking boots are awesome
onsen
20 minutes, LOLS
There were the people who were pretty fit or really skinny, or had really good stamina. These are the people you see doing sports and stuff, though I think even if I was in good shape, I would have still been part of the slow group. Most of the people in this group reached the summit between 1:30-3 o'clock, well before sunrise. These were most of the people who organized the trip. They were also among the first people who were back down the mountain. They made it up the mountain in about 5 hours or so.
Then, there were the people who weren't necessarily in shape, but weren't out of shape too badly either. Or maybe they were out of shape, but they were skinny enough to where it didn't matter too much, or they had more stamina wee. They were the moderate group. Most of them barely made it to the summit in time to start heading back down. Most of these groups were either standing in the line to reach the summit (apparently there were a lot of people close to the summit), had just made it up for the sunrise around 4:20; either way, they barely made the estimated time to get to the summit. And if they barely made it up, then what chance did I, in the third group, have?
The third group was the slow group. Yeah, we were not in shape. I didn't think I was in THAT bad shape though - I mean, I still bike to work and stuff, and walk to work, and finished doing the Shimanami Kaido bike ride. I'll admit that I'm overweight, and fatter than is probably healthy and that I'd like to be, and that I don't exercise as much as I did in college because I don't have scheduled classes or an easily available gym and I hate running. But I didn't finish the bike ride last (and I finished it in the first place). It just so happens that I'm ridiculously slow when it comes to going up things, especially rocky areas. The question of how far up Fuji then, was not a matter of stamina and CAN you, but more a matter of time. The people who were skirting the edge of the moderate and slow group - most of my friends. They made it up to the summit around 5:30, right at the time it was recommended we leave the summit. So yeaaaahhh I was even slower than that. I would have been left behind.
The hard part though, was being able to estimate how long it would take you to get up the mountain. A lot of the people in the moderate and slow group had never climbed/hiked a mountain before so had no idea how long it would take. Finding a climbing buddy (which was really good to have) also was difficult because of this, and because it was hard to estimate how fast you were going to go.
Once we were there too, I suppose there was another group - the 'oh snap son altitude sickness' group. The altitude at Fuji affected people differently - some of us got headaches, others felt nauseous, and pretty much everyone at some point on Fuji felt breathing get much much harder. Mine just happened to come relatively early. I'll touch on both of these in the next post, probably.
Anyways, on to what happened BEFORE Fuji - the equipment and set up and stuff.
PRE-GAME SETUP
I didn't actually start to worry that oh hey, I was going to go climb THE BIGGEST MOUNTAIN IN JAPAN until about a week before we were leaving and when getting supplies was entering into that crucial stage. Emails were sent out over facebook recommending what things to buy (or borrow) and I was like 'oh snap, I don't have X, Y, and Z' so it was off to sports stores I went since I was silly and didn't ask my co-workers at school earlier. I was going to ask at my base school since they were the only people I was going to see twice before I went, but they ended up having a holiday on the second day so I was like weeeeeell to the stores I go!
This was the advice of the organizers, annotated with my thoughts along the way. Most of it was really good advice.
What to bring:Hiking poles were also useful for hauling yourself up when you became short of breath, as well as something to lean on. I'd recommend, if you can get them cheap or borrow them, the kind of poles that collapse because there will be portions (especially between the 7th and 8th station) where it'll be easier to just ditch your poles and use your hands instead. It didn't rain for us while we were up there (thankfully) but I got rain gear that doubled as rain gear for the rainy season. Win-win!
Gear
Since this is started as a night hike, you'll need a torch (flashlight) or headlamp (recommended) and enough batteries to last 6-8 hours. You'll want a pack large enough to hold your stuff along with a waterproof cover in case it rains. A set of hiking poles is nice but not necessary; they do help take the strain off your knees on the way down. Hiking boots, not shoes. Band aids/blister pads. Rain gear. Sunglasses and/or sunblock. Camera. Rain gear.
Footwear
Hiking boots are strongly recommended. You want something that has good tread on the bottom and ankle support/protection as there's lots of scree (loose rock) on Fuji. You're going to be walking over a lot of roots in the dark to start, and if it rains... shoes just aren't going to cut it.
Socks are equally as important. Friction is the enemy when you're wearing boots, so here's a little trick that helps a lot: Wear two pairs of socks - a thin, silky or very sheer and close fitting pair underneath (thin business socks will do in a pinch, guys), and then thick pair of good hiking socks on top. That allows the socks to slide over each other instead of rubbing against your skin. Bring a backup set of both.
When you get to the top, take your boots off for a while and let them dry out a bit. Water (sweat) makes your socks to stick and causes most of the friction (that's why you gets blisters later in your hike as opposed to the outset and they seem to get worse). Remember, pain is a message. Listen to your body and stop and fix problems early before they get worse.
Definitely definitely recommend getting hiking boots. They don't have to be expensive, just something with good tread on them because as you're going up or down the rocks, something with grip will come in extra handy. I actually found mine at the local hardware/home store that sells everything (Juntendo, whose name is constantly reminding me of Nintendo) for pretty cheap. The laces were pretty crap, and it had been a while since I had worn shoes with ankle support, but I'm really glad I had mine. I'm pretty sure I would have died without them.
Clothing
The key is LAYERS! It'll be relatively warm at the bottom and then really cold up at the top at 4am. You'll want to bring several thin layers that you can mix and match, not one bulky one. That said, don't skimp on the warmth; it's possible there'll still be snow up there. You'll have to decide how best to balance the heat of the bottom with cold of the top. You may also want to swap out a sweaty layer or two at the top so you don't get cold.
Suggested layers -
Top: you want at least two if not three layers
Close-fitting: thermal underwear (or something similar) with a short or long sleeved shirt
Mid-layer: polar fleece vest, hoodie, etc…
Top-layer: heavy fleece, jacket, etc…
Bottom: you want at least two layers, DO NOT WEAR ONLY SHORTS
Close-fitting: thermal underwear (or something similar), tights, etc…
Top layer: thick pants
You can change/add layers on the side of the trail or at the stations.
*I highly recommend that you bring or invest in a good wind-and-water-proof shell set that will help keep you dry and warm.
Ditto to the wind-and-water-proof shell, though make sure it can go over all your stuff. The things I have double as rainy season/rain gear since I have to bike/walk to work, so it's extra handy (especially now that rainy season has ended).
Actually though, I found that it was still pretty chilly at the bottom of the mountain; chilly enough to where I started the hike out in hiking pants and my thermal long sleeve under my shirt at the bottom. So warm really mean 'warm as compared to the top of the mountain' rather than 'warm like a summer day.'
I spent soooo long trying to find good pants to hike in. Like literally, I have jeans and capris, but that was it. I didn't want to destroy my jeans either. I got a pair of track suit pants (which are more expensive than I thought! But mine were on sale) for general use and walking around with in the fall/winter - I decided not to use these on the hike though. I also got a pair of hiking pants from the Sports Chalet in Kurashiki - they were pretty pricey, but they're light, flexible, I actually wouldn't mind wearing them in the heat, and more importantly, they fit. Seriously. It's ridiculously hard for me to find pants over here, and I'm just out of range of normal young people size in the states (hooray women's sections). Japanese women, and most Japanese men, are really skinny.
I did however, succeed in finding 3L men's rain pants to wear. And the hiking pants were LL and they were super super stretchy so that somehow managed to work.
In retrospect, thick pants would have been really good, since there were places with rocks, and rocks on those stretchy, thin, pants made me worried.
WaterDefinitely bring water. I also brought a bottle of sports drink with me as well, then used that bottle as a kind of easy-access to water since the other water I brought was in the 2L bottle. Having easy access to your water - like in a side pocket or something, is really convenient, cause otherwise you have to stop, haul out your giant 2L bottle, drink, and then fit it back into your backpack. Much easier to pour water into your smaller bottle and drink from there. You could buy drinks at the hut, but nothing was less than 400 yen at the 7th station, and sometimes these huts were closed since we were going in the middle of the night. Also, make sure you have at least a bottle (500ml) for the hike back down. There are NO huts on the downwards (yoshida) path, and while it's not as strenuous as going up, it's still difficult.
You should bring at least 1 liter of water but personally I recommended bringing 2 liters. It depends on what you want to do, and how much you can carry up the side of the mountain, but better safe than sorry.
Related: damn, water is HEAVY. On a good note though, your pack will be ridiculously light coming back down.
Food
Do not bring foods high in sugar and salt. Bring food that will give you energy and not make you thirsty, or crash from a sugar rush.
Bring enough to last you up the mountain and back down. There are some food shops at the top where you can get hot udon and even beer, but prices are steep! We're talking around 1100-1500 yen for a styrofoam bowl of udon, and 800 yen for a beer (though admittedly it may be the best beer of your life). If you don't mind the prices, you can warm up a while and take your boots off to dry out.
Good food to bring:
Onigiri
Trail mix / gorp / nuts
Dried fruit
Dried meat
Sandwiches
I brought way way way too much food with me. Rice balls were really good, and the dried fruit was nice to snack on, but we didn't really eat much during the hike itself. We kind of munched on the dried fruit and meat, as well as Calorie Mate. This was the first time I had calorie mate, so I tried the chocolate flavor. It basically looks like a biscuity cookie. And it is like a dry, dry, biscuity cookie. I was super glad I still had water left.
What food I didn't eat eventually got squashed at the bottom of my bag. Someone else brought bananas that also got smashed at the bottom of her bag. Oops.
Other Supplies
Although you will want to pack as light as possible - you gotta carry it - below is a list of additional items you may want. Please bring what suits you!
Extra batteries
Sunblock (important!!)
Hand/face towel
Toilet Paper (esp. ladies - when is there ever TP in the ladies' bathroom?)
Headache medicine?
Camera
Small blanket
Sealable bags for food and supplies
Money (you can buy food/water at the stations, but be warned that the closer to the top, the more expensive items will be)
Gloves and a hat
Plastic bag for wet clothes
Trash bag(s) - pick up along the trail for extra kudos
Hking stick - available at the bottom (5th Station), you can buy a fetching wooden hiking stick for 1,000 yen and then have it stamped (branded) with a seal at each of the stations. Each brand costs 200 yen, so in total it costs 2,000 yen, but it's a pretty kickass memento if you're into that kind of thing.
Most of the huts/stations on the Yoshida trail have bathrooms - decent bathrooms (though I heard from my friends that the one at the summit was disgusting)- attached to them, and they all had toilet paper, so next time I would skip out on that. They do, however, ask for a 200 yen donation for upkeep, so make sure you bring change.
The hiking sticks were really really cool, and useful if you don't already have poles. Pretty much every hut and station along the way offer stamps/brands for 200 yen, so you can actually spend quite a bit on the brands if you aim to get them from as many stations as you can. Just know though, if you're doing the night climb that some of them might be closed or not giving out stamps during the wee hours of the night. My friends also said that at the summit, you can get two different stamps too. They're pretty badass; they're burned into your stick with an iron rod.
I also brought a small first aid kit - and by that I mean band-aids, neosporin, tape, and wrapping for under the tape. Oh, and headache medicine, but I put it into a smaller bottle.
I was super freaking out right before the climb because I wasn't sure if I had everything, but now, in retrospect, I probably packed too much. I did end up putting on all my layers (save the rain pants), but that might have been in part because we were going slow enough and resting often enough to where it was getting kind of chilly. But yeah, it as long as you keep moving, you actually stay pretty warm throughout your hike until you get to bits where you slow down or rest.
I, along with a couple other people, brought cannisters of oxygen. The guy who organized the trip said (with a touch of distain and contempt since he's a really fit dude) we shouldn't need oxygen, even those of us who weren't in good shape cause we were all young and blah blah. I talked to someone else, who recommended bringing some with, and I found it was a good idea. It helped some of us with altitude sickness or tiredness - when I started to get really short of breath, take a swig of oxygen and everything is good again. Slight headache? Oxygen away! It doesn't help everyone though - my friend and climbing buddy tried it on her headache and nausea, but it didn't help one bit.
Yeah though, that was just the set up! Another one of my friends who's done Fuji has told me that she went with far less preparation, but since we were doing a night climb... to not be prepared implied that there was a chance that we would die on the mountain.
More to come:
bus ride
rest stops
Starting out.
gandalf stick & good headlamps (or not good headlamps)
altitude sickness
zigzag paths & small goals
guys who brand sticks
price of water D:
water is HEAVY
rocks of stupid annoyingness
hooray rock climbing... in the dark!
8th station
Friendly people
Going back down
ohmyjesus hornets and other flying things
Nearly getting lost
hiking downhill on the way over...
hiking boots are awesome
onsen
20 minutes, LOLS
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Hospitals
Today was my first time going to the hospital in Japan. They're a little different than how hospitals work in the US - at least, in my experience anyways. Generally, I think of hospitals as emergency kind of places where you go as a "oh crap things have seriously gone wrong" or "woah major allergic reaction" or something. Not for minor things like colds or what have you. Something wrong? Go to the doctor's or to the health center/clinic.
But here... while there are clinics, a lot of people also just go to the hospital for simple things like doctor's notes or when you're ill with fever or something. It's not just for emergencies. They explained this in the "Learn Japanese through Life Situation/Cultural things" class I'm taking through Takahashi. Clinics here do function like clinics back at home. You can go there when you're sick and stuff, but they can't actually give you medicine. They can prescribe it for you to take to a pharmacy or something, but generally that pharmacy is somewhere else. Hospitals on the other hand, often do have the medicines on hand or at least have a pharmacy close by. They also do surgeries and so on. But if you're not close to a clinic, you just go into the hospital. So if someone says that they went to the hospital, it may or may not be a major thing. In my case, it wasn't really.
And here I was thinking my blue health card was going to be useless. Seriously, this thing is almost like a magic card here.
The hospital I went to today was in Niimi, right next to my school because I told myself that I had to go in to work and stuff since, for chrissakes, they were just bug bites. Lots of them.
Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned what I went to the hospital for. So when I woke up this morning, my arms were COVERED in small red bumps that itched like a bad joke. And when I say covered, I'm talking like, around 30 bumps/rashy looking things between my right and left arms. And hands. I can't actually wear my ring on my right hand anymore because my ring finger has a bite on it, which caused the finger to swell up (in addition to the swelling due to heat and my gaining weight thanks to four birthdays within the last month and no self-control). Needless to say, my commute in to work was something aong the lines of miserable, not to mention the fact that I was also running late because I had gone back to sleep after my first alarm clock. Thankfully, I slept most of the way in on the train.
Also thankfully, I had no classes today since the students were taking tests and stuff, so I actually didn't really have much to do during the day other than help eventually make the listening portion of the English test. So I made my way to the hospital sometime around 9:20; it was pretty much right next to the school, so finding it was pretty easy.
At first, I went in the wrong door. A really nice nurse lady who spoke a little English (and wasn't afraid to!) directed me to the actual reception area. And woaaahhh there were a lot of elderly people there. I guess that makes sense since all the young people are in school and stuff, and the people who are probably going to need health assistance are old people to begin with... So I'm not sure why I'm surprised.
But I managed to get my form filled out (by answering no to most questions, figuring that was a pretty safe bet), and then began the hard part. The waiting. I think I was waiting there for... an hour and a half. I was kicking myself for not bringing my Japanese books to study with. But I did have kindle on my iPhone, so I went through and read Arabian Nights (and wow, just wow, at all the layers of stories). Then I got bored and went on my phone. I thought they had forgotten about me for a while. I got up to use the bathroom and came back to find my seat taken, but the A's/Mariner's game on the TV.
Alright, I thought. Waiting was going to be way more fun. It took a while, but the TV quickly reminded me that not only was Ichiro playing (on the mariners) but Hideki was playing on the A's. Seriously, you should have seen the amount of time the cameras spent on them. Them in the dugout. Them standing on the base. They'd quickly cut back to the person who was actually at bat, or to the pitcher if he thought someone was going to steal a base. But then the camera went straight back to Hideki or Ichiro. It was kind of amusing. It wasn't long though, before Hideki went up to bat and go out on a pop fly to left field, and one of the old men watching the game got up and changed the channel to some Japanese oldschool drama that I couldn't actually hear. That was kind of unfortunate. Waiting was boring once more.
Eventually though, right before I thought I was going to have to go back home (around 11:15) they called my name and I followed the nurse into a small room where we talked for a little bit and I showed her the bug bites on my arm (which, ironically, had ceased to itch insanely and had actually faded a little bit so they weren't that angry red color). I also gave her the note that my JTE had written for me.
Eventually she left and came back with a doctor who was saying ti was probably dani and that I need to bug bomb my house (probably) and asked if I was allergic to anything and a couple of other questions I kind of just said no to.
He gave me a prescription for two medicines: a topical medicine that's like a clear gel stuff you spread over the bug bites, and a pill to take twice a day. The pill, I found out, was actually just Allegra; I was amused to find that they actually have to prescribe it here, but then again, Japan's drug laws are much stricter than the US's.
To get the drugs, after I got out of the office, I had to wait for them to call my name so I could collect my prescription and pay the ~1000 yen for a doctor's visit. Then I had to go to the pharmacy where I had to wait some more and fill out another form before they sent me on my way with medicine. That cost like, 760 yen. Total cost was around 1800.
Magic, I tell you. Super nice to get drugs for that cheap, especially when you have to wait so freaking long at the hospital.
I accidently took 2 allegra instead of just one for today. My bad. It shouldn't kill me, I think, since the American dosage is a a little different than the Japanese one.
But yeah, that was my adventure today. Lots of waiting. I swear, Japan is making me more patient, or it will so-help-it-god.
I am not really looking forward to going home right now. I'm kind of dreading it. They said that I probably have dani - bed bugs or tatami bugs. Usually you hear about them living in old tatami or in futons. I guess mine are the futon type, because sweat builds up and they eat that stuff.... gross. But I thought I'd been decent at putting away my futon and upkeeping it, but apparently I was very very wrong. Sigh.
I swear, I'll never take a bed or the noticable lack of major bugs in California for granted ever again. I'm getting tired of having to deal with bugs all the freaking time.
On a happier note, this weekend was absolutely packed full of things, both good and bad. I already mentioned the JLPT, but I didn't talk about any of the awesome things that happened.
On monday, when I went in to school, some of my students at Jounan asked me what I was doing with the eggplant. I was kind of confused at first, like, what? Then they told me that they saw me on TV with Joaquin-sensei (one of the other ALTs in Takahashi). And I was like, what. And then I remembered. Saturday, my insanely busy day, I spent like, an hourish at the Japanese class about Tanabata Matsuri - or the Star festival. There was a story to go along with it; I'll retell it later. But suffice it to say, that part of the class was learning how to make animals out of vegetables. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this... but we turned a cucumber into a... something with legs. Horse! The eggplant became a cow. And ginger turned into a rooster. They actually looked pretty cool too. This kid at the table we were at stuck a bunch of legs into his cucumber; we asked him if it was mukade and he was like "NOOOO IT'S A _____." He was really freaking adorable though. Also, according to Joaquin's librarian, they played that several times over the local news channel. Hooray, I've officially made the local news. Making eggplant animals.
EMBARRASSING-YOOOOO. I wonder how many of my kids saw that.
But here... while there are clinics, a lot of people also just go to the hospital for simple things like doctor's notes or when you're ill with fever or something. It's not just for emergencies. They explained this in the "Learn Japanese through Life Situation/Cultural things" class I'm taking through Takahashi. Clinics here do function like clinics back at home. You can go there when you're sick and stuff, but they can't actually give you medicine. They can prescribe it for you to take to a pharmacy or something, but generally that pharmacy is somewhere else. Hospitals on the other hand, often do have the medicines on hand or at least have a pharmacy close by. They also do surgeries and so on. But if you're not close to a clinic, you just go into the hospital. So if someone says that they went to the hospital, it may or may not be a major thing. In my case, it wasn't really.
And here I was thinking my blue health card was going to be useless. Seriously, this thing is almost like a magic card here.
The hospital I went to today was in Niimi, right next to my school because I told myself that I had to go in to work and stuff since, for chrissakes, they were just bug bites. Lots of them.
Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned what I went to the hospital for. So when I woke up this morning, my arms were COVERED in small red bumps that itched like a bad joke. And when I say covered, I'm talking like, around 30 bumps/rashy looking things between my right and left arms. And hands. I can't actually wear my ring on my right hand anymore because my ring finger has a bite on it, which caused the finger to swell up (in addition to the swelling due to heat and my gaining weight thanks to four birthdays within the last month and no self-control). Needless to say, my commute in to work was something aong the lines of miserable, not to mention the fact that I was also running late because I had gone back to sleep after my first alarm clock. Thankfully, I slept most of the way in on the train.
Also thankfully, I had no classes today since the students were taking tests and stuff, so I actually didn't really have much to do during the day other than help eventually make the listening portion of the English test. So I made my way to the hospital sometime around 9:20; it was pretty much right next to the school, so finding it was pretty easy.
At first, I went in the wrong door. A really nice nurse lady who spoke a little English (and wasn't afraid to!) directed me to the actual reception area. And woaaahhh there were a lot of elderly people there. I guess that makes sense since all the young people are in school and stuff, and the people who are probably going to need health assistance are old people to begin with... So I'm not sure why I'm surprised.
But I managed to get my form filled out (by answering no to most questions, figuring that was a pretty safe bet), and then began the hard part. The waiting. I think I was waiting there for... an hour and a half. I was kicking myself for not bringing my Japanese books to study with. But I did have kindle on my iPhone, so I went through and read Arabian Nights (and wow, just wow, at all the layers of stories). Then I got bored and went on my phone. I thought they had forgotten about me for a while. I got up to use the bathroom and came back to find my seat taken, but the A's/Mariner's game on the TV.
Alright, I thought. Waiting was going to be way more fun. It took a while, but the TV quickly reminded me that not only was Ichiro playing (on the mariners) but Hideki was playing on the A's. Seriously, you should have seen the amount of time the cameras spent on them. Them in the dugout. Them standing on the base. They'd quickly cut back to the person who was actually at bat, or to the pitcher if he thought someone was going to steal a base. But then the camera went straight back to Hideki or Ichiro. It was kind of amusing. It wasn't long though, before Hideki went up to bat and go out on a pop fly to left field, and one of the old men watching the game got up and changed the channel to some Japanese oldschool drama that I couldn't actually hear. That was kind of unfortunate. Waiting was boring once more.
Eventually though, right before I thought I was going to have to go back home (around 11:15) they called my name and I followed the nurse into a small room where we talked for a little bit and I showed her the bug bites on my arm (which, ironically, had ceased to itch insanely and had actually faded a little bit so they weren't that angry red color). I also gave her the note that my JTE had written for me.
Eventually she left and came back with a doctor who was saying ti was probably dani and that I need to bug bomb my house (probably) and asked if I was allergic to anything and a couple of other questions I kind of just said no to.
He gave me a prescription for two medicines: a topical medicine that's like a clear gel stuff you spread over the bug bites, and a pill to take twice a day. The pill, I found out, was actually just Allegra; I was amused to find that they actually have to prescribe it here, but then again, Japan's drug laws are much stricter than the US's.
To get the drugs, after I got out of the office, I had to wait for them to call my name so I could collect my prescription and pay the ~1000 yen for a doctor's visit. Then I had to go to the pharmacy where I had to wait some more and fill out another form before they sent me on my way with medicine. That cost like, 760 yen. Total cost was around 1800.
Magic, I tell you. Super nice to get drugs for that cheap, especially when you have to wait so freaking long at the hospital.
I accidently took 2 allegra instead of just one for today. My bad. It shouldn't kill me, I think, since the American dosage is a a little different than the Japanese one.
But yeah, that was my adventure today. Lots of waiting. I swear, Japan is making me more patient, or it will so-help-it-god.
I am not really looking forward to going home right now. I'm kind of dreading it. They said that I probably have dani - bed bugs or tatami bugs. Usually you hear about them living in old tatami or in futons. I guess mine are the futon type, because sweat builds up and they eat that stuff.... gross. But I thought I'd been decent at putting away my futon and upkeeping it, but apparently I was very very wrong. Sigh.
I swear, I'll never take a bed or the noticable lack of major bugs in California for granted ever again. I'm getting tired of having to deal with bugs all the freaking time.
On a happier note, this weekend was absolutely packed full of things, both good and bad. I already mentioned the JLPT, but I didn't talk about any of the awesome things that happened.
On monday, when I went in to school, some of my students at Jounan asked me what I was doing with the eggplant. I was kind of confused at first, like, what? Then they told me that they saw me on TV with Joaquin-sensei (one of the other ALTs in Takahashi). And I was like, what. And then I remembered. Saturday, my insanely busy day, I spent like, an hourish at the Japanese class about Tanabata Matsuri - or the Star festival. There was a story to go along with it; I'll retell it later. But suffice it to say, that part of the class was learning how to make animals out of vegetables. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this... but we turned a cucumber into a... something with legs. Horse! The eggplant became a cow. And ginger turned into a rooster. They actually looked pretty cool too. This kid at the table we were at stuck a bunch of legs into his cucumber; we asked him if it was mukade and he was like "NOOOO IT'S A _____." He was really freaking adorable though. Also, according to Joaquin's librarian, they played that several times over the local news channel. Hooray, I've officially made the local news. Making eggplant animals.
EMBARRASSING-YOOOOO. I wonder how many of my kids saw that.
Monday, July 4, 2011
This Ain't A Scene, It's An Armsrace
I swear, it's like I'm at war with the bugs in my area. Can you see why I'm not super fond of summer now?
The latest battle in my ongoing war with the bugs has pitted me against the endless army of small, tiny, annoying ants. I know I'm way bigger than them, yes, and that they can't really do much, but I'm not wholly convinced that this speces is one of the non-biting ones. I keep finding more and more bumps mysteriously appearing over my body, and I can't help but assume that while I sleep, some little bug is crawling over and using me as a buffet. Last night, I returned home from my Japanese test in Okayama City to find that the stray ant or two I'd been finding recently had a source - a source that was interested in something in my bedroom! They were EVERYWHERE. It turns out that one of the chocolates I had at the bottom of a box had melted and was attracting them into my room... so I put the box outside, but was too paranoid to sleep since I kept finding groups of ants popping up here and there. And vacuumed. Boy did I vacuum. it was almost as if my room was giving me a sign saying "Jessica, you haven't vacuumed in AGES well now is a really good time to do that."
I thought about spraying my room but well, the problem was that this was my bedroom, which has tatami. So if I sprayed... my room has little to no ventilation so basically I'd be sleeping with my head in a cloud of pesticide. I have a spare room, but I'd kind of put a bunch of stuff in there from when they were coming to fix my fridge and I had to clean the place up real fast. Yeaaaaaah.
Needless to say, I didn't go to bed until pretty late. I'm really glad that this week is test week and I have very few actual classes to teach...
But okay, so that was last night. I don't know if these bumps/bites on my arm are from the ants or not, but I've got a good couple on my arms. What's more, tonight, I also found three clusters of ants in my house: one near the umeshu (plum wine) I tried to make (we'll see how that goes), one cluster near the light switch/soup, and one sparse group in the shower. I was like omg, wat, this is WAR.
It's a good thing I went to buy ant stuff today. Seriously, I loaded up on what I could find (in addition to buying hiking boots - I'm going to attempt to climb fuji this weekend! AHHHH. There's a small chance I'm going to die. I'm so incredibly out of shape right now it's not funny. I need a hard schedule to follow, otherwise I end up slacking off. I've also been eating too much recently - I blame the billion birthdays that have happened lately.). This included this nifty ant killer spray with a thin nozzel that sprays a very direct cloud versus one that's kind of wide and eventually ends up just floating down. Very happy with that purchase. Also bought bug trappy-bug-takes-this-thing-back-to-nest-and-it-hopefully-kills-everything thing that reminds me of the cockroach ones. I put those outside my house... hopefully they'll sufficiently distract the ants from the inside of my house. :x
I'm getting better though. I stay under enough control to where I could actually get teh vacuum and take care of it, since before even doing that would be questionable.
So that's my battle with ants, in my war with the bugs. I also fought a battle against the mosquitos. That one, I'm pretty sure I lost. I was waiting for my bus after the test on sunday, and not one, but TWO full buses went by us. It felt like I really was at school again.
Oh, as an aside, I've been taking "beginner" Japanese classes through the city. They're "learning Japanese through real life situations and learning about Japanese culture" kind of classes, and mainly aimed at foreigners - students, mostly since there's an international college really close to where I live. Except most of them are Korean or Chinese. And since I know the guy who's organizing it... he asked me to come and I said sure why not. It's good practice. Definitely not beginner though. I saw at least 4 people from that class at the Japanese proficiency test, all all of them were taking either N2 or N1 - the top two levels (out of 5). I was taking 3 (and got my butt kicked). Yeaaaaaaah. It's fun though.Anyways, I digress.
As I was waiting for the bus, I felt this stinging and then intense itching on my legs. Those little mosquito bastards had bitten my legs at least 5 times. FIVE. They're all painful too. And itch like something rotten. I went from having no bug bites to BAM having a lot. That only made me not like the test even more haha.
Yeah, so the mosquitos won that round, but eventually i pushed my way onto a bus haha.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that on the bus ride over, I found a tiny little spider hanging by a thread from one of my hairs? I was very impressed that I didn't freak out or scream. I just, carefully, with my voucher, pushed it off. Super gross. Do not want.
So yeah, bugs, you may be winning the battles, but I shall win the war.
The latest battle in my ongoing war with the bugs has pitted me against the endless army of small, tiny, annoying ants. I know I'm way bigger than them, yes, and that they can't really do much, but I'm not wholly convinced that this speces is one of the non-biting ones. I keep finding more and more bumps mysteriously appearing over my body, and I can't help but assume that while I sleep, some little bug is crawling over and using me as a buffet. Last night, I returned home from my Japanese test in Okayama City to find that the stray ant or two I'd been finding recently had a source - a source that was interested in something in my bedroom! They were EVERYWHERE. It turns out that one of the chocolates I had at the bottom of a box had melted and was attracting them into my room... so I put the box outside, but was too paranoid to sleep since I kept finding groups of ants popping up here and there. And vacuumed. Boy did I vacuum. it was almost as if my room was giving me a sign saying "Jessica, you haven't vacuumed in AGES well now is a really good time to do that."
I thought about spraying my room but well, the problem was that this was my bedroom, which has tatami. So if I sprayed... my room has little to no ventilation so basically I'd be sleeping with my head in a cloud of pesticide. I have a spare room, but I'd kind of put a bunch of stuff in there from when they were coming to fix my fridge and I had to clean the place up real fast. Yeaaaaaah.
Needless to say, I didn't go to bed until pretty late. I'm really glad that this week is test week and I have very few actual classes to teach...
But okay, so that was last night. I don't know if these bumps/bites on my arm are from the ants or not, but I've got a good couple on my arms. What's more, tonight, I also found three clusters of ants in my house: one near the umeshu (plum wine) I tried to make (we'll see how that goes), one cluster near the light switch/soup, and one sparse group in the shower. I was like omg, wat, this is WAR.
It's a good thing I went to buy ant stuff today. Seriously, I loaded up on what I could find (in addition to buying hiking boots - I'm going to attempt to climb fuji this weekend! AHHHH. There's a small chance I'm going to die. I'm so incredibly out of shape right now it's not funny. I need a hard schedule to follow, otherwise I end up slacking off. I've also been eating too much recently - I blame the billion birthdays that have happened lately.). This included this nifty ant killer spray with a thin nozzel that sprays a very direct cloud versus one that's kind of wide and eventually ends up just floating down. Very happy with that purchase. Also bought bug trappy-bug-takes-this-thing-back-to-nest-and-it-hopefully-kills-everything thing that reminds me of the cockroach ones. I put those outside my house... hopefully they'll sufficiently distract the ants from the inside of my house. :x
I'm getting better though. I stay under enough control to where I could actually get teh vacuum and take care of it, since before even doing that would be questionable.
So that's my battle with ants, in my war with the bugs. I also fought a battle against the mosquitos. That one, I'm pretty sure I lost. I was waiting for my bus after the test on sunday, and not one, but TWO full buses went by us. It felt like I really was at school again.
Oh, as an aside, I've been taking "beginner" Japanese classes through the city. They're "learning Japanese through real life situations and learning about Japanese culture" kind of classes, and mainly aimed at foreigners - students, mostly since there's an international college really close to where I live. Except most of them are Korean or Chinese. And since I know the guy who's organizing it... he asked me to come and I said sure why not. It's good practice. Definitely not beginner though. I saw at least 4 people from that class at the Japanese proficiency test, all all of them were taking either N2 or N1 - the top two levels (out of 5). I was taking 3 (and got my butt kicked). Yeaaaaaaah. It's fun though.Anyways, I digress.
As I was waiting for the bus, I felt this stinging and then intense itching on my legs. Those little mosquito bastards had bitten my legs at least 5 times. FIVE. They're all painful too. And itch like something rotten. I went from having no bug bites to BAM having a lot. That only made me not like the test even more haha.
Yeah, so the mosquitos won that round, but eventually i pushed my way onto a bus haha.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that on the bus ride over, I found a tiny little spider hanging by a thread from one of my hairs? I was very impressed that I didn't freak out or scream. I just, carefully, with my voucher, pushed it off. Super gross. Do not want.
So yeah, bugs, you may be winning the battles, but I shall win the war.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Mo' Bugs
Today, the teachers at my base school also told me that the next time I see one of those kabutomushi bugs (see previous post) that I should definitely capture it and they'd buy it off me, and then I could make money on the side.
I told them it was impossible, and we laughed. Seriously though, doing that is impossible for me. Even if it were dead, I wouldn't pick up the thing. One of the teachers pointed out that it looks like a cockroach (which was why he didn't like them). They both have hard shells, it's true. They both make that sickening crunching noise and feeling if you step on them. Gross.
I had another interesting run in with some bugs today. Spiders, to be exact. So like, I've been seeing these little round cocoon things all around my house, outside the windows, etc etc, and I've just thought that they were cocoons that the spiders had spun around their dead victims to save for... a rainy day or something. I don't know why. It never occurred to me that there could be living things inside of them.
Well, it turns out there are. I got my full sized refrigerator back today, and when I went to open the door, I noticed this like... swarm of small bugs in this spider web. I knew about the spider web. I had seen the spider there before - black, round body with white spots. I was kind of like, okay spider, you can stay there so long as I can still walk out the door. But I bent down to look at the small things - I thought they were ants or small gnats that had gotten caught in the web - when I realized that these tiny things were actually moving. Along the spider web. And they weren't flying bugs. They were mini spiders. At least a hundred of them (it's so tempting to say hundreds, but that's probably exaggerating it a little bit). All crawling around.
Disgusting.
If they were on the outside of my house... maybe it would have been different. But inside my house. Ew. Do not want. Especially do not want to wake up and find them crawling around in other places, so I asked people what I should do.
One of my cool JTEs told me about this bug poison that you can get at drug stores. Apparently though, it's like... super strong poison. The strongest. Which is saying something, because Japanese poisons and bug sprays are really strong to begin with. Like, they generally won't sell you the bug poison just over the counter (he said). Actually, he advised me that if I wanted to buy them, to tell the person that I have cows and I need to keep the flies away or something. Me. Cows. I kind of giggled at that, and he was like "no I'm serious."
Yeah though, I found a much better, healthier solution that involved a little bit of grovelling and humiliating myself in front of the old lady who works at the dormitory cafeteria. I thought about asking one of the students, but she just came out and was like "are you okay?"
So I asked her what I should do about the tiny spiders, and she recommended getting a broom and just sweeping them away. I gave her, I guess, a look, and she asked me if I was afraid and I was like "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ONEGAISHIMASU." So she came and I gave her one of the old brooms and she just briskly swept them all away. They didn't jump at her or anything, and she just kept sweeping until they were allgone.
yah, I need to buy her some nice present or something. She's always really nice. And by always really nice, I mean she's said hello and we've had a little bit of smalltalk conversation.
Thank goodness for that though. I mean, if there had been a way to remove them and place them far far away, I'd totally be down with that.
Oh! So for some good news, I tried my hand at planting zucchini the other weekend. THERE ARE GREEN THINGS GROWING IN MY BOX. O_O Like, actual plants and stuff. I was kind of shocked and astounded. I also planted them wrong though, too close together, and too many in one little hole so now I'm like "ahhhhhhhhhh what should I doooo?!"
I know absolutely nothing about gardening. The internet has only been minimally helpful. It told me that I should thin out my plants (thin! Earlier on I was trying to think of the word and all I could come up with was 'cull') buuuut it said "the weak looking ones". To me though, they all look the same.
Even if they don't actually end up growing zucchinis, I will be happy they sprouted in the first place. :) For so long I was like "nah I'm not going to do a garden because I'm afraid of bugs" (and I still am) but then I found out how much zucchini cost out here... and I do enjoy cooking zucchini. They also said zucchini was really really hard to kill. So I'm hopeful. It's my first time gardening though, so I'm like Ahhhhhhhhh! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.
Also, I'm not sure if the old man who comes and keeps my lawn tidy (he's the school gardener) is watering them or if it was raining, but the soil was moist when I checked it today.
Yeah, I'm still super happy about the leaves. :3 My tiny basil plant also has leaves! Though it would take three or five of those to actually get enough basil to actually cook or do anything with other than use them as a garnish or something.
I told them it was impossible, and we laughed. Seriously though, doing that is impossible for me. Even if it were dead, I wouldn't pick up the thing. One of the teachers pointed out that it looks like a cockroach (which was why he didn't like them). They both have hard shells, it's true. They both make that sickening crunching noise and feeling if you step on them. Gross.
I had another interesting run in with some bugs today. Spiders, to be exact. So like, I've been seeing these little round cocoon things all around my house, outside the windows, etc etc, and I've just thought that they were cocoons that the spiders had spun around their dead victims to save for... a rainy day or something. I don't know why. It never occurred to me that there could be living things inside of them.
Well, it turns out there are. I got my full sized refrigerator back today, and when I went to open the door, I noticed this like... swarm of small bugs in this spider web. I knew about the spider web. I had seen the spider there before - black, round body with white spots. I was kind of like, okay spider, you can stay there so long as I can still walk out the door. But I bent down to look at the small things - I thought they were ants or small gnats that had gotten caught in the web - when I realized that these tiny things were actually moving. Along the spider web. And they weren't flying bugs. They were mini spiders. At least a hundred of them (it's so tempting to say hundreds, but that's probably exaggerating it a little bit). All crawling around.
Disgusting.
If they were on the outside of my house... maybe it would have been different. But inside my house. Ew. Do not want. Especially do not want to wake up and find them crawling around in other places, so I asked people what I should do.
One of my cool JTEs told me about this bug poison that you can get at drug stores. Apparently though, it's like... super strong poison. The strongest. Which is saying something, because Japanese poisons and bug sprays are really strong to begin with. Like, they generally won't sell you the bug poison just over the counter (he said). Actually, he advised me that if I wanted to buy them, to tell the person that I have cows and I need to keep the flies away or something. Me. Cows. I kind of giggled at that, and he was like "no I'm serious."
Yeah though, I found a much better, healthier solution that involved a little bit of grovelling and humiliating myself in front of the old lady who works at the dormitory cafeteria. I thought about asking one of the students, but she just came out and was like "are you okay?"
So I asked her what I should do about the tiny spiders, and she recommended getting a broom and just sweeping them away. I gave her, I guess, a look, and she asked me if I was afraid and I was like "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ONEGAISHIMASU." So she came and I gave her one of the old brooms and she just briskly swept them all away. They didn't jump at her or anything, and she just kept sweeping until they were allgone.
yah, I need to buy her some nice present or something. She's always really nice. And by always really nice, I mean she's said hello and we've had a little bit of smalltalk conversation.
Thank goodness for that though. I mean, if there had been a way to remove them and place them far far away, I'd totally be down with that.
Oh! So for some good news, I tried my hand at planting zucchini the other weekend. THERE ARE GREEN THINGS GROWING IN MY BOX. O_O Like, actual plants and stuff. I was kind of shocked and astounded. I also planted them wrong though, too close together, and too many in one little hole so now I'm like "ahhhhhhhhhh what should I doooo?!"
I know absolutely nothing about gardening. The internet has only been minimally helpful. It told me that I should thin out my plants (thin! Earlier on I was trying to think of the word and all I could come up with was 'cull') buuuut it said "the weak looking ones". To me though, they all look the same.
Even if they don't actually end up growing zucchinis, I will be happy they sprouted in the first place. :) For so long I was like "nah I'm not going to do a garden because I'm afraid of bugs" (and I still am) but then I found out how much zucchini cost out here... and I do enjoy cooking zucchini. They also said zucchini was really really hard to kill. So I'm hopeful. It's my first time gardening though, so I'm like Ahhhhhhhhh! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.
Also, I'm not sure if the old man who comes and keeps my lawn tidy (he's the school gardener) is watering them or if it was raining, but the soil was moist when I checked it today.
Yeah, I'm still super happy about the leaves. :3 My tiny basil plant also has leaves! Though it would take three or five of those to actually get enough basil to actually cook or do anything with other than use them as a garnish or something.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Birthday presents
On Tuesday, I was at my high school in Niimi. Tuesday also happened to be national parfait day in Japan (supposedly) as well as the day I was born (3 am, as my mother likes to point out). Niimi has an unfortunate lack of air conditioners.But anyways, I was in class and this one boy was gesturing back, and at first I thought he was gesturing towards the door since there was a cool breeze blowing through it. I thought he was telling me "oh stand in the cool breezy part." Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw what he was *really* gesturing at. This huge, giant, horned, beetle, on the floor, about a foot away from where I was standing.
My reaction was something I heard them talking about to other students on the train. I literally jumped a foot, up and back, and screamed quite loudly. Part of the class erupted in chaos. One of the students went over and picked it up with his fingers. Disgusting.
After I got over my initial surprise and shock - I don't like surprises - it actually wasn't so bad. It was really interesting, actually, and my first time seeing one of these out in the wild. I think it was one of these kabuto mushi, or Japanese rhinoceros beetles. That or it was a stag beetle. Either way, it was huge and it was on its back, flailing its legs around. The teacher told me (later) that they could actually fly. So glad I did not find that out until afterwards.
The kid who had picked it up was going to toss it out the window, but everyone was like "NOOOO DON'T DO THAT" so instead they put it on the ledge outside the window.
When we were back in the teacher's room and telling the other teachers about this, all of them were like "dude why didn't you catch it?!" or "omfg luckyyyyyyy I want one of those!" This put me at a loss for words. Apparently, according to one teacher those kind of bugs go for 5,000 yen in the stores. Five *thousand* yen. In dollars, it's over $50 - probably more like $60 with the exchange rate now. For a bug. Granted, said bug was the size of my palm about. That bugger was HUGE.
So while it looks really cool (I'll give it that) I think i'd rather it keep its distance so someone else can enjoy playing with it instead.
I understand now though, why the pokemon Heracross was in so many of the animes. These beetles are HUGE in Japanese culture (as seen by how much they cost in the store!) and they even have a show about them. They're nicknamed "the king of bugs" and kids use 'em to fight. Apparently, you can also find it in the mountainy areas.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Summer Hideout
In the winter, it was so cold in my house. I had no central heating, so I would bundle up and sit under my warm kotatsu and then sprint into bed with my heated blanket (when I didn't fall asleep under the kotatsu). Basically I lived in my living room under my kotatsu for all of winter.
But now that it's summer, I've found myself holing up in my bedroom, since that's where the AC is. Last summer I managed to go for decently long without running the AC too much (and then I caved) but I feel like I've turned on the AC really early this year. But my room is the one place that's really nice and cool in my house - though when I need to use the bathroom or cook, it's like running into a wall of disgustingly thick heat when I step out of my ice box of a room.
Not having wi-fi (since my time capsule broke) is making this experience much more annoying. Also, the fact that my softbank internet thingie has no signal in my house (but my phone has full bars! I don't understand! Augh!) makes it even more annoying.
Oh! So for something not heat related, I *finally* did what people have been telling me to do for AGES. I planted a small garden in a planter box. It looks really awkward and a little stupid (I have this giant long container thing that's this not-so-pleasing color of pastel-y green). There's also the chance that nothing will actually grow there, since I'm planting my seeds really really late. I mean, I know it's a little on the late side to be planting stuff, since generally that's done in the spring (thank you Harvest Moon) but I didn't find the proper seeds until just last week or so.
I'm trying to grow zucchini, since it's EXPENSIVE over here for zucchini! One zucchini at my grocery store today was about 180 yen - almost $2 (with the exchange rate, probably $2) for a single zucchini. Wat. The. Fak. So I found the seeds at the hardware store (and was like "omg where have these been?" since I've been looking for zucchini seeds for ages, and I swear those weren't there when I went to the store in the earlier months.
I also think I planted them wrong. ._. After I planted them, I was reading that you should plant one seed per hole thing about a couple inches or so apart... I kind of just dug holes in a -_-_- pattern and planted them there like that. Yeah. Probably shouldn't have done that. Sigh. And I dumped two to four seeds in each little hole.
I'm growing a little basil plant though, that's doing quite nicely. If I want like, a couple of leaves it's fine for that, but I'm like, for cooking purposes it's not really... yeah. I'd have to have like, a couple of basil plants. Maybe I'll do that sometime. But I think I'm supposed to thin the plants out, you know, like survival of the fittest style.
Last night I went over to Hannah's place with Caroline and we watched Up and Tangled. :) Good times. I love being able to just hang out like that sometimes and not like... do anything but watch movies and eat. We found a cockroach in her house partway through the movies though, and had a... an interesting time freaking out and standing on the couch and the bed haha. Regular bunch of girls we were. This was promptly followed by a trip to the supermarket she lived by (it was 24 hours! Had a nice bout of city envy right there) where we stocked up on things that can kill cockroaches. Sticky roach traps, roach dango, and this nice spray stuff that we used to also kill several flying bugs that had come in when we opened the door. I don't think I could do the traps, since it means I'll have to remove it too... and that's just kinda gross.
I'm pleased to report though, that I was not among the hysterically screaming. Nope. Freak out yeah, but like, there was very little screaming and swearing from me. Probably because it wasn't my apartment.
It's kind of weird though. The roach was about the length of my thumb - super huge! We were like GOOD GOD. But roaches don't actually bite or anything. They're just really annoying and move really fast. (Most of them) don't even fly or jump. You'd think that we'd react worse to mosquitos or something. But yeah, they're kind of disgusting. And by kind of, I mean, really are.
Someone also said they were never visiting me during the summer because of all the bugs haha. I don't quite blame them; there's a ridiculous amount of flying critters around light sources (like the train station) during the evening.
I think I'm getting a little bit better at bugs. The ones I can anticipate anyways. Maybe. Haha. I am still, by no means, "good" at being around bugs. I still freak out. But I like to think that I freak out a little less. Maybe. Probably not.
But now that it's summer, I've found myself holing up in my bedroom, since that's where the AC is. Last summer I managed to go for decently long without running the AC too much (and then I caved) but I feel like I've turned on the AC really early this year. But my room is the one place that's really nice and cool in my house - though when I need to use the bathroom or cook, it's like running into a wall of disgustingly thick heat when I step out of my ice box of a room.
Not having wi-fi (since my time capsule broke) is making this experience much more annoying. Also, the fact that my softbank internet thingie has no signal in my house (but my phone has full bars! I don't understand! Augh!) makes it even more annoying.
Oh! So for something not heat related, I *finally* did what people have been telling me to do for AGES. I planted a small garden in a planter box. It looks really awkward and a little stupid (I have this giant long container thing that's this not-so-pleasing color of pastel-y green). There's also the chance that nothing will actually grow there, since I'm planting my seeds really really late. I mean, I know it's a little on the late side to be planting stuff, since generally that's done in the spring (thank you Harvest Moon) but I didn't find the proper seeds until just last week or so.
I'm trying to grow zucchini, since it's EXPENSIVE over here for zucchini! One zucchini at my grocery store today was about 180 yen - almost $2 (with the exchange rate, probably $2) for a single zucchini. Wat. The. Fak. So I found the seeds at the hardware store (and was like "omg where have these been?" since I've been looking for zucchini seeds for ages, and I swear those weren't there when I went to the store in the earlier months.
I also think I planted them wrong. ._. After I planted them, I was reading that you should plant one seed per hole thing about a couple inches or so apart... I kind of just dug holes in a -_-_- pattern and planted them there like that. Yeah. Probably shouldn't have done that. Sigh. And I dumped two to four seeds in each little hole.
I'm growing a little basil plant though, that's doing quite nicely. If I want like, a couple of leaves it's fine for that, but I'm like, for cooking purposes it's not really... yeah. I'd have to have like, a couple of basil plants. Maybe I'll do that sometime. But I think I'm supposed to thin the plants out, you know, like survival of the fittest style.
Last night I went over to Hannah's place with Caroline and we watched Up and Tangled. :) Good times. I love being able to just hang out like that sometimes and not like... do anything but watch movies and eat. We found a cockroach in her house partway through the movies though, and had a... an interesting time freaking out and standing on the couch and the bed haha. Regular bunch of girls we were. This was promptly followed by a trip to the supermarket she lived by (it was 24 hours! Had a nice bout of city envy right there) where we stocked up on things that can kill cockroaches. Sticky roach traps, roach dango, and this nice spray stuff that we used to also kill several flying bugs that had come in when we opened the door. I don't think I could do the traps, since it means I'll have to remove it too... and that's just kinda gross.
I'm pleased to report though, that I was not among the hysterically screaming. Nope. Freak out yeah, but like, there was very little screaming and swearing from me. Probably because it wasn't my apartment.
It's kind of weird though. The roach was about the length of my thumb - super huge! We were like GOOD GOD. But roaches don't actually bite or anything. They're just really annoying and move really fast. (Most of them) don't even fly or jump. You'd think that we'd react worse to mosquitos or something. But yeah, they're kind of disgusting. And by kind of, I mean, really are.
Someone also said they were never visiting me during the summer because of all the bugs haha. I don't quite blame them; there's a ridiculous amount of flying critters around light sources (like the train station) during the evening.
I think I'm getting a little bit better at bugs. The ones I can anticipate anyways. Maybe. Haha. I am still, by no means, "good" at being around bugs. I still freak out. But I like to think that I freak out a little less. Maybe. Probably not.
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