Typhoon's a-comin!

And by coming, I mean I think its going to hit very very soon. Heh. Chris says the schools have closed for today and tomorrow because of the typhoon. It probably wont do anything but rain, rain, rain tonight but its super windy right now. Like, windy enough that its hard to walk against it. Chris still has to go to work even though the schools are closed. He says that the teachers still go to the school, the kids just get a couple of days off. Chris went to the board of education this morning instead of his school which meant he could come home for lunch. That was nice. He helped me get something not gross for lunch today (I had something gross yesterday...heh). He's helping out with a speech competition right now though, so Im sure he's having fun.

He did leave his computer here today, so thats why Im able to post during the day! Hooray. Mine is still useless because we havent found a proper adapter because my computer is LAME. I think we found a few outlets in the house that have a little thing on them that will let us ground our stupid plug. Its such a pain and irritates me that we arent having much luck getting my computer adapted to Japanese outlets. Thats all it is too. Its not like we are trying to get it adapted to the different AC current (which is a minimal difference anyways), because all laptops come with the spiffy box thing that does that for you. Stupid thing. We are going to go to Million Volts tonight and get something so my computer will work.

Anyways, enough about that! Im sure everyone is terribly curious about what I have been up to since coming to Japan. A lot of wandering around with Chris was done over the weekend. He was getting me introduced to Izumo. I still have no clue how to get anywhere in Izumo though. I have no idea why my mind is refusing to process directions but it is. Well, thats not true. I can get to Juntendo, the dyers, and the Hok. Which is pretty much all I need to get to when Chris's isnt around. The plan was for me to ride my bicycle around this week to find everything (we bought a bike on Saturday). BUT, because of the typhoon, its been wet outside and it rains on and off so it seems like a bad idea to ride a bike. Especially when its likely that I will get lost anyways. So Im just going to wait around until the weather is better and I dont have to worry about getting rained on.

So, instead of riding my bike, I am cleaning the apartment instead. Its not really dirty or anything, just messy. So I get to pick it up. Woo! Its just as exciting as it sounds. Yesterday I managed to clean the bedroom which consisted of picking up the dirty laundry and doing it, moving the bed, picking up all the paopers on the floor and vaccuming. I have the cutest vacuum cleaning, by the way. Its tiny and portable and really not complicated to use. So woo! I also did the living room and the kitchen, but that was really just figuring out what to throw away and what to put in a save pile and what to simply put away. I also swept and stuff but thats really it. Not complicated. I guess that doesnt sound like I did alot yesterday, but it did take me awhile. But I think thats really because of the laundry. I have to wash stuff here and then haul it down to the dyers, which is thankfully really close, like a two minute walk. But it does take awhile and is annoying. Oh well..its better than line drying things.

Today I have done a lot less than yesterday. I actually slept past 8:00 and didnt get up until 10:30 which was pretty nice. I have been getting up early every day because it gets hot and uncomfortable sleeping so I just give up. Heh. But today I managed to sleep later which was cool. I am also in the process of cleaning the dreaded sink bucket. The sink bucket, is basically a big food trap that keeps big food particles from going down the drain and clogging it up. Makes sense. However, our bucket doesnt appeat to have been cleaned this century (which is only 5 years, but still...ew!). So it was my job today to clean it out since it smelled really really gross. I was actually intending to buy an entire new bucket, but I couldnt find one in Juntendo. :( instead, I found this happy magic powder. I have absolutely no idea what its called because the box is in Japanese. I find that I just go by what the tiny picture on the front/back/side of the box shows and it showed someone pouring it down the sink and then a happy sink bucket after it was done. And it IS happy magic powder. You are only supposed to use one packet but I used one and it got MOST of the grossness out (Im talking years of mold, mildew, and rotting food that was stuck in the openings covered this bucket, I almost took a picture but didnt). But, there was still enough grossness going on in there that I decided to try it for a second time and now thats soaking right now. It should be good enough for awhile until I decide to actually scrub it out or can find a replacement. How sad is it that I am in Japan and the most exciting part of my day is cleaning the sink bucket. Heh. I should probably stop hiding insdie and go out...but the stupid rain! Anyways, I need to go clean the bathroom (no magic foam for it, but I bought some happy wall cleaner yesterday (no thats not what its called, again I went with the picture...you should hear me giggle in the store because its ridiculous, heh)). So Im going to end my boring ramblings.

Im sure things will get more exciting when I actually leave the apartment and go exploring, but I cant really do that until after the big typhoon (its actually pretty big, if you look it up on the weather.com website or something). Oh, and for news that everyone wants to know about. Chris propsed to me at the Taisha shrine (Chris has pictures so he will get them p when he has time) so now we are officially engaged (even though we were already considered fiance's but whatever, it was sweet so be happy for me!!). He also found out some more stuff about getting married and I think we will start the process in about two or three weeks. It requires a trip to Osaka so we have to wait until Chris has enough days off to make it worth the trip. So thats where that is. I cant get my alien card (green card) or VISA until after we are married so thats our next step. :)

Anyways, on to tackle the bathroom!

My Trip = long, boring, and frustrating

Hallo. This is my first post post. The other stuff is what I used when I was looking for a job. Since Im IN japan, I will need physical resumes and stuff instead of the internet one I was using so I used this for my blog instead. I am going to copy/paste something I wrote on the train last night (afternoon? I dont remember). Its really long and whiney but I was bored and cranky. Anyways. Here it is:

So I figured I would work on my first journal entry since Im bored and I have NOTHING to do. >.< Im on a train bound for Okayama right now (yes, the bullet train. Ooooo…). Sorry if I seem bitter, I currently am hating the JR Transit system at the moment. But I will get to that! I should start from the beginning.

Today is going well. I am definitely tired (as of writing this, I will have been up a full 24 hours but its really hard to keep track of). I woke up at 4:00 am on Wednesday morning and we made it to the airport around 5:15ish. Which was a blessing in disguise, because we talked to some lady and mentioned that I was going to Japan to marry my fiancé and all that good stuff and she decided to give Mom and Laura gate passes so they could go to the gate and sit with me. I didn’t have to say goodbye until I actually had to board the airplane, which was cool because it let us chit chat and pass the time since I was there so early. I did get teary when I said goodbye, but I didn’t bawl or anything since I had to figure out what the hell I was doing.

So we took off. LONG ASS FLIGHT. Im not doing it again until I have to! I HATE flying. Its not fun and its scary. No one told me how bad turbulence actually got. When we had turbulence going down to Orlando it was like cute little bumps…on THIS plane it was so bad. I felt my stomache drop so many times! It probably didn’t help that we passed over some Katrina aftermath.

Which reminds me. My route was up through Kentucky, then Indiana into Canada, over to Alaska and down near Russia. What a long route. It was interesting though because we did actually have little monitor in the seat in front of us (yes, in economy class!!). We had many choices of what to do with it. I ended up watching 3 and some movies. I watched Monster-in-law (stupid), Robots (already saw it), Sahara (boring), and the very end of Ice Princess (sadly, the only one I really was enjoying). We could also watch a little map and it would give us updates on where we were and that sort of thing. So that was cool. I also didn’t have anyone beside me (there was somebody on the aisle though) so I could kinda curl up better than most. I did manage to doze for several hours (boy the bullet train goes fast!). I had a fussy three year old behind me who liked to kick my seat and my row-mate fell asleep as we took off and immediately started snoring. But still…14 hours on a plane sucks.

The food was ok. The first meal was absoulely terrible. It was this chicken thing and soba noodles and something else really gross. I only ate the roll. The second thing was a snack. Oh my god, the snack. I just wish they would have made it a meal and bigger. It was a turkey on rye sandwhich with bacon and cheese, plus water, an apple, and two milano cookies. Mmmm. No, I don’t like rye, but when you are that hungry, you will eat as much as you can. The last meal was better than the first, but not even close to the snack. It was the weird pork tenderloin that needed lots of salt, yummy yummy jasmine rice, a roll, and fruit (they also had cabbage salad but I will give you two guesses on whether or not I even entertained the idea of eating that). I did manage to get about 5 or 6 glasses of water and 1 coke for a sugar rush. I had to go potty three times though and kept annoying my rowmate (speaking of potty, Im too embarrassed to figure out where the bathroom is on the shinkansen so it looks like I will be holding it until I get to Okayama). Like I said though, 14 hours on a plane is really tough, especially when you are all alone and apparently get airsick. I didn’t vomit, but it was close a few times (I think I only withstood because there wasn’t an airsick bag to be found and I didn’t know what to do if I had to puke).

However, we taxied in and I got off the plane at 1:20 Japan Time (I switched over about half way through the flight). I was out of customs and at the train station by 1:50. It was crazy. There was just NO ONE there. I guess that’s the benefit of coming in on a Thursday. It went by so fast. And then the guy who sold me my ticket was nice and spoke English really well…

thus ending my speaking of English with anyone who really knows what Im saying. *sigh*. No really. The JR stations are supposed to be a sort of mecca of English speaking people. I cant seem to find ANYONE who speaks enough English to tell me where the bathrooms are. I catch the first train just fine since my English guy told me where to go. Getting to this train however…

I manage to get off the Narita Express which is my first train with only a little bit of trouble (I ran over a Japanese man and my bag is so heavy its so hard to get it on and off of the trains and no one really helps much). THEN! I have to navigate the big ass Tokyo station. Now, in Tokyo Station’s defense, its probably one of the larger stations and really overwhelming..but damn if I wasn’t running all over the place. It was also my first experience going to the bathroom in Japan. Not only did I have to figure out quickly how to use a squatty potty (basically lean as far back as possible and hang on to the rail for dear life), but the bathroom was up about 8 stairs! No kidding…so I had to lug my 85 pound bag (70 pounds, plus my lap top bag on top of it makes it close to 85 if not more) up all those stupid ass stairs when I had to pee! Gah.

Then I had to find my train and I thought I only had like 5 minutes to get up to my platform and onto my train. Oh crap, right? So I practically run to the stairs but I don’t see an up escalator. Im panicking because my time is just ticking away. So I am hauling my bag up the stairs (there is probably about 30 or 40 stairs up to the platform, no exaggeration too) and my face has to be beat red because its SO HOT here. So some tiny little Japanese lady takes pity on my and tries to help me up the stairs. In the end, two other business men come along and along with me and the little woman, we get my suitcase up the stairs. Only for me to be confused about the trains…I cant tell if it’s the train I need. So I find this official looking woman and ask her if it’s the train I need. She has NO IDEA what Im saying so I use my broken Japanese and she takes pity on me and tries to figure out my crazy ticket but apparently she cant. What good is she. Because of the language barrier, we pretend that we figured things out and bow and I leave. I go stand in front of the platform I was told to stand at and sweat for awhile when a little foreign (i.e. not Japanese) man comes up to me in a desperate panic asking if I speak English. Oh dear. Poor guy, I of course, do speak English but I cant help him at all since Im more confused than him. He, at least, could find his train. But somehow, that make me look out across the platform and see that I am on the wrong one. Bah! That means I have to go back down the hellish stairs with my big ass bag and up more. I want to weep at this point. But, stoically, I just roll my bag and use the down escalator (almost crushing myself and two other Japanese with me when it starts to topple…ooops) and go to my platform. I did find an up escalator though. So I get to my platform finally and I have to stand there for like 30 minutes to catch my train. I had already been at the other platform for 50 >.<. Oh! I failed to mention, I didn’t miss my train at all when I was running my booty off dragging myself up the stairs. *rolls eyes* Japan uses military time for these things and I just read it wrong. Bah!

But, finally, my train comes and Im on it now. Im assuming that it’s the right train because the speaker keeps babbling about Okayama (which is where I want to be). So that’s good. The bad, is that I picked traincar number 3 because it’s a non-reserved car and it was the first I got to and I could be first in line. Hmmm…now…why would no one be in line for this car. I don’t know. Oh yeah, it’s the only smoking car on the whole train *sigh*. Because of my big bag, I cant switch trains either (I have to take up my seat and a second because of my luggage, Im lucky they aren’t charging me a second ticket >.<). Bah…stupid trains.

I hate the airplanes because they are big, stupid, and scary and I refuse to ever ride them again by myself unless it’s a DIRE EMERGENCY. Got that…has to be dire…And I hate the trains because they do nothing but give me a giant headache and reak of cigarette smoke. First thing I do when I go to Chris’s apartment will definitely be to introduce myself to his shower. Bleck…Im so hot and gross and sticky and just over all filthy. Ok, so Im a wee bit cranky, but its been a long and not particularly pleasant day. Im sure it will be better when I get to Chris’s (and it definitely seems as if I will be able to catch the last train in Okayama, if not catch the early one), but right now I feel bad and sore from sitting and hauling. *mutter*

So that’s my long whiney entry about my trip. Im sure the rest of my train ride is going to be long and boring and nothing to say. So I will post this sometime tomorrow when I feel like actually starting my journal.

Bah. Maybe I will sleep now…(fyi, its currenly 5:09 Japan time on Thursday afternoon and I have aother 3 hours until my transfer and then another 3 hours until Izumo…woo!).

And that ends what I wrote on the train. My last transfer was easy. I did have another flight of stairs to navigate with my big ass bag but I found a western toilet and that was cool. All the bathrooms reak of urine by the way. Its nasty!!

I got into Izumoshi around 11:22 and found Chris very quickly. He said he could tell it was me when he saw my legs and a huge bag banging down the stairs. Heh. I can just imagine the picture I was making. I probably said a bad word or two. >.< Anyways, I love the apartment, its very cute and even smaller than it looks in the pictures. Heh. Really. But I do like it. Especially once we start getting things in to make it more homey. Its 8:00 am now. We didnt go to bed until 1:00 but Im to excited to sleep any longer I think. So Im watching weird Japanese TV. I think Star Trek is comking on soon. Now I need to find me something to eat and drink. Lets see what Chris left me! (He left for school about 15 minutes ago). Hope he doesnt get to hot!

Much love to you all!