Children's school and the cars finally arrive.

It has been another busy week.

The children have now been in school for about 2.5 weeks. They are doing well in school. I just found out tonight that they know how to sing Jingle Bells in Japanese. They have not yet passed me with their language skill, but I don't think it will be long.

To get to school everyday the children walk, it is about 0.6 of a kilometer.

They start out at our door step with their $300 backpacks, hats, and umbrella on rainy days, plus a number of other supplies. Kie kun is our neighbor. The children meet up with him first. Then together they walk to the next location and meet up with Kaho chan. Next they walk to the corner where they meet up with Kenji kun. He is the elder of the walking group. He makes sure they are walking in a line and safe. Kaho chan stays at the back to make sure no one is left behind. The same type of system is used to get the children home as well. The younger children have alarms on their backpacks in case there is an emergency. It can be difficult to get the back pack on in the morning with their coat without setting the alarm off sometimes. We have set it off twice. It is a very load screech noise. Then to shut it off it is a mad scramble to put the pin back in. It is kind of like a grenade. The walking system seems to work pretty smoothly, the children take care of one another and arrive safely every day.

Later I will post more about what the school day is like for them.

I will need Kate and the children's support for that and they are now sleeping.

Yesterday we finally got our cars. The Odyssey arrived on a flatbed truck with the Diva being driven buy another guy following behind. It is nice to finally get them. I actually feel cool driving around in the Japanese Odyssey. It is a lot different than the American version. I really wish this version was available in the States. The dealer took care of me and put some nice rims on it so it really looks good.

The Diva is small, but looks like it will be fun to drive. It has sports suspension, a spoiler, and blue interior foot lighting that I was able to negotiate into it. It is a very practical car for Japan. It is small, easy to park, economical, but amazingly there is a lot of interior space. It is actually funny that it is taller than the Odyssey. You can kind of see it in the second photo below.

On top of all the other activities, the arrival of the Odyssey allowed us to go Kotatsu こたつ shopping. We ended up going to 4 different stores to find the perfect one, finally ending up at "Yamada denki". One of our Japanese friends, Reiko san, helped us negotiate a better price. While at "Yamada denki" we met the real life Pikachu. He is way bigger in person than I thought he would be. Fortunately we had on rubber soled shoes so we did not sustain any substantial shocks from him during the photo shoot.

The Kotatsu is a table that has a heating element under it. Since many homes do not have central heating other methods to stay warm are used. This is one of them. We still have to purchase our Kotatsu blanket and other accessories. Once I get it completely set up I will get a picture uploaded. Below was the selection at Yamada denki. The one we picked is on the bottom toward the right and dark brown.

I have now been warned by 2 Japanese friends here, and one in Ohio (Yamase san) that the Kotatsu is very dangerous. They explained that once you purchase the Kotatsu that slowly you will pile everything you need for the day around it and eventually you will not be able to separate yourself from its comfort. Once this happens you will no longer need the other rooms in your home and you will not get anything done. Kate thinks we will become Kotatsu potatoes (the US equivalent being couch potatoes). Yamase san sent a picture of what this may look like and I attached it below.

I have also been informed that Mikan and the Kotatsu are a perfect match. The Mikan is a small sweet orange. They are in season now, so Kate has already purchased some for us to eat while we sit under the kotatsu.

While shopping at Kojima denki we came across a choco banana stand. It is a banana dipped in chocolate with sprinkles on a stick. Both children wanted one, so we all tried one. Oishikatadesu (it was tasty)

Finally this week we discovered that Utsunomiya now has a Pizza Hut. Although none of us are really craving American food yet we decided to give it a try. You can not eat at the Pizza Hut as there is no seating. You can pick up or have it delivered on 3 wheeled Honda motorscooters. Justin would be very envious of these scooters. We stopped in to pick it up, and then ate it in the car because everyone was really hungry. Actually the crust is the same as in the US, and if you order a basic pizza it is also the same. The biggest difference is the options you can get. You can get ebi (shrimp), crab, squid, and tako (octopus) plus many others. The other difference is price. For our basic pizza it was not so bad, about $16 US, but if you order a specialty pizza it can go above $35 US for a large pizza (about 12"). In the end it was worth stopping in. We won't make it a regular stop, but I am sure we will go back.

There are some things I am leaving out, I will update again soon.

Now I have to get to bed as it is 11:30PM and I have to work tomorrow.

Dec 6 Fish market, Yakiimo...

Well I am already behind with the blog because the computer came late. I will try to catch up, but it will be out of chronological order in the beginning. This morning I will post up yesterday. later I will try to fill in some of the other days. Alum Creek Elementary has asked some questions, so in the future I will try to include information to answer their questions.

Below is a link to a page containing information on Japan. It talks a little about children's day. That was one of the questions. Childrens day is on May 5th so we have a little while before it arrives.

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/may/children.html

We had a request for more monkey pictures. Here you go Ashley.

Yesterday I bought eggs from the egg vending machine out by work. 200yen for 9 okii (large) tamago (egg). Not so bad a price. The egg farm is by work and some evenings it does not smell so good.

Yesterday we went to a fish market on the coast, I believe it was called Oari.

Yokoyama san met us at work and drove us there in a US spec Lexus with US navi. It was funny because he was driving from the wrong side of the car and the navi was moving and showing streets, but they were streets in America, so it did not help us get there. He ended up using his cell phone (it has navi) to get find the market.

We ate at the market at a keiten sushi restaurant. There is a conveyor belt that the sushi travels on. As it comes by if you want it you take it off the conveyor. You pay by the plate, so when you are finished they count the plates and type then give you the total.

Below is the pricing per plate.

Here are some pictures of the conveyor.

We also had miso soup with the whole crab in it. It was very tasty. Kate is trying to throw the peace sign in her picture, unfortunately she did not completely pull it off and it looks like some sort of gang sign.

Finally here are some pictures of the market.

The one we went to has two sides. One is open to the public and the other is only for the fishing industry. We saw many new types of fish. You can purchase many things from the ocean. Most have the 4 options: 1. still alive, 2. not alive, but fresh, 3. boiled or pickled, 4. salted.

Below is tako (octopus) 1=alive (I have to post later it is on the video camera), 2=fresh, 3=boiled.

Here are some of the different varieties of available see life.

There was also a squid drying rack spinning in the middle of the street. We got some spiced squid to bring home and eat.

Kate tried raw oyster for the first time. I have had it before, but not quite this large. Yokoyama san joked that there was a nuclear power plant nearby and that is why the fish were so big at this market. (he was just kidding.)

The texture was a little challenging for Kate and we all got a little laugh out of it.

It was a very nice day. We really appreciated Yokoyama san taking his time to spend the day with us and show us around. Everyone here seems to go out of their way to help us.

After we got home I fell asleep in the chair, and was woken up by the whole family yelling "the Yakiimo truck just went by our house. I got my shoes on quickly and ran out to catch him. I asked him, "Ikura deska" (how much). It was 300yen for 1. He through in an extra for us for free. They actually are very tasty.

I will update more later. We have received many emails and are slowly responding to them as they arrive.

More later...

An update from the first two weeks after arrival.

(You can double click most of the images to enlarge them.....)

My work tried to help me by formatting my computer in English.

Unfortunately the actual keyboard on my work computer is printed with the Japanese format. As a result some of the keys do not match what is printed on them. For example the #2 key shows the " symbol on it, but if I push shift and press the #2 key it makes the @ symbol. I think that is probably the symbol that is shown on your keyboard. number of associates back home were able to send me a picture of the US keyboard so I know were the keys are.

Monday: (After arrival)
We spent half of the day filling out papers, most of which I did not understand. For all I know I signed a paper that says I will work for free for the next 2 years. We were also given a Hanko, it is a stamp with our family name engraved into it in Katakana, Kanji for Japanese. It has to be registered with the government and you use it as your signature on official documents.

Below is a picture of ours.

I received my work badge.

The system converts the katakana into English and can not be edited.

It says R. Hiyu Zu on it.

I asked if it was OK to smile for the picture, but they said completely no.

In the afternoon we were each taken to see 2 houses they had picked for us. Then we were told we must decide from the two. Some of the others forced HR to give them one more choice, but I was able
to pick from the two they showed me. It is difficult because they don't clean the home until after you select it, so you have to imagine what it will look like after that.
Here is our new home:

And one of the toilets that Kate spoke fondly about (I will do a feature on it later)

Tuesday:
3/4 of the day was spend registering with the government. I had to register with Takanezawa as an Alien and register my hanko to be official. Then register with Utsunomiya immigration. Finally we spent the rest of the day purchasing cell phones. Here is a picture of an actual cell phone we could have selected, it is a Transformer.

I picked a basic phone. Last years price was about $1000 us but now it is free. I paid the service fee for two years up front so my monthly bill for 1 phone will be $0.15 if I don't call anyone after 9pm and before 1am. I sat in Yamada Denki electronic store with the others for almost 5 hours for this. They play a theme song over and over again every 5 minutes or so really loud. I still cant get it out of my head "Y a m a d a D e n k i......" Today I also learned about the Yakiimo truck. I have not yet seen an ice cream truck, but the Yakiimo truck drives around yelling "Yakiimo, Yakiimo, oishii, oishii desyo.." over and over. Basically it is a sweet potato truck and I have tried them, they are very tasty and healthier than ice cream.

Wednesday:
Most of the day was spent setting up bank accounts. After that we visited the UEC "Utsunomiya English Center" They will be teaching us Japanese, and supporting the family. Finally back to Yamada Denki for internet set up and spouse cell phone. For the spouse phone I used $76 of my Yamada Denki points that I received from purchasing the first phone. As a result her phone was even cheaper. They have a video phone option that is pretty cool. I got fiber optic internet for the house. The price was only about $20 more per month than the DSL option. 4 more hours at "Y a m a d a D e n k i....." (insert female announcer voice to jingle here.) Finally off to the Monkey bar. It is a bar/restaurant in Utsunomiya that has monkeys that help serve, they also put on a show. The food was the worst Japanese food I have ever eaten. The sashimi was still frozen as well as the edamame. Although I am smiling in the picture in the previous post the monkeys seriously, I mean really badly reeked of pooh. At that point I decided that monkeys and food should stay separated.

Thursday,
Rejected from the work bus, because although we now have ID badges we did not have bus cards.
Missed the regular visitor bus that would get us to work in time to be picked up by our department so Matt and I spent $42 on a cab to get there in time. We did make it in time. We were given our bus pass and uniforms. I never realized how much I put my hands in my pants pocket during the day before I was given a pair of pants that have no front pockets. Shortly after I was shown my seat a guy stood up and yelled "sumi masen sumi masen, something something something Larry Hughes from America" After everyone gathered around 50-60 people? I was told I should introduce myself. Fortunately I had a cheat sheet in case something like this happened. I used a short version of my intro "not the one about being homeless and living in Utsunomiya station..." I think it went OK because everyone clapped after.

Next was car selecting. I really wanted a J Odyssey. It is not like our US Odyssey. When we arrived I went straight to the location were they were. Fortunately for me I am over 30 so there is an insurance break. That is what allowed me to come in under the cost limit. To my knowledge I will be the first to pull off the J-Odyssey. Unfortunately while I was grabbing that the RSX type R was snagged by Dundon. There was a new 4door Civic type R, but is was way over the limit. After that the options dwindled quickly. They had many Fit cars in the lot, but I refused to select any car I could purchase in the US. My parking space is limited so I had to choose a small car. I asked the manager to check the dealer network to find an type R hatch. He found one, but it did not have navi, and that would throw me over the limit. I requested an older one, but he rejected because he could not find one that was not highly modified. I said that was OK, but he has to guarantee the vehicle for 2 years and was not willing to do so. Finally I thought more and decided that it really was important for Kate to have the option to drive my car as well. The J-Odyssey is pretty big for Japan and the streets are narrow. It may be difficult for her to drive, so the option of a smaller car is important. I settled on a yellow Diva. It is a K car. Since it is so cheap I was able to get them to agree to install the following options: sports suspension, blue interior lighting, rear roof spoiler, and exhaust.

Finally it was time to get the family.

We headed down to Tokyo. On the way we stopped in Ueno.

There were many shops there to see.

In fact I saw the biggest tako (Octopus) for sale ever.

I asked Dundon to stand next to it for size reference.

I have plenty more to update, but again it is late and I think I have maxed out this page.

More one the way soon...