Narrative Disorder… in Japan!!

Have I said how magnificent the early evening winds are here? Seriously worth the heat of the day (esp if you can hide from it inside with air-con but even then…)

/happy sigh

As you will have gathered from the change in blog title and in the weather widget in the sidebar…we’ve arrived!
Superman and myself were installed in our new little villa unit in Nagoya on Monday 23rd and Brigie joined us (somewhat sorry for herself but extra cuddly) on Wednesday 25th. The new house is pretty bare except for a temporary bed until our sea shipment arrives and appliances as we were unable to organize leased furniture from Australia. We organized that the day after we arrived and we should have somewhere comfortable to sit in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, we are making do with two floor chairs we picked up for about Y3000 each ($30AUD) which are made for tatami rooms. The fluffy blue pod which Brigid is stubbornly looking at rather than sitting in cost twice the price of the floorchairs but of course Brigie won’t use it - we never learn lol. The floorchairs are actually quite comfortable but not having a table and so, for example, resting my laptop on the box the transformer came in as I write this makes for back-breaking work. Our desktop computers are arriving by air next week (we had an allowance of 4 teachests by air and we filled most of them with our computers - priorities, priorities…) but we will likely not use them till the desks arrive even though all my current email and skype addresses are on the desktop and I am hanging out to contact everyone!

I’ll make this a quick post and get working on a couple of longer ones I’ve been planning. Standby - pictures incoming…

On our first day in Nagoya we discovered a new solution to the age old travellers problem of "How to Get Directions When you Don’t Know the Language."

Step one:

Find a car showroom (any will do but of course we recommend Toyota)

Step Two:

Take inordinate interest in a car with latest technology.

Step Three:

Boot up the touch screen GPS!!

Et voila! You have a map which tells you where you are and which with the use of nothing more than your finger on the touch screen you can find anywhere you need - even a specific address in Nagoya as you can enter phone numbers if need be - so no language issue either!

Happy travelling!!

Since the Japanese drive on the left as we do here in Australia, the main concern Superman and I have about driving in Japan is not being able read the street signs. I’ve been hunting for something which would allow us to learn them before we move but have had little luck till today (when I used the term "road sign" instead of "Street sign" D’oh!)

So for anyone interested here’s the link!

New International and Japanese Road Signs

Small quibble - on the first page two of the signs look remarkably similar and yet have, admittedly slightly, different translations… I think if I see this one I’ll just stop anyway hehe

This was our one really touristy outing - we really only had one day to ourselves. I have had various pictures of Nagoya Castle as my desktop for months so it was magical to be able to be there in person and take my own!

The original castle was a small castle built in 1525 but was only occupied briefly. In 1610 Tokogawa Ieyasu (the first Shogun of the Tokogawa shogunate) had a larger castle built on the site. Tragically, the old castle was destroyed by American bombs and the resulting fire on May 14, 1945 (it was targeted as a district army headquarters and POW camp.) The building we see now is a replica of the donjon (the keep) only which was built in the 1950s - the palace itself has not been rebuilt though there are plans for it.

The Entrance proper, to the right of the ticket booth (above)

As you enter, the castle peeks at you over the trees, ah wonderful, blessed, green trees …

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the castle is surrounded by an impressive moat which is actually what cuts through the city looking like a river from Google Maps …

But right up at the base of the castle the moat is currently dry and a haven for other inhabitants…

The path around the castle takes you around the moat and gives some magnificent views…

(BTW above on the right is Superman and in the middle is his colleague, Duc, who is also transferring with the project. )

At last we come to a small entrance across the moat of this fort…

The forecourt is now rather like a school quadrangle with a few ranger cars and some benches and tables in front of a cafe - I’d love to know what this area would have been filled with when this castle was the hub of life in the early Edo period. This is the ramp up into the castle.

No photography is allowed inside but there wasn’t much I’d have taken anyway. There is no sense of what it would have been like to live in the castle, the first 6 floors have simply been made into museum rooms - the displays are lovely but, again because of destruction, many of the displays are "examples" either from other areas or complete reconstructions from modern times.

The 7th story of the castle has been turned into a viewing room with windows all round (and a shop full of touristy bits and pieces including Disney in Nagoya things - very odd.) From this vantage point you can see how vast and sprawling is the city we will soon be calling home and why the lush and beautiful gardens are a haven from the concrete city surrounding it.

All over the gardens and castle there were signs first in Japanese then with white English translations beneath - except for this ancient little hut opposite the castle, just over the internal moat. The sign you see is Japanese only and I so wish I could find out what this little thing is but I could find noone to ask. If anyone knows an answer to my little mystery, please email me and I will post when I find out.

Requisite vending machine shot - yes that’s canned hot coffee in some of those

Dotted all over Nagoya are what look like slot machine parlors and are filled to the brim with suit-and-tie salarymen at all hours of the day…

in fact they are called ’slots’ on many of the windows…

But gambling is illegal in Japan, right? Well, yes. But these "pachinko" machines are, essentially, vertical pinball machines and it’s NOT illegal to play them and win extra metal balls for high scores, NEITHER is it illegal to trade said balls in for prizes NOR is it illegal to take said prizes to various, totally independent, stores around Nagoya which buy them from you - for cash. Apparently it is also not illegal to perpetuate ear-destroying noise in these places - seriously don’t go in if you value your hearing!

We spent a good part of our time in electronics stores checking out solutions for bringing our computers and peripherals to the different voltage of Japan. These cord ties for keeping your under-desk spaghetti neat demonstrate the attention to detail as well as the love affair with customization in Japan. Gone will be our rubbish bin ties for colour coordinated, padded ties…

And if that’s too boring for us well, there’s always these cuties…

And speaking of attention to detail and cute, I bought some aspirin for the trip home and got a fix for my tins and boxes addiction…

No longer will I endure the indignity of having a loose slide of aspirin floating around in my bag hehe. I think I’m going to fit in juuust fine! 

Down on the streets in Nagoya it is mostly a lovely modern city with beautiful street art… This one you already know…

I particularly loved this one outside an entrance to Toyota Midland Square building (Superman will occasionally have meetings here but will be working further down the street) Inside there are uber expensive designer boutiques and some wonderful restaurants (the Shanghai restaurant was Chinese food like we’ve never had before but look forward to trying again - particularly the Vanilla Ice cream with Chinese Vinegar - trust me it’s incredible!!)

The newest building on the skyline is gorgeous and perfectly suitable for the art and design school it apparently houses… (that’s Superman at the bottom left of the shot btw )

So, Nagoya is like many cities around the world, could almost be anywhere but every now and then, right next to the skyscrapers…

And even…

So, we landed in Sydney at about 8 am local to find ourselves shivering in a 9 degree morning! It was somewhat of a relief though, since planes are always a little stuffy and the Hong Kong airport responds to the 28 degree evenings by having the air con at about 26 degrees (I’m told this is a practice in Japan, too, to avoid chest colds due to extreme temp changes) so it was nice to feel actual cold for the first time in a week. Of course we are prepared for Nagoya to be hotter and wetter after we return as the typhoon season will be hot on our heels!!

I promised pictures of our new digs when we returned but I haven’t yet worked out how to download and edit video from our camera (and I have a feeling my film was frankly dreadful beyond editing) so there will be some more wait on that note. I have, however, managed to download the stills we took so here begins the slide show. I should note though, we were so focused on getting our arrangements made that there wasn’t much tourist time, we have more pictures of furniture we might want to lease than great tourist shots, so call these a down payment on more interesting stuff when we have more time there. 

Nagoya Midland Circle - This is the view from our hotel right on top of Nagoya Station. Had to take this shot as I’d been looking at the similar one that Mike McKinlay took for ages as the first real view of Nagoya that I found.

View of Nagoya from our hotel room - there is a definite haze over the city which is called fog or mist but looks pollution-esque to us. Nevertheless the air is clean and fresh though quite damp at this time of year so perhaps it is moisture.

Zooming in on the same view - Nagoya Castle is beautiful in the afternoon light.

And further in the golden dolphin on the peaks of the roof just visible. Believe it or not, the city you see stretching beyond the castle with it’s multi storey buildings for miles are considered Nagoya’s suburbia - we found it kind of hard to tell when the city ended and suburbia began.

Well, poor Brigie went off to the cattery this afternoon, the suitcase is as packed as it can be before the pre-departure showers, any liquids or gels required on board have been replaced by solid versions or decanted down to under 100ml and I very cleverly didn’t get much sleep last night so I might just be able to sleep tonight - at least until 4:30 am when we have to get up. Not that I’m complaining about the hour - if we were going economy we’d have to BE at the airport then! Cheers once again to anonymous-auto-manufacturing-concern for looking after us so well.

My self-made phrase book is fat with counters and particles and I think we are ready to face the Japanese speaking world - for a week anyway. Our relocation consultant Abigail has sent us our schedule - we land Sunday night and then have Monday to ourselves to explore a little, Tuesday we will view some properties and apparently choose one because on Wednesday we will return to the chosen property and work out our furniture rental needs. On Thursday we will be test driving cars (btw we have been driving the Prius for the last few weeks and I will be posting a review soon - it took some getting used to but if the Harrier proves too large on Thursday I’ll be pushing for a Prius instead.) Friday Superman will be in meeting the new coworkers so I will be out on my own - I’m thinking Shinkansen to Kyoto for the day - unoriginal I know but there’s a reason it’s first stop on the cultural map (also it’s nice and close.)

Watch this space for pics and vids of the new digs though I can’t promise it will be during this week as we aren’t sure whether the connections at the hotel will be upload-friendly. We’re on the overnight flight Saturday 24th and back early Sunday.

Ittekimasu!!!!

So very, very tired… and the move is only just getting underway! On Friday I drove our second car down to Albury (on the Victorian border) to take it to a dealer that my Aunt and I lined up to buy both of our Hondas. Selling them was the practical thing to do considering our upcoming move but, even though I wasn’t able to get my license until I was 30 (5 years ago), I’m a bit of a car-lover so it was sad to say goodbye to what was my first car (a fairy-blue 2003 Jazz)  and my dream car (a sleek, black, 1998 Prelude vti-r, tiptronic transmission with full sports pack, gold badging and tinted windows - they’re classics now, they stopped making them in 01…okay, maybe "closet rev-head" is closer to the truth!)

Here’s my prowler all cleaned up after the long journey and a few minutes before turning her over

I’d barely driven her since coming to Sydney because there simply isn’t anywhere to enjoy driving it because of the traffic, so it seemed a nice idea to get a really good run in her at as close to full throttle as Australian law will allow. And it was nice…even when I got lost trying to cut through the mountains to the Hume… even when I found the Hume and, hoping I’d be well past Canberra was presented with a sign reading: Goulburn Exit 2km … pretty much it was nice till about hour 7 when I should have been well and truly at my Aunt’s house in Beechworth but still had 3 hours to go… The travel-hangover made it a little easier to give her up the next morning lol.

I spent a lovely Saturday with my Aunt shopping in Albury and found a great book for learning Kanji - Kanji ABC by Andreas Foerster & Naoko Tamura! I returned by train on Sunday which was yet another another delayed journey, though only 9 hrs this time, so I am somewhat wrecked at the moment but I have little time to recover as things are really starting to swing into action for the move:

Our visas and "alien registration cards" are well underway, along with our katakana name blocks which are used instead of signing one’s name in Japan. 

On Thursday a consultant is coming to look at our belongings and ask us which of them will be coming to Japan and which will be needing storage - so we need to work that out asap!

I spent a few hours yesterday scouring the Relojapan home search site for properties for our consultant Abigail to show us when we are there. I have been watching one gorgeous little house on the Higashiyama line which looks perfect for us on every level (right price, right location, not too small but not too big, light but still cozy), it became available in march but is not yet let so I’m crossing my fingers it will still be available when we arrive for orientation!  I just know that the few weeks till then will fly by.

As if they knew I was missing my cars, Superman’s company sent an email today asking us to choose a company car with links to websites in Japanese and cars which are only available in Japan! So I have spent a good couple of hours today hunting for reviews/details about the cars in English - luckily a couple of them are marketed under Toyota’s other make so I was able to find

the info I needed. We think we are going to go for  "The Harrier," a mid-sized 4WD which is too low to really go off-road (and therefore will be safer to drive!) but spacious, comfortable and with GPS and apparently power to spare thanks to the V6 engine (which is remarkably fuel efficient at 11.1/100km) for the trips we are planning around the country.

Personally I am looking forward to the vertical take-off feature, it’s not listed on any of the specs I could find but, seriously, they couldn’t name it "The Harrier"  without it, could they?

Actually, now I come to think of it, we’re going pretty well with preparation. Selling the cars was probably the biggest thing we have to do on our own and that’s done so… yay!

‘Course now there’s the matter of the Typhoid and Avian Bird Flu immunizations …