13 05 2004
A rainy day, and I felt like taking photos.
The food dish is what one company's take on "kimuchi" is - but
it's not the one I buy, because it's too expensive there! The
poster has instructions on how to put out the garbage.
The garbage system in Japan is a lot more complicated than back
home. Items need to be sorted into about 6 different categories,
and different days are used for different items. Everything is
supposed to be placed in clear plastic bags in the designated
area, so that the garbage collectors can pick up the right stuff.
There's a little alcove for the garbage in our apartment block,
but for some houses, their designated area is just the side of
the street.
Some examples of the categories: "combustible" items - things
like kitchen waste, plastic(!), wood, shoes, etc - are put out
twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Non-combustible goods
like glass and cans get a different day.
But PET bottles are different again, and they need to be washed,
the caps removed, and then left again in clear plastic bags on
another day.
Then there's the bulky goods, which you need to ring ahead for.
They'll pick up things like bookshelves from you (provided you're
not moving out - then you're supposed to pay for it yourself!).
And the recyclable goods days, where possibly working items can
be put out. Some people have semi furnished their houses based on
what they can find from other people on these days, but a lot of
stuff goes to waste, too.
Finally there's the paper recycling. Books, newspaper and
cardboard need to be separated into different piles, and bound
using tape or rope.
I was delighted when I learnt the Kanji for the different days of
the week, because I now know where each of the different types of
garbage goes. Small pleasures.
My hands are sticky from the glue on the back of the gaffa tape, which
melts under prolonged exposure to heat. My apartment has a faint
smell of soldering iron acid. Bits of cable are scattered around the
room. And it's going on 2:30. I should be asleep by now.
But I fixed it.
It's hard to explain how disabling losing access to my laptop would
be. I have a bunch of Japanese lessons on there which I can't study
without it, for instance. It also makes it much more cumbersome to
write to friends, and renders my pending internet connection at home
useless. Ditto my digital cameras. Not fun.
But I fixed it.
I'm pretty lucky, actually. Thankfully, the power-pack was well
engineered - it detected a short-circuit and started flashing to
indicate an error condition. Had it not noticed, it would have
overheated and melted. I could have replaced it (much cheaper
than replacing the laptop), but it would have been a pain to do.
Phew.If at first you don't succeed...
Disheartened with my last attempt at Kimuchi from the supermarket, but not yet ready to chuck in the towel, I picked up a small container of Kimuchi proper. This actually contained the pickled cabbage (which is what Kimuchi is all about). I hoped this new attempt would more closely resemble what I've had from the bento place. I hoped it would be a far cry from the somewhat vile garlic-extract with a bit of red colouring masquerading as a chilli component. I hoped it would give me an excuse to stop going to the bento place every night. Today was a short teaching day - I didn't start until late in the afternoon. First up I had two kids classes. The second went fine, but the first one was a bit troublesome. I mas meant to be teaching the names of the months, but the kids really seemed to be struggling to remember them - be it because there was too much to learn at once, the other students were distracting them, or they just weren't motivated - I don't know. In most of my classes the students are really well behaved (for which I'm very lucky), and the class I had today is perhaps the most challenging from a discipline level. I'm going to have to sit down sometime soon and think about what I can do to improve the situation. It needs a bit of work. After classes finished, I recounted a tale to the other ECC staff about my experience at the bento place the other night. The kimuchi dish I really like is called "buta kimuchi don". The other night I'd said "buta kimuchi, (please)", and the lady at the counter said to the cook what sounded like "kimuchi cho". I noticed what she said was different to what I said, so I decided to ask her, when I collected my food, "which is better?". The other day I'd learnt a sentence pattern in Japanese about how to ask which was better, and this was an ideal time to practice it. Note that there are two entries in the dictionary for "cho" - "work" or "be profitable". What I'd actually heard was "icchou", not "cho" - I heard the wrong word. So after the lady gave me my kimuchi and a smile, I asked her something like: "buta kimuchi to kimuchi cho to dochira ga ii desu ka" - literally "which one is good?" A blank look. I repeated my question and the cook came out from the back area to join the lady. Two blank looks. They started apologising and obviously had no idea what I was saying. I told them it was okay, thanked them, and left. Then returned a few minutes later, announcing "kasa .. wasureta". I'd forgotten my umbrella. It turns out that the lady had said to the cook, what translates to "one order of kimuchi" - so it's not something I'd need to be able to say - what I said originally was better. But because I'd heard what she said wrong, when I tried to ask them, the pair of them had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. ".. kimuchi .. be profitable. which one is good?" Anyway, after I got home tonight I decided I'd try my newly acquired supermarket kimuchi. Not that I'm embarassed to go back to the store - they seem like nice people and mistakes like that are part of the learning process. I'm just trying to economise a little - and hey, I bought a little sushi earlier anyway! It's different to how it's prepared at the bento place, because I lack the facilites to fry it up, the meat to combine with it, or the rice to put it on top of. The vinegar taste from the pickling process is thus more evident and the garlic is a bit stronger - but nothing like the inedible concoction from the other day. I've got some strips of ham in the fridge - if I chop them up and throw them in I think it'd turn out pretty nice. @(@%*&#(%*&#$%(*#$% I just heard an arcing sound. The makeshift repairs I'd conducted on the back of my laptop have come loose and I've lost power. I've got an hour or two until the battery dies, and then the laptop will be useless unless I can repair it again. Woe is me.