16 05 2004
I just checked the state of my coffers. I've got about 28,000yen at
home, and 10,000yen in my Japanese bank account. This works out to
about $450AUD in total.
Pay day is not for another 9 days, but in 3 days, ECC will pay me for
my two weeks of training. This will more than tide me over, and
provided I limit my amount of discretionary spending (as I've been
doing), I should have a bit of money to spare at the end.
Note that when I say "discretionary", I'm not referring to internet
access and take-out dinners - I factored these into the "essentials"
part of my budget! After the first full pay day, I'll get a gas stove
and start thinking about cooking my own meals. I'm not picking up
expensive take-out foods, though, so it doesn't seem to be a
screaming priority. I value my free time too much to cook every night.
The photo on the right is the name of a driving school (small photo,
because it was taken on my mobile phone). The name is "terabaru", but
for some reason when they converted it into English, they decided to
call it "terrabul". Apparently they live up to their name.
In the past, Kumamoto's rainy season (about a month, from mid June)
has meant close to 40 days of rain, with the occasional day where you
can catch your breath. I'm told that the weather here has been a bit
strange recently, and it's been raining earlier than it usually does.
In the last week, it's rained 3 or 4 times.
My path to work is mainly under cover, and I only have to walk for
about 5 minutes in the rain (complete with umbrella). The problem is
my shoes.
I have an old, much-loved pair of dress shoes that are really
comfortable, if a bit beaten up. As I've mentioned previously, the
soles have become pourous with age, and when I walk in the rain it's
as if I'm standing on sponges, which quickly soak up the water below.
Yuck!
I have a newer pair of semi dress shoes, but there's two problems with
them. The first is that there's a plastic-esque lining on the bottom
of the shoe, which makes the shoe less sturdy on wet ground, and it
also has a tendancy to squeak. The other problem is that the back of
the shoe is made with a hard leather, which cuts up the back of my
feet. I'm going to have to get used to wearing band-aids every day for
the next few months, I think. Maybe the shoes will wear in with time.
This morning I work up, rolled over and looked at the time. In a
semi-awake state I have this reoccurring fear that I'm late for work -
even on days I'm not working. After thinking about it briefly, I
realised I didn't have to work, and I could roll over and go back to
bed.
Then I realised I had an appointment that morning, and I was already a
few minutes late. Expletives followed.
After rummaging around for a meishi (business card) but not being able
to find it, I finally grabbed the "Living information Kumamoto" book
and flipped to the back, hoping for a contact telephone number. Great.
There was one there.
I drowsily typed in the number, before realising I'd typed in the
post-code number of the address. Whoops. Success on my second attempt.
A person at the other end picked up and answered in Japanese. I
replied, "moshi moshi. uh...". In my haste to call I'd both forgotten
the name of the person I wanted to speak to, and how to request to
speak to them in Japanese. After a few seconds, my memory returned,
and I enquired if the person was in. The person who'd answered the
phone was the person in question. I hurriedly apologised for missing
the appointment (which I'd completely forgotten about), and suggested
I could be down there in about 30 minutes. My appointment partner
didn't seem too peturbed by my tardiness and he said 30 minutes would
be fine.
After getting off the phone, I kicked myself a bit more for my
mistake, had a quick shower and a rice cracker, and put on my
feet-murdering shoes as it was raining outside. After a brisque 15
minute walk, I arrived at the Kumamoto City International Center.
The KCIC is a government sponsored building to further interest in
international communication, and serves as a hub for international
affairs meetings, information on Kumamoto's sister cities, and more.
The center has a second floor annex with a number of free facilities
open to visitors, including TVs showing CNN and other news stations,
and papers like the New York Times.
Recently (about a month before I arrived), the center had started
providing free internet access on 3 computers. Previously the
internet access had been available, but at a charge. I've visited the
center a few times and there's often foreigners using the computers,
but sometimes Japanese people use them too.
A very recent addition to the center's arsenal of services has been
the introduction of what's called a "Flet's spot". This is run by NTT
(think Telstra in Australia), and for a fee of about $15 a month, you
can bring along your laptop and access wireless internet services.
Which is great for travelling professionals perhaps, but not so
useful for international visitors - since you need to sign a contract
and the setup process can take some weeks.
The person who looks after the internet access at the center (we'll
call him Y) had sent an email to a mailing list I'm on - an English
speaking mailing list for people in Kumamoto - advertising the
availability of Flet's.. A few weeks ago, I sent a private reply to
him, to point out the inaccessibility of a Flet's spot to foreigners,
and to offer to assist if the center would be interested in offering
free wireless access in the future. It would only cost them about $150
in parts, and I'd be willing to help them get it set up and working.
Y deliberated over this offer for a little while and suggested we have
a meeting to go over some details, and a few weeks back I went to the
center and met with him. He seemed to think the idea of pursuing it
further was favourable, and we had arranged another meeting to give it
a test run.
Which I completely forgot about. But thankfully Y didn't seem upset,
and when I arrived (I'd brought my own router to demonstrate how it
works to him), we gave it a test run and determined that we'd need
two routers to offer the service on both floors - on account of the
heavy concrete between floors blocking the signal. When I left he
seemed happy with the results and we spoke of another meeting to get
the service up and running.
On account of the numerous meetings, and the time spent waiting for
approval of the "project", by the time the center starts offering
wireless internet, I'll no longer have a need for it - as by then I
should hopefully have the internet at home. But it's nice to know
that visitors in the future may be able to make use of it.
On my way home from the center, I swung by Mos Burger - which I've
mentioned before. Their burgers are about twice as expensive as, say,
McDonalds, but the chicken burgers have real chicken in them, rather
than bits of chicken and lots of cereal. They taste quite good.
So I ordered a burger from the lady at the counter. I was anticipating
being asked if I wanted fries and a drink with it (which caused me to
stumble and get flustered last time I ordered from there), and I was
armed with the necessary Japanese this time to reply appropriately.
Alas, I didn't get to show off my newly acquired vocabulary. The girl
then stumbled a bit and managed to ask "eat .. here?" in English. I
replied in Japanese that I'd like take away and she was noticably
relieved that I hadn't replied in English.
I sat down at a table waiting for my burger to arrive, and the girl I
met on my first day in Kumamoto came and delivered it to me. She'd
done a year's exchange in Australia and was the girl with the
noticeable Australian accent. We had a little chat about how I was
finding Kumamoto. She said she hates it here because of the weather!
But it's not so bad. Or at least it won't be, once I do something
about my shoes.