News and Money

Hi!

Long time here, all my fault!

Coming up in the weather, it is still way too hot!

But first, the news:

First Item: I found out lots of information about our winter break recently. First, I found out that it is two weeks long. That made me happy. I thought we had one day free, Monday, December 24, the Emperor`s Birthday, and I was going to take paid holiday time for any of the days off I wanted. I was thinking I would just take the four days off after that holiday (which includes Christmas) and then go to work for a week (going to the community center like I did most of August). With this information I approached Uncle Gabby in the Philippines about visiting for Christmas. He said yes.

Then I found out more information; namely that New Years here is a four day holiday. That means I could take 2 weeks vacation and only take five days vacation (called nenkyu). Not sure what to do with myself for two weeks!

Second Item: Another important bit of news: I bought a car. It is a used car. It is a `99 Honda Life. It is white and small. That is the best description I can give it. Here in Japan, they have a special classification of cars called Kei cars. They have to be under 660cc to be called a Kei car as well of being small in stature. This is the only kind of car I can get and drive with my International Drivers License. (If I want to stay a second year, I will need to get a Japanese licence, which would also allow me to drive a normal size car.) For a little more detail on the history of Kei cars, I urge you to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keicar.

I am not supposed to drive the car for work. My supervisors originally told me I could not have a car. However, there was nothing about it in the contract and, as I am an adult, I decided to buy one from an American girl whose International Drivers Licence had expired. It was cheap but in good shape. My supervisors have since told me I am not to drive it for work--whatever that means. To work? At lunch while working? I am not sure. I really don`t mind this as my school is only 5 minutes away by bicycle. Well, the jr. high, is. The elementary school I go to on Mondays is a lot farther and I may not remember the injunction not to drive on cold, windy, wet, rainy days when both I and Maggie, the other English speaker/teacher in my town, have to travel north on those days. I might have to give her a ride for her health! And mine too, of course.

The car also means we can go to the Costco that is near the Fukuoka city (yes! Costco) or any number of the onsens (hot spring) around the island. My bike still seems like the best way to get around, but for weekend trips, the car will be good.

The love hotels are also more easily accessible by car, lol.

I am also now super popular as the only one of us non-Japanese folks with a car.

Third Item: Baseball!

I have joined a local baseball team. We had two games on last Sunday. I was supposed to play in the second, but we got rained out. :( We have rescheduled for next Sunday. After the game, we are having a little inkai to welcome me. (If you forgot what an inkai is, look at the first Japan post. And then think, hmmmm, he is going drinking with a bunch of men after playing baseball...yeah!)

Fourth Item: Baseball!

Yes, again! A group of us led by my supervisor went to the big city (Fukuoka) and watched the local big team play. They are called the SoftBank Hawks. (SoftBank is a cellphone company. All the teams are owned by big companies and their names reflect it (the opposing team was Nippon-Ham Fighters from Hokkaido). This isn`t so different than naming locales after companies--the Delta Center, ahem, excuse me, the Energy Solutions Center anyone?) The game was at the Yahoo Dome). There were six of us: my supervisor, his wife, their daughter (Chikako from the rafting trip), her boyfriend, Maggie (the other English speaker/teacher--she is from New Zealand) and I went. Lots of fun. The home team crushed the opponents, 10-0, which made it extra fun for our first game.

The Yahoo Dome is small compared to the MLB venues I have been to in the states, but I guess it is perfect for Japan where most things seem just a bit smaller (did I mention my car?). It is an indoor area, which is important seeing how often it rains `round here! For days when it doesn`t rain, they can retract part of the roof and they light off fireworks when the Hawks win.

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OK, now for your Japan lesson. This week, I want to talk to you about money.

You probably know the Japanese currency as the Yen with sign, ￥. But here it is merely called `en`. The current rate is about ￥115 to US$1, but it does vary a little bit. It has come down in the past few years from 120, which is really bad when you think the US$ has gone down to other major currencies, including the Canadian dollar and, more importantly, the Euro.




There are only 3 bills. The ￥1000, the ￥5000, and the ￥10000. Each bill gets progressively a little larger in physical size.

There are 6 coins. The ￥1, the　￥5, the　￥10, the ￥50, the　￥100, and the ￥500. Imagine if we, in the USA, had dollar and 5 dollar coins. That is what the ￥100 and ￥500 coins are like. It makes a lot of sense as they last longer than bills. The two smallest coins are pert near worthless. You can`t use them in the vending machines--which I love and are ubiquitous--so what good are they? I save them in jar in the hallway. I am not sure what I will do with them yet, but I will find something good.

It is hard to talk more about the currency as things here are sometimes logically more expensive or less expensive or illogically so. You already heard about bread. One day soon, I will talk about those vending machines and that will cover drinks.

Oh my gosh, while writing this, I realized tomorrow is payday! Yay! I got paid once a month on the 22nd. As that is a Saturday this month, I get paid on the day before. Whoooooo!!!!

Summer`s Over

Funny that the last weekend of summer is the same as in the States. School started again on Monday and Saturday and Sunday were devoted to people doing one last thing.

Ok, you are thinking, that makes sense; but if I haven`t been teaching, what exactly have I been doing?

A whole lot of nothing is the fairly honest answer. Let me explain.

The Japanese school year starts in April. They have three breaks, including August. Most of the people in the program cannot come in April, so they send them in August. This give us a month to get up to speed and familiarize ourselves with our new lives.

I live in town called Mizuma. Two 1/2 years ago, it was swallowed up by a larger nearby city (Kurume). However, the town retains some of its independence. It has a town council of sorts and its own library. For the past month I have been going into the community center which shares space with the library. My supervisor works here. The community center used to have total control of the schools in the town, but now has to listen to the city. My supervisor (technically I have two at the community center--but I`ll try and talk about the other one another day) is the person I go to for all my problems first. If have trouble at the jr. high school (Mizuma Chugako, where I have an on site supervisor, the vice-principal) or at the elementary school that I go to on Mondays (Araki Shugako) that I cannot solve at the school, I am supposed to go to him. This is a good thing, because he is a really good person.

His name is Tanaka. That is his family name; I just call him Tanaka-san. His first name is Mitusmi (I think); they do not use first names here very often. He signed me up on his family plan so I could have a cell phone (81-9079206531, emperorchadeus@docomo.ne.jp) without waiting for an Japanese ID card (our `gaijin` card). Waiting is what I had to do for Internet at home (which I only got last week). He even came over and fiddled with things when I couldn`t get the Internet to work (it worked, too--fiddling with the cords did the trick!). He has done even more than that, too...

Knowing there is no way I could ever really pay this kind man back, I paid for him and his daughter, Chikako (who speaks some English; Tanaka-san does not), to go on an excursion with me: our last summer thing.


We took a 3 hour bus ride south. There we had a 2 hour boat ride through some minor rapids (the long boat just cuts through the rapids) and then lunch. Lunch was in the restaurant above the shops of a tourist spot--a cave. We even walked thorough the cave. All this was only US$8 so it wasn`t like I was going way out of my way to pay; I was just being nice. Of course, to pay me back, we went out for sushi with his wife and Chikako`s grandmother Sunday evening when we returned.

Yeah that is the kind of guy Tanaka-san is. I`ll never be able to pay him back.

(If I can get the technology to work, I will put a movie of the boat ride we took. It is only a minute long and it is from my phone, but you can see how beautiful and green it is here. Please check back.)

Tonight is Judo. He is the head teacher of 5 teachers with about 45 students of varying ages, 5 to 15. If I get a gei--which are expensive, like US$100 for the cheap ones!--and yes, they have my size--I might be able to participate. I think my going makes him happy, even if I just sit for now.



Finally, I have Skype. It is an Internet service that allows you to call using your computer instead of a phone. If you have Skype, which requires a faster Internet line and a headset, my ID is chad.bramble (I know, I know, real imaginative!). If you don`t have Skype, I also signed up for a Utah number: You can call me there anytime. If am not online at home, you can leave a message on my voice mail and I will get it later. What will this cost you? Well, how much does a call to an 801 area code number cost you now? That much.