Some days are better, some days worse. Living in Japan has tested me both physically and mentally, almost to the breaking point at times but it is the path that I chose. The path that may be more difficult but in the end, I feel holds more rewards. Today, I am trying to come to an understanding of why I left NJ, and why I came to Japan.
So yesterday I found out a very important phrase for all foreigners living in Japan while walking around Shibuya the other day. The phrase is watashi wa nihonjin haigusha (hi-goo-sha), follow the link for some thoughts on Shibuya, what may or may not be an evelator repair man, and why the phrase above is something you should now if you have a japanese partner and are living in Japan.
So I had planned to write about my first trip to the ryokan (a traditional japanese inn) but I'll save that for another day. Instead I'll talk about the 3 days of rain that announced the arrival of Typhoon Melor. Where it rains more in Tokyo than it does in say Jersey City. The last few days have been an almost continous downpour of rain and where the rain finally stopped today, the winds picked up considerably. Normally I like the rain, due to the tranquility that I feel while it rains but a typhoon is never something one hopes for. Thankfully the damage is much less severe than what was recently experienced in the Philippines, though stI'll there has been at least one death so far related to the storm.
Other than a few knocked over large potted plants (all ours), there doesn't seem to be any substantial damage in my immediate vicinity. Compared to a town like Hoboken, NJ Hinoshi (For those who care shi means city) is a lot better equipped to deal with the volume of rain that it recieves as there is channels for the rain overflow in front of all houses that run the length of the property and channels under the sidewalks to allow for drainage. This amount of rain surely would have left a town like Hoboken flooded.
For those who are interested you can read more about the Typhoon you can read about it here. Here is another article about it for the really interested.
When I came back to the house tonight, I was greeted by two things that are pretty common right about now, a cool breeze and slugs. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the cool breeze but every time I see those slugs sitting on our gray steps it almost always reminds me of New Jersey and puts a smile on my face.
As a boy, I remember there was always slugs near my door at night. Big earthworms coming to the surface whenever it rained and fireflies on those warm summer nights. Actually two of my fonder memories as a kid was taking the walk over to Dairy Queen with my mom, and catching fireflies as the sun would set.
As a adult living in New Jersey, where I don't claim this as a scientific study, I can honestly say that there just wasn't as many fireflies, earthworms or slugs as there used to be. All of which makes me grateful for my new home here in Japan, every time I see those little slugs crawling across the steps at night in addition to reminding me of New Jersey and what we may have lost.
09/17/09
Is that burnable?
So instead of another serious post about the boring details of my life today, I wanted to discuss something really exciting, like garbage in Japan. No, I'm not talking about garbage around town, though in general, coming from Jersey City, I find overall Hachioji is cleaner. I'm talking about taking out the trash. In New Jersey the trash was sorted in glass, paper, plastic and regular trash. In Japan it works slightly different, you still recycle things like glass and plastic and they get picked up on different days. Plastic soda bottles and such are also treated somewhat differently. The labels must be removed from the bottles and the caps are taken off and recycled separately. Aluminum Cans are also separated from the rest of the trash, and recycled. What remains, is then sorted into two different piles, burnable and non-burnable, which for awhile caused me great confusion as almost everything is burnable in the strict sense of the word. "Honey is this burnable?" was a common question for the first few weeks in Japan. But what is really being asked is 'Is it toxic if burned?', as such most plastic is non-burnable (though some bags are labeled as burnable). Tofu based cat litter turns out is perfectly burnable (though I imagine it smells slightly worse than Natto. One other major difference about trash in Japan is that you have to buy trash bags for your specific city or town (so you need to pick up at least two different types of bags) and cost at least in my part of Tokyo 800 Yen (~ $8.77) for 10 of the large bags. One of the nice effects of this is that it definitely makes me more conscious of the types of products I buy and how they will ultimately be recycled.
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