Isogashi means busy in Japanese. As I have been busy I have not made time for any blog posts in nearly a month.
My wife has taken on a new job as a nurse at a hospital in the neighboring town. I drive her in the mornings, which takes about an hour. Plus, our daughter's school closes early one day a week, there is at least 1 or 2 vacation days per month, and my daughter stayed home with the obligatory cold for a couple of days. Each afternoon I either babysit or accompany a 7 year old to either piano lessons, swimming, or batmitton. Don't forget the French lessons every other Saturday. Also, I am doing more housework than ever.
Also, I have begun taking Japanese lessons twice a week using Skype, a free phone service. My wife had signed me up to take Japanese for beginners at the local University. They actually had an English language advertisement. After taking the course, I will be ready to begin my life in Japan, or so they said. In the Japanese way, one can only begin the course on one specific day each year and it was necessary to apply during the month of October. They responded quickly, letting me know that my Visa was not the right kind of Visa, so I am only eligible to take the course offered to people who already speak Japanese and want to progress to an advanced level.
I am not complaining at all. They said no and I made other arrangement. In summary, it just is a fact of life for me now that I have less free time. Isogashi people everywhere will have no sympathy whatsoever and I don't blame them. Busy is a subjective feeling.
Does anyone miss these blogs? Doubtful, but just saying why they are less frequent.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Asoryu-san
Where we live is a wonderful place for cycling, especially if you are like me and ride in the hills and mountains. The autumn colors are beautiful, but it is late in the fall and the cold weather has already begun. Soon, it will be too uncomfortable outside to do much cycling. In preparation for the end of cycling, I joined a local health club.
Wait, not so fast. You can't just join. You have to take an introductory class to learn about club rules and how the equipment works. It only takes about an hour, and I understood almost 3 words that the guy said. Inconveniently, the class is offered just once a month. Just as flexible is the terms of the membership. Everyone has one choice, you can join for a year, and that's it. Also, your one year membership begins last year on April 1st, regardless of when you actually join. April Fools Day seems appropriate for a health club membership when you think about the fact that most people who join will go 2 or 3 times and then get lazy and flop on the couch to watch TV.
Complaining about the ridiculous and inflexible rules is a waste of time as there is only 1 health club in town and no competitors within a 45 minute drive. As the annual cost is just $25 or so, why complain? Soooo cheap, but its subsidized by the local city and probably costs a lot more if you consider what tax payers contribute.
During the introductory class they type up a membership card for anyone who paid the annual fee. On the membership application I carefully wrote my name in Japan's Katakana language, the one they use for foreign words. Only the Katakana symbol for "N" and the symbol for the sound "So" are very similar and I apparently didn't write my "N" clearly enough. From now on, I will be known at the gym as Asoryu instead of Andoryu (Andrew). You can call me Aso for short.
Wait, not so fast. You can't just join. You have to take an introductory class to learn about club rules and how the equipment works. It only takes about an hour, and I understood almost 3 words that the guy said. Inconveniently, the class is offered just once a month. Just as flexible is the terms of the membership. Everyone has one choice, you can join for a year, and that's it. Also, your one year membership begins last year on April 1st, regardless of when you actually join. April Fools Day seems appropriate for a health club membership when you think about the fact that most people who join will go 2 or 3 times and then get lazy and flop on the couch to watch TV.
Complaining about the ridiculous and inflexible rules is a waste of time as there is only 1 health club in town and no competitors within a 45 minute drive. As the annual cost is just $25 or so, why complain? Soooo cheap, but its subsidized by the local city and probably costs a lot more if you consider what tax payers contribute.
During the introductory class they type up a membership card for anyone who paid the annual fee. On the membership application I carefully wrote my name in Japan's Katakana language, the one they use for foreign words. Only the Katakana symbol for "N" and the symbol for the sound "So" are very similar and I apparently didn't write my "N" clearly enough. From now on, I will be known at the gym as Asoryu instead of Andoryu (Andrew). You can call me Aso for short.
Hakodate
Sorry for the lack of new posts. I'll explain later.
My wife and I went to Hakodate to see a concert and spend a day or so sight seeing. Hakodate is a nice seaside city on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and we were lucky to be there for some beautiful autumn weather prior to the beginning of Hokkaido's horrifically cold winter weather.
The concert was Japanese shamisen music performed by an artist called Agatsuma. We loved it! He's great, playing a traditional Japanese instrument that looks like a banjo of sorts but he can play beautiful modern sounding music. Buy a CD or download to your IPod!
After the show we went to eat sushi at a great sushi restaurant. Hakodate specializes in seafood, especially crab and squid. It was amazingly good. 90% of what we ate was a new and unique (for us) type of sushi dish that we had never tried before. Delicious food in a peaceful setting.
After we ate my wife told the hostess that we needed a taxi. Within less than 5 minutes, we left the restaurant and the taxi was waiting for us. The driver was an older man who told us stories about the city, including the devastating fire from the 1930s that burnt 80% of town. Then, he drove us up to the top of Mount Hakodate which gave us a beautiful overlook of the city at night. This mountain is right on the edge of town and I would guess it is about the same altitude as Mount Tamalpias near San Francisco, maybe a little less high. The driver shut off his meter, walked us out to the best look out spot and took some photos for us. No extra charge.
Try asking a cab driver in America, if he understands English, for a similar treatment.
The train ride from where we live to Hakodate goes about 600 feet below sea level through a roughly 20 mile long tunnel that runs between Japan's main island where we live and Hokkaido. Its an engineering marvel. Just like Boston's big dig, only unlike the Boston tunnel the cement didn't fall off the ceiling and kill anyone right after Japan's tunnel to Hokkaido was built.
My wife and I went to Hakodate to see a concert and spend a day or so sight seeing. Hakodate is a nice seaside city on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and we were lucky to be there for some beautiful autumn weather prior to the beginning of Hokkaido's horrifically cold winter weather.
The concert was Japanese shamisen music performed by an artist called Agatsuma. We loved it! He's great, playing a traditional Japanese instrument that looks like a banjo of sorts but he can play beautiful modern sounding music. Buy a CD or download to your IPod!
After the show we went to eat sushi at a great sushi restaurant. Hakodate specializes in seafood, especially crab and squid. It was amazingly good. 90% of what we ate was a new and unique (for us) type of sushi dish that we had never tried before. Delicious food in a peaceful setting.
After we ate my wife told the hostess that we needed a taxi. Within less than 5 minutes, we left the restaurant and the taxi was waiting for us. The driver was an older man who told us stories about the city, including the devastating fire from the 1930s that burnt 80% of town. Then, he drove us up to the top of Mount Hakodate which gave us a beautiful overlook of the city at night. This mountain is right on the edge of town and I would guess it is about the same altitude as Mount Tamalpias near San Francisco, maybe a little less high. The driver shut off his meter, walked us out to the best look out spot and took some photos for us. No extra charge.
Try asking a cab driver in America, if he understands English, for a similar treatment.
The train ride from where we live to Hakodate goes about 600 feet below sea level through a roughly 20 mile long tunnel that runs between Japan's main island where we live and Hokkaido. Its an engineering marvel. Just like Boston's big dig, only unlike the Boston tunnel the cement didn't fall off the ceiling and kill anyone right after Japan's tunnel to Hokkaido was built.
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