I feel like my life in Japan can be fairly adequately summed up by the first half of my day today. It started out just like any other day in Japan. I was heading to work on a Saturday morning during a typhoon, and I realized that Japan is a crazy place. Case in point, I was biking to working during a freakin' typhoon! That all went pretty successfully, given that as I was biking I was simultaneously talking a cell phone, contributing to the several near death experiences that I encountered on my commute. I made it to work in one piece, a little sodden, but none worse for wear. Since it was a Saturday morning, I only have one class, a mid-level adult class with four students. Now, I new one of the students was going to absent ahead of time, but I was still planning on teaching three people this morning. I got to work about 40 minutes before class was scheduled to start, because I didn't know exactly how much the typhoon would delay me, and I got my lesson planned nice and early, giving me plenty of time to relax and dry off before I had to go teach. Turns out that i needn't have bothered planning the lesson, because none of the other three students that were supposed to show came to OBC. There is nothing like waking up after a night at the bar, leaving your house during a typhoon, and getting stood up by your students on a Saturday morning.
The next part of my day was substantially better. John and I biked out to the Uni Qlo which is essentially Old Navy and bought some new T-shirts and I bought a hat. The first two typhoons of the season brought lovely weather after they passed, but this one clearly missed the memo, because it was ungodly hot and humid this afternoon. After the clothes shopping, John and I stopped off at the supermarket to pick up some stuff to make guacamole for Sarah's upcoming birthday party, and to stock up on "party supplies" also known as booze. We bought all the stuff for guac, and realized that there was not a single tortilla chip to be found in the entire supermarket. We called around, and found out that tortilla chips are only sold in the YaMaYa stores (foreign food stores), and the nearest one of those was two stops down the train line. At this point, we were committed to the whole guac idea, so we had to go in search of the chips. Actually, John had to teach at 5:00, so I went in search for the chips. All I had to go on for directions were, "its in Hisai, and its about a ten minute walk from the station, but I can't remember if you turn right THEN walk ten minutes, or if you walk ten minutes THEN turn right."
So, I rode my bike to Tsusimmachi station near my house, rode the train to Hisai Station, and started walking. After stopping to ask for directions at a Circle K, I eventually found the YaMaYa and bought 6 bags of tortilla chips, because I did not want to run out half way through the party! The plus side to this excursion was that I found out that the foreign foods store also sells Guinness, so I bough a bottle and drank it on my way back to the station. (open bottle is legit in Japan as long as you aren't driving!)
I guess the moral of this story is that some things that expect to be really difficult in Japan, like asking for directions actually turn out to be a lot less difficult that going to the grocery store to buy tortilla chips. Its a crazy country.
Peace and whatnot,
Andrew!
