I get my passport squared away, kill time

Sorry about not posting for a while, i will try to keep it to a post a week from now in order to prove the fact that I am still alive, also to encourage myself to do more interesting stuff.


Today I was granted a holiday to go to the prefectural capital, Aomori City, to get my re-entry visa taken care of. This meant a big trip. First, the day before, I went and bought my ticket for that and my bullet train (shinkansen) ticket to get to Tokyo and fly home. Did the entire thing in Japanese, which I was especially proud of. After I did that, I was pretty amazed that the whole thing had gone so smoothly. I'm wicked excited about that, but on with the story.


First, I parked at Shimokita-eki, the local rail station:
Parking there is fuh-ree for an unspecified amount of time (the question now is whether or not I can leave my car there for the entirety of my three-week trip home). A single train car pulled up and I got on board, excited as possibly could be for my first venture (a solo attempt at that) outside of Shimokita. Swithed trains at Noheji, then after a total 2-hour trip I emerged from Aomori-eki to see this:


A glorious city of 300,000 people. I was totally elated to be among civilization again. I was not dissuaded by the torrential rain and hail that accompanied me everywhere, as I was just happy to be there and umbrellas are wicked cheap.

Found the Immigration office after a little wandering. Ended up in the Passport office for Japanese people, but evidently this sort of thing happens a lot as they produced a map in English that showed how to get to the proper place. The strangest thing about being in this city was that people didn't immediately assume that I spoke Japanese, as they do in Shimokita. People would attempt English first (Information desk girl: "Oh-fee-su... leh-fto...! Offeesu Lefto!" Me: "Hidari des ne?" Relieved Information desk girl: "hai, asoko des.") then try Japanese when they realized that I understood some (not at lot, still, but some). Getting the actual passport meant going to the office, handing over my IDs, going to the fifth floor, paying for the visa, and then pickin up the visa in the immigration office on the third floor. This may seem inefficient, but in retrospect it prevented me from waiting at all. By the time I was back in the third-florr office, the old dude was done with my new visa.

Then I hit the streets (I hit 'em twice...) and headed towards this Indian resturant that my friend reccomended called Akbar's. I was having a little trouble ordering in Japanese since the name of the Indian bread they served, nan, is remarkably similar to the Japanese word for what (nani). So the owner comes over and points at the menu and tells me "You get a free drink with this set" in perfect English. Turns out the dude used to live in Boston when he worked for Bose, so we talked for a bit before my food came.

He was not the first person to laugh at me when I said I teach English in northeastern Shimokita.

Then I stalked the streets for a bit, shopping and people-watching for a few hours. Saw a few curiosities, such as this shop advertising a Ku-ree-su-ma-su Feh-ah

I don't need to translate that, right?

Have I mentioned the vending machines before? They're EVERYWHERE here, even down little country roads here in Higashidori. Check 'em out:


On every street corner, your basic needs: drinks and cigarettes (In the words of Laura T: "You know, for the kids.") Having them everywhere kinda makes sense in a country where the smallest bill is approximately $10. I usually have around eleven bucks in change in my pockets, and sometimes I'll walk by a vending machine and think "Hey, I should get rid of this change AND cure my thirst" or "Hey, you know what's better than lots of change? Dying."

Scratch that last one.

Other curiosities include running into this at a trendy shopping mall:


Ah buh? good music taste here? word? I'll take it!

That's another big difference between my area and this city. There were lots and lots of young people (read: hot girls) EVERYWHERE. In my town it's mostly old people and the very young, and the folks that are my age are married. But there are tons of actual twenty-somethings in that place, which was awesome to be around.

Which brings up another point. Japanese fashion is really really weird. The girls are, for the most part, above average looking, but always dress in untold layers for some apparent reason. It's disconcerting, to be honest. See?


It's like they go shopping and wonder "Hm, that jacket is nice, but can i fit a cardigan and two shirts underneath it?"

The other ALT helped explain that a little. His theory is that since they basically have to wear a uniform from the age of four until they're 18 (and probably also at work afterwards), they get overloaded once they acquire the freedom and means to dress themselves. Like that South Park episode where the homeschooled girl turns into a gigantic ho.

Also hit up a foreign foods store, bought some gummy bears and a Reed's ginger brew and Twinnings Earl Grey Tea. They had tons of stuff actually, that i was too cheap to buy for myself. Not that the day was cheap, I laid down a lot fo dough in tickets, the $60 visa, and various shopping expenditures. Oh, that foreign foods store also had this:


Why? Why? Why?