Day 2 mission: Shopping

Heed my advice today. If you’re planning on moving to Japan, bring a bottle of shower gel with you for the first few weeks. I brought everything else but – and spent an hour today trying to decide what if what I was holding was indeed shower stuff, hand lotion or bath cleaner. The bottle says ‘body soap’ so I’m hopeful I have the right thing. We’ll soon see.

 Shopping was today’s big mission – well, food shopping to be exact. After paying 1,500 yen (about a tenner?) for a pizza last night I realised I needed to stock up on some basics or I’ll run out of money quickly. I don’t get paid until Nov 12^th, and even then it’s less than I will usually get (due to training for most of the month). So I headed hopefully back to the huge 10-floor department store that furnished my bed. The bottom two floors are food – one is fresh (fruit. bread, meat) and the other has everything else. Luckily I bought a book about Japanese food buying in the UK, so I skim-read this before I left, and took it with me to check against Kanji. I’m really glad I did that for the milk alone, as it was hard to distinguish between milk and yoghurt drinks.

 Japanese supermarkets are clean, fairly busy, and LOUD. There’s music playing, but it’s not good music, more like lift music, and there’s also people on aisles shouting about the samples they want you to try. Some displays talk as well, I’m not sure if they are motion activated or just go off randomly.

 I bought a modest amount, thinking I can go back easily if I find I like something in particular. I was happy to see a lot of familiar snacks (yes, Pocky!) and brands (Tropicana, Kelloggs, Twinings). I bought a few of these, and I also bought a bag of rice purely for the fact it had cute illustrated instructions on the back. Also because the flat has a rice cooker, which I’ve always wanted to try… maybe I’ll have a go later. Although I might need Yuko’s help.

 Oh yes! I met my housemate at last. After catching up with everyone in the UK on the net last night, I headed for bed as I was feeling really tired out and spacey. I was dozing when I heard her come into the flat last night – and then she knocked on my door. I scuttled to it in my hello kitty pyjamas, eager to make a good impression. She seems really nice, and confirmed she does have two jobs – one as a chef in a kitchen, the other in Starbucks. Her English isn’t great, and neither is my Japanese, so it was just a brief conversation before my head hit the pillow again. Today is her day off, and I kind of woke her up when the nice man from JAL came to drop my bag off. I was flapping at the intercom with him going ‘sumimasen…’ as he talked to me, and she came out and rescued me. JAL said it would come 6-7pm yesterday; it came at 10am today. Oh well. The important thing is, I’ve been reunited with my case! So my wardrobe looks a bit less bare.

 Do I feel as freaked out as yesterday? In some ways, a little less. Seeing Hello Kitty branded face wash and loo roll called fruit basket made me smile, the sun is beautiful (it’s tshirt weather here) and I had a friendly nod from an elderly neighbour as she left the building. Once again, I think when I start work, things will get a bit easier because I’ll have a lot to occupy me, other aliens to share the experiences with, and I’ll get paid, so I can afford to do things on my days off like visit other parts of Japan that I really want to see. Right now everything still feels very alien, and anything vaguely familiar (like the Twinings tea!) is comforting. I understand now why people often go to travel/live in English speaking countries like Australia or America; it takes some of that alien element away at least when you’re in a new environment. I wonder how many people come to the UK and feel this way?

 So I feel quite cut off communications-wise, and I’m hoping as soon as I can get a phone that might subside a little. I would love an iphone, but not sure it’s affordable. I’m definitely going to get one with internet access though, so that I can go online any time. Otherwise I’m going to be drinking a hell of a lot of coffee at the place next door! What a shame Japan doesn’t seem to have anything like the dongles you get in the UK – you’d have thought they would, being so nifty in general with the technology. What I’m most gutted about at the moment is skype – I was really looking forward to being able to talk to my folks and friends face to face for free, and show them my room virtually. Now I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do that. Maybe when the café is quieter they won’t mind but I’m a bit too nervous to ask. So instead I have an expensive phone card where 2,000 yen buys me 51 minutes on the phone to the UK.

 Lastly on the phone front. I’ve been told I probably can’t get a phone unless I have an alien registration card, which I can’t apply for until Tuesday when the hall I need to go to is open – Monday is a national holiday here. The card itself may take a few weeks to be completed. So it might be a little while until I can get a phone. So again, my advice to anyone coming out here = get a phone that can work in Japan, even just for the initial few weeks. I know I used to live without a phone strapped to my side once – but it wasn’t in another country that’s for sure.

 UPDATE: The internet told me Apple have an English speaking advice line in Japan, so I’m going to call them tomorrow and see if they can sell me a phone. Yes!