Today is one of those days where I come back home (er, hotel) with a sigh and a smile, because it was a good day. Both productive and fun.
My first hurdle of the day at the office was my keyboard. I might
have mentioned in an earlier post, for each QWERTY letter on the keyboard there is a hiragana character as well. I thought the keyboard was simple, ie just switching from one system to another. Wrong. You hit the "switch" button (to the right of the tiny space bar) and you go from system 1 to 2 to 3, up to 5. And they're all a variation of "input in English, output in hiragana", "input in hiragana, output in katakana" (so far that's easy), "input in English, output in hiragana, suggestions of Kanjis" (that usually triggers a long drop-down menu of all the options to write "ka" or "ma" in Chinese characters...). And so on. So this morning as I tried to enter my password to unlock my computer, I opened the keyboard can of worms that took me from gentle office awakening to mad fury (Japanese style) in about 15 minutes. I had to swallow my pride and ask my dear colleague how the keyboard works. You'd think I just landed from Katmandu, not New York...
Anyway, I am all high-tech'd now. Oh, and, to show you I keep my promises: a p
icture of the loo!! I am SO sorry to do this to you, but seriously, I still find them amazing. This one from the office, it has one more option than all the others I've seen: the Sound effects!! Given the choice I'd rather tune to a bird chirping sound or some good AC/DC, but oddly enough the sound you get by pressing the music icon is that of a flushing. Go figure.
And please don't make me describe the other functions.
(Sans transition, comme dirait PPDA) I called the relocation agent, expecting another apartment-hunting marathon this afternoon, but it wasn't possible to schedule anything for today. I understood later why. In Japanese, the word for Wednesday is Suiyobi (all the days of the week end in -yobi, but it would be helpful if they were Mon-yobi, Tue-yobi, Wed-yobi... ). The kanji for "Sui" ( 水) means water or rain (there are 2 readings to each kanji... as if one wasn't hard enough), and the superstition is that if the broker signs a deal on a Wednesday, the water will wash the good luck away, or something like that. So: if you're doing business with the Japanese, avoid Wednesdays for the big deal-signing!!You're wondering how I know that, I didn't make it up. I had the good fortune of meeting a Japanese guy named Akira, who studied in New York for 4 years (and whose English is flawless) and started his own company, doing career coaching and seminars. I had told him I had recently walked into the Mini-Mini real estate agency in Ebisu, and couldn't find an agent who could help me in English. I didn't have a magic wand to make me speak fluent Japanese, so I had to give up. As it turns out, he's also on the market for a new apartment and was interested in viewing some apartments in the areas I was looking at, so we went to the agency, and then set out to view some apartments. And, wow, they were great. I came to admit the reality that there aren't many decent-sized apartments in Ebisu on the market, so I thought I'd circle back and revisit areas I had visited before that were close to Shinagawa. So I visited three apartments in two towers newar Tamachi (one stop up from Shinagawa) that were very close to the subway, incredibly nice, and had tons of little stores (for lack of cafes) outside. And then another apartment in another tower, also nice. As usual, photos online... I'd like to point out the interesting fact that both La Tour buildings were combination office/apartment buildings (residences from floors 32 to 40-something).
At the end of the day, Emi called to schedule viewings for tomorrow morning, one of the apartments is in Daikayanama and she downright called it "dream apartment" and said I'd fall in love with it. She knows me well by now, so I am hoping she's right!! And if not, I really liked the La Tour Mita, I just have to test the commute...
After all the apartments viewings, Akira had to wrap up some things at his office so we went to Shibuya (kind of Times Square, only crazier).
If you've ever seen pictures of the famous Tokyo 5-way pedestrian crossing (eg Lost in Translation?): this is the one. I hope this serves as a proof that I actually am in Tokyo and not making up all these stories !! While I was waiting, I went to Tower 109, a shopping mall with the funkiest apparel I've ever seen... not bizarre, not always crazy, just downright funky. Not that I would let my daughter wear that stuff, mind you. But it was highly entertaining. I can't wait to see what Harajuku is like.
We then went for dinner at a local place for some sashimi, tempura, and fish, and sake, and shocyu... a feast! I told my mommy my life expectancy will increase by living in Japan, that assumes I cooperate and eat what the Japanese eat, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. At the risk of sounding redundant, every sushi/sashimi/fish/etc I try here is better than the one before, it's a never-ending competition of all the chefs in town and I am the lucky tester...
Oh, and the gaffe du jour: dropped a piece of sashimi into the soy sauce dish, splattered all over Akira's white shirt. Man, I owe you a dry-cleaning.
Back 'home', time to upload the photos and drop these few lines... and add the "funny video of the day", which was taken in the parking garage of the real estate agent. The garage was tiny (and so was the car, mind you), but to avoid scratches and dents, look how CUTE and ingenious a system they have!! (again, I'm from Katmandu).
A big thank you to Akira who saved the day with the apartment viewing and menu-translating...
PS: I almost showed up at work this morning wearing the orange wig from my Halloween costume, then decided against it...
PS2: Big changes at the Japan office
My first hurdle of the day at the office was my keyboard. I might
have mentioned in an earlier post, for each QWERTY letter on the keyboard there is a hiragana character as well. I thought the keyboard was simple, ie just switching from one system to another. Wrong. You hit the "switch" button (to the right of the tiny space bar) and you go from system 1 to 2 to 3, up to 5. And they're all a variation of "input in English, output in hiragana", "input in hiragana, output in katakana" (so far that's easy), "input in English, output in hiragana, suggestions of Kanjis" (that usually triggers a long drop-down menu of all the options to write "ka" or "ma" in Chinese characters...). And so on. So this morning as I tried to enter my password to unlock my computer, I opened the keyboard can of worms that took me from gentle office awakening to mad fury (Japanese style) in about 15 minutes. I had to swallow my pride and ask my dear colleague how the keyboard works. You'd think I just landed from Katmandu, not New York...Anyway, I am all high-tech'd now. Oh, and, to show you I keep my promises: a p
icture of the loo!! I am SO sorry to do this to you, but seriously, I still find them amazing. This one from the office, it has one more option than all the others I've seen: the Sound effects!! Given the choice I'd rather tune to a bird chirping sound or some good AC/DC, but oddly enough the sound you get by pressing the music icon is that of a flushing. Go figure.And please don't make me describe the other functions.
(Sans transition, comme dirait PPDA) I called the relocation agent, expecting another apartment-hunting marathon this afternoon, but it wasn't possible to schedule anything for today. I understood later why. In Japanese, the word for Wednesday is Suiyobi (all the days of the week end in -yobi, but it would be helpful if they were Mon-yobi, Tue-yobi, Wed-yobi... ). The kanji for "Sui" ( 水) means water or rain (there are 2 readings to each kanji... as if one wasn't hard enough), and the superstition is that if the broker signs a deal on a Wednesday, the water will wash the good luck away, or something like that. So: if you're doing business with the Japanese, avoid Wednesdays for the big deal-signing!!You're wondering how I know that, I didn't make it up. I had the good fortune of meeting a Japanese guy named Akira, who studied in New York for 4 years (and whose English is flawless) and started his own company, doing career coaching and seminars. I had told him I had recently walked into the Mini-Mini real estate agency in Ebisu, and couldn't find an agent who could help me in English. I didn't have a magic wand to make me speak fluent Japanese, so I had to give up. As it turns out, he's also on the market for a new apartment and was interested in viewing some apartments in the areas I was looking at, so we went to the agency, and then set out to view some apartments. And, wow, they were great. I came to admit the reality that there aren't many decent-sized apartments in Ebisu on the market, so I thought I'd circle back and revisit areas I had visited before that were close to Shinagawa. So I visited three apartments in two towers newar Tamachi (one stop up from Shinagawa) that were very close to the subway, incredibly nice, and had tons of little stores (for lack of cafes) outside. And then another apartment in another tower, also nice. As usual, photos online... I'd like to point out the interesting fact that both La Tour buildings were combination office/apartment buildings (residences from floors 32 to 40-something).
At the end of the day, Emi called to schedule viewings for tomorrow morning, one of the apartments is in Daikayanama and she downright called it "dream apartment" and said I'd fall in love with it. She knows me well by now, so I am hoping she's right!! And if not, I really liked the La Tour Mita, I just have to test the commute...
After all the apartments viewings, Akira had to wrap up some things at his office so we went to Shibuya (kind of Times Square, only crazier).
If you've ever seen pictures of the famous Tokyo 5-way pedestrian crossing (eg Lost in Translation?): this is the one. I hope this serves as a proof that I actually am in Tokyo and not making up all these stories !! While I was waiting, I went to Tower 109, a shopping mall with the funkiest apparel I've ever seen... not bizarre, not always crazy, just downright funky. Not that I would let my daughter wear that stuff, mind you. But it was highly entertaining. I can't wait to see what Harajuku is like.
We then went for dinner at a local place for some sashimi, tempura, and fish, and sake, and shocyu... a feast! I told my mommy my life expectancy will increase by living in Japan, that assumes I cooperate and eat what the Japanese eat, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. At the risk of sounding redundant, every sushi/sashimi/fish/etc I try here is better than the one before, it's a never-ending competition of all the chefs in town and I am the lucky tester...
Oh, and the gaffe du jour: dropped a piece of sashimi into the soy sauce dish, splattered all over Akira's white shirt. Man, I owe you a dry-cleaning.
Back 'home', time to upload the photos and drop these few lines... and add the "funny video of the day", which was taken in the parking garage of the real estate agent. The garage was tiny (and so was the car, mind you), but to avoid scratches and dents, look how CUTE and ingenious a system they have!! (again, I'm from Katmandu).
A big thank you to Akira who saved the day with the apartment viewing and menu-translating...
PS: I almost showed up at work this morning wearing the orange wig from my Halloween costume, then decided against it...
PS2: Big changes at the Japan office
6 comments:
coucou
trop fort la plaque tournante.
je connaissais les séances de spiritisme avec un guéridon qui tourne, mais là ...nous sommes tous de katmandu !
Ouais ben ca m'etonnerait que la plaque soit assez grande pour les gros pickup americains...
ouaip c'est sur ...
ça y est c'est le week-end !!
pas de toussaint au japon ?
des jours fériés ? ça existe ?
C'est Chretien, la Toussaint, donc non ca n'existe pas au Japon! Ils ont beaucoup de jours fériés par contre, le prochain est le 23 Novembre, l'anniversaire de l'empereur.
Et mon anniversaire alors??? ca devrait etre férié aussi!
I am from Nepal.. and take offense to 2 of your Katmandu references.
p.s: I am not from Nepal, but If I was....
I am dying to try out the Japanese toilets .. although I still don't understand the flushing sound ... makes no sense whatsoever, lol ...
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