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I guess I had been at English House for about a week,
and I spent a lot of time walking around the neighborhood.
I also took my beloved Nambu-line train down to Kawasaki
to see the city a few times. Near English House is a fairly
large department store named Maruetsu.
On the first floor (ground level) is a nice supermarket,
smaller than those in the States, but it has everything
a Japanese market should have. And the great thing about
the market is that they sell these little chicken nuggets
(karaage) which are delicious! For about ¥300 you
get about eight of them. I would buy a package of them,
a baguette, some yogurt or something, and have that for
dinner. And sometimes at around 6pm for half an hour or
so, the price would be half off. You can't beat that!
On the second floor of Maruetsu was clothes and soft stuff.
By soft stuff I mean blankets, futons, towels, etc. I
bought my futon there. In America, futon means the sofa-type
frame with cushion that folds flat into a bed. In Japan,
futon is the bedding that you use when you sleep on the
tatami mat (on the floor). I guess you could describe
it as a comforter. The futon that I bought there, we still
have. I also got a pillow that is great! One one side,
there is a pocket (inside) that is filled with plastic
"beads". When you lay your head on the bead
side, it forms a nice firm curve for your head/neck.
Another thing I bought there was an "echeeketto".
Hmmm what the heck is that? Well, I went there looking
for a lint brush to make sure my interview suits were
nice and clean. I described in charade-fashion what I
needed to the clerk, and she said, "Ah...echeeketto."
She went down an aisle and came back with my lint brush.
I looked at the label on the brush, and it said "Etiquette
Brush". I think this was my first time I really encountered
a real-life Japanese version of a foreign word. Later
on I would be challenged by brain-teasers such as...
1. Sheedee
2. Combini (see episode one)
3. Pasacon
4. Terebi
5. Takushi
6. Makudonarudo
7. Kurisumasu
8. Kohee
see below for answers
Another time I was speaking with one of my students about
some anime. I think it was Mononoke-Hime we were talking
about. The conversation went something like this:
Student: "Do you like condom?"
Me: "Ehhh?" (huh?)
Student: "You know, condom"
Me: "Uhh. I guess so." <chuckle>
Student: "No no no, condom".
Me: "Condom?"
Student: "No no no, condom".
Then I had to take a step back and think about what we
were talking about
before... anime.
Me: "Oh! Gundam!"
Student: "Hai hai hai"
Me: "Uh, no, I have never watched Gundam. I gotta
go now."
Back to my department store, Maruetsu. On the third floor
is the housewares, electronics, and toys. That's about
it. The best part about Maruetsu was that it only took
about two minutes to walk there from English House. Another
place I frequented was. 7-11. Yep, good ole 7-11. They
had these
ice cream cones called Giant which I just loved. I
ate them all the time! Also, they were the only place
you could buy frozen burritos. They were really awful,
but sometimes I just had to have one.
In those early days when I wasn't working yet, I often
had alot of free (hima) time. I decided to buy a little
tv and maybe get used to hearing more Japanese language.
I went down the street to a second-hand store, and found
a really cool NEC wide-screen tv. The screen is only about
10" tall, but about 20" wide. It looked cool,
I had never seen a widescreen tv "in real life".
I just had to have it. So I plunked down about ¥25,000
for it and carried it home. That night I watched a FujiTV
broadcast of The Terminator dubbed into Japanese.
Episode 4 - Job Hunting (oh no!) coming soon...
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