Finding my way around town

After much trial and some error, I have finally gotten my bearings in Kanazawa. The first time I went out on my bike I got lost and started asking people where my street was, and by that I mean I rode up to people sweaty and out of breath and said "Liberty Hill" to only receive the look of confusion and fear I have since grown accustomed to. As it turns out, Liberty Hill is the name of my building, not my street, because THE STREETS DON'T HAVE NAMES IN JAPAN! That still blows my mind. People use landmarks to give directions. Apparently my apartment isn't a known landmark.

So after my first time out I only went on bike rides in one direction and retraced my path backwards. Soon I mustered enough courage to turn when I went out bike riding with a map and compass, but I still got lost, repeatedly, only to find out the next day that north is left on my map. Now that's just mean.

During the second week I had to go to a few different orientation events around town, so my supervisor drove me around town to show me where they were. So as we were driving (recklessly and on the wrong side of the road) I was jotting down "turn left at green building, road forks, take the 'cuter' street, etc." So that's how I got to places for the first few weeks, but now I have a decent bearing, and I know how to say "where is," which has proven very vital, although still quite limited: example, today I was talking to two cute Japanese girls on the beach and all I could say was "I am Majeed. Where is the train station?" They were not impressed.


Here's a video of some highlights of my first two weeks.

Gettin Settled

So I moved out to my city, Kanazawa, on the Sea of Japan. The first day was a whirlwind of errands--getting registered with the city, opening a bank account, etc. My apartment is literally the smallest apartment I have ever seen. I think it might be a miniature scale model of the actual apartment I'm going to be getting at some point. It's like living in an RV, but not a fancy one. The apartment was stark empty when I got there, except for a futon mattress, so my supervisor drove me around town to equip the pad. Now I have a Japanese style table in the single room so I've been sitting on the floor.

I have a roach infestation. These are monster sized cock-roaches. Record-setting big. Of course, they seem even bigger relative to my doll-house sized apartment. I met the first of them when I came home the first time alone, sitting in my kitchen, greeting me, as if to say "Hello Stranger. What the hell do you think you're doing moving all this stuff into my place?" And then I crushed him. The first night I went to sleep without an alarm clock, worried I would sleep too late. That problem was of course solved when I woke up the first morning with a giant killer cock roach crawling on my arm. Please take a moment to imagine that...I jumped up, flung it across the room, and instead of it scurring away like a nice, small, American cock roach, it chased me around the room. In the end, however, it was the roach that suffered a crushing defeat.

Today's Japanese lesson:

• arigato-thank you
• awhellnah-this appartment is too small!