With the economy here doing poorly, I am sure Tokyo's homelessness problem is not getting better. I have even heard of cities laying off their JET teachers from abroad (the program I'm thinking of doing) because many places are over budget.Some of the park's beauty
Olympic banner over a baseball field
As you may have heard, Tokyo is a top contender for the 2016 Olympics. Some say that with Obama as president, US hopeful Chicago will have an edge, but Tokyo is still campaigning very hard for the event. This banner hanging on the backstop says, "(We're) Japan, therefore it can be done! (A) New Olympics!" The irony in this picture is that baseball has been removed from the Olympics as of the end of last summer's Beijing event. Perhaps with the bad economy they can't afford to award medals to three entire baseball teams!
Cherry Blossoms at Ueno Park
My jet-lag has had me waking up between three and four since I arrived here on Friday evening, but it has at least given me time to give my blog some attention. It is now Monday morning around five o'clock, and around eight I will take a train to a place called
Sugano, in the Chiba prefecture, where I will be renting an apartment that I have committed to, yet have never seen in person.
"Welcome home" Ren
I was treated with last-minute arrangements of a pickup at
Narita airport by
Miho's mother, her friend, and friend's daughter. They were waiting for me in the arrivals area of the airport when I arrived, and unfortunately for all of us my flight was delayed due to strong winds in San Francisco. I flew on Northwest Airlines to Tokyo, my first time not taking United, and I really enjoyed it. I chose Northwest for the same reason I choose any other airline, it was the cheapest! I got my flight for $696 out the door, and there were no other fees for anything such as pillows, blankets, food, etc. I even dodged a fee for heavy luggage after one of my bag was seventy-two pounds, far exceeding the
allotted fifty pounds! I quickly got my backpack out of that suitcase and filled it with random items until the suitcase reached fifty-three pounds. The lady working at the counter let it slide, who, by the way, asked if I was a a minor traveling alone as I approached her! Do I really come across as being under eighteen?!
Strolling through Ueno Park
Even with my jet-lag keeping my drowsy all weekend, I still was able to enjoy being taken to
Ueno Park in Tokyo to see the cherry blossoms, and go to a Cartier
jewelery exhibit at one of the museums. It was fun to see all of the people having picnics under the blossoming trees, although it was a bit too crowded for my liking.
The blossoms are falling
Another shocking restroom experience
Using the restroom in Japan can sometimes be a difficult experience for foreigners. My sister, shown above, once pushed the emergency button on the wall of a handicap stall instead of the flush button, which was also on the wall. I had told her, and tell other foreigners that if you want to guarantee that you will get a western style toilet, use the handicap stalls. But apparently not all of them have translations on them because she definitely pushed the wrong one because I heard the alarm and saw the security guards sprinting to her aid.
The toilet I used at the museum
That toilet she set the alarm off at was in Kyoto Station, where you would think it would be more English friendly due to it's popularity with tourists. The restroom I used at the museum on Saturday was kind enough to put up a translation, but they just couldn't get it right.
Here is a zoom-in of what the flush button has been labeled as
Perhaps Japan's fascination with cameras led to such a translation. If I couldn't read Japanese , all of the high-tech stuff on Japanese toilets, along with a "flash" function would
definitely intimidate me!
Walking back to the train station
With my jet-lag, I was really tired after a day at the park. I really envied this little girl being carried because my legs didn't want to be moving anymore. When I got home I took a nap, ate, then was back in bed in the eight o'clock hour before waking up at three.
Wish
Please bring a pet's excrement home.
Every day on the way to work I pass a large office building with trees in front of it. Posted on the trees is the above-written statement, as well as what it really means in Japanese. The problem that the person who made this had is the same problem I had when I first came to Japan in 2002. Saying "please" in Japanese is a lot different from the way we say it. Instead of writing "Wish" they should have written "please" or "request". But, the word they were translating actually means "please", "wish", and even "request" which is one example why you cant use a dictionary to translate sentences in Japanese. When I first came to Japan I wanted to say "please" so I looked it up in my dictionary and it gave me the word "dozo". I used that for at least a month before I realized my mistake. "Dozo" is "please" as in, "Please help yourself to some cake" ETC. So what the Japanese people were hearing was me saying things like "Can I have more rice please help yourself?".
It is sad how the rest of the message posted on the trees ended up how it did. Doesn't it sound like you have a variety if pet feces to choose from that you are free to take home? The sign should simply say:
Please
Take your pet's droppings with you.
I am far from being free of mistakes in my Japanese. Just yesterday I embarrassingly messed up while talking to Masanori Murakami on the phone. He is an iconic figure here and was the first Japanese player to ever go to the USA.
He pitched for the San Francisco Giants.
Where's Waldo?
Photos like this really illustrate how I compare to the height of the average Japanese person.
These were taken in the Ueno district of the city in a busy little area of shops, restaurants, and street vendors. I bought pineapple on a stick!
Later we went to Ueno park and say a very impressive street performer doing various soccer moves. Check him out, and other sights from the park here:
A Pagoda:
Directly behind them
Directly behind them
