Our air conditioner and hot water system have packed it in, so after a few phone calls back and forth between our caretaker, landlord, the translating company and Daikin Air, I was told a service person would come around this afternoon so could I please stay home. OK, no problem.
At 3:00 this afternoon I get a phone call from Daikin Air. They are very busy today so they can't come until tomorrow. What time would be suitable?
Well we didn't get showers this morning, and Craig didn't have one yesterday either. So really, today would be suitable. But OK, first thing tomorrow would be great.
What time tomorrow morning?
9:00.
Until what time?
Huh? What do you mean until what time, I'll stay here as long as it takes you. How long do you expect it to take?
Maybe one hour.
OK. So 9:00 until 10:00 then. (Although I've caught on to what's really going on now... I'm in the middle of another one of those Japanese cultural experiences.)
And what other times would be suitable?
Bingo, I knew it. Sigh. In the afternoon, 1:00 is fine.
Until when?
Sigh. Any time from 1:00 is fine.
OK then. We will see you at 1:00 tomorrow. Thank you.
Well I'll say this much. At least a service person will show up at 1:00 tomorrow (which would not be guaranteed if this conversation was happening in Australia), and at least they called at 3:00 instead of 5:30. Right. I'm off to the park then.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
In the manner of a river
I recently learned of a beautiful Japanese phrase. Kawa no ji mitai -- "in the manner of a river". The wider context is kawa no ji mitai nemasu, meaning "to sleep in the manner of a river". How on earth does one sleep like a river?
Like this. The kanji for kawa (river) is:
The two outer lines represent the riverbanks and the middle line is the river itself. Sleeping in this manner refers to co-sleeping; the river is the child, the banks are the parents. Isn't that a wonderful image?
I learned of this because Craig told me about a conversation he had with one of his work colleagues. They were talking about Elliott, within the context of how often he's waking at night, and it naturally came out that Elliott's in bed with us. Craig's colleague then explained that sleeping with babies is such a common practice in Japan that they even have this phrase for it.
Curious to find out if this was true or just what one person was saying, I did a little googling. I found this article which affirms it. It's a sociology essay comparing American and Japanese infant sleeping practices and how they reflect wider values of their respective cultures. And it mentions kawa:
And then I found this blog post which says pretty much exactly the same thing as the essay, only in a much more readable form. I just think that's cool.
Like this. The kanji for kawa (river) is:
I learned of this because Craig told me about a conversation he had with one of his work colleagues. They were talking about Elliott, within the context of how often he's waking at night, and it naturally came out that Elliott's in bed with us. Craig's colleague then explained that sleeping with babies is such a common practice in Japan that they even have this phrase for it.
Curious to find out if this was true or just what one person was saying, I did a little googling. I found this article which affirms it. It's a sociology essay comparing American and Japanese infant sleeping practices and how they reflect wider values of their respective cultures. And it mentions kawa:
The Japanese... emphasize the value of dependence as the primary socializing experience. The Japanese word for a common cosleeping arrangement demonstrates this value. "The custom of the child sleeping between the parents is referred to as kawa. Kawa is the Japanese character for a river flowing between 2 banks and kawa is therefore used to refer to the child sleeping between the protective support of the 2 parents."
And then I found this blog post which says pretty much exactly the same thing as the essay, only in a much more readable form. I just think that's cool.
Monday, May 10, 2010
A day trip from Numazu to Heda
Heda is a small town on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula. It has a "real" beach, which is its main attraction, and a few other features to keep the tourists coming. A small onsen, a smattering of temples, giant crabs, a museum of... something which I forget now.
We just spent the day walking around. The first hour was spent wandering the streets, stopping to check out the outside of the onsen (boring) and watch a mother and two kids feeding koi (those gigantic goldfish) in one of the local canals. Then we walked all around the bay to the beach area and spent the rest of our time hanging around there, and walking around the head of the bay too.
Heda is an isolated place that's apparently quite difficult to get to. It's only 28km from Numazu by road, but it's a very narrow and winding road so it'll take you at least an hour and probably longer if you get stuck behind someone slow. (Apparently it takes five hours to get to from Tokyo in the peak of summer.) We went by ferry; the "White Marine" departs from the northwest end of the Numazu port, takes half an hour and costs 2000 yen one-way. So it's pricey, but has some novelty value and quite spectacular scenery along the way.
***** ***** *****
The ferry timetable is hard to find on the internet; even harder to find in English. Your best bet is probably to just head down to the ticket office at the port (the room at the end of the dinky little building across and up the road a bit from the Fishmarket Taproom and Baird Brewery), or you could probably ask at the Taproom itself, since everybody speaks English there. We took the 9:00 a.m. ferry; the next one was at 11:00 a.m., but that was the timetable for spring and summer. It varies throughout the year. Going back, we took the last ferry at 3:15 p.m.
We just spent the day walking around. The first hour was spent wandering the streets, stopping to check out the outside of the onsen (boring) and watch a mother and two kids feeding koi (those gigantic goldfish) in one of the local canals. Then we walked all around the bay to the beach area and spent the rest of our time hanging around there, and walking around the head of the bay too.
Heda is an isolated place that's apparently quite difficult to get to. It's only 28km from Numazu by road, but it's a very narrow and winding road so it'll take you at least an hour and probably longer if you get stuck behind someone slow. (Apparently it takes five hours to get to from Tokyo in the peak of summer.) We went by ferry; the "White Marine" departs from the northwest end of the Numazu port, takes half an hour and costs 2000 yen one-way. So it's pricey, but has some novelty value and quite spectacular scenery along the way.
Don't ask me how those people got to those rocks, but I think they were still there on our way back in the afternoon.
This beach gets packed out with people in summer. If it had been a clear day, you'd be able to see Mt Fuji in the background of this photo.
Cos she's a cutie.
Cos the pictures amuse me.
***** ***** *****
The ferry timetable is hard to find on the internet; even harder to find in English. Your best bet is probably to just head down to the ticket office at the port (the room at the end of the dinky little building across and up the road a bit from the Fishmarket Taproom and Baird Brewery), or you could probably ask at the Taproom itself, since everybody speaks English there. We took the 9:00 a.m. ferry; the next one was at 11:00 a.m., but that was the timetable for spring and summer. It varies throughout the year. Going back, we took the last ferry at 3:15 p.m.
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