6 months later and i've got hot water
well it's grey and raining today but it's 8 degrees and that makes me happy. yesterday it was something like 12 and it just felt so great...why do i come from canada and why do i live in niigata ken? i want to befriend some of the hawaiians, australians and south african's here so i can keep my options open for the future. lopaka? how's it going? (wink wink). ryan buddy...
anyway
when mum and bob were here in august, i remember that mum was complaining about the lack of hot water. it was luke-warm to warm, but never hot (which wasn't a real problem when it was 30+ degrees outside). but i actually haven't had piping hot water since then either...which is pretty crappy when i come home from skiing or being outside in the cold and wet...enter into a freezing apartment and turn on the shower to warm up but it's never hotter than 'warmish'. the kind where it doesn't warm you up from the inside enough...and you still have goosebumps while submerged. it's my own fault that i have never gotten it taken care of...but you see when you live in a country where no one speaks english and i could certainly not communicate "gas/hot water problems" to the gas-guy...these little pesky problems turn into so much more. anyway, i FINALLY got it taken care of this week...turns out some parts needed to be replaced or whatever. and now i've burned myself several times because i'm not used to having hot water.
in other headline news...
my condolences to those prefectural ALTs who wanted to stay last year and are no longer able to. just remember...the inaka is never really the inaka in this country. all you have to do is walk through a rice field before you hit the first 7-11. as i mentioned to iwan, it's not like you'll be living somewhere like wawa ontario where the nearest city is a 6-hour drive... but still. it must be a pain to have to be uprooted like that, changing schools and students and apartments and friends. hell i can see why everyone's sacking it in and moving to osaka or tokyo. (KAT DON'T DO IT...DON'T LEAVE ME...!)
and, in more exciting matters...
four weeks tomorrow i'll be on a plane. headed to the land of tim hortins bagels, 24 hour diners, blue skies, open spaces, TREES, lakes, nature, julia, rachel, esther, sarah, andrew, matty, meg, FAMILY, a new niece!!!, shopping, backyards, front lawns, pretty buildings, CENTRAL HEATING, normal-tasting milk, english speakers/radio/tv/signs, provincial parks, cottages, tall, good looking boys (well, SOME...andrew and matty included of course!), big cities, MULTICULTURALISM.....!!! _______________________________________________________________ tsutaya video store sucks. there are two tsutaya's in shibata. both are about a 10-15 minute drive from my apartment. i had some overdue movies the other day and went to return them, only to realize i didn't have enough cash on me to pay the late fines (and since INTERAC doesn't exist here...). what happened??? i wasn't allowed to RETURN the movies!!! the tsutaya guy did that teeth-sucking thing, and kept pointing to the total (Y12,60) and i was like, 'gomen, i don't have it'. and he sucked his teeth some more and looked sooooooooooooooooooo uncomfortable, and then finally he told me that i wasn't able to RETURN the movies without paying for them. and i was all like 'honto ni????' (are you fucking kidding me???) in the end i was allowed to return TWO, but not the third because i was Y60 short to pay the late fines. so i had to keep the video another day before i was able to get to an ATM, and then drive back across town to return the damn thing, another day of late-fines added on. BOYCOTT TSUTAYA! (tho...what on earth would we do then???) _________________________________________________________
this weekend is the tokamachi snow festival. we'll be driving down saturday afternoon for the festivities saturday evening. then there's a snow-volleyball tournament on sunday which we may-or-may-not be involved in. following this weekend, the next 3 weekends i'll be somewhere different in the ken, keeping busy with musical performances (NAGAOKA, JOETSU, TOKAMACHI AND SADO FOR THOSE WHO ARE COMING!!!) then i'm OFF HOME for 3 WHOLE WEEKS... but when i get back it'll be spring, cherry blossom season, sake-drinking in the park under the sakura, warm breezes, green starting to come out on the mountains, bike rides...road trips... i'm going to make the most out of the spring this year. i'm planning a weekend in tokyo shortly after my arrival back in nippon...let's go photograph those harajuku girls.
anyway
when mum and bob were here in august, i remember that mum was complaining about the lack of hot water. it was luke-warm to warm, but never hot (which wasn't a real problem when it was 30+ degrees outside). but i actually haven't had piping hot water since then either...which is pretty crappy when i come home from skiing or being outside in the cold and wet...enter into a freezing apartment and turn on the shower to warm up but it's never hotter than 'warmish'. the kind where it doesn't warm you up from the inside enough...and you still have goosebumps while submerged. it's my own fault that i have never gotten it taken care of...but you see when you live in a country where no one speaks english and i could certainly not communicate "gas/hot water problems" to the gas-guy...these little pesky problems turn into so much more. anyway, i FINALLY got it taken care of this week...turns out some parts needed to be replaced or whatever. and now i've burned myself several times because i'm not used to having hot water.
in other headline news...
my condolences to those prefectural ALTs who wanted to stay last year and are no longer able to. just remember...the inaka is never really the inaka in this country. all you have to do is walk through a rice field before you hit the first 7-11. as i mentioned to iwan, it's not like you'll be living somewhere like wawa ontario where the nearest city is a 6-hour drive... but still. it must be a pain to have to be uprooted like that, changing schools and students and apartments and friends. hell i can see why everyone's sacking it in and moving to osaka or tokyo. (KAT DON'T DO IT...DON'T LEAVE ME...!)
and, in more exciting matters...
four weeks tomorrow i'll be on a plane. headed to the land of tim hortins bagels, 24 hour diners, blue skies, open spaces, TREES, lakes, nature, julia, rachel, esther, sarah, andrew, matty, meg, FAMILY, a new niece!!!, shopping, backyards, front lawns, pretty buildings, CENTRAL HEATING, normal-tasting milk, english speakers/radio/tv/signs, provincial parks, cottages, tall, good looking boys (well, SOME...andrew and matty included of course!), big cities, MULTICULTURALISM.....!!! _______________________________________________________________ tsutaya video store sucks. there are two tsutaya's in shibata. both are about a 10-15 minute drive from my apartment. i had some overdue movies the other day and went to return them, only to realize i didn't have enough cash on me to pay the late fines (and since INTERAC doesn't exist here...). what happened??? i wasn't allowed to RETURN the movies!!! the tsutaya guy did that teeth-sucking thing, and kept pointing to the total (Y12,60) and i was like, 'gomen, i don't have it'. and he sucked his teeth some more and looked sooooooooooooooooooo uncomfortable, and then finally he told me that i wasn't able to RETURN the movies without paying for them. and i was all like 'honto ni????' (are you fucking kidding me???) in the end i was allowed to return TWO, but not the third because i was Y60 short to pay the late fines. so i had to keep the video another day before i was able to get to an ATM, and then drive back across town to return the damn thing, another day of late-fines added on. BOYCOTT TSUTAYA! (tho...what on earth would we do then???) _________________________________________________________
this weekend is the tokamachi snow festival. we'll be driving down saturday afternoon for the festivities saturday evening. then there's a snow-volleyball tournament on sunday which we may-or-may-not be involved in. following this weekend, the next 3 weekends i'll be somewhere different in the ken, keeping busy with musical performances (NAGAOKA, JOETSU, TOKAMACHI AND SADO FOR THOSE WHO ARE COMING!!!) then i'm OFF HOME for 3 WHOLE WEEKS... but when i get back it'll be spring, cherry blossom season, sake-drinking in the park under the sakura, warm breezes, green starting to come out on the mountains, bike rides...road trips... i'm going to make the most out of the spring this year. i'm planning a weekend in tokyo shortly after my arrival back in nippon...let's go photograph those harajuku girls.
posted by Justine at 9:44 p.m.
3 Comments:
THESE WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO COME OUT AS 3 HUGE PARAGRAPH'S...
BLOGGER IS REALLY PISSING ME OFF THESE DAYS...
do you still have snow?
love the pics. i am beginning to feel like i was never really there, as if it was just a dream... the pictures remind me that it was real.
the snow is almost gone...
but it will come back.
was it like a good dream or a bad dream?
thanks again for everything nat xo
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