Bolstering the Ranks

I mentioned to a lot of people last week that I'd had a very long Sunday, not to say it was a bad long, just a busy long, one much more strung from one event to the next than any Sunday I ever participated in anywhere else.
A lot of this is my fault for attending 6 hours of church that day.
It's quite normal to hear complaints about the length of even a 3 hour block of Sacrament meeting and then instruction. I've grumbled quietly to myself on the topic more than once. It was not one of those days.
It's a slightly odd building as church buildings go, but when you're dealing with property in Shibuya, really just about anything is amazing. 6 floors of it, from basement on up. Everything feels less spread out, there's a efficiency to the space that really lends itself to a comforting, familiarizing atmosphere. As a space where you cannot remain isolated for long. My first thoughts were of the building I grew up meeting in, but even that was spacious comparatively. Not that it fit more people, or had more square footage, no, It's more a matter of the hallways and walkways. In this building, two people cannot pass without interfacing, for to do so would result in a collision. I'll spare all of you the play by play of the layout.
It was a buoyant experience. From the moment I gave an introduction to myself and mentioned why I've come to Japan I was met with encouragement. I'm particularly fond of the comment an older gentleman made on the spot. Translates roughly to 'Somebody help this man get a job!' I'm sure it's mostly to do with my own predilection, but I felt very comfortable, like with this simple and honest phrase I'd come somewhere that could be so much more than just a stop along a way. And that's how my time from 9am until a little after 4pm continued. Very relaxing... refreshing. I received an invitation to a get together that night and thought momentarily about it. Normally I'm quite reserved over such matters, I would hesitate to intrude on nearly any invitation, but for some reason, and I'm not certain why, I went for it, as troublesome as making it there in time would be. The meetup was in 2 hours. Now normally, that amount of time would allow for a lot to be done in it, but this... oh no, this is japan, and I am pedestrian! Taking the trains home would eat up about 35 minutes including the walk from the station. With a quick change of clothes and checking a map for where the station is I'd be meeting people... but I digress.. the real clinch in the situation was I had not eaten yet. At all. I estimated I had about 20 minutes for food. And with no instant food at home from poor planning on that part... okay, i had some very bad tasting great value curry noodle cups... they taste somewhat like eating salted styrofoam, not that I know that flavor intimately.. I'm severely tempted to be rid of them without eating. I digress again. I popped off to a local nagasaki-style shop, they've got a very good tasting fried rice, some excellent donburi (meat and veggies over rice) and some noodle dishes too, and I get a gyoza meal. I cram it down as fast as I can manage without making an utter mess. Even speed walking at all this and I still didn't manage to make the meeting location in time. Thank goodness for pay phones.
One more thing. someone may remember I had a picture of shibuya crossing on my desktop for a while, well here's my parting image. I attempted to get something similar with a 1 second exposure. Wow things wash out quick. I've got to figure more out about this camera. By the by, this was taken around 11pm. This doesn't really capture how busy the place was even then. I'll try again soon.

Scouting out new territory.

These walks I've been going on have been getting more and more expansive. It's not that I'm walking to extraordinarily distant locations, no, no that's not it at all, in fact, if I compare my walks to those my father takes daily they're probably hardly anything to mention, although I haven't marked any sort of distance at all. I just walk and wander and see and stop and look... well, there is a process generally. I think I'll try to talk about that in context of my walk today. Because today was an extraordinarily typical walk for me.

I started out with a very clear goal of where I need to go and what I need to accomplish with this walk. But I hardly make a beeline to my goal. The normal Japanese person, in attemptingwhat I did, would have instead taken a train or two and a short walk. What I did instead was take a look at a map, looked at it in terms of larger locations, landmarks, etc that would aid in navigation, then set out. My first stop was a bread store I've stopped at a number of times now, they have delicious breads, and it makes a good walking breakfast. I eat one of them immediately and set out in the general direction of my destination, which today happened to be shimo-kitazawa. I need an alien registration card so I can get a cellphone among other things.

Oh, mosquito... it's so tiny... and trying to snack on my thumb. Squish. This reminds me of another topic I need to address sometime.. the japanese and spiders. Look forward to it.

So, back to topic, I actually took the first leg of my walking trip to Shibuya the other day. From there I started walking up a large road. It wasn't long before I came across an expansive Japanese wall surrounding a grounds containing a building with a traditional style roof. I immediately diverted from my path to investigate. It was a Buddhist temple, one undergoing some renovation, so I didn't take any pictures, I stood and read about a canal that had been developed and turned into an underground canal at the location and moved on. Perhaps a few times on any given walk I'll come across something like this that catches my eye, or I look down a tiny street cluttered with shops and suddenly divert down to take a look. Doing things like this has made my walks about Setagaya-ku and beyond quite entertaining. Now, another part of all this comes when I'm done in one particular diversion. About at the part where I get to the other side of that shopping district and take a guess as to which way it is to my destination. It's a fun way to find new routes. Today was especially so because of what I did after I reached kitazawa's town hall.

As it turns out, that's not the place I need to go to get my registration card initially. I really had to go to another place.. that's a couple blocks away from my apartment. One that now that it's been pointed out to me, I realize I've passed by it once or twice before. Heh heh.. he... hehhehhehheh...

But that's just the start! I walked out and went down a couple of the young people's shimo-kitazawa town. (that's literally what's marked on a map I saw.. I should've taken a picture)

There's.. too much to even start on. It's like a huge outdoor shopping zone. I passed by at least 8 bookstores, I stopped into a record shop where this guy behind the counter started djing a bit (have you seen the record shop in Faking it where the cellist becomes a dj? Amazing how the record store looked so similar. Or maybe I'm remembering a different televised record store. So much vinyl.)

The streets there are so random it's hard to keep a solid bead on direction in the middle of the day... I exited the street with a clear understanding of how to return the way I came, but my directions had been moved 90 degrees. I started walking in the direction of my next objective, and you can imagine my surprise when I started walking on a particular street... and recognized it from my walk to shibuya after about a block! I turned off it immediately after.

I found a very nice park in that wandering that I had to stop in, I read a chapter of a book on a bench and walked around, it's a nice park. But then we come to where I am now.

That's right. 東大 - TouDai. (Tokyo University, one of the most, if not the most prestigious university in Japan) And what's the first thing to happen on the campus of this prestigious and beautiful campus? I'm asked if I'm a teacher. Hold on a minute while I process this. In fact, the rest of this will just have to wait for the end of my walk.

I love my netbook. So convenient for just sitting and writing anywhere. I've gotten a suggestion from my good friend Jeff tonight that perhaps I should attempt to seek employ at TouDai. I hesitate, but perhaps if they had something available. There certainly was delicious peach drink at the co-op store... yum.

No more job responses today, but I feel confident that once I can get an interview, I can get a job.

The appetite for battle

I should bring my camera with me at all times, I really should. Instead of pictures of the church I'll be attending, this week has a night shot from my window, looked pretty so I tried to capture it. I obviously need more practice.. and a tripod, I discovered some lens features I didn't know this thing has... I keep liking this little Canon SD870IS more and more every time I use it.
I've mentioned to a few of you that I've been losing weight, about 15kg overall since I came to Japan, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 33 pounds. This is not a difficult task though.. I'd gotten quite heavy before I left. This is easily seen in the recent pictures of me on facebook. What does all this mean? Well, for one, when I got up to go to church today, I put on a pair of slacks that's always been rather tight in the waist (This is being very generous, if I didn't tighten my belt, I was quite sure the button would pop off of them)... and they fit like they were designed to. Easily clasped, not extraordinarily loose or tight... just fit. Now if I could only say the same thing for my neck.. that at least still seems to be trunk-like and massive. Though, that shirt I was wearing was short in the arms as well, it might be an improper fit.
This was my nice discovery for the morning. Right up until I arrived at the designated meeting time at the meeting place for church... and nobody was there. The building was locked up. I need to make contact.. I've got phone numbers, it's just late now, I'll do it tomorrow, during the holiday, maybe something is going on.
And now, a moment of humor. There are lots of comments about how 'big' I am in Japan. This is very true, I haven't taken any pictures of crowds or anything yet, but I certainly have taken a couple at dwellings and hotels. Here's proof positive that I am, indeed, huge in Japan. Hrothgar at the door of one of the hotels he stayed in.

Beating paths

I walked out my front door today with a mission, pay the rent. I can hardly believe I've been in Japan for over a month now. What has been accomplished? What do I have to show for it? I'm glad I can answer that question.
For the most part, my 'productive' moments have been in the mornings. I get up and search job listings. Occasionally I unearth yet another website I can use to search from, but as yet I've only applied to specific translation jobs. Today changes all that. From the applications I've sent out, I've only received one response, and that response to tell me that they're not hiring anymore, but they'll keep my information for potential freelance work. Admittedly that's had me a bit down. But I'm clenching my fists and stamping my foot, I've found an English editing position and a techie job to apply for, but regrettably I've squandered the evening writing a short story. It's almost 1am now, I'll have to postpone the actual application to tomorrow, or rather, when I wake up later today.
It's been a heartening day, if a bit wearing overall. Like I said, I set out to Shinjuku today, which is normally a 20 minute walk and a couple train rides. I decided to cut one of the train rides out somewhat randomly. It's a lot longer walking to Shibuya than I thought. The bread I bought myself at the start of my walk was long gone before I even crossed this shrine, the namesake of this area Shoin Jinja-mae (Meaning in front of Shoin Shrine) I've linked it's website in english. Interesting little story there. By the time I'd made it to Shibuya, I was feeling that prickling tingling sensation of skin separating, forming a blister on each foot. I'm getting quite familiar with this sensation. I may need to find some walking shoes for all of it I do around here.
... Also.. my internet is being exceptionally slow tonight. Picture uploads are not supposed to take this long in the post-dialup era.
I've been impressed with the positive attitude and helpfulness of my landlords, paying my rent today, the guy I was dealing with took an interest in how things were going, how's the job search... etc etc. He directed me to a job agency locally and was pretty surprised at the lack of response I've gotten because 'you can speak Japanese.' We talked a bit about freelancing, which is how a lot of people residing at sakura house have done jobs while attending school and such. Anyhow, with forming blisters I took my leave and went to find this job agency.
I went, following the directions I'd been given.. but for all my searching (and another couple kilometers of walking) I found korea town... but no job agency. Here's another picture, not of that area, but of a shopping district near my apartment. I either passed right by it, or didn't go far enough. This is easy to do.. as I'm scanning signs, it's not just street level, there's little signs everywhere, pointing to businesses on different floors, advertisements for everything... and try as I might, scanning the signs did not yield what I was looking for. The positive here is I recognized the name of the place, I'd seen one in Shibuya a week ago. I'm going to find an address and go there in person as soon as I can.