The Picture Extravaganza

   First, I'd like to point out that I made two backdated posts that I wrote at home, before I had internet access here at school. You can read about my first night in Fujimi and the disaster that was my school introduction.

   Someone asked me to take more pictures, so I did, last Friday. It was dark and I was using my cell phone, so the pictures are less than stellar, but here they are.

   This is actually the first cow I've ever seen in Japan. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, so cows, horses, and fields upon fields of corn were a large part of the local scenery as a kid. None of those really seem to exist in this part of Japan, so I was surprised when I saw one cow in a tiny pasture.

   I pass this guy on my way to and from the junior high, though he wasn't out today. I guess the rain was too much for him.



   I tried to take a picture looking back up the slope from the pasture, but it didn't work out so well since the school is so far back that you can't see it. The houses you can see are relatively new; I wonder how many students live there, since they're all right next to the school.



   After a few minutes of walking, I reach the other large intersection in town (the one that doesn't have the 7&i). This intersection is ridiculously large for the amount of traffic that comes through it -- very little. Like I said in the previous post, though, I guess it must help relieve late-night trucker congestion... or something.

   This picture looks down the road away from my apartment; there's a noodle shop (not ramen) that I'll probably try sometime when I have some more money. The post office is about a 25-minute walk in this direction.



   The same intersection, but looking in the other direction, toward my apartment. The square white sign in the background is for Komeri, the home improvement/hardware store. I turn just before it to get to my apartment.

   In the foreground is the large gas station; I want to say that it hadn't even been opened yet when I moved in, but I'm not entirely sure. It looks new, though.

   One of the weird things about this gas station is that they have people standing outside by the road waving checkered flags -- you can barely see some of them in this picture -- and shouting greetings at passing cars. I also saw them this morning, standing out there in the rain (albeit with raincoats).

   Gas stations here tend to not be self-service in my experience. At some of them, a guy stands out by the entrance and then runs up to the pump with your car; at others, you pull up yourself and then a guy comes out. Either way, the guy does the gas and wipes down your car for you.

   It's also worth pointing out that the gas stations themselves are different; you pay the guy, or if it's self-service, you pump your gas and pay at the pump. In America, gas stations tend to be larger, with some food, magazines, cigarettes, and other things that drivers might want on the road.

   Here, they're basically just shacks with some maps, a register/desk, and perhaps a drink vending machine.

   Convenience stores fill the niche that American gas stations fill... and they're open longer! Every single minute of every single hour of every single day of the year. It's weird to have things split up like that, but I guess it makes sense when you consider that Japanese people aren't on the road as much and the whole of Japan is only about the size of California.



   After I turn off the main road, there's a small branch road that leads to some homes and my apartment building. This is probably four-fifths of the way down that branch road, looking toward my apartment building, which you can see in the middle. I meant to get some pictures of all of the fields around it, but it was a bit dark, so I'll have to do that some morning.

   There are a LOT of dogs in this area, I guess because it's so open. Every morning (and evening), without fail, every dog in every house along that road starts barking at me as I walk by. I'm used to it now, but it was a little unnerving at first.

   Hopefully they'll get used to me.

   Speaking of the dogs, a lot of people with houses here also seem to have small yards where they keep the dogs. Houses in Japan are generally surrounded by shoulder-high stone walls with gates, so the dogs seem to get the run of the lawn. I've seen a few retrievers and one German Shepherd here, and they're all huge by Japanese standards.

   I suppose the "yards" make owners feel better about having a large dog, rather than some miniature breed... I certainly didn't see this many large dogs down in the city!

   Speaking of the city...



   I went down to the city the other day to meet my replacement and show her around. While I was going to meet her, I took this picture on the large bridge near my old apartment -- it was my favorite view, since it shows the river, cherry trees, and mountains. It's a lot more impressive in real life because you get a feel for the scale of the city.

   The weather was great in the morning, too, with some nice, full clouds that added a real sense of depth to the sky.

   My replacement, whose name is Judy, needed a bit of help getting around and finding things, but once we finished that, we headed out to the most important errand we had.

   Lunch!



   We went to Mos Burger, which is a fast food chain that I love. It has amazing fried chicken, good burgers, and fantastic french fries. Absolutely fantastic fries -- the best I've ever had in Japan, and probably among the best I've ever had in my life.

   They're thick-cut, like the ones you can get at Wendy's and Roy Rogers, but they're also fried when you order, so they're nice and fresh. They cook them just long enough that the outside is firm and the corners crispy, but short enough that the inside is moist and soft.

   I love them.

   Judy got a karubi burger, which is thin-sliced beef grilled with sauce served on a "bun" made of rice fried into a patty. I was tempted, but I got a Japanese-style hamburger and a normal hot dog.

   Obviously, the picture shows her karubi burger. Looks good, huh.

   To wrap things up, I took two pictures at school today for the curious.



   Every entrance to the school has tons of shoeboxes for the students; this is the main entrance, used by visitors and staff, so the boxes are a little nicer -- made of metal and with doors/nameplates. Mine doesn't have a nameplate yet and I wonder if it ever will.

   The boxes on the left are for teachers and staff, the boxes on the right are for teachers and visitors. Everyone has a special pair of shoes used only in the school; some teachers wear sneakers or sandals, some wear nicer-looking shoes.

   Visitors get cheap plastic slippers.

   There are platforms with wooden slats in front of the shoeboxes instead of mats; the idea is that dirt and water will fall off of your outdoor shoes and then onto or through those platforms. Students can then just sweep all of the debris out the door at cleaning time!

   It's pretty simple and seems to work.

   Note the sliding door... there are a lot more sliding doors in schools than there are regular doors. I have to admit, it makes a certain amount of sense since a sliding door only needs the space it occupies to open, whereas a normal door needs the space it occupies plus a quarter of a circle in a given direction.



   Finally, the teachers' room. This is where I spend all of my non-class time, and since classes haven't started yet, this is where I've been spending my entire day.

   This is the view from the back of the teachers' room. The desks are arranged into three "islands" arranged by class year. Even teachers without a homeroom are assigned to a given class year. The ones in the foreground are for first-year teachers, the ones to the left are for third-year teachers, and the ones to the right are for second-year teachers. I'm in the second-year island, toward the front of the room.

   The front of the room has a row of desk for administrators and the secretary, and the principal has a desk too, though it's only nominally his desk. It's usually used for holding papers and folders, since behind his desk is the door leading to his office, with his real desk. You can see the door just next to the TV.

   I've been to probably a dozen schools or so for various reasons and the teachers' rooms have all been like this, with minor variations in details. The Japanese offices that I've seen have also been like this, though I don't really know how they organize the islands.

   It's kind of weird, having so many people constantly walking around...

   I should also point out that they move ALL of the desks around EVERY April. April marks the beginning of the new school year, so teachers are assigned to different grades, which means they have to go to different islands... and rather than just move their stuff, they move their desks. It's a pain, but I guess it gives them a chance to do some spring cleaning.