Arrival and First Full Day
(March 5, 2015)

I don't plan to write a log for every day. However, the first couple of days have all the arrival, setup, and familiarization trials and tribulations so there are some things here I believe are worth noting.

Day 1 - Wednesday March 4, 2015

After an uneventul flight from Honolulu, I arrived at Chubu International Airport around 4pm (local time) Wednesday. For the last five minutes or so, the nose camera was on so we could see our approach to the airport on the cabin monitors. That was a first for me.

Going through immigration was a breeze since Japanese nationals have their own line and I'm pretty sure I was the only non-Japanese person on that 777. After I got my checked bag it was on to customs which promptly sent me on my way without my having to open any bags. Took a minute to figure out the trains to Nagoya but I eventually bought a one-way adult ticket plus a first class ticket for the "μ-SKY" (μ = Greek letter for MU) train leaving at 5:06pm. The train left on time - as expected.

30 minutes later, I was in Nagoya Station. ひさしぶり名古屋。なつかしい。 (Hisashiburi Nagoya. Natsukashii). It's been awhile since I've seen you, Nagoya. I feel nostaligic.

Spent my first night in the Daiwa Roynet Hotel Nagoya-Shinkansenguchi which, thankfully, is visible from the western side of the train station. The staff were all friendly and helpful - especially in showing me how to pay for the room. Instead of paying at the lobby counter, you pay at a kiosk off to the side. Insert your room key and then a credit card and you're done. Breakfast the next morning was good with a wide variety of items. I give the hotel high marks and would not hesitate to stay with them again.

Day 2 - Thursday March 5, 2015

A 10 minute walk from the hotel got me to Freebell Apartments. I almost missed it as the main entrance is unobtrusive. Up the stairs to the office on the second floor where I met Mariko-san and Sawako-san. Papers signed, first month payment made, and then it was time to see my apartment. I am on the top floor (14th) with a view looking East.

Mariko-san gave me a tour of the apartment and the appliances (very important since all the buttons are in Japanese!). I am in love with it already. It is narrow, cramped in places, and could use some touch-up paint here and there. It has its quirks - as anything of maturity has - including me. I will learn them all and be properly trained. Mariko-san also warned me about the low threshold at all the interior doors. This provided a good laugh as I am just tall/short enough to pass under without having to duck. If I had bigger hair, I would be in trouble.

Once left to my own devices, I took a bunch of pictures and then started unpacking.

The apartment is furnished and comes with some dining and kitchen items, towels, etc. I'll describe them in a separate post about Freebell. It doesn't have everything, of course, and I wouldn't expect it to. Having kept track of things I use frequently, especially in the kitchen, over the last several months, I have a good list of what I need to buy. And I should buy some food too.

I made up my shopping list for both kitchen supplies and food and set off. First stop, the office, to ask where to find kitchen supplies. Mariko-san told me about Tokyu Hands in the Nagoya train station (inside the Takashimaya department store) and also a local 100 yen shop, Daikoku, just a little south of the station.

I tried Tokyu Hands first but ran into trouble immediately. I wasn't exactly sure where it was and the Takashimaya department store directory did not list it. Turns out it occupies space on the 4th through 10th floors. Oh well, what I did find looked higher end and more expensive than I want for a three month stay. Onward to Daikoku 100 yen shop.

Daikoku was not a big store but it was crammed with lots of daily living sundries...and almost everything was 100 yen each. Can't beat that. Found most of what I was looking for here: measuring spoons and cups, wooden spatula, kitchen towels, hot pads and mitts, wire mesh strainer, second cutting board, vegetable peeler, kitchen scissors, and several plastic containers for holding food - microwave safe (although I prefer not to nuke plastic). Success! Back to the apartment to unload.

And then back out the door to buy food. It was getting late. I used Google Maps to find local supermarkets and it showed the one suggested by Mariko-san: Yamanaka. The suggested route said it should take about 10 minutes on foot. Off I went...and promptly headed in the wrong direction.

To be fair to Google, I was not using any audio directions, just periodically checking my location along the suggested route. I quickly corrected and off I went, again. Yamanaka is located on the other side of the tracks and there are only a few streets that cross under them. The one on my route is two lanes and has almost no shoulder. Luckily there was no traffic but it sure didn't feel safe. I kept walking and came up on a construction zone. One lane was closed and traffic guards were there to direct traffic on the remaining lane. I stood waiting for the traffic guard to give the signal to go but he looked at me with concern and pointed behind me. I wondered if he was trying to tell me to find another route but then he said "abunai" (danger) and I turned to see a car coming up to stop behind me. This street has a sidewalk on only one side and, naturally, that was the side with the construction. I had to walk in the remaining lane and keep as far left as possible to allow cars to go by. By then I was thinking I should find a different route back.

I finally arrived at my destination and saw the Yamanaka sign...but no entrance. I kept walking and turned right at the next corner, no entrance. Another right, no entrance. Only one side was left - this better be it. Okay. Google steered me wrong but it was an easy correction.

I grabbed a shopping cart near the entrance and walked in. The carts are small with two levels and the top level is just the right size to hold a plastic basket. Of course I didn't think of this at first and managed to perform a miraculous feat of engineering to keep my items from falling through the rather wide mesh of the cart. Eventually I realized I should be using a basket and successfully transfered everything to it - without dropping anything and embarrassing myself.

As this was my first time in this store, I decided to just go up every aisle in order to get a feel for what is there. (Doesn't that sound better than saying I couldn't read any of the signs above the aisles?) I found almost everything on my list and am reasonably pleased that my knowledge of kana and kanji is sufficient to get me through the basics. However, I was frustrated with one thing: teriyaki sauce. For the life of me I could not find any. I found lots of sukiyaki sauce and steak sauce and, of course, soy sauce, but just could not find teriyaki sauce - a necessary component for the dinner I had planned. I stood in that aisle for a long time deciphering labels and had to listen to a little jingle about the store's point card over and over and over and over on a nearby video monitor. The old 1970's era adage "kill your television" popped into my head but, being in Japan, I chose the pacifist approach and just moved on.

It was getting dark and my planned dinner was blown so I added a sushi bento to my cart. Good move.

I made it to the checkout counter and my total came to 10288 yen. I pulled out a big bill from my wallet and searched my pocket for change. The clerk managed to catch my attention and successfully communicate that the 1000 yen bill was not going to be enough. Eh? Oops. Well, 1000 sounds big. I exchanged it for a 10000 yen bill and all was good. Almost made it out without embarrassing myself. Almost.

The clerk expertly packed everything back into my basket and indicated that I should go to the little island a few feet away to transfer everything to my bags (he gave me two plastic ones after I asked). Two bags were just enough to fit everything except for the bag of rice. I carried that by itself - and I was really really really thankful that I only bought the 4kg bag instead of the 10kg bag because my arms were aching by the time I made it back home.

That was a full day!