Linguistic Skills: Japanese
For the bike I have decided that trying to use GPS whilst taking photos and attempting not to run down locals is not the smartest move. Most of the locals weigh some 50% less than me so it is not out of fear for myself. Also I have extensive experience in falling over so have a head-start on most people in a Let's Fall Together scenario.
It is because I am a Compassionate (and Worldly Wise) man.
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| Scrunchy Water Bottles as well!!! |
We obtained a Bike mount for my phone at Tokyu Hands in the Takashimaya department store above Nagoya station. The department store is some 12 floors and almost all of them have an end for Tokyu Hands. In each case Tokyu Hands mirrors what the rest of the department store is doing.
So on the Pillows and Towels floor the Tokyu Hands has pillows and towels (usually for significantly cheaper prices than the rest of the floor. I gave up trying to read the signs to find a phone mount and decided to ask the person behind the counter. We came up with Jitensha no Keitei Denwa which should mean Mobile phone for bicycle. Which I figured would get the message across. The Lady jumped on the phone and in the middle of talking to her colleague said handelu no sma-phone. Which I am guessing means Smart-phone for Handlebars. We feel bad because there are so many words which are the English words as if rendered by Basil Falty.
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| This is the first cab I caught without help from anyone in Japan. He is proud to have been part of such a moment |
After the success of the bike mount we were confident and so ordered a cab. Japan has addresses assigned by a monkey on amphetamines. There is no pattern which is useful. Most places in the vicinity of the apartment have in their address CBC (the TV building in the centre of the suburb). Also google maps generally works best with phone numbers rather than addresses. So basically we jumped in a cab, said the magic three letters followed by the suburb (just to be safe, there might be other CBC buildings and if asks a question we are kind of screwed). And we made it home.
Rating: 8.5/10 (Can pronounce two letters understandably; We are damn proud of ourselves)
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| Mobster Car! When I am good enough to commandeer that I will know I have Won at Japan |
How to get a Japanese Teacher in Nagoya:
- Go to the YWCA
- Fill in form requesting they search for a teacher ($20, if they try to charge you $40 because there are two of you they will fold when you point out it is 1 teacher being found)
- They will need to know where you want the class, we use a Komeda coffee shop. Coffee is not awesome but you can buy one and hang out all day if you wanted.
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| Chilli Dog @ Komeda. I am not American but I think they might be doing this wrong technically. It's okay though, my brain is foggy from language learning. I am a great customer in this mood. |
- First potential teacher calls, you organise fee (Should be in the realm of $25/hr + travel expenses; we pay $60 for 2 hrs total)
- If you don't like the first teacher I think they will get you a second one, if you are still unhappy they declare you a lost case and send you out into the cold cold world by yourself
As this is the YWCA the basic method probably works in most of Japan.
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| It doesn't remove the brain fog, just gives me a more normal reason for being foggy. |
Cultural Observation: English
The number of language teachers (both English and Japanese) implies a lot of people speak English to a level far beyond our Japanese. We seem to find that by butchering their language we set the bar for competence required at a level which the Japanese people we speak to no longer feel intimidated by. This has helped us immensely. If anything we are probably getting overconfident now. Be interesting to see how we are brought back down to size. Hope it's fun.
Rating: 9.5/10 (Just because we see the fall coming doesn't make the ride less fun)
Whilst at the Takashimaya towers we swung by the basement food court again. This time to try and find a place you can sit and eat. I know there must be one because the world doesn't make sense without one.
We couldn't find one. But we brought a banquet of food anyway. The world always makes more sense when you have too much interesting food.
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