| a day in the life of... soon to be "過去形 kakokei" |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|09:44 pm] |
It's a slow day at the Ish. well, okay, maybe untrue. After I met up with a teacher that I haven't seen in awhile, I went to school, fooled around making cards, and then did other errands with another teacher. (My teachers are so bdawesomely nice)
Let's talk about the post office. It's one of the places in Japan I'd like to transport in America. Find and replace. Like, okay, (some) American post offices are fine. I've met plenty of very nice post office ladies and gentlemen who take care of my mail and are cheerful and accomodating. But, it's the ones that aren't that taint the whole system. The mean ones, the ones who don't help... offer very little advice or service, do the minimum work possible and scrape by by letting the people awaiting to mail their important (or not important) items drown in their own ignorant-of-the-system sorrow.
In Japan, the bigger post offices are quite busy and may be less accomodating when it comes to like truly tedious small unnecessary things. (like one of the smaller post offices cut off the edge of all of my 15 postcards by hand... drawing a line with a ruler and measuring and making sure she didn't cut off my words or the pictures, etc. just to fit into the guidelines. amazing.)
the big post office, though, despite their business, was pretty accomodating with my sending home one box (which had to be repackaged into two boxes) of clothes and a bag of books. the bag of books is fun... you stick it in a sack. like santa claus.
like, they will tell you the exact prices of things... you can ask how much is each method (Boat, SAL, or AIR or EMS), and then choose what you want. basically, it's just amazing. and the lines are never like deathly long as they often are in some parts of america. (omg like that 57th Street post office. I go in there and walk in and walk out.. not b/c I finished but b/c I see the line and don't even want to spend my whole meager lunch time standing in a line...)
Anyway, yeah, post offices are great.
Then, I spent the greater part of what was left of the night eating a hamburger at the equivalent of an American diner (@ Gusto Burger) and then browsed through the chilren section of the library. I read a bunch of kid's books... a lot of them are about ghosts/demons. The kids' books make them seem pretty innocuous and more fun and unique than harmful. But, I'm not sure if it's just b/c they're childrens' books. I know at least for kappa, which I don't think counts as an obake really, but kappa were included in some of the books... they are depicted as cute in some instances and scary and nasty looking in others. so, i guess it really depends. and japan can make any wretched thing look cute.
i also read a book about broad beans. well a personified broad bean and his friends... the green peas, dandelion, snow peas, and peanuts.
green peas and greenpeace is the same word in japanese, btw. this was really confusing when i was talking to a japanese friend like a couple of weeks back.
i was walking back home in the dark. it was beautiful. crickets and a few frogs in the far background. the wind picking up a bit and striking a nice breeze, the lamplights casting shadows, the railroad tracks stretching out forever. i can't imagine living somewhere where i'll need a car to get around. somewhere where we aren't subjected by constant beauty... okay, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic. but, walking around and biking really makes you more subject to nature's temperamental flights. |
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