Where's Ron?
Japan, 1 December 2015 - 24 February 2016
Ron near Rotarua, NZ, January 2015
Arrival and First Days in Fukuoka
7 December 2015
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
Below is the first report from Ron in Fukuoka, where he seems to be doing well. I've talked to him twice on the phone (using his US Skype number).
His experiences are interesting, but I'm not the lest bit envious, and am happy to be at home carrying on with my usual activities!
Love to all,
Ellen
Arrival and First Days in Fukuoka
7 December 2015
Fukuoka, JapanHello, my dear,
My arrival and first days in Fukuoka.
My seat on left side of the airplane was the aisle seat of three, and the middle seat was empty, so it was comfortable and the journey, direct from Dulles to Tokyo did not seem long. My seatmate was a young lady from the DC area, 23, a University of Virginia graduate, Korean, and clearly motivated and directed, with her own IT company. Perhaps the interesting conversation between naps made the time go fast.
Waking up at 3:45 Tuesday Dec 1 for the 6:15 flight which ended with my flight arriving in Fukuoka at 8:10 PM on Dec 2 meant that I lost a day. It feels strange to be living 14 hours earlier than back home. I have always enjoyed being "ahead" and now I really am. So while I am writing this early Monday afternoon you will have just gone to bed Sunday night. So I can tell you about what happened on Monday while you are eating your Monday breakfast.
After all the planning I had done for communications - when I arrived it all failed. I was to call Mai, the lady who represented the AirBnB apartment owner, from the airport before catching the train to Hakata Station, two stops from the airport, and she would meet me. However, the free WiFi in the airport would not work for me, and without WiFi nothing worked - no google map, no skype phone, no way to communicate. When I got off the train, after trying to figure out at which entrance I was to meet her, I decided to walk to the apartment, which in advance I had already done on Google street view and I had a print out of the map. Not easy to follow and crossed a couple of bridges south of the one I was looking for, but found my apartment, but of course had no key. Nearby there was a hair salon which had no customers at the moment and a guy and a very young woman with almost no English, helped me. They had Wifi in the shop but of course did not know the password since they used their phones. The guy finally made contact with Mai and she arrived shortly to let me in and give me lessons on the use of the electronic equipment in the apartment.
First there was the portable WiFi which would go into my pocket. She had to call for the password but later I found it on a publication for the guests. But a day or so later, when I was carrying it around in my pocket, it went dead when the battery ran out. And when I plugged it in and the charge had reached over 50% and none of my equipment could see the signal, I was without communications again until by pure luck I held down one of the buttons too long and that was how you started the WiFi. Little missing detail.
The kitchen has an electric stove with two burners under the surface. The next day I tried to make tea and boiled eggs and could not get the stove to work. But I did get water to boil in the kettle. It turned out the stove had some kind of sensor for a metal pot on the burner, and if there was no metal pot, the burner would turn off. So a couple of nights later I found a new frying pan and a new pot, with lid which I had requested, hanging on my doorknob. There is a microwave on top of a small icebox as well as a small sink between the ice box and the stove.
The more complicated electronics were in the bathroom. A panel for hot water heater, and while I can understand how to turn up the temperature, there are some other buttons that I have no idea what they control. And when I turned up the temp above the 39 degree C which it was set for, or if I turned it down later, it speaks to me in Japanese. Talking thermostat - no translation yet... But it is the toilet which is really the amazing electronic appliance, which reminds me of the French toilet, bidet which washes your bottom instead of using toilet paper. In this case there was a choice of settings for back or front and also for a more diffuse spray or a very focused spray like a hose nozzle. Then the panel cover would fold down and temperature setting for the spray as well the seat were exposed. A couple of other buttons provided an increased or decreased flow for the spray. Needless to say the flush was automatic when one got up. There are some other controls I have not yet figured out. I must say, this is a very important appliance that I have learned to like and would like to have one at home. Beats toilet paper, although I find the toilet paper useful for drying.
The door to the apartment has an upper and lower keyed deadbolt and both seem to be used.
Coming into the building there is a heavy metal door leading to a small vestibule, with some larger post office type boxes and a locked door to the second room which is longer, with most of the apartment mailboxes, subdued classical music playing (nice selection) and a short hall to the elevator. The room walls are painted black and the lighting for the space is indirect. A very pleasant, secure and private entrance. I have met only a couple of people in my coming and going - there was no eye contact or anything spoken.
There are plastic bags with different colored writing on them: Blue for not-burnable (glass and batteries are the only things I know of), Yellow for plastic (I think this is recyclable plastics but not sure. The Red is for burnable, and I understand that includes what I would call compost (food scraps) and paper products. I am not yet clear on plastic wrap, thin food containers, those containers that are made of some kind of composite or plastic and paper - are these burnable or recyclable? Then there is the schedule for which color bag for which day. The bags goes out to a locked shed, which is unlocked according to the schedule. twice a week for the burnable, once a month for the recyclable and once a month for the non-burnable, all on different weeks and days.
Coming in the apartment's front door there is a closet on the left, and a small room with a clothes washing machine which works fine. Next on the left is the kitchen area and on the right the bathroom, with a little room to the left from the bathroom containing a shower and a a very large tub. The shower can be used without being in the tub and the floor drains to the corner.
My one multi-use room is small, contains a long low table on one side with a large screen TV with 8 channels. I bought a HDMI cable and hope to figure out how to hook up my computer to the TV. In the middle of the room is a large low level table for sitting around. On the side across from the TV is a bed that I can sit on and type on the computer, if I can figure out what to do with my knees and legs. On the outside, opposite the entrance, is a low couch, made up of two parts. By sliding open the glass door and stepping over the couch I can get on the small outside covered porch containing the only chairs and a low round table, and a place for a clothes line which I always carry with me as well a bunch of clothes pins for this trip.
The view is interesting - looking over the river to the other side where the Canal Shopping Center and the Grand Hyatt are located makes for an interesting view during the day and night. I wandered across the bridge and into the large shopping area and found an information desk which has steered me to the correct store for what I was looking for: clothes hangers (there were only two in the room), groceries and told me of a 9 story electronic sales store on the other side of Hakata Station which was quite a place.
In the grocery store I found packaged sushi, some fried breaded fish, tea, lemons and limes, bananas, a small salt bottle, sugar and water. The water was the most complicated. I watched a guy put a gallon plastic water bottle in a machine to be washed then into another machine to be filled. Later I found someone to explain how it works but he could not speak English. He showed me where to buy the bottles, and when I went through the check out line with my two bottles and my groceries, there was a lot of conversation which I could not understand, but another guy showed me I had to package up my groceries and follow him to the machine. Waited and he returned with something like a credit card, showed me how to use it to get the second machine to open its door and select the correct setting for a gallon. I don't understand it, but is is some kind of health promotion and the limit is one gallon (~4 liters) a day, but somehow the first day I got two. I think the credit card keeps track per day and I paid something like a quarter for the card and nothing for the water but had to buy the two gallon bottles - bottled water was very expensive. So when one is empty I refill.
At the airport I found an ATM and the next day at Hakata Station I found a place to change currency (including a 24/7 machine where foreign currency is inserted and Japanese Yen provided out. I found it curious that the ATM, even with a $4 fee, provided a better rate (about 1+%) than the money machine.
My real estate lady agreed to meet me one evening at a pub, but when I arrived she took me down the street to a restaurant full of only locals and ordered dinner: raw fish. This long board arrived with several different kinds of fish - I can remember flounder, shrimp, mackerel, and tuna. There were probably 4 others I have no name for. Then there was something else served in a weird looking shell. Watching her eat the tail which looked like intestines I was most amazed. I had no desire to join her in eating that part of whatever animal it was. The last dish was the only item cooked: Scallops, nothing like any scallops I have ever eaten and better. We also had a glass of saki, rice wine, which I liked. It was served in a glass which was sitting in square container with about 3/4 inch of saki in the bottom. When our glasses were low enough, we poured the saki from the square bowl into our glass. She explained the square bowl was the old fashioned way yielding to the current glass. So a compromise to keep the old. The bill was about $64 and she wanted to go Dutch.
This afternoon as I was sitting in my room writing this report, there was a lot of dragging of furniture and loud walking around over my head. My elevator only goes to my floor, #7, so I thought I must be on the top. I wandered around and found the elevator on the other side of the building that goes to floors 2, 3 and 8. I got off on the top and found myself in a very nice restaurant. The manager gave me a nice tour, with tables overlooking the same view I have from my balcony and explained they cooked the meal right in front of the people who ordered. There were long tables with a sort of place to prepare and cook between the seated guests and the view of the Canal, Canal City and the Grand Hyatt. The menu ran between 15K and 18K Yen, roughly $120-$145. I think I will eat from my balcony.
Last night I was near a park and noticed some some young people with some lights they were swinging around, so I went over and watched. They were taking turns swinging lights in their hands like a fight dance. After a while one of them who was not dancing came over and started talking to me. He said the others were in high school and he and his friend were in college and also have a band. He is the singer and the other guy was the drummer. So maybe there is a band story in the future.
Then I walked in a doughnut shop that had a sign advertising 100 yen doughnuts and I was ready for dessert. I sat down at an empty table between two that were occupied and had not paid much attention to who was sitting there, when I realized I was being addressed by what turned out to be 6 middle age women from Tokyo who had flown to Fukuoka for an overnight visit to have a dinner of eel and squid, both of which Fukuoka is famous for. The one lady was asking if I was available and pointing out the four who were married and the two who were "available" with a lot of laughter and question about why I picked Fukuoka. Obviously for different reasons than them, since I have no desire to eat eel, but perhaps I should. Like chicken?
There are others I have met, and if they return to the picture I will include them in future stories.
I must also share an early observation about bicyclists here. They ride on the sidewalk, very busy side walks, most do not have lights. One late night further from the center I saw some bicyclists riding on the road - but not right in traffic. I understand they should ride on the road but prefer not to. More as I find out more.
So - logistics, communications, money, raw fish and an a eel story. If you or any of my readers have any questions about Japan, let me know. Stay tuned, I think I am going to like this trip but may go broke.
Love and miss you,
Ron
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Last updated: 23 January 2016
