I successfully completed one full week living in Funehiki. Whew!
Proficient in buying groceries, asking for directions, and ordering ramen, I can get around town when I need to.
Before I arrived in Funehiki one of the finishing teachers put her bike up for sale. I grabbed it for $50. I quickly found that the tires needed to be pumped up so I borrowed a pump and learned a lesson about Japanese bike tires. Unfortunately, before I could ride it my tires went flat again :( So, I think today I'm going to a new store "Daiyou 8" to pick up a pair. Yesterday was my first day in Koriyama, the small city about 20 miles to the west. Interestingly, even though it is further from the reactor plant and further from the epicenter of the earthquake, Koriyama's buildings sustained more damage and detect more radiation in the air compared to Funehiki. This is due to the density of bedrock and wind direction...sadly ill-favoring Koriyama's residents.
Proficient in buying groceries, asking for directions, and ordering ramen, I can get around town when I need to.
Before I arrived in Funehiki one of the finishing teachers put her bike up for sale. I grabbed it for $50. I quickly found that the tires needed to be pumped up so I borrowed a pump and learned a lesson about Japanese bike tires. Unfortunately, before I could ride it my tires went flat again :( So, I think today I'm going to a new store "Daiyou 8" to pick up a pair. Yesterday was my first day in Koriyama, the small city about 20 miles to the west. Interestingly, even though it is further from the reactor plant and further from the epicenter of the earthquake, Koriyama's buildings sustained more damage and detect more radiation in the air compared to Funehiki. This is due to the density of bedrock and wind direction...sadly ill-favoring Koriyama's residents.
My mission was to get some of that hand-pressed paper, the kind that comes in big rectangular sheets, and put them on my wall for accents. That store building was closed presumably from damage.
My second mission was to buy staff paper to write music for gospel choir. That store building was closed presumably from damage. I asked a flower shop owner in poor Japanese if there was another music store nearby. There wasn't....at least I think that's what she said.
My third mission was to go to "Jupiter," the foreign food store. It's weird to think that MY food is foreign here. Ashley and I were a little too majime (diligent) and arrived an hour before it opened.
So, we did what everyone in the states does when they want to kill time...go to Starbucks!
We toured the early morning streets, peeking in small shop windows and admiring the neatly trimmed hedges. I took a bunch of pictures to show you but I had a computer FAIL and lost all of them. Gomenasai.
A street vendor set up a few tents selling flats of garden flowers. Lobilias, petunias, lamb's ear, buccolis, ice leaf, assortments of herbs and other plants and shrubs were on the market for a few hundred yen. I picked up two pink and green buccolis to accent my apartment. After some more wandering we entered a tall building with a different store on each floor. We ended up in the "sewing store" and I found some fabric for my walls to replace my paper idea. My language excitement for the day appeared when I tried to ask the clerk where the iron-on tape was located. After a brief failure with the dictionary, I busted out my sign language skills and she caught on instantly. WIN for signers. Catching the train on the way home, the entire even was relaxing and relatively uneventful. Public transportation is an international commonality.
When we returned a few of us congregated at Travis's for "Pancakes, Language, and Awesome." Eating Swedish pancakes and hash browns while talking about language is, indeed, awesome.
Two local guys, Ryo and Yuta came around and we all went to the park for an exciting game of ultimate frisbee under the warm sunshine. An elderly couple going for a walk in the park passed us by, then came back to sit on the bench and watch!
To close the day I finished washing my walls...then I washed the drapes....then I washed all the dishes in my cabinets....then I rearranged my area rug. +1 for cleaning.
That night we had FOUR earthquakes
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