Hurry up and wait

That's been the story of my life so far this week.

I've been out twice this week with Nagashima-san, a foreign personnel advisor for the University. She has accompanied me this week to city hall on Tuesday and the Japan Post bank today. In both locations, we were kept waiting for hours. Apparently, according to Nagashima-san, April is the start of new everything. New school year, new fiscal year, and new jobs. Therefore, as everyone is moving around during this time period, city hall has to stay open longer to accommodate the numerous changes in residence. (You need to tell your current town that you're moving away first, and then tell your new town that you're moving in.)

As for the bank, it took longer than usual because of my name (long middle name AND a suffix), as well as a very recent policy that even Nagashima-san did not know about where I have to open the account first, and then I can make an initial deposit. Nowhere on any sign or the application form did it mention this. Ah, Japanese bureaucracy.

In addition to the top, I've been waiting for my SIM card with my Japanese phone number all week. My provider is OCN Mobile, which is an MVNO running on NTT Docomo towers. 5 GB of data and voice for around $20/month. Here's how that's been going so far:

1. I had to order an OCN packet off of Amazon for around three dollars on Sunday. It hated my debit card, and Amazon Japan does not accept Discover cards, so onto the joint card it went. Got the Prime trial, so it arrived on Tuesday.
2. The only thing of note in this packet is a special security code, which I then had to enter on their website in order to complete the application. Similar story with the cards. Uploaded a copy of my resident card. They wanted a phone number to verify who I am (yeah, I know), so I gave them the switchboard for the university. I should get something in two days.
3. The next day (Wednesday), OCN calls the university. The rep at General Affairs, who knows me, answers. She confirms that I am a real person staying at the dormitory.
4. Today (Thursday), I get something in the mail from OCN. Oh, boy! I open the envelope. There's a sheet with my account information (except for the phone number section, which is not filled in), and a packet explaining various charges. No SIM card.

This is getting annoying, especially considering that I now have at least half a dozen people asking me for my new phone number, and I have to apologize and tell them that I'm still waiting on my ding-dong SIM card. Without my new phone number, I can't update my resume. And without my resume, I can't apply for TA positions or part time work. I'd like to get my SIM card by orientation on Saturday, but I'm starting to doubt if I will.

As for the car hunt, I found at least three Eunos Roadsters on online networks that are located in southern portions of the country. One goes over my budget by a few man, one is right on the limit, and I have yet to hear about the third. Nagashima-san also has yet to hear back from the dealer that I found here in Aizu that can go to the auctions for me. If I can get a better deal with this dealer, I will gladly wait. I know that I can find a Roadster for cheaper than what I'm finding now.

There are a few students on this floor already. There is one other international student from China. The others are Japanese. We make each other nervous with our limited understandings of each other's languages, but we get along pretty well otherwise. Hopefully we'll be able to learn from each other as the year goes on.

-wp

Review: Nissan March K13

When I booked my rental car in Japan, the company that I reserved with the first time, Times Car Rental, was unable to book a one-way rental. I could've booked the car to be returned to Narita, but the train fare and time to return the car and come back were just not worth it. Therefore, I had to look into other alternatives. The cheapest one was Nissan Rent-a-car, which rents, you guessed it, Nissans.

I must have had the only Narita-based license plates in the entire city.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Nissan was unable to secure me a kei car. A quick background for my American friends: kei cars are small economy cars with engines restricted to 660 cc and 64 hp. They get very high fuel economy ratings and are perfect for the tight-knit roads that most areas in Japan have to offer. They will also never come to America because their economy comes at the cost of safety, which is something that the USDOT will refuse to consider. To get the cars up to American standards, certain crash protections have to be built in. But that increases the weight of the car, so to prevent it from being super slow and overtaxing on the engine, a larger engine is equipped, which eats into fuel economy. It's a nasty slippery slope, and it unfortunately defeats the purpose of owning one back in the states.

Anyways, back to the car. Nissan hooked me up with a K13 March five-door hatchback. It has a 1.2L three-cylinder engine that only makes about 79 HP. It retails at about $10k USD new. The March occupies the tier between the kei car and the Nissa Versa (Tiida in Japan), the latter of which is the cheapest car currently being sold in the US for $12,825. Domestic reviews for the car have been tepid, with a forgettable driving experience and cheap build quality making the car a relatively unattractive choice.

The March shares the above drawbacks with the Versa, but brings additional ones to the table. The Versa sedan at least has decent interior cargo space. The March allows you to choose between four passengers or two passengers with some stuff in the backseat. You can have one or the other, but not both. I have done both while I have had this car, and the car is usually full in some capacity by the time I return to my dorm.

A rather Spartan interior

This afternoon, I took the last chance I had before returning the car to take it through the actual city on an "adventure". Even though this car is pretty small, the roads were definitely smaller. I was frequently pulling off to the side and/or stopping for other cars to pass by. There were blind corners, uncovered street gutters, and plenty of pedestrians. Not surprisingly enough, the kei cars had the perfect short width to fit on the roads without having to move or stop.

In addition, this car must be a baseline version, because there is no engine cutoff at the traffic lights. All the controls were manual knobs. The dash consisted of a speedometer and a digital gauge for the time, kilometers, and fuel, and that's it. You could make a decent knocking sound if you knocked on the plastics, of which there are plenty in this car, and not of the good kind. The seat does not go back far, so by the time I arrived in Aizuwakamatsu after driving non-stop from Narita, my legs were absolutely sore. And the ride and handling are absolutely, unquestionably boring. Like waiting-at-the-DMV boring. Like trying-to-sleep-at-0300-hrs-but-you-can't-for-some-damn-reason boring. Like I'm-going-to-die-someday-and-I'm-wasting-my-time-in-this-car boring.

Now here's the kicker: crash testing aside, this car would probably sell well in America. Why? Because it is, for all intents and purposes, a simple, cheap car. I know people who are always talking about cars back in the eighties and nineties, and how they were awesome and cheap and could last forever. Unfortunately, the era of the cheap car is coming to an end. Oil prices are starting to creep back up. Mandatory rear-view camera systems will be mandatory by the USDOT in two years, and advanced emergency braking in another five. The market is being flooded with the "crossovers", the type of car that takes the lack of cargo space and offroad capabilities of an SUV and reduced fuel economy compared to an economy car and throws them both together. These cars require a lot of work under the skin in order for these things to happen, so the simplicity and cheapness of the economy car, or whatever's left of it, will be gone.

And as much as I've just ripped on the March, I'm not inclined to say that I hated it. It got me from point A to B, with enough room for three suitcases with the back seats down. I was able to fit four people in the car, even behind me, for a short drive back to campus. The pillars are very thin, and visibility out of the car is good. The hollow plastic setup gives the car plenty of rattle with the audio, which is actually great considering that I put on entire albums by The Roots in between destinations. Would I want to own one of these? God, no. But it did its job and served its purpose well enough to justify the $600 (!) price tag for the week I rented it. (I return it tomorrow, and then it's no car for me until I find that NA Roadster/Atenza wagon/AZ-Wagon kei car, which I will probably have to go further south for.)

So with that information in mind, the March serves as a "throwback" to how cars, and purchasing them, were viewed in the past. If it was 1995 and you were looking for a car, and the only things that you cared about in said car were power windows and fuel economy, then you probably would have bought this car. Unfortunately, that throwback status comes at a price. A well-equipped kei car today prices at about the same as this base model March, so most buyers looking for a new car will want the one that can fit on the roads and is part of a more favorable tax bracket.

But still, it was a decent throwback worth posting about.

-wp

Settling in

The past few days have been pretty busy. I've now moved into my dorm room at Somei House. I share a common area and bathroom with twelve other people, and I've already met two of them. Even with our limits on each other's languages, we're managing to communicate efficiently. I also went out bowling last night with a friend I met here last year (also from America) and his friends. It was a decent start to my social life here.

I also spent plenty of time yesterday shopping for things. The university supplies everything apart from food, linens, and dishes. I only had to go to four places: Yamada Denki for electronics, Nitori for linens, York Benimaru for food, and Daiso, a 100-yen store, for everything else. Speaking of York, they're owned by Seven & I, which is the same company that owns the convenience stores, of which there has to be one every kilometer in this city. (I checked; there are 14 of them in Aizuwakamatsu alone.)

I also met with a foreign personnel advisor here at the university yesterday. I received my inkan for legal transactions, and also met with a representative from Gulliver, which is like Carmax in the states. Their cars were pretty far out of my budget, and because they don't buy from auction, the prices are higher. (Oddly enough, they'll sell the car to auction if they can't get it off their lots in more than three weeks.) The cheapest one was 5 man over my budget, and even with the shaken, I'd have to pay for shipping all the way from Kyushu. The rep was also not from Aizu, but from Fukushima City, which is well over a hour away. I felt bad that he came all that way, but I still need to pay for shaken and insurance.

I've decided to start looking for the car in dealerships farther south, as Eunos Roadsters or Atenza wagons aren't very common in Fukushima. Worst case scenario is that I have to go get it myself and drive it back up north. But if that's what it's going to take to get it, then so be it. I can wait for a deal. Most of the stuff that I need has now been picked up anyways.

To close, here's the tag that was on my room key at the Onyado Toho.

I'd better get used to the typos.

-wp

The road to Aizu

It's getting late here in Aizuwakamatsu. I'm sitting in the lobby of the Onyado Toho, a nice hot spring resort on the edge of the habitable city. It's definitely been a long journey; I was on a plane for 14 hours, and drove for four to get from the hotel in Narita to here.

First, the plane. I flew premium economy on Japan Airlines. That meant two things. The first was that I was allowed to sit in the Air France Lounge for the 90 minutes before I had to board. I had never been in an airport lounge before, so I felt pretty excited. The TVs were set to CNN, still collecting information about the recent bombing at the airport in Brussels. Certainly picked a day to fly.

From the lounge window

Nice lounge

The second was the seat itself, which was much larger compared to the one I sat in on Cathay Pacific last year. It also had a lot more legroom, especially as I was up against the wall dividing business class from premium economy. I'm talking about I can expand my legs all the way!-type of legroom. But while the seat reclined more, it was built into a plastic shell, which merely shifted the seat down. Not too comfortable, but at least I got some sleep on the plane this time.

My legs breathed a sigh of relief.

After exchanging cash in the terminal, I called for my rental car, and a representative from Nissan Rent-a-car brought it over. I had originally booked a Nissan Dayz for a week, which was about $600 [exhales painfully] for the whole week, including a one-way fee but not tolls or gas. The rep took me out to the parking lot on the side of the terminal entry to head to the car. I saw a Dayz in the parking lot close to the curb and got excited. That excitement quickly turned to confusion when the rep unlocked my actual car, the Nissan March.

I asked the rep about the possible mix-up. After a brief pause, he told me that there were no Dayz available. The March is one tier up from the Dayz, and for no additional charge, I had nothing to complain about. We went over existing damage and I took pictures of it. Then I got in the car and went to my hotel for the night.

The trip up today was a nonstop push for Aizuwakamatsu. It was supposed to snow starting in the evening, so the goal was to get up there by the afternoon. I made the same mistake that I did the last time; instead of merging onto the expressway towards Tsukuba (north), I merged onto the expressway towards Narita (south). My guess then, and now, was that the road is relatively new, and as such, the GPS didn't get the update, because my entry point on the expressway only had the option to go north, and did not warn me about the merge. So I wound up spending an extra 300 yen on tolls, which brought my total toll bill up to around 7300 yen ($65). By the time I got off the highway, I had to stop at a local McDonald's, because my legs were starting to annoy me. In a few days, I'll make a post about the car.

On my way to dinner tonight, I got stopped by a group of people who wanted to take a photo with me. This is actually the first time that this has happened. The last time I was here, I mostly stayed in cities, where there are plenty of 大きな外人 around to the point where it's a common sight. Maybe they're from an area where that isn't the case. Still, I was a good sport about it.

Tomorrow I'm moving into my new dorm. I'll also have to get food and linens. Here's to hoping that it all goes smoothly.

And finally, because this is Japan, an obligatory of course, this exists in Japan moment: Kit Kat-flavored Japanese sake.

-wp

About to leave

Tomorrow is the big day. I get on the plane and head to Japan. I still have that feeling of excitement and unease, and now that surreal feeling of oh, shit, it's happening is getting mixed in, especially the day before. I'm halfway through packing; the latter half comes tonight, when I secure the last of my electronics.

The car to take me to the airport comes at 0345 hrs tomorrow, and the flight takes off at 0915 hrs. I can't guarantee that there will be Wi-Fi on the plane. I can guarantee, however, that this blog will now be more active, especially as I'm settling in. I'm not going to bore you with exact details of everything I do, but I'll try to keep things entertaining.

But before I go, I want to say thank you ありがとうございます to everyone who provided me words of support leading up to this. I especially want to thank my totally awesome mother, Joanne, for assisting me in achieving my dream of studying abroad. There aren't a lot of [single] mothers out there that can do what she has done for me, and I am eternally grateful. It's a shame that we'll be apart, but at least now she has an excuse to conquer her fear of flying and come see me.

Bye, Connecticut. I'll miss you plenty. 行ってきます！

-wp

Back to the roots

Today I went back to visit my band teacher, Jeremy Taylor, at my high school for the last time before I leave for Japan. I brought him some lunch to, and I'm quoting him, "save [him] from school cafeteria food." Over lunch, I showed him some pictures of my trip to Japan and discussed my plans, and got him to determine whether the $250 soprano sax I bought off of Amazon wasn't broken (thankfully, it was not).

It was very nice seeing him again. It honestly felt like we hadn't seen each other in a matter of days. One of things that I've always enjoyed about him was his ability to come up with hilarious one-liners. He can make just about everything he says funny, and I hadn't laughed out loud like I did in a long time.

The school had remained about the same, save for the increased security, new TVs in the lobby, upgraded equipment in the recording studio, and some new instruments in the lockers. Even after five years (and man, does it feel like it), it all felt familiar. I had an interesting time in high school, and a lot of that time was spent in that band room. I may not have the chance to go back ever again, but I hope that whomever is in that band room now makes the most of their memories like I did.

I still play the saxophone, and want to continue playing in Japan. Before I visited, I was nervous about asking to join the wind ensemble at Aizu on account of my 下手な日本語. But Jeremy gave me some reassurance, just as he did before when I was in high school. That gave me the confidence boost that I needed; I'm going to reach out next week.

T-minus two weeks to the big hop.

-wp