Busy week

It's been a week since my last post, and I've been up to quite a bit. Here are some of the highlights:

• The university's club fair was last weekend. I went to inquire about the wind ensemble, and also got to hear them play everyone at the fair. They were pretty darn good, even though the ensemble there was pretty small. I'll be going to an interest meeting next week. I hope I don't make a fool of myself on account of my limited Japanese.
• It was during this fair that not one, not two, but three different groups of people came up to me to ask for a picture. One of the girls in the last group even went as far as to say that she thought I was cool. Again, I don't know where these people are getting their ideas.
• Finally got my SIM card for my phone. Now I have an actual phone number and mobile data, so I can finally go out without having to worry about whether or not I'll have emergency resources at hand.
• The car search is still underway. The local dealer still has yet to find anything, and I've asked an American JDM importer with a dealership in Osaka to also be on the lookout. There's a Roadster in Kanagawa prefecture that I might be able to get within or close to my budget. It was well taken care of (one of the owners was a senior citizen) and clean everywhere. I'll get an exact quote on Monday.
• The TAing has been...interesting. The classes are higher-level classes (third and fourth-year students). Some of the students are not trying, and I have to reflect that in their grades. For one of the classes, the final exam counts for 90% (yes, you read that correctly) for the entire grade. A few students then have the habit of not showing up until exam day. Problem is, if they're not doing their homework, they're not going to do well on the exam. You'd think that they'd figure this out by now. Oh well, at least I'm getting paid to do it.
• The intermediate Japanese class that I wanted to take conflicts with another class in my schedule. Therefore, I'll have to take the higher-level beginners Japanese class. I've seen the book and it's pretty easy, but at least I'll actually be getting the fundamentals down in an actual classroom, instead of trying to learn by myself.
• Apparently someone back in the States asked about whether or not I was in the part of the area that recently had the earthquake. The epicenter of said quake was 800 miles southwest from me. It'd be like someone from Japan asking someone in New York if they were affected by the tornado in Indiana. Unless you see something in the news about something happening in or near Fukushima prefecture, then you don't have to be concerned. On second thought, don't be concerned at all. I don't want to put up with a million questions about radiation exposure.

That's all that's been of interest. Onwards and upwards.

-wp

School is in session

I have now officially been a master's student for two days. I'm all registered for my classes, and I'm TAing two of them. My lab station now has a simple computer for web browsing, handling documents, and e-mails. Once I start getting busy, though, I'll have to make a proposal for equipment. But that probably won't happen until around June or July.

Another update on my phone: the reason for all of the delays was because I did not supply my full address. In Japan, addresses are done a bit differently. Everything is in reverse order compared to the US, so in my case, it's postal code --> prefecture --> city --> municipality --> sub-municipality --> sub-sub-municipality --> campus name --> building number. As it turned out, I was missing the sub-sub-municipality in my address. I'm sure that if they had told me this in advance, they would have saved both of us a load of time. Regardless, everything has now been straightened out. The SIM card should be here by the start of next week.

I met with a local car dealer today who goes to car auctions for clients. My main desires in a car are Mazda brand and manual transmission. Both of those things are a rarity in Fukushima. (As it turns out, automatic cars are super common here, too.) The dealer said that he had not seen a Eunos NA Roadster with a manual transmission (my top pick) in over ten months. I asked him to keep an eye out for one, and ask around for anyone who may be looking to sell. I gave some alternatives to look for in the meantime. I told him that the longest I'd be willing to wait is up to two or three months. He goes to the USS auctions in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, which are all towards the later end of the week. He will keep me updated on what he finds. The foreign personnel advisor does not return until Monday, so I probably will not hear back until then. I'm pulling for him; even with the limited English, the dude was pretty chill. Into American imports, too; he even showed up wearing a GM Goodwrench work suit.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind a car with an automatic transmission if it weren't for the licensing laws. In America, as soon as you get your license, you can drive whatever vehicle you want, so long as it has four wheels and isn't a semi. Here, however, it's slightly different. Driving a manual transmission vehicle requires an endorsement on your license. If I tested in a car with an automatic transmission, I would be allowed to drive a car that came equipped with an automatic transmission only. If I wanted to drive a car with a manual transmission, I would have to test in a car with a manual transmission. Just as America had the Ford Crown Victoria for general government fleet vehicles, Japan has the Toyota Crown. And from what I've heard, the clutches in these babies are heavy. So in the meantime, I should be getting ready with a car that has a manual transmission, so that I can hone my driving skills. Otherwise, I can kiss getting to experience most JDM classic cars goodbye. And that's where I put my foot down.

Also, I know that most of you reading this have by now probably thought the word "train" at least once. Here's the campus (i.e. where I am). The nearest convenience store is a 20 minute walk one-way. The nearest grocery store is 40 minutes one-way. And the buses in Aizu run sporadically. Plus, it's colder during the winter in this part of Japan compared to Connecticut, and the wind can be very strong. I'm not necessarily tearing public transit a new asshole; I respect it for what it does in this country. But for me, and my needs, it is not working. I can live another month or two without the car. After that, I'll need to do something.

On a more positive note, my Introduction to Sound and Audio class today was interesting. My professor actually did a barrel roll, and then a cartwheel, during my lecture. Top that, UNH. He also provided iPads for the class to do our assignments or, well, whatever the hell we damn well pleased. Some of them were purchased this morning (I got one of those models). I just have to return it when the class is over. In three months. This school does not skimp on equipment.

So there are a few setbacks, but nothing major to complain about. Hope that the rest of the semester, or at least the quarter, is as smooth.

-wp

Orientation

Today was orientation day for new students at the university. I am now officially in graduate school.

The ceremony was pretty straightforward. They would call your name one by one, and you'd say 「はい」 and stand up, and then you would sit back down afterwards. There were the addresses from the mayor and the reps for the prefectural executives, and the undergraduates and graduates stood up for their vows, then sat back down. Then it was over.

While the undergraduates remained in the auditorium, the graduate students were allowed to go outside. I hung around the student building for a bit, and then returned to my room for a while until the next orientation meeting. It wasn't until halfway through that meeting that I remembered that they were having a group photo of all the new students on the steps by the student building. I'm not worried, though. There will be enough pictures of me in Japan. Like this one:

One of the students in my wing thought I looked cool. I don't see it.

Tomorrow I need to figure out the classes I'll be taking. Those start on Thursday. The SIM card is still not here, and I'm still looking for a Roadster. On Monday, I'll have an interview for a TA position. Let's hope that it goes well.

Spring, and the sakura, have come to Aizu.

-wp

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