October 1, 2014
This
past Friday, I was taken to the Gifu immigration office. I had found out that I needed to submit some
paperwork in order to be able to work as a dependent. Language barriers later, I had paperwork done
and was taken to the immigration office.
Once it was my turn, the process was very easy, they simply stamped
my ID card with something that says I can work up to 28 hours (I think that's what it says, all I
can make out is the 28 on the stamp). I
was told it’s finished, so as far as I know I can work 28 hours a week... I
think. It was very nice to have a
Japanese speaker with me to handle the process. As it was the end of the month, I also got
paid in cash. Paying for things with
cash and being paid in cash gives me a different perspective on money. I feel like I’m making all this money when
it’s handed to me in cash form. I also
feel like I’m spending a lot more money when I’m paying with cash. In Canada, I hardly ever used cash to pay for
anything and certainly wasn’t paid in cash other than babysitting as a teenager.
As a
side note, the way that you get groceries here is slightly different too. Vegetables and fruit are sold per piece (not
per pound or per kilogram). The shopping
carts are made to put two baskets in the top and the bottom. When you go to pay for what you bought, you
simply put the basket on the counter.
The cashier takes it out as she scans it, and repacks it into a
different coloured basket which means that you paid for it. Some people have their own baskets that act
as the “paid for basket” which they can then just take home. Alternatively, you take the store “paid for basket”
to the counter that they have lining the back of the store and re-pack it into
the bags that you brought. I think this
system is more efficient than the Canadian one.
This
past Saturday, Adam and I went to climb Mount Ibuki. Luckily, we were nowhere near the volcano
eruption. This mountain is very close to
Tarui, but we still had to take a train and a bus. Earlier in the week, I had gone to the
tourist information in Tarui to ask about Mount Ibuki with a few sentences that
Miki had helped me to prepare. The
tourist information man managed to communicate with me that I had to take a
train from Tarui to Sekigahara and that there were buses at Sekigahara for
Mount Ibuki. I came home and researched
the bus. I found a schedule for a bus
that went all the way up the mountain and figured that it must stop at the
bottom first for the people who want to hike.
I also looked up directions from the bus stop to the trail head and
landmarks we should pass during the hike.
Saturday
morning, we get off the train at Sekigahara and go outside. There are people waiting for a bus going to
Mount Ibuki, so we wait with them. I go
and look at the tourist information across the street and have some sort of a “communication”
with a lady. The bus comes, we get on, we
try and communicate with the bus driver that we want to hike, he says, “Yes,” and
we start driving. It seems like within a
few minutes the bus stops, waits a couple minutes, but no one gets off. I’m wondering if that was our stop, but
didn’t want to get off too soon at the wrong place and have to wait an hour
until the next bus passed. Next thing I
know, we’re going through the toll road and I’m thinking, “Shoot, that was the
stop.” I spend the rest of the time up
the mountain, enjoying the nice scenery, but also wondering if we were supposed
to get off at that first stop. Forty-five
minutes later, we’re at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, this made the bus fare that
much more expensive. We made the most of
it though and still hiked around the summit.
The highest parking lot (which is where we were dropped off) is about a
20 minute hike to the top and there’s a 2km hike that you can do around the
summit. It’s really beautiful: you can
see Lake Biwa, cities, rolling mountains, etc.
We took some time in prayer, ate a picnic lunch and relaxed. We could’ve hiked down the mountain since we
failed to hike up, but it looked like it would be hard on the knees (17km
downhill), so we took the bus back down.
At the
summit there are a bunch of little souvenir shops that sell some food too. The only thing we bought was a bag of
yams. Yams here are around 95-195 yen a
piece, and sometimes you can get a bag of three little ones for 195 yen. We got a bag of 5-6 yams for 100 yen, so
quite the good deal. We thought it was
so funny that the cheapest place to get yams is at the top of a mountain, go
figure. We wondered, “Who would buy
things from this little produce stand, when people come here to hike and would
have to carry it down?” Apparently,
people like us do.
Sunday
brought the second English Mass that we’ve attended. Adam and I were the only English speakers there
with a Pilipino family who were there to attend a baptism preparation seminar afterwards. It’s interesting having a Mass said just for
us. We did the readings and the music
(acapella). Father’s homily was like a
conversation with us. He had his power point
with pictures, but he stands only a few feet away and asks us questions, such
as: who we identify with in the Gospel, how things are different in Canada, etc. Needless to say, you sure don’t get
distracted during his homilies.
Adam
and I are still discovering new things in our home. There are a few storage spaces in the house
where previous ALT’s have left things.
Just this week, I discovered Halloween costumes and a toaster oven
(along with a bunch of other things) in one of the closets in our bedroom.
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