Wakarimasen....AKA Huh?!?!

So I live off of Shiseido and Kumon, not really the street names just the identifiers that allow me to get home.  I mean I’m sure I have an address, but at this point I do not know it.  In fact, this chapter of my life is thematically titled: “Wakarimasen”, or “I don’t understand.”  

Everything is work right now, hard work.  Even just paying for things involves effort and confusion.  I payed with my credit card at a store and the lady held up a her pointer finger, as if she were asking “One?”  What does that mean? Is she asking me if I want my card charged once? Or is she saying that she has an idea? Or is she telling me to look up?  Next time I will look up.

Also, another thing that seems familiar yet is different is the food. So I set out on a journey to find peanut butter. I went to the grocery store and after much debate found what I thought to be peanut butter, even complete with Japanese Planter’s Peanut-San on the front.  When I got home, mouth watering at the thought of a PB&J on toasted bread...I opened my “peanut butter” only to find that it is more like a caramel dipping sauce than peanut butter...hmm.  Well it was great to dip my apples in, not so much to put on my sandwich.  

What do you think this is??

That’s Rubbish!

So I spent a good portion of my first Sunday here trying to figure out how to throw my trash away!  One would think that a college graduate like myself would be able to figure out the simple task of throwing away garbage...WRONG!  It took me close to 2 hours to try and translate the instructions for throwing away the trash and I felt more confused at the end of the two hours than I did at the beginning.  

Let me tell you how the highly systemized and organized Japanese deal with trash.  Everyday of the week is a different collection day.  Here is the paper I was given so that I knew what to do....

Makes sense, right??

Let me translate (actually translation done by my supervisor after he saw the complete annoyance that the schedule induced):

Monday-Burnable Trash

Tuesday-Plastic Bags/Wrappings

Wednesday-Metal/Glass and Newspaper and Old Clothes

Thursday-Burnable Trash

Friday Plastic Bottles/Aluminum

1st Friday of month- Clear Bottles

3rd friday of month-Blue or colored bottles

Ok...at least I know what to throw away now.  But the real question is: What the F constitutes “Burnable Trash”?!?!?!  Also, if you do not use the proper bags they may not throw it away for you.  If you put it out after 8 am they will not throw it away for you.  If you do not throw the correct kind of garbage away on the correct day they will not throw it away for you.  I was so thoroughly frustrated at the end of this that I just decided that I would have to learn through trial and error.  

So, Monday I threw away my trash AND....(drum roll please) I got it right.  At least today.  Now I have to try for “Plastic Bags/Wrapping.”  Hopefully that trash day will be as successful as my first in Japan!

While many things are confusing and different I find that I am adapting very easily to life in Japan.  Right now I am reading The Samuri’s Garden (yes appropriate I know), given to me by my professor at home.  Interestingly enough, and incredibly appropriate, the story is about a boy, from abroad, who moves to Japan and how he finds himself through the culture and language.  In the last chapter of the book, in his grief over his departure from Japan, he says, “Even if you walk the same road a hundred times, you’ll find something different each time.”  That is how I feel about my life so far in Ina.  The town though small and not too exciting, is like a garden. It is obviously beautiful when glance at it, however it is not until you get up close and examine every individual blossom or leaf that you see how all the individual parts make it truly spectacular.  And to even imagine that I would have to leave anytime soon, makes me feel as if I would be missing out on discovering that beauty.