The noise outside the door



I woke up in the darkness, frozen in fear. Someone was just outside the door and was obviously meddling with it. There was no mistake. With a door made of metal, even the smallest object hitting against it would send a reverberation loud enough to be heard in my tiny apartment.

 

I turned to face the door while still on my bed, not daring to move, and listened keenly.  I had been studying for my upcoming placement exam late into the night and had barely fallen asleep when I heard the noises coming from the door. Could it be someone who was drunk and got to the wrong door? 

 

I looked at the clock, and then relaxed. It was 5.20am. I was expecting him afterall! I jumped out of my bed and rushed to the door. 



A picture of my mail box that is affixed to the door.
I don't receive all my mails in this box. Only important stuff was dropped off here.
 Sometimes, the postman just left the mail in the letter box at the entrance
 to my mansion, if the mail is not deemed important.



I peered into the box affixed to my door meant for the postman to drop off important mail such as my bills. There it was, what I had been waiting excitedly for in the past week - my first Japanese newspaper! Yes, the person who woke me up from my sleep was none other than the Nikkei Shimbun newspaperman! He must have been trying very hard to fit the newspaper into the narrow slot on the exterior of the door!

 

Nikkei Shimbun, 15 Sep 2012 morning edition received at around 5.20am.

Nikkei Shimbun, 15 Sep 2012 evening edition, which I found in my mail box
when I returned from volunteer work in the evening.

Not too long ago, my neighbour told me about a mailer she had received in her letterbox regarding a newspaper company providing a one-week free trial reading of their papers. As I often threw flyers in my letterbox straight into the garbage bin, I missed out on that application for the free newspapers. Following that lesson, I had since made it a point to go through the stack of mailers in my letter box more carefully.

 

Last week, I saw in the mail Nikkei's mailer offering a one-week free trial reading of its newspaper. I sent out my application on Monday, received an acknowledgement from their Osaka office on Friday and got my first newspaper on Saturday.  With the summer vacation now gone and my Japanese deteriorating into a most lamentable state, the newspapers should come in helpful as I work hard to bring myself up to speed again with the language.

 

And if my sensei should ask me if I had followed her advice and started reading more Japanese texts in the summer vacation, I could at least let her know that I am attempting to read newspapers now.

Autumn is near!

Autumn wear is decked out in the departmental stores, signaling that summer is coming to a close.  I have survived the humid summer.

 

How will I fare in autumn? I can't wait to find out!

 

 

 



My landlady's pride

One reason I am in Kyoto and taking this long break from work is to take time off to smell the flowers, as the saying goes.

Coincidentally, my landlady is a person with green fingers and I am in no want of pretty flowers even at my Kyoto home. The patio of the mansion where we live is where my landlady proudly displays her plants.

Around mid-August, I saw a plant prominently placed at the patio which I had never seen before. It caught my attention because of the small, yellow star-shaped flowers flanked by two white petals.

The flowers were in bloom for only a couple of days and I was glad I took a photograph of them.  I wonder what they are called.

A day after I saw the wilted yellow flowers, another new flowering plant was in their place. And I began to realise why I didn't see these plants before. 

My landlady probably kept some of the plants in her house and brought them out only when the flowers started to bloom so that others might admire them too.

"Come look at this flower! It only blooms for one day," she said enthusiastically when she saw me at the patio, and pointed to the huge, crimson flower which looked like a variety of the hibiscus.

"Okusan, you really like flowers, don't you?" I commented. "Yes, I love them!" She said happily and then started to bring me through the various plants at the patio, for the third time in the five months I have lived here.

How nice it will be if I could always be here to listen to Okusan talk about her plants.





The dilemma over the "right of way"

I have come to discover that a conformist culture does not necessarily mean a law-abiding citizenry. 

 

The Kyoto City Government announced its intensified efforts to remove illegally-parked bicycles in May but the announcement didn't seem to have much effect. People continue to blatantly flout the rules by parking exactly where the "No Parking" signs are clearly visible.

 

 

The City Government said in its information release that the illegally-parked bicycles on the streets "disturbed the pedestrians and traffic of emergency vehicles even if left for just a short time".

 

I can understand the rationale for the bicycle removal but I am not sure if I support it, especially when parking space for bicycles is so scarce.  And even if paid parking lots are available, I don't think I am prepared to pay a few dollars just to park a bicycle.

 

So when I do park on the streets, I try to ensure that I don't obstruct the traffic in anyway and then pray for good luck that when I return, my bicycle will still be waiting for me.

 



Getting a taste from home at Jupiter

Jupiter is an import food shop located in the underground Porta Mall at Kyoto Station, near the fast food restaurant, Lotteria.  I learnt about it from a classmate who has now returned to his university in Australia. He knew that I was desperately looking for durians some months ago when the fruit was in season in Malaysia around June and July.    A Singapore favourite, the "King of Fruit" is imported in large quantities from Malaysia to Singapore every year during that period.

 

 

As I had a craving for the fruit then, I made it my special assignment to hunt for it in Kyoto.  I wasn't successful of course. Durians are a rarity in Kyoto. My Indonesian neighbour pointed me to AEON Mall near Kyoto Station but I didn't see any by the time I went there. So when my classmate told me that Jupiter was selling durian chips, I thought, well, I could settle for the chips instead.



Durian chips from Thailand (second row) spotted at Jupiter.

I paid 197 Yen for the bigger pack and 147 Yen for the smaller pack and happily brought them to class to share with my classmates, some of whom had never heard of or seen a durian before. It turned out that the chips were made of durians from Thailand and were specially treated to remove the strong aroma of the fruit to suit the Japanese tastebud. The feedback from my classmates was that they tasted not much different from potato chips.  Disappointing! The chips did not live up to the reputation of the "King of Fruit" at all!  I felt like I had misrepresented the "King" by sharing the chips.





 

Well, although my craving for durians was not satisfied with the durian chips, Jupiter sells a variety of other foodstuff from different parts of the world. So for an international student like me craving for a taste from home, it is still a good place to look if one does not mind paying abit more. 

 

That is not to say that Jupiter is the only solution though. The other day, I found the cocoa mix that I was craving for in a local Japanese supermarket and apparently, there is a local factory producing the product here.  So we just need to be alert and keep a lookout!





Statistics series: Singaporeans, wherefore art thou?



I was at the Kyoto International Community House to check out the cultural programmes available and found some statistics on the notice boards in the lobby.

 



Source: Kyoto International Community House.

There were 6032 international students studying in Kyoto based on the statistics (as of May 2011). The ranking of the countries in terms of the number of students was as follows:

1. China

2. South Korea

3. Taiwan

4. America

5. Vietnam

 

As for the number of registered foreigners in Kyoto City (as of Dec 2011), the top 10 countries were:

1. Korea

2. China

3. America

4. Philippines

5. France

6. UK

7. Thailand

8. Indonesia

9. India

10. Vietnam
 

If you look at the number of native English speakers in the above list, the competition is probably against 1000 over people for English teaching positions in this city. Assuming half of them already got the job so there could still be about 500 in the competition perhaps, and I am not sure if there are so many positions available. 
 

In any case, I digress. The number of Singaporeans registered in Kyoto City was 35. It has been five months since I came to Kyoto and I have not come across one. I wonder where they are...



A gift from the heart

My Chinese neighbour, J-san, knocked on my door one evening and presented three matcha cookies she had baked.

 

I looked at the star-shaped cookies which were carefully arranged on a pretty little ceramic plate and felt like hugging her but I didn't. J-san was very apologetic that she only had three cookies for me. Being the honest girl that she is, she explained that she had actually made a batch of them but most had ended up in her stomach.

 

The number really didn't matter. I saw only a gift which came from her heart. And I felt very blessed that evening.