Tuesday September 13, 2005
火日、九月 じゆうさんにち
I have spent 4 nights and days at NWEC thus far. It is a 10-day orientation, so we are not yet half way through our ten days. My responsibilities are lighter now as students are spending most of their time in Japanese classes. Michiyo, the Japan Study bilingual Program Associate, and I interviewed all 36 students independently for 15 minutes each in order to get information to help Michiyo find homestay families for them. Michiyo returned to Tokyo on Monday, and David returned to Tokyo on Sunday, so I spend most of my time in my room either studying Japanese or preparing for my course I will be teaching soon. I still have some interactions with students, but because I did not go to the cafeteria for lunch or dinner tonight, even informal time with students has been reduced.
I did not go to the cafeteria for lunch or dinner because I have not had good experiences trying to find vegetarian food at the buffet. The only place to purchase food outside of NWEC is a convenience store. Generally, convenience stores have several choices for vegetarians, but this convenient store is atypical. Several times I have gone to it and not found any actual meal-type food that I could be sure I could eat. I have only found o ni gi ri once. We got red-bean bau-dz once, and they seem to have them more regularly, but I didn’t care for the bau-dz that much. I have eaten a lot of peanuts over the course of the last few days. For breakfast, I do okay with two plain buns, a cup of coffee and a small box of pineapple juice in the NWEC cafeteria. For lunch and dinner, I have been having white rice with a very small dish of green pickles with sesame seeds or a very small, uninteresting salad.
Dining here is a big contrast with meals prior to coming to NWEC. The freshness of vegetables in Tokyo and a bit more flexible schedule gave me the opportunity to prepare some great meals. I am ready to return to our apartment and the Tokyo grocery stores!
I must note, however, that for our welcoming dinner, we went to a restaurant, which prepared vegetarian food for the vegetarians. It was the best Japanese meal we have had that was not prepared in someone’s home kitchen!
The NWEC facility is quite nice. Groups stay here for educational purposes, so it is like a hotel for educational groups. It also has things like a pool, tennis courts, a sports field, a small Japanese garden, and hot baths. Unlike a hotel, it has lobby space that is actually used by the groups to hang out in informally. The food is cafeteria style, and if the group is only here for a day or two, it is probably quite satisfactory. A 10-day stay means that the food choices get old quickly. The vending machines have drinks (many of which appear to be alcoholic) and cigarettes. I haven’t seen one that would be typical in the US with potato chips and candy bars. Places to eat outside of NWEC are few. Although we are only an hour from Tokyo, there is a 10:00 curfew, so student can’t really go into Tokyo easily after classes. Also, there is no obvious Internet access. Michiyo says she is able to take her computer somewhere and connect to send messages that she has already written, but it is quite expensive and troublesome. Since I even have trouble using the phone in the room and my cell phone, I have not pursued use of the Internet.
Because we are supposed to be in educational activities during the morning and afternoons, the air conditioning is turned off in our rooms, and when the cleaning women come around to clean the room, they seem to expect me to leave. The rooms can get kind of warm but they do turn it back on during lunch. It turns out to be off for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon, so it isn’t that bad. It is still quite warm here, which means that staying in the non-air-conditioned room is generally cooler than going outside in the sun.
Actually, I learned that if I push a few buttons on the air conditioner control, I could get the air conditioning back on! That was a good thing!