Some Time!

Aha! I have some free time while firing emails about renting an apartment back and forth.

So, first off, I have found a seemingly nice place that I will go see tomorrow (probably) in Chiba, kind of half way in between where I am now and Tokyo, for 55,000 yen a month, which includes everything, including internet! 55,000 yen is about 520-530 bucks. That's very cheap around here :).

Anyways, I haven't really had a chance to blog a large one in quite a while, so once again, I'll use pictures to show where I've been, and then I'll explain a couple things about Japan in general at the request of specific peoples.



That was the view from Tateyama, at the very bottom of Chiba Prefecture. It was VERY nice there. Just a little bit inland it was like walking back in time. Everyone had a farm of some sort, and was collecting from it with those baskets on their back, as if it was out of a movie. It was very neat, all the buildings were old, the scenery was beautiful. However, I thought I was going to be going back to where I came from in a similar kind of area... so I didn't take pictures >.<. Nope, instead... I decided to walk TWENTY EIGHT KILOMETERS that day. Yup! My legs were sore after that :)
The ocean down there was WARM. Now, I don't usually go swimming in lakes or oceans... I'm very sensitive to water temperature, so even decently warm water feels cold to me; very cold. However, if I had a bathing suit.... I would have swam in this water... in November... It was so warm.... And just 100 kilometers north, at the Ocean where I live now... the water is freezing. Very interesting in my opinion.

Here are more pictures: here.

I did take two more videos, one of which is too large to put up on the web, and the other.... FOR SOME reason youtube isn't letting it work. It says 'failed', with no reason... retarded. So ya... annoying... cause it was a really neat video.


So! As for a few things on life here in Japan! First of all, to answer a certain someones question on the makeup of the wards of cities here in Japan.

In Japan, you have a Prefecture, exactly like our provinces. Some Prefectures are subdivided in to sub-prefectures (shichou). I say some, because not all of them have sub-prefectures. Sub-prefectures are more used to help govern large areas in which there are no major cities, such as in remote areas of Japan. Sub-prefectures are usually not included in addresses.

There are also 'Designated Cities' (seirei-shitei-toshi). These are major cities with a population of over 500,000 or have a significant impact on industrial work in Japan. They govern everything that is inside of their area. Inside of that area, there can be more cities, villages, towns, etc... Quite often, a city like this can cover MASSIVE amounts of area. Usually a good 100 kilometers. Tokyo does not have any of these cities (I'll explain later).

There are also then districts (gun) that have almost no governing authority. However, they are used for mailing addresses. A district is similar to United States, Counties.

Moving down in to the municipal level, we have 'core' cities (chuokaku-shi), 'special' cities (tokurei-shi), and cities (shi). The 'core' cities are the 'downtowns' of Canada. Downtown Vancouver would be Vancouver-chuo. The chuo suffix denoting that it is a core city. The rest of Vancouver might be just Vancouver-shi (City of Vancouver)

Inside of those cities, we have wards (ku), towns (chou and machi), and villages (son and mura). Note that these can also be directly from a prefecture itself instead of inside a larger city, similar to in Canada. A ward can be thought of as something like West Quesnel. While its all still Quesnel, us Quesnelians almost consider it a completely different area. Although wards have full governing over themselves and their smaller parts, such as chou and machi. So yes, wards, or cities, have towns and villages inside of them. Towns and villages should be more thought of as neighbourhoods. For example, the place I live in now, has this exact address (ken is the suffix for prefecture).
Japan, Chiba-ken, Chiba-shi, Midori-ku, Ochi-chou, and then the numbered address.

So, that means, in the Country of Japan, inside the prefecture of Chiba, inside the city of Chiba (Chiba city is very large, and I THINK is a core city, although the suffixes are the same for core cities and regular cities), inside of the ward called Midori (We consider Midori as a city itself here), inside the 'town' of Ochi (Ochi is more of a neighbourhood).

Tokyo Prefecture is a unique prefecture. It is the only prefecture to have the suffix 'to' (Toukyou-to) (oh ya, by the way, It's not Tokyo, its Toukyou). 'to' means Metropolis. So yes, ALL of Tokyo Prefecture is actually a city. A super massive couple hundred kilometer city. The city is divided in to wards (ku). In Tokyo though.. the wards have the same amount of government power as regular cities. In fact, the wards are larger than most of the cities in Toukyou-to. The wards are near the center of what the imaginary 'tokyo city' would be, while the cities (shi) are near the outer reaches of Toukyou-to.

I hope that clears things a bit :)

Uh, now what else...
Oh yes, food. I've been specifically told by my Mom to say that I eat apples with a fork in Japan, not with my fingers. We cut them and use little forks... I don't find it that crazy... but my Mom does... so whatever :).

Everyone sits on the floor here, even though there is a couch... The floor is just comfy here. (We do use the couch though sometimes :) ).

Family is HUGE here, therefore, unlike what my brother does all the time and just sits downstairs... :)... we are always sitting around in our little living room, drinking tea, watching TV, and talking with eachother all the time. Most Japanese families do this. And since around Tokyo, you're gone to work from 8 to 8, you don't have lots of time to socialize with your family, so you use the time you have very well.

Yes, I have not really used a fork in a month, ohashi (お箸) all the way (chopsticks).

It's freezing in these houses. Why? Yes, I know the temperature isn't that cold outside (10-17 degrees still), however, there is no insulation in the house, and no heaters :). This means that inside the house goes down to 10 degrees :P. So we like our heated room (the living room and kitchen) which has a 'portable' heater in it that plugs in to the wall. We also like our tea and coffee :).

Contrary to popular belief, Tokyo is actually a pretty cheap place to eat. You can buy VERY good and VERY good quality Udon, Soba, Ramen, Sushi, and other various meals for under 8 dollars. Yes, 8, a full dinner, 8 bucks, in downtown Tokyo. :) And you'll be full after that dinner, and its really good.
Of course... you COULD go the expensive root for some REALLY good food (which I have done a few times).

I think thats all for now! I should be in my new place next time I blog. I'll have pics and stuff of course :)