Egg'd

I made breakfast this morning and was waiting for it to cool to an edible temperature when I noticed I had left my camera out from trying to get pictures earlier. So here’s what I eat in the morning.

I’m thinking I’ll do eggs or something to go with the rice every other day or so, and just do plain rice on the off days. Keep in mind that when I eat rice on its own, I add soy sauce and green onions, so it’s not just sad, lonely rice. The eggs pictured have a little pepper in them, but this was a very low-sodium breakfast, and the taste certainly attested to it. I figured I’d give un-soy’d and unsalted food a shot.

I have my placement test today. I don’t think I’m going to do well. Ms. Aika KUMADA warned us that some people wouldn’t be able to answer a single question, and I there’s either a one- or two-year (I don’t recall which) language prerequisite for this program.

Also, I was going to buy a bike yesterday for ￥16,800, but Bethany told me about a bike shop by the school that I had forgotten about. I didn’t know they had bikes there available for as little as ￥5,000, so I’m going to hit that place up on the way. I may still buy a bike from the place in the mall for more, but that’s $110 difference. I’m wary, though, ‘cause the last bike I bought for cheap had pieces falling off within two months. I’m sure some of remember my green bike of no pedals, a non-working rear brake, and soforth.

It will be helpful for this next section if you know that converting JPY yen to USD dollars is approximately done by covering the last two zeroes and ignoring commas. Thus ￥1,000 becomes $10. Easy.

Bikes here have more gadgets than American bikes. They also all look like they’re from the 1950’s or something. Very, very few bikes don’t have a basket, mud guards, a headlight, a platform over the rear wheel, and a built in lock under the seat that locks said wheel. The bike I was looking at has a light that’s powered by a magnet and uses an LED instead of an incandescent bulb. From what I’m told, the little cog that powers the light on most bikes rubs the tire down pretty quickly. It also uses a drum brake on the rear wheel instead of V brakes (the ones that crimp down on both sides) on both, though it still uses those on the front tire, along with a spring that prevents you from applying too much braking to the front tire. I think it’s called the “Shimano power modulator”. I haven’t seen diagrams, but I suspect it’s basically a spring in a can the size of パリパリチーズ (if you don’t know, don’t ask: it’s weird).

This brings me to my next topic: helpfulness of Japanese employees. I was talking this old man that works in the bike shop by the mall and, in addition to answering questions (my questions, by the way, are phrased in very broken Japanese, which means it gets complemented by about three people a day) for more than fifteen minutes, actually recommended that I go to the other bike shop because they have more bikes.

Bizarrely enough, they wanted my address to buy a bike. I was hoping it would go like this:

Will:このみどりの自転車をお願いします。
(I’d like this green bike.)

Clerk: はい。十六千八百円です。。。はい、二万円をいたいています。四十千円をおかりします。
(Yes, that is $160. I’m receiving $200. Your change is $40.)

Will [to the old man]: いろいろなことにどうもありがとうございました。
(Thank you very much for your help.)

Will: [exit stage, front door, with bike]

But this is Japan, so there’s paperwork to fill out. Doubtless they want to know how many people I’ve killed in the last month, whether or not I’ve been abusing drugs too frequently, whether I’ve had a measles shot in the past ten years, and what my first girlfriend’s cat’s favorite food was, along with a second set of paperwork to file if you’ve never had a girlfriend, and further paperwork if your non-girlfriend didn’t have a cat, or if he didn’t like to eat anything at all.

I hate paperwork.

Anyway, I really should be studying for the placement test. Not practicing kanji for the past four months is going to have hurt me quite a bit, I suspect.

Included is Bethany posing while making yakisoba and the girls camping the kitchen while making said yakisoba.