Writing

I’m writing this on a rainy day in Kinshicho, Tokyo, in a little coffee shop overlooking a small shrine between an apartment block and a little boutique. Why? You might ask.

Well, the last time I wrote about my move to Japan, I optimistically titled the post “Goodbye rain, Hello Ramen,” and well… as Crowded House would point out, ' I’ve brought the weather with me.’

A small Inari shrine nestled between two buildings

At this point, I’ve been in Tokyo just over a week. Everything is still new and different to what I’m used to. As anyone who’s moved cities, let alone countries before, will tell you, trying to live somewhere isn’t the same as when you’ve been there on vacation. It’s a lot of running around, getting new things and setting things up so that you can sit down on an evening, get halfway through something, and only then realise that you can’t finish what you’re doing because you don’t have something you haven’t gotten around to getting yet.

My example of this experience is doing laundry, only to realise I had nowhere to dry it.

I mean that’s not even talking about the fun I had trying to find laundry detergent when you’re language skills aren’t quite that far and you’ve no internet to search for it - it’s 洗濯洗剤 (Sentaku senzai) for anyone’s future reference.

It might sound like a complaint, but it’s been a whole world of fun.

Well, that is after the first few days of adjusting to the timezone shift, which led to me accidentally picking up the wrong order from Burger King because, in my jetlagged state I confused八百五十六 (856) for八百六十五 (865) when it was called out. An easy mistake to make. Needless to say, I’ve decided to avoid that particular branch for now.

Still, when I’ve not been busy being a menace, getting overwhelmed in grocery stores or deciphering an endless supply of paperwork, signs and buttons, I’ve been enjoying getting lost. Maybe others class it as going for a walk? But, there’s something about picking a direction at random and seeing what you find that I enjoy. Besides, who knows what you might find?

Looking back over the last few days, I’m surprised how much I’ve managed to fit in and amazed at the number of things I still have left to do. Yet I can’t help but wonder how things will be when I start at the language school in the next week or so.

I want to claim I’ve gotten a head start, given that I spend about an hour or so each day working through lessons on my own. Yet, I’m reminded just how much I’ve got to learn every time I go into a shop and stumble over my words at the counter. 大丈夫です (Daijoubu desu), a straightforward and polite phrase meaning "No, thank you," that seems to evaporate every time I reach for it. Or its counterpart, はい、お願いします (Hai, onegai shimasu), "Yes, please."

Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not put off by this. I knew it was a long path when I started, and those times I hear a word or phrase that I recognise and can understand give me a glimmer of hope that it’s possible. That things are slowly coming together. It’s just going to take me a bit longer to master putting listening, understanding, and speaking together rather than as three separate steps.