suicide
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Dramas, dramas.

As was trying to concentrate on work (very difficult lately), a local phone rings. The realty agent.

‘a-no, did you already stay in your apartment?’

‘yeah, all’s well’

‘a-no, the landlord, a-no, called me today. You know, a-no, its a 13-story building.’

‘yeah (was it?)’

’someone fell from 13th floor on sat night. A-no, the person died.’

Then long long long apologetic and sad talks about this.

‘a-no, this is just among japanese. I hope, a-no, you wont consider this as bad luck.’

I grew up w plenty of stories about ghosts, definitely not less than here. It was my first night in the apartment. How should i take this? Any cultural insight?

name card
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Duh. My name in chinese characters got printed on the back side (or is this front side)? Its prob read something like ‘ei-yoroko’ or ‘ei-ki’ in japanese reading, according to my colleague. Sounds quite funny to start with ‘ei’ (means ‘no’ in finnish).

neighbor - office
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

A closest hotel to office that accepts short ‘rest’ stay.

lunch place
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Kamimeguro sakura shopping center. Last lunch before my favorite colleague/person in tokyo goes away for his well-earned holiday for a month ;_;

lunch
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Asian flavour pasta. Nice hot meal for a change.

optical fiber
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Seems like a simple option for the place. Hope i filled in the app form ok.. (in finland there was roughlate & helpful colleagues, but here i rely on my baby jap) It says it takes 2-3 weeks for processing. Quite a long time to live without ubi internet connection.

better than rolling up?
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Of course, there’s a product for making the skirt (school uniform) shorter.

ei mainoksia
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

Opened the mailbox first and got all these. As part of the cultural learning, these had to stop at my place first before going to recycling center. Thinking of this, finland is probably the only place where ‘no junk mail please’ sign actually works.

the gas man
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

The man i was happiest to see. He was really really polite, or, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible. After opening up the gas supply, he had to check all the equipments using the gas whether they were functioning.

The cost of living with risks of the earthquake is quite expensive for japanese people. There’s a reset button for the gas which checks all the parts in the house for the potential gas leak. Of course, he too left me with a pile of paper and instruction manuals.

fridge delivery
Originally uploaded by jabberer.

These ‘white’ goods are not by default installed in the rental apartment in japan. Two guys came to deliver. First guy was all embarrassed that i was a foreigner, so he turned to the second guy who then asked me: ‘fridge positiong?’ the first guy is all very impressed.

These guys were very efficient and self-sufficient: they made a door-stopper w the card board, unwrapped the product in the corriddor, brought the thing in, removed all the stickers and stuff and left with all the trash. The attention to details is quite amazing for those who work in specialized areas.