Stop, Honk, Crash!

When I said I wanted to really experience living in Japan, I meant things like the culture, food, traveling, maybe even an onsen. I did not mean the process involved with getting into a fender-bender.

Monday after school Chris, Sami and I went to park in the parking garage at the grocery store on Rokko Island. We took our entry ticket and pulled into the lane to head to the area we always park. The car in front of us stopped so we did as well. She threw her car into reverse and started backing towards a parking spot (for some reason parking is always done backwards here) and the next thing I know she was getting really close to my car. I blew the horn and less than a second later CRASH. She had hit us.

Watching an "accident scene" here is always quite interesting and sometimes even amusing. Usually there are no less than 3 police cars and 6 policemen, all with clipboards and tape measures. From what I had always been told, doing a report is quite a lengthy process. So imagine my thoughts when I realized what had just happened.

Luckily (if there is something lucky about this) the women who hit my car spoke English. Had she not, I am not sure what I would have done. She told me we couldn't just exchange insurance information as we do for things like this in the states (yes I asked). She called the police and they showed up about 20 minutes later (I guess fender benders in parking garage isn't a high priority) and tried asking me what happened. My limited Japanese and world-champion charades didn't get me very far for my side of the story. Luckily the other woman was in a hurry so she somehow managed to get the policeman to not call in the tape measure reinforcements and he took the report and drew pictures himself. I had no idea what paperwork was our insurance card, nor the registration of the car, so I handed them a pile of folders and envelopes and prayed what they needed was inside one of them. The last thing I needed was to be hauled off to a Japanese jail, eating rice and drinking green tea until I was bailed out.

Over 90 minutes later, and a pile of fried chicken remains that I used to bribe the kids into being quiet, we were finally done playing charades, exchanging information and listening to a conversation that I had absolutely no idea what was being said. (Although my paranoid side said they were talking about me, especially when they looked my way and laughed) Needless to say my confidence in how well I thought I was doing learning the Japanese language took a serious hit.

Matt took the whole thing in stride. However he has yet to venture into the garage to see Betsy-Blue's injuries.  He may have a few more choice words when he does. And it was all I could do to keep Chris from posting my misfortune on his Facebook status.

To be honest I have no clue what happens now (or what happened during those 90 minutes). The insurance agent doesn't speak English so a translator called to get my information. Apparently it will take the police 10 to 14 days to write their report and assess the percentage of fault on each person. Japan has a "no-fault" rule, so no matter what happens, some of the fault will lie on each party. After that, it is back to playing charades to figure out what happens next.

So I guess this adventure is to be continued... 

Cooking/Baking in Japan

Back when I was in college I could barely make Jello or mac and cheese. Over the years I have grown to be pretty decent in the kitchen. I love to cook and bake. However since moving here I feel like I have had a whole new learning curve.

First, no matter how hard you try, there are just some items that you cannot find here.  Fresh jalapenos, spices like celery seed and cream of tarter, noodles, buttermilk, most cereals, rotel tomatoes, most cheeses, most salad dressings, biscuits, wheat and multigrain breads, and cool whip to just name a few.  Some of the items we can bring back in our suitcases after homeleave, and a few we can have shipped from the states (for a hefty cost), but mostly we just have to set some recipes aside until we return stateside.

Many of the Japanese brand items are just different than what we have in the states. For example, butter, flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar, sour cream, and yogurt all are a different consistency and taste than what we are used to. Sometimes it is trial and error to get our recipes to work with these items.  Other items may have the same name as a US product, but upon opening we find out it is something totally different. Italian salad dressing is one example.

As I have mentioned before, there are import stores we can get some items not typically found in a Japanese store, such as canned vegetables, pasta sauces, brownie and cake mix, chocolate chips, nuts and other baking items. However, all these items come at a price. I have not been able to figure Japanese flour out for baking so I buy a bag of Gold Medal flour –– for $10 USD a bag. Occasionally the import stores will have a loaf of frozen multigrain bread –– for $8. And when we can get items at the import store, many times they are not the brand we want. For example, you cannot find Nestle chocolate chips here, only Hershey's.

I have to say, in some ways the challenges have been good. I have been forced to try new recipes, expand our menus, experience some different international foods, and cook more from scratch. Prepackaged, low fat and processed foods are not common here. And even though I have lived here almost two years now, there are still days I find myself banging my head on the kitchen counter because I just spent $30 for something that totally flopped and is uneatable. Or I really want to make a certain recipe to realize there is just no way to find all the ingredients.

So the next time you are walking through a grocery store take time to stop and "smell the groceries".  Then email me so I can live vicariously through you ––  just for a few moments.

How To Buy A Car In Japan When You Speak No Japanese

Everyone had told us that Matt should start the car buying process before I came over. We didn't listen as Matt thought it would be nice for me to get to pick out my car. (see he can be sweet!) Boy do we regret that now.

There are three ways to buy a used car in Japan. 1- A used lot (which there are not that many of) 2- An auction (this is where almost everyone goes) 3- From another person (we have tried this route however have only found a small car for sale) We had been told that the auctions are very stressful and that everyone hates them. We had been told of a dealership on Port Island that had an English speaking salesman and if they didn't have a car on their lot we liked that we could find one in the computer. So we decided to go the dealership route with the English speaking salesman.

Matt and I set out on Saturday morning with high hopes of coming home with a car purchased. After walking an hour looking for the place we arrived to find out that the only person who speaks English is out sick. (Of course) We managed to look at the cars and got a better idea of what we wanted. We were very disappointed, however a trip to Ikea afterwards was a great pick me up.

After leaving the dealership and heading to Ikea (on foot of course) I told Matt my feet were burning in the back. I had decided to go fashionable and wear some cute skinny jeans and ballet flats. Lesson learned from this decision is that you should never, ever wear new shoes when walking vast amounts of distances. (We probably walked 4+ miles that day.) Why not? Because by the time you get home your feet look like this:


Saturday night we got onto a used car site and located 3 cars that we wanted to see. After church we set out to try and find these cars at what we thought were close to each other locations. After having no luck in finding any of them we tried to find the train station home, figuring they were close by because of the Google map we had printed. However the map master (AKA Matt) didn't realize that he had blown up the areas pretty good and the train stations were miles apart, as were all the dealerships. We figured out that we had probably walked a good 7+ miles that day, if not more. Up and down hills. Thank goodness I had slip on shoes that day.

So today Matt is calling the auction consultant and finding out what we need to do. We have given up on doing this our own way and are ready to conform to what everyone else does. Maybe by the end I will have a cute car like this one:


However Matt keeps joking that I will get something more like this. And btw, these are about as long as they are wide.


So after being here 21 days we are still no closer to having a vehicle than we were before I arrived. While a car is not a necessity here as we will train it most places, it would be a huge help in getting Emily home each night from practice, making it possible for us to stay for Sunday school at church (the shuttle doesn't run after Sunday school) and in getting heavier groceries home. And the bigger pain, once we do pick out the car, with the red tape involved here it will still be almost 10 days before we even get the car.

And as far as my feet goes? They may never be the same again. This is what the looked liked this morning after I removed a Neosporin covering from them.