Stuff that bugs me now & then

All in all adjusting to life in Japan has been ok so far; no huge depression, identity crisis or break downs that are worth mentioning! But just to show that it's not always a walk in the park either, here are a few elements of life in Fukuoka that sometimes get to me:

• Noise: before we departed, our Kiwi friend Brett warned us that finding a quiet corner in Japanese cities can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. At first we disagreed with him, smugly commenting on how peaceful our neighbourhood is and how lucky we are... Only now can we identify with his remark, because after two months the noisepollution in our area has become very clear. Not only is our jutaku (appartmentbuilding) filled with babies and toddlers who scream almost constantly (no kids for us yet, thank you very much!), but we are also surrounded by two primary schools, one high school and a university. All these students together manage to make a hell of a racket, especially when they have sports in the playground and produce wild cheers and renditions of 'We are the champions'! Sleeping in on a Saturday morning is also a bit of a luxury as we are often rudely awakened by metallic voices bursting out of moving vehicles. So far we haven't been able to establish what these public messages proclaim, maybe it's just the milkman passing. Morale of this story: never again ignore the wise warnings of our man Brett!

• Supermarkets: going shopping in either New Zealand or Belgium was always blisfully hassle-free, as at least one of us would know the local products. Here it's a different story, more like the blind leading the blind! Vaughan's knowledge of hiragana and katakana is certainly better than mine, but he's not advanced enough to read all the labels, which makes buying groceries a bit like Russian roulette :-). On several occasions we've bought butter thinking it was cheese and that's not even tackling the Japanese products! Our first experience frustrated both of us so much that we had to leave the shop without half of our wanted items, like miso, dashi stock or soy sauce... Luckily my friend Yasuko was so kind to accompany me to a department store food court and initiate me into the wonderous world of nashi -Japanese pears-, tofu, endless varieties of seaweed and beets, unfamiliar kinds of fish and giant radishes (see photo). Arigato gozaimasu Yasuko! Now at least we have some clue, although the shelves of Sunny are still stocked with many mysteries...

• Heat: my friends know that I'm not the kind of girl who enjoys frying on a beach or basking in glorious sunrays. With fair skin, freckles and a genetic tendency towards headaches I try to avoid sun and heat as much as I can, which is very hard in tropical Kyushu. Summers here are notoriously humid, sticky and sweaty, and on top of that they seem to last from May untill November! Fukuoka was even on the news yesterday because of the unusually high temperature on October 1st: 33,5 degrees, ouch... What to do for a person like me? Turn on the airco in our living room -bad for global warming, sorry-, take plenty of cold showers, find shelter in the lovely cool shopping malls of the central city and lastly, do like Japanese women and walk around with a delicate summer umbrella, a simple trick to remain in the shade :-). Can't wait 'till autumn starts...