Tuesday, August 23, 2005

When in Chiba...

Well I'm here and in one piece. It's more humid than heck and the wind howls at night...I kind of like the howling. Speaking of howling...the cat I live with, Doc (short for Doc Holiday) meows constantly. If he wasn't so cute, we'd have problems.

The city of Chiba is really cool! There is anything you could want in a small city...cafes, restaurants, train station, a bay, shops, parks...but I haven't checked out the night life. I don't really have any friends yet although my boss and her sister have been very accomodating and generous.

I've been a bit of a hermit so I don't have too much to say at this time. I'll post some pictures soon and some stories too! I just wanted to let you know I'm doing fine and I miss you! Please feel free to write, I should be getting internet service soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may've figured this out by now, Kate, but for the benefit of your readers: you're not in Chiba. You're in a suburb called Makuhari (assuming you're at the address listed below). Your Byzantine Japanese address lists Chiba twice because Makuhari is in the Chiba ward of Chiba prefecture. Chiba city -- in Chiba ward of Chiba prefecture -- is about twenty minutes east on the Keiyo line.

It's funny that you made that confusion, though. It shows how ridiculous Japan is -- i.e., you'd be excused for thinking you're in a city there in Makuhari. But no, you're in a densely populated suburb of a city, Chiba, which is itself more or less a suburb of Tokyo. What's in between all those densely populated suburbs? More suburbs filled with highrise apartments. Ain't no city like a Japanese city, cause a Japanese city don't stop.

Yeah, anyway, I look forward to these updates, since -- to clear up confusion for anyone reading this who doesn't know me -- I used to live in that very apartment and work that very job.

Oh! And you should get in touch with that guy Jesse. I only met him once, but he's awesome.


Benjo-chan

Kate said...

Yep, I keep asking people where I live because my address is a full paragraph! I finally figured out that Grand Patios is the name of the building I live in. So thankyou Ben for clearing that up for me and my viewers! Makuhari sounds way cooler anyway!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and have you looked at the address in Japanese? I personally never got good at writing kanji so that it's actually readable, so, on several ocassions, I was signing up for something -- a Costco membership or a video store card or something -- and I had to ask the clerk to copy my address for me from my gaijin card. In other words, I had to basically ask, "Um. . . can you tell me where I live?"

And yeah, "Makuhari" sounds cool as ben (Nihongo: "shit"). Not to mention your train stop, "Keihin-Makuhari," which means seaside Makuhari.