Monday, May 21, 2007

Only one week left in Japan


Here's the guy I had a date with yesterday. OK, so maybe it wasn't really t-h-a-t kind of date, but he was all smiley and cute and I just had to take a picture of him. (Too bad it looks like he's got a laundry pole going through his head or that he's wearing some kind of strange laundry hat, but hey, it's a small patio!) He was from the shipping company and came to get my boxes. That's an apron he's wearing over his jeans, but I don't know what it says--probably the name of the shipping company.

I was surprised to see only one guy! Isn't this Japan, the country where it takes at least two people to do any one task? He was supposed to show up between 5:30 and 6:00 but called me at 4:00 to say he would be there early, at 4:30. Of course, all this was in Japanese. I've learned to use very basic English in these situations where neither of us can understand each other, so I said, "five-three-zero?" And he laughed and said, "four-three-zero." I said, "OK, see you then." "Hai," he said.

Anyway, when he got to my apartment there was the language barrier again as I attempted to ask him if he had any stickers for marking certain boxes "FRAGILE" to which he just smiled in that nervous "what the hell is she saying?" kind of way. This time I had to call the shipping company which is run by a bi-cultural couple, and explain what I wanted. She then asked to speak to Mr. Cute Shipper Guy and explained what I wanted. He did a lot of "Hai, hai, hai, hai!" and hung up. In a minute or two my phone rang and it was the shipping company apologizing for the guy having hung up before she could tell me that he said he didn't have any labels with him but would put them on the boxes I had marked "Fragile" later.

We'll see.

So, now I must focus on getting rid of the stuff that didn't go at the sayonara sale, cleaning my frig, and packing everything that's left into my suitcases. I also have to handle my cell phone cancellation (see Rants & Raves below) go to the bank to exchange money, and buy a few small gifts for my managers and staff. Oh, and work. Saturday is my last day at work and I'll leave Japan on May 29th.

Things are moving too fast!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello.Nice to meet you.
An apron he was wearing over his jeans is an advertisement for SAKE,named 'Toukou'.
His company must carry that Toukou's SAKE bland stuff.
and here is something.
http://www.sake-toko.co.jp/

Sorry I am a japanese , so I can't write in English well.
Have a nice flight. Take care.
I hope you will keep this blog writting after you back to home.

^_^v

Absolutely Tokyo! said...

Hello Annoymous! Nice to meet you, too! Thanks for the information about what was on his apron. I never would have guessed it was an advertisement for a sake company! How cute! One of my students last night told me that these aprons are typical for such workers.

I think your English writing skills are quite good, so don't worry about it so much. You did a great job!

Please come back to my blog again when you have time. It's nice to have a Japanese visiting it, and I'll probaby be writing more about my new observations of life in America after living in Japan. There are many differences, but also some similarities.

Thanks again for your good wishes!