June 28, 2007

“Hello”.

Someone said behind me on my way to a supermarket. I thought he was on the cell phone and I ignored him. He said “Isn’t it Tigger and Pooh?” and he smiled to me. Oh, he was talking about my bag. Yes, the pattern on my bag is Tigger and Pooh. I apologised to him, “I’m sorry that I thought you were on the phone”. He said “I like Tigger and Pooh...”, and he kept talking about the story of Tigger and Pooh. After a small conversation, he asked me “Are you a foreigner?” So, I answered “yes, from Japan.” He laughed and said, “You’re not planning to go back to Japan by train.” He actually asked me “Are you going home?” Ha hahaha... This time, I excused him to say “I thought you asked me ‘Are you a foreigner?’ ”. He said he is also a foreigner. I didn’t recognise it and asked where he was from. He said “Irish”. I see.

Since I’ve arrived here, I had only formal conversation with people in English and he is the first one who talked to me not for business. Though he smelled with alcohol and tobacco and didn’t look like Bill Murray (Joke), it is nice to have a friendly conversation.

June 27, 2007

I went to library for a PC with free Internet access. Today, I had two hours before my reservation for using it, so I looked around the library. It is a huge library. I found Shakespeare’s writings and audio books. Yes, it is nice to read and listen to Shakespeare’s works during my stay in his country. Maybe next time :)

I kept walking in the library. There is a “Language & Literature” section. This seems to be interesting. There are many language-learning books from all over the world. I found about 100 or more Japanese books. There’re also picture books, textbooks for learning English, travel guidebooks, novels and even mangas (comic books). The good point is that there is a huge variety. The bad point is that these books seem aimlessly gathered. These might be donated by Japanese who had left here. I found three copies of the same book titled “It’s fun to live in England” by a Japanese author. I also found a book titled “I’d like to live in Italy” written in Japanese. Who would read this book in Manchester??

June 26, 2007

It was fine today. After 12 days, this is the first day there is no shower the whole day through.

For solving the problem about water and electricity, I went to the state agent office of renting my place. I really appreciate their efforts that I could start to use my property by shortcut procedures. However, they let me know a different postal address. In England, postcode alone can identify the building. So, postcode plus a room number can usually identify my property. When I called an electricity company, however, the telephone operator said “I’m sorry, but I can’t find your property with your postcode and address”. WHERE am I living?? Their recommendation was to ask the landlord. I visited the state agent and they called to the landlord, but she also didn’t know about the correct address. WHO knows it? Anyway, I left my cell phone number and they will get back to me when they can find the correct address.

The maintenance person who was scheduled to come yesterday came here today. They promised to call my cell phone before their coming, but they called me after that. I was at library when I receive their phone call. Anyway, they had an extra key and came into my place and fixed some places. Things are not on schedule, but anyway there’s progress.

June 25, 2007

Things to do today are: call to BT, a water company and an electricity company.

I’m good at dealing with this kind of work in Japan. I could finish these three calls within 30 minutes, but here, I started at 9:40am and finished at 3:00pm. Actually it’s not finished yet. Everything takes much longer time than I estimate. Just making three calls takes such long time.

First of all, I started to call BT. My first priority is Internet access. Now there’s neither telephone line nor ADSL. So, I have to use my cell phone to call BT. They have a free call number, but the announcement said it requires normal charge from cell phone. Anyway I had no choice and waited someone picking up my call. The automatic voice message kept telling me “Sorry to keep waiting. Our line is very busy”. After 5 minutes wait, a person picked up my call. I said “I’d like to use telephone line and broadband service”. He said, “Do you want to use telephone line and broad band service?” I said “yes”. “I’ll connect this line to the section for telephone and broadband. Would you wait for a second?” I had no choice to say “yes”. Again I needed to wait under automatic voice message. After a while, I heard “1 minute remaining” warning from my cell phone. Does BT cost me during my waiting time? My first airtime is 10 pounds (2,400 yen), and this is the first call from my cell phone. Before I finish my calculation about the telephone fee, the line was cut off. And I was at home with no charged cell phone. The first 10 pounds charge helped me know only that I called a different section of BT. What a waste of time and money…

Anyway I have to re-charge my cell phone I have two more offices to call. By the way, how much money do I need to re-charge for finishing all three procedures? With 10 pounds, I didn’t even start the procedures.

I went out for re-charging and decided to use BT public phone. Then I can use free call. Telephone box isn’t comfortable, but it’s better than wasting my cell phone airtime. I have to repeat the same procedure again and I kept waiting under automatic voice message. Finally I reached an adviser. She was very kind. I’d already checked my broadband plan, so all the procedures finished. If I didn’t misunderstand, my broadband will be activated on the next Monday. It’s earlier than I expected. However, I doubt it a bit, because of the fact that a maintenance person is scheduled to come to check my place today but he’s not come yet. Even if the broadband engineer doesn’t come on next Monday, I shouldn’t be disappointed.

Two other calls to water and electricity companies, they have other problems. I’ll describe about this after solving the problems. Now that I use water and electricity without a problem, it’s not urgent so far.

June 24, 2007

TV arrives today! My place is furnished, but there was no TV. My life is becoming better day by day. Still I don’t have Internet access. My current access is from an Internet café or a library. It’s not convenient, but better than nothing. It may take three weeks for getting Internet access at home…. I’ll call BT (British Telecom) tomorrow. I also need to call a water company and an electricity company. I can use the utility now, but I should let them know I started to use the utilities from Thursday. I’m not sure who will pay the fee before I started to live here.

I have to pay water, electricity, TV, and council tax besides house rent fee. I didn’t know about council tax, but it’s about 100 pounds per month. Payment for TV license is also mandatory. If I use BT broadband service, telephone fee and broadband fee are also necessary…

June 23, 2007

It’s rainy season in Japan. It’s not called rainy season here, but every day there’s sudden shower. The weather in Manchester is easy to change.

At last, I got a library card and I could use Internet at library. The best thing is it’s free! The problem is I can’t write Japanese. Hope Internet access at my place will be active as soon as possible.

June 22, 2007

Before coming here, I was suffering for discarding my belongings. So, I decided not to buy things anymore, but now I do shopping again. Life is such a waste of time and money?
As I mentioned, people are very kind here. My frustration is that I don’t understand 100% what they say.
I could manage to make a contract for renting apartment. I made a phone call to the utility company for starting procedures. And usually things work without a big problem, however, I feel that I can’t say with no problem.
I also feel I can’t say 100% what I’d like to say. I went to shopping and took a look at cups. I actually didn’t do anything, but one of cups fell down and broke. It happened next to me, so I felt it might be my fault. I waited someone came. A lady came and she told me “it’s no problem. It’s usual things to happen.” Yes, she is very kind and I wasn’t blamed. BUT, I really didn’t do anything. HOWEVER, for avoiding her confusion, I just kept saying “I’m sorry”. Well, things go no problem, but I feel uncomfortable. This is my frustration in foreign country.

June 21, 2007

It’s been one week since I’d arrived in Manchester. Today, I moved in apartment. It’s amazing! Before coming here, I had nowhere to live just booked three nights at hotel. Now I finished the procedures of contract and started to live. This is a big relief. Now I have a place to live, yeah!

June 20, 2007

I’m so glad to receive comments and email from friends. THANK YOU for reading!!

I kept complaining about expensive items here, but actually there are some items cheaper than Japan. Fruits are cheaper and have more variety. I can buy raspberry, blueberry and pomegranate with reasonable price. These are expensive in Japan and I’ve never bought it. Now I enjoy eating them. The same goes for cheese, it’s cheaper and has more variety. Milk and bread are also cheaper. Vegetables aren’t so different. So, our breakfast is cheaper and has better quality.

Today I had lunch at Starbucks. Starbucks in England, it sounds strange to me. I learned that England is a country where people prefer to drink tea. Now Starbucks is easier to find than tea shop. There’re McDonalds and Subway. Many American shops are here. At movie theater (oh, I should write “theatre” in British English), now available is “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Fantastic Four”. These are Hollywood movies. The movie theatre itself is AMC (i.e. American Multi-Cinemas). America has strong influence to everywhere.

I don’t know why, but I had learned American English at school. All my British English experience is “Alice in wonderland” and some Mother Goose rhyme. As I know majority of Japanese learn American English at school. I think it would be better to learn British English as well as American. At first, British English sounds different because it’s different accent from what I learned at school. After a while, it sounds easier to recognize (oops, recognise). If I have a chance to teach English in Japan, I’d like to teach British English. For that purpose, I learn British English. My British English might have Manchester accent….

People are very kind here. So, I have no problem about my daily life. It’s obvious that foreigners are regarded as Gaijin in Japan, but here I don’t feel like I’m regarded as alien.

After I move in apartment, my first thing to do is getting Internet access. Now I understand why everybody is eager to get Internet access when they arrive in Japan.

Please cross your fingers for my moving and getting Internet access.

June 19, 2007

We found a good room for rent, but it usually takes 5 to 10 business days as procedures for moving. It’s unbearable. Because now we stay at hotel and it costs 89 pounds (around 20,000 yen) per night. After negotiation, we could start to live there this Thursday. Two days later. It’s wonderful! Everything doesn’t go on as scheduled, but anyway we have a small progress every day.

I got my cell phone today. It was really easy. In Japan, we’re required to show ID with Japanese address for getting even a pre-paid one. Here, I could get it without ID. I just let them know my name, birthday and postal code. The cheapest one is 9.99 pounds. Now I have my telephone number here!

I had French fries at McDonalds. It costs 99 pence. I paid 1 pound and didn’t receive 1 pence change. I can’t believe this. I know this happens a lot in USA. When I was in NY, whenever I bought something that costs 99 cents, I have never received 1 cent change. But here is England. I expected to receive change, but I didn’t receive it … I’m not complaining about the money, but this never happens in Japan. Even 1 yen or 1 cent or 1 penny, if it’s someone’s change, it should be returned.

June 18, 2007

It’s not easy to find a room for rent. We went to the office on Saturday, but we couldn’t check our accommodation immediately. We made reservation for checking the rooms. Sunday is closed and Monday is full of schedule, so earliest possibility is Tuesday. Anyway, we extend our hotel for three more nights. Hope we could use the room immediately.

On Sunday, we walked around this area. We found Asian supermarket. There is a small China town in Manchester. We can buy rice, soy sauce, Chinese or Japanese tea and Hello Kitty there. Hahaha now Hello Kitty is one of the symbols of Asia.

Today, I went window shopping. It’s colder than I imagine, so I need a jacket or something warmer. All selling clothes are for summer….. Anyway this is good to see because the season people wear this kind of summer cloth will come soon. I have to wait for a while the time comes.

I sometimes feel nervous whether my English does make sense or not. Actually, people do something if I say something. This morning, I asked a lady at front desk of hotel to print out my name with hotel address. This is because I wanted to be a membership of city library. A lady asked me “how to spell your name?” So, I said “E.R.I.K.O”, she said “OK”. And she handed printed out one to me, it’s written “ERICA”. Sigh….

Does this caused by she thought I have English name or just my pronunciation isn’t good enough? Anyway, the library didn’t accept hotel address for membership card, so I need neither Eriko nor Erica ID.

I failed to be member at library again, so I went to Internet café instead. It cost 1 pound (=240yen) for 30 minutes. I can read Japanese email, but can’t write Japanese letters. Different letters are inconvenient.

June 14, 2007

Hello from Manchester.

Finally I arrive in Manchester. Now I stay at hotel and try to find place to live. For finding place to live, I visited two places. Both of them gave me web link and recommend me to search by Internet first and if I find something interesting, I could call them. OK I need Internet service. At city library, free Internet service is available. I went there and asked whether I could use Internet. If I could get a membership of the library, I could use Internet. For getting a membership service, I need UK address. Well, I have to find other way to use Internet. At hotel Internet service is available with 10 pounds for 24 hours. Now I have no choice and use the expensive service.

Good things today:

-I got banana on road. In Japan, we receive tissue with advertisement. Here, advertisement sticker is on a banana! This is good idea. I like it.

-I didn’t lose my way back to hotel. This is important for me.

Bad things today:

-I couldn’t chance my travelers check to cash at bank. I need to open account first and need to pay some fee for it and also takes 5 business days. I just wanted to change 100 pounds… I went to supermarket and used 20 pounds check. I was required to show my passport. Well traveler’s check isn’t easy to use here.

-Traffic rule is not so different from Japan, but I don’t get the traffic lights for pedestrian. Hope I can keep avoiding cars.