I have the internets! Let's write a post! (AKA How to set up your home internet service in Japan.)

As advertised, I installed my internet this morning. There was a great bit of stressing and worrying about properly installing everything. It's not that I'm technologically impaired - there are some differences between Japanese internet and the internet I've had at home.

First, everything is in Japanese! Every piece of paper given to me regarding my internet installation was written in kanji. This included all the instructions. My router software is in Japanese only. The software provided by the internet company was Japanese-only, which meant it was very difficult to install (and it still didn't properly install).

Second, Japan (at least, the internet service I use - NTT) uses PPPoE, a login protocol I wasn't familiar with. You sign up with a line provider and a service provider and you get IDs and passwords for both. It turns out I only needed the one from my service provider to login, but I wasn't sure of this.

Third, the person who set the account up for me stressed strongly the need to ensure everything was up and running on the installation date. I'm not sure what would have happened if I didn't, but I was afraid I'd mess something up and have to wait another week or two for service.

It turns out that for the most part, my worries were unfounded. So some tips to anyone going through a similar process:

If they tell you that you can install the service on your own, it's not too tough a job. This is especially true if (a) you know where your phone line is in an apartment - even if you don't have phone service and (b) if you've set up your own internet/network devices in America or other countries (I'm guessing). There's a modem that connects to the phone line, to which you then connect your router or computer.
If you're using a router, the service provider ID and password get entered into the PPPoE settings in the router. PPPoE was written in "English" in the menu of my Buffalo-brand router, under the Internet tab (again, in English). Then I just matched the characters for user ID and user password on my service provider's sheet.
If you're connecting the modem directly to your computer, you need to set up PPPoE on your own machine. You don't need to install any special software if you're running Vista or newer, but I recommend searching for instructions on how to set up a PPPoE connection. It isn't hard to do and the instructions will be the same whether you're connecting to a Japanese network or an American network.
It was very easy to identify the user ID and password on my service provider's sheet. They provided a couple different IDs and passwords, though - so if this is the case, use the first set provided. I am making the assumption that you've hooked up a home network before, though. If you haven't, it might be best to find a friend with experience setting up this sort of stuff. Working with kanji is very difficult if you don't read it, and not having an idea of how to set up a router can make this task impossible when everything is in kanji and you don't know what to look for.

Now that my internet is up, I can finally get back to writing posts daily or at least every other day. I've done a good bit of exploring in Tokyo and I have a lot to write about, so hopefully tomorrow I'll pick a good topic for everyone.

I will say, now, that the most difficult part of living in Japan continues to be the language. I can translate most websites fairly well using Google's translation tool, but it doesn't work when I'm in the grocery store staring at something that could be fish, pork, or chicken. Or octopus balls, as it seems I ate Sunday night. I'm always able to get the basics down to get what I need, and most of the questions I get asked tend to be the same so I have got in the routine of answering a certain way when I get a question, or just answering before I get asked.

For example, when I buy bento (takeout) meals at the convenience stores, most of the time they'll ask if I want it heated. When I go to a restaurant that has takeout or sit-in meals (i.e. McDonalds), I'll know to say "eat in" (pointing down) or "takeout" (pointing towards the door) - most seem to know "takeout" anyway. Japanese convenience store employees are very good about using gestures - they'll wave at the screen when telling me their total, they'll point to the microwave or hold up a spoon, etc. And again, most stuff is so routine, I can figure out what they're asking or saying.

But still, amongst all the noise and talking around and with me, I live in a fairly quiet, isolated world when I'm not at work. But that's a post for another day. And not tomorrow.

Here is one of the most popular songs in Japan right now - the only one I ever seem to hear:

Until next time, goodnight!

Let's go to the toilet! Western style!

This post was written Saturday evening. I feel the need to add this as some of my posts seem to be out of order, or I'm writing them one day and just not being able to post them until a day or two later.

I'm sure many of you have heard about the fancy toilets in Japan. I used one of them recently, and I thought I'd give a little bit of my thoughts.

Obviously I borrowed this image, but the concept is the same in the one I used.

Here I am, in the internet cafe, writing a post, when the urge comes. Not just a minor urge, either. In the words of Michael J Fox's character on Scrubs, I had to make. So I made for the cafe's bathroom and opened the door, and saw basically what you see here!

I forgot to bring my tissues. They hand them out on the street here as advertising materials (I'll show that some other time). But thankfully the bathroom was properly stocked. The seat was up, so I dropped it down, had a seat, and... wow! It was warm! Yup, the heated seats are just that!

Anyway, I did my business, and curiosity got the best of me. I can tell the difference between the pink and the blue buttons (which, by the way, were even better-labeled on this men's-only toilet), so I hit the blue and prepared myself mentally. Which you can think you're doing, but really, you can't possibly imagine what water shooting at your butt feels like if you haven't done it before! As with the seat, the water was pleasantly warm, and I suppose it did a good job of cleansing. I hit the stop button (which didn't say "stop" on it, although I figured it out when the water went on a bit longer than expected). I still needed the toilet paper to dry myself, and I didn't exactly check to see how clean it was afterwards. That's not my idea of a good time.

It's exciting because it's different, but still, the toilet was totally awesome. The heated seat alone makes fancy toilets worth whatever they cost.

By the way, toilets here have two flushes. One symbol represents a low-water flush for liquids, and the other a larger flush. The symbols are "small" (小) and "large" (大), and I tend to think about it like a person spreading their arms to represent a small flush (arms closer together) or a flush "THIS BIG!".


As for Japanese word progress, I haven't been working too much on this and I haven't had much of a chance. We went out tonight for ramen (oishii!) and I asked to be reminded about some of what Elizabeth taught me - itadakimasu (literally, I humbly receive) and gochiso sama deshita (desh'ta) (which means thank you for the meal). I haven't used oishii out loud yet, though nearly everything I've had so far fits the bill! As I said, I had a really thick-brothed (lots of flour?) ramen and fried rice combo meal for dinner tonight. Really, it was great! It certainly hit the spot after today's training.


There will be a whole other post devoted to more Western-style Japanese toilets at some point, but for now, I thought this would be a great experience to share as it was my first, and it's on my mind!

Now, to catch up on the 165 blog posts I haven't read from the past two days! Reading (and commenting) will be much easier when I can return to checking a few times per day instead of once every day or two.

First morning impressions

It is my first morning in Japan. I woke up pretty early, around 7 AM, but I slept well after going to bed about 11 PM last night. My bed is a futon, thin and quite hard, but I'm not sore and I don't recall having trouble sleeping. I was a bit worried that sleeping on such a firm mattress would be uncomfortable. Ask me again in a few days and I'll let you know how it is in the long run. Of course, in two weeks I'll be sleeping on a different futon in my apartment, which may change the game completely!

I have a fairly large room, empty except for the futon and a short table, all to myself. The bathroom is Japanese style with a western toilet (I don't have to learn how to squat and poop yet!). This means there's a very deep tub and the rest of the room is waterproof so you can shower outside the tub. It looks like most people probably shower in the tub anyway (at least around here) as there are some paper products and such in the bathroom. Plus this bathroom has the toilet and shower/sink in the same room, which isn't quite traditional I think.

For breakfast so far I had this strawberry and bread type of thing that was really good. I think it was meant more for dessert though, something I didn't realize until I opened it this morning. I took a cue from my more Japan/experienced training mates and grabbed a package of noodles in a hot dog bun (soba roll) and something that I think is a peanut butter sandwich. Since nobody else is up and downstairs yet I'll probably wait to see how she eats it (does she heat it up? Does she eat it like a hot dog?) and do the same as I'm still a bit hungry. It looks like we don't get a lunch break today since we're working from 11 til 3.

Am I experiencing culture shock yet? Not quite. I can thank my training mates for that as they have been doing all the talking. The restaurant yesterday was my first experience with a ticket vending restaurant, but it was simple to figure out. They did the talking at the Internet cafe, and I didn't need to say much of anything at the market. I realize I need to get some basic Japanese down quickly, though.

Words I already know:
Densha - train - learned from Elizabeth
Ichi, ni, san, chi, go - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - learned from a song, mainly
Hachi, juhachi - 8, 18 - learned from Saturday Night Live. Ju (or is it juu?) means 10, so I can count 11-15 as well. If that's correct, that is!
Origato - thank you!
Sumi maisan - I'm sorry.

I think those are correct. If I can get those down, I have a good start on very basic communication. Having people around me who speak some Japanese means I have some help I communicating these next two weeks, but it is also a crutch of sorts that might slow down some of the first steps in learning.