Monday, January 17, 2011

that apartment thing again and new year's fortune paper slip

first something that upset me so much yesterday that i cried in public (which made my groceries-shopping quite difficult).
through an ad on one of those foreigner in japan websites i had found a canadian girl that was searching for a roommate. on sunday we finally met to get to know each other. she had already found a british girl, but was open to share an apartment with two people as well. everything went fine and so yesterday morning we went to an real estate agency together. the british girl seemed nice too and we started our hunt for a apartment.

the more we saw (we went to another agency as well), the less we felt confident of finding something that came even close to be ok and not totally overpriced. also, my senses wouldn't stop tingling, but i ignored them ... until (back at the first agency), the canadian girl's bitchiness reached a peak and i couldn't take it anymore. we exchanged some words, quickly leading to my decision that this would definitely not work and the sooner we parted the better. so i left that place, honestly glad to not have to put up with that girl anymore, but at the same time devastated because now i was back at the start of finding a place to live, which at that moment seemed impossible to me. and also, i'm not used to being attacked out of the blue by some emotionally unbalanced, rude stranger. yes, wahwah, but i just felt awful.

so, back home (after that awkward shopping trip), i threw myself to searching through those gaijin websites and i actually found some very promising stuff. i'm pretty positive one of those will work out, some already replied and asked when i wanted to see the apartment. phew.


but now to new year's eve (a bit late)!
to my deep disappointment, there's no firework on new year's eve in japan. instead, people go to a shrine and pray for the next year to be a good one. we (moto and me) went there a little after twelve (freeeeeezing cold!) and joined a swelling stream of people heading to the shrine. turning the last corner, we suddenly stood in the middle of a little festival, lots of people wrapped in thick jackets, a sweets and food area and of course a huge queue leading to the front of the shrine.


the queue leading to the front of the shrine




there was a stand where you could shake a big wooden thing and depending on which stick fell out of the hole on the bottom, you would get a slip of paper that tells your fortune for the next year. of course i had to try that! it took me forever to shake one of those sticks out, probably holding it wrong. finally i got it and moto translated it for me. my fortune for 2011 is a bit ma ma, i think there's five different levels, probably mine was nr 3. moto's was 2, so a bit better. i don't remember much, only thing that was very clear was that i should not travel west this year, any other direction is fine. so no visiting my family this year.
it also said my studies and my business situation would be difficult, but it will work out. hope so.


fortune!

mini shrine on an island near the big one


 the next day we went there again and the queue was even longer!

back to recent events: i hope that i will get some real work soon at the office, till now the only thing i did was making copies, scanning wedding magazines and, not to forget, clean coffee cups, the rest of the day i had to myself. not what i call a fulfilling job, but i can't complain, at least at the moment. better this than cleaning dishes in a bar all night. and maybe it will change soon. it has to, at some point ... right?


    

2 comments:

  1. Hey...das hört sich ja alles ein bisschen kompliziert an! oder nicht nur ein bisschen...lass dich nicht unterkriegen, das mit der Wohnung wird schon klappen! Da hast du sicherlich die richtige Entscheidung getroffen, es is schlimm, mit jemandem zusammenzuwohnen, mit dem man überhaupt nicht klarkommt. Mach dir keinen Stress. Wünsch dir natürlich auch bald verantwortungsvollere Aufgaben bei deinem Job! Übrigens...die Erde ist rund, notfalls also einfach nach Osten fliegen, dann kommt man irgendwann auch bei uns raus ;) hugs, Julia

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  2. ja, es war gut, dass es sich so schnell rausgestellt hat und nicht erst nach vertragsunterzeichnung. puh. morgen mittag seh ich mir was vielversprechendes an, ich bin gespannt. :)

    jaaa, die erde ist rund, aber den schicksals-zettel betrügen? ich weiß ja nicht ... :D

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