{"id":725,"date":"2004-04-20T23:00:16","date_gmt":"2004-04-20T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-20\/725"},"modified":"2004-04-20T23:00:16","modified_gmt":"2004-04-20T14:00:16","slug":"getting-settled-in-japan-nanzenji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-20\/725","title":{"rendered":"Getting Settled in Japan: Nanzenji"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<style>\np.editorialf  { width:700px }\n.editorial    { color:#AFA  }\n.editorial a  { color:#CFC  }\n<\/style>\n\n\n<div style='padding:5px 40px; background-color:#444; border: solid 1px #666; margin:10px 30px 50px 10px'>\n\n<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of\nan online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten\nabout it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog\nthen, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I\nactually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my &#8220;first\nposts&#8221; in my <a nocross='1' href='\/blog\/toc\/'\nclass='quiet'>list of posts<\/a>, even though I didn't actually start a blog\nuntil a year later with my first post about <a nocross='1' class='quiet'\nhref='\/blog\/2005-04-01\/1'>buying a car in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>There's nothing here of interest to anyone but me; I insert it here so\nthat it's together with my other posts (which are also of little interest\nto anyone but me :-)) <span class='editorial'>Any comments I add while posting this to my blog in February 2008 appear like this.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<p>This was originally written just after we moved from California to\nJapan, so our days were dominated by jet lag, and trying to set up our\nlife and newly-acquired apartment. Anthony was 18 months old.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\n\nAnthony slept fitfully, and got up at 5:20 or so. Fumie and Mom (who spent\nthe night) were still sleeping, so <span class='nobr'>I took<\/span> him out for <span class='nobr'>a stroll.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I just sort<\/span> of wandered aimlessly, passing by and through <span class='nobr'>a multitude<\/span> of temples\nwhose names <span class='nobr'>I couldn't<\/span> read. <span class='nobr'>I ended<\/span> up at one whose name <span class='nobr'>I couldn't<\/span> read,\nexcept it's big enough to have information in English posted. Called\nNanzenji, and quite famous, it dates from the 12th or so century.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWe came across a <a\nhref=\"\/i\/pic\/2004-04-20_07:02.37__00009.jpg\">big wooden\ngate<\/a>, and it was just in time, as it started to rain. <span class='nobr'>It had been<\/span>\novercast all morning (by this time, it was probably 6:30am), and just as we\narrived, <span class='nobr'>a few<\/span> drops started hitting. The <a\nhref=\"\/i\/pic\/2004-04-20_07:06.59__00013.jpg\">picture<\/a>\nis way overexposed, because it was so dark, but anyway, to give you <span class='nobr'>a feel<\/span>\nfor the size of the thing, each of the columns in the front must have been\nthree feet thick. Here's <a\nhref=\"\/i\/pic\/2004-04-20_07:01.00__00008.jpg\">another\nview<\/a>.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI let him out of the stroller to <a href=\"\/i\/pic\/2004-04-20_06:56.59__00007.jpg\">\nplay around under the roof<\/a>, while it rained outside. <span class='nobr'>It was a<\/span> nice\ntime.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nLater that morning, the guy came to finish installing the air conditioners. <span class='nobr'>It took quite<\/span> some time (four or five hours), but in the end, they all got\ndone. They have some ugly piping running along the walls &mdash; <span class='nobr'>I guess<\/span> that's\njust the way it's done here.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI'm writing this on Friday, so <span class='nobr'>I forget<\/span> most of what happened as this week\nflew by. Fumie got her bike delivered, so we've been able to be mobile\nlocally, which has been nice. Also, I've done <span class='nobr'>a lot<\/span> of driving (still\nborrowing Fumie's folks' car), and I've gotten quite comfortable at it. <span class='nobr'>I'm now quite<\/span> adept at Japanese driving, including driving for long distances\nstraddling two lanes, cutting people off with only the slightest whisker\nbetween us, parking in the middle of <span class='nobr'>a driving<\/span> lane, etc.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nThe only thing I haven't been able to make myself do is to run red lights.\nWere <span class='nobr'>I to<\/span> really drive the Japanese way, <span class='nobr'>I would<\/span> be able to run <span class='nobr'>a red<\/span> light\n<span class='nobr'>a good<\/span> 10 seconds after it turned, so long as my (and others') running it\nwas able to keep cross traffic from getting in our way. Alas, <span class='nobr'>I guess<\/span> I'm\nAmerican at heart, at least WRT driving, because <span class='nobr'>I find<\/span> myself actually\nslowing down and stopping at <span class='nobr'>a yellow<\/span> light. Heck, maybe that's not even\nAmerican (at least not Californian). <span class='nobr'>It must be<\/span> the Midwest in me.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nSometime along the way (Wednesday?), the internet connection <span class='nobr'>I signed<\/span> up\nfor became valid, and, of course, filling the void of <span class='nobr'>a week<\/span> without\nreliable internet access kept me awake way too long. <span class='nobr'>It also allowed<\/span> me to\nhook up my <a href=\"http:\/\/vonage.com\">Vonage<\/a> IP phone. <span class='nobr'>It's pretty<\/span> cool\n&ndash; you can call me at my old Cupertino number and it rings here in\nJapan (and costs nothing &ndash; incoming calls are free). Well, to be\nclear, it probably doesn't actually <i>ring<\/i>, since we'll have the\nringer off when we (or Anthony) are sleeping. <span class='nobr'>It goes to<\/span> voicemail after\nabout 10 seconds. <span class='nobr'>If you want<\/span> to call but don't want voicemail, you'll\nimprove your chances of reaching us by remembering <a\nhref=\"\/time\">the time difference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p><i><a href='\/blog\/2004-04-23\/726'>Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of an online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten about it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog then, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I actually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my \"first posts\" in my list of posts, even though I didn't actually start a blog until a year later with my first post about buying a car in Japan.<\/p> <p>There's nothing here [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}