Taking care of business

March 15th, 2007
Zack's been working pretty hard. He left for work yesterday before six and didn't get home 'till after eight, so fun time is over for him. Since we've moved in, I've been busy running errands (which takes longer when you don't have a car yet) and getting set up with work. A good bit of my day yesterday was spent filling out the background check for the high school on base, where I'd like to sub. I'm still not done, but I'm making progress. Beyond that, there's been the trip to the Security Office to register the car, looking for Japanese classes, a ton of miscelaneous dropping off of paperwork to make our move official, and grocery shopping. I've been doing that in stages because I have to carry everything back on my back. So we're slowing getting stocked up.
I've discovered that cooking here is a little different from back home. For one thing, I have no oven, just a little broiler that might hold one steak at a time and is meant for fish. Mel, my new best friend who is the wife of one of the other officers on Zack's ship, tells me that she has learned to make everything from casseroles to a pie in her toaster oven, but mine's not that big. So for now I'm just functioning as if I don't have it at all.
Another challenge is that the commisary on main base is pretty small, so you're not guaranteed the ingredients the recipe calls for. They'll order anything you want, but it takes time and you'll have to buy a lot of it. So, for example, I made chili the other night, and I found out that it was a good thing the recipe doesn't have to be exact because they didn't have "One big can of tomato juice," or kidney beans. No biggie in this case, but clearly improvisation will be important as we go along.
On our tour of town, Eriko, our guide, mentioned that there's a morning market "near the train station" every morning. So when I asked Zack what he felt like eating when the chili was gone, he suggested something involving fresh fish from the market. I took him at his word, did a little research, and discovered a website that said the market was "near the train station" from 3 am to 9 am. Figuring it was about time for another adventure, I decided to try to find it. So last night I found a recipe for any white fish that sounded good (ginger and orange, what's not to like?), looked up the name of every fish I could find in my Japanese/English dictionary (there were like five), and set the alarm for a reasonable 6:30. I'm sorry. No fish is worth getting up at 3 am.
This morning I got up and pointed myself towards the station. Naturally, I didn't find it on the first pass... or the second... but then I found a road where it looked like shops were open. Having walked to base the last two days in a row through a shopping plaza, I knew shops didn't open most places until 9:00ish, so I followed that road, and sure enough, I found the market.
By this time it was a little after 7, and the market was already looking like it was closing. There were still vendors, but not many, and most of what was left were sellers of produce and dumplings, and a few pieces of china. I found two vendors selling fish, and their display was primarily of the whole fishes waiting to be bagged up. It was at this moment that I realized I had no idea how to ask for just the fillets. Luckily, there were some things that looked cut up and ready to cook. I approached, just as I had planned, and asked the woman running the stand, "Nan des ka?" (What is it?) pointing to one of the cut up fish. She replied in a very quiet Japanese voice. I only barely caught the last sylable, and it didn't sound like anything on my list. I leaned in and made a noise indicating I had missed what she said, and she repeated herself, but still too quiet. Deciding that I could spend all day playing this game, I gave up and decided it was certainly fresh and white and fish, and that was good enough, so I asked, "Ikura des ka?" (How much does it cost?) She answered too quietly again, so I asked if she could write it down. She took pity on me and told me the price in English.
The price was fine by me, and seemed reasonable compared to what was around, so I agreed to buy it. I came home this morning with a slab of fish, still with scales, that was probably caught last night. I had no idea what type of fish it was (though I had a pretty good idea what it wasn't), and it didn't occur to me that I might have been able to bargain until I was halfway home, so I may have gotten a raw deal (no pun intended), but I was relatively proud of myself.
Tonight, Eriko came by to show us around our neighborhood for a program called "know your cho". Her first order of business was to translate the remotes to our a/c-heater units (we learned they have timers, among other things). Then she helped me translate the washer and dryer, so now I can do laundry. After that, she was giving us directions as to the fastest way to get to base and what not, and since it is her job on base to encourage people to get out, we were telling her about our trip to Nagasaki. Figuring it couldn't hurt, I told her about my fish adventure this morning. She offered to try to figure out what I had bought. I showed her the slab, which I hadn't cooked yet. She admitted that it was hard to tell from a slice, but her guess was some kind of mackeral.
Eriko was super helpful. She also gave me directions to the building where my Japanese classes will be located. Concerned that they weren't accurate enough, she offered to walk me there tonight to get a feel for it. In the process I learned that there's a sauna up the street from our house (not five minutes walk), found where to drop off garbage on the right days, and found Eriko's favorite cake shop, a go cart park, a martial arts school, and a lovely park, so that was great. It also put me in just the right mood (namely, starving) to try to cook what I had bought.
The hardest part of cooking it was getting into the pan. This is primarily because I'm a wuss about fish. It was slippery, and then I rinsed it making it more slippery, and then I could feel the scales and I didn't want to touch it, but I got it cut into two pieces and into the pan. I don't claim to like fish, but the result was quite good. It's amazing the difference freshness can make. Zack liked it a lot (or he wisely chose to pretend very well). It almost makes me want to get up earlier next time and see what else is available. May be when I'm not waking up early every day anyway.
The other super news for the day is that Dory has made a friend. Well, technically, she's made a few friends over at the kennel. She likes all four of the women who work there and wags her tail at them and kisses them when given the chance. I even caught her being nice to one of the other dogs the other day. But she has made special friends with a woman named Tina. Tina's husband is stationed here, and she loves animals in a major way. She hung out at their previous home until her husband got on base housing so her dog wouldn't have to be quarantined. She's just started working at the kennel, and Dory is her favorite. We were bemoaning the fact that she's stuck until June, and today, she offered to take Dory in for us. She suggested that she could take her home to meet their Rot Wieler (I've met him and he's a big baby) a few times when she's coming and going from work, and if Dory learns to play nice, she can live with Tina and her husband until June. Obviously, I'd be able to visit her there, but she'd be inside a warm house instead of in a concrete box, and she'd get a lot more attention. Not to mention we wouldn't have to keep paying kennel fees to keep her. So we're all pretty happy about that.
In other news, Zack got a bike, so now he plans to ride to work every day. The shop was recommended by Mel and Joel. They'll do any regular maintenence work for free, and they threw in a bell, a lock, and a light. So things are rolling along fairly smoothly...