Stacked
...written on 2000-11-28, @ 09:43:08
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Sun November 26, 2000
Today I went to the International Culture Center. I take Japanese lessons there once a week and there is also a planetarium and Kid's Science and Learning building.
I took my time browsing about. I went into the Kid's Science building and looked at the exhibitions. At first I was by myself, but since everything was written in Japanese, I decided to peer over the shoulders of the children as they manipulated the machines according to the directions to create a tornado, see how much water their body is made up of, make lightning, see how a vacuum works, etc. I enjoyed watching the parents interact with their kids. In fact, it made me quite teary eyed to watch (I am so darn emotional these days!).
Sometimes I want a child so much. I could just imagine myself walking up to the third floor with Kim, Jr. and explaining who all these great scientists were. We would stand in front of the constellation exhibit and I would help her point the laser at a group of stars that she would recognize as the cluster we would watch almost every night. The taped voice would tell her the mythological meaning of the group of stars and then Kim, Jr. would shake my hand free so she could point the laser on her own and I could then take the hand of her father. (Yes, I want one of those too. I can just be so demanding, can't I? Dear Santa . . .)
Anyway, after living vicariously for about an hour, I went to the Library. I summoned up the courage to ask (in Japanese) if there were any books in English. The librarian was very helpful and pointed me to the desired section.
I browsed the books, mostly books about Japan, Japanese art, history, cooking etc., but there were other books such as literature, fiction, how-to's, etc. I found a book on haikus and a Japanese language text that I had bought in the States, but had left there.
So, I had two books, now I just had to check them out. Before I did that however, I had to get. . . . a library card.
Now I've been with Fred to apply for things like my bank account, my alien registration card and stuff, so I was a bit anxious about doing this on my own, but I was also on the brink of excitement. This is what I love---trying to communicate across cultures!
I walked up to the same librarian who had helped me find the English books. I looked her in the eyes, held my breath and smiled. She looked at me and said, "Hajimete?" Whew, I thought as I exhaled. I know that word. "Hai", I replied (Yes, this is my first time). She asked me another question to which I also replied "yes", (I do live in Ogaki). She handed me a form and indicated where I should put my name and address. As I got through half of my address, I realized that I had the form upside down and had to scribble out what I had written (oh no, I thought, I hope we don't have a replay of what happened at the bank when I did the same thing). I righted the form and continued with my task.
I took the form up to the librarian and she asked me if I could spell my name in katakana. Yes! So I did and she handed me a nifty yellow laminated card with my name on it, checked out my books for me and asked me if I understood Japanese. I said "A little". She then told me that on the 4th floor there were CDs and videos I could check out. I thanked her for the info and up I went.
On the 4th floor there were about 15 stations with 3 large comfy chairs each. In front of these chairs were large screens that were used to view laser discs I think, maybe videos too, I'm not sure. I saw many people seated in front of the screens watching different movies. I saw someone watching "Spartacus". Another person was watching Japanese anime, two girls were watching "A Bug's Life". I believe the chairs had speakers on each side near your ears, but there were also headphones in use.
I looked through the videos and found a companion for the Japanese Language text I just checked out. I took it up to the attendant who did his thing and put it in a blue bag and said something to me that I was sure was a number, and as he said it, he was craning his neck to look at the different viewing stations. I thought he meant for me to go to a station to watch this video, but as I had been around before, I hadn't seen a piece of machinery of any kind that would accept a disc or a video. I looked at him quizzically. He repeated what he said and when he saw that he still wasn't getting through, with a sweep of his hand indicating the door, he said "Dozo", which can mean many polite things like "please", or "after you", but in this particular case I think it meant, "Please get out of my face". Accomodatingly, I stepped to the side and continued to browse the stacks because I wasn't sure if I could leave with the video or not. I surely didn't want to set off any bells and whistles and have the Video Inventory Police to deal with. Finally however, I saw a mother and daughter walk out the door with a blue video bag and I fell into step behind them. No sirens, no flashing lights, just a wonderful feeling that I had yet again accomplished another task all by myself.