The Blog VS Japan!!!

So! As many of you may already know, I am currently in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher in the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Program! (For those of you who didn't know, I realize the news is a little abrupt...! Sorry!) I've been here for almost a month now, just enough time to go through two rounds of orientations, move in to my (AWESOME!) apartment, get settled, and FINALLY establish an Internet connection (hence the delay in making a new post over the last month)!

So, since there's a lot to get caught up on, I will eventually back-track and make some posts about the Tokyo and Prefectural orientations, moving in, crazy shopping, seeing the local castle (yes, you read that right, "local castle,") and whatever other random and hilarious Japanese Adventures I've had in the past month. 

But for now, since this is the first post I will make in Japan, I would like to ring it in with a bizarre anecdote that happened to me the other day. It is just the sort of confusing, humorously nonsensical thing that happens to you on a daily basis once you move to Japan. It goes like this: 

For a very long time (almost two weeks!) I have been expecting something in the mail from home. And, for a very long time, absolutely nothing came. And then one day, I got some mail! But it wasn't from home. In fact, it was very clearly Japanese. And it came in a highly unusual package.

It was soft and floppy, and seemed to lack any sign that such a thing could legally be sent through the mail in this or any country. And yet, there it was. It seemed as though the outer package was nothing more than an unusually shaped plastic bag. It confused me so much I photographed it again.

There! That's much better.




So, having gotten through that stage of the confusion, I proceeded to open it.




Inside the plastic-bag-mail-package was nothing but a towel.
 
 

There was no note. No piece of paper. No explanation of what any of this meant. Simply...a towel. 





And the towel spoke for itself.

Now, I know a little Japanese, and can sound out the phonetic kana syllables, but I don't know enough kanji to read the more complicated Japanese characters. So to me, this towel says, "Blah-blah, tsu ba me, blah-blah (blah)." Not very informative. Luckily, on the other side, there was more.

"Oh, good!" I thought at first glance, "This is all in katakana! I can read this!" You see, katakana is the writing system the Japanese use to approximate the pronunciation of foreign words, and most often these words turn out to be in English. (For instance, if you can sound out the characters, "Intaneto" = Internet, "chyokoreto" = chocolate, "MakuDonarudo" = McDonald's, etc.) So, confidently, I began to read this katakana.


It says, "Kosumopuropan". 


...


Let me read that again.



"Kosumopuropan..."




...Yep. That's definitely what it says. 




"...Cosmopolitan?" No, it can't be. Then it would at least have a "T" sound in it. Maybe it's "Cosmo...puro...pan..."




...Yeah. That, um, that's totally it. 'Cause that makes a lot of sense.




"Kosumopuropan..." 






...I have no idea what this means.

...Oh, well...

...Thanks, Japan!!!