As you know I am cataloging things, including new things. That means I had my first adventure in adding new titles to the collection and actually putting them on the 'NEWLY ARRIVED' shelves. I think the whole process is supposed to take maybe 10 minutes per book, but I was being slow. It took me far longer than that to retrieve the records off-database, convert them into the database, run report, go back and change ID #s/call nos, stamp and date every book, place in tattle strips, print and add on new call no. labels, look up lexiles then print stickers for those, reinforce with tape if needed, and add the bright orange piece of tape to each before handing the receipts (dated and stamped) to Y-san and putting the stuff out. Hopefully, I'll get faster. I'm excited to say that we got in Going Bovine--I've wanted to read it since the summer. Now to find out if I'm eligible for a library card here. I might need to be sponsored...
I also created a display for Black History Month today. And by that I mean that I looked up some books highlighting the spirit of the holiday, Coretta Scott King award-winners, and playaways, dvds, and cds to go along. Then I printed up a sign and dismantled the 'Award-winning Books of 2009' display to put the new books in its place. It only took an hour because the catalog kept crashing. Did I mention it crashes a lot? Well, it does for me, since my location has internet-sucking gremlins. So, when I try to work on the catalog records for my big, big, big, project, it can take me up to half an hour for a single record, if everything goes wrong and the system is slow to come back up/refuses to believe it's kicked off the internet. But that just means I get to look at awesome titles like 'Mommy, Why Did Jesus Have to Die?', part of a long series of very Christian donated books, for longer. There's also one about why the family doesn't celebrate Halloween (hint: pagan and the devil will have your soul). Really, I'm enjoying my work; it feels nice to lose myself in OCD-ness for hours.
But then I also get to do things like help with storyhour, where the kids are adorable. Thankfully, less than 30 showed up this week, but they got to make snowmen out of paper after winter-themed books and play-songs. I helped one girl spell 'Frosty' (her snowman's name) and was rewarded with a giant THANK YOU, MS-SAN!! Another kid helped her neighbor spell his name in Japanese and wrote hers in both Japanese and English, to show one of the volunteers she could. All the kids are so quick to learn languages, it makes me jealous.
And now, Ebina: Where Superman supports the Prius!
Ebina is a very industrial city; there are car dealerships and large buildings not for offices or homes everywhere. The streets are unsafe to walk in because of the large amounts of traffic, and the sidewalks are split with poles/trees to keep bikers from going too fast. There are Pachinko parlors by the train station, including the not-so-subtle Gorilla Pachinko. There is a giant gorilla climbing the building, and another standing on top of it, while the whole thing is screened with gorillas. It has the feel of a miniature golf course/B movie set from the outside, and I will not be going inside to see how it compares to casinos.
There is also a one-story grocery store about 20 minutes from the base, and a Book-Off, the best book store chain ever. Everything is second-hand and everything is Y105. For those of you keeping track at home, that's a little over a dollar in American terms. Which leads us to sidetrack #1: Guess the book. Answers are provided at the end. I, to no surprise, was not able to walk out of the store empty-handed. I'm sure eventually I'll be literate enough to read these, right?
Book #1: Level Easy
and, from the inside: 
Know what those are?Books #2: Level Medium (unless your name is Cami).
Book #3: Level Hard
Aren't they pretty? You don't win a prize if you guess them all, since I will forget to give it to you, but you do get to act superior to those who didn't guess correctly.
End of sidetrack! Back to Ebina...
I wandered around for a while, and found a nice little residential area full of little store that were closed because it was Sunday, a small square, and lamps which I assume are lit at night. There was also a smaller grocery store there, which had different types of teas. I'll let you know how the Azuki green tastes ^_^ There's also a park off of the main drag, which has a baseball field, some walkways, a playground, and some paths. I decided to eat my snack-lunch and read there a while since that's a good idea in 40-degree weather. So, I watched an elementary? baseball team practice, then found a bench in a corner to sit. There was an old guy in a nearby bench. Within five minutes, there are 6 old guys surrounding me, chatting about nothing and everything (old guy 2's dog--it was wearing a sweater by the way, old guy 3's shumai, old guy 1's job, the economy, the foreigner sitting in their spot, the base, the baseball team....). I was literally stuck and it was slightly awkward. Eventually old guy next to me decided that he was bored of listening to old guy 4's kids and asked me, in English, where I'd gotten my book. He got very excited when I answered with [America] and asked whether I lived on the base. It turned into a small conversation in shitty English/shitty Japanese. He works and lives on-base, it turns out, as a firefighter and hopes that I get to see more of the city. He also suggested I go to the areas around us, a subtle way of saying that Ebina is a bad representative of Japan. I actually hope I will see him again, since he was nice. On the other hand, I've since seen three of the other old guys on the streets and I presume that they meet in the same place every Sunday to bullshit and eat 7-11 Shumai, so going to the park again would accomplish that, I suppose. They know all know that the foreigner understands them now, so it may be a bit awkward...they weren't using the polite language to talk about me.
I ended up going home before seeing too far, since all I saw was industrial for several miles in all directions, but I do need to explore on the other side of the train station. I was recently made aware through eavesdropping that there is an onsen (public bath) over there by a grocery clerk on the base. This made me very excited, and he drew me a map. So, this weekend, I am thinking Onsen, as well as seeing the side of the city that has a McD's and yakisoba place. To me, that means there will be less factory and more shops, houses, and maybe even a だんご（dango） stand. I have an obsession with dango to the point that I even stooped to buying it at the grocery store. What's dango, you ask?
Tastes much better than it looks here, I promise.It's dumplings made from rice flour skewered on a stick. The ones I've had are coated in mitarashi, which Wikipedia tell me is "a syrup made from shouyu (soy sauce), sugar, and starch." It's kind of like crack on a stick, but then, crack appears to be a common ingredient in Japanese snacks. I, for example, am currently eating puffed corn shaped like those rolly-polly bugs because it is delicious (and not bug-flavored). And this:
This is a (squished...) bread that is absolutely wonderful, stuffed with azuki beans, some green-ish beans, and black seeds of ?, and made from buckwheat, if the color is anything to judge from. I hope that it at least isn't as bleak as this half of the city, since I may have to spend a lot of time away from here if that is the case. Up next, Sophia and other Tokyo-proper areas, as well as why I should not be allowed anywhere near a store called Kiddyland.Answers: 1=Harry Potter, 2=Kekkaishi, 3=Howl's Moving Castle
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