August 13th

This last weekend was pretty busy. Visiting with Alex and her family was great! She came to pick me up with her two daughters, who are lovely, and we went to the local big mall. I’m debating whether to get a color printer so I can print things like photos at home. Since I can get paper at some of the hyakuen stores it’s probably cheaper overall. They showed me around the mall and we picked up the replacement that the store gave for the youngest daughter’s new bike that wasn’t working right. After that we went back to their apartment and I met her husband and had lunch with them. She was so nice, she even let me use her internet! When she drove me home she had a look at my place and taught me how to clean out the sink and my air conditioner and how to hang my futon out to dry! Her daughters play animal crossing so I’ve promised to come over and play sometime so they can get the next level of store in their town. Cute little things :)

They stayed until Alice, Simon and his girlfriend came to pick me up for the Seino welcome dinner. We picked up Ashley, too and drove to Ogaki where the dinner was being held. After meeting all the other ALTs we went to this restaurant where we had nomihoudai (all you can drink) and a sort of tabihoudai (all you can eat) where they brought out about five different courses over the evening. The food was okay but about half the courses were meat-only so those of us who were vegetarian had to wait a little for the sashimi, salad, and bread courses. The nomihoudai is nice because you can try new drinks without worrying about prices. I only had two but they were pretty tasty. There was a little kid (maybe 4 or 5) with another group who came over and beckoned me down to his level so he could give me a kiss on the cheek and then insisted on taking pictures of some of us! He was such a cutie!

After dinner those of us who didn’t have to worry about taking the train or bus home went 10-pin bowling. I got three strikes my first game, which I think is a first for me. One of the other guys (extremely drunk) got eight strikes in one game! I made friends with a Chinese CIR who’s trying to improve his English, a really cool girl from Scotland, and got to talk with at least half a dozen other new people over the evening.

On Sunday I went back to Ogaki with Alice, Ryan, and Brandon and met Dan and one of his Japanese friends. We went out for lunch and then after a bit of wandering the mall and playing in the Arcade we went for karaoke. It was my first time ever so I had to really work myself up to it. I don’t actually like my own voice much when I have to hear it and singing into speakers is pretty intimidating. Everyone was really encouraging though so I got into it after a little bit, too. I need to see what songs on my computer are in the karaoke catalog so I have a better idea of what to pick next time.

Last night was my town’s Obon festival. I couldn’t find a yukata yet (but I’m going to try again this week since I’m going to learn some traditional dancing on Friday evening with some of the others. It was a really cute festival though! They had a main tower where they were leading dancing and a lot of little food and game booths for the children. I met a whole ton of kids and teens and one of the little ones even came by and very seriously gave both Ryan and I each a milk candy. They’re all so sweet when they’re out of class! A bunch of my Junior high students-to-be were nearly jumping over each other to introduce themselves to me and a mother from Tokyo nearly cried she was so delighted that Ryan and I stopped to speak English with her. From the stories I hear I need to stay prepared for anything in the classroom though. Right at 9 the festival ended and everyone headed home.

Japan is so interesting. Town bells go off at 7 with announcements and then the bells go at noon and 6, too. Or those are the ones I’ve head, anyway. By 9 everyone is at home and going to bed. It’s so very civil.

Today was a little more normal going in to work and looking through all the activity books and the like for a few hours. My predecessor’s predecessor left a lot of stuff to work with. I hope I can make some decent games from it all! I’m still nervous about teaching and activity planning and all of that stuff.

Tomorrow morning I get my bank account set up and I might get my keitai in the evening, we’ll see. I’m asking Shiloh what went on when she tried to get high-speed internet and I’m hoping things might be different for me. If not then I might be able to get a phone I can use as a modem since my computer has Bluetooth. Hopefully there will be some way that I can set up internet so I can use Skype!