Yesterday, as I'm sure all you Stateside folks are aware, was Thanksgiving. I actually completely forgot about it till last night when I was talking to Kris online; I had left school early on Wednesday because I wasn't feeling well & didn't go in yesterday for the same reason, so I wasn't really thinking about Thanksgiving other than the plans we have for Saturday with all of the other local ALTs.

But Kris did remind me that it was in fact Thanksgiving, so I decided that rather than have a ho-drum dinner of plain udon, since I was feeling much better, we should go out. So I looked up the sushi restaurant nearby (that we'd tried to visit once before, & it was closed), & found not only its name & phone number online, but reviews, too! No hours, though, so I called to make sure they were open, & since they were, we hopped on our bikes & approximately 3 minutes later we were there.

The atmosphere was warm, the people were super friendly, & the sushi was fantastic. The itamae (sushi chef) chatted with us the whole evening, & even wrote down our names. Apparently they also deliver, & he said, "If Dave-san gets hungry, he should call, and say "I want this, this, and this," and we will deliver it." In Japanese, of course.

But it gets better -- the itamae is Nikkei. Both of his parents are Japanese, but he was born in Mexico. He has Japanese nationality now, but had dual citizenship till he was 21 -- which his son also has as he was *also* born in Mexico, & said son has to decide next year. Also, there's a guy working in the kitchen doing cook-work who's half Japanese & half Mexican, & apparently most of the people there speak passable Spanish.

Too bad I took French in high school!

In any case it's definitely my new favorite restaurant & while it's not cheap, it's not expensive, either, & I can totally see us going up there once a week for a little bite to eat at the counter while we chat with the itamae.

Check out pictures on Flickr:
Set: Thanksgiving 2009

In my ninsenei's class (11th graders, of which there are 3), we're doing picture books right now. First they had to write a story in Japanese, & then for the past few classes they've been working on translating them into English, using J-E dictionaries & some help from myself & Shimamura-sensei. The next step is drawing the pictures, & then we'll have them present them to each other.

Today they all finished their translations. I present to you the final products, as they wrote them.

Old Mr. Shimamura, Old Ms. Sally and Motokuni children. They lived happily. Mr. Shimamura was heavy work earned money every days.
Ms. Sally fell asleep about 3 years. The old man looked after the old woman every day. He worked very hard.
Their child troubled parents.
One day Motokuni was playground equipment he was badly injured.
Mr. Shimamura rushed to take Motokuni to the hospital.
A quack doctor named Akimoto was there. He said "This is a serious injury. For a fee, I will perform an operation."
Mr. Shimamura paid money to the quack doctor.
Operation failed but recovery the number of days. [The operation failed but Akimoto recovered after a number of days.]
Not money and became they are not well off.
Ms Sally is became able to talk.
And then the three of them lived happily ever after.

Koukinja (power rangers) broke up by missing the other's point.
Kouki Olive Green (Akimoto) and Kouki Rainbow (Yoshimura) stay the group.
They decided to fight to secret association "Shimamura Kinyu: The Kanaya Branch."
But, Kouki Rainbow was tricked and died.
Kouki Olive Green mourned for his dead friend.
But he didn't even have time to feel sad, came secret association.
They suddenly attacked him.
But they were knocked over by his very best art.
Shimamura appeared on after another.
He had a upill battle.
But he can't give up.
He have been taken to protect the earth from the secret association.
The fight continues.

Long long ago. A boy was born in the world which was controled by the devil. The boy is called Yoshimura.
Fourteen years later, he went to travel with Motokuni to beat the devil.
On their way to the devil's castle, Motokuni died in a fight with the devil's minions.
But Yoshimura didn't mind.
He went for the devil's castle on rainy day, windy day, snowy day and stormy day.
Three years have passed since Motokuni died.
At last Yoshimura arrived the devil's castle.
And he went to the Emperor's seat and arrived the Emperor's seat.
He encounted the devil. The devil's name is Shimamura.
Yoshimura battled the devil and Shimamura died.
Finally, the world returned to peace.

If you understand Japanese, you'll find this immensely amusing, courtesy of Google Translator:

完全新品メーカー保証付き！通常1~2日での出荷になります。一時的に在庫切れの場合は入荷日を、メールにてご連絡させていただきます。品切れの場合は、即時、返金させていただきます。

Brand new with full manufacturer's warranty! Shipping is usually 1-2 days. If temporarily out of stock on the arrival day, bon appétit will contact us by email. If out of stock immediately, we will refund bon appétit.

Bon appetit! (Itadakimasu!)

This started out as part of the last post but it went off on a tangent & got really long so I separated it.

I've realized through my own experiences that using a language is really important in getting better at it. While this seems like an obtusely obvious statement, it's sort of hard to put into practice, especially if you feel like your language ability is really limited. But even using the very little that you know helps to keep your brain thinking in that language -- I use Japanese sounds around the house a lot (when I'm confused or looking for something or tired or what have you), & even though they don't really have much *meaning*, just using them makes me think in Japanese. Likewise, even just repeating the same few sentences I know in different settings helps me understand how I can adapt what I know to different situations.

When I returned from Japan 2 years ago, a lot of the things that I took for granted as being easy to say, words that were easy to use & grammar patterns that I thought I knew well enough to never forget, I did forget for lack of use. The little things that I kept using -- & some of the more complicated things that I didn't stop using because I knew that if I did I'd forget them -- stuck with me.

Japanese students don't get many opportunities to actually use their English with native speakers (to an extent I don't really count, because my Japanese is so good), and the very act of using English, & therefore becoming comfortable speaking, is tough for them. Most Japanese study English for 6-10 years & can never really speak it, which I believe is because they don't get many chances to & they're so self-conscious about it that they never DO when they do get those few chances. The Japanese people I've met who speak really good English, or even those who speak less than perfect English but always more than get their point across (like my mom, whose *grammar* leaves a little something to be desired but otherwise speaks essentially fluently) are usually people who aren't shy & are never afraid to make mistakes. Those who are reluctant to say the wrong thing end up never speaking & never improving.

While this isn't something I expect high school students to think about, much less understand (it took me these 5 years of intermittent language study to really appreciate just how true it is), if I can at least make them DO it, especially these 2 girls who really like English (& especially Avril, who wants to study English really hard & become a translator), I think it'll set a good foundation for further language study.

Today was a pretty awesome day. I had 3 of my OC classes & they all did the planned activities really really well. Explaining how Battleship works & how they were supposed to do it took a while & they seemed really confused at first, but as soon as we started playing they got the hang of it.

After school I came home & took a nap for about an hour, & then Avril & Penny (an ichinensei (10th grader), heretofore named such because of a misunderstanding when she said something tonight), who are currently preparing for a dialogue speech contest, came over for dinner & more speech practice.

We've been working on the speech for about a month; both of the girls take extra English classes before school in the morning (zero period, I guess) & I guess Gotoh-sensei decided that for this contest, since Avril needed a partner, Penny would be the best choice. She never really volunteers in my OC class, but her English is pretty good. She's got a really funny personality; I'm not really sure how to explain it. She's sort of got a short attention span, & often says things that don't make sense -- which at first I thought was just because my Japanese isn't perfect, but after seeing her interactions with Avril & other senseis & students I've realized that she's just really ... silly? Unique?

Anyway, I had a really fun time with them. Dave made spaghetti & a clafoutis (French dessert), which everyone loved. I had told them before that they would have to use all English since Dave doesn't know any Japanese, but we ended up talking mostly in Japanese & then I translated for Dave. When prompted, though, they used the English they knew & were pretty good at it so next time (I'm going to have them over again after the speech contest) I'm going to make them speak more.

So we ate dinner, practiced their speech, & I showed them some photos from America. When Avril arrived, she handed me a box of manju (sort of a little mochi-type cake), & her mom thanked me heartily for having her over & always helping with the speech contests. & when Penny's mom picked her up she brought a box of pudding cups and thanked me for having her over & making dinner, & helping with the speech contest & TEACHING & everything. They're so sweet.

Actually, a week ago, Avril brought me lunch at school -- her mom had made oden (sort of a Japanese stew) & told Avril to bring me some as thanks for always helping with the speeches.

If helping with speech contests, which is fun anyway, means I get showered with delicious food, I'm definitely not gonna stop anytime soon!

So I realized this morning that I've never, in my life (as far as I can remember) been as busy as I am now. In Berkeley and Tampa, I had plenty of days when I just sat around watching tv or playing video games or reading the day away. Here, I have very few days like that, & when I do indulge, it puts everything I need to do back like a week.

I've been studying kanji using James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji", doing 25+ a day (except for a couple of weeks when I took a break), & I'm taking a correspondence language course through CLAIR (the organization that runs the JET Program), filling up 1-3 hours a day with Japanese study. (It often ends up being like 20 minutes for a couple of days & then like 3 hours to catch up...)

I usually go out with friends 2-3 times a week, to get dinner or go shopping or explore the area or just plain hang out.

There've been plenty of events, too -- a couple of Halloween parties for kids this month, hiking with friends, white water rafting (I missed out on that one, actually)... There's always something going on.

In the midst of it all I've completely lost track of this blog & picture uploading. I'm over a month behind on photos & about a month behind on the blog. Sorry about that. I keep meaning to get back to it but the only times I think about it are in the morning when I don't have time or at night just before I need to go to sleep.

Hopefully soon things will calm down a bit. I've gotta start trying to get in photo uploading a day at a time... No promises.

Oh, & the apartment is FINALLY almost clean. I'm having people over Saturday, so I should have it clean by then & when I get it mostly presentable I'll take some photos. Probably.

2 weeks ago was midterm week. Judging by my students' responses in class, I wasn't expecting them to do very well on the test. I had to make the test myself, & I had to make it a pretty fair judge of whether they learned anything or not. There was a listening section & a writing section, & I didn't know there had to be a listening portion on every test, so I hadn't been doing a whole lot of listening exercises in class. I mean, sure, they listen to my directions every day, but usually those are supported by the JTE (or me, or a student) explaining one more time in Japanese so they don't always listen to them.

But anyway, contrary to my expectations, they did pretty well! Hooray! The average was 68 out of 100, which is absolutely fantastic. There were a handful of students in each class who even got over 90, & a few in each who got below 40, but mostly they were in the 50-75 range, which is apparently quite normal (if they're learning).

Midterms meant no regular classes, just making & grading tests the whole week. My 2-nensei & 3-nensei classes had interview tests, & that Friday (which wasn't a test day) & the following Monday, the 2-nensei got a break from class & watched "Howl's Moving Castle" in English, since they all love Ghibli movies & I figured watching one in English would be good listening practice.

Wednesday during midterm week we went out to Fujieda & had dinner with Adam, Kris, & Jessie at Gato Rojo, a Mexican restaurant where everything on the menu -- food & drinks -- is only Y500, & we played Apples to Apples at the restaurant. It was pretty fantastic. I'm planning to throw an A2A party next Saturday at my apartment, which means I need to get the place cleaned up by the time everyone comes over. I haven't had the energy to do any cleaning yet, so I'm afraid the photos I've promised are gonna have to wait a bit longer.

Yesterday Kato-san, from the school office, & Curious George’s Yellow Hat Man (the janitors both have the same last name, which is also shared by one of the teachers, so I’ve taken to calling them various nicknames to myself. This particular janitor looks to me like the man in the yellow hat...) came over to my apartment in the morning to fix some issues -- a toilet that wouldn’t stop running, a window screen that prevents the window from closing (or opening) properly, & a laundry-pole-hanging-hook that looks about ready to fall down from the ceiling.

They got the toilet under control, FINALLY -- it’s been driving me crazy for about a month -- but will need to come back to fix the window & the laundry hook. It’s sort of awesome having an apartment owned by the school -- I don’t have to call some manager that’s hard to get a hold of; I just tell them about issues when I get to work. & if they need me around to show them the issue, they drive me back here during school hours (because that’s when they’re working, duh) so I can supervise & explain.

Just as we were leaving, I got a package delivered -- a shelf for shoes, to put in the genkan (foyer / entrance space). I still haven’t assembled it... no energy. Maybe this weekend. Maybe next week. Haha.

Then today, the shelf I’d ordered for the kitchen closet arrived... & so did a package from my mom! Hooray for care packages! This one was full of a few sweaters, a couple of scarves, some tights, & a pair of very very fuzzy pajama bottoms. I’m absolutely delighted (just like a little girl who just got her first pegasus... hehehe kanji reference).

Getting mail -- any mail, even just postcards -- absolutely makes my world, especially when I’m in another country. I’ve been meaning to send postcards back home but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I still have a pack of postcards from Mt. Fuji that I’d bought so I could mail them from the peak, but since I didn’t make it to the peak...

If you want a postcard, email me your mailing address:
littlesallysmiles@ gmail.com
I’ll try to get them out by the end of the month. Maybe just in time for Christmas! :P

Monday night Jennifer invited me to visit her taiko practice. She lives way way up the Daitetsu line, an hour by train (or car) north of me in the mountains, & goes to practice a little bit further than that, in Senzu. It’s a community group, nothing professional, although apparently they do have performances relatively often.

I took the train up to her station & spent most of the time watching a show that I’d put on my iTouch & the rest of the time studying kanji. She picked me up & we hung out at her place for a little bit. She may be way more isolated than me (& I consider myself fairly isolated!) but she’s got a NICE apartment. A recently remodeled kitchen, a fancy new smart toilet, a real bed, nice wallpaper on her closet doors (mine’s stained / coming off / GONE altogether), walls that aren’t stained, real furniture... it’s a really really nice apartment.

So then we went to taiko. We spent the first 15 minutes or so unloading all of the drums & stands from the truck -- as I understand it, the same drums are used by Kawane HS, so they have to move them around. Then for the next 45 minutes or so we watched a video of the performance they’d had on Sunday, in front of a train station. Just because. So. awesome.

& THEN we had practice. I got to participate, & holy crap taiko is HARD. I mean, I knew it wasn’t easy, but I didn’t think it was that hard right off!

I remember seeing the taiko group at Cal practicing some evenings in front of Sproul Hall. They used to do push-ups as part of their warm-up drills. Everyone in the group had to do them. Full push-ups. Sets of them. I can’t do a single one -- at the peak of my fitness, when I was working out 3 times a week, I was barely able to do 10. Right now, I wonder whether I can even do 10 knee push-ups.

Now I totally understand why. You need a lot of strength to hit the drums, even the little ones they use to keep rhythm. What makes it even harder is that it’s not just drumming, it’s a full-body performance, with some choreographed steps & a lot of arm flourishes. It’s not just arm strength, it’s a LOT of upper back strength, too; & for some songs, you sit in front of the drum in a perpetual half sit-up, using your lower back & abs, too. It’s really full-body exercise.

2 days later & I’m STILL sore, & I barely did anything! It makes me want to join a local taiko group because I can totally see myself getting stronger & keeping fit just by going to practice once a week. Plus it seems like a great way to make some friends.

My assistant principal had mentioned a local taiko group to me a few weeks ago & I said thanks but I’m too weak, because I’ve had some mild injuries in the past & I’m afraid of the strain that taiko would put on already weak joints. But now that I’ve tried it a little bit I’m intrigued & I feel like if I build up to it slowly it could really be good for me, so I’m going to ask him about it again this week.

Wish me luck!

Monday was a pretty awesome day. I had the day off because it was “Health & Sports Day” -- a national holiday here -- so I spent it mostly straightening up the apartment.

In the morning I rode my bike down to the “Casual Life Center Murai”, which I bike past to get into Shimada & was curious about. Turns out they’ve got a ton of cheap clothes (both inexpensive & pretty cheaply made)... & cheap linen-y sort of things! Futons, blankets, towels, kitchen & bathmats... I was really really excited. I made off with a super soft blanket for just Y980 (shy of US$10) & some chair/floor cushions for Y200 each, & plan to go back on Saturday with Jennifer to get a couple of cheap futons.

After I’d dumped all that at home, I rode my bike back down to Kahma, the home center (sort of like ... the housewares section of Target, plus some lumber?), determined to get some assemblable shelving & such. When I got there I realized that the prices for the plastic drawers & stuff were pretty much the same as what I’d found online, so I decided to just buy them there & figure out some way to get them home.

When I asked if they did delivery (a lot of businesses in Japan do, for cheap or free), they said no, but they could call a delivery service that they do a lot of business with. I mulled that over for a bit, & I guess they took my silence as reluctance or something, because they asked if I could drive. I explained that yes, I can drive, & have a license, but no car, to which they replied that I can borrow their truck.

What?

Yeah, apparently the employees there aren’t allowed to leave the store & therefore can’t make deliveries, but if you just let them copy your driver’s license you can borrow a truck & deliver your stuff yourself. For free.

So I paid for my stuff, biked home & grabbed my International Driver’s Permit, & went back. & then it turned out that they didn’t even care about the IDP; they just copied my Florida license. I gave them my address & phone number & signed a paper, & then they handed me the keys & loaded my stuff onto the truck. (Clarification: a tiny truck. A kei truck. Like this.)

I was a little bit nervous because I’ve never driven in Japan, or any other country that’s right-hand drive, but it actually wasn’t weird at all. I think it helped that I live really close to the store, & I’m in the inaka (countryside) so it’s not like I had to deal with scary city traffic or anything.

It took me all of 3 minutes to drive home, 5 minutes to unload, 2 minutes for Dave to take pictures of me driving (haha of course), & then 3 minutes back. They were surprised when I got back so fast, which was cute.

They were all really friendly & helpful about the whole thing, too. They complimented me on my Japanese, & asked where I live & what I’m doing in Japan & how long I’ll be here; & when I told them I’m the ALT at Kanaya HS, living in the teacher’s housing, they immediately warmed up even more. It was really sweet. It’s times like that that I’m really happy that I live where I do.

So that was really awesome & I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing stuff. As a result the apartment is ALMOST ready to take photos of -- I just need one more shelf that I did order online to arrive so I can finish organizing. Photos by next week!

Friday night I went out for dinner with Jennifer, from Kawane (north of me), & Sarah & Kris for another alternate Ladies’ Night, as Jessie had another event come up & Sarah was up from Hamamatsu in our neck of the woods spending a couple of nights with Kris. Jennifer picked me up & we drove over to Yaizu, which took an hour when we were expecting 30-40 minutes. Gotta love traffic.

We had dinner & a couple of drinks at Bali Hai, an Indian / Thai / Asian in general restaurant literally 2 blocks away from Kris’ apartment. I had a seafood & mushroom pho, & while it was tasty it wasn’t really what I would call pho; but the drinks were delicious & the food that the other girls had was super tasty, & the prices reasonable so I think I’ll be heading back.

When we finished eating we headed over to Kris’ place for more drinks & hanging out. Kris had a couple of bottles of wine that she’d bought when we first arrived -- but we hadn’t drank them because she didn’t have a corkscrew. Friday night, as I go to open them, I realized that they were screw-top bottles (in all fairness to me, I hadn’t seen them before! In fairness to Kris... I got nothin :P ). But the wine itself wasn’t that good, so we decided to make sangria out of it instead since she had a ton of fruit from her teachers from when she was sick. We spent most of the night watching videos of flash mobs & Eddie Izzard’s stand-up on YouTube.

Saturday I didn’t do much -- just laundry & a little straightening up, then played video games for the rest of the day. It was kind of nice to spend a day lounging around, but I did want to go out & do some shopping & the weather stopped me.

Today I went out to Kakegawa for the Kakegawa Matsuri with Anna, Brooke, & Michelle. We checked out all the food stalls & had some decent takoyaki (still not as good as what you can get in Kansai, or even what I can make at home, but it’s a festival!) & okonomiyaki; & looked at all the cool floats from the different neighborhoods, & watched some of the dances, & ended the day with free beer & shaved ice from a shop a little off the matsuri’s main drag that Andy (who we met up with later) had somehow found out about. It was a lot of fun -- I hadn’t been to a festival with floats since before I started forming real memories (I just have a memory of watching a video of myself at one when I was tiny), & hanging out with other ALTs & meeting new people (a couple of Michelle’s friends) is always fun.

When I got home mid-afternoon I took advantage of the good weather & biked over to Apita to finally pick up my pants (yay!) & buy some new clothes for the sudden cold weather. I was thrilled to discover that they have a large size section, as even at my current US Med-Lrg size body I don’t fit into most Japanese L or even LL (XL) sized pants. At Apita, it turns out, I’m a regular Large, so that was pretty exciting, too.

While I was there I picked up some groceries, then came home & made okonomiyaki with the pan from Naoko while we watched Star Trek TNG. All in all a productive weekend -- hey, relaxing is productive too when you spend most of your time running around like a chicken with its head cut off! Everyone needs rest & I seriously think I don’t get enough.

Dave’s still got a cold & if I don’t watch it I’m gonna catch it, too, though I think he’s past the contagious stage now. Poor thing still has a cough, though, & I may try to take him to the doctor on Tuesday, even if it means taking some nenkyu (vacation time).

Check out the new sets on Flickr:

Sept 5: Welcome Party (Enkai) in Shimada

Sept 12: Lagunasia with Dave, Kris, & Sarah

Sept 18: A Day in the Life (Tour of my neighborhood & school)

Japanese Restaurants

There’s also a set titled “Teaching”, but because I’m not supposed to publicly post photos of Japanese minors as long as I’m a teacher (or so I’ve heard), you can only see most of the photos if you’re my contact on Flickr. If you’d like to see them, add me as a contact (making a Flickr account is free).

I also added a few individual photos to some of the other sets. Just a few, though, so rather than link you I'll just post them here.

For those of you reading & not familiar with LiveJournal, the following link is what's called a "LiveJournal Cut" -- clicking it doesn't take you to an external site, it just goes to an extension of the post. LJ users often use them for more lengthy posts, or to post lots of photos, so their friends' "Friends Page"s aren't clogged up.

( Click for a few photos. )

In Japan, typhoons aren't given a name like they are most other places in the world. They're just given a number; Super Typhoon Melor is the 18th typhoon to hit Japan this year, so it's Typhoon #18 here.

Because of the upcoming typhoon, we had rain & wind all week. Now, I used to love the rain back home -- the sound of it falling on the roof & the trees & the pavement, & the smell of it rising up from the plants, & the peaceful feeling of sitting inside listening to the rain or the exhilarating feeling of walking around in the cold wetness & hearing it fall on my umbrella.

But living in Japan has made me really come to dislike the rain. No matter what the weather is here, I have to go to school, & we don't have a car yet. That means I either walk, which takes about 30 minutes, or ride my bike, which takes less than 10. But riding my bike in the rain SUCKS. I have to wear a full-body poncho (it's actually 2 pieces) & the one I bought doesn't have a visor, so my face always gets wet & wearing glasses becomes irrelevant because I can't see through the water that accumulates on the lenses anyway.

So this week started out pretty crappy because I had to ride to & from school in the rain. Also, doing grocery shopping when it's raining sucks because again, I have to ride my bike around, which means I have to wear my poncho... which I have to take off to go into the grocery store. Annoyinggggggg.

My students were in a pretty foul mood, too; I could hardly get any response out of them & as a result class just sucked & totally sapped my energy. To top it all off Dave was still sick so when I got home I couldn't even veg out, I had to cook dinner. (To be clear: I don't mind cooking dinner & I certainly don't begrudge Dave being sick & incapacitated, but it was definitely a shitty way to end my already exhausting days.)

The typhoon passed over Japan last night (it's still over the northern part but on its way out) & because they didn't know how bad it'd get they made all sorts of preparations for class being cancelled today, etc.

Last night itself was pretty scary for me. I've never been through a hurricane or typhoon before; the hurricanes that hit Florida while I was there never came to Tampa, & when I've been in Taiwan during a typhoon it hasn't come anywhere near this close. Once it got dark the wind started howling & it seriously felt like something out of a movie.

In the middle of the night I woke up because the wind & rain were so loud. I was utterly convinced that the wind was going to pick up a tree branch & smash it through the glass doors to our bedroom's balcony, & therefore utterly terrified. Dave kept reassuring me that it wasn't that bad, we'd be fine... but I didn't believe him. On top of that, there had been some sort of PSA on the loudspeaker system yesterday evening that I couldn't understand, & none of my neighbors were around to ask, & I suddenly realized that they were probably telling everyone to close their storm shutters.

I really wanted to get up & close them then, but it was like 4am & dark & the rain was blowing pretty much horizontally & the gusts of wind were rattling the doors, so I decided against it. Sure enough, when it got light outside, I looked at the houses around us & all of them had their storm shutters closed. Doh.

But regardless, we made it through unscathed. Riding my bike to school this morning I didn't see any damage done; there wasn't any flooding in my area, either. The teachers at my school said there wasn't as much rain as they were expecting.

Class this morning was cancelled & they even said the teachers could wait to go in until 10:20, so I got to sleep in a bit, but I did still have my afternoon classes. They were actually pretty genki (energetic? upbeat? happy? not sure the best way to translate this word here) & with the sun shining in it was a really pleasant feeling.

Definitely a nice way to end my first typhoon experience.

I came down with an infection just before Silver Week & some over the counter medicine helped keep it at bay, but as soon as I got back to Shizuoka it flared up again, so I asked Kaneda-sensei to help me set up an appointment on Friday, since the hospital was closed on Thursdays.

In Japan, most people don't go to doctor's offices as we think of them in the US. You may or may not make an appointment, but either way you'll probably go to the hospital & see one of the doctors there. A lot of the time they don't even take appointments, & you just go in the morning & wait your turn, & usually end up getting seen pretty quickly. I remember waiting up to an hour past my appointment time when I'd arrived half an hour early as requested by my doctor, back in the US. Here, you go without an appointment & usually wait around 30 minutes.

But I did have an appointment, & I was seen within 5 minutes of the appointment time. The delay was pretty much just due to having to fill out paperwork, so that was on me. & the appointment went really well. I may only speak minimal Japanese, but I didn't even really need Kaneda-sensei's help with translating more than a couple of times.

The facilities were pristine, they take care with privacy, took notes with a computer, & I was in & out with prescription & everything in like 70 minutes. The cost was completely reasonable, too. Heck yeah, socialized health care.

Last Saturday (the 3rd) was a super busy day. The people from the city office in Shimada, who had thrown the enkai for new ALTs last month (see "getting used to class"), invited us to a barbecue that afternoon in Shimada. They'd mentioned it at the enkai, but didn't give me a date till the Friday before, by which time I'd already committed to going white water rafting near Mt. Fuji with AJET. I talked to the organizer, though, & since it was an event that I'd basically already committed to even before the rafting, & it was put on by some fairly important people, & the reservation was still a week away, they let me cancel the rafting.

So that morning I slept in, which felt glorious (especially since I would've otherwise been waking up at 6am for rafting). When I woke up, Dave informed that he had a cold & therefore would be passing on the BBQ. Which meant I was the only foreigner going to the BBQ, as far as I knew. & suddenly I didn't want to go anymore, but I'd promised I would, & hopefully I'd have fun anyway.

So I went, & it wasn't bad. Oddly enough, despite multiple efforts to wedge myself into the conversations (which were in Japanese, which I mostly understood), they spent most of the time talking to each other & not to me. & no other foreigners came, which they apologized for -- evidently the other 2 or 3 they'd expected had stuff come up. It was still a pretty good time, but it was a bit strange.

When it ended I came home & checked on Dave, & since he was feeling a bit recuperated, we headed over to Kyle's place in Kikugawa together for the Rock Band party he was throwing. It was a really really fun night, full of food & drinking & being loud crazy gaijins. (Kyle has only 1 neighbor, who wasn't home that weekend.) Dave & I, & the Fukuroi JET Josh, spent the night there.

At around 12, when most people left, Josh disappeared, leaving his bike & backpack (with cell phone, as I discovered when I tried to call & text him to see where he was). Around 5am he rang the doorbell, waking me up; apparently he'd been sitting out in a rice field by some stairs, pondering the meaning of life... & how to meet Brazilians so he could practice his Portuguese.

In the morning I helped Kyle clean up a bit, & then the 4 of us had breakfast at Coco's. We dropped Dave off at the station so he could go home & really recuperate, I helped Kyle clean some more, & then we dropped Josh off at his place in Fukuroi & then headed to Sharla & Randy's place in Iwata. They made Trindian (they're Indian, from Trinidad) food for us -- curried chicken, curried mashed potato & chickpeas, & roti bread, served with hot sauce. So amazingly delicious & super filling. Sharla sent me on my way with 2 extra "Caribbean burritos" (as Dave dubbed them) to take home for Dave / my lunch, since Dave couldn't come & they made a ton of food.

To end the night, Michelle drove me, Cynthia, & Anna to Lalaport, this big shopping mall. Sharla & Randy met up with us at Kaldi Coffee Farm, the international food store; & we did some shopping at Zara. Everyone tried stuff on & I was the only one to walk out without having bought anything (a fact I regretted when the cold weather struck the next day).

So yet again, I had a socially PACKED weekend. My absolute favorite kind.

I really love all of the Shizuoka JETs. A lot. I'm looking forward to spending another few years here. The teaching is still tough, but I know it'll get better, especially as I tap the minds of those who've managed to stick around, so I expect to be here for a while.

Monday night (the 28th) we went to Fujieda for dinner with Adam & Kris, the Yaizu JETs. Adam wanted to borrow my Apples to Apples set for a class, so we met up for dinner at a Bangladeshi curry restaurant so I could pass it off & we could hang out a bit. The food was pretty good & I really enjoyed talking & hanging out with him. He's always pretty busy so I don't get to see him much, but hopefully once I get my apartment organized & start having biweekly A2A parties I'll see more of him, because I know he loves that game as much as I do.

Tuesday night Anna came over for dinner. We grilled inside on the takoyaki pan's flat griddle plate & made hummus from garbanzo beans that her family had sent her. It was a really chill evening & I absolutely adore her.

Friday, we were supposed to have our Sports Day (or Sports Festival, or Field Day; call it what you will), but it got rained out, so instead we had class, which meant everyone was scrambling to get materials ready because we'd all been hoping it wouldn't rain. My 2 classes actually went pretty well -- Fridays I only have my ninensei (11th grade) & sannensei, which are pretty chill classes so they doesn't require a whole lot of preparation.

I spent most of the day studying kanji, taking a few breaks to work on preparing the midterm for my OCI (ichinensei (10th grade) Oral Communication) classes.

Jessie, one of the ALT sempais in Fujieda, had planned a ladies' dinner night, but due to the rain she postponed it, which left me with no dinner plans. I put up a note on Facebook, the default communication medium for everyone, but especially JETs, & pretty quickly was contacted by a few girls nearby. I'd already bought Dave dinner from Hotto Motto (bento restaurant), & he wasn't feeling well, so he stayed in, & I went out to Kakegawa for dinner with Cynthia, Michelle, & Anna. We had Indian curry at this really cute restaurant & had a really fun impromptu ladies' night.

The weekend just after Silver Week, this week of hanging out, & the next weekend (next post) really impressed upon me the great support network that JETs in Shizuoka have. People I've only seen a couple of times instantly reached out to help when I asked, hang out when I was lonely, & invite me over for food. I may be frustrated with teaching sometimes, but I'm really happy with my placement overall. The people can't be beat.

That Sunday (the 27th), I begged Kyle to take me & Dave to a "recycle shop" (secondhand shop) so we could get some things for the apartment, since he has a car, & he kindly obliged.

But the huge recycle shop I'd visited before with Kaneda-sensei was extremely elusive; I thought I'd found it when I checked online before leaving home, but the one I'd looked up was something totally different, & I couldn't find it on either of the boys' iPhones, so we ended up at this small one instead.

& ended up getting some pretty awesome, cheap stuff, including a small oven (about the size of a toaster oven, but more powerful) for only Y2000! (About US$20.)

Finished with that, I asked Kyle to take us to the grocery store before going home so we could get some heavy stuff that's hard to take home on a bike -- like rice and beer. Stocked up on groceries, we headed back to our place for lunch: we made takoyaki with the pan that Naoko had sent to me the week before Silver Week, & I'm pretty sure it was the most delicious takoyaki I've made to date. That's probably because Dave was in charge this time & everything Dave makes is better than when I make it.

Having friends with cars is definitely convenient, & a great excuse to hang out, but I'm looking forward to getting our own car so we don't have to impose on others or wait until they're available to get our errands done.

I don't remember what I did at or after school on the Thursday & Friday after Silver Week, & my planner's at school so I can't check, but if it's important I'll add something about it later.

That Saturday, the 26th, was Avril's 2nd speech contest. Gotoh-sensei asked me to bike to his house by 6:45am, & his beautiful & friendly wife drove us to Shimada station so we could get to Shizuoka High School on time.

I saw a handful of ALTs I knew there, including Julie & Sarah, who'd hosted the BBQ the week before Silver Week, & James, the amazingly hilarious Australian in Shiz city, & we all cheered our students on. Avril didn't win, but she did a damn good job & knew it & was proud of herself, as I was of her, too.

One of James's students, who evidently has never lived outside of the US, spoke IMPECCABLE English. I mean totally fluent. Like me. It was absolutely astounding. I guess her mom is from Singapore & therefore they speak English at home together, but even hearing that I was totally shocked by how amazingly GOOD her English was! She was in a separate division of the contest, so it's not like Avril & the other struggling-at-English students were up against her.

The 3 of us -- Avril, Gotoh-sensei & I -- rode the train back to Kanaya together, & Gotoh-sensei's wife dropped me off at their house to get my bike & then drove Avril home. They're a really sweet family & I hope to spend some more time with them. Gotoh-sensei said that if I'm still here next year, when they do the Oigawa fireworks display, he'll invite me to the barbecue he holds annually because you can see the fireworks really well from his house. I can't wait.

On our last day, we had breakfast at Keiko's, then she saw us off at the bus stop & we headed up to Kyoto in the morning one last time. We stashed our stuff in a couple of coin lockers & met up with Kaori for lunch -- tempura at a restaurant in Kyoto station -- & then some shopping & general hanging out.

Her English had improved a lot & I was really impressed. Turns out that next year she's moving back to the US -- to Florida, no less! She got a job as a receptionist in the Japan-themed area at Disney World.

So yeah, at 3 she saw us off at the ticket gate & again we went through the train rigamarole. I chose an itinerary that only had us changing trains twice, & by luck (& rushing through stations when we had to change trains) we were actually able to sit through the whole ride.

When we got back to Kanaya we dropped our stuff in the apartment, then biked over to the Korean restaurant nearby for dinner. The last time I was there I had somehow missed the fact that they have a karaoke machine, which was getting a lot of use this time around. At some point one of the very outlandishly-dressed girls sitting at the bar near us asked me to sing an English song, so I did "Stand By Me" & everyone cheered when I was done. One of the guys said it was his first time hearing English sung live & that it moved him deeply.

He was also very drunk.

& that was how we spent our wonderful 5-day vacation. We came back utterly exhausted, but pretty happy.

Monday we spent the whole morning just relaxing. Dave wasn't feeling especially well, I was on my period, & we were pretty exhausted from the past few days. Midday we went to a soba restaurant that Keiko & her husband recommended, which was certainly as delicious as advertised, & then they dropped us off at Umeda so we could do some shopping because I wanted to buy a video camera.

But Yodobashi was disappointingly lacking in affordable digital video cameras, so when we were done browsing, we went to check out the Outback Steakhouse that we'd noticed when driving to the station. We tried to stop in for an appetizer, since I worked for OSI before coming to Japan, but they had a TWO HOUR WAIT. For an EMPTY RESTAURANT. I was flabbergasted. Actually, the first shock was when we were greeted by a hostess who spoke impeccable English. So anyway, I grabbed a few to-go menus & said we'd try back another time. The menu's actually exactly the same -- the only unique item is the hamburg steak, which is ubiquitous in Japan -- so I don't think I really will bother going back, but I'm glad I at least checked it out.

Our next stop was the Aqua Metropolis Osaka, where there was a GIANT "rubber duck" floating in one of the canals that runs through the city. Having seen it & snapped a ton of photos, we headed up to Kyoto for dinner (kaiten-zushi at Kappa-zushi) & then drinks with Mimu & friends again.

We decided to nix the karaoke since we were exhausted & had to catch a 5 hour train the next day, but it was still good to see them & hang out. Next time I'm back we're definitely gonna do something where Mimu doesn't have to work.