March 15th:
Went to Koshino for a small assembly to get a present from the sannensei kids.
March 16th:
Koshino Graduation day!:
This was an interesting day for me. I brought along a former JET who taught my graduating class the year before me. She crashed at my house the night before and wanted to surprise everyone at the school. This was all well and good, however the problem with this was that all the attention and respect that would have been afforded to me during my time there managed to get usurped because she was an old friend to the staff and could speak fluent Japanese. Needless to say for the whole of the day I felt rather low. The ceremony was nice (long) but nice and I managed to hold back the tears. Once graduation was over it was time to wait outside and meet the graduation class for pictures and conversation and so on. I took as many pictures as I could with my kids and when my girl Honoka gave me flowers I lost it. I cried, she cried and we hugged each other. I truly do love that girl, and I truly loved those students. I can only hope that the children I teach after this upcoming spring break will be nearly as fun and easy to love as them. After all the graduates cleared out we went back into the school with the intention to leave for the day. However unlike Su thought we had to stay. I was told by her not to bring my bento because we traditionally left after graduation so I had no food. Su was told the same thing and yet the school magically had a bento made ready for her. So in the end she ate, I didn’t and she didn’t even notice I had nothing to eat so I went hungry for the day until we were allowed to leave at four in the afternoon. Needless to say by the time I could eat I was past the hunger stage. Su packed her things and I took her to the train station so she could head off to another friends home. I felt like crap. Regardless however I returned home and freshened up for the Enkai at Auqa hotel at six.
Time for Enkai!
It was far more formal then other Enkais that I have been to, if only because we had chairs and tables to sit at instead of tatami rooms and low tables. As far as Enkai’s are concerned however I prefer the tatami room parties better. Either way I didn’t speak all that much, and a lot of the time I wasn’t really sure of what was going on. However towards the end when it was time to pour drinks for others, I talked a bit more to people and I began to feel better about my day. The best time however was when we went to a karaoke bar and had drinks and sang. I was far more acknowledge there and a teacher even told me that he wants to speak English with me because he is trying to learn. By the end of the night ( and the judo teacher here is soo cool and a good harmonica player) I felt good enough to say the day wasn’t a total loss and returned home. Had no time to just wonder about and stay up late since I had work the following morning.
March 17th:
After work around eight o’clock I met up with Brian, Brett, Lawrence, Zack (his gf), Saiyuri, Yuki, Rie and her friend for a St. Patrick’s day drink and meal( the karage was delicious!). Most all of us wore green and it was a good feeling. We talked and had some laughs. Took a few pictures and once we were done with one bar and Yuki was totally wasted we went to the neighboring bar ( MoMo bar) and had a few more drinks there. We all had a good night, and it was also the second night in a row where I was out drinking on a weeknight when I had work the following day. However being of Irish blood myself it would be truly wrong for me not to have a Guinness and some drinks on St. Patty’s day. So it was all good!
March 18th:
Chuo Elementary school Graduation: Yet, another set of my kids are going off away from me. I quite adored these kids as well. The ceremony was nice and at the end I waited outside and took pictures and video of the kids. A few of my kids who are particularly found of me, asked me to get into pictures with them and gave me high-fives and such. I told them I’d miss them and they told me they loved me!. Cool thing is I will probably be able to teach a few of them as they are moving to middle school and I teach at one of the two junior high schools that Chuo kids filter into. Saying farewell to all my students proved to be far harder then I’d ever imagined it to be.
March 19th:
Friday and the day before Sumo I met up with Hilda and Evelyn in Toyama to hang out, eat Mexican and karaoke. It’s Evelyn’s last week or so in Japan before she leaves back to Brazil for good. I’m going to miss her. She is a really nice girl. So we all went to Mexican where I met up with all my other Brazilian friends and a few people I didn’t know. I ate greedily and too much but the food was really good. Then Karaoke time happened, and we had a good time together. The two Japanese girls that I met for the first time that night were really cute and nice. One was very bold and quite westernized which made me like her even more. I found out later on that she was thirty one years old and I cursed the Japanese stay young forever jean. It truly isn’t fair!! Once I said good bye to everyone for the night, and gave extra hugs to Evelyn I crashed at Vannie’s for the night for what was to be a good weekend!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
March continues.. (still sick!)
March 8th-14th
Monday March 8th:
Normal day for the most part with the exception that there was sun. I went to Koshino thinking that the small assemble was that day but the dates were mixed so I was there a week earlier then I had to be. So I drove back to school and simply continued with my day. Later on that night I had my Eikawa as usual and I did my best to each them web language. Like “lol” or “ASAP” and so on. It was amusing how focused and interested they were in such things.
Tuesday March 9th:
It was a normal non-working day at Koshino until I left for Chuo’s rokunensei farewell party for teachers. It was a very cute set up and they had food and a place setting for me. They were all decorated and very cute. The program the kids put on what nice, and I even participated in a quick charades game. Finally at the end, a pair of kids presented handwritten letters by the students to each teacher along with two daisies. It was really sweet and my daisies are holding up strong even a week later. When it was over I stayed around to mingle with the students and take many pictures with them. I hope to prepare something nice for Chuo at the end of my year teaching there. I am not sure yet if I am having my schools changed but we will see.
Wednesday March 10th:
Work as usual and once I returned home I did a small make-up trail for Lawrence so I could take a picture for the charity show. It turned out looking pretty cool. Later that night I had Jacks Eikawa and it was good times like it always is.
Thursday March 11th:
NOTHING!!!!(besides work) YAY!!!! Cleaning mostly!
Friday March 12th:
After work, I hoped in the shower and got ready to go to Shino’s surprise farewell party at Peyote’s in Uozu. Wore my boats I acquired for my pirate costume a few weeks back and met up with people there. It was nice hanging out with everyone, and we took a good deal of pictures. Once Lawrence finally brought Shino we said surprise to her and all began taking pictures with her. Lawrence had brought a Polaroid camera which took instant pictures and so we used those to make her a farewell scrap book. It was really cool. Oddly enough 70% of the girls at the party were on their rag and thus we took a PMS picture together. It’s true what they say being around others who have it can do to you. Also Sara had some random drunk Japanese boys believing that I was Jay Zs cousin. >.> Oh being black in Japan never ceases to come up with new surprises and unbelievable gullibility
Saturday March 13th:
Sooo I woke up early to catch the train to Toyama, for a fashion show photo shoot. Me and Val met on the train and arrived at Vans house a bit past noon. Rebekah was already there and she was to be the photographer of the whole ordeal. That and it was cool to see her especially since I don’t get to see her too often. There Van teased up Vals hair, and then we organized ourselves as best we could and packed up our things and taxied over to the Ajito where the photo shoot was to take place. There I did her makeup using pink, black, bright orange and white and then dressed her in Vans outfit (corset and lace pants set). From there it was holding lights and having Val pose as Rebekah took pictures of her. The overall look together turned out pretty amazing. For amateurs (some far more practiced then others) we did a damned good job. I managed to see a few photos before I had to rush off to Uozu and they looked good. I am excited to get the photos after they have been edited and begin working on my makeup portfolio.
Leaving Toyama both Val and I caught the train back to Uozu and met up with Adam and Revan. From there I purchased cake and walked to Christine’s house. There was Marissa, Yasmine, Adam, Revan, David, Christine, myself and Val. There wasn’t much food there even though it was a potluck. Everyone mostly made deserts or something sweet since its much easier to do that then it is to make an actual dish. So Marissa brought apples and dip( the dip was good and sweet), Christen made Chinese soup, Adam made mashed potatos, I brought three types of cake, Revan brought Banana cream pie, David brought chocolate covered micon (like an tangerine). Everything there was good but we were all so sugared out. The movies we watched ( since this WAS Niikawa movie night) were The Rock, and Forgetting Sarah Marshal. Both entertaining movies in their own right, though Forgetting Sarah Marshal was far more entertaining even though it was the second time I had seen that movie.
Sunday March 14th:
Another early morning, and more money spent going to Toyama. This time it was a costume meeting at Seattle’s best. Unfortunately only three out of the five of us made it, but we discussed matters of importance anyway. However my health wasn’t the best that morning so once the meeting was over I went back home and cleaned my house up some so Yasmine could drop by and I do her hair. I picked her up from the station around six and from there went to my house, I spent a bit over an hour perming and blow drying her hair. After this was done we decided to eat and went to this place I had never been before. The place itself was pretty cool, and I wouldn’t mind going there in the future.
Monday March 8th:
Normal day for the most part with the exception that there was sun. I went to Koshino thinking that the small assemble was that day but the dates were mixed so I was there a week earlier then I had to be. So I drove back to school and simply continued with my day. Later on that night I had my Eikawa as usual and I did my best to each them web language. Like “lol” or “ASAP” and so on. It was amusing how focused and interested they were in such things.
Tuesday March 9th:
It was a normal non-working day at Koshino until I left for Chuo’s rokunensei farewell party for teachers. It was a very cute set up and they had food and a place setting for me. They were all decorated and very cute. The program the kids put on what nice, and I even participated in a quick charades game. Finally at the end, a pair of kids presented handwritten letters by the students to each teacher along with two daisies. It was really sweet and my daisies are holding up strong even a week later. When it was over I stayed around to mingle with the students and take many pictures with them. I hope to prepare something nice for Chuo at the end of my year teaching there. I am not sure yet if I am having my schools changed but we will see.
Wednesday March 10th:
Work as usual and once I returned home I did a small make-up trail for Lawrence so I could take a picture for the charity show. It turned out looking pretty cool. Later that night I had Jacks Eikawa and it was good times like it always is.
Thursday March 11th:
NOTHING!!!!(besides work) YAY!!!! Cleaning mostly!
Friday March 12th:
After work, I hoped in the shower and got ready to go to Shino’s surprise farewell party at Peyote’s in Uozu. Wore my boats I acquired for my pirate costume a few weeks back and met up with people there. It was nice hanging out with everyone, and we took a good deal of pictures. Once Lawrence finally brought Shino we said surprise to her and all began taking pictures with her. Lawrence had brought a Polaroid camera which took instant pictures and so we used those to make her a farewell scrap book. It was really cool. Oddly enough 70% of the girls at the party were on their rag and thus we took a PMS picture together. It’s true what they say being around others who have it can do to you. Also Sara had some random drunk Japanese boys believing that I was Jay Zs cousin. >.> Oh being black in Japan never ceases to come up with new surprises and unbelievable gullibility
Saturday March 13th:
Sooo I woke up early to catch the train to Toyama, for a fashion show photo shoot. Me and Val met on the train and arrived at Vans house a bit past noon. Rebekah was already there and she was to be the photographer of the whole ordeal. That and it was cool to see her especially since I don’t get to see her too often. There Van teased up Vals hair, and then we organized ourselves as best we could and packed up our things and taxied over to the Ajito where the photo shoot was to take place. There I did her makeup using pink, black, bright orange and white and then dressed her in Vans outfit (corset and lace pants set). From there it was holding lights and having Val pose as Rebekah took pictures of her. The overall look together turned out pretty amazing. For amateurs (some far more practiced then others) we did a damned good job. I managed to see a few photos before I had to rush off to Uozu and they looked good. I am excited to get the photos after they have been edited and begin working on my makeup portfolio.
Leaving Toyama both Val and I caught the train back to Uozu and met up with Adam and Revan. From there I purchased cake and walked to Christine’s house. There was Marissa, Yasmine, Adam, Revan, David, Christine, myself and Val. There wasn’t much food there even though it was a potluck. Everyone mostly made deserts or something sweet since its much easier to do that then it is to make an actual dish. So Marissa brought apples and dip( the dip was good and sweet), Christen made Chinese soup, Adam made mashed potatos, I brought three types of cake, Revan brought Banana cream pie, David brought chocolate covered micon (like an tangerine). Everything there was good but we were all so sugared out. The movies we watched ( since this WAS Niikawa movie night) were The Rock, and Forgetting Sarah Marshal. Both entertaining movies in their own right, though Forgetting Sarah Marshal was far more entertaining even though it was the second time I had seen that movie.
Sunday March 14th:
Another early morning, and more money spent going to Toyama. This time it was a costume meeting at Seattle’s best. Unfortunately only three out of the five of us made it, but we discussed matters of importance anyway. However my health wasn’t the best that morning so once the meeting was over I went back home and cleaned my house up some so Yasmine could drop by and I do her hair. I picked her up from the station around six and from there went to my house, I spent a bit over an hour perming and blow drying her hair. After this was done we decided to eat and went to this place I had never been before. The place itself was pretty cool, and I wouldn’t mind going there in the future.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Good week, Still ill
March 1st:
It’s March already. The months are going by so quickly and yet sometimes I feel like the days are so long. Long because of the tight schedule I keep and not long enough because I never get EVERYTHING I want done in a day. Although I’m sure I could try harder to accomplish all thing on the ‘Anita wants to do’ list, but I truly don’t have the energy. This week the cold I felt coming on the past weekend was in full stride. Nevertheless I went to work and still kept my dinner date with Adam and Revan. I met them both at a Chinese restaurant off of route eight and the food was good, but rather expensive. The company however was nice and rather laid back. I’d didn’t have to fork over too much energy and it was greatly appreciated. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I rushed to my Eikawa class.
March 2nd:
Work as usual…well not usual, I haven’t been teaching regular class or teaching at all in either one of my junior high schools for at least a month. Just there clocking ours to get paid. After work I mulled around until 6:45 when I left out to meet Adam in Asahi for Taiko drum class. The community center where it was held was in the middle of nowhere and even though I am far out and away from bigger cities I am glad I’m not THAT far out. Once I got there Adam showed a few minutes after me, and with that we walked into class. A large group of kids were there. Cute kids and chubby ones too. I have to admit seeing two chubby brothers was a refreshing site. Seeing kids that eat heartily is a nice look, and a change from the overall stark norm (skiiiiiiny) Japanese kid. For a while we sat on the side and watched the younger kids practice. They were very impressive, and all happened to be Adams students. It was here that I finally met a girl names Usagi. I know it’s a dorky sailor moon fan thing to do, but I was rather genki once I learned her name. One thing is also certain is that I’ll never forget it. Once the older players started me and Adam played the small drums for them. Then they decided to teach us a small routine on the big drums. It was cool but not that easy. We were far less stylish and cool looking I can say that much!
Wednesday 3rd:
The beginning of Jack’s Eikawa class. Taking over for him again since this is a rather busy month for him. They are good/nice people and we just talked throughout the whole time. It was good since the class is to improve English conversation and pronunciation. So there is no better practice then actually having full blown English conversation on topics of interest.
Saturday 6th:
D&D!!! FUCK YEA!! Ok, I think I honestly just like saying that phrase XD. In any case my D&D crew met up at Seattle’s Best in Toyama for a round of game. It was the first time in quite a while that we had all played, and I’m sure it will be a while afterwards before we have another session. Everyone in general is very busy and thus haven’t managed to find consistent times where we can all get together and play. It also doesn’t help that we all are scattered and live in different parts of Toyama. It was interesting playing out in the open for the first two hours because the conference room in the back was already occupied. Nevertheless we had a good time while drinking our coffee. After two hours had passed the conference cleared out and we moved our party in there. It was a far better environment to play and be more vocal now that we weren’t surrounded by random people watching a play. However at this point my illness was really kicking me and once the session I simply went home and called it a day.
Sunday 7th:
First play rehearsal. I don’t have many lines and I am GLAD. Granted I can read romanji and say everything fairly well, my pronunciation on several phrases weren’t very good. It was cool because I got to see the other actors practice, and meet my team of slaves (in the play) and how they were going to interact with me on stage. Overall it was pretty cool. I will have to practice often and do my best to remember my lines. Once practice was over I ended up hanging with Johnny F and Hilda for the remainder of the day. We chilled with Alexis at Seattle’s Best after practice then met up with Jarrad and John at another café later. Then we went and had dinner at this Italian place. The food was pretty good, and there was indeed interesting conversation. However I did more listening then anything simply because I’m a first year. Most conversation was about things in past years, so I just say back an observed. My cold was dragging down pretty hard anyway so I didn’t have much energy to participate to heavily. After dinner we parted with Jarrad and John and found ourselves at Starbucks just relaxing. It was kinda disturbing how we just café hopped the whole day. Granted it was interesting but I’d rather not make that a habit. Days like today can empty a wallet fast.
It’s March already. The months are going by so quickly and yet sometimes I feel like the days are so long. Long because of the tight schedule I keep and not long enough because I never get EVERYTHING I want done in a day. Although I’m sure I could try harder to accomplish all thing on the ‘Anita wants to do’ list, but I truly don’t have the energy. This week the cold I felt coming on the past weekend was in full stride. Nevertheless I went to work and still kept my dinner date with Adam and Revan. I met them both at a Chinese restaurant off of route eight and the food was good, but rather expensive. The company however was nice and rather laid back. I’d didn’t have to fork over too much energy and it was greatly appreciated. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I rushed to my Eikawa class.
March 2nd:
Work as usual…well not usual, I haven’t been teaching regular class or teaching at all in either one of my junior high schools for at least a month. Just there clocking ours to get paid. After work I mulled around until 6:45 when I left out to meet Adam in Asahi for Taiko drum class. The community center where it was held was in the middle of nowhere and even though I am far out and away from bigger cities I am glad I’m not THAT far out. Once I got there Adam showed a few minutes after me, and with that we walked into class. A large group of kids were there. Cute kids and chubby ones too. I have to admit seeing two chubby brothers was a refreshing site. Seeing kids that eat heartily is a nice look, and a change from the overall stark norm (skiiiiiiny) Japanese kid. For a while we sat on the side and watched the younger kids practice. They were very impressive, and all happened to be Adams students. It was here that I finally met a girl names Usagi. I know it’s a dorky sailor moon fan thing to do, but I was rather genki once I learned her name. One thing is also certain is that I’ll never forget it. Once the older players started me and Adam played the small drums for them. Then they decided to teach us a small routine on the big drums. It was cool but not that easy. We were far less stylish and cool looking I can say that much!
Wednesday 3rd:
The beginning of Jack’s Eikawa class. Taking over for him again since this is a rather busy month for him. They are good/nice people and we just talked throughout the whole time. It was good since the class is to improve English conversation and pronunciation. So there is no better practice then actually having full blown English conversation on topics of interest.
Saturday 6th:
D&D!!! FUCK YEA!! Ok, I think I honestly just like saying that phrase XD. In any case my D&D crew met up at Seattle’s Best in Toyama for a round of game. It was the first time in quite a while that we had all played, and I’m sure it will be a while afterwards before we have another session. Everyone in general is very busy and thus haven’t managed to find consistent times where we can all get together and play. It also doesn’t help that we all are scattered and live in different parts of Toyama. It was interesting playing out in the open for the first two hours because the conference room in the back was already occupied. Nevertheless we had a good time while drinking our coffee. After two hours had passed the conference cleared out and we moved our party in there. It was a far better environment to play and be more vocal now that we weren’t surrounded by random people watching a play. However at this point my illness was really kicking me and once the session I simply went home and called it a day.
Sunday 7th:
First play rehearsal. I don’t have many lines and I am GLAD. Granted I can read romanji and say everything fairly well, my pronunciation on several phrases weren’t very good. It was cool because I got to see the other actors practice, and meet my team of slaves (in the play) and how they were going to interact with me on stage. Overall it was pretty cool. I will have to practice often and do my best to remember my lines. Once practice was over I ended up hanging with Johnny F and Hilda for the remainder of the day. We chilled with Alexis at Seattle’s Best after practice then met up with Jarrad and John at another café later. Then we went and had dinner at this Italian place. The food was pretty good, and there was indeed interesting conversation. However I did more listening then anything simply because I’m a first year. Most conversation was about things in past years, so I just say back an observed. My cold was dragging down pretty hard anyway so I didn’t have much energy to participate to heavily. After dinner we parted with Jarrad and John and found ourselves at Starbucks just relaxing. It was kinda disturbing how we just café hopped the whole day. Granted it was interesting but I’d rather not make that a habit. Days like today can empty a wallet fast.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Busy Busy Busy! A hell of a week and many to go!
February 22nd -28th :
Monday (22nd ):
My Eikawa class from 7:30-9pm. Average class though we have a new student (not sure if I mentioned that before). However we did have tea time, and drank tea and had mango pudding (the lady who is so cute, and such a great cook I have no clue on what could be her name ^^;;).
Tuesday (23rd):
An ordinary Tuesday at work, but later that night I was invited out by Bryan and Rie to go bowling. So I met up with Bryan, Rie, and Lawrence for dinner at this messi pork restaurant, powered through dinner (because I was a bit late), and then we went to the bowling alley. Strapping on my shoes (which were too tight ^^;, but came out of a nifty shoe dispenser machine) and making teams of three, since both Yuki and Jack joined us at the alley, and we started to bowl. Unfortunately I happened to be the overall worse bowler. I’m starting to thing that the balls I choose to bowl with are to heavy for me. Ten pounds isn’t easy to bowl down a lane. Also it happened to be that the three worse players of the six were all teamed together. I smell conspiracy here, but I chose to let it go XP . After about two games Adam and Saiyuri joined us for bowling and played two more games with us. Admitingly this threw me in a slightly sour mood (for reasons need not discussed) for a few minutes but I got over it. Nevertheless we had fun overall and once the game was over we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
Thursday (25th):
After work it was time for our month Colare international dinner. This time Brett (our social rep and friend) was cooking fajitas’ as the dish of choice. This particular dinner had the biggest turn out of people I have ever seen at a Colare dinner. At least thirty people were there. Even Yasmine (from takaoka, and hour by train) came to take part. Once we all grabbed out two faijitas a piece limit we sat around and talked with each other. Kyoko (a girl I met a few Colare dinners ago and also works at Kurobe Onsen Hotel where my friends and I had our onsen trip) talked to me as well, and she is a very cool Japanese girl. After everyone had eaten, it was time for the new comers to introduce themselves. Yasmine managed to garnish quite the attention because of her families heritage (Ghanna) her singing (which we made her do) and her artistic and Japanese abilities (both in which she is quite good at). Once the dinner itself was officially over we hung around a bit and chatted with Hisaaki and PB( cause I can’t remember his real name) and chatted about random things such as, Tokyo versus Kansai, animation, Jdrama, beat boxing etc. We also played the game Mercy which I was the overall victor. If I wasn’t I’d be seriously upset that my upper body strength had dropped so low. Finally it was time to go home (and work on sewing stuff).
Friday (26th):
SOO busy day! After work I grabbed some food from the Kambini and rested for an half an hour or so before driving out to Uozu for D&D at David’s. Everyone was ready to play, but was in a desperate need for an recap (had been a month plus since first played). SO while he recapped we ate dinner (that David prepared for us) and then started the game. Twas fun as always, though I did mange to almost die this round off some BS!. There was even dramatic LotR (lord of the rings) music playing in the background. The funny thing though was that David was looking at the figure skating finals on his computer and I noted that the skaters were skating in perfect tandem to the LotR music. This effectively stopped the game as we starred at the screen cracking up and in amazement on just how PERFECT it matched up. Five minutes later we shut off David’s laptop so that we could refocus back on the game. Nevertheless I couldn’t stay too long after that. After 3 1/2 hours being there I said my farewells and drove back to Kurobe and to MoMo bar for Rie’s birthday celebration.
When I arrived there, there were quite a few faces I hadn’t expected to see. Then again Toyama isn’t so big so everyone knows someone else for some reason or another. Either way, I grabbed a drink and then floated around talking to random people throughout the night. Sara was there and she proceeded to motorboat to Japanese women pointing to my assets as an example though she is well endowed herself. I talked to some Japanese people who happened to be parents of so of my elementary school kids, so they thanked me for teaching their kids. Overall it was a good time of mingling, drinking ( though I didn’t really do much of any this night) and laughs. By the time I picked up, left, and returned home it was 1:30 in the morning, and from there I proceeded to sew my pirate costume till 9:30am that morning.
Saturday (27th: )
After a serious four hour power REM cycle I woke to a rather sunny day (one of my engagements got canceled that morning which allowed me that extra hour!) I also have learned that apparently according to an article I read that Studies have shown that people sleep more efficiently when they are sleep-deprived and that they enter REM sleep faster then those who are not. GO FIGURE! So to everyone who is sleep-deprived it isn’t SO bad. However I do truly recommend getting good sleep regardless
So! I got dressed, went out to the recycle shop and luckily found a pair of brown leather boots THAT FIT and were only 2200\ ( $25 in American dollars). When I went to the counter to purchase the boots I found that they were on sale and landed them for 1000\ (about $12).
I was pretty stocked and returned home to grab a small snack, iron my costume, take a shower and dressed so I could catch the 5:30 train to Toyama for Marissa’s birthday dinner at Satoshi’s. Granted her birthday wasn’t pirate themed but there was no point in changing later. SO I arrived there with a good chunk of the party’s participants, walked into Satoshi’s and began ordering food. By the time everyone arrived twenty five to thirty people had showed and it was good catching up with those I hadn’t seen in a while, and of course I was talked about because I was the only pirate there for most of the dinner XP The dinner lasted two hours or so, and I was full and content. I do really enjoy the Indian food restaurants here in Toyama. It was at this point however the party split into three factions: the group who went home, the group who karaoked, and the bowling group. Since I had bowled a few nights before AND because I was wearing a pirate costume I opted out of bowling and sun and hour or so of Karaoke, in which Tiffany finally met up with us. Once that was over it was Tiffany, Debbie, Hilda, Rachel and her boyfriend, and I who walked to get Puri Kura but it had closed not to long before we got there. Alas we resolved to catch taxis and reached the Banana Pop bar where the Pirates of the Caribbean shindig was held.
This was my first time to Banana Pop and the place was small but cozy. It was all decorate in pirate décor with nets and bottles hanging from the ceiling. Had I been any taller there would have been some head bumping accidents for sure!. To our liking we got quite the welcome since we were a gang of gaijin walking in all dressed as pirates. To my surprise Rebekah, Shawn, and Salvador were already there. They weren’t doned in pirate gear but they were indeed fun to hang out with. Another surprise to my system was outside of Shawn being a fun person to be around and quite funny he could also dance. Like good movement and everything, I was like WHOA that is cool. The last member of our crew arrived around twenty minutes after we did and she was dressed as a pretty wench. The overall pirate themes were red and black, and black and green. We were all fairly coordinated XD. So dancing happened, a few drinks happened, meeting up with the lovely Evelyn, Marianna, and Wagner, meeting Arianna ( a fairly eccentric artist living in Toyama), and getting asked to take pictures with me. It was very entertaining and we were at Banana Pop for at least four hours. Needless to say however by the time 2am hit we were all beat. Booking taxis back to Van’s I undressed and crawled into my futon. THIS however wasn’t the end of the night. Hilda and Salvador ( for reasons of sadness) ended up crashing there too. The four of us talked away another hour or so of our night, and then finally passed the hell out.
Sunday (28th):
Time to get up! It was roughly noon I think. It was a slow start and I could feel the beginning of my current sickness. Will ended up coming by as well as Tiffany, and Debbie so the six of us went out for ramen. The ramen was pretty yummy, but I must say I tire of the stuff no matter how many different kinds of ramen there may be. Following the eating of the ramen there was a small lull where none of us really did anything, but around three or so Van, Will and I went to the CIC building where charity show rehearsal was taking place to fit Sham in her Dorothy outfit for a poster photo shoot. I ended up helping with her make-up and attempted (at her later failed hair-style) to braid her hair, but in the end we just settled for typical ponytails. Then to the station I go, carrying quite a big of baggage and happy to hit my bed when I returned back to Kurobe! HOWEVER that was not in the cards.
Once I boarded my train I met Reina and her friend there. I was very happy to see Reina, and after a while they both sat next to me and talked with me. Reina even bought me something back from her Tokyo trip. She’s such a cute girl. Her emails always make me smile.
After I said bye to Reina I hopped in my car, called Mihoko and told her that I would indeed come to her dinner in HALF AN HOUR in Nuyzen. It was also her Birthday so I couldn’t in good conscious not go to the dinner. So I made it home and stayed long enough to drop off my bags, change clothes, go to the bathroom, and grab a grapefruit to eat. So got there said my hello’s, saw Ben who manages to come out far more now, and Mihoko and lots of babies. Kathy and her baby was there as well as another couples. I didn’t eat much food, half cause I didn’t want to pay for it and the other half because I wasn’t really hungry. The dinner itself lasted about two hours and ended roughly with us singing happy birthday to Mihoko. Kathy had bought a rather delicious and beautiful cake for her (and boy did we have time finding candles) and we all had a piece. When it was time to clear out I ended up chatting with most everyone outside of the restaurant in the parking lot for another two hours in the COLD like an idiot. Then I WENT HOME *stumbles through her messy apartment and cuddles her blanket and pillow*
Monday (22nd ):
My Eikawa class from 7:30-9pm. Average class though we have a new student (not sure if I mentioned that before). However we did have tea time, and drank tea and had mango pudding (the lady who is so cute, and such a great cook I have no clue on what could be her name ^^;;).
Tuesday (23rd):
An ordinary Tuesday at work, but later that night I was invited out by Bryan and Rie to go bowling. So I met up with Bryan, Rie, and Lawrence for dinner at this messi pork restaurant, powered through dinner (because I was a bit late), and then we went to the bowling alley. Strapping on my shoes (which were too tight ^^;, but came out of a nifty shoe dispenser machine) and making teams of three, since both Yuki and Jack joined us at the alley, and we started to bowl. Unfortunately I happened to be the overall worse bowler. I’m starting to thing that the balls I choose to bowl with are to heavy for me. Ten pounds isn’t easy to bowl down a lane. Also it happened to be that the three worse players of the six were all teamed together. I smell conspiracy here, but I chose to let it go XP . After about two games Adam and Saiyuri joined us for bowling and played two more games with us. Admitingly this threw me in a slightly sour mood (for reasons need not discussed) for a few minutes but I got over it. Nevertheless we had fun overall and once the game was over we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
Thursday (25th):
After work it was time for our month Colare international dinner. This time Brett (our social rep and friend) was cooking fajitas’ as the dish of choice. This particular dinner had the biggest turn out of people I have ever seen at a Colare dinner. At least thirty people were there. Even Yasmine (from takaoka, and hour by train) came to take part. Once we all grabbed out two faijitas a piece limit we sat around and talked with each other. Kyoko (a girl I met a few Colare dinners ago and also works at Kurobe Onsen Hotel where my friends and I had our onsen trip) talked to me as well, and she is a very cool Japanese girl. After everyone had eaten, it was time for the new comers to introduce themselves. Yasmine managed to garnish quite the attention because of her families heritage (Ghanna) her singing (which we made her do) and her artistic and Japanese abilities (both in which she is quite good at). Once the dinner itself was officially over we hung around a bit and chatted with Hisaaki and PB( cause I can’t remember his real name) and chatted about random things such as, Tokyo versus Kansai, animation, Jdrama, beat boxing etc. We also played the game Mercy which I was the overall victor. If I wasn’t I’d be seriously upset that my upper body strength had dropped so low. Finally it was time to go home (and work on sewing stuff).
Friday (26th):
SOO busy day! After work I grabbed some food from the Kambini and rested for an half an hour or so before driving out to Uozu for D&D at David’s. Everyone was ready to play, but was in a desperate need for an recap (had been a month plus since first played). SO while he recapped we ate dinner (that David prepared for us) and then started the game. Twas fun as always, though I did mange to almost die this round off some BS!. There was even dramatic LotR (lord of the rings) music playing in the background. The funny thing though was that David was looking at the figure skating finals on his computer and I noted that the skaters were skating in perfect tandem to the LotR music. This effectively stopped the game as we starred at the screen cracking up and in amazement on just how PERFECT it matched up. Five minutes later we shut off David’s laptop so that we could refocus back on the game. Nevertheless I couldn’t stay too long after that. After 3 1/2 hours being there I said my farewells and drove back to Kurobe and to MoMo bar for Rie’s birthday celebration.
When I arrived there, there were quite a few faces I hadn’t expected to see. Then again Toyama isn’t so big so everyone knows someone else for some reason or another. Either way, I grabbed a drink and then floated around talking to random people throughout the night. Sara was there and she proceeded to motorboat to Japanese women pointing to my assets as an example though she is well endowed herself. I talked to some Japanese people who happened to be parents of so of my elementary school kids, so they thanked me for teaching their kids. Overall it was a good time of mingling, drinking ( though I didn’t really do much of any this night) and laughs. By the time I picked up, left, and returned home it was 1:30 in the morning, and from there I proceeded to sew my pirate costume till 9:30am that morning.
Saturday (27th: )
After a serious four hour power REM cycle I woke to a rather sunny day (one of my engagements got canceled that morning which allowed me that extra hour!) I also have learned that apparently according to an article I read that Studies have shown that people sleep more efficiently when they are sleep-deprived and that they enter REM sleep faster then those who are not. GO FIGURE! So to everyone who is sleep-deprived it isn’t SO bad. However I do truly recommend getting good sleep regardless
So! I got dressed, went out to the recycle shop and luckily found a pair of brown leather boots THAT FIT and were only 2200\ ( $25 in American dollars). When I went to the counter to purchase the boots I found that they were on sale and landed them for 1000\ (about $12).
I was pretty stocked and returned home to grab a small snack, iron my costume, take a shower and dressed so I could catch the 5:30 train to Toyama for Marissa’s birthday dinner at Satoshi’s. Granted her birthday wasn’t pirate themed but there was no point in changing later. SO I arrived there with a good chunk of the party’s participants, walked into Satoshi’s and began ordering food. By the time everyone arrived twenty five to thirty people had showed and it was good catching up with those I hadn’t seen in a while, and of course I was talked about because I was the only pirate there for most of the dinner XP The dinner lasted two hours or so, and I was full and content. I do really enjoy the Indian food restaurants here in Toyama. It was at this point however the party split into three factions: the group who went home, the group who karaoked, and the bowling group. Since I had bowled a few nights before AND because I was wearing a pirate costume I opted out of bowling and sun and hour or so of Karaoke, in which Tiffany finally met up with us. Once that was over it was Tiffany, Debbie, Hilda, Rachel and her boyfriend, and I who walked to get Puri Kura but it had closed not to long before we got there. Alas we resolved to catch taxis and reached the Banana Pop bar where the Pirates of the Caribbean shindig was held.
This was my first time to Banana Pop and the place was small but cozy. It was all decorate in pirate décor with nets and bottles hanging from the ceiling. Had I been any taller there would have been some head bumping accidents for sure!. To our liking we got quite the welcome since we were a gang of gaijin walking in all dressed as pirates. To my surprise Rebekah, Shawn, and Salvador were already there. They weren’t doned in pirate gear but they were indeed fun to hang out with. Another surprise to my system was outside of Shawn being a fun person to be around and quite funny he could also dance. Like good movement and everything, I was like WHOA that is cool. The last member of our crew arrived around twenty minutes after we did and she was dressed as a pretty wench. The overall pirate themes were red and black, and black and green. We were all fairly coordinated XD. So dancing happened, a few drinks happened, meeting up with the lovely Evelyn, Marianna, and Wagner, meeting Arianna ( a fairly eccentric artist living in Toyama), and getting asked to take pictures with me. It was very entertaining and we were at Banana Pop for at least four hours. Needless to say however by the time 2am hit we were all beat. Booking taxis back to Van’s I undressed and crawled into my futon. THIS however wasn’t the end of the night. Hilda and Salvador ( for reasons of sadness) ended up crashing there too. The four of us talked away another hour or so of our night, and then finally passed the hell out.
Sunday (28th):
Time to get up! It was roughly noon I think. It was a slow start and I could feel the beginning of my current sickness. Will ended up coming by as well as Tiffany, and Debbie so the six of us went out for ramen. The ramen was pretty yummy, but I must say I tire of the stuff no matter how many different kinds of ramen there may be. Following the eating of the ramen there was a small lull where none of us really did anything, but around three or so Van, Will and I went to the CIC building where charity show rehearsal was taking place to fit Sham in her Dorothy outfit for a poster photo shoot. I ended up helping with her make-up and attempted (at her later failed hair-style) to braid her hair, but in the end we just settled for typical ponytails. Then to the station I go, carrying quite a big of baggage and happy to hit my bed when I returned back to Kurobe! HOWEVER that was not in the cards.
Once I boarded my train I met Reina and her friend there. I was very happy to see Reina, and after a while they both sat next to me and talked with me. Reina even bought me something back from her Tokyo trip. She’s such a cute girl. Her emails always make me smile.
After I said bye to Reina I hopped in my car, called Mihoko and told her that I would indeed come to her dinner in HALF AN HOUR in Nuyzen. It was also her Birthday so I couldn’t in good conscious not go to the dinner. So I made it home and stayed long enough to drop off my bags, change clothes, go to the bathroom, and grab a grapefruit to eat. So got there said my hello’s, saw Ben who manages to come out far more now, and Mihoko and lots of babies. Kathy and her baby was there as well as another couples. I didn’t eat much food, half cause I didn’t want to pay for it and the other half because I wasn’t really hungry. The dinner itself lasted about two hours and ended roughly with us singing happy birthday to Mihoko. Kathy had bought a rather delicious and beautiful cake for her (and boy did we have time finding candles) and we all had a piece. When it was time to clear out I ended up chatting with most everyone outside of the restaurant in the parking lot for another two hours in the COLD like an idiot. Then I WENT HOME *stumbles through her messy apartment and cuddles her blanket and pillow*
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