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*