Possibly the best week EVER (and longest entry ever)
So, as I'm sure a bunch of you already know the past couple weeks have been pretty busy for you. Running around doing visits to elementary schools to give 20 minute speeches, the national proficiency test, tests everyday in my regular classes along with practice tests for the afore mentioned prof. test... I could go on, but I'll leave that for another time.
What I really want to blog about today is how AWESOME this past week has been. Actually... it's a bit more like the past week and a half because the awesomeness really started on Thursday the 13th. So starting with Thursday then,
December 13
I had classes like any other Thursday, but because we've finally finished our culture classes this was the first week that I wouldn't have classes the next day (hurray for no Friday classess! something I have yet to experience in Athens...). After class, I met with Reiko to plan what we were going to do over the winter break. She invited me to her house for New Years. I'm still not sure of all the details, but I'm really looking forward to it. After having lunch with her, I had a bit of time to lounge around the room before going out with some friends of Jen and Sandra. The plan was to go out to a sushi bar (where they have that little revolving track set up and you pick the sushi plates you want when they come back), but we had a bit of time so we decided to go to karaoke first. I don't actually like karaoke that much, but I really like hanging out with everyone, so as long as we go somewhere that isn't too expensive I don't mind paying just to sit and listen. I did force myself to sing a few songs, but the far more interesting thing in our room was the random massage chair. Sandra loved it, but if you ask Jen or I, it's a bit more like torture than a massage... Perhaps we chose the wrong settings? Before too long, time was up and we decided to head out to the sushi bar. Unfortunately, something came up with one of the Japanese girls we were with, and she couldn't go get sushi with us. I hope she's ok... she was crying and didn't tell us exactly what had made her so sad (she had stepped out of the karaoke room for a bit to answer a call). I haven't seen her around since that day, but her one friend didn't seem very worried about it, so I think it's something she could deal with. I hope it was anyway... But yes, back to happier things.
We headed off the the sushi place. By this time, Jen, Sandra, and I were all pretty tired because of how hectic the week had been. But we gaman-ed (bucked up) through it and managed to stay awake through the car ride until we arrived at the sushi place. When we got there, we were guided to a booth by a "waiter" and then proceeded to watch the sushi pass, waiting for the right time to strike and secure ourselves some delicious sushi. Jen made the mistake of taking someone else's food (even the Japanese girl we were with didn't know that someone's specific ordered food would appear on the tarp with the "free for all" sushi.) But in the end it was ok. I think the "waiters" fixed the problem. So... after enjoying the sushi, we headed back. And no, the night didn't end there. In fact, it was far from over.
Instead of heading back to campus, Saori dropped us off at the Kachigawa station. From there Jen, Sandra, and I headed over to... Oh gosh... I can't even remember what station it was we were meeting at. Maybe Chikusa??? Anyway... the reason we were going there was to meet some fellow study abroad students (4 Ohio girls, 3 Australian girls) and go out to this little bar/restaurant and get pizza. It was one of the the Australian girl's (Bec) birthdays, so we decided to dedicate the evening to that. The three of us arrived at the station a bit early so we contacted Nalini and tried to figure out which gate we should meet at. In the end, in our search for the right gate, we just ended up running into each other, so it all worked out in the end. So, from the station, we walked to the pizza place. It wasn't too far. Maybe a 10-15 minute walk. And we passed lots of cute little bar restaurants. My favorite one by far was a little bar called: Bobee's. And yes, we stopped to take pictures of the sign. lol
When we got the the bar, we all decided on what pizza's we wanted. Sandra and I decided to split one since we weren't very hungry after eating all that sushi. And... because they had a good beer selection we also decided to split a beer. It was a bit expensive and we didn't know if we'd like the brand or not so we didn't feel like wasting the money. It was some Czech beer. God... what was the name? (pauses to ask Sandra) Hm... well she didn't remember the name either, but I googled czech beer and remembered a "P" being in the name so I think I've narrowed it down to a Pilsner Urquell. Anyway, we enjoyed it and actually drank all of it before we even got our pizza. Turns out the place wasn't made to make more than one pizza at once, and with 7 of wanting 6 pizzas... well it took a while to get everyone their pizza. And naturally, since Jen, Sandra and I had eaten not too long ago, we took ours last. But~ we still had an awesome time hanging out with everyone. The waiter was cute, in a somewhat girl fashionable kind of way. Plus I really like hanging out with Nalini, and haven't gotten much of a chance to do so. Gao Hui and Bec are a lot of fun too and I'm glad we got to go out and do something on Bec's B-day. We also had a lot of fun talking about some of the girls' men-crushes. I could go into more detail... but no. *wink*
On the way back, we bought some ice cream at a conbini (convenient store) and ate outside while waiting for the train to arrive. It was cold, but we kind of wanted to tease the random Japanese people and freak them out by eating ice cream outside in winter. I ate one where the outside was some kind of waffle cone material, shaped as a fish. Inside was vanilla ice cream, and between the cone part and ice cream there was some sweet red bean. It was DELICIOUS. ^_^ Then, on the train, we got watch the drunk/tipsy salarymen coming back from work. So basically, a day of sweetness and good food with only a little bit of awkwardness.
December 14
The next day, I went shopping with Minami (one of the Ohio study abroad students) and Rachel in Nagoya. We were supposed to go in this huge group, but one by one people decided at the last minute not to come. Nonetheless, we had a pretty good time (though I've decided not to go shopping there again since they don't let you try on half the clothes and only have mediums that fit tiny Japanese girls). When we got back, Minami set about making her bf a picnic dinner and I went back to the room to relax for a bit. I'm pretty sure I either worked on hw, took a nap, or attempted to clean the room. At about nine, Sandra and I decided we were going to go out and try and catch a viewing of the meteor shower (seiryuugun). Unfortunately, it was cloudy so when we finally headed out (Sandra, Rachel, and I) we couldn't see anything. So, instead we wandered around campus, deciding the way by Jan Ken Po (rock paper scissors). We also followed some mysterious youths wearing red jumpsuits (Chubu's colors are blue), but they managed to escape our clutches at the end by going into a building. At some point they had realized we were purposely crossing their path and when they went into the building and realized they had finally given us the slip, they burst out laughing. After parting ways with them, we wandered on the sports fields (at one point, we even skipped through on of the fields, just to be able to say we did). When we approached the baseball fields, there were some guys practicing. Rachel wanted to watch, but they noticed us and I didn't think they looked too happy (the pitcher was throwing the ball from hand to glove repeatedly and in a pissy kind of way). He stopped practicing and stared at us as we went by. I was a little annoyed by the idea that he was annoyed at us just because we were by the fields (there's no rule saying we can't go sit in the stadium area), so I gave him a little wave that he did not return. After the baseball field, we passed the tennis courts. The people practicing there seemed surprised by us passing by, but not mad.
Not quite ready to return to the dorms (even though there was no chance of seeing the meteor shower through the clouds), we decided to walk to the nearby Circle K and get us some cake. ~side story~
Sandra and I had decided on Sunday to treat ourselves to cake because we spent several hours digging through trash trying to find my mouth guard that we believed the cleaning lady had thrown out. Losing something in the trash (even supposedly losing something in the trash) can really show you who your friends are. Sandra didn't even pause at the idea of helping me dig through the trash. Sadly, after a long search, we headed back up to the room, hands empty. Luckily, we some moving of large furniture, we finally found it and turned in for the night. Thoroughly entertained by the night, we have now dubbed December 9th: Gomi Day (Trash Day)~end side story~
Thinking that we just going out to look at stars, none of us had brought our wallets with us. But somehow, we found enough random change on us to get two cakes and a pudding thing for Rachel. On the walk back, Sandra and I split the first cake and defiantly ate it while walking (cultural note: it's actually rude to eat and walk unless it's ice cream and sometimes veggies are ok too). After returning, I finally finished watching Full House (a Korean drama) and then turned in for the night.
December 15
The next day, we woke up early to go to the aquarium with some friends of Jen's roommate (Wu Hung). Turned out all the study abroad people going were girls and all the friends were boys. So we all laughed a little bit when we met up at the train station. After buying our tickets we headed up to the platform and waited for the train to arrive. When it finally did, it was a bit full, but not too bad. But before long the train got so packed that if someone sneezed, the 5 closest people to them could do nothing to avoid it. Thank god no one sneezed.
On the way there, we got to practice our Japanese a bit and took a few pictures together. We also bought a pass that gave us unlimited rides on the subway and gave us a little discount on our tickets into the aquarium. Before entering the Aquarium, we stopped in the cafeteria to get some lunch. I tried some takoyaki for the first time, and though I like octopus, I didn't like the fried outside. None of us ate that much, but we took a TON of pictures and exchanged phone numbers and phone emails addresses for future times. From there, we decided to get perikura (print club-picture booth) together. We had a bit of trouble smashing all 10 of us into the booth, but we did it and got some pretty interesting pictures from it. If you ask any of us, most of the awesomeness of that trip happened before we actually got into the aquarium. But, the aquarium was also a lot of fun. I've never been to (just) an aquarium before so I had a lot of fun looking at all the sea creatures and learning their names in Japanese and teaching our new friends their names in English. Two of the guys in the group were big flirts which Jen, Sandra and I found hilarious. It was actually really nice since most Japanese guys are too shy to even really approach us. After 3 months of guy withdrawl, a little bit of flirtatious attention was more than welcome.
And... it's possible that when we left the suizokukan (aquarium), one of them developed a bit of a crush on me. He was stealing my glove and wearing it all proudly and the one Japanese girl we were with told me that he thought I was cute when we both made a stop at the bathroom. We've been emailing back and forth a bit which is cool because I've been learning new kanji and he corrects my grammar mistakes when I mess up. I'm not interested in anything past friendship and I'm pretty sure he's just really excited about having a foreign friend, so we've both been enjoying the new friendship. Jen and Sandra like to tease me about it every once in awhile, but it's all just in good fun. He, and his friends, want to hang out again sometime, but we've all been busy at different times so haven't successfully set anything up yet. Maybe sometime during or after winter break?
We would have hung out with the Aquarium group longer, but we had to make our way over to Kachigawa station to make it in time for J.T.'s b-day party. (Actually, we decided to go to J.T.'s party late so we could see the entire dolphin show and got to the correct station about an hour late. But, because J.T.'s party was in a bar a ways away from the station his Japanese friends were providing rides from the station to the bar for the study abroad students. When we arrived, we were planning on calling a taxi, but there was still a group of people waiting for rides so we lucked out.) The ever charismatic J.T., with his lack of Japanese skills, had still somehow managed to make friends with a bunch of Japanese people, many of which were parts of bands. So, for his birthday, they rented out a bar and put on a mini concert. It was 2000yen (about 17 bucks), but for that amount you got to listen to a bunch of bands, drink as much alcohol as you wanted, and there were a lot of snacks. It was pretty awesome. It felt like being back at OU actually. The party had a definite American feel to it even though there were more Japanese people than foreigners (of course, most of them are studying English or have been to an english speaking country before). Exchanged numbers with a few more people there, but the highlight of the night was creating a new drink. Gao, one of the Australian girls (originally from china) hardly ever drinks but wanted to have something at the party. She doesn't like anything really alcoholly tasting, so after a few minutes of staring at the drinks behind the bar, Jen and I decided to try Calpis and Apricot brandy together. And ta-tah~! They made an awesome pair and Gao loved it so much that she plans on keeping that combination in her house when she goes home. A lot of other people feel in love with the drink too. So it's safe to say it was quite a hit.
I realized when I was leaving the party that a lot of the girls kept asking me to get their drinks for them. At the time I didn't think anything of it. But when I was leaving, it occurred to me that they were just asking me to so they could stand up by the front and not wait by the bar. I couldn't be annoyed about this since I was hanging out with people right by the bar anyway. But, on the way home I brought it up to Sandra and she told me that (at least for her) she kept asking me because when I went to get a drink, I would get it right away. When she tried, she would wait 10 or so minutes before getting served (lots of people, one bartender). Another girl overheard me and said the same thing. So, either I had really good timing, or the bartender enjoyed giving me drinks. Either way a win. (^_^) And, if it took other people a lot of time, there must have been some kind of preference, because I never had to wait more than a minute to be attended to. Quite an interesting turn of events from one of my past entries where I talked about how much I (and the other girls) were being ignored or stared at unabashedly by the Japanese. So while at the party: created a new drink, moshed, got two kisses (on the cheek), made new friends, learned some new gossip, and basically just had a good fucking time.
Heading home from the bar was also a good time. Leaving the bar, took note of how trashed everyone was. In an effort to make sure that all "a little more than tipsy" people had at least one "alright" person with them, I headed off with Rachel (a bit more than tipsy), Tomo (drunk), and Yoshi (status unknown) to walk back to the station. We were pretty sure people would be providing rides back, but with so many people, we would be waiting forever. Tomo claimed he knew how to get back. Rachel and I weren't too sure, but Rachel was already walking off with them so I decided I better tag along incase they got lost. Better one sober person than none, even if they can't speak the native language very well. If all else failed, we could always call a taxi. Luckily, Yoshi is a tank and was perfectly fine. And he knew the way back to the station. With that knowledge, I set about keeping Tomo walking in a straightish direction. Before too long, Youtaro caught up and joined the group. He's a pretty quiet guy so I had no idea if he was drunk or not, but after watching him for a bit I decided that it was likely he only had one drink if any at all. So, the 5 us headed along talking about random things and, before too long, we were at the station. By the time we got to the station, Tomo was just tipsy, Rachel was fine as well as the rest of us. We met up with Jen, Brandon, Frank, and some of the others who got rides to the station and waited for the train together.
From the train... we went to Jinryo and then had to walk back to campus. The group of us walking were: Jen, Brandon, Rachel, Sandra, Gao, Akira, Ian, Frank, and Yoshi. Jen and I hadn't had that much to eat so we wanted to stop somewhere for food. (the party was supposed to be an all you can eat thing, but it wasn't food it was just snacks, so we didn't get to eat that much). Jen hadn't been to Moss Burger before and Akira was kinda out of it, so we decided to stop there (didn't hurt that it was the only restaurant open nearby). Rachel had been watching over Akira (Japanese guy who studied in Australia for 3 years) and decided he better eat something. I think he can hold his liquor, but he was a bit loud and obnoxious, so giving him some food helped quite him down a bit, though it didn't do much to shut him up for the rest of the walk back. He actually called some random lady on a bike a fucking bitch. For which point Rachel and I started smacking him (making the night feel even more like one from back home. yes, guys friends I have "hit" before *cough cough* Tim *cough*). I also gained a nickname from Sh-Akira. One I have been called before: Wazouski. Makes me want to watch Monsters Inc. again. I wonder what it would be like in Japanese...
Well, finally we got everyone home. Though, Brandon doubled back to sneakily follow Akira back and make sure he got home alright. The bum wouldn't let us go with him to his apartment. I'm pretty sure we all argued about it for like... a half hour before "giving up". Rachel and I held onto his hat as punishment, promising to give it back the next day (which we did). Having walked around for almost all of the day, Sandra and I were pretty tired so it wasn't too long before we turned in for the night.
December 16
I slept in a bit (until 10am) but then forced myself to get out of bed to I could shower and get ready in time for meeting Deguchi-sensei's daughter. ~sidenote~ Deguchi-sensei is my Japanese teacher from OU. Her daughter teaches here in Japan and was putting on a Christmas party for her students. Deguchi-sensei had asked some of us if we could help out so Jen and some others volunteered. After the party, several of the people who originally volunteered backed out, so I stepped up and took one of the required 2 spots. I wasn't quite sure what we would be doing but, her daughter can speak very good English so we didn't have to worry about misunderstanding instructions. ~end sidenote~ The party was originally supposed to be at 1, but the meeting time got moved up to 11:30.
So, she picked us up at the school gate, made us lunch (we got to meet her husband, whom Jen and I fondly refer to as Ice Man, and we got to visit with Mr. Deguchi ~Deguchi sensei's husband), and heard about what we would be doing at the party. After lunch, we headed over to the room she rented for the party. It was a small room where there kids could do activities and what not. Jen and my job was to help the children practice english. They had to do several Christmas games involving english vocab or asking Jen and I english questions. The hardest part was not speaking any Japanese. If we let the kids know we could speak Japanese before the end, they probably wouldn't speak any English at all. We did two sets of children (6-8 and 9-11). It was a lot of fun even though the kids were so shy that they didn't speak to us too much outside of the activites.
After the kid's Christmas parties, we headed back to Ritsuko's (the daughter) apartment, had some tea, and visited. They gave us a present (a decoration for new years and some goodies from Deguchi-sensei ~~who is aparently in Egypt. WTF?~) and wanted to take us out to dinner. But, sadly we already had plans with friends so we had to head back. We got back to the dorm just in time to run in, change and grab some warm clothes before meeting Taka (Japanese boy who studied abroad at OU last year) outside of the dorm. From there Jen, Rachel, Sandra and I followed Taka to an Okinawa restaurant he was taking us to. Along the way (as planned) we met up with Ayako, Miki, and Takuya then continued the rest of the way to the restaurant. It wasn't too far away, and I got to speak a little with Miki one on one which I'd never actually gotten the chance to do before.
When we got the the restaurant, Taka asked us what we wanted to drink. But I, having no idea what Okinawan food would taste like wasn't sure what to order, so I started with water. After that, Taka just ordered food for the table and we all had little bits of everything. It's quite possible I ate pig brain that night, though I was pretty sure it was the nose... And I also might have eaten some pig heart... I know I ate pig ear. And Taco Rice (very delicious), and shureimon, tonsoku, umibudou, and drank some awamori. It was a pretty awesome night just sitting and talking with OU-Chubu study abroad students of the past.
December 17
And with Monday, the weekend of awesomeness ended and it was back to class with me. I haphazardly studied for my vocab test that morning, and bucked up enough courage to interview one of the boys in the dorm cafeteria for my keigo (using polite form of speech) interview sheet. Being ironically shy, it took me a bit to finally approach the guy, but after I did I was happy to find out he was very nice and actually very helpful (he didn't just answer my questions but would correct me when I made a mistake or tell me how to say something more naturally). So hurray for Keisuke! Now if only I could find some excuse to talk to him again, I could finally accomplish my goal of making friends with one of the sports guys in the dorm.
After breakfast, I headed over to my class building early to get the last person for my keigo interview before turning in my WS. Not finding Ueda sensei, I asked Suzuki sensei instead. She's so adorable, and we share a love of cake and kittens, so she was more than happy to help me out. I managed to stay awake for all my classes. I met with my conversation partners for the last time this year (with Jen and Gao in tow). After class, I believe I might have taken a nap to make up for the lack of sleep from the night before. I could have run some errands... I'm not sure. Wait, wait! I went to the Village Vanguard... or was that Wednesday? O.o Wait that was Tuesday. Then... yeah nap, hw, procrastination; take your pick. Ah, wait... before that I went down to the bottom of my class building and talked/hung out with Aya, Yukina, Nao, and Rachel for a little bit. We made some origami and just chit-chatted. It was pretty nice since I don't normally get the chance to talk with them. From there... I either took a short nap or I attempted to get some of my large pile of hw done that was still sitting around from my the time I went the Elementary schools. Later that night, several of us made a run to the Circle K with the intention of buying snacks and then watching a movie. When we got back, we weren't too sure what to watch but after narrowing it down to Disney movies, we finally decided on Robin Hood. It's not my favorite Disney movie, so I decided to be productive and do my kanji hw during the movie. This decision ended up being a very convenient one because after the movie was over Brandon and I got to talking. We traded stories back and forth for... I'm not quite sure how long, but I didn't get back upstairs until around 2:30. From then, I translated my kanji, talked to Shizuko for a bit then finally went to bed.
December 18
How I got up the next morning, I still don't understand. But, I did decently on my kanji quiz so it was all good in the end. After class, Nalini and I decided to make a trip to the Village Vanguard to try and find me a beanie so I could return hers to her. On the way there, I told her about going to the Okinawan restaurant and she asked if I remembered how to get there. I remembered it not being too far from the Village Vanguard, so even though I didn't remember quite where it was, I attempted to find it for her before stopping at VV. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it before we ran out of time (she needed to get back to the dorm before 4 to do hw with Rachel) so we backtracted to VV, looked at beanies for awhile, decided they were far too expensive for how unsure I was about what one I liked best, headed out, made a stop at the grocery and 100-en shop then headed back. Jen and Sandra were supposed to have gone out to karaoke, but I guess it got cancelled, so when I returned to the dorm, Sandra was in the room. I, exhausted, decided to take a nap before dinner. Nothing much happened for the rest of that day. Perhaps we talked a bit about how JT decided to skip this last week of classes and go to Saipen (an USA owned island by Australia), but not much more than that. I think Tuesday might have been the day that I finally got caught up on hw. Maybe...
December 19
Now Wednesday, there's an awesome day for you. I only have one class on Wednesdays now that there's no more culture class. So I got to sleep in a bit, then head in to Grammar class with Ueda sensei. From there, Jen and I got ourselves lunch (pausing to hear from Tomo about a Nabe party happening later that night), went over to Greg King's office to pick up our weekly stipend, turn in our travel plans for winter break, and ask about what we were expected to do for an event on Friday (more on that later). From there, we went back to the dorm to get our dorm parents to stamp our notifications of travel forms, dropped them off at the CIP then rushed over to building 25 to meet Sandra, Yudai, and whoever else was coming for some karaoke. The group ended up just being Jen, Sandra, Yudai, his friend and me, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm kicking myself for it, but I can't remember his friend's name. He was really nice though and his English was really good. Too bad they're both going to Australia next year instead of OU. We got back to the dorm from karaoke around 4:30 (it's cheaper to go to karaoke during the day than at night). Seeing as we agreed to go to the Tomo's nabe party, we decided to skip dinner and hang out in the room until it was time to go. Jen and I decided to head over a bit early (which oddly enough got us to building 20 right on time). It was a good thing we got there when we did because no one else had shown and the party was taking place somewhere else; building 20 was simply the meeting place. After calling around to see who all was on their way and waiting for them to arrive, we followed Yoshi to the place where the nabe party would take place. Turned out it was just in a club room close to the gym. When we got there, we discovered we needed to pay 800 yen to help pay for all the food and drinks involved. Luckily I had my wallet with me so I could pay for myself and lend money to a few others. Turns out this Nabe party was in fact a bounenkai (end of the year party, lit. forget the year party). There were a ton of people seeing as this party was apparently being put on by the ESS (English Speaking Society club). The Nabe was delicious, the drinks were alright (they got a lot of stuff by not really anything to mix anything with), and the company was AWESOME. The party started at 6 and I didn't leave until about... 12:30am. Poor Tomo got completely smashed... the OU girls got a bit more than tipsy, and well, ok most people got a bit more than tipsy. Heck, we even taught them how to play kings.
I can't say enough times how awesome that Nabe party was, but unfortunatley, this is the best I can do with text. Be sure to ask me in person when I get back and I'll inform you of its awesomeness, with the accompaniment of sound effects, gestures, etc. (I did manage to go home with 3 cans of beer and the rest of the Disaronno *wink*)
December 20
And now for Thursday. Classes like usual, but this time it was the last class before break. Only Bunpo (Grammar) with Ueda-sensei and Dokkai (Reading) with Suzuki-sensei~~both awesome teachers. For lunch we had a meeting with the CIP (can't remember what that stands for... but they are the office that deals with study abroad students who come to Chubu and Chubu students that go study abroad. Every once in awhile ~on a Thursday~ we have a meeting with them). None of us were excited about meeting with them because: 1.) We're not allowed to eat in their room but they insist on meeting during lunch time, 2.) JT had taken off for Saipen by this time and they were all a bit ticked off about this so they kept drowning us all with emails about how we shouldn't do the same thing. 3.) We were all exhausted and just wanted class stuff to be over with. So... we all sat through that. Then I reminded Brandon and Ali that they needed to pay me back for last night's Nabe party.
Then, because I was a little sick, I stopped at the clinic on Campus. After that I headed back to the dorm until it was time to meet Machi over by building 20.
December 21
December 22
still 3 days to write about~