December 21-25, 2007
Hello all, and Merry Kwanukkamas!
I've been promising a holiday blog update, and since I'm at the office today, I thought this would be a good time to sit down and (finally) churn it out. However, before I start, I should let ya'll know that I've found a great WMP radio station that'll be blasting show tunes into my ear while I type--I'm on like, the 6th consecutive good song, so I'm afraid to turn it off for fear I'll never find it again. Point is, if I should happen to THESE SORDID KIND OF THINGS ARE COMIN' HARD TO ME! type funny words TWISTED EVERY WAY, WHAT ANSWER CAN I GIVE? into my sentences that make no sense, CAN I GO BAAAAAACK...TO THE BEGIIIINING (AaaAAAHHH!) but have the feel of lyrics TO WRIIIIIITE OOOOOOOOOOOOON ...that's why. TOTALLY UNPREPARED ARE YOU... ;)
Aaaanywho. This late fall and winter have been really great. I'm into my second year on JET now, so people are starting to treat me more like someone who has some kind of idea what's going on (and I DO actually have a better idea of what's going on). I think last year was tougher on account of the fact that I was just starting out, and people were being SO careful about not pushing me too hard that I ended up feeling pretty isolated...and lonely, since it was my first holiday away from home. This year's been SO much better. I've been super busy, and I like being busy, 'cause...well, then I'm not bored. lol In that regard, I kind of feel bad for the JETs who give up and go home after year one. Things really do change when you choose to stay on.
So...I decided not to go home for Xmas this year. And to my great relief, that actually worked out. We'll start with my bounenkai.
BOUNENKAI
"Bounenkai" are like office parties...except they're not held in the office. They're held for all the coworkers IN your office. I think the literal meaning of the word is something like "erasing the old year." Whether that's a figurative thing, or more literal for the amount these people drink at their staff parties, I'm not sure. Maybe both. But they tend to be pretty fun, since everyone (including the higher-ups) cut loose and relax. I missed all of my school ones last year since they were on the night before I left for Tokyo (on my way back home). This year I got to go to 2 bounenkai--one for my Board of Education, one for one of my schools...and a half. (I'll explain that in a minute. ;)
Unfortunately, all of my schools had their bounenkai on the same day (the 21st), so I was left to choose between my various groups of teachers. This wouldn't have been such a problem last year, since there was such an enormously deep, dark trench stretching between the schools I liked and the ones I didn't. This year, oddly, I think Kanita JH has become my favorite school (this is the school the much-hated He-sensei was at last year). Funny how a simple staff rotation can change things. ;)
Anyway, I decided to go to the Tairadate JH bounenkai, since I was gonna be at that school that day anyway (felt like it might've been a little too much of a slap in the face to go with someone else ;). All the way up to the party itself, I was kind of wishing I'd gotten to go with a different school, just because the Tairadate elem. one sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun, and I had three AWESOME days at that school leading up to the 21st (to be described in another post). But I stuck by my word and went along with the Tairadate JH group. We had the bounenkai at the La Place Hotel in Aomori city, complete with a discount for one night in the hotel post-bounenkai-madness (which I heartily accepted). Committed to a full night on the town, I settled into a night of partying, secretly praying that our nijikai (after party) would lead us to a karaoke joint.
There are other staff parties throughout the year, depending on your school and how well the staff gets along. Tairadate JH had a bunch of them last year...not so many this year. But the bounenkai are a big to-do, complete with games and activities for the various attending partiers to interact with each other between courses. We played a taste-testing game (aka "Guess This Tea/Coffee/Beer"), a version of Pictionary, and had a powerpoint show of pictures from the year.
The second party took us to...karaoke! W00t! ...I think I've mentioned my new-found love of karaoke. I went out with some other JETs a few months ago and stayed out 'till 4am singing. Since then, I've developed a real obsession for it, so whenever I go out with a group of people, I've got my fingers crossed that we'll end up at karaoke at some point. And, as luck would have it, our bounenkai nijikai took us to the karaoke place that my Tairadate JH teachers took me to when I tried karaoke for the first time! We sat down, and I had a sudden flow of requests from the teachers who wanted to hear Christmas songs.
Halfway through a Christmas medley (for which I had to rummage around in the back of my head for lyrics, since they were all typed up in Japanese on the screen), the Kanita JH teachers strolled through the door! They'd planned the same place for their nijikai, so we got to party together for several hours into the night, and I became the karaoke mistress of the joint, singing everything from Hotel California (my signature song;) to Celine Dion to Jingle Bells to Dancing Queen.
So. Much. FUN! :)
The Kanita JH principle and vice principle especially enjoyed my performance, the former was drunk enough to lend me his support by protecting the secondary mic from other would-be singers' interference, and the latter was drunk enough to add interpretive dance to whatever I was singing. lol
This year's bounenkai was the first time I've ever been to "sanjikai," which is...an after-after party. Also the first time I've ever had sushi at 2am. Good stuff. :)
So that was my bounenkai.
Moving on with the weekend...
BEST. HAIRCUT. EVER.
Since I stayed over at the hotel, I had some time in the city the next day. One of the teachers offered to drive me home (at a whopping 8am), but I elected to stick around and do some shopping around the station. While eating a MAGNIFICENT complimentary breakfast in the hotel cafe (of which I have a picture...I'll upload later;), I decided to give myself a Chirstmas present. So after setting out from the hotel around 9:30, I went in search of a hair salon. Having never gotten a haircut in Japan outside of Osaka, I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but as luck would have it, just when I was about to give up and go into the anime store I like, I looked up and realized there was a "hair resort" right above the store! So I spent the next 3 hours getting my hair cut. ^_______^
Why did it take 3 hours, you ask? And for a simple cut?
WELL.
Getting a haircut in Japan is an experience. They receive you graciously at the door and escort you to a locker where you can put your things, complete with a key, which they hook onto your own personal clipboard, which follows you around the salon. Then they sit you down in front of a mirror and give you a few minutes to look over some magazines with styling ideas. Then they assign you a hair stylist, who will come over and sit down with you and talk about what you want, show you a "menu" of services, and give you a total for everything you want (the absolute lowest is about $35...the guy next to me was getting a cut and color for $80).
Once you've worked out what you want, they take you to the shampooing station, where they sit you down in a lovely reclining chair and shampoo your hair...FOR LIKE, 20 MINUTES. Shampoo, conditioner, "rinse" (makes your hair nice and silky :), PLUS a scalp massage. From the start, they put a thin cloth over your face so you're not left awkwardly staring up at the guy working on your head the whole time. Once they get your hair all clean, they bring you a hot towel and set it under the back of your neck for a few minutes. Aaaaah...
When THAT'S done, they actually comb out the major wrinkles of your hair AT the shampoo station before moving you to the chair, where they give you a nice smock and comb out the rest of your hair, then leave you with a magazine for a while until your stylist is ready for you (mine was REALLY busy, and I told her I was in no hurry...so I was left waiting for a while).
WHILE you wait, they have a guy come and give you a massage--head, neck, and shoulders--and bring you a menu for something to drink (tea, coffee, juice, soda, etc), which comes with a hot towel for your hands.
When you go into a hair salon for the first time, they give you a bunch of free services and discounts for everything you get, so they came at one point with this hair dryer that sprayed some kind of misty stuff into my hair...not sure what it was, but... *shrug* Whatever. :)
When you finally get through with your cut and everything, your stylist escorts you back to your locker, where you pick up all your stuff, and then they sit you down on some couches by the door and "consult" with you--ask how you enjoyed your experience, give you some coupons, thank you A LOT for coming, humbly request that you "tell your friends," and then send you on your way, usually bowing at the door until the elevator doors close (or until you disappear down the stairs, or around the corner, or whatever).
I think I might have to make this a Christmas tradition.
(And yes, I'll post a picture of my new haircut once I get home. ;)
HAKODATE
I got a call last week from Abidemi, the JET in the next town over. She was going to Hakodate for Xmas Eve to see the "illuminations" and asked if I wanted to come along. I can't remember if I posted about my LAST trip to Hakodate, but...here's a quick recap, in case I didn't:
I went last year with the PTA. It sucked.
Hakodate is a city on the southern part of the island of Hokkaido, which is the northernmost island of Japan. I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Hokkaido--like, from when I FIRST started getting into Japan back in high school--so I was really looking forward to the chance to finally get up there. Even though I'd had my eye on Sapporo, I'd learned about Hakodate through my study of the Ainu (Hokkaido indigenous peoples) when I was living down in Osaka. So the first chance I got to go up there ended up being in the company of the Tairadate PTA. We basically went up, swept through all of the major tourist spots, then went "shopping"--an endeavor which involved us power-walking through the shopping district until we had no time to stop anywhere. Then, on the way back, since this group of mothers and teachers hadn't gotten us reserved seats on the train, we'd all had to stand between train cars for the 2-hour return trip. *sigh*
So basically, I leapt at the chance to give Hakodate another go in...different company.
And it was fun. We went up on the 11:30 train, which meant I got to sleep in, and I even got a ride with someone to the station so I didn't have to suffer the 1/2 hour bus ride. We took the cheap train up there, so Abidemi and I had plenty of time to talk and relax on the ride. :)
At Hakodate itself, we'd both seen those major tourist spots on previous visits, so we were able to take the city at a pretty leisurely pace. I got to actually EXPERIENCE some of the shopping in the area (and there is a lot), and then got yakiniku for lunch, which I LOVE. After sunset (around 4:30), the "illuminations" came on...which were basically just a bunch of trees strung with Christmas lights along a major road, and a giant Christmas tree lit up in the middle of a shopping promenade. We walked up the street through the trees (quite a feat, since the street was all uphill and the sidewalks were covered with ICE), and then came back down and around to see the fireworks...all 5 of them. lol It was a pretty pitiful display, truth be told. We rushed down the hill, across the icy streets, to see them, achieved an excellent viewpoint...and then, there couldn't have been more than a dozen of them, altogether. Not much of a display--entirely ridiculous, if you've ever seen the Magic Kingdom celebration--but...whatever.
After the fireworks, Abidemi mistook the flood of people returning to their CARS for people going to see something else BACK UP THE HILL, so we climbed the hill AGAIN, against the natural course of ice gravity, and topped it to find ourselves in a cluster of churches--Catholic, Episcopalian, and...something else--all either ending or engaged in service. Abidemi's a die-hard Christian, so she enjoyed this walk especially, I think, but those of you who know my...religious opinions can probably guess that I was something less than enthused to spend our last 1/2 hour in Hakodate walking among a bunch of churches.
The highlight of the walk was that it was far up on the hill, so there was a pretty good view, and the full moon was out, which was very pretty. And I'll admit that snow-covered churchyards do have a kind of charm at night, so it really wasn't a complete waste of time.
We came back on the slow train--a single-car train filled with people. Typically, Japanese people don't like to take the initiative to sit next to foreigners, even when a train is full and there's a perfectly good empty seat next to you. On our return from Hakodate, however, a group of JH 2nd graders loaded onto the train. Among them was a single boy name Haruki, and when I told him that he could go ahead and have the seat next to me, he took me up on it...possibly because his 6-odd companions were all his female classmates. So he sat down, and the girls he was with promptly loaded all of their purses into his lap (stacking them right up to his chin). Abidemi and I had a conversation with him on and off for the next hour. One of those magical, cross-cultural Japan moments. :)
Abidemi and I parted at Kanita Station, where someone came to pick her up. I went to the line of taxis (3 cars strong) and told the first guy in line to come and pick me up at the convenience store down the road in about 10 minutes. My refrigerator was near empty, and I thought it might be a good idea to have something around to eat for Christmas, since I didn't plan to go out. So I foraged around the shelves for a few minutes before spotting a taxi outside, at which point I paid and left.
And here's one of the really awesome things about Japan.
The taxi that came around to to the front of the convenience store wasn't actually the guy I'd told to come and get me, but just a guy who'd come to get a drink from the vending machine outside. As it was late and I was tired, however, I didn't actually realize this, so I loaded into the taxi and told him where I was going. We didn't get 10 feet before he stopped, and I looked behind us to see that the taxi I'd ACTUALLY asked to come for me had pulled up behind us. The guy in MY cab immediately jumped up out of the car and ran over to apologize, bowing like a maniac as I hauled myself out of his cab and got into the other. My new driver smiled and waved the other one goodbye as we drove past.
Can any of you imagine a taxi driver doing that in the States--either apologizing for stealing a fare, or laughing off a stolen one? lol
CHRISTMAS DAY
So anyway, Christmas rolled around (not a holiday according to my contract, but I took both it and the following day off), and I got to sleep late ONCE again, after which I got up and Skyped Dad, wished everyone a Merry Christmas, and all that good stuff.
Ah! And at this point, I'd like to give a shout-out to Uncle Rick, Aunt Mary, Bridget, and Eric for the gifts they sent. Don't know if they'll be reading this, but...COULD NOT have been more perfect. The box actually arrived on Christmas Eve right before I left for Hakodate. I opened the box when I got home and realized, when I looked in at the pretty wrapping paper, that I'd opened all of my presents by that point and had nothing left to open. I also realized how much I WANTED something to open on Christmas day, so it was really great to have a little something.
(Also, I'd eaten my LAST, hoarded Reese's the day before, so the timing of the candy you sent was just...unparalleled. ;)
So this Xmas was the first time I've had pizza for Christmas dinner...which sounds kind of pathetic, but it was REALLY good. I got it at the convenience store before the taxi mix-up, and used it to test out the pizza setting on my microwave oven. It SO worked. ^_________^
Ummmmmmmm... Ok, I think I'm gonna cut this off here and post some more stuff in another installment. There have been a lot of parties and such this month, and this post is already pretty damn long, so...yea. I'll give you guys a break.
(WMP station still goin' strong! Almost 2 hours later, and they haven't played a song yet that I don't like! ;D)
Happy Holidays!
I've been promising a holiday blog update, and since I'm at the office today, I thought this would be a good time to sit down and (finally) churn it out. However, before I start, I should let ya'll know that I've found a great WMP radio station that'll be blasting show tunes into my ear while I type--I'm on like, the 6th consecutive good song, so I'm afraid to turn it off for fear I'll never find it again. Point is, if I should happen to THESE SORDID KIND OF THINGS ARE COMIN' HARD TO ME! type funny words TWISTED EVERY WAY, WHAT ANSWER CAN I GIVE? into my sentences that make no sense, CAN I GO BAAAAAACK...TO THE BEGIIIINING (AaaAAAHHH!) but have the feel of lyrics TO WRIIIIIITE OOOOOOOOOOOOON ...that's why. TOTALLY UNPREPARED ARE YOU... ;)
Aaaanywho. This late fall and winter have been really great. I'm into my second year on JET now, so people are starting to treat me more like someone who has some kind of idea what's going on (and I DO actually have a better idea of what's going on). I think last year was tougher on account of the fact that I was just starting out, and people were being SO careful about not pushing me too hard that I ended up feeling pretty isolated...and lonely, since it was my first holiday away from home. This year's been SO much better. I've been super busy, and I like being busy, 'cause...well, then I'm not bored. lol In that regard, I kind of feel bad for the JETs who give up and go home after year one. Things really do change when you choose to stay on.
So...I decided not to go home for Xmas this year. And to my great relief, that actually worked out. We'll start with my bounenkai.
BOUNENKAI
"Bounenkai" are like office parties...except they're not held in the office. They're held for all the coworkers IN your office. I think the literal meaning of the word is something like "erasing the old year." Whether that's a figurative thing, or more literal for the amount these people drink at their staff parties, I'm not sure. Maybe both. But they tend to be pretty fun, since everyone (including the higher-ups) cut loose and relax. I missed all of my school ones last year since they were on the night before I left for Tokyo (on my way back home). This year I got to go to 2 bounenkai--one for my Board of Education, one for one of my schools...and a half. (I'll explain that in a minute. ;)
Unfortunately, all of my schools had their bounenkai on the same day (the 21st), so I was left to choose between my various groups of teachers. This wouldn't have been such a problem last year, since there was such an enormously deep, dark trench stretching between the schools I liked and the ones I didn't. This year, oddly, I think Kanita JH has become my favorite school (this is the school the much-hated He-sensei was at last year). Funny how a simple staff rotation can change things. ;)
Anyway, I decided to go to the Tairadate JH bounenkai, since I was gonna be at that school that day anyway (felt like it might've been a little too much of a slap in the face to go with someone else ;). All the way up to the party itself, I was kind of wishing I'd gotten to go with a different school, just because the Tairadate elem. one sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun, and I had three AWESOME days at that school leading up to the 21st (to be described in another post). But I stuck by my word and went along with the Tairadate JH group. We had the bounenkai at the La Place Hotel in Aomori city, complete with a discount for one night in the hotel post-bounenkai-madness (which I heartily accepted). Committed to a full night on the town, I settled into a night of partying, secretly praying that our nijikai (after party) would lead us to a karaoke joint.
There are other staff parties throughout the year, depending on your school and how well the staff gets along. Tairadate JH had a bunch of them last year...not so many this year. But the bounenkai are a big to-do, complete with games and activities for the various attending partiers to interact with each other between courses. We played a taste-testing game (aka "Guess This Tea/Coffee/Beer"), a version of Pictionary, and had a powerpoint show of pictures from the year.
The second party took us to...karaoke! W00t! ...I think I've mentioned my new-found love of karaoke. I went out with some other JETs a few months ago and stayed out 'till 4am singing. Since then, I've developed a real obsession for it, so whenever I go out with a group of people, I've got my fingers crossed that we'll end up at karaoke at some point. And, as luck would have it, our bounenkai nijikai took us to the karaoke place that my Tairadate JH teachers took me to when I tried karaoke for the first time! We sat down, and I had a sudden flow of requests from the teachers who wanted to hear Christmas songs.
Halfway through a Christmas medley (for which I had to rummage around in the back of my head for lyrics, since they were all typed up in Japanese on the screen), the Kanita JH teachers strolled through the door! They'd planned the same place for their nijikai, so we got to party together for several hours into the night, and I became the karaoke mistress of the joint, singing everything from Hotel California (my signature song;) to Celine Dion to Jingle Bells to Dancing Queen.
So. Much. FUN! :)
The Kanita JH principle and vice principle especially enjoyed my performance, the former was drunk enough to lend me his support by protecting the secondary mic from other would-be singers' interference, and the latter was drunk enough to add interpretive dance to whatever I was singing. lol
This year's bounenkai was the first time I've ever been to "sanjikai," which is...an after-after party. Also the first time I've ever had sushi at 2am. Good stuff. :)
So that was my bounenkai.
Moving on with the weekend...
BEST. HAIRCUT. EVER.
Since I stayed over at the hotel, I had some time in the city the next day. One of the teachers offered to drive me home (at a whopping 8am), but I elected to stick around and do some shopping around the station. While eating a MAGNIFICENT complimentary breakfast in the hotel cafe (of which I have a picture...I'll upload later;), I decided to give myself a Chirstmas present. So after setting out from the hotel around 9:30, I went in search of a hair salon. Having never gotten a haircut in Japan outside of Osaka, I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but as luck would have it, just when I was about to give up and go into the anime store I like, I looked up and realized there was a "hair resort" right above the store! So I spent the next 3 hours getting my hair cut. ^_______^
Why did it take 3 hours, you ask? And for a simple cut?
WELL.
Getting a haircut in Japan is an experience. They receive you graciously at the door and escort you to a locker where you can put your things, complete with a key, which they hook onto your own personal clipboard, which follows you around the salon. Then they sit you down in front of a mirror and give you a few minutes to look over some magazines with styling ideas. Then they assign you a hair stylist, who will come over and sit down with you and talk about what you want, show you a "menu" of services, and give you a total for everything you want (the absolute lowest is about $35...the guy next to me was getting a cut and color for $80).
Once you've worked out what you want, they take you to the shampooing station, where they sit you down in a lovely reclining chair and shampoo your hair...FOR LIKE, 20 MINUTES. Shampoo, conditioner, "rinse" (makes your hair nice and silky :), PLUS a scalp massage. From the start, they put a thin cloth over your face so you're not left awkwardly staring up at the guy working on your head the whole time. Once they get your hair all clean, they bring you a hot towel and set it under the back of your neck for a few minutes. Aaaaah...
When THAT'S done, they actually comb out the major wrinkles of your hair AT the shampoo station before moving you to the chair, where they give you a nice smock and comb out the rest of your hair, then leave you with a magazine for a while until your stylist is ready for you (mine was REALLY busy, and I told her I was in no hurry...so I was left waiting for a while).
WHILE you wait, they have a guy come and give you a massage--head, neck, and shoulders--and bring you a menu for something to drink (tea, coffee, juice, soda, etc), which comes with a hot towel for your hands.
When you go into a hair salon for the first time, they give you a bunch of free services and discounts for everything you get, so they came at one point with this hair dryer that sprayed some kind of misty stuff into my hair...not sure what it was, but... *shrug* Whatever. :)
When you finally get through with your cut and everything, your stylist escorts you back to your locker, where you pick up all your stuff, and then they sit you down on some couches by the door and "consult" with you--ask how you enjoyed your experience, give you some coupons, thank you A LOT for coming, humbly request that you "tell your friends," and then send you on your way, usually bowing at the door until the elevator doors close (or until you disappear down the stairs, or around the corner, or whatever).
I think I might have to make this a Christmas tradition.
(And yes, I'll post a picture of my new haircut once I get home. ;)
HAKODATE
I got a call last week from Abidemi, the JET in the next town over. She was going to Hakodate for Xmas Eve to see the "illuminations" and asked if I wanted to come along. I can't remember if I posted about my LAST trip to Hakodate, but...here's a quick recap, in case I didn't:
I went last year with the PTA. It sucked.
Hakodate is a city on the southern part of the island of Hokkaido, which is the northernmost island of Japan. I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Hokkaido--like, from when I FIRST started getting into Japan back in high school--so I was really looking forward to the chance to finally get up there. Even though I'd had my eye on Sapporo, I'd learned about Hakodate through my study of the Ainu (Hokkaido indigenous peoples) when I was living down in Osaka. So the first chance I got to go up there ended up being in the company of the Tairadate PTA. We basically went up, swept through all of the major tourist spots, then went "shopping"--an endeavor which involved us power-walking through the shopping district until we had no time to stop anywhere. Then, on the way back, since this group of mothers and teachers hadn't gotten us reserved seats on the train, we'd all had to stand between train cars for the 2-hour return trip. *sigh*
So basically, I leapt at the chance to give Hakodate another go in...different company.
And it was fun. We went up on the 11:30 train, which meant I got to sleep in, and I even got a ride with someone to the station so I didn't have to suffer the 1/2 hour bus ride. We took the cheap train up there, so Abidemi and I had plenty of time to talk and relax on the ride. :)
At Hakodate itself, we'd both seen those major tourist spots on previous visits, so we were able to take the city at a pretty leisurely pace. I got to actually EXPERIENCE some of the shopping in the area (and there is a lot), and then got yakiniku for lunch, which I LOVE. After sunset (around 4:30), the "illuminations" came on...which were basically just a bunch of trees strung with Christmas lights along a major road, and a giant Christmas tree lit up in the middle of a shopping promenade. We walked up the street through the trees (quite a feat, since the street was all uphill and the sidewalks were covered with ICE), and then came back down and around to see the fireworks...all 5 of them. lol It was a pretty pitiful display, truth be told. We rushed down the hill, across the icy streets, to see them, achieved an excellent viewpoint...and then, there couldn't have been more than a dozen of them, altogether. Not much of a display--entirely ridiculous, if you've ever seen the Magic Kingdom celebration--but...whatever.
After the fireworks, Abidemi mistook the flood of people returning to their CARS for people going to see something else BACK UP THE HILL, so we climbed the hill AGAIN, against the natural course of ice gravity, and topped it to find ourselves in a cluster of churches--Catholic, Episcopalian, and...something else--all either ending or engaged in service. Abidemi's a die-hard Christian, so she enjoyed this walk especially, I think, but those of you who know my...religious opinions can probably guess that I was something less than enthused to spend our last 1/2 hour in Hakodate walking among a bunch of churches.
The highlight of the walk was that it was far up on the hill, so there was a pretty good view, and the full moon was out, which was very pretty. And I'll admit that snow-covered churchyards do have a kind of charm at night, so it really wasn't a complete waste of time.
We came back on the slow train--a single-car train filled with people. Typically, Japanese people don't like to take the initiative to sit next to foreigners, even when a train is full and there's a perfectly good empty seat next to you. On our return from Hakodate, however, a group of JH 2nd graders loaded onto the train. Among them was a single boy name Haruki, and when I told him that he could go ahead and have the seat next to me, he took me up on it...possibly because his 6-odd companions were all his female classmates. So he sat down, and the girls he was with promptly loaded all of their purses into his lap (stacking them right up to his chin). Abidemi and I had a conversation with him on and off for the next hour. One of those magical, cross-cultural Japan moments. :)
Abidemi and I parted at Kanita Station, where someone came to pick her up. I went to the line of taxis (3 cars strong) and told the first guy in line to come and pick me up at the convenience store down the road in about 10 minutes. My refrigerator was near empty, and I thought it might be a good idea to have something around to eat for Christmas, since I didn't plan to go out. So I foraged around the shelves for a few minutes before spotting a taxi outside, at which point I paid and left.
And here's one of the really awesome things about Japan.
The taxi that came around to to the front of the convenience store wasn't actually the guy I'd told to come and get me, but just a guy who'd come to get a drink from the vending machine outside. As it was late and I was tired, however, I didn't actually realize this, so I loaded into the taxi and told him where I was going. We didn't get 10 feet before he stopped, and I looked behind us to see that the taxi I'd ACTUALLY asked to come for me had pulled up behind us. The guy in MY cab immediately jumped up out of the car and ran over to apologize, bowing like a maniac as I hauled myself out of his cab and got into the other. My new driver smiled and waved the other one goodbye as we drove past.
Can any of you imagine a taxi driver doing that in the States--either apologizing for stealing a fare, or laughing off a stolen one? lol
CHRISTMAS DAY
So anyway, Christmas rolled around (not a holiday according to my contract, but I took both it and the following day off), and I got to sleep late ONCE again, after which I got up and Skyped Dad, wished everyone a Merry Christmas, and all that good stuff.
Ah! And at this point, I'd like to give a shout-out to Uncle Rick, Aunt Mary, Bridget, and Eric for the gifts they sent. Don't know if they'll be reading this, but...COULD NOT have been more perfect. The box actually arrived on Christmas Eve right before I left for Hakodate. I opened the box when I got home and realized, when I looked in at the pretty wrapping paper, that I'd opened all of my presents by that point and had nothing left to open. I also realized how much I WANTED something to open on Christmas day, so it was really great to have a little something.
(Also, I'd eaten my LAST, hoarded Reese's the day before, so the timing of the candy you sent was just...unparalleled. ;)
So this Xmas was the first time I've had pizza for Christmas dinner...which sounds kind of pathetic, but it was REALLY good. I got it at the convenience store before the taxi mix-up, and used it to test out the pizza setting on my microwave oven. It SO worked. ^_________^
Ummmmmmmm... Ok, I think I'm gonna cut this off here and post some more stuff in another installment. There have been a lot of parties and such this month, and this post is already pretty damn long, so...yea. I'll give you guys a break.
(WMP station still goin' strong! Almost 2 hours later, and they haven't played a song yet that I don't like! ;D)
Happy Holidays!