up, up, and away we go~!

Hello everyone! I know I'm basically doing this on a weekly basis now--maybe entries will come quicker when I have more free-time.

The past two weeks I've spent teaching at Komao Junior High School here in Hitachi. It's a lovely new school with so many wonderfully enthusiastic kids. All of the teachers are very young, at least the English teachers, and they are all really good looking. [/jealousy] Plus, Mr. Ito it's ridiculously handsome (I have a crush on him--which is kind of known by everyone now).



And I have thankfully made a new friend in Ms. Asada (or Yuka). She's 24, totally gorgeous, and super nice. Her English is pretty good, so we meet kind of half-way. She loves to go shopping, I love to go shopping. Very soon, Yuka, very soon!



For a couple of days I went with Brian to help teach at Nakasato Junior High School and Elementary School. It's about a 45 minute bus ride, way up in the mountains passed one of the iconic symbols of Hitachi, the large industrial exhaust pipe thing (I don't remember it's real name, give me a bit of a break!) When we started to actually get to Nakasato I could really honest to God see the landscape of My Neighbor Totoro. So that was when I started actually looking for him. The mountain landscape is really breathtaking, and although the town is very, very rural, it's so beautiful. I wish I had more pictures, but I had a great time teaching there, so perhaps I'll get to go back--you never know!

And if you don't believe me that it's a small school, there's a class with only three kids in it. See for yourself:



Tomorrow I finish my last day at Komao (*tear-filled eyes*) and will begin at my regular school Taga Junior High School on Tuesday. I have only met the Principal and Vice Principal from Taga, but they are both the nicest men, and the Vice Principal (or kyoto-sensee--if I'm saying that correctly, whoops) was an English teacher for many years so his English is quite impeccable.

Taga is a much much much larger school than the schools I've been teaching at before, but at the same time, it's no where near as large as our middle schools at home. I can't imagine teaching a school the size of Simmons or Berry, honestly.

But so far I have learned that no matter where you are in the world, 13-year-olds are 13-year-olds. There's no special formula, there's no magic potion, unfortunately, they are who they are. And that Apple Rolls are the most delicious thing everrrrr.

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Last Wednesday was my office welcoming party and it couldn't have been more fun! I had such a blast. Great food, FANTASTIC people, and drinks that wouldn't stop coming! Mr. Sakuma and I were kind of the drunkest of the bunch, as he drank straight sake and I drank gin & tonic (deliciousness), but it was fun to see that my Japanese actually gets better when I'm drinking. Not that I plan to do this all the time, so don't get worried, but it is SERIOUSLY fun to drink with the Japanese--because nothing you've said or seemed like really matters at the office the next day. No weird looks, everything stays at the restaurant. Which is great, because Mr. Takano and Mr. Suzuki walking me half-way back home (Brian lead me the rest of the way) was kind of embarrassing as I was quite unable to walk straight. But they found it funny.

I wish I had pictures, but at the same time...ehhh...

I tried lots of different foods though (I'm pretty sure the gin helped with that). Including nato, Ibaraki's special dish...fermented soy-beans. Needless to say, I swallowed it, but I shall never put that in my mouth again. I tried sashimi again...sorry, just not my thing. The texture of the meat and the saltiness, it really just pushed my gag reflex.

Anyway, other than that, the restaurant actually made me fried ika despite the fact that it's only on the lunch menu. How awesome is that?

The people at my office are completely and utterly awesome.

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This morning I kind of woke up randomly at 8am...on my only day off. Why can't I do that on the days when I need to get to work?? Weird ass biological clock.

Anyway, Joyful Honda (sort of like a huge Wal-Mart) delivered my bicycle this morning around 9am! I was soooo happy to see it, because finally I wouldn't have to walk everywhere!

I haven't named it yet, but I will soon.

Anywho, I haven't ridden a bike since I was like 13, so I needed desperately to take that baby out into a parking lot and teach myself again. I ended up in a random field and rundown parking lot that was mostly gravel and surrounded by stray cats, but I was able to practice!

After about an hour of trying out the bike, breaking, turning, keeping myself stable if I run over a big rock, that sort of thing, I decided it was time to go back to Ito Yokado (part of the shopping mall) to exchange my mini-SD card. Unfortunately I got a 4GB one, and it wouldn't work with my phone, but I switched it out and tried the 2GB one in the store and everything worked out fine. I spent some more time shopping. I bought two new pairs of shoes, since I needed a very comfortable pair of shoes to leave at school and a new pair of tennis shoes. The lady was extremely nice and gave me a discount because I was a teacher. You can see those shoes in the videos below. But I mean, come on, New Balance is the best--and those other shoes are supremely comfortable and professional looking at the same time.

After that I bought some things for my bike at the Hyaku-en Store (the Japanese dollar store)--unfortunately only two of the things I bought really worked for my bike. Oh well, I guess I have a random drink holder for whenever I need one. :P

I took my stuff back home, ran into some students, and decided to just cruise around Route 6.

I ended up going into a few stores, coming out with nothing, and heading onward. My destination: to see mini-Vulcan. Yes, when I first got here I didn't want to see it, but I don't know. I had the time, I had a bike, how hard could it be?

Well considering the fact that Vulcan is on top of a MOUNTAIN and I had to leave my bike at the bottom of it for fear of me just tearing a muscle or something trying to get up. I ended up just taking the most difficult route possible up this mountain too. There was a MUCH simpler way to get up it that wouldn't have taken as long or as much energy, but I didn't see that way, of course.

Anyway, I wandered around for over an hour looking for this damn statue, so I just kept going up and up and up. Finally I made it to the top, and there was Vulcan. Smug little bastard.

It really is a fantastically beautiful view from the top, so I took some pictures on my phone (as I was stupid enough not to bring my camera--but I guess this was more of a whim kind of thing) and I should be able to get those on my computer fairly easily...but that will probably be in the next post.

I was in Kamine Park, which is a very large park that consists of a zoo, an amusement park, a kid's amusement park, a music museum, and an olympic pool center.

I needed to get to Kamine Pool because I wanted to check out their times again, and to see if I could go ahead and buy a monthly membership or something. I do plan to go swimming there often.

It literally took me another hour to find the damn pool, and all the while I just kept talking to myself--trying to tell myself that I can do it, I can find the pool...and eventually I did. Thank god too, because I was seriously out of energy at this point...and it was only 2:30pm!

I did manage to pay for a monthly membership card--so I plan to make that trek a lot. Hopefully I'll manage to lose a lot of weight by doing so, especially since I keep eating fried ika like nobody's business (I can't help it, it's soooo delicious!)

Anyway, yay yay yay, I get to go swimming in a heated pool! Yay!

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So...I know you've been waiting, and here it is. The complete tour of my apartment. I took these videos again tonight so that they wouldn't tick YouTube off so much. So sorry, it's in 5 parts, but they're much shorter videos! Enjoy!

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If you haven't gotten a call from me, I'm very sorry. I can only call at night when I have the time, so it will be around 8-9am your time...so very sorry! Maybe I'll be able to call on Sunday mornings since I seem to be waking up.