Monday

So Monday, I went to Kani because I needed to do the health checkup.  Not really to my surprise, that I found out I pretty much gained 10 pounds since I got here.  i just have been eating WAY too much. T.T  I really needed to start dieting and exercising. sigh >"<  So anyway, when we first got to the hospital they asked me to fill out my name and stuff.  But supposedly, I should put my last name on the form.  The form wanted me to put the katakana on there, but after they found out that I am a gaijin, they wanted me to write my name in English.

Anyway, after that was done, they took my body temperature. Then, we were pretty much just waiting outside in the lobby area.  Later, they called us to a smaller waiting room, but i thought it was so stupid.  I just couldn't understand Japanese people sometimes.  We talked to the doctor so he could ask me if I had any chronic diseases, and he checked my heart beat and stuff.  Then we checked blood pressure.  it was weird that I had to lay down for them to check my blood pressure. sigh~~  Then they took my blood sample, X-ray, checked eyesight, hearing, and ECG!!  I was not really supposed to have a blood test and ECG, tho.  But I duno what will happen.

After we finished the checkup, we went back to the school.  Later, we decided to have a dinner party .  We cooked okonomiyaki, bean sprouts, mushrooms, garlic fried rice.  We also had souvenirs from Masao's Nara trip.  Tazuko also brought some sweets for us.  There was so much food yet AGAIN.  Sigh, it is going to be hard for me to lose my weight >"<  The party was good tho however, as expected, as always.

Sunday

Today I went to Yumi's house, and we cooked lunch.  Today was also RJ's bday party, but I couldn't go.  We had so many parties at Seki school this month, so I didn't really have enough money to go.

So Naru picked me up from my apt, and we went to Apita to buy food.  It was so hot on Sunday T.T and the real summer is going to be much hotter.  Sigh, I seriously will die.  So we went to Yumi's house and cooked lunch.  Then we sat around feeling a little bored, well, at least me.  But then we went with Yumi because she was going to vote.  The voting place was a small area inside a elementary school?  They had 8 people working there!!! OMG.  sigh, that's the japanese way i guess.  After Yumi finished voting, we went playing in the playground.  It's been so long since I last played in any kind of playground.  Then I was telling them to try the boomerang at the playground, but they didn't think it's big enough.

So, we went to Yumi's old elementary school to throw boomerang.  We tried a few times, but we couldn't do it.  I think it is because there was no wind.  So, we finally went back to Yumi's house and cooked dinner.  When we got back to the house, Yumi's dad was talking to me and offered me shochu.  Then later, I poured some for him, but it was 100% completely shochu.  He couldn't really drink it, so I drank some.  i mixed it with water and honey again to mask the bitter taste of the shochu.  I can't really handle bitter stuff at all >"<  After i finished the shochu, I could feel the alcohol starting to work its magic!! hahaha.  I felt I was starting to get hot already, my body getting red and stuff.  And this time, my hands, feet, arm, face were all getting really BRIGHT red.  It was kinda funny.  i knew after the alcohol evaporates from my body, I'd be fine.  I think I drank a little bit too much cuz I could feel my veins popping and my heart pumping really hard.  So I laid down on the tatami mats and rested a bit, and slept for a little bit.

I had a great time, and it was fun.  I really wanted to know what would happen when I get drunk.  i think I would just collapse and fall asleep when I get drunk tho.  I guess that is a good thing?? .... MAYBE~~~  I think we will find out someday

Saturday 7.28

Today, both tazuko and manami was absent from the class, so we went to the Gifu hanabi(me and manami)  Tazuko reserved a spot on a small boat on the river, and they could eat dinner and watch the fireworks at the same time.  SO NICE!!  I gotta do that next year!!  It was one of the biggest fireworks festival across Japan.  And there were about 300,000 people there.  Crazy! right?  Anyway, by the time we got there, the fireworks has already started.  We finally found a safe parking spot at 8:35, but the fireworks ends at 845!!!  Well, at least we got to see the last part.  The fireworks is amazing!!  But, after the fireworks, it was so crowded EVERYWHERE!!  We were stuck on the bridge for an hour.  So we were out for like 4 hours on the car and saw about 10 minutes of fireworks >"<  Sigh, well, it will definitely be better next year!!  After we got back, we met up with naru, yumi, and yu's sister.  We went to JOYFUU again!! hahaha.  It's like the place to go these days.  We hung out until and finally got back home at 3AM O,O||  Manami looked like she was about to die >"<  Hopefully, she got back home aite.

Tuesday

It turned out, I forgot my yukata in Naru's car >"<  well, actually, I "LEFT" my yukata.  hehe =p  So Naru was so kind and brought my yukata.  We chatted a bit and I was so hungry.  We decided to go to Joyfuu, the family restaurant.  Before we headed for Joyfuu, Naru was trying to unlock the lock placed next door since it was empty now.  He is a total picklock.  He actually successfully found the combination that could unlock the lock!!  It was pretty wicked. O.o''  So we went to Joyfuu, and i ordered the hottest curry they offered for summer special.  However, not really to my surprise, the curry was not spicy AT ALL!!!!!  I was so disappointed. sigh.  And we actually got back home at 3AM!! lol  It was funny that both yumi and naru overslept on wednesday!! haha

Monday 7.23

Today, we had another party!!  haha, there are just so many parties. ^v^  I went to Mago and bought a set of Yukata.  It was really cheap.  Less than 5000 yen!!  But the quality is not all that great since it's only 5000.  Then we went to have our farewell party for Rina.  She had to study for college so she couldn't really study at Gxxx anymore. >"<  We had our party at takahashi 高橋商店.  It was also an Okinawa izakaya.  It was much smaller in size compare to Nanpuu.  In my opinion, the food was not as good as in Nanpuu >"<  Maybe because it was cheaper, but still.  I wasn't really impressed by the food.  In addition, everyone was just talking to themselves at the party. IN JAPANESE!!!  sigh. it was too difficult for me to understand.  I needed to study harder!! sigh  So the Monday party was soso for me.  However, we went bowling after the party.  Though, we played for two games, it was pretty fun.  

Saturday - 7.21

On Saturday, we had a farewell party for my co-worker, Ryota.  He is the sub teacher for the Japanese teachers in Chubu area.  We finally got a new teacher for my school, so Ryota will go back to head office and maybe head off to another school.  Anyway, so we had a party at Nanpuu 南風; they serve Okinawa沖繩 cuisine.  I think it's not really authentic and is tailored more for people not from Okinawa.  However, the food was still VERY good!!   We had so much food, but we pretty much finished all the food!!  I helped a lot, of course >"<  We stayed at the restaurant/izakaya until they closed (1am), then we headed to Karaoke!! WHEE~~~  We sang until 5AM because the place closes at 5 >"<   It was definitely not enough T.T  I finally got back home at 630ish?  I think this was the best party by far

oops

it's happening.  i kinda stopped blogging.  I knew this day would come.  Anyway, let me kinda update what has happened lately.

We had a farewell party for Seiji on Thursday? the 19th.  Because Seiji was about to leave due to his part-time job.  He was going to go to Sendai, which is maybe about 8 hours away from where we live.  However, later we found out that he was going to Mie prefecture, which is the prefecture next to the prefecture that we live in. O.o"  Anyway, so we ate shabu shabu and talked until..... 2? You know, the usual.

New PSP

Sony has announced that the new PSP is coming out in Septer.  Septer 20th to be exact!  The price tag will be just under the 20,000 yen mark.

pictures can be found:

Cairns!!

Well i guess i should write about my Cairns trip.

so saturday we had a party for yumiko because it was her bday.  We were in engiya(izakaya) till i think 1am?  Then we went to yotsuba and stayed till 4 something.  By the time I got home, it's 5am.  The sky was already getting bright.  I shouldn't have gone to yotsuba since I didn't really drink or eat anything , but I still had to pay.  Also, when I decided to go to yotsuba, I was not tired at all.  However, just when we got to yotsuba, I was tired >"<  Anyway, after I got back home, I had to quickly to pack all my things and take a quick shower because I needed to catch the 5:06am train from minooota.  I was so tired on the train that I overslept.  Thank god, I woke up in time and was able to get to nagoya in time.  The reason that I wanted to get to Nagoya that early is because I wanted to ride the newest N700 Shinkansen.  This time, since I thought the company is paying, i might as well take the green car.  Man was the green car sweet.  The new N700 car was just amazing.   It was like riding in business class.  The bad thing is that later I found out I had to pay the ticket out of my own pocket >"<  But, it's worth it.  

Well, so I arrived in Tokyo like at 830AM.  I was tired and didnt know where to go.  So, I hopped on the yamanote line, the line that circles around tokyo, and kinda slept on the train. lol :p.  Then Masao suggested to go to Akiba.  I couldn't decide if I should go to Akiba or Harajuku.  I wondered if I go to Harajuku, I probably go bankrupt haha.  So, I went to Akiba and checked out prices for computers, getting a estimate of how much I would need to spend to build a computer or buy one.

After Akiba, I went back to Tokyo station and checked out Maruzen, the bookstore, for Japanese study books.  I was just killing my time before it was time to go to Narita airport.  I was really exhausted and overslept on the Narita express again!! hahaha.  So It was a good thing that I took the earlier train to the airport.  So i had to catch the train from terminal one back to terminal two.

The flight was really nice, and we got the emergency exit seats.  It was very nice!!  The flight was 8 hours? but we only got a dinner >"<  We dont have those personal screens either for playing games and stuff.

Well after we got to Cairns airport, I found out that I lost my passport on the airplane.  I told the trainer who was in charge of us that.  And she thought I was kidding.  HAHA  It was pretty funny.  So the airport staff had to look for my passport and luckily it was there.  After we got out of the airport, we went to the GEOS wellness center.  The house was nice.  The weather was beautiful in Australia.  Although it's winter, Cairns is actually in the tropical zone.  The highs are around 24 everyday, but at night, it's quite chilly.  After we got settled down a bit, we made some breakfast.  We had heaps of food around the house, but it was almost gone by the time we left.  The JETs all went back to sleep and all of us NETs just hung around and chat.  I was tired and was zoning out during the conversations because I didn't really sleep on the flight.

We were really bored cuz we pretty much had 5 hours of free time before we go visit the Cairns school.  By the time we get to the school, I was like a zombie.  It was so hard for me to keep awake listening to the manager talking >"<  Then we had some fun talking to the students, looking around the school.  I was really impressed by the school.  And i really think my students would greatly benefit from it if they study there.

At night, we had a barbecue party back at the house.  I thought we would cook the meat ourselves, but to my surprise, we actually had caterers who cooked for us.  The food was amazing except the steak>"<  It wasn't steak at all.  It was more like some pieces of meat.  And the guy cooked them so well >"<  It wasn't medium at all.  Later during the party, this woman, Gynette, was just absolutely hilarious.  She was really drunk and was the best fun ever.

The next day, Tuesday, we went to Green Island.  I tried scuba diving there.  Boy, was that wonderful.  I saw a sea turtle during our dive.  It was amazing.  After the island, we got back to Cairns and went to the night market and shopped around.  On the streets, we met two Korean girls and ate their pizzas.  Later, when we were walking on the street, Scott, another GEOS teacher, and I met the girls again.  We went to a mexican restaurant and had a good time.  The crazy thing was that after we went back to the night market to shop around, the girls actually came back looking for us.  However, the other teachers didn't really tell them to stick around >"<  Well, they were much older than me, and were not really my type anyway.  But still, Argh...

The last day, we had to leave for school at 8AM for inspection.  But, that's usually for the managers.  In addition, since we got a really detailed tour of the school, we didn't really have to go back to the school.  So, we pretty much had a hour to ourselves.

Our flight was delayed for about an hour and a half, but we were only a half an hour late when we got back to Narita.  The food for the returning flight was much better.  We had hot chocolate and also ice cream between the meals!!  Oh, when I was passing through customs, the Japanese officer only asked me "is that all ur luggage? and where did u go?"  The security was so loose.

After we got out of customs, we had to take the narita express to shinagawa.  The hotel that GEOS booked for us was really nice.  It was the Shinagawa Prince Hotel.  It was a lot nicer than the one I had to stay in Nagoya.  It was on the 33rd floor, and the view was just spectacular.  We could even see the Tokyo tower.

After we got settled down a bit, we headed out for dinner.  We found this ramen shop that had a special going on that night.  The ramen cost only ----- are you ready for this?    The ramen only cost 200 yen.  Yes!! 200 yen.  So that was pretty much the end of the night.  I was planning to go to shinjuku , but I didn't really have the energy to party all night.  The next morning I had to take the 6 o'clock Shinkansen from Shinagawa back to Nagoya, then back to minooota.  I finally got back to my apartment at 920ish.  I went back to my apartment, left my things, and take the 950 train to Seki to get things ready for my classes.

Overall, the trip was good thought it's a bit tiring.  But, the thing is IT'S ALL FREE!! hehe.  well, i had to pay for scuba diving and souvenirs.

台風4号

Typhoon No. 4 (Mina? I think)

Everyone was making such a big deal about this typhoon.  It was a pretty destructive storm , but it did not really do any real damage to our area.  Man, i'm so disappointed.  i was so ready to see some flood or really strong winds.  sigh~  But, nothing happened!!  It was sunny all day today.  Grrr...

With such a nice weather like today, it just made me wanna go for a ride >"<  Driving a convertible, a nice sports car.  Sigh i miss driving >"<