Golden Week/Toga Party/The Future

Golden Week has come and gone. I feel it was more like a bronze week for me. Don't get me wrong I had fun and enjoyed my golden week but it could have been a bit more epic. Pretty much for the following reasons it was only bronze. One, it wasn't even one week, it was only from Saturday the 2nd --> the Thursday 6th so 5 days off. Two I didn't go anywhere significant.

I think proper planning would have made Golden week a bit more exciting. The problem is I didn't want to go any where touristy because every touristy spot in Japan is crowded during golden week. I had tossed around the idea of seeing Chris, which would have been great but I might be taking a trip there in June and I figured it would give me a chance to do stuff around Sano so I decided not to.

Over golden week I relaxed alot. I went to a couple bbq's (in Ashikaga) and parties. I also took a trip to Tokyo, but it was raining all day so that significantly hindered my plans. I took a long walk from Ueno to Akihabara. I did some shopping in Ochanomizu and bought some Adidas sandals. I really needed new sandals so I'm glad I got these. They were a bit uncomfortable at first but now I've worn them in a bit better so they ok. I also met with Hiromi and had a hamburger at a Hawaiian restaurant at Tokyo Station. It was probably the best hamburger I've ever had in Japan. I'll have to go back to that place sometime. Here are pictures on facebook. And here are some ones I'll put here for you!

BBQ in Ashikaga
Shaun Taught me how to hold myself sidewise with a poll lol
headstand hah
Ashikaga Gakkou the first University in Japan

Best burger I've had in Japan (Not that I've had many)
cool little place for events in Tokyo Station

Tokyo has some really nice places in it, but so many are so hidden you'd never know about them unless you really search. It's like a giant hidden treasure city. I feel if I end up moving/living there it'll be an endless search for all the buried treasure.

I think I've decided I want to live here another year, that is if I can find a job in either Utsunomiya (the city where I always go to play frisbee) or Tokyo. If I can't find a job in either of those cities I think I might just go home. Also I'd really like to have a Japanese roommate. I think that'd be really cool and it'd be a good experience. I'm not a big fan of living alone. In fact it's pretty boring.

There are a couple other areas that I'd like to live in like Yokohama, Osaka, or Kobe. The thing is I'm growing a little tired of starting over, it has taken me a while to make a good group of friends here in Sano and if I move somewhere real far it would be tough to keep those friends. The thing about living here is it is really hard to tell what kind of life you'll have. As an English teacher you can either love or hate the schools you teach at, so professional life can significantly vary. On the social side you could have a group of awesome friends or none depending on what you do, you can be quite miserable or super happy. Sano has been a little bit of a roller coaster for me, but I'd say I'm pretty happy. I still feel like something is missing. I think something I'd really like is someone to just do whatever with. That's why having a roommate around would be great. I could be like hey I want to go here, wanna come? It'd be perfect to find someone who'd just say yeah let's go.

I've been doing some job searching online here for stuff in Utsunomiya and Tokyo and I've found a couple places but I think the majority of places renew contracts in April, so I don't know how much will show up for August.

Last weekend we had a toga party as a fundraiser for the ALTs that are going to India in August for Habitat for Humanity. We tried to recruit others to the party, but they were reluctant haha

Next weekend I'm playing in a soccer tournament in Nagano. I'll be sure to bring my camera. ALTs from all over Japan are coming to compete. Each prefecture has a team. I don't expect we'll win, but I'm just going for fun. I've never been to Nagano and I heard a really beautiful city. It should be a blast.