Drunk and Soaked but Lovin It

Let me tell you im kinda drunk and soaked but tonight was fun. More about it later when I wake up and I am capable of typing.

**Edit**

Ok, so yesterday was pretty fun. I woke up and started my day. Went out and bought a couple more things for my house including printing paper (because I was inspired to draw haha). I read alot of manga yesterday, something I don't really ever do. After watching Naruto here on TV I got inspired so I read the manga online. I read a bit ahead and after reading a few chapters I stopped myself because I want to wait for the Anime to catch up to where I am now. Its crazy how far ahead the manga is. After reading I also got inspired to draw (someting I haven't done since like middle school) and I drew a picture of a character from the show. I'm still working on it but so far I like how it has turned out considering how long its been since I've drawn anything.
After drawing for a bit it was time to head to the station. So I hopped on my bike and went there. I met up with everyone at about 7:00. Once we all met we went to an Izakaya (A bar with big tables and good a la carte food) It was about 17 people total, the biggest get together we've had so far. It was hilarious because 3 of my bosses we're with us. Noshiro-Sensei (The head of all ALT's in Sano), Grant (the guy from joytalk who hired me), Asumi (Another staff at Joytalk, ALT cooridnatior) were all going to come out with us which was awesome. You all know how I am with pictures so here's a pic of me and the staff.

Noshiro and I (He's awesome)

Asumi and I (She did a good job of looking crazy, haha she's alot of fun)
Grant and I (He's the man because of all the work he does for us at the office) He takes time away from family to help us and of course party with us ahhaha

In addition to all the bosses almost all the ALT's from Sano and Ashikaga came in addition to a couple people I met for the first time. After enjoying ourselves at the izakaya we went to Karaoke (the 2nd time for me since I've been here).

Karaoke was alot of fun but hella expensive. I need to cut back on stuff like that when I can because it's pinching my wallet! Next time I'll head back lol, or not get all you can drink. Haha I want to say thank you to Zamira for singing "If we hold on together" by Diana Ross ahaha that song brought be straight back to my childhood. It was the ending theme to The Land Before Time .. an awesome movie. Once it came on I somehow knew the lyrics... good song.

After that I biked home, in the pouring rain. Kind of sucked but ya know it was worth it. I'm looking forward to more nights like this.

To see more pictures for those of you who don't have facebook click the following link : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064570&l=d684a&id=38001190

Day Two of Exploration

I found all of my schools by bike, except the video for Azuma ES and Azuma JHS got corrupted so I wasn't able to add it to this video. Please enjoy.

Exploring Sano/Engrish Explosion

So today has been semi productive. I basically woke up, ate some breakfast, showered, put some laundry in the washing machine (it's been a couple hours and its still running, I hope it works hahah) and then hopped on my bike to explore Sano. Luckily today was only cloudy and not raining so my 3-5 hour bike exploration went pretty well. Below is a little video I complied from a bunch of clips I took throughout the day. I thought this would be easier than putting all these clips separetely.


Something cool about where I live is I live off of two highways kind of. It's funny because the two highways are same number as the ones I lived near growing up in Maryland and in College. 270 like Montgomery County and 50 like Salisbury.



I biked east of where I live and there's nothing really out there but I did found out that I live very close to Daimonji. Daimonji is explained below: Daimonji at Night:

Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火), more commonly known as Daimonji (大文字), is one of the iconic festivals of Kyoto, Japan. It is the culmination of the O-Bon festival on August 16th, in which five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signifies the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world—thus the name Okuribi (送り火) (roughly, "send-off fire").

The origins of the festival are obscure, but it is believed to be ancient. Specific families have the hereditary duty of organizing all the logistics of the bonfires, and they spend many hours annually providing volunteer labor to maintain this tradition. Starting at 8PM, the giant bonfires are lit, each with a distinctive shape. Below is the picture I took of it from the bridge near me.

So let me explain what Engrish is for those of you who don't know, its English that Japanese people believes sounds correct, but its just not. After exploring I started to head back and hit up every clothes store I could find. I found so much engrish its not even funny, but it is.

More exploration to come tomorrow.

Final Day of Training

Today was the final day of training. It helped a bit because we went over the Sano Curriculum, which is important to know. We we're all supposed to get our lesson plans for the next few days but mine haven't come in yet so I'll have to play the waiting game. We also went over the Ashikaga ALT's introductions. This really helped because it showed me how I should act around the students while giving my introduction. It gave me an idea of the speed I can talk. I will need to make tons of gestures, bring in props, and be happy and smile, most of which sounds like common sense but when you see it in person it makes it stick.

After training Astrea (ALT from Sano) got her car! This thing was tiny, like half the size of a dodge neon hahaha. Guess the name of it? The Mitsubishi Guppy. That's right, its a Guppy. FIERCE! It's black with a grey interior and has a snowman attena attachment haha. A couple of the other ALTs are going to get cars soon, this will be awesome because we can actually drive places instead of having to bike everywhere and we can plan trips and stuff if we want.

Driving here seems like a nightmare but Astrea did a good job. She was following Asumi (a staff member at Joytalk who is awesome for many reasons) and I was in the car with Asumi and Oliver. After we drove to Sano from Ujiie we all went to a ramen shop. I wasn't hungry but the others got some cool looking ramen. The ramen was presented in a fashion I've never seen but was neat. First just the noodles and topping ingredients are in a hot bowl. Next the person whos eating it holds a piece of paper in front of them and the waitress or waiter pours the liquid or broth into the bowl and it cooks all the ingredients together. Pretty sweet, but you have to wait two minutes for the bowl to cool down so if you're really hungry its not the food for you haha.

After the ramen shop we all got dropped off and went our separate ways. On the bike ride home I stopped at a book store, electronics store, and my super market. At the bookstore I just looked around for the naruto comic and finally found it but it was wrapped so I couldn't look inside haha! damn! I also saw tons of funny old used movies and CD's like Ricky Martin and Space Jam ahha. The place also had Yu-gi-oh cards hahah!

After that I biked to the electronics store I've never been to before. I found a webcam for about 24 dollars which is a good price. I'll consider buying it soon, or maybe I'll wait till my next pay check, I haven't decided yet. I just went there to check prices. On the way out of the store I noticed a DragonballZ capsule machine. I had to buy one .. hah 200 yen.

Finally I went to the grocery store and bought some more grocerices. I found an awesome beef green bean sweet/spicy sauce combo thing for about 380 yen which is pretty cheap. I made it with some rice and it was delicious. I think it was meant to feed two people but I ate the whole thing along with a cup and a half of rice lol.

I think tomorrow (if it's not raining!!!) I'm going to bring my camera and explore more of Sano. I'll also do some laundry now that I know how to operate it haha. I have a couple more household items to buy too.

I think this job will be alot of fun once school starts. I really just want to start teaching, and talking to Japanese people. I also want to get out and do more because my apartment is boring haha, but at the same time I want to save money so I'll go out when I can.

Right now I'm watching Apollo13 on tv in Japanese... hahaha

Here's a video of karaoke from last time, I forgot to post it.