Stupid Gaijin Moment #2

It was only a matter of time till I did something stupid enough to write about. So, you know how if you use a cleaning product that has ammonia in it (like Windex) and a cleaning product that has bleach in it (like many bathroom cleaners) you make toxic chlorine gas? Now imagine not being able to read the labels of said cleaning products, and eventually giving up and buying something random. So, here I am in my bathroom last night, cleaning the sink after having cleaned the mirror, when my eyes and throat start to feel funny. Luckily I realized what I had done pretty quickly and wasn't exposed for long. And I had a friend kind enough to take me in for the night so I could air out my apartment.

Anyways, on to more upbeat news, Friday night was the Halloween party, and man did we look foolish. Halloween isn't really celebrated in Japan, so it's a pretty strange sight to see a huge group of foreigners in costume. First we went to an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink place to get nice and hammered before the party even started. I went dressed as Betty Boop, although more than a few people thought I was naughty Snow White.. haha. The party was lots of fun, and some people had some pretty interesting costumes (like Doug and Chito as construction workers/traffic directors- basically a useless job in Japan, the only purpose of which is to combat unemployment).

Bluce Lee strikes again!!

Another wholesome weekend, but this time in Kobe. Managed to navigate the trains to Kobe and met up with Eri on Friday night. She took me home and her family was so welcoming!! We ate dinner and chatted, and right away they told me to think of them as family while I'm in Japan.
On Saturday we met Sachiko, Eri's friend and went shopping. Shingo, Eri's bf, joined us in time for Chinatown, where we ate a tasty lunch, and checked out the Bruce Lee store, complete with statue (see above). Another friend, Mami, met us afterwards and we went to Kitano, an area that was settled by foreigners and where there are many western styled houses. We ate dinner at a restaurant here, which puts loads of garlic in most of it's dishes. It was delicious (and they have toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathroom ). After dinner we drove up to this spot on a mountain that overlooks the city for an amazing night view. A very romantic date place, and there were tons of couples to prove it:)

On Sunday, Eri and I went to Osaka to shop some more. We also went up in a huge ferris wheel that gives you a really good view of Osaka. Not a pretty city though, Kobe was much nicer. Then I started the long trek home. It was a nice weekend, and I'm looking forward to more trips to see Eri and her friends in the future.

Now I'm in test week, so no classes (except tomorrow at Ise Manabi High) and on friday I get to go to Nagashima spaland, home of the world's fastest roller coaster!! Friday can't come soon enough:)

ALTs can now stay for 5 years..... sounds like trouble.

So, 2 of my classes were cancelled today, giving me time to write. For some reason my school enjoys radically altering the class schedule with little or no notice, so today Tamai-sensei and I were supposed to teach during 3rd and 4th period, but 3rd period was moved to 2nd period, and nobody told us. We only found out after 2nd period was over, so our students were up in the class, probably wondering where we were. Since they didn't get to have class, my teacher decided to give the other class study time as well (next week is test week). So I'm down to one class today, last period. I'm seriously going to fall asleep at my desk.
Anyways, last weekend I had the most wholesome weekend probably since junior high school. Friday night we just went to a friends house for dinner and drank wine (don't worry I didn't do that in junior high). Saturday I went to a festival a few towns over (and got a parking ticket:( I think they're expensive here too, but I won't know till I actually get the ticket in the mail. Completely Doug's fault, now I know to stop trusting him when it comes to stuff like that!! :P).
After dinner (at a really nice Italian restaurant), we came back and played pool and darts at a 24 hour internet/manga cafe (man were there some geeks there).
On Sunday, I had my first taiko performance in a festival in my town. I only played one song, but it went well, and I can't wait for the next time!! Plus my costume was hot:) I ate some weird things, like squid on a stick (not as delicious as it sounds), played a game and won a prize (actually I kinda lost , you know the skeeball game? but the boys running it told me I won anyway and gave me a prize). Went for my first run in about 2 months with a friend who wants to train for races too, and the 4k that we did was much harder than I remember. But I'm stoked about running now and went again yesterday, and it felt much better. Sunday night we went bowling (told you it was a wholesome weekend), the American kind with the 3 holes. I actually did pretty well, I think it's quite a bit easier than Canadian bowling.
Monday was a holiday here too, although I had no chance of finding a turkey, so instead I celebrated Thanksgiving by going to a BBQ and eating lamb. It's also still summer here, temp-wise, so it would have been weird to eat a turkey anyways.
This week has been pretty laid back... Tuesday's with Doug have become about us testing the limits of what we can get away with at work. This week we rented a movie and watched it with the american exchange student, Tyler, snacks and all. And since I didn't have any classes yesterday, I got to tag along on a field trip with Doug, Tyler and a few teachers from the school. Beat sitting at my desk all day killing time. We went to Ise, Shima, Futami (I know you don't know where any of that is, but it's along the beach and very beautiful). In Futami there are 2 rocks in the ocean that are tied together with rope, that symbolize marriage. They're close to a Shinto shrine and they hold festivals twice a year to change the rope. It was a nice field trip.
Today I'm off to Kobe, to stay with Eri and her family. For those of you who don't know who she is, she went to Mount A for 3 months and I helped her learn english. I'm really excited to see her again and meet her family :) So, I'll write about Kobe next time....
Ooh, I almost forgot about bunkasai. Bunkasai is a school festival that happens every year around this time. We had ours last Thursday and Friday. The students work hard on different displays, and performances, and then we have 2 days of no classes to check it all out. There was a talent show, lots of tasty food, tea ceremony, time to check out all the displays of art, history, etc, and they also brought in some musicians and comedians. It was a good time, I even got to make a glass bead (by melting glass and shaping it, although it broke so the teacher gave me one of hers, which was much cooler anyway), and dye a facecloth with japanese indigo dye. Ok, now I'm done.
Love.

We won a game!!!

Best weekend ever! We went up to Nagano on Friday night (long drive by the way, about 6 hours). We meant to leave at 7pm, but due to many complications it was about 9 when we finally took off, and therefore almost 3am when we rolled in to the hotel. We were staying in a hotel with all the other ALT soccer teams from across the country, and it was loud. After a short night's sleep we were off to the fields, in our fancy new uniforms, bright and early. We played 3 games on Saturday, and actually didn't do too bad! We lost our first one, 1-0, tied the second (0-0) and then lost in penalty kicks, and won the 3rd 2-1 in penalty kicks. Saturday was my first soccer game ever, so I was pretty terrible, but I think I improved over the weekend, and it was alot of fun. On Saturday night we were tempted with a huge dance party with all the teams in our hotel. I bought ume shu (plum liquor) to drink and didn't like it, so I ended up trading drinks of it for many different types of liquor. A bad mix by the end of the night, to put it lightly. So much fun though. So we wake up hungover on Sunday and have to play another game. Running while hungover is NOT my favorite thing to do. It really sucked, but we lost, so it was our last game. Nagano was beautiful, we were on a ski resort (no snow though obviously) so there were mountains all around us while we played.

On Monday I had the most random night yet. After taiko practice I met up with some friends at an izakaya in Matsu. My friend Nigel has some friends visiting from China (they're Canadian, just teaching in China), so we were out for their last night in Japan. I drank 3 big ringo chuhais (apple coolers...sort of) in a bout an hour and then we decided to go back to Nigel's place to play darts. Drunken darts, what fun. Nigel made the losers (me and Doug) shoot whisky, and that was the end of us. When we got back to Doug's place, we (well, he really) decided to take us to a nearby bar and buy us Guiness. None of us could even drink half of it. Definitely the drunkest I've been on a school night. Luckily I was at Doug's school on Tuesday, and as we have our own office, and neither of us had classes, we napped all morning. Doug actually stretched out on the floor of our office and slept. Man I love this job. I watched tv on my computer too. Can't believe I get paid for this;)

Last night I started a Tuesday tradition. After getting back to Taki from Doug's school, I only have about an hour before Japanese classes, so the past two weeks I've been eating dinner at Kura, the local izakaya. The first time I went, the owner/chef sat down with me and explained everything on the menu for me (it's all in kanji, so even him reading it in Japanese to me is sooooo much easier than reading it myself). He's a really cool guy. So this time I get there, sit at the bar, and he shows me an english phrasebook he bought with phrases you need in a restaurant. So he's learning english to help me out, and we had a good chat in Japanese too. He asked me if I'm going to come every Tuesday, and I told him probably, since it's so convenient, and he's great to practice Japanese on. Gets me in the mood for class:) I'm getting really excited about speaking Japanese here now.... I'm alot less shy about it than I was when I first got here:)
Anyways, I'm out for now. Miss you:)