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Sunday, June 29
Last night was very fun! I waited around for my managers after work, and we drove to the mall,
where we ate at McDonalds - only my 4th time eating at one in Japan! Then we met up with Sara and
two other co-workers and saw the "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" movie. We all liked it a lot. The
music was good and it was quite funny, although there were some parts where I'm not sure if the
audience got the full effect due to translations and stuff. I think Sara and I were the only ones
laughing at times. :-) After the movie, Sara rode her bike home while the managers drove me home;
Sara passed us while we were stopped at a light, so we decided to race her, LOL. We won by about
5 seconds. :)
Tonight, the same people, minus the managers, went to the beer garden on the roof of Mitsukoshi
department store at the station. For 2300 yen, it wasn't a bad deal - all-you-can-eat beer, (weak)
cocktails, and food that was pretty good. There was a stage, so sometimes, there must be shows.
The weather was great tonight!
Thursday, June 26
Nothing much new. Had to work yesterday and today, so I only get one day off this week. Sara and I
were good and went to the gym both last night and tonight. Last night, we were in the front area,
and I asked Sara if she'd ever tried Pocari Sweat (a sports drink). Two Japanese guys were walking
past us, and one said "I have!" We were both so surprised he understood us! Tonight, a cute guy said
hi to me in the front area, and I think it may have been the same guy.
Sara and I are going to see the new "Charlie's Angels" movie on Saturday with 4 staff members, including
the two managers! We're so excited to go with everyone! I bought tickets yesterday and I got to choose
our seats and everything. They gave me free cell phone straps, too, which are actually kinda cool looking.
'Til next time-
Kelly
Monday, June 23
I just got back from Kyoto a couple hours ago. The staff at our school (and about 16 other schools)
went there for 2 days of "special training." Except for a 3-hour meeting today, though, we mostly
got to sightsee with our individual schools. We got to Kyoto about 12:30 on Sunday and had lunch at an
Italian restaurant by the station. Then we went IN the station and had coffee before heading to
Kiyomizu temple, one of the most famous in Kyoto. It was nice, although it was really cloudy, so the
views weren't as good as they could've been. After that, we walked through some touristy streets to
another temple and to the Gion area of town that I like so much. Kazue (I think it was Kazue) wanted to
go to a particular restaurant for parfaits, so we went there and the parfaits were huge! Also good,
but it wasn't the smartest thing in the world to eat at that time 'cause our dinner reservations were an
hour later. We went to a very traditional Japanese restaurant that cost a lot of moolah. Even with a
sizeable coupon from the company, it still cost everyone another 4000yen (about $35). They served some
very weird food. Most of the fish still had their eyes, and one fish was whole and you could see it's
bowels and everything when you picked it open. The weird food coupled with the fact that I was so full by
the 4th or 5th course (there were about 8) meant it wasn't really worth it, but it was fun to just be with
the staff in a relaxed environment. Although, the restaurant was so formal that sometimes it seemed like
everyone was afraid to even talk, and the quietness sometimes led to hushed giggles, LOL. As oftentimes
happens when I go to traditional restaurants, the servers were very impressed at my chopstick ability. :-)
After dinner, we just went back to the hotel - the Granvia Hotel connected to the station. It was WAY fancy.
There were 3 people to a room; I shared a room with Naoko and Kaori. The 3 of us went to Lawson's (a
convenience store) to pick up some drinks and then just hung out in the room the rest of the night until
about 1. We fooled around with our cameras a lot and took some goofy pictures.
This morning, our staff ate our free buffet breakfast together on the 15th floor of the hotel and then
went to the main shopping area in Kyoto for a couple hours. Got some presents for a couple people in the
States. Then, after a quick stop at Starbucks, we along with all the other schools joined at a conference
center for what turned out to be a 3 hour meeting in which EVERYONE had to give a speech. Sitting thru 3
hours of speeches of which you only understand about 20% is not fun, let me tell you. I wasn't really
nervous about my (short) speech until I got up there and realized just how many people were watching me
(nearly 150, probably). Got thru it okay, though.
We left right after the meeting and got back to Kurashiki about 6:30. I have to work both Wednesday and
Thursday this week to make up for some lost lessons, but it's okay 'cause there's only about 6 lessons
over 2 days. Should be fairly relaxing.
Friday, June 20
I have now been to three of Japan's four main islands. On Wednesday, I took the shinkansen
to Fukuoka and then the bus down to Kumamoto, in west-central Kyushu. My friend Marianne teaches
English there. I hadn't seen her since she came to Japan in January, so it was great to see her
again, and it was cool to meet everyone at her school. Sounds like the staff at her school goes
out after work a LOT - I'm jealous!
Anyway, on Wednesday afternoon, I went to Suizenshi Park, a big stroll park outside of downtown.
Nothing spectacular, but nice. While there, though, I was messing with my camera and accidentally
deleted my whole fucking memory chip - about 190 pictures from the past 3 months. I was SO pissed.
Thank God I'd already developed everything I wanted to. Still, a big loss. :( After the park, I
spent a couple hours walking around one of the two big shopping arcades downtown. Kumamoto's got
quite a bit of good shops, restaurants, and bars, more than I expected. One of the big department
stores is Tsuruya, which we don't have here in Okayama. That night, Marianne, two of her co-workers,
a student, and I went to a nearby bar which is run by a couple of people from England. It was small and
there were mostly foreigners there, but a youngish-looking Japanese guy came over and sat with us for
most of the night.
Oh, one thing that was interesting was that since Kumamoto is sister cities with Heidelberg, Germany,
some of the trolleys running through the city have "Heidelberg" written on them and the stops are
announced both in Japanese and German. Also, when I was riding a trolley, the woman sitting next to
me kept nodding off and practically slept on my shoulder. It was quite funny - I had to bite my
tongue not to laugh. :)
On Thursday, I wanted to take the train inland to Mt. Aso, which is an active volcano which, I believe,
has the largest crater in the world. I've heard it's beautiful and fascinating. Unfortunately, there
was a typhoon warning for Kumamoto and the surrounding area, so I couldn't go. So I stayed in the city
and while Marianne was at work, I went to Kumamoto Castle ("one of the finest in Japan," according to
guidebooks), the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, and the Kumamoto Traditional Arts and Crafts
Center. Also did some more shopping. Bought a couple new shirts. That night, Marianne's school had a
staff party for a departing teacher, so I got to go with. We went to a fancy Italian restaurant close
to the school. The wine flowed and everyone got pretty giggly. LOL It was fun. Sounds like everyone
at the school are pretty close.
Today the weather was fine and it would have been great to go to Aso, but I had to come back to
Kurashiki. So I'll have to go back to Kumamoto another time. It's back to work tomorrow, but on
Sunday, the staff at my school (minus Sara and Matthew) are going to Kyoto for "special training"
for a couple days. Busy busy...
I put some Kumamoto pictures up in the June pictures section.
Friday, June 13
Very relaxed day today. The rainy season has supposedly started, but today was a beautiful
day, albeit a bit hot. Took a 50-minute bike ride farther than I've been before and enjoyed
the sun and the breeze. Sometimes I forget how close I live to dozens of rice paddies. :-)
Found DIET Pepsi Twist at a nearby combini (convenience store). Score! Other than that, I've
mostly stayed home today. Am getting a lot of cleaning and laundry done. My apartment is the
cleanest it's been in weeks! I suppose I should wash the bird shit off my balcony railing, though...LOL
A lot has gone on in the past week. First, non-work stuff. Sara and I joined the gym at the mall
last Sunday and went to work out for the first time on Wednesday. It's a 2-level place with a
25-meter pool, whirlpool, massage room, aerobics studio, stretching mats, and a bunch of treadmills,
bikes, and weight machines. 6000 yen per month, not bad. We pay monthly. I'm gonna go tonight and
try to WATCH the hip-hop aerobics/dance class in hopes of actually joining it in a couple weeks.
(Not sure if I wanna jump right in, since I'm sure I won't understand everything they're saying.)
Last night, I met my friend Yukari in Okayama and we went to dinner and bowling. Something magic
was obviously pulsing through my fingers, 'cause I got 8 strikes and a score of 206!! That beats
my old record by 28 points! Would've been higher, too, if I hadn't gotten excited and thrown my
very last ball (after 2 strikes) into the gutter, LOL. Also yesterday, I saw my other friend Sarah
for the first time in a long time and we rented "Minority Report." You really had to pay attention
to follow some of the story, but it was good.
In work-related news, the top manager has been very nice to the foreign teachers lately but has
been especially mean to the JTs, IMO, and it's making me upset because some of the things she is
saying is totally rude and uncalled for. She made one person cry twice this week. Ridiculous. It's
a topic that will definitely be brought up with her soon, although I don't know how much impact
we'll have as foreigners.
Well, time to go study Japanese some more. I've been pretty good about it this week.
Thursday, June 5
So Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were follow-up training at a large conference center up in
the mountains about an hour north of here. It was a tiring but good 3 days (well, 2 days -
half days on Sun. and Tues.). There were about 36 foreign teachers there from our schools
all over Japan, including 7 other people from my original training group in November. We
all had to give model lessons on Sunday and Monday (one each day). My lesson- which was
assigned - was out of a pretty advanced-level textbook that I use with two groups of 14-15
year-olds. Four other foreign teachers acted as my students. Both lessons went very well,
to my relief. Two trainers watched me and both gave me positive feedback, as did the five
foreign teachers who evaluated me.
All of us also shared stories about our favorite students and the trainers talked about how
big of role models we are for these kids. I guess I hadn't thought of it too much before,
but it's kinda scary but cool to think of myself as a role model. :) It definitely motivates
me to do my best.
Yesterday, Sara and I took the bus out to Washuzan - an area about an hour from here that's
got some spectacular views of the Seto-Ohashi bridge and also a funky amusement park that
tries only somewhat successfully to be Brazilian-themed. They had some Brazilian dancers on
stage (even tho the audience was like 5 people) and eventually, Sara got up there with them. :-)
There were some neat rides there. The ferris wheel on top of the mountain was very windy and
a little scary but had good views. There were several roller coasters, including a flat one
where you just sat on a bike-type thing and pedaled yourself along! I'll post a picture, as
you probably don't know what I'm talking about. Another one, which we didn't go on, was a
roller coaster that not only went upside down but went backwards the whole ride!
The flat pedal-yourself "roller" coaster"
So that was fun, and today I went to do purikura and karaoke with Sara and Kaori. I think I
probably sound like shit next to them, but that's okay. :-) We also went to the mall to check
out the gym there. Sara and I might join it. I'm a little worried about signing up and then
not going, but if I get the same plan as Sara, hopefully she'll MAKE me go with her. LOL
That's all for now. Mata ne!
Kelly