nikki (journal)

On Sunday, Sara and I had a dinner party at my place, and it was SO fun! Five out of six
of the JTs came; it was the first time to my place for a couple of them and the first time
since I've been here that so many of us have met together outside of school. Sara turns out
to be quite the cook! She made salmon with a cream sauce, asparagus with a boullion dressing,
a spinach/pepper/mandarin orange salad, and french bread with an olive oil dip. I contributed
a small cheese plate and a cake (I made the frosting). LOL Cost about $30 each, but it was worth
it! After we ate, we looked at some pictures Kaori and Sara had brought over and watched about
10 or 15 minutes of home video that my dad had sent. Then we sat in a circle on the floor and
I taught everyone Hearts! It was really funny, 'cause right before we started, Tokuko discovered
and became fond of the maroon bear that Kerry left me and had it sit in her lap while playing.
Within 2 rounds, it was dubbed the "good luck bear" and was given to anyone who got the Queen
of Spades to help ward off points in the next round, LOL! It worked pretty well until it was
given to Kazue and she got the Queen (and a bunch of hearts) twice in a row, causing her to
lose the game and playfully beat up the bear. :-)

Thursday, May 22
I've been in Japan 6 months as of tomorrow!
I've still got a touch of a cold or something, but it's not bothering me too much. Last
night, I completed (I think) the redecoration of my apartment. I put together the new desk
(took about an hour) and it looks great! I love having drawers. :) I was gonna take apart
and toss the old desk, but then I thought, what if the school asks me where it is when I
eventually move out? Matthew (one of the new FTs, if I didn't already say) was over and had
the brilliant idea of moving it into the kitchen and putting my current shelves sideways on
top of it. Well, it's wonderful, 'cause now I have more storage space plus a pseudo kitchen
table! I love it! Here are some pictures of my new stuff:

In other news, I went to the mall today and was very pleasantly surprised to find

Friday, May 16
The bad news is, I've got a nasty sinus infection and am dead tired. Work won't be fun
tomorrow, and from what I gather, I can't really call in sick unless I'm on my death bed or
need to be taken by the manager to the hospital. The first part of good news is, being sick
means I can stay home all day and watch skating videos I haven't seen yet. :) The second part
of good news is that yesterday, before I started feeling like total crap, I bought a bunch of
new things for my apartment. I got a new big rug, new curtains, a new end table, and even a new
desk (which will be delivered Monday)! Everything's so cute, and now my place feels even more
like home. I'll take some pictures and get them up soon.

About the time of my last journal entry here, another JT at our school quit. She was sick and I
understand why she quit, but it sucks 'cause everyone is SO stressed and overworked now. We just
(tentatively) hired a new teacher, so hopefully she'll pass the training at head office and things
will calm down a little at our school.

So Naoko and I took the super-fast Nozomi train to Shin-Yokohama on Tuesday - only a 3-hour ride.
We met up with two of her friends and went to Yokohama's Chinatown right away. It's very big, with
lots of shops and restaurants. We ate at a popular restaurant where, for a set price (about $20),
you could order whatever and as much as you wanted. We kept ordering more and more and more...we were
all SO stuffed! But it was oishii. Before we left Chinatown, I bought some nice and comfortable
sandals for only 1500 yen.

On Wednesday, we went to the Odaiba area of Tokyo, near the bay. Very nice area, spent most of the
day shopping. There is a shopping mall called Decks that kinda makes you feel like you're travelling
the world - one floor tries to recreate old-style Japan, one floor is authentic Hong Kong, one floor
looks European, and there are some American-looking stores scattered around. That night, the four
of us plus another friend went to karaoke and ended up staying 4 hours! Expensive but fun. I love karaoke
now! I just don't think the US has quality karaoke places like here.

Spent Thursday in Yokohama along the bay area. Ate at an American-style burger restaurant and shopped
some more. At night, we went to TGI Fridays!! It was JUST like in the US - awesome! Wish they had one
in Kurashiki or Okayama. I also saw some Dennys and Subways in Tokyo - wish they had those here, too.

Naoko and I went to Roppongi Hills on Friday morning. It's a new entertainment/restaurant area in
Roppongi (Tokyo) that people have been raving about. It was okay but nothing special. Mostly very
expensive shops and restaurants, and a movie theater. We only stayed a couple hours, then Naoko met up
with a different friend and I travelled 50 minutes by train to visit a friend and her family in Kawagoe.
It was so good to see them!! Their 9-month-old daughter is SO CUTE! Such a little doll. We went to their
apartment for a bit (it's nice; about the same size as mine) and then walked around town the rest of the
afternoon/early evening and ate dinner at a noodle restaurant. There's a really nice pedestrian shopping
zone and a mall in Kawagoe, but we ran out of time before we could see much of it. I got back to Shibuya,
Tokyo, about 8:00 and walked around a bit before meeting up with Naoko and her friend. Shibuya is
unbelievably crowded - you can't move 2 feet without bumping into someone. The crosswalk in front of
the station goes six different ways, and hundreds of people cross at once! It's a madhouse! I took some
pictures and a short video. Shibuya is an amazing display of lights and colors, though - exciting to visit
but probably hell to live.

On Saturday, we took an all-day bus tour of Tokyo. We went to the Imperial Palace, Asakusa (very
famous place that's pictured in most guidebooks), Shinjuku (ate lunch on the 51st floor of a building),
Tokyo Tower (kinda like the Eiffel Tower, only uglier - but good view), and Odaiba (again). The tour
was in Japanese so I was the only foreigner there. I didn't understand very much but it was still fun.
I mostly just looked out the window and admired stuff. Saw some places that I'd like to go back to someday.

Saturday night, we went to karaoke again (another 4 hours!) and Sunday we spent some more time in
Yokohama before returning to Kurashiki (got in at 10:00). All in all, a great trip! But it's kinda
good to be back in Kurashiki where I can walk without running into people. :)

May 2003