September 2003

Matt's out all this week again, so I have to work extra again...still have
Friday off, fortunately. When I told my managers I'd cover his classes again, the top
manager told me she loved me, LOL. It was really funny. Besides a bunch of extra yen,
the up side of filling in is that the managers invited me to a thank you dinner, which
pleasantly surprised me. I'm flattered, yet at the same time I kinda feel bad, 'cause
I know if the Japanese staff work extra, they don't get shit.

Wednesday, September 24
Ended up filling in for Matthew 3 days, not 1, so I worked 7 days in a row. Tiring, but
kinda interesting to teach new (to me) students. Tuesday was a holiday, and I spent the last
two days (Tues. and Wed.) in Osaka. Can't believe it took me 10 months to get there! (Not
including the airport and train stations.) Osaka is cool. Or it was until the heavens opened up
and dumped buckets of rain on me most of today. (Kobe deja vu.) Left earlier than planned 'cause
it was too wet to do anything. I did get to the Kaiyukan aquarium and the Suntory museum across
the street, both of which were cool, although the giant crabs were all asleep and therefore not
as freaky-cool looking as they could've been. Yesterday, Sara and I saw Quidam, which was awesome.
What those people can do is incredible. Bought the music CD and am listening to it right now.
I think Quidam has some of Cirque du Soleil's best music.

After the show, we walked around Amerika Mura and Dotonburi (well-known entertainment and shopping
districts), where some normal-looking but strange dude stopped us and took about 8 pictures of us
with his camera. Freak. We ate at a nice Mexican restaurant - my first time eating Mexican food in Japan,
I think. We were both so excited upon seeing the menu that we couldn't decide what to get!
Some chick gave us wrong directions to the place, though, so it took us at least 45 minutes to find it,
when it should've taken 10. grrrr...

Sara and I at the Mexican restaurant.

Fall came suddenly last Saturday. It was about 90 degrees all last week, and then boom, Saturday
came and it was like 70 (and 50-55 at night). It's only been around 70 or less since then,
and a couple nights were genuinely chilly. Hmph. At least I haven't run my air conditioner in
5 days.

Monday, September 15
I'm so tired, but there's so much to write...

The biggest news here right now is that Matthew got sick at home on Saturday night and
had to be taken to the hospital, where I guess he will remain for about a week. No
one really knows details, but Sara went to meet with his wife now, so I'll probably know
more information tonight. Hope he's okay. Being in the hospital, he won't be at school all
week, of course, so I have to come in on Wednesday (my day off) to teach all his classes.
I don't really mind, since I had today off (public holiday) and since I'll be making some
good overtime pay. Yay money!

In part 'cause no one had to work today, almost everyone from school went out to eat at
Mela Cotta (italian restaurant) last night. It was only the second time since I've been here
that so many people have met outside of work, except for "required" welcome and farewell
dinners (which are also nice). It was fun. Except for the 4 of us who worked yesterday,
everyone was in "normal" clothes and looked really cute.

After dinner (about 10:30), everyone headed home, but before I even walked in the door of
my apartment, one of the JTs called me and said that 3 of them had decided to go to karaoke
and asked if I'd like to come - of course! So they picked me up and we went to Sunflower
Karaoke in the next town over (only about a 10-min. drive from my place). We sang for 2 hours,
and like in March (the last time I heard her sing), Kazue blew me away with her voice. Her
singing voice is so different from her speaking voice, it's amazing. I told her that she has
to come again with Sara and I soon and have a singing contest with Sara (who took voice lessons
for 8 years).

I didn't get to bed 'til 2:30 and had to get up at 9, because I went to play tennis with Shozo,
Sara, and 6 other Japanese I've met before! I haven't played in over a year, and except for
my first few shots, I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did. I wish I could play more
often, but that group only goes on Mondays.

After tennis, we went for a long lunch nearby, and then ended up going to - karaoke! LOL,
this was my 3rd time in a week! I am Karaoke Queen. :) There were only 2 others besides me
who were brave enough to sing, so I got to sing quite a bit. They all complimented me on my
"great voice," even though I don't believe I sing well, at least not on some songs, LOL.

Being with everyone from work last night and with so many people today makes me so thankful
for all my friends here! I couldn't imagine life without them.

Friday, September 5
Mmm...salmon and real corn-on-the-cob. That's what I cooked for dinner tonight. Oishii...

Unlike in Minnesota, where the transition from August 31 to September 1 usually signals a 10-20
degree drop in temperature and the onset of a nasty sinus infection for me, here, I've remained
healthy thus far and the temperature seems to increase every day. Although the main room in my
apartment can stay somewhat comfortable due to near-constant air-conditioning, the cool air doesn't
extend to my kitchen and bathroom, where it tends to be 90-95 degrees during the day. I have to
refrigerate any chocolate I buy to keep it from melting. My houseplant nearly wilted but came back
to life after I watered it excessively. I stepped onto my balcony yesterday to hang some laundry and
practically burned my foot. Still, I think I prefer this to freezing my ass off in winter.

Yesterday, while waiting for a bus to the rink at Okayama Station, I saw a young blonde girl,
dressed in a Japanese school uniform and carrying a typical Japanese backpack, get on to a bus.
It's very rare for me to see foreign children here, and it was the first time I'd seen a foreign
girl who obviously lives and goes to school here.

This morning, I went to Marunaka to drop off some dry cleaning. Usually they just take it, have me
write my name and phone number, and tell me when it'll be ready, but today the lady talked to me
a lot. Usually, I can figure out what store clerks are telling/asking me and give a simple but
reasonable answer, but I had absolutely no idea what this lady was talking about. Must study more...

I want to get my hair cut next week, so I bought a big magazine today to look at different hair
styles. They're all Japanese styles, though, so I don't know if they'd work on me. I want to try
something different, though. I was at the mall today and saw a lot of cool new clothes for fall
that I wanted, so I reasoned with myself that I'll stay in Osaka only one night later this month,
instead of two, and that way I can spend the extra night's hotel money today. Which I did. Damn the
mall and its money-sucking powers! LOL Scary thing was, I was excited to shop...am I turning into Mom???

Here's a long-overdue picture of my two housemates. I got them at the end of July, but didn't post
anything about them in case I had bad allergies to them and needed to return them or give them away.
But I've had no problems with them, allergy or otherwise, so I think it's safe to mention them.
They're dwarf hamsters, and I named them Shima ("stripe") and Hana ("nose"). Kawaii ne?

Thursday, September 4
Last night was interesting, albeit late. Sara called me at 1:30AM and asked if I was awake. ("No.")
She said proudly, "I found a cat!" See, Sara and I are both cat fanatics and long for a cat here. Sara
has always told me if she found a cat, she'd bring it home. Well, turns out she was walking back from
the convenience store (making a phone call) and came across this cat, which, when Sara called it, came
right up to her! She pet it for a while, then started walking back to the apartment while calling for
it. Amazingly, it followed her all the way to the building and up the stairs to her apartment! Of
course, I wanted to see it, so I got up and went downstairs. It was a black cat, very skinny but otherwise
healthy-looking. And so friendly! It rubbed against our legs a lot (oh, how I miss that feeling!) and closed
its eyes halfway in ecstasy when we scratched its chin and behind its ears. :-) Sara fed it two big fillets
of fish, which it totally devoured. It was such a strange but great feeling to see a real cat in the
apartment! We were tempted to keep it overnight, but it started pacing by the door, and we didn't have
a litterbox, so we opened the door to let it out. It ran out but came back within 10 seconds, LOL. Finally,
it went out again but was still sitting by the door when I left. We both really hope it comes back again!