11 posts tagged “festivals”
Anna's on her way. I've got the tickets for This Is It.
So excited!
I checked the website this morning and the 2pm show is already half full! Anna said last night she wanted to eat Thai for lunch today but then we wouldn't get to the theatre til 1pm or something and I didn't want to get stuck at the front or worse, have the movie sell out. The next show is at 4:30pm but she has to be in Meguro by 7. I had to use my credit card, which I don't like to use here because I have to pay exchange but they raised my credit limit again. Surprise, surprise! It's still stupidly low for someone with a six-year credit history (I guess?) but it's still more than enough for me. Even if I don't manage to pay it off before I leave Japan, I can still buy my ticket home and bum around China for a few weeks.
Last night ended up being really fun. I can't wait for Ginny and Anna to upload all the pictures. I wasn't even going to dress up but at the last minute (in the shower an hour before leaving the house) I realized I had all black clothes so I could be a mime. The first thing Anna says to me when I get to Andrews is, "Oh! Are you supposed to be French?" Close! I borrowed Ginny's beret and heaped on the eyeliner and that was it. Pretty good, for me. Anna was Courtney Love, Ginny was a Shinigami from Bleach and Andrew was Captain Jean-Luc. Oh yes, he went all out, it was amazing. We got stared at very much on the train and some guy in Harajuku actually whiped out his phone and goes, "Samurai!" and takes a picture of Ginny. It wasn't so awkward once we got to Harajuku and we were greeted foreigners and Japanese people alike with Happy Halloween greetings. If only our salaryman friend in the park hadn't been dying beside us, it would have been a perfect night.
In other news, I don't have to move. My landlord replied and said cuz I'll only be here another 6 months, I just had to pay the contract renewal only. Such a relief! I also had to my regular rent on top of everything so that would have been really painful. There are nice people in the world.
I got back from Singapore on Saturday morning and I've uploaded pictures... I just have to write it up. Coming soon, along with Big Life Update emails.
I gathered up my friends and got them to come out to Kashiwa to go to the bon odori taikai at Asahi Higashi Elementary school, put on by the Asahi-cho Association. It's the same one I went to last year with Destini. I was so worried it was going to be canceled because there was torrential rain storms in Tokyo but we only got a little bit of drizzle and then the skies cleared.
Blake, Anna, Andrew and Justin came out and we got dressed and made our way out at about 7:30. We got there close to 8 and enjoyed the atmosphere and dancing. It didn't seem as busy as last years, which was probably due to the weather. We didn't bring any money (I forgot about the food and games) so we just danced. I saw a couple boys from 3rd year at Toyoshiki JH who were trying to ignore me at first but I waved at them and talked to them a bit. They just kept circling the ground and watching me dance with Andrew. We were so bad but the ladies around us kept saying we were doing well. What a lie! But it was good fun. We even felt an earthquake in the middle that was quite strong. The dance was over at 830 which was quite early, I thought. They had fireworks last year but I guess they didn't do them because of the rain. In any case, we were all hungry anyway so we went home to get our money and headed out for dinner all dressed up.
I got pictures from Anna but too bad they are shitty resized Facebook pictures but you can still see how we look so fabulous. There weren't many pictures of Blake but his half-asianness made him look the hottest out of all of us. Just before we were leaving, one of the organizers rounded us up for a token foreigners indulging in Japanese culture picture so I think we'll be in the newsletter or something. Well, it wasn't the first time.
Andrew and Blake were wearing their jinbei while Justin, Anna and I were wearing yukata. I lent one of mine to Anna and she was so excited. This was the first time for Anna and Justin to go to a bon odori and maybe Andrew's?
Tying Justin's obi/teaching Andrew how to tie it and Blake's surly face.
Me posing "ethnicly". I'm so happy I found this yukata! Green is really rare and I love the pink and purple hydrangeas. I feel girly.
At the matsuri!
Happy new year! I'm not really in the greatest mood right off the bat with these fucking technical difficulties my internet has decided to spring on me--or the site I'm trying to access because it won't fucking load. Anyway, it's pissing me off which is not good.
God, it's been quite a couple of days. I have been home for about 5 hours cumulatively over the last 3 days, and I'm going on a trip tomorrow! Yes, Justin and I decided to be spontaneous (oh, how I miss you, JC) and go to Hiroshima for 3 days and 2 nights before going back to work. Well, he goes back on Monday, but I'm off til Thursday. Sucker!
On Tuesday, I was invited to my friend Yuka's place for dinner, along with the Sado family. Aya, Yuka and I went to elementary school together in Singapore; they took me Asakusa when I first came to Japan. I've seen Yuka a couple times but I haven't seen Aya since then. Her parents and youngest brother just moved back to Japan from Bangkok so the whole family came to dinner. Oh my god! How we've all grown; it's been ten years.
I talked with Yuka's dad for maybe the first time ever. I hardly remember him; I don't think he was home very much in Singapore, or at least when I was over. He's been living and working in Dubai for the last while, I believe. Aya's mom gave me a big hug when she arrived and they asked me all about being in Japan and stuff and wanting me to talk Japanese and stuff. It was like meeting Wataru for the first time since the last and only time I saw him was just after he was born so he wouldn't remember me. Hajimu looks exactly the same at 21 as he did when he was 8: still cute as hell. Dresses in typical--some might say strange--Japanese/Harajuku fashion but it suits him. He's a singer in a band and graduating from Keio University this year, I think. I saw Yuito the last time I went to the Uda's place for dinner and he's now about 6'1" and plays American football for Keio High School, graduating in the spring, moving up to Keio U next year. He's turning 20 this year! He'll be a real adult.
Yuka's mom cooked Pakistani curry and Aya's mom brought this Thai style salad. I brought a bottle of wine and a bottle of umeshu. Dinner was delicious and we ate until late into the night. I arrived around 6:30, just before Aya's parents and Wataru. Aya and Yuka came later and Yuito came after his part-time job, around 11pm. We looked at pictures -- I showed them Sean's band's myspace and did they ever get a shock. They still recognize him though! He and Haji were in the same grade, though different classes, I think. They weren't friends in any case. I also showed them pictures of mom and dad from the summer and they say I look just l like mom.
So, I booked it home from Shinagawa at about 1:30 and was lucky enough to get the special rapid service to Kashiwa from Nippori so I got home in an hour. I cleaned my room as much as I could in an hour and a half before going out again to Andrew's for New Year's Eve. We just stayed in and watched the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen and Johnny's Countdown on TV and drank until 2 in the morning.
On the first day of the year, Japanese people visit shrines and temples and visit the family grave and pray for good luck for the year. The word they use to call this is hatsumode which means "first temple visit of New Year" according to my dictionary. I really wanted to do hatsumode this year since I kind of copped out and just went to the shrine next to the club last year. So I did some research (after going to Kawagoe with Justin the other day and seeing the Seven Lucky Gods temples there) and decided to do the Shichi Fukujin Meguri, or Seven Lucky Gods Pilgrimage. There are dozens of "Seven Lucky Gods" temples all over Japan so I decide to go to the Yanaka ones around Ueno and Nippori because they are close and wouldn't be too busy. There is a set in Asakusa as well, among other places, but I didn't want to be anywhere near there and Senso-ji today. It would be a zoo. So we set off at 10:30am, Andrew, Ben, Justin, Takeshi, Tama and I. You can just go and pray at each temple but they also have a kind of... souvenier. Different areas do different things, but the Yanaka Shichi Fukujin temples do a picture and stamps. It's a lot more expensive than I expected, but I guess they need to make money somehow. It was 1000 yen for the paper and 200 yen for each stamp, for a total of 2400 yen. Kind of a rip off, I suppose, but it's really pretty and only for a limited time, I believe. You can do the pilgrimage anytime, but I think they have the souveniers for only the first 10 days of the year. I'm going to frame it and display it at home and hopefully it will bring me good luck. It's my year this year (the year of the cow) so I figured I should shell out and make it a good one.
So, I've caught up on news and I'm not feeling so ill from not really sleeping for the past two nights after my short nap. Laundry is done and hanging but I probably should take a few things to the laundromat to chuck in the dryer because they won't be dry by morning for sure. I still have to pack! It's only for two nights so I don't need much, maybe just one change of clothes and the essentials. It's a bit pricey this time of year but we wanted to travel and we need to break out of our Nova-induced spending scare. Our hotel is about 15,000 yen for two nights, including breakfast and toilettries etc which is fairly reasonable I think. On the other hand, we are taking the Shinkansen which is not. That is going to cost 37,500 yen. That's $500 at today's rate. Shit. That does suck. I guess I can't just lop off two zeros anymore to convert to dollars. Well, in my head it's about 375$ for a 4 hour ride each way. In any case, it beats flying. My justification is that I haven't been away from Tokyo since August and I won't get to go anywhere until March and I need to make the most of my time.
Hope you enjoyed this update and I'll try to keep the next about my trip brief. Happy year of the cow~!
Happy Thanksgiving! It's early... for everyone but we're celebrating today so we can have tomorrow to rest up before a new week. It's going to be a full house tonight... I don't even know how many people are going to come. It seems like we invite new people daily. So far, I've counted 13 people and I'm sure there are others I forgot/didn't know were invited. I just realized Christian is coming but I also invited Sachiyo... but she's so flakey I don't know if she's actually coming. But Amanda and Nikki are and the three of them are attached at the hip. Could but awkward but I couldn't really care less. Grow up already.
Sawara was so freaking cool!! It was a bit of an ordeal making our way out there. I missed my transfer at Abiko so I had to wait 30 minutes for the next train to Narita station and Andrew and Bruno were late too. The Keisei line kept stopping randomly. I feel terrible because Leigh waited in Narita for an hour before I showed up and she came all the way from Goi. But it worked out... it was kind of shitty and rainy so we went for coffee and waited an hour for the next train. Apparently the station master said there's only trains every hour because no one goes to Choshi. LOL
The weather was shit when we arrived but ended up clearing up by mid-afternoon. The historical district is so beautiful! The Ono River goes through and you can take a boat tour for 1000 yen but we thought that was a bit steep so we just walked. There were people in festival garb everywhere and huge carts with figures on top where the musicians rode. They were covered up with plastic to keep them dry at first but luckily we could see them without later on. When the festival actually seemed to get going around 3-4pm everyone was dancing in the street. I took some video but the sun was right in front so it's a bit glarey. Even little kids were dancing! And festival food... YUM. I binged a bit (meaning I had some and not none like usual because I'm cheap) because this is likely the last festival of the year that I'll go to.
We saw a kimono shop on the way in and stopped on our way back to the station and spent nearly an hour in there! There was a resale section on the second floor and two ladies working there were so kind when we bombarded them with questions and asking for suggestions about colours and stuff. I found a green kimono (!!) and got a dusty pink obi (though it's more for yukata becuase it's the half size one) and a black haori (short jacket) with a chrysanthemum? design. All for 3500 yen! Andrew got a few haori and a little bag for Christmas gifts and Leigh got a kimono for 2100 yen. I am going to make sure to go back there before I leave Japan.
*Will edit pictures with descriptions later~~
I went to Osaka last weekend for a 5 day trip and it was amazing. We got back on Thursday morning but I haven't had a chance to sit down and write up a sufficient post about it. I spent all of Thursday uploading pictures and anotating things but I need to sit down and write a proper entry... tomorrow I'm busy, so maybe on Tuesday.
Until then, you can see my pictures and Justin's pictures.
Tonight a couple girlfriends came over and we dressed up in yukata to go to my neighbourhood bon odori taikai! Obon is one of the main holidays in Japan; its in the middle of August and people pilgrimage back to their ancestral home and pray to the ancestors and Obon dances remember and appreciate their sacrifices. Yuka's mom taught me how to tie an obi properly so it was my first attempt to wear a yukata out in public. I think it went alright, actually. Nothing came undone, so that's a good thing. They came over around 3pm and we got dressed and left around 4. It was being held at Asahi Higashi Elementary school but the school yard was empty when we got there. It's an evening event so we went and sand karaoke for a few hours. There was this bunch of grannys going to karaoke and one of them felt us all up! She tapped all our boobs... which isn't really weird for me because Asian people don't have boobs and are therefore fascinated with them... but then she was like "Sorry, I'm really drunk" and then kind of tipped over. XD I love old people sometimes. It was hilarious.
After singing we went back to the school and enjoyed the taikai! It was so fun~ They set up a tiered stage in the middle of the field, on the top level were drummers and musicians, and in the middle were dancers. There were a few more drummers on the ground and tents around the field selling food and drink and some festival games as well. There was even a fireworks display. We saw one of the grannies from karaoke there and some other lady came up to us and complimented our yukata and told us to dance. We ate and drank a bit before joining in. It was so fun! It's a bit tricky at first but you just dance in a circle around the stage and follow the ladies on stage or the person next to/in front of you. And its all repetative anyway.
It was such a great experience. I remember going to a bon odori taikai in Singapore with Yoko and some friends but this was so much better. Kids, parents and grandparents just dancing together, it was a really communal feeling. I saw a girl from my school too but she was too shy to say hi to me. And I didn't say hi to her... maybe I should have. I took some video on my phone, I wonder if it will work.
It's the second last day for me before the summer vacation and all of my classes got canceled today. Jun said he was going to just go over their summer homework and do self-study or grammar so I didn't need to go. Sweet.. but I still have to come to work anyway. So I brought my Japanese textbooks to study because I have done anything except for that bit of studying for the Kanji Kanken but that was a month ago. This book is too easy... well, I'm only on the 4th lesson so of course it is... but it doesn't motivate me to study because it is easy. It's just busy work.
Last Monday was Tanabata. Well, not technically because it's a lunar festival (the 7th day of the 7th month) but it is fixed to July 7th. It's usually called "The Star Festival" and celebrates the one night of the year that Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair) can meet. It was a festival brought over from China in the Heian period (794-1185 CE). The festival of Tanabata (or Qi Xi in Chinese) comes from the folktale of the Princess (or Weaver-girl, depending on your version) and the Cowherd.
Orihime (織姫 Weaving Princess) the daughter of the Tentei (天帝 Sky King, or the universe itself) wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Milky Way (天の川 Amanogawa). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, she was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星 Cow Herder Star) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa River (Milky Way). When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and were shortly married. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa River and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter's tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. If it rains, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait till next year.
I've heard a version where they were mortals and then the gods got angry when they neglected their work so made them into stars and separated them by the Milky Way but she cried so much that they took pity on them and let them meet once a year.
Anyway, from around the time of the Edo period, girls would wish for better sewing and weaving skills and boys would wish for better handwriting by writing their wishes on pieces of paper. That tradition still continues but kids probably wish for different things. Writing wishes on paper, and then tying them to a bamboo tree isn't limited to children, although in (elementary) school all the kids write wishes and tie them to bamboo branches outside their classrooms. I saw a big display outside Toyoshiki Kindergarten that I walk past everyday and also at some shopping centres!
I wanted to go to a Tanabata festival but it isn't that popular in the Kanto region. The biggest Tanabata festival is in Sendai and actually runs during the first week of August, and has become one of the three biggest summer festivals in the Tohoku region.
This year, the 34th G8 Summit was held in Hokkaido and coincided with Tanabata. Prime Minister Fukuda asked the leaders to write wishes in the spirit of the festival and tied them to a bamboo tree and then take the necessary actions to make the world better.
The summer festival season is starting to get underway and I'm really excited. This weekend is the Shin-Matsudo Festival and next weekend is the Kashiwa Festival... and Abiko's is in August sometime. Most towns have their own summer festivals in addition to bigger holiday-oriented ones. There is lots of food, games, entertainment and fireworks! I haven't been out to see any yet, but apparently every Wednesday in July on Teganuma Lake (I think?) there are fireworks. I see a poster on the window of the dry cleaners near school everyday but haven't stopped to really read it yet. Andrew got back from Canada yesterday so I should make him come out here one night so we can go.
The weather was so nice at the end of last week, perfect for a festival and hanami! It pissed rain Monday morning and was blah all of yesterday. I met up with Amanda and people for a drink because her brother is in town. When I left, it was pissing rain so I had to buy an umbrella. I considered going back to the Hub to wait for it to stop, but it didn't let up until this morning so it wouldn't have mattered. I haven't been sleeping well lately, and it was a torrential downpour when I tried to sleep around 3am. At 4:30am I was woken up by the sound of leaking. The water must have collected on the roof so much that it was coming in through the exhausted. Rain was dripping through my kitchen exaust fan all over my kitchen. There wasn't anything I could do but put out some pots and stuff to collect the water and throw a towel on the floor and go back to sleep. I'm glad I didn't do the dishes now. It's still raining slightly now, but it's mostly over. Any cherry blossoms that might have survived the rain yesterday are surely gone now. I woke up to jack hammering, and there is no construction around here that I'm aware of so maybe someone already called the landlord. It couldn't just have been my unit that was getting leaky.
I went shopping for some groceries yesterday so I have no reason to leave the house today. My Japanese class starts again tonight, but I think I will go on Friday instead this week. I don't want to go outside at all today. I have videos to watch and I am going to stay in my bed. If I'm feeling particularly frisky, I'll study.
Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. Andrew and I had planned to go to the Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki and tried to get a group to go but everyone except Ben bailed. Typical. It was probably for the best because it was hard enough keeping track of 2 other people in that crowd. What is the Kanamara Matsuri, you ask? The Kanamara Matsuri is the Festival of the Steel Phallus. That's right. It's a PENIS FESTIVAL!
Not exactly, it's an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki every spring. Everywhere you looked there were carvings, pictures, candy, toys made in the shapes of penises (and some vaginas). And when you live in such a male-centric society as Japan, when you're talking about fertility, you're talking about the penis.
The Kanamara Matsuri is centred around the Kanayama Shrine, a local penis-venerating shrine. Legand goes that this shrine was once popular among prostitutes who wanted to pray for protection against STDs. Syphillis was a huge killer in the Edo period. One of the first things we saw there were people carving penises out of daikon.
New Year is looming, its in the air. The biggest holiday in Japan is one day away! It seems like the country is starting to grind to a halt and everyone has gone back to their ancestral hometowns; I went to Minami Senju last night and the train was practically empty. On the other, people are rushing around getting last minute preparations for the New Year. I've been told everything stops for 2-3 days (banks, services, etc) but shops seem to be open for regular business on the 1st. I went out today to run some errands and it was crazy. The grocery store was packed. But, it could also be because its a Sunday afternoon and people are home from work and therefore out shopping.
I inherited a few things from Justin last night because he's been booted out of his Nova apartment in Minami Senju. He's pretty choked up, since its a pretty nice location. It's on the north-east edge of Tokyo; almost in the 'burbs, but still in the city. He's moving temporarily to Warabi in Saitama until he can find a place in the city. I scored a new futon (since mine is growing (more) mold) and a DVD player. I had to switch the region on my laptop to play Japanese DVDs so I was planning to get an external player so I can switch my computer back. It's a pain because you can only change the region 4 times. After the last time, it's stuck that way. I'm quite pleased that I managed to score this little player for free. I went to Bic Camera to get cables for the player on my giant errand trip, and after staring at rack upon rack of cables for thirty minutes, picked one and it turns out the end is wrong. GAH! So I have to go out again tomorrow and exchange it. What a pain. Go figure.
I'm almost done my new year cleaning as well. I'm half-done my laundry, and only have the bathroom left to clean. I had planned to get up early (didn't happen) to air out my futons and get my laundry done and hung up since it was supposed to be sunny. I made a move at noon, and at 12:30 a storm rolled in and started hailing! Since I had so much laundry to do, I'd have had to make two trips anyway, so I did the bulky, heavy stuff today so it could have time to dry. Ironically, by the time I was done at the laundromat the storm passed and the sun was out again. I also got a お正月飾り oshougatsu kazari (New Year decoration) for my door. It's made of pine branches and supposed to welcome good luck to your house for the new year. It's hung until January 7th, but then I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with it.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Seeing as how Christmas is nearly over for me, I should update before my time runs out.
I can't believe I've neglected my blog for such a long time! Things have been both busy and boring at the same time. I was teaching full-time up until last Thursday, and then have been entertaining a house guest until today and celebrating Christmas in pseudo-Japanese fashion.
Things haven't been so fluffy and lovely lately, unfortunately. My culture shock has finally decided to rear its ugly head. I've been slowly setting up my place and getting things organized in terms of utilities and payments and such. I thought I was such a clever bastard for doing the fuikomi (electronic transfer) for December's rent by myself but I laughed too soon. A few weeks ago, I got a call from the rental company (I only presumed) saying that they hadn't recieved my payment. I haven't been so frustrated since I came to Japan; I could understand the gist of what this guy was saying to me, but didn't have the vocabulary and language skills to defend myself and speak to this guy. I proceeded to collapse on the floor after the call and bawl my eyes out. In addition to that, I couldn't pay my phone bill because my bank doesn't pay bills, and I can't get to a bank or post office before they close for the day after work. Things that aren't even major were pissing me off, and still are. As Andrew and Yvonne put it, I have become one of those jaded, bitter gaijin. We have fun gaijin rants quite freqently. Anyway, finally got that sorted and transfered my rent today for December and direct withdrawl will start next month for the month of February. The woman I've been doing all my dealings with is so nice. She sent me a letter today, which I suspect was hand delivered to my mailbox, saying that I have to furikomi my rent this month, with furigana and a crude, handwritten translation in English. Yvonne was there to help me transfer, and I thought that it was only 42,000 yen, but its supposed to be 42,500. I hope they won't be too picky about 5$ and I'll just add it on next time.
I was finally paid for the first time in two months and it's such a relief. Money is still tight, but things are getting back to normal. Work is great and I'm really starting to feel at home. We had our bonenkai (Year End Party) on Friday night at a little restaurant in Kashiwa (a branch of the same place we held Christian's farewell party) followed by karaoke, of course. It was nice to relax and socialize with the teachers, who I don't normally have a chance to talk to at work. I was sat at the same table as the principal, Mr. Iwahara, the music teacher, Ms. Fujiwara, and few other teachers. The table next to us had Mr Nakamura and Ms Imai, two of the English teachers so I had some translators on hand. I also got out my handy mobile phone dictionary but managed to hold my own pretty well in broken Japanese and English. I also had a good conversation with the 1st year PE teacher, who is moving to a high school in Tokyo next school year. Everyone embraced me warmly and I had a great time. I even exchanged numbers with some of the female teachers and we'll go drinking together in the New Year. I was also invited on a ski trip over the February holiday weekend, which I agreed to. Although, I don't know if I will end up going... I can't ski, for one. I don't have the right clothes, secondly. I really wish I had brought my ski jacket now. UGH! Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it. What a pain! Andrew and I are thinking we might go visit Yvonne in Nagoya that weekend, since she's come to see us every month since October.
The day after the bonenkai, Yvonne came to spend Christmas. She helped me do errands and sort out house-related stuff. We shopped, we ate, we ranted, we sang karaoke. Monday was our big Christmas party. Christmas Eve is like Valentines day in Japan, so Yvonne and I rode the train out with couples galore to Odaiba, the big date spot in Tokyo. Andrew and I have been talking about Christmas and our "White Christmas" party for ages, and he actually procured a turkey in Tokyo. I never thought we'd find one, let alone get one, but we did. It was a pain in the ass, and I'm never doing it again. Murphy's law prevailed, of course. Andrew's building has units that have their own kitchens, but in the other building, they don't so there are communal kitchens on each floor that have ovens. So the plan was to break in and use an oven to cook the turkey. Things started off well enough when we timed out entry just right, and got in without having to wait. We got off at the 6th floor, and people were in the kitchen so we went up to 7 and found it empty. We got the bird and stuffing ready and fired up the oven which had probably never been cleaned. Ever. The kitchen was a disaster. I though that the Totem floor lounges were disgusting. Anyway, we got the bird in.. and I went to check it and take out the gizzard and stuff after an hour and found the oven had turned off! First emergency. It took forever to heat back up again since the thing was so tiny and the turkey took up 80% of the space inside. In the meantime, I cooked the potatoes and carrots to heat up in the microwave later. Andrew and Yvonne had to make an emergency grocery run to get ingredients to make pumpkin pie while I held down the fort. A few people came in to cook their lunches and gave me the 3rd degree which made me feel really uncomfortable. I thought one of them might be an RA come to kick me out, but that wasn't the case. Long story short, 5 hours later, the turkey was done. I didn't think we'd pull it off but we did. Dinner was served at 7pm, and we stuffed our faces with good food and drink.
Today, Yvonne and I procured a rice cooker for me and discovered a great Singaporean Hainan chicken restaurant in Shimbashi. It was heavenly. Tasted JUST like jifan (chicken rice) back in Singapore. It is one for the books and I will return many a time before I leave Japan. Sent Yvonne off from Tokyo station and hunted for a book with Andrew throughout Ueno, with no success. We saw people pulling down all the Christmas decorations already and Christmas isn't even officially over yet. Tomorrow, everything will be replaced with New Year decorations and the big push to finish everything before the year ends will begin. I need to clean up my house, settle all my bills, and figure out where I am going to hatsumode on January 1st. Hatsumode is the first visit to the shrine in the new year. There is a big shrine in Kashiwa on the other side of the station but I have a feeling I'm going to get a call from Yoshimi or Mr Nakamura asking me to go with them.
Anyway, I hope you all had a fattening and festive holiday!
It's been a few days since I've updated, but nothing epic has happened. Work has been going well so far. I had my 1 Week observation on Thursday and everything was good. I got some good points about my teaching style and how I can improve my lessons. However, since then I think my lessons have been getting worse! Twice today I ran out of time at the bell. Well, during my last lesson, the guys just were NOT getting the material so I went back to the beginning. They finally started to understand how to give directions in a building "go past ____, go down the hall, turn right, etc) when the bell rang so I couldn't make them practice without looking at the book.
Nicola arrived yesterday and she's really nice. She's a bit older, 27 I think, but that's nice because she's more mature. She and Hannah have been getting along well, but whatever since she's leaving in a few days. Hannah's last shift was yesterday and I think she said she was going to make her way down to Osaka for a bit but doesn't know when. She's really just flying by the seat of her pants. Nicola's from New Zealand and has work in hotels since school so this is the first time she's ever taught before. She's not working in my branch, but at one of Kashiwa's satellite schools called Miraje Kashiwa (everyone just calls it Mirage). That might be nicer so that we actually have something to talk about in case we don't end up hanging out that much. It gets pretty boring when you can't really talk about what happened at work since you were both there.
Abiko had its fireworks festival last night and it was awesome! I wish I had taken some pictures, but I forgot. Andrew, Iruka (Andrew's friend, an assistant professor at Tokyo Univ) and Justin came over and we had a blast watching the show and drinking. Iruka took a bunch of pictures so I'll bug him to send them to me at some point. But really, fireworks are fireworks. It was nice though cuz we could watch them right from our balcony. There was supposed to be a party on the roof hosted by the landlord but I hadn't heard anything official from anyone so we just stayed downstairs. Also laziness played a factor in that. Getting home from work was insane though: there were line ups in Kashiwa station for the ticket machines and it was utter chaos getting off the train in Abiko and trying to get out of the station. I really didn't want to jostle anyone and make them think (even more than they already do, I'm sure) that I'm some stupid, rude foreigner but everyone was pushing so much it was so tempting. Nicola said it took her about 30 minutes to get out of the station around 6:30pm. I had thought about maybe walking down and watching the fireworks at the park by the lake, but after seeing the sea of people I didn't feel like it. I probably had a way better view from my apartment anyway. And I wasn't surrounded by strangers, sitting uncomfortably on the ground.
I worked the early shift today, so I didn't feel like going out to Hannah's going away party last night. I wanted Andrew, Iruka and Justin to come along, but they needed to get trains out of Abiko around midnight so I decided not to go. I was kind of drunk by that point and had work at 10am so I decided to stay home. I'm not super tight with Hannah (obviously) so I don't really feel the need to commemorate her leaving. Except in a really awful, vindictive way that no one should ever know about outside my circle of friends. I am an awful, awful human being.
The weather has finally dipped a little bit. It was actually cool yesterday and tonight is pretty nice too. I'm hoping to get another full nights sleep and get to sleep in as much as I can tomorrow. I'm really excited to meet Aya and Yuka on Tuesday in Asakusa. I haven't seen them since Singapore at least, maybe grade 10 even? It's been quite a few years. I plan to take a load of pictures.
I've been so exhausted today... I'm seriously considering going to bed early. I could probably sleep right now, but its only 8:30pm. I finally have a semi-normal sleep schedule so I don't want to screw that up.
