すし パーティー! (Sushi Party!)

After waking up Monday morning to find a balloon animal in my purse, I was hoping to have a relaxing week at work...

What the hell did I do this week? Wednesday, all but two of my classes were canceled due to typhoon #15 (that shit was hectic..more on that later). Thursday, I walked around my neighborhood, slipping flyers for our Autumn campaign into people's mailboxes (which I found out is illegal in the U.S.--thanks for the info, dad). And, we got Friday off to observe the emperor's brother's son's uncle's mom's birthday, or something. I may not have done much, but this week felt like forever.

The typhoon was insane. It was raining lightly when I decided to leave for work Wednesday morning, but somehow in my five minute walk to work the sky dumped a bucket on Shizuoka, leaving me in my Target look-a-like uniform (who decided khakis and red polos are appropriate work attire?..it's awful), drenched. Moments after my manager had informed me all classes were canceled until 6:30, she came back to tell me one of my babies showed up. That's safe. I spent the rest of the day watching the wind blow furiously outside and the rain pounding angrily against the window at a slant. I tried to take a video.

On my walk on Thursday through my neighborhood, I came across these cute little straw huts. Turns out they're historical ruins...Toro ruins (登呂 遺跡  Toe-ro ee-seh-ki) to be exact. I'm no historian, but I am web savvy enough to provide you with a website to provide you with more information about these ruins (http://web-japan.org/atlas/historical/his10.html). I can, however, provide you with a couple pictures I took.

So on Friday, my coworkers and I decided to get together at my apartment for a sushi party! Apparently sushi making is not a past time of ALL Japanese people. We had a contest to see whose roll was the best, but now that I think about it, we never actually voted. They're too nice to say that anyone's actually sucked. I'm going to say it. Mine was pretty good. It was great getting to know my coworkers outside of our working environment. I hope we can make this a monthly thing. :-) I'm looking forward to a fun weekend! Well, until next time! またね!

seaweed, avocado, and kimchi. Not bad...

I didn't get the memo this was the serious one...

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New Vocabulary:

~いただきます  ee-tah-dah-ki-mah-su   Let's eat!

~お箸   oh-ha-she     chopsticks

~写真   sha-sheen     picture

~やった!  ya-tah      I did it!

That doesn't make much sense...

I appreciate this country and all that it has to offer, but sometimes things just don't make sense. I've put together a little list of things that I find very strange. As I accumulate more, I will add them on a different post, but here is what I have come up with thus far....

1. The heat and humidity
2. Wearing suits when I have to sit on the floor and roll around and play with babies
3. Nothing opens until 10am
4. Sleeping on the floor
5. Television shows are mostly talk shows with TV personalities and singers doing stupid shit and eating. Food is most likely always involved
6. The last bus from the train station to my house is at 9:37pm
7. My toilet is in its own room on the opposite side of my apartment from my sink and shower.
8. I don’t have a real trash bin near my apartment and I have to walk down the block to drop off my trash for pick up.
9. 7-11s are cleaner and better stocked, but have no Slurpee machine
10. Super old people can ride bikes, but I can’t
11. I hang my clothes outside..there is no option for a dryer
12. My microwave is also a toaster and an oven
13. Vending machines are everywhere on the streets and sell drinks..cigarettes..beer…
14. Commercials
15. Five year old girls wear high heels on a regular basis
16. People don’t wait on you at restaurants..you have to call the waitress or waiter over
17. Their bread is only white and cut in extremely large slices
18. Paying your bills at the convenience store
19. They think the stop lights are red, yellow, and blue. Not green. It’s clearly green. 
20. They don't eat or drink on the run. No Starbucks to go...

Until next time! またね!

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New Vocabulary:

~ゴミの日   go-me-no-hi   trash day

~ちょっと変   cho-to-hen    a bit odd

~すみません   su-me-mah-sen    excuse me! (how to get the waitress' attention)

~信号   sheen-go     traffic light

~スタバ    su-tah-bah      Starbucks

Working...working...I work a lot...

It's now been five weeks since I got back from my mini vacation and started working by myself. I feel like I've been here forever though. My manager has even forgotten that I've only been here a short time. She commented on how comfortable I am and that most new NETs (native English teachers) are still unsure of what they're doing at this point. I still am unsure, but I just go with it.
For some exciting news....
At the beginning of September, school was canceled on Saturday because of a typhoon that was approaching and they made us come in on Sunday to make up Saturday's classes...which is when the typhoon hit. It wasn't bad here..just A LOT of rain. This typhoon made me realize two things: 1) how much I really hate rain and 2) how much I really need two consecutive days off in a row.
Work is going well..I just work a lot and feel extremely tired all the time. Being super excited about everything and speaking English to people who don't understand you for ten hours is very exhausting. But my coworkers are all very nice and my manager is too, so I can't complain too much.
I've taught a couple of my student's parents, just as a trial lesson in hopes that they will sign up for regular lessons. I think they went really well and I hope that they are practicing what I taught them at home. I taught them things like "When will you study?", "What do you want to eat?" One mom wanted to know if my mom used these phrases with me. I explained to her that yes, she did, but it wasn't in a well thought out, complete sentence. It's more of an angry command, "Go to bed!" "Brush your teeth!", "Eat your vegetables!" kind of thing. The mom just laughed and said, teach me angry instead.
I get next Friday off! Super excited..except there's another typhoon on its way...#15..I'm confused what happened to 13 and 14 since the first one I experienced was #12. Whatever. Until next time! またね!
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New Vocabulary:
~大雨  oh-ah-meh    heavy rain
~なるほど  nah-ru-ho-doh      I see...(understand) 

Atami--熱海

September 12, 2011

I went to Numazu this weekend..again! Mary, Valerie, and I decided to take a day trip to Atami. It's super close to Numzau..like a 20 minute train ride, just on the other side of the Izu Peninsula. I had to Google it to find it..you can too. Support my friend's job so she can come visit! Anyway...It is SO beautiful!! We walked down to the water and walked along the dirty beach. It was a gorgeous day! We ate shaved ice at this cute little place called Rice Ball, but they didn't even serve rice balls. It should have been called Ice Balls. (bad joke...)
We could see the Atami Castle from the beach and after wandering around for what felt like hours, we found the only way to get up to it is on the rope way. As shaky and scary as that little people mover was, the view from the top was amazing. I made a video of us going up the rope way, but it won't upload.

Also at the top of this mountain is the Adult Museum called Hihokan. It doesn't translate to anything that I have found, but it's a sex museum. That's cool. A sex museum next to the historical castle. We had to walk through the sex museum to get to the castle. If that's the only way to get to the castle..they need an alternate route. We walked in, got stared at by all the strange men in there, especially after my reaction to seeing the giant turtle statue with a penis for a head. Good times. 

We had a great time in this little town and can't wait to go back! It's famous for 温泉 (oh-n-sen) which are Hot Springs. I'd love to go to one, but you gotta be naked and I don't know if I'm ready to show my whole American self yet. I don't want to make anyone jealous. I will before I leave for sure! Well..until next time!!またね!

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New Vocabulary:
~かき氷  kah-ki-gory    shaved ice
~裸  hah-da-kah  naked

NUMAZU!

August 29, 2011

I am so happy that Mary from my training group lives so close to me. She's just a 53 minute local train ride away and it's so easy to get to her and her super nice co-net, Valerie. They came to visit Shizuoka last weekend and we had a great time, even though it never stopped raining! We ate Subway and Starbucks and walked around exploring new parts of Shizuoka that we all hadn't seen. 

A shrine..don't know what it's called

A park..nothing like Lindberg

It says: even cute animals poop..pick it up.

Firetrucks!! Where the firemen at??

The following weekend I went out to Numazu to visit them. I went there straight after work on Saturday and witness a really drunk businessman try to get on the train with his like 90 year old friend helping him. I'm also sure that he is the one who puked on the train that night. After running back and forth through the Numazu station looking for Mary, we finally met up and ended up eating dinner at McDonalds because it was close and we were starving. Not to mention it's like Valerie's favorite meal ever. We met up with some of their friends at a local bar and played cards. The next day we got yakisoba and wandered around Numazu and met up with everyone at a park by the water. The picnic was whatever, so we eventually ditched everyone to go sit by the water and stare at the dirty, polluted beach. On the way home, we stopped at this restaurant where you order with a pen. You rub the pen on the item that you want on the menu and it sends your order to the kitchen! It's amazing and the best part is...everything is 280¥! The only bad thing was, I accidentally ordered what I thought was just little pieces of fried chicken..and while it was..there was also cartilage in it. That damn stuff keeps coming up everywhere. Gross.

The next day before I left, we found a little Mexican-like place, but it wasn't just Mexican. In fact, the only Mexican-like food on their menu were tacos and enchiladas. Everything else was curry from different countries. The restaurant was small and run by this little old lady. We concluded that she must have gone to these different countries, learned how to make one or two things and decided she was going to open a restaurant. She should have stuck to traveling. It was edible, but not great. I had a great time in Numazu. Can't wait for my next trip!! Until Next time! またね!

This is how we play cards..

They believe in DIY cooking here...

軟骨= don't order again

tacos...burritos...what's comin' out your speedo?

enchiladas...I think...

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New Vocabulary:

~サラリーマン  sah-rah-ri--man       Salary man or business man

~軟骨   nan-ko-tsu               Cartilage