Indeed.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Aliens in Japan! With Sandals!
I decided to wait to make a video for this week because a lot of stuff was going to happen, plus you got one mid-week last week. Hope you guys don't mind. ^_~ Yeah, didn't think so.
We had a holiday on Monday. I went with some of the people from my training group down to where the one guy in the group lives. Yeah, seven girls, one guy in my training group. Four of seven of us went. Anyway, we met down there (after an hour and a half train ride for me) around noon and it was a good time. I went into the ocean for the first time and it was great, if completely different from anything I've experienced. Ick to salt. There was a barbecue with other teachers and Japanese friends near the beach, and afterwards most of them went to see some fireworks but we decided to take some rinse-off showers so we went back to the guy's apartment, then for dinner. It was a lot of fun but I don't want to spend hours writing the details. Especially since many people won't read if I give all the details... Hmmm, a losing situation in that case, no? So yeah, here's some pics from Chigasaki (the beach, etc).
The beach at Chigasaki. The actual beach was behind the stands, but we went right here and headed to a less crowded area.
Said less-crowded area. Some of the people at the barbecue. The guy in the middle with the arm tats is the guy who lives out there.
The last round of grilling. Well, maybe not last. I forget.
On the way back we saw this weird procession. They were dancing and carrying this shrine to...no idea where. They were screaming and making all kinds of noise. It was awesome. I tried to take a pic with my phone but failed. This turned out a little better.
I didn't take these photos, obviously, but I'll get around to uploading my own eventually. Yes, I've taken a few.
Hopefully everyone's doing well. I'll talk to you later. ^_^
We had a holiday on Monday. I went with some of the people from my training group down to where the one guy in the group lives. Yeah, seven girls, one guy in my training group. Four of seven of us went. Anyway, we met down there (after an hour and a half train ride for me) around noon and it was a good time. I went into the ocean for the first time and it was great, if completely different from anything I've experienced. Ick to salt. There was a barbecue with other teachers and Japanese friends near the beach, and afterwards most of them went to see some fireworks but we decided to take some rinse-off showers so we went back to the guy's apartment, then for dinner. It was a lot of fun but I don't want to spend hours writing the details. Especially since many people won't read if I give all the details... Hmmm, a losing situation in that case, no? So yeah, here's some pics from Chigasaki (the beach, etc).
The beach at Chigasaki. The actual beach was behind the stands, but we went right here and headed to a less crowded area.
On the way back we saw this weird procession. They were dancing and carrying this shrine to...no idea where. They were screaming and making all kinds of noise. It was awesome. I tried to take a pic with my phone but failed. This turned out a little better.
I didn't take these photos, obviously, but I'll get around to uploading my own eventually. Yes, I've taken a few.
Hopefully everyone's doing well. I'll talk to you later. ^_^
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Life.
Out of synch again (damn) but more about life in Japan. I sent an email too, for those who get them. ^_^
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
I'm in Japan.
Got my apartment's internet set up on my puter finally. Heh, guess I can't really say that since I moved in less than 24 hours ago, mu ha ha. But still, it felt like forever. Anyway, I'm set up now. My luggage all made it and was delivered to my apartment; I've started unpacking everything, but I'll finish that later today (it's about 5am right now--I fell asleep watching DVDs and woke up around 2:30...oops). I have two flatmates: a girl from Philly who's been here three months and one from NYC who also arrived yesterday. They seem pretty cool so far. Neither truly speaks Japanese, which could make this interesting. I don't know much else about them so I digress.
The apartment is much bigger and nicer than I expected. Photos will come sometime soonish...I just got here so I haven't done that yet. Once I get my room set up I'll take pics. Looks like there will be another email, haha. But then again maybe I'll just link them when I send the next set. Anyway, as usual, no shoes in the apartment, nice wood floors, crappy lighting and around a 6' door height. We have a balcony that overlooks...the other homes, but it's not a terrible view. I have two windows in my bedroom, both are more internal views of the building. And once my roomies wake up I'll start up unpacking again, but I don't want to wake anyone.
First things first, we had to go meet the leasing agent, which meant we (meaning my flatmate *L* who got here when I did and myself) took an hour train ride on the express train. We caught an earlier train than we expected and were there half an hour early. When the leasing agent showed up, she was pretty young and surprisingly not sure where she was going. Very nice though. I suspect she doesn't go to this property very often. We made a couple stops and got to the apartment around 1pm. My bags had been delivered an hour earlier. Thankfully *K* (other flatmate) was here and accepted them. I chose my room and that was that. We had to have at least one person stick around for a while after signing the paperwork because we had to wait for some deliveries but I walked with *K* to the train station so she could show me the way while *L* was here. It's a 10 minute walk. *win* After I got back we had to be here for a while but eventually got the OK to leave and went to the local city office the next station over to do our Alien Registration. That was an adventure, simply because work didn't give us the addresses written out in Japanese, only in romanized form. Unfortunately, everything that day took so long it was almost the end of the day, so we have to go back tomorrow to pick up our certificated. While there I asked for directions to the nearest kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi) for myself and internet cafe for *L* so she could email her friend (since our attempts at the internet at home failed--we didn't have the password). There's one very close to here. I'm excited. We went there for dinner and I had my fill for a grand total of 600 yen. Granted, I only had 4 plates (8 pieces) of sushi, but they were big and it filled me up. I may go there again for lunch today now that I'm more awake and my eyes won't be glazed over like a moron. We'll see what happens.
Then we walked home and fell asleep, and that's my day. Now I'm sitting around in pyjamas writing this update, although *L* just woke up so I'm going to cut this short so I can help her set up her internet connection. It seriously took me an hour to get set up, but now that I have it figured out it should only take a couple minutes. Woo!
Speaking of updates, here's my first video, which I recorded at the hotel early this morning. There's major synching issues but otherwise it's intact. The camera view is unflattering. Deal with it. ^_~
Hope all is well with everyone and talk to you soon(ish). Cheers!
The apartment is much bigger and nicer than I expected. Photos will come sometime soonish...I just got here so I haven't done that yet. Once I get my room set up I'll take pics. Looks like there will be another email, haha. But then again maybe I'll just link them when I send the next set. Anyway, as usual, no shoes in the apartment, nice wood floors, crappy lighting and around a 6' door height. We have a balcony that overlooks...the other homes, but it's not a terrible view. I have two windows in my bedroom, both are more internal views of the building. And once my roomies wake up I'll start up unpacking again, but I don't want to wake anyone.
First things first, we had to go meet the leasing agent, which meant we (meaning my flatmate *L* who got here when I did and myself) took an hour train ride on the express train. We caught an earlier train than we expected and were there half an hour early. When the leasing agent showed up, she was pretty young and surprisingly not sure where she was going. Very nice though. I suspect she doesn't go to this property very often. We made a couple stops and got to the apartment around 1pm. My bags had been delivered an hour earlier. Thankfully *K* (other flatmate) was here and accepted them. I chose my room and that was that. We had to have at least one person stick around for a while after signing the paperwork because we had to wait for some deliveries but I walked with *K* to the train station so she could show me the way while *L* was here. It's a 10 minute walk. *win* After I got back we had to be here for a while but eventually got the OK to leave and went to the local city office the next station over to do our Alien Registration. That was an adventure, simply because work didn't give us the addresses written out in Japanese, only in romanized form. Unfortunately, everything that day took so long it was almost the end of the day, so we have to go back tomorrow to pick up our certificated. While there I asked for directions to the nearest kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi) for myself and internet cafe for *L* so she could email her friend (since our attempts at the internet at home failed--we didn't have the password). There's one very close to here. I'm excited. We went there for dinner and I had my fill for a grand total of 600 yen. Granted, I only had 4 plates (8 pieces) of sushi, but they were big and it filled me up. I may go there again for lunch today now that I'm more awake and my eyes won't be glazed over like a moron. We'll see what happens.
Then we walked home and fell asleep, and that's my day. Now I'm sitting around in pyjamas writing this update, although *L* just woke up so I'm going to cut this short so I can help her set up her internet connection. It seriously took me an hour to get set up, but now that I have it figured out it should only take a couple minutes. Woo!
Speaking of updates, here's my first video, which I recorded at the hotel early this morning. There's major synching issues but otherwise it's intact. The camera view is unflattering. Deal with it. ^_~
Hope all is well with everyone and talk to you soon(ish). Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)