August 26, 2011
Lesson learned this morning – my bank’s ATM that’s opportunely across the street does not open before I need to be at work. I found that out the hard way. So, I scrambled over to Family Mart (to buy some lunch too) and tried to use the ATM there. It told me my card couldn’t be serviced at the time. I’ve realized that unfortunately, my JTE took me to a not-so-popular bank. There’s not as many ATMs around or, like I discovered today, are not open when I need them to be like the others. In Japanese, I would say 残念 (zannen) which means, “that’s too bad; regrettable” or in my terms…"whomp whomp."
August 29, 2011
It’s another day of work after a busy weekend. I swear, next weekend, I’m going to do nothing but sleep. To start off my fun-filled but exhausting weekend was the Lantern Festival in Kinosaki on Friday. Before that though, I joined some other ALTs as they helped with the people who organized tourism. The ALTs offered their suggestions on making Kinosaki easier for tourists to get around and get the most out of their time in Kinosaki. We met in this woman’s coffee shop and even though I didn’t come for the meeting, I was able to reap the benefits of a free drink. And guys, I think I found my Starbucks equivalent. I got this caramel milk drink that was just impossibly good. I will have to go back there again.
Anyway, we finished up that and went on to enjoy the Lantern Festival. The process went like this: We got a long piece of paper that you could draw on and write wishes and prayers. I drew some pictures that got me very popular with the kids, so that was fun. Next, we took our paper to get stapled together in a square shape and set up on a thin wooden plank with a candle inside the paper square. Finally, we went down to the water, had our lanterns lit and then set free into the river. There were people that collected them all afterwards, so don’t worry about pollution. It was all very beautiful and made me oddly emotional. At one point, the taiko players were drumming and other traditional music was playing as I watched families put their hopes and dreams out onto the river. It was so lovely and just made me fall in love with Japan even more. I’m glad I’m here.
After the festival, we decided to go to Sushiro for dinner. That’s when it got a bit crazy. You see, I had intended on staying the night at Ashley’s house and didn’t know how to drive to Kinosaki, so I left my car at her house. But, the last train to Takeno would be around 10 o’clock – we wouldn’t make it back in time. What we decided was that I would be driven back up to Takeno to get my car and then drive back down to Toyooka to meet people there for dinner and still be able to get back to Takeno with Ashley. I felt bad that we had to jump through all these hoops just because I hadn’t driven to Kinosaki, but I’m pretty nervous about driving new places and new routes still. And I’m especially not comfortable about discovering these things at night. So, with my other ALT buddies Len and Sara, we went up a crazy mountain road to get back to Takeno. Not only was I nervous about being on this super windy road, Len was driving alarmingly fast (it probably only seemed alarming because it was dark…). But we got there safely, I got my car, and I headed back to Toyooka. I met everyone at Sushiro and enjoyed the food. Afterward, we went to Bow Wow - a karaoke place down the street. We met up with some other people there and had a rockin’ good time, as usual. After karaoke, it was time to go back up to Takeno.
I’m not really sure how this happened, but while driving in Toyooka, I accidentally drove through a red light. I’ve never done that before! How did I even do that? Of course, there was a police car sitting at the corner while I did this. Of course. They were even about to turn the opposite direction but they obviously turned around to stop me. I slowly stopped as close to the curb and tried my best not to freak out. Two officers came to my window and said something along the lines of “You went through the signal.” And I apologized. They said something else that wasn’t quite clear until I heard them say something that means “to not pay attention” or in more casual terms, “to zone out.” I quickly repeated that to explain myself and apologized again. I gave them my licenses (international and American) and then they asked for my passport. I had a mild, brief moment of panic because I have it at home but then I remembered I have my alien registration card now. I told them I had that and I gave that to them. They asked me where I lived and I pulled out the little piece of an envelope addressed to me that I kept because I still haven’t memorized my address completely. Or rather, every time I have to write it, I get nervous and decide it would be better to pull it out and copy it than write it wrong because I thought I had it. In the end, they told me to be careful next time because there are a lot of accidents here and to take care getting home. And they sent me on my way – without a ticket!
*insert Hallelujah chorus here*
No ticket! After that moment, I drove as carefully as possible all the way back to Takeno. But oh, the adrenaline rush I had! The rest of the night/early morning was much less dramatic. Ashley, Len, and I spent the night on our computers doing various things, including sharing interesting things via YouTube. Somehow didn’t get to bed until 5:00 AM. I went to sleep on an actual mattress, something I have not felt in a long time and it was quite nice. I spent the morning/early afternoon enjoying the internet access. We finally got ourselves together around 3:00 pm and got ourselves a late…I don’t think you can really call it brunch. Anyway, we ate at Ashley’s and hung out until Alvin (another ALT) arrived. Well, we didn’t actually go anywhere as soon as we arrived - we continued to chat for a bit before Ashley, Alvin and I set forth for Wadayama! Wadayama is about an hour and a half drive from Takeno and we were there to meet some more ALTs for fun. The three of us ate at Sushiro again and was just thoroughly pleased. I’m pretty sure I could eat there forever.
Right next door was our ultimate destination called Da’sh. Yes, really, it’s called Da’sh with the apostrophe in the middle for no reason. It’s an “amusement space” – in other words, it has karaoke, darts, billiards, and a bar. I think that’s about it. And apparently, it was a wedding chapel before. We sang our hearts out for a bit and ended up going home soon after. Less eventful than the night before driving back, which I’m grateful for. I had decided that Sunday, I was going to do absolutely nothing. That was until one of the ALTs, Joshua, asked me to take him to Home Plaza to pay for some furniture he had delivered to his place. I decided to be nice and help him out. I figured it wouldn’t take that long right? Well, one thing led to another: we ended up meeting up with Chi and Ashley for lunch, went to a video game store (I bought Okamiden for only 2100 yen! How sweet is that?), went to Uniqlo (I bought a Harry Potter t-shirt and some slippers!), went to Baskin Robbins (ice cream crepes are the best), went into Co-Op Days (another department store where I found a cute mug with Stitch on it and found a great Engrish notebook), and then finally to Tsutaya (where I made an account so I could rent movies and music!). Yeah, I got back home at seven. Not part of my original plan. Yes, I benefited nicely but boy, am I tired! I may just go to bed at eight o’clock tonight. It’s getting to that point. School starts just a few days from now too so I have to be prepared. I have to be energetic! I can’t be tired! So, as I said in the beginning, I will not do anything this weekend. No parties, no karaoke, no traveling.
p.s. My title is inspired by Tomohisa Yamashita's song "PARTY DON'T STOP feat. DJ DASK" You should all listen to it. I listened to it on my way to school this morning and felt ALIVE (I wish I felt that alive right now...). It also reminds me of my old roomies (because we listened to it all the time) and thus, made me miss them even more! In fact, I've had bits of homesickness all weekend, in little but strong spurts. It was really bad last night as I read about the death of an acquaintance's boyfriend from a car accident. I know this is probably a bad way to think, but all I could think of was how that could happen to anyone. And how much I hope and pray that everyone that I love will be good and well by the time I find myself in America again. I've been reading about the hurricanes and earthquakes on the east coast and am glad that no one has suffered greatly during these. Stay safe Americans. I want to see you again.
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