All in a day's work. =P AND! I have a cell phone!!

Aug. 14 Friday

So today, Su and I snuck out of work to go play in Shibetsu city. +P I love this woman. We snuck out on the pretext of me going to tell the car dealers what number I want to put on my license plate, which was true by the way. We did that after we came back from Shibetsu. lol So yes, she was like "don't tell anyone" lol. She wanted to be able to just kick back and relax on a day of work one of these days and she said today will be it. lol So me needing to do errands for my car was the perfect excuse for her. We also went to a little festival the michi no eki was having. haha. Secretly sneaking out of work and going to a festival and the next city is pretty awesome. I actually needed to get some more household items that I couldn't get in Kenbuchi. So Su decided to take the company car out. Again, driving was hilarious and dangerous at the same time. She didn't know how to turn on the AC either. I had to help her out several times while she was driving and I haven't even started driving Japanese style yet. I seriously love my supervisor.

Anyways, after 2 hours we returned back to the BOE...lol no one questioned us. Su said if anyone asks it was because I needed to do some extra things and no one would assume anything because I'm the foreigner. LOL At 12 i went home like usual. However, I heard that the player dude came looking for me at around 4pm...Su told me she just said that I had gone home and wondered why he was looking for me and assumed the worst. lol great. Almost done with Goong.

Aug. 15th Saturday

Well, today is ohaka mairi day. So everyone returned back to their respective homes to visit their loved ones' graves. But I had to go get my cell phone today. So Su decided that we should go to Asahikawa since I wanted a soft bank phone. She called up Watanabe-san who is one of the younger people who work in the town hall. He's so sweet and nice. AND! He drives a sexy sportscar as well. What's up with all these guys and having sweet cars! I'm a sucker for hot cars as much as I do not wish to admit it... Seriously, the other day I went to work on my crappy little wonderful bike and saw some Fast and the Furious style cars in the parking lot. Apparently, they're all owned by the young guys who work there and all the girls have cute round box shaped cars. I really want to know the owners of those cars. They were hot. It's weird seeing those kinds of things here in this little town. I'm shocked and pleasantly surprised as this town reveals itself to me little by little.
Anyways, Watanabe-san also looks much cooler in his normal clothes compared to work clothes. I like seeing people in work clothes and then changing into their normal clothes. So much cooler. OLs, however, just look good all the time. lol

So he drove us all the way to Asahikawa and since Su had to go do ohaka mairi Watanabe-san decided to accompany me to go buy a cell phone. Woo! Awesome dude. We first went to DoCoMo to look at the phones, then AU, then Softbank....in the end, I ended up with DoCoMo...Yes, I cracked and bought a $400-something phone...But it's got everything I could possibly need. And it's the newest model and it's one of the cheaper ones. Well...as cheap as a cool white flip phone that comes with a TV, 8.0megapixel camera with flash, gps, internet, and mp3 player can be. XD I quite like it. I actually was thinking about getting the $500 one because it was so much cuter and had these crazy light illuminations on it. But it was one of the more expensive ones and the camera wasn't as good. It just had extra pretty things, like the ligthing and background. I decided to choose cheap and functional over expensive and cute. Mine's still pretty cool looking though. The screen's pretty big too. It took him and I 2 hours to figure everything out and the plan and stuff. Yappari, Softbank plans are cheaper, but their new phones aren't as cool. DoCoMo still has the best looking ones. AU was almost out of all the phones I liked there, which was one....so that was out of the question. In the end I pay about $50-$60 a month up to 2 years and that money includes everything: the plan, the cell phone, internet, mail, insurance. Not too bad. I could've bought a cheaper one, but I was thinking I will be here for 2 years at least so minus well get a phone that I really like. And it works in the states too! ^_^ I'm so thankful to Watanabe-san for helping me. If I did this alone I would not know any of those terms.....

Afterwards we went our separate ways as he needed to go home and I was going to wait until Su was done at 2 to meet her. So I basically just walked around the dept. stores and ate at Lotteria for lunch. Mmm little bacon cheeseburger and a little round fried potato. Not the healthiest, but eating it in Japan still makes it feel healthier than in the states. And the portion was perfect for how small it looked. At 2 I met up with Su, saw a bunch of somewhat hot scraggly guys with camping/traveling/hiking gear or large-ass backpacks walking over towards the station, dumping their stuff on a nearby wall and then walking away.And it had been raining and they didn't have umbrellas. So they were soaked. I didn't think too much about them as they didn't look too well. lol

Su and I took a bus to the Aeon/Jusco mall... I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but i guess a mall would be the closest thing to it. It was ginormous!! My gawd, I have never been in one of these and didn't expect it to be so huge! It had everything! And it was cheap! I know I'm coming here to buy alot of my stuff in the future. Geez, it was seriously amazing. Like a mall, except cleaner and more high class looking. HUGE! My new favorite hangout. And for some reason whenever I talk to Su and whenever I start my sentences with "Actually," she gasps and goes "eh!?" And I laugh and say, "why do you keep doing that everytime I say 'actually'?" She replied "It's because I start thinking of disasterous or weird situations that'll happen around you or have happened around you whenever you start your sentences that way." I just couldn't stop laughing after that and said "Am I such a crazy person that you immediately always jump to weird conclusions when I say 'actually...'?" She just said "I can't help but think that way." She's awesome. >D

At around 5pm at the train station we met back up with Watanabe-san and Satomi who I actually randomly met this morning on the streets as I was walking around...lol small world. And we decided to go eat at a place called Beer Garden! I mean, how awesome is that? BEER GARDEN!! Yes! lol I'm not so much a beer fan so I usually only drink one glass/mug/pint. But lately I've been really liking Japanese beer. It's not bad actually. But I still always just drink one and then order oolong cha after. But the place was on the roof and all the waiters and waitresses were dressed as baseball players from the famous Hokkaido Ham Fighters team. Don't ask me why they're called Ham Fighters...I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Anyways, it was a Genghis Khan place so guess what they have there? LAMB YAKINIKU!! Lamb yakiniku up the wazoo. All different kinds. I love it here! But I'm seriosly getting fat... The view from the roof was amazing as well! Just awesome! But the smell still sticks to your clothes. We sat and gossiped about the town hall people for awhile afterwards to wait out the time for the next train for me to go back home. And then Watanabe-san payed for more than half of the meal! I thought we were all paying seperately, but he payed 5000yen and told us to just 1100yen!! That's crazy! I was like you can't do this! I'll pay you my share! But he was like, no you're a guest here in Asahikawa and we live here, so you don't need to. I can't get over how nice people are here. And then when we went to Lotteria to buy shakes he paid for mine too! NOOOOOO!!!!! I feel bad when people do this for me! Grateful, but bad at the same time! Tooo nice!

Anyways, as we were eating and gossiping Satomi asked if we wanted to go eat ramen later. I was like "WHA!??" We just had lamb Yakinku!!!! Su and Watanabe-san were like 'that's not a bad idea!' I just couldn't understand how they could still eat!? I was stuffed like crazy and was ready to burst! Seriously, "WHAA!???" How do Japanese girls stay so skinny but eat like this? I can't fathom how this works? Fast metabolism? Bulimia? WHAT?! Anyways, as I was sitting near the window drinking my shake I noticed a bunch of hot guys dressed in cool clothes come from somewhere and realized that these were the same guys who had come to dump their hiking/camping gear at the station and who were wet and scraggly! I was like "Damn, they clean up well!" They did not really look the same except for those huge back packs. And it was a shit load of them too. Like I would say 15 people? A nice large group of good looking guys who did some hiking and changed from gruff wild man to hot refined gentleman. Nice.

So as we were talking we brought up more scandals and gossip within the town hall and, like I said, this town of Kenbuchi has more to offer than I ever thought it would. lol So many things going on within the little confines of my townhall. And yet again, I got more warnings from Satomi and Watanabe-san to be careful of the town player. He's seriously bad is what I keep hearing. I asked why is he so bad. Satomi said that all the girls in the town hall have been victims and explained to me all that he does and the processes that all of the girls had gone through. Su even got kissed by him which left a traumatic scar for her as she says...lol Satomi said that he will constantly come visit you and try to get your number and when he does, will send countless messages to you etc. He will also try to come over to your house. She told me that if he ever asks just tell him I don't have a cell phone yet. And to never be in an area where there's no one around because he'll take that chance. Hmm...I've already been kinda weary from him, but now I'll be super careful and paranoid when he's around. >.<

The three of them waited with me for 2 hours until my train came! They're soo great and amazing!! I had fun chatting with them about random crap and gossiping about life in Kenbuchi. Well, I mostly stayed quiet and just listened, only saying a few words in some things and gasping and laughing at others. Tonight was a good night. Now I have to pack up stuff for the Sapporo Orientation tomorrow through the 19th. So I might not have time to post anything up during those days, but I'll make mental notes of anything amazing that happens.

otsukare!

Oh, fyi, my cell number is: 090-2697-1987
My address in Japan in case anybody wants it is:
北海道上川郡剣淵町仲町4番２－1号
Nakamachi 4-2-1, Kenbuchi-cho, Kamigawagun, Hokkaido 098-0338.