Awkward Situations...

Aug.5 Wednesday

AH!! I saw half naked little things when I visited the nursery today getting ready to go play in the little blow up pool. It`s adorable! They all have little swimming underwear on that have their names written on their butts and have swim caps. Some of the more genkier kids said hello to me when I came over to help them put on their sandals. XD I couldn`t resist going over to them. They were like "...Who is this creepy chick who keeps grinning and staring at us?" lol I ｌｏｖｅ little things too much I think. Heheh. I can`t wait to teach them and play with them >D.

Today some guy came in to invite me and Su to go play badminton with them at the gym. It`s supposedly all the younger people from the second floor and some others. Even though I was kinda tired, I still said yes, because it`s a good chance to get to know people. And being in a town where everyone will know who you are it`s best to be friendly with everyone. At the gym the elementary volleyball team was having their practice so Su and I waited on the side. One of the mothers noticed me and came over to talk to me. Because I look asian and am female （the other JETs were all male) she didn`t expect me to be the new ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). She was shocked but then told her daughter when they were done practicing. The little girl looked at me and was like: "What!? Really? It`s a girl! Wow, we haven`t had a girl ALT!" And she spread the word to all the other students. They all looked at me in shock and surprise. I hope they were pleasantly surprised to know that their ALT this time is a chick. Cuz I heard a lot of them say よかったね！ So I`m going to take it as a good thing. I tried to talk to some of them in English, but they were like わからない。So I just decided to try to learn their names which failed because I could only remember Natsu. lol

Anyways, I met some new people coming in to play Badminton with us and some of the people from the young people welcome party. Mago-chan and Tama-chan were there so I felt comfortable. And then I met the cutest girl! Her name is Uno-san and she works in the Health Center. She was an adorable Japanese girl. Not gyaru, but a little close to it. Except super cute!! I might develop a lil crush on her she was so cute. =P So I was playing my A game out there and then I noticed 3 people come in. Two were middle aged and one a younger male who looked like he could be a host. He was pretty good looking. I learned from Su that these people all worked at the supermarket. Hmmm....well I`ll be sure to visit that market quite often. Anyways, he came in and I got totally distracted. I kept missing the bird and lost a couple of times. lol Damnit men. >.< I didn`t even know we had guys like that in my town. I thought the only young hawt guys were going to be my high school boys. lol Which would be jailbait for me. And I would be a cougar. on several occasions I did think that I would become one. And that`s just depressing and terrible. lol

Afterwards, Su, Mago-chan, and I went to Yamamoto-tei which is an izakaya to eat dinner. I swear, everywhere I go I cant escape the town hall peoples. They`re everywhere here. And they`re constantly at izakayas. lol Man town hall peoples drink a lot. Oh the chef there was a young guy who was decent looking. I think all the young hotter guys work at supermarkets and restaurants and stuff. There, one of the local gov`t officials came over to talk to me. In town he`s on par with the mayor because he works as A correspondent for the Hokkaido area gov`t. Or that`s what I think they were trying to explain to me. =P Then other town hall people were there whom I have not yet met, so I introduced myself and they invited me to go to their festival that they`re having. I`ve been getting constant invites to festivals and events. It`s cool, but tiring. Fun, but tiring day.

Aug. 6: Awkward situations
So I come in to the office and the first thing I see is the local newspaper on my desk. Local as in this town and surrounding cities. And on the front page there is a little section that has my picture on it and my name. It was a section devoted to explaining about me and me being the new ALT. Once I scan it or take a picture of it, I`ll post it. It`s pretty cool. Actually everyone in the office was talking about it Ａｎｄ Su said that everyone will now know who Iam. And it`s true!!! I went out on errands with Su and I started getting stares from everyone around me. Those passing by in cars stare at me for the longest time before they look back to the road. When I went into the car shop to look for a car to buy, Su tried to introduce me, but the lady there was like "Oh, yes, I know her! I read the newspaper this morning when I was in Shibetsu (neigboring city)." O.O Wow...

And also Ayako, who is the shrine priestesses daughter who I`ve become really good friends with, pulled me aside to talk with her in the locker room about helping her with her English conversation skills cuz she still wants to continue learning. I was more than happy to be able to help this refined and regal girl. She carries herself beautifully. And she`s the epitome of a wonderful Japanese woman. Fitting for a shrine priestess in training. Just think of those great mikos you see in anime and stuff and that`s basically her.

Anyways, that evening was the BOE enkai. BOE people are really crazy at parties! lol They even described themselves as being like a zoo. lol I felt pretty comfortable with these people as I`m with them everyday. So I thought it would be awesome. Well, it still was pretty awesome, but... Before all that weird stuff happens I`ll explain the plesantries. The man who organized this event found out that I LOVE uni and ordered an extra set of 5 uni sushi just for me to eat!! Uni is freakin expensive but he still ordered it all for me!! I was so touched! I was full beyond belief, but I couldn`t be rude and not eat it all. And then they ordered these giant bowls of ramen. I mean they were GIANT!! I took pictures. SO FREAKIN HUGE!!!

I sat next to the chairman in the seat of honor. He was so sweet and nice to me and during work he would always come over to my desk and give me sweets and stuff. It`s really cute actually cuz he`ll walk around making sure everyone`s happy and doing well and whenever he gets an extra thing of chocolates or mochi or whatever, he`ll secretly shuffle over to me and put it on my desk. lol Such a cute old man. He was telling me that I should go over to visit his house sometime, because its only his wife and him. Both his children are married and in different cities now. So he would like to have some company. He treats me like his daughter. AND he called me 美人。～o～　I think I will give him my little bottle of wine that I brought as a souvenir. All the other older men also Ｔｒｅａｔ me like their daughter because I`m so young I think. But I love all the elderly people who work here. However, they keep trying to set me up with all the younger guys who work here. These points are when I pretend I know no Japanese whatsoever. all the older men know that i dont have a bf, so they were like " Find one in Kenbuchi and get married here, but not until after 30." lol This was pretty awkward because this went on for like a good hour. I just pretended not to understand what they were saying and just say that all the guys here are really cool. I know that they were all probably drunk and just having a good time, but it was still awkward for me and the other younger guys around me. I even heard my boss say to one of the boys "If you date the ALT and people see you with her it`s pretty prestigious." LOL Hmm...maybe I`ll use that to my advantage with the hot guys who work in restaurants and supermarkets. >D Nah, I`m too intimidated by good looking men and I black out near them. So that wouldn`t work. lol

So then here`s the really really awkward situation, hence my title. The weirder and more perverted guy of the BOE started drinking alot and getting drunk. And he came over to sit next to me. And....he started to get a little touchy feely. Yes...I had known that these situations happened all the time during these enkais and knew the best way to handle them, but when it actually came to it, I wasn`t sure what to do. I did pull away and tell Su that I felt a little uncomfortable and kept getting up to go to the restroom. But he would still keep caressing my hands and everything....And Su and the other girls did tell him to stop doing it, but they said it more playfully than I would have liked. Some other men who were drunk would also come and sidle up beside me, but not too much problems with that. I know that this is all just a one time thing and they won`t talk about this at work the next day or most likely forget everything, but it was still a little awkward during the time. Hopefully, this doesn`t happen again.

~Actually, nevermind, they just started talking about it in the office. Okay I`ll just be really into writing this blog. I`m doing this all at work btw, because I have nothing to do right now. Weird, the timing. ~

So anyways, we went to a second place to drink and sing karaoke as that is usually the custom here in Japan. You always go to a second place. So there I sat in between the younger guy and Su and more awkward comments ensued. More uncomfortable moments with the perverted guy happened too. they keep asking me how I felt about the younger dude, and asked him about it too. It ended up being REALLY awkward and uncomfortable for the both of us. So I was really glad to be able to leave. '-_-

Right now at the office, there`s still a little bit of awkwardness between me and the younger guy. We dont really look at each other and we kinda avoid one another...lol Great, 2 weeks I`ve been here and already awkward weird situations have happened. >.< I was hoping to develop a good friendly relationship with him and borrow his Bleach mangas too, since he has the entire series to date!

Thanks for reading all this up to now and otsukare for doing so! It`s all really long, so thanks for holding on. And I just found out that one of the old guys in my BOE had gone outside during work to help fix the chain on my bike. I didn`t even know what he was saying until a couple minutes later and just had a delayed thanking moment. lol SO NICE!!! BOE, you rock!