July 31st and August 1st

GAH!! So much cleaning that I had to do!! And it's all just in the kitchen!! I had to throw a shit load of stuff out because it's ridiculous the amount of disgusting grimy crap that has been passed down from male JET to male JET...I scrubbed everything like crazy!!! Anyways, it's all pretty clean now, but I'm still not done cleaning yet.

So July 31st was the big day and the first day that I went in to "work". I had to make my rounds of seeing all the people who work in the town hall and meet the mayor. So I first met the chairman of the BOE sat down and talked to him for a little bit then moved on to the rest of the first floor then the second, then the third floor to meet the mayor of the town. I was presented a certificate from him and then sat down with him for a long time chatting...It was a little awkward, but interesting.Then we went to the 4th floor and met more people. Majority of them, none of us knew what they actually did..lol Anyways, after all that I sat at my office desk until 12 and then was free to leave and do as I like. Actually during that time a guy from the local newspaper came in and interviewed me. He said I would be in the next issue that comes out. And then he took a picture of me. I hoped I looked okay. He said I was pro at smiling. haha. Afterwards, Su and I went to the ramen shop next to the station and ate the ramen/curry combo. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! Ridiculous good! I need more of that. Ramen in Hokkaido is awesome and the Chashu they use here is fattier and thicker. I loved it!!! Bad for my diet though. So then I biked home and just got to cleaning my freaking apt.

August 1st: Woo for saturday! Su and her mother came to pick me up to take me to Asahikawa which is the second largest city on the island and only 1 hour away from Kenbuchi. Her mother is so cute! I love her as well! She's super nice and patient and was willing to take us all the way to the zoo. The ride there was beautiful! green, green, and green again. Anyways, the zoo was situated on the side of a mountatin, so it was an upwards slope. But the scenery was very beautiful because of that. I think I've now been to a zoo in each country that I've visited. lol It was a lot of fun though and I saw Hedwig! Although it was kinda creepy. I had to buy an soft serve here because I can't get enough of Hokkaido's soft serve ice cream. It's ridiculously good here. Like no other you'll ever taste because the milk here is amazing! Cows here are wonderful! =P As are the sheep. >D

We then took the bus into Asahikawa city and stopped in front of the station. Apparently there was a festival going on in the city, but we stopped to eat at a ramen-ya-san before that. Oh, and I have to tell ya, the boys aren't as hot as the Tokyo boys, but they certainly are nicer here in Hokkaido. So we walked around trying to find the festival to find that there was a parade going on celebrating the Japan (Hokkaido's Asahikawa city)-South Korea (don't know the name of the sister city) friendship treaty. So it was a bunch of people dressed up in traditional Korean wear like han-boks marching down the street. And then, finally, after that, we found the actual Asahikawa festival. Food and good looking guys everywhere. Then we sat on the side to watch people carrying the mikoshi (shrine) down the street and to watch a performance. It consisted of these really high ladders that were held by a bunch of guys at the bottom and one guy would climb up to the top and do little balancing acts. At first it was all fine and dandy until this one youngun decided to balance on one of the ladder poles on his back where majority of his weight was tilted from torso up. I knew that the minute he let his hand go the weight, instead of being balanced, would be transferred all to the torso area in which he fell backwards onto the ground and somewhat hit his head. Everyone screamed when that happened. It was pretty terrifying. The ambulance came at last and took him away and the festivities kind of died down after that. Su and I decided to leave as we didnt' want to get caught up in the crowds flocking to see what happened. On our way to the train station we spotted a Tully's Coffee and I bought a macha latte. It was pretty good. I then headed on the one train that headed back to Kenbuchi. It only comes once every hour and then the later it gets, once every other hour. Yeah, I need a car. It cost me 9 bucks from Asahikawa to Kenbuchi. Anyways, my little train station, btw, has no platform, just grass and rocks. So I was really surprised to just get off and land on grass and rocks. Not like in Tokyo where there's platforms everywhere. But I think I might have met some of my students as they were getting off. They stared at me for a little bit like who is this person getting of at this small stop?. Yeah, I got home called to talk to Collin for a bit and went to sleep afterwards. I was dead tired. So yes, will be posting pictures tomorrow afternoon that's for sure. It'll be on my facebook most likely. Just look there.