F-ing awesome weekend!!!!

November 21-23 Saturday-Monday

Yes for long three day weekend and thanksgiving!!! We don`t really have a thanksgiving feast or anything, just the day off which is on monday. So one of the Asahikawa ALT`s invited a couple of us ALTs in Hokkaido to go over for a mini get-together. And originally Collin and I were going to go on a road trip over to Lake Akan this weekend to see the marimo (balls of algae that Hokkaido is famous for and therefore the mascot is marimokko= the humanized algae ball with an erection.....), but because of the weather, we decided it would be best to just head over to Asahikawa and hang there. So Collin drove down on Saturday to my town and got here about 6pm and we went to go eat at Ibushiya. We then caught the train over to Nagayama and got there about 9:30pm and walked in the snow to the Alan`s (one of the Asahikawa ALTs) apartment, which was super big!!!! It had three spare rooms, a living room, a super huge bathroom/washroom, and a kitchen. I was like "WHAA??!! IT`S HUGE! compared to mine." And we have deduced that I have the smallest apt, but apparently a very homey feeling one. Yay. I try with the decor.

So when we got there Erika (the Noboribetsu ALT) was already there. It`s been awhile since I`ve seen her so was quite glad. Since it was already quite late by the time we arrived, and we were still waiting for Steph, we decided to just chill at the apt. and drink. So two of us headed out to buy alcohol while we waited for Steph to come. And we bought quite a lot of stuff! In fact we bought enough that we couldn`t drink all of it. After Steph came and we busted open the drinks we sat and talked with alcohol for a while. Actually, until 5am. Well, Erika fell asleep first and I was being lulled away by the kotatsu, but was in a mode of pseudo sleep as I would occasionally respond to whatever the others were saying while partially asleep. But I don`t know why we stayed up until 5am as the next day we were supposed to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. lol

SoI woke up at 8am to take a shower which was super early after sleeping so late!! >.< But if we wanted to head over there before the zoo closed we had to get up. Though Steph did comment "Why are we up?". lol We got up, Collin went go buy materials for breakfast (Thanks Collin!) We had yummy scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. It`s been awhile since I`ve eaten western style full breakfast. It was nice. And all the English we spoke...man, it`s been a super long time since I`ve spoken that much English. Seriously. lol But I felt my English level falling. haha. So we all got ready and left for the train to Asahikawa where we then caught the bus to the zoo.

On the bus, these three guys got on and one of them was SUPER HOT!! Like, he wasn`t gyaru-o style or host club boy style which are good for looking, but not really bf material or great personalities. But this guy was sort of Asian hip hop style with his black and white jersey and his pants almost falling below his butt (not exactly the pants style that I like but...), his hair was styled very nicely, his face was amazing because it was a very masculine shape and he had kind of a little bit of a shadow on his face and he looked like a serious nice guy, and his hands were nice. =P I couldn`t stop looking at him cuz he was just so hot and kept reminding the rest of the ALTs on the bus with me that too. haha. And he got off at the zoo stop also! lol He was going with his 2 guy friends. I just couldn`t stop staring longingly after him. And the rest of the ALTs were like, you should totally go and talk to him. They kept trying to push me towards him, but I couldn`t as I thought it would be awkward because I look to Asian to just randomly go up to a Japanese guy and talk. If I were foreign looking, then it would be no problem. But since I blend in, it`s a little difficult. eheh.

So I wanted to take a picture of all of us standing in front of the Asahiyama Zoo sign and was going to ask a random person when I saw the hot dude with his friends trying to take a picture too. Collin told me I should go ask them if they wanted help and I couldn`t because I was too nervous, so Collin did it for me. And then afterwards the hot guy was like alright, let`s change places now and took my camera from me to take a picture of all of us. I was secretly very happy. Haha.

Majority of the animals were not out at all because it was f-ing cold outside. But we saw all of the winter animals and then the big flat faced bored looking orangutan. We then went to the petting zoo area and got to pet a collie and a sheepdog!! I was soo happy! It`s been so long since I`ve been able to pet a dog and I miss it. I miss fat Bobby and Kin-chan (my Taiwan uncle`s fat Shi-tzu and Japanese Golden Retriever). But I`ll get to see them next month when I head over there and get fatter eating the food..I`ll start looking like Bobby then... So then we tried to pet some ducks but were afraid they were going to bite us, and then we went in to see the Guinea Pig farm....now that was strange. There were so many guinea pigs!! And a chinchilla. I got to hold a guinea pig. It kept my lap warm cuz I was so cold. haha. I kinda want one, but unfortunately, of all the animals, guinea pigs are not really kept as pets here. But you can keep a prairie dog and flying squirrel! lol

We pretty much stayed until the zoo kicked us out and we were the second to last people in the place. =P Collin left to go spend the evening with his friend`s family and the rest of us headed back to Asahikawa city for chilling and foods. We found an awesome store for Halloween costumes or just weird gag stuffs and then took some purikura. Yay! Then I discovered the location of "Hoang Tam Asian Cafe". I had seen the restaurant in magazines cuz it was so pretty looking and well designed that I was like, dude, let`s go guys. And the decor was awesome! It`s supposed to be like southeast Asia style. Mainly, Thai and Vietnamese style as that was the majority of the foods they served there. The bar was awesome though! THey`re drinks were so tasty and good! I got this drink called Blue Bell Heaven. It was beautiful and tasty! The food however took forever to come out and came out one by one. They only had 2 chefs in the back. Seriously, they need to hire more chefs or be super fast or make the restaurant smaller. We got in at 6 and didn`t get all our food until 7 so didn`t leaved until 8pm. It would never fly in the US.

Afterwards, we decided to go to a bar and have nomihoudai which is all you can drink alcohol. Whoo! We went to this awesome bar that Alan recommended called Zero. The decor was cool and there were 200 drinks to choose from. 1,880yen for all you can drink for 2 hours. Awesome. Although, the service there could`ve been a little better. The girls were gyarus and when they respond to your order they say "haaii~" instead of "kashikomarimashita" and their attitude needs a little work. But, hey, they`re gyarus, what do you expect? The guys, however, were super great and provided excellent service. Wow, what would I do when I go back to the states with crappy service? lol

So after getting loaded up on alcohol we went to Shidax Karaoke at 12am and sang our hearts out until 3am. Whereupon one of the girls got sick and spent a bit in the bathroom before we decided to go home. I was amazed at how well she held herself until we got back to Alan`s apt. So we got back at 4am and then went to sleep. I was gonna get up early the next day to head to AEON for Taco shells for teaching my 3rd year high school class how to make tacos on Tuesday, but luckily, Alan had some so I was just gonna use his, even though they were a little stale. And then I found out that we`re not doing tacos until 2 weeks later....Well, that had me worry for nothing.

Anyways, that morning I woke up, went to Asahikawa with Steph, sent off Steph back to her place, and met up with Collin for shopping. They had the cutest Christmas cards at Loft. I missed Loft, I love the place,but it`s a little pricey. I have to figure out what I`m sending back home to the states for friends and family. We then headed back to Kenbuchi where Collin then went back to Sarufutsu. I feel like I`m getting sick again because just when I thought I was cured, I go out and spend whole evenings with barely any sleep drinking....lol So yes, I`m sick, again.

November 26 Thursday

So I went to play badminton this evening at the B&G gym which is our local gym. Oh, btw, it`s one of our town`s activities for the townspeople where you can play ping pong or badminton on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So most of my elementary boys do ping pong along with some middle schoolers. I always see them there and one of my high school boys does badminton. On the occasion Hiroya (elementary 6th grade) is there too. Today both my badminton kids asked me if I was going tonight. And I said yes and they were happy. Yay! lol When I entered the gym, all the lil kids who were busy playing badminton saw me, stopped what they were doing, and were like "oh! It`s Theresa! HELLO!" And they all had smiling faces on. I felt popular and loved and I love my children very much too. That`s one of the greatest feelings of this job is the fact that your children appreciate and love what you do for them and being able to love your students too. I`ve grown attached to this lil town`s babies. They`re so precious to me they`re like my own children. ehehe. I attach myself to my job too much. Today was special at the badminton courts. 3 boys from each school came and were playing together on one court. One from elementary, middle, and high school. They were all my students. When they saw me they had the same big smile on their faces with their "Hello Theresa!" I was so glad to see them. Although, Hiroya is sometimes a hit or miss because he tries to act adult-like sometimes and I`m too playful with him...eheh.

After playing and saying goodbye to Nemoto-san`s cute little daughter who I will see at the elementary 1st grade next year I drove Su home with me. Su was like "You really love the students, dont` you?" I replied "Yes, I really really love all of them", to which she said "Yeah, I can tell. You love them and they love you too, judging from their reactions with you". Yokatta. I`m glad for that. In this town, my students are the most important thing to me. And if they`re happy learning and loving English, then it makes me the happiest person right now. Yay Kenbuchi babies! Mass love to you all!

Otsukaresama for reading all! Pictures will for sure be up. Although it will be old because there are pics from way back. Love ya all!