OMG SNOW!!!! And my car battery died while I was an hour away from home...

October 31st HALLOWEEN!!!!

So today is Halloween right? But rememeber, there is no such official day like that in Japan. So instead, for my town, today is the town`s cultural festival. Or specifically the old people`s culture festival. It was a small little thing held at the town hall with a gallery displaying all the works of the elderly in this town. The work was amazing!! I have to say, old people really do have a lot of time on their hands. So much that they perfect their hobbies of artwork and calligraphy. It reminded me of my grandma because she`s the same way. Old people don`t have alot to do during the days so they go to art classes and stuff. I loved the gallery. I really really wanted to learn all these things that the grandpa/mas do but, sadly, I don`t have the time. After the gallery I went to go eat some free soba that some of the grandpas were making. They asked if I wanted to make it too and I did. Except that Su was in front of me making it so I had to wait as there was only one table for this thing. ANd i was kinda on a time constraint. I had to get back home to get ready to leave for Asahikawa and the Halloween party tonight. So I couldn`t make the sobas. Sadness. ;=; But after Su was done making her portion she brought alot of it over for me with sauce. Hurrah! I also bought some deep fried curry flavored potatoes called "Curry Balls". Yes. lol

Anyways, I went back home to get myself ready for the party tonight and discovered I don`t have a costume!! So I decided to just wear a nice black top and jeans. Hiraga-san came to pick me up at 5pm and I discovered that she lives right behind me! We both didn`t know that we lived so close to each other. So from now on when she goes to the local bar, which they call "snack"s here if they include Karoake...i think, she will call me up and we will go drinking! lol I normally don`t talk to her at the high school because she always seems super busy. But now that I`ve talked to her she is awesome! I like her alot! haha. ^^ So we talked the whole way to Asahikawa. When we got there we parked at the station and walked along Kaimono doori to meet up with her ALT friend from Kitami city who invited us to the party. He apparently knew about it from before and he has friends who are going to the party. Hiraga-sensei used to work with him at her previous high school. He`s from England and super tall, and so were his two other friends who were both from the states. Well, everyone`s taller than me, except for my elementary students. lol The street was freaking cold though! And I saw so many girls/gyarus wearing short shorts or skirts and heels or boots and was like "AREN`T YOU LADIES COLD!!?" Yes, they were, but they choose sexy fashion over protection....sure. But I have to admit, I like that fashion style alot and would wear it if I could. Just maybe not in this cold.

We decided to go to someplace to eat before the party which started at 9pm. So we walked all over the place in the freakin cold until we found an izakaya to eat at. Oh, and one of the guys` costume was a girl`s seifuku/school uniform so he was wearing a skirt and looked pretty cold. The Japanese people were staring at him as we walked around because of his costume. lol haha. After the izakaya we decided to head to a nearby place for more drinks. So we headed in to a British Pub named "Bank of America"....something`s wrong here.....LOL But it had a bar and a TV showing the baseball game and felt like a foreign pub, except for the fact that the bartenders were Japanese. The girl bartenders were pretty cute though. So I drank this cocktail named Blue`s Blue which had grapefruit and blueberry juice/alcohol in it. And around 9pm we headed to Club Den which was where the party was held. This club/bar area is owned and operated by foreigners. most of them all work here as ALT`s or for companies and stuff around here. It was a small place, but had a good foreign atmosphere to it.

But here`s the problem. I did meet a couple of the other foreigners around here, but for some reason, I couldn`t talk to them as well as I used to back in the states. I remember myself being super social and being able to hold conversations with alot of people. And people who know me can hopefully attest to that. I did say hi and try to talk to them, but I think it might be partially because lately I haven`t been in contact with much other foreign peoples and then I`ve been kind of isolated in my lil place, and the fact that most of these people already knew each other was a bit of a problem. Hiraga-san knew no one at the party aside from me and the Kitami ALT, so I decided to stay with her otherwise she would be alone and left out. So I ended up sitting with a bunch of Japanese people and actually holding a decent conversatino with the Japanese peoples. Me and 2 Japanese girls became quite good friends and decided to exchange phone numbers and emails so that we can hang out and stuff. One of them`s a nurse and the otherone used to live in Kenbuchi. haha. So I don`t know if it`s sad or not or if it`s a good thing or not, but I was able to have a better conversation and connection with the Japanese people then with the foreigners. I felt bad for a little bit that I wasn`t able to talk or connect much with the other foreigners aside from the three I had dinner with, but then quickly got over it because I was able to make new friends anyways. It`s fine. I think.

At around 11pm we decided to leave because Hiraga-san was driving and I don`t think she was having too much fun at the party, so I didn`t mind leaving. When we got outside it was snowing for REALS!! I was like "WWWWAAAAAAAAHhHHHH" I got so excited and happy. And it didn`t help that I was a little buzzed from the all you can drink bar at the party. I drank quite a lot. And they give you generous amounts. So on the way home I was really animated and talked to Hiraga-san alot, although I don`t remember what I talked to her about. lol When I got to my apt, the place was covered in snow!! I was like woah and in my buzzed status wobbled over to the door and tried to put the key into the lock for like 2 minutes. haha. Either my hands were super cold or I was just super buzzed. =P Haha. And I conked out.

November 1st Sunday

It`s so damn bright outside because it`s all covered in white!! Everything was white! And super beautiful!! Just wonderous! I was like wow, winter wonderland! I couldn`t believe it! So in the morning I put on my winter clothes and went outside to play in the snow by myself....lol XD I made botched lobatomy snowmen and buttprints in the snow. Haha. I also made snowballs and threw them at my apt or tried to see how far they would sink when i threw them in the snow. I think if you were watching me, you would`ve probably thought it sad. lol I bet the neighbors were like, wtf is she doing? =P So then I decided to trudge my way through the soft powder snow over to Su`s apt. Oh my feet sank to the ground almost 1ft. And I at first couldn`t open my door because there was so much snow piled outside my apt. lol But I had so much fun just walking in the snow. I felt like a lil kid again. haha. I went over to Su`s apt, rang her doorbell, just to tell her it was snowing. haha. And she laughed and thought it funny. I sat over at her place for a lil bit and then went back home after a few minutes of walking through snow covered Kenbuchi. My feet however were getting super cold because I didn`t have real snow boots. Just my velvet black ones. So what ended up happening was that I wore plastic bags over my socks and then put htem in my shoes to avoid them getting wet and my toes hurting from the cold. =P

And then at night I decided to head over to Aoi to eat. It was snowing like crazy outside and I couldn`t really see the road that clearly. And just when I neared the place I stepped on an area that had frozen over and was like black ice and basically slipped and fell. I landed hard on my butt, but thankfully, not my head. It hurt and reminded me of when I fell when I used to ice skate and wanted to go ice skating again...haha. funny. ANyways, it happened again when I left the restaurant. Terrible, stupid clumsy me.

November 3rd Tuesday

Today is Japan`s culture day so it`s a holiday evryone has off. Thank god, because I needed a day where I could go buy winter stuff. I desperately needed snowboots, a thicker jacket, a hat, a shovel and a snow brush for my car. And Su said she would come with me today. So I first headed over to SHibetsu city to find the cheaper things. At Homac I was thinking of getting an extra thing of car batteries and a rope/cable tug thing just in case. And then thought better of it. I was like, "oh, I don`t need it" That will come back to bite me in the butt later tonight. I bought some of my cheap stuff in Shibetsu then headed over to Asahikawa AEON JUSCO to buy the rest of it. I drove super slow and let people pass me because I was really scared of getting into an accident in the snow. Especially slipping. We passed by one car where the girl had slipped into the snow next to the road and some dude was trying to help her out. THat`s when that cable would come in handy.

Well after an hour or maybe a little over because I drove so much slower than usual, we got there. So today AEON`s clothing section was having a huge sale on winter clothing, so I went and bought some, particularly my jacket. And then i bought a humidifier, a mini heater for my toilet beause it`s freakin cold in there since it`s not in my main apt area, just in the entryway which is an awkward place to put it I tell you. And then I bought my snow boots!! Yay! THey`re super cute I love them! They`re brown with pink words written in French all over it. I had liked the black one too, but I have too many black boots already. I wanted to buy these really hot heels, but because I doubt I`ll be able to wear them much during this time, I didn`t.

We basically spent a whole day out until 7pm and decided tohead on back to the car to go home. And my car wouldn`t start up. I had realized too late that I had forgotten to turn off my headlights and it sucked up all the battery life. And now my car won`t run. And we were in Asahikawa. And it was -3 degrees celsius outside. Great. Luckily, we were stuck at the AEON parking lot. And AEON just so happened to be the largest mall/dept store place in Asahikawa. So there were alot of people to ask for help in there. The service people called the guardsman to come and try to charge my car`s batteries or give it a little boost for it to run. And it didn`t. So the guardsman/police dude told us to call JAF which is the AAA of Japan to come help us. He said it might not just be the problem with the batteries. Su called JAF and had the guy come out to help find the problem with my car. And what happened was that the problem was just that my batteries needed a boost!!! And just for that it cost me $120!! If I was a JAF member, it would`ve been free. But apparently I wasnt, when I thought I had signed up for it, and it cost me. BOOO!!!! So I decided to join them in case anymore things like this happened which prolly will cuz my car`s so freakin old. STUPID GUARDSMEN! If only you were able to charge it properly I wouldn`t have had to pay....Whatever. I still thank him for having tried several times. Honestly, I`m really thankful to all of the people who helped, because otherwise I would`ve been hin huge trouble.

I had originally wanted to stop and eat at Kohrinboh ramen with Su, but because of this problem I cannot stop the car until I get home because I need to let the batteries run awhile. So that was that. And then at midnight, as I was blowdrying my hair, the electricity went out. And i was like "oh shit, if the electricty is out that means my heater will go out, and it`s -4 degrees right now. Not good" So I donned my winter clothing and went outside and shoveled my way through the snow at 12am to try and find the circuit breaker. And then realized that it was not outside but inside my apt, above my door. I wasted my body heat outside....lol anyways, it worked. And then I forgot that when you reset the heater, previous settings are erased and I had forgotten to put it on save mode so that when it reaches a certain temperature it will stop for a little bit until the temperature drops and it will start again. So it saves a lot of kerosene and electricity while keeping me warm, hence the name Save mode. I had left it on normal nmode all night and was unsure why it was so hot in my apt until this morning when I realized that it was not on save mode. There goes a lot of my money......Not a good night.