Jan. 21st Thursday
So all this week I`ve been fretting like crazy about tonight`s Parent-child english conversation class. If it was just the children it wouldn`t be so bad, but I have to incorporate the parents in it too, and that`s what worried me so much. And teaching in front of parents is also very nervewracking. I love your children parents, please don`t hate my class. Oh and the lil kids are ranging from age 3 years old-2nd graders in elementary. Yeah, this is going to be pretty difficult to teach. Attention spans don`t last too long.
I seriously could have an ulcer this week for worrying so much about it. Come this day, I was freakin out. The day went by okay, but once the evening came along, I was like, damn, I can`t believe I`m doing this. I have about 27 people who applied. 17 kids and 10 parents (mainly moms). So I got the whole room set up for things and teaching and stuff. My kids started arriving and they were so adorable upon seeing me. When they say me they were all like "Theresa-sensei" *glomp*. XD I love them. But the parents I felt so awkward and restrained around them except for the ones that I have spoken an extensive amount to. So when all the people arrived and it was 6:30 I started the class.
I was so f-ing nervous that my intro and first half of the class went terribly. I confused the students as well as myself and spoke in very jumbled English. Man, and I was fretting about how the parents would take to this. But luckily in the second half of the class things started to take a better turn. The kids started to get really into it and I started becoming more relaxed. I actually got the kdis pretty tired because of all the actions and activities we were doing. lol The parents got pretty tired too. haha. Anyways, one student who totally was not into it in the beginning actually came up to the front in the middle half and started doing all the activities with me and all. At the end he gave me an enthusiastic high 5 (which they call high touch here) and said he can`t wait for next week. I was so proud. But I was still hesitatn about how the parents took to my class. One of the parents invited me over to her house for dinner, so i take that as a positive sign. ~_~;
Jan. 23 Saturday
So today I woke up nice and early to get ready to head off to Asahikawa to catch a bus to Sounkyou`s Choyou Hot Springs Resort in Sounkyou. Sounkyou is a hot springs town. It`s famous for it`s natural spring waters and it`s beautiful mountain setting. Su and Mago-chan also went with me. Actually it was Su that suggested we go and Mago-chan made the reservations. I appreciate it very much! So it was actually quite a nice day today. The sun was out, it was just cold and had a tad bit of snow falls. Mago-chan almost missed the train because she was a lil late, but she totally ran for it and got on at the very last minute just as teh train was about to leave. whew. Upon arrival at Asahikawa we met up with Su and went to go get lunch at "American Box" which actually had no american food, just pasta and hamburg steaks. lol But it was quite good since we got the set that came with a drink, entree, and dessert. At 2:30 we caught the bus that would take us to the resort. Apparently there were alot of people going this weekend so there were 3 buses for the resort and all of them were full. If you booked a room at the resort, they provided you with the bus, so you had to be on the list to get on.
It was a very nice and comfy bus ride and it took us all the way into the mountains 1 1/2 hour away. I really like natury scenes so I took massive amounts of pictures of the nature outside on the way there. When we got there some of the hotel staff came outside to welcome us. (I love Japanese service, makes you feel all high class). We then went to go check in to our room. It was a cute lil Japanese style room with tatami mats and futons but with a very nice view of the mountains and stream outside. Absolutely breathtaking. I just sat in the chair next to the window for a lil while staring outside. And then we quickly took a towel and got on a bus that would take us to another hotel where we can use the hot springs there for free since we`re staying in this one.
So at first when we got into the changing room, I had to get comfortable again with undressing and being naked in front of strangers. Of course they were all female (no males since the baths are gender seperated, so no worries on anything happening there ^_~*) but I was still like, oh that`s right, I can`t wear clothes in the springs. My friends all undressed super quickly while I was still taking my time trying to be somewhat modest, but then I gave up on doing that and just quickly went into the springs area. It really reminded me of when I was on EAP with my Irvine EAP buddies and we stayed a night in Hakone hot springs town. And I was reminded of how quickly and comftorable all us girls just undressed and got in while the boys seemed to have the most problems with doing that. Ah, memories. But I think I`m starting to get used to seeing naked old women. lol
So when you get into the hot springs you have to first wash yourself clean at the open shower area before you can enter into the springs themselves. It`s to avoid dirtying the springs since so many people use it. When I got in, I was reminded of how hot they usually are. It was about 42 degrees Celsius, so it was damn hot. But my skin quickly got used to it. We first went into the inside one where it was on the 17th floor of the hotel on top of a mountain and was protected by glass windows so the view was beauitufl. You could see down to the ice festival and stream below. It was wonderful. After being in the inside one we then went to the one that`s outside. yes, outside. In the snowy weather. We`re still on the 17th floor, but there are hot springs in wooden tubs or built into the floor stone hot springs that overlook everything below while sitting outside with not really a roof over it. So it was f-ing cold when you walk outside naked cuz it was still snowing and in the mountain areas but once we sat in the tub, it was amazingly relaxing and wonderful. You get to sit out in the cold while your body is in the warm/hot water and watch the snow fall aroundyou and gaze at mountains and streams. It was a very wabisabi feeling for me, i think. lol I felt so at peace, but sad at the same time. Yeah, I`m becoming super Japanese with wabisabiness. And I was there to enjoy it with 2 good friends. ^^ I wish there were more of us though. It would be funner. But all the same, I enjoyed myself.
So after that onsen we went back to our original hotel and went to eat at the buffet. So yummy and I got to drink warmed cherry wine like at the Mulhenn festival in Sapporo. Nummers. After stuffing ourselves full we went and collapsed on our futons in our room for 30 minutes then got dressed in these horribly garish yellow pajama things with felt green vest jackets that the hotel provides all its guest to wear and headed to the onsen in the hotel. I also went into the sauna in this one. Trying to lose all the water weight to know that I will gain it back later. lol
After the onsens, my body felt really light because all my muscles are relaxed and I know that when you bathe in an onsen it releases some kind of chemical in your body that gets rid of the toxin built up in muscles. So ya have to drink lotsa water after it. Or so I think I`ve heard...correct me if I`m wrong. =P Then we went to the ice festival that`s just a lil ways away from our hotel.
IT WAS AMAZING! They had built structures and igloos and sculptures and a slide out of snow and ice. And they lit each one up with bright colored lights. So it was just fantabulous looking! I went into all the igloos and climbed up the structure to the very top and watched the fireworks from atop the tallest ice structure there. It was cool! And I drank amazake for the first time! Damn that`s good! It`s the leftovers from when you finish brewing the sake and they make it into a drink. There`s barely any alcohol in it, so children can drink it too. XD People also decided to have wedding ceremonies out here in the cold as well. Now that`s crazy. It`s freezing outside, but the women all have these beautiful wedding dresses on. But I can see on their faces they were f-ing cold. lol Poor couples. But congrats to them. ^^
Afterwards we went back, took another dip in the springs, and then collapsed on our futons playing shiritori until we passed out at 12am. Good day.
Jan. 24 Sunday
Woke up this morning at 6:30am, grabbed my towel, and went to the hot springs on my own. It is opened 24 hours after all, why not use it to its fullest. So I bathed and stuff for another hour, went back up to the room and got ready for our breakfast buffet. After breakfast we got dressed in our normal clothes out of the garish yellow green things and went to the souvenir shop. I bought this cute lil crystal phone strap thing that`s called the water star in the sky. And then we boarded the bus home at 10am and got back to Kembuchi at around 2pm. I got home and wanted to do absolutely nothing, so I just chilled and watched "Where the Wild Things Are" online. And then after the movie, for some reason, I broke down...again. I`ve been feeling pretty bipolar lately (thank you Doug for that word, I almost forgot its use lol). I`ll be fine one minute and then feel like the world is ending the next. And then after 10 minutes of crying I was bright and happy again. *sigh* I think because it`s the winter time and I really missed being home with family and friends and familiar faces all around, chillin, drinkin, and being me. But after crying I felt fine and it was as if nothing happened. lol I dunno. I love my job and all, but it does take a toll on me.
Jan. 26th Tuesday
So today i came home and discovered that I have a package. A very large one in fact. And it was heavy. I brought it inside the house, opened it and discovered 20 boxes of Swiss Miss hot chocolate (each with 10 pouches inside), a box of caramel apple candies, and a box of exotic flavored hot chocolate all sent from my best buddy back at home. I love her. I really didn`t need 20 boxes though. lol I only wanted about 14 to give out to people who requested them here in Japan, but 20 is good too. lol Thank you uber much! I couldn`t stop laughing when I opened up the box though because I`ve just never seen so many boxes for one person before, ever, and the thought of it just cracked me up. lol
After that episode, I went to the elementary school`s shinnenkai or a party to bring in the new Year. This time however, when I drew the paper from a pile that would rtell me where my seat is, I got the one to the very end, the last seat on the left. And Mr. Wonderful, being one of the hosts that night, sat at the last seat on the right. Boo~ Ah well. I spent alot of the time being quiet and learned a new word in Japanese, "kamakasu". Not exactly sure what it means ( i think it means mix or shake). I wasn`t sitting with people I can talk easily too. We had our small convos but that`s it.
Afterwards, I decided to take Yuki home and gave her 2 boxes of the swiss miss that I got to give to her family. They`re very sweet to me and treat me like their own. So I appreciate them quite alot. And Yuki`s a cutie so I love her. lol
Otsukare-sama for reading! More pictures will be posted soon! oh, and I quite miss cultural diversity. I miss seeing the different peoples around. Japanese people are awesome and all, but homogeniousity is kinda gettin to me. >.< lol Loves!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I can snowboard yo!
Jan. 13 Wednesday
So today at lunch time I went back to the town hall/BOE for a special mochi lunch. Today was some kind of special holiday that I don`t really remember the name of where they eat mochi. The mochi is made by the people in town hall and everyone comes to eat it at lunch. It`s grilled mochi (so it`s a little crunchy on the outside and mo-chiri on the inside) in a broth and there was also karaage. And for dessert mochi and red bean paste, yummers.
In the evening was the young peoples` Shinnenkai to welcome in the new year. I was actually a little late getting in so I waited outside until the speeches were over, but the speeches went on for so long that I thought it better to just go in. I tried to go in all quietly, but the door was soooo creaky and rough that it just made so much noise that someone actually opened the inner door and looked out to see who it was. He just beckoned me inside, so I was like F-it and made a huge lot of noise walkin in because the floors and doors were just so creaky. I ended up being able to sit next to Tama-chan and we had a wonderful talk and became much more friendlier. And then Sugisawa-kun even joined in and we had a pretty hilarious conversation i have to say. It was so much fun thta I was totally looking forward to going to the nijikai. At the nijikai we sat around and talked about stuff and then I mentioned that I was going to go buy my snowboard this weekend and both Tama-chan and Sugisawa-kun said they wanted to come along too and go boarding. So that was that. And then Uno-san also said she wanted to tag along. Awesome.
January 14 Thursday
My high school started today. As usual, the kids were still uninterested in English. And showed no want to learn. And when I taught my 1st graders I had to motivate them with candy. lol Ah well. After this I went back to the middle school to have lunch with all the teachers again. So much funner there.
January 16 Saturday
At around 2pm Sugisawa-kun came to pick me and Tama-chan up to go to Asahikawa to look at boards and buy my board, and Uno-san followed in her car. I swear I have so much fun with these two. They`re so funny. It was basically a snowstorm that we were driving in and everything was just pure white that it was sooo hard to see the road. But luckily we got everywhere just fine. We first went to Xebio Sports, then Arpen Sports, and finally to Sports Authority in AEON where I bought by beautiful board. The board`s description was called "Nature" and it was a black board with lime green edges and bubbles of brilliant up close pictures or radiant flowers. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The black and the radiant colors were so eye catching and plus I really like nature stuff. So there we go. It was a set. I get the boots, bindings, and board all for around $318 bucks! Awesome! I was thinking that I could only get $500 ones. But thank god for the nature board at sports authority. Ibought my snowboarding outfit there too because it`s cheaper. So then we all went to take purikura together and it was pretty cute! Uno-san then had to leave and so the three of us went to go eat okonomiyaki together. And it was soooo good! It was a set menu of delux okonomiyaki which is seafood and pork, and then there was monjya (my first time eating monjya, it`s a Tokyo thing) which had mentaiko, cheese, and pork in it, and then last was a yakisoba with other meats and veggies you can grill. Amazing! After being so freakin full we decided to go home. And sleep and wait for the next day`s snowboardin fun.
Jan. 17 Sunday
At around 1pm Tama-chan came to pick me and Sugisawa-kun up to head to Pippu to board. They`re both renting and I`m bringin my new board. Wooo! So the ski hill in Pippu is huge! It`s got snowboard, snowear, and ski rentals! And there`s 3 lifts! Whoa! So Tama-chan, Sugisawa-kun and I decided to head over to the lil kiddies slope area which turned out to be pretty high level area. And there we learned. I can now finally stand up properly, slide forward, stop, and turn left, but turning right is still a danger zone. I tend to hurt myself alot when I try that. lol So we spent 3 hours on the slopes and then around 6pm we headed back home for dinner at Ibushiya and sat there talking for a long ass time and then went home. Good day it was.
Jan. 18 Monday
Sashiburi going back to the nursery today! I love my nursery babies, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them. I was able to stay the whole day at the nursery today because there was no class at the elementary. My kids were sooo funny today. I love listening to hte lil things talk because they say such funny things! And they`re sooo cute! My students kept climbing all over me and huggin me and stuff today. I loved it. One of my girls was like "I wanna marry Theresa-sensei!" And I was like "I wanna marry you too!" ANd my other lil kids were like "You can`t do that Theresa-sensei. Two women can`t marry each other" lol Oh children, if you only knew the world out there. lol I was being reprimanded by my children. I felt small. lol So there was a fire drill today at the nursery. And my teachers asked me how to say drill in English and (here`s an example of my English just dying on me) I couldn`t think of the word at all so I said practice. Fire Practice. Yes..... Anyways at the drill it was right before waking up the children from their afternoonnap. lol So they were all soo disoriented and just woken up so there hair is all over the place with bedhead. It was soo cute! The lil kids weren`t panicking or anything at all. Just confused cuz they just woke up. haha.
Anyways, I stayed at the preschool longer than my job needed me too because I love playing with the babies. And then at around 6pm I went over to my Shinnenkai with my Taiko group. There alot of my nursery babies were there because of hteir parents also being in taiko so it was really fun. The parents and people are so fun and easy to talk to. The kids, when they saw me all ran over to me and were like I wanna sit next to Theresa-sensei!!! And when their parents came to sit next to them, the kids were like "Mom, you don`t need to sit next to me I`m fine! I like Theresa-sensei better than you!" I quickly covered their mouth and was like "You can`t say that to you parents!" lol I felt happy, but at the same time very apologetic to the parents. I played with lil Toshinori the whole time because he`s so cute and chubby. He`s only 2 years old so WAAH!
When one of the dad`s asked me if I had a boyfirned and if I wanted a Japanese guy I said "maybe" and the men around thoought I said "baby". So they thought I meant that I wanted a baby...lol. THey totally jumped several steps there. They looked at me incredulously and then their wives had to explain to them what I said. lol haha. I love these people. Anyways, good fun night with my taiko group and the cutie children. But my eye has been twitching alot lately and I think I need more sleep. lol
Otsukare for reading and love you all!
So today at lunch time I went back to the town hall/BOE for a special mochi lunch. Today was some kind of special holiday that I don`t really remember the name of where they eat mochi. The mochi is made by the people in town hall and everyone comes to eat it at lunch. It`s grilled mochi (so it`s a little crunchy on the outside and mo-chiri on the inside) in a broth and there was also karaage. And for dessert mochi and red bean paste, yummers.
In the evening was the young peoples` Shinnenkai to welcome in the new year. I was actually a little late getting in so I waited outside until the speeches were over, but the speeches went on for so long that I thought it better to just go in. I tried to go in all quietly, but the door was soooo creaky and rough that it just made so much noise that someone actually opened the inner door and looked out to see who it was. He just beckoned me inside, so I was like F-it and made a huge lot of noise walkin in because the floors and doors were just so creaky. I ended up being able to sit next to Tama-chan and we had a wonderful talk and became much more friendlier. And then Sugisawa-kun even joined in and we had a pretty hilarious conversation i have to say. It was so much fun thta I was totally looking forward to going to the nijikai. At the nijikai we sat around and talked about stuff and then I mentioned that I was going to go buy my snowboard this weekend and both Tama-chan and Sugisawa-kun said they wanted to come along too and go boarding. So that was that. And then Uno-san also said she wanted to tag along. Awesome.
January 14 Thursday
My high school started today. As usual, the kids were still uninterested in English. And showed no want to learn. And when I taught my 1st graders I had to motivate them with candy. lol Ah well. After this I went back to the middle school to have lunch with all the teachers again. So much funner there.
January 16 Saturday
At around 2pm Sugisawa-kun came to pick me and Tama-chan up to go to Asahikawa to look at boards and buy my board, and Uno-san followed in her car. I swear I have so much fun with these two. They`re so funny. It was basically a snowstorm that we were driving in and everything was just pure white that it was sooo hard to see the road. But luckily we got everywhere just fine. We first went to Xebio Sports, then Arpen Sports, and finally to Sports Authority in AEON where I bought by beautiful board. The board`s description was called "Nature" and it was a black board with lime green edges and bubbles of brilliant up close pictures or radiant flowers. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The black and the radiant colors were so eye catching and plus I really like nature stuff. So there we go. It was a set. I get the boots, bindings, and board all for around $318 bucks! Awesome! I was thinking that I could only get $500 ones. But thank god for the nature board at sports authority. Ibought my snowboarding outfit there too because it`s cheaper. So then we all went to take purikura together and it was pretty cute! Uno-san then had to leave and so the three of us went to go eat okonomiyaki together. And it was soooo good! It was a set menu of delux okonomiyaki which is seafood and pork, and then there was monjya (my first time eating monjya, it`s a Tokyo thing) which had mentaiko, cheese, and pork in it, and then last was a yakisoba with other meats and veggies you can grill. Amazing! After being so freakin full we decided to go home. And sleep and wait for the next day`s snowboardin fun.
Jan. 17 Sunday
At around 1pm Tama-chan came to pick me and Sugisawa-kun up to head to Pippu to board. They`re both renting and I`m bringin my new board. Wooo! So the ski hill in Pippu is huge! It`s got snowboard, snowear, and ski rentals! And there`s 3 lifts! Whoa! So Tama-chan, Sugisawa-kun and I decided to head over to the lil kiddies slope area which turned out to be pretty high level area. And there we learned. I can now finally stand up properly, slide forward, stop, and turn left, but turning right is still a danger zone. I tend to hurt myself alot when I try that. lol So we spent 3 hours on the slopes and then around 6pm we headed back home for dinner at Ibushiya and sat there talking for a long ass time and then went home. Good day it was.
Jan. 18 Monday
Sashiburi going back to the nursery today! I love my nursery babies, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them. I was able to stay the whole day at the nursery today because there was no class at the elementary. My kids were sooo funny today. I love listening to hte lil things talk because they say such funny things! And they`re sooo cute! My students kept climbing all over me and huggin me and stuff today. I loved it. One of my girls was like "I wanna marry Theresa-sensei!" And I was like "I wanna marry you too!" ANd my other lil kids were like "You can`t do that Theresa-sensei. Two women can`t marry each other" lol Oh children, if you only knew the world out there. lol I was being reprimanded by my children. I felt small. lol So there was a fire drill today at the nursery. And my teachers asked me how to say drill in English and (here`s an example of my English just dying on me) I couldn`t think of the word at all so I said practice. Fire Practice. Yes..... Anyways at the drill it was right before waking up the children from their afternoonnap. lol So they were all soo disoriented and just woken up so there hair is all over the place with bedhead. It was soo cute! The lil kids weren`t panicking or anything at all. Just confused cuz they just woke up. haha.
Anyways, I stayed at the preschool longer than my job needed me too because I love playing with the babies. And then at around 6pm I went over to my Shinnenkai with my Taiko group. There alot of my nursery babies were there because of hteir parents also being in taiko so it was really fun. The parents and people are so fun and easy to talk to. The kids, when they saw me all ran over to me and were like I wanna sit next to Theresa-sensei!!! And when their parents came to sit next to them, the kids were like "Mom, you don`t need to sit next to me I`m fine! I like Theresa-sensei better than you!" I quickly covered their mouth and was like "You can`t say that to you parents!" lol I felt happy, but at the same time very apologetic to the parents. I played with lil Toshinori the whole time because he`s so cute and chubby. He`s only 2 years old so WAAH!
When one of the dad`s asked me if I had a boyfirned and if I wanted a Japanese guy I said "maybe" and the men around thoought I said "baby". So they thought I meant that I wanted a baby...lol. THey totally jumped several steps there. They looked at me incredulously and then their wives had to explain to them what I said. lol haha. I love these people. Anyways, good fun night with my taiko group and the cutie children. But my eye has been twitching alot lately and I think I need more sleep. lol
Otsukare for reading and love you all!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Coming of Age ceremony makes me feel old.
Jan. 6 Wednesday
*sigh* Work. Work on school break time. All my kids are all off somewhere playing and I`m stuck coming to school and my BOE to work. Booo....So anyways, I was stuck sitting at the BOE at first, but around 10am Sakurai-san came to the BOE looking like he needed to get something. When really, he just came cuz he wanted to see me and take me back to the middle school. He says that Iwata-sensei also told him to get me. lol Apparently, they were feeling lonely without me. Personally, I totally didn`t mind. Actually seeing Sakurai-san made me feel all happy because he was the bright light in the dark BOE. lol The atmosphere in the BOE is a lil stiff you know.
So I packed up my stuff and went with Sakurai-san in his car to the middle school. I was so relieved and even told him that he was my saviour. haha. When I got into the staff lounge everyone looked at me and then Sakurai-san and then started laughing. Because everyone was like "so you went to the BOE just to bring her back, huh?" And Iwata-sensei just had a knowing smirk on her face. lol Already, the atmosphere was great. Sakurai-san was like "why, is it not good?" And they said if it`s Teari, it`s okay. Yosh! Haha, but it was such a bright atmosphere here compared to the dark BOE. Heh. So I spent my time here doing nothing except getting on the comp. I`d rather do nothing here than the BOE really.
Jan. 8th Friday
So I`ve just been spending my days at the middle school lately. Doing almost nothing, except for the occasional preparing for my Parent-child English Conversation classes. But today, there was a special event going on. It`s the town`s traditional beginning of the year Fire Prevention Ceremony. So my teachers told me to go watch it. They said I had to first go to the BOE, so I did, whereupon I met all my school`s principals there and some other really high up ther peoples. Everyone were old men in black suits and I was the one lil girl in her golden jacket and white scarf... I felt really out of place and just said that I can just walk to the venue that the ceremony`s being held at. But the middle school principal said that it`s fine because a bus is coming so I should just take the bus. So I did. And sat there awkwardly with all the old elite men waiting for the bus. lol
When we walked outside to get on the bus it was like a ray of sun fell on the awkward day because I saw my elementary children standing outside in happis(mini kimono jacket things) waiting to do the march through town. And of course they saw me since I was the gold in a sea of black suits. =P I couldn`t help smiling when I saw them as that`s usually my first reaction whenever I see my kids. They were all like "Hey! It`s Theresa!! Hello Theresa!" and would wave enthusiastically. I would respond with the same enthusiasm. Oh, my children. The light of my day. Anyways, I still had to get on the bus. That was terribly awkward. The bus was small and just full of elite old men. They all knew who I was and I guess didn`t really question why I was there since I`m the foreigner who wants to see the town`s ceremonies and stuff like that. lol
When we got to the destination (which was the bank that is only 5 minutes away from the town hall/BOE and I could`ve jsut walked) all the old men filed out behind the town mayor and I followed behind and squeezed myself in between 2 cars so that I wouldn`t feel awkward standing there with all of them. I basically tried to hide myself away to deter attention cuz I was obviously not an elite old man. The firefighters that I knew were also kind of giggling when they saw me because they thought it was funny that I went with the group and that I came to watch. But, alas, the high school vice principal called me out to stand more near the center and not hide between 2 cars. lol So I went over and watched the firemen march down the street and then, "LLAAA~", my children marched up behind them. Again, my face went from serious-paying respect to smily laughy face. I stood over on the side so that I wasn`t really near the men, so all the children could see me. When they saw me they all waved at me and acted like lil kids do. I wasn`t sure if that was okay in front of all the elite people and worst off was they were doing it jsut to me, so I was like err...I hope they don`t mind the children and I waving to each other in this time of seriuosness... I can`t help it, I love my kids and become like on when I`m with them.
After it was over and everyone tried to file back on the bus, there were no seats left cuz somehow more people got on the bus then last time and so I and some other elite old men decided to walk the loooong 5 minute walk back to the town hall. I was talking with one of the genkier old men about the ceremony when I saw my children walking back as well. And so I sped up my pace and went towards them. They were happy to see me and talk to me, but the old man was still talking to me. So I had to use my respectful Japanese and feign interest with the old man while at the same time the children were trying to talk to me. One of the girls even held one of those warm packet things (that when you rub them they become warm) up to my face, so I bent over sideways a lil to let her do it and at the same time continued talking to the man. So I walked awkwardly the rest of the way back. lol When we got back I walked with the kids to the changing room and then over to the big hall for a reception ceremony of some kind.
The people at townhall thought it was funny to see me walking with the kids...I think because they`ve only all seen the polite straight side of me, cuz when I`m with the kids I let loose you know. Even the girls that I usually hang out with here thought it was funny. I got in late to the ceremony because I was talking with BOE people, so I wasn`t sure where to sit, but I just saw my kids sitting in the center, so I just went to sit with them. And then I heard "kiritsu!" which means stand and saw my children and everyone in front of me stand up and bow and sit down according to the commands and did the same. I did that about 5 times before I looked around to see that people sitting in the left and right side of the room were all the elite old men and spectators and didn`t bow and stuff whereas the middle of the room were the children and all the volunteer firefighters in their suits........And I felt superbly embarrased and dumb. I got up and did the bow thing when I didn`t need to and no one told me that I didn`t need to....Man. But ah well, I just kept thinking to myself that I`m a foreigner and I`m expected to not know what to do here and like having new experiences. And I hope that that`s what everyone else thinks too. =P
During the whole ceremony though I could see my children totally falling asleep and getting restless because it was 1 hour of just awards giving and speeches. My kids even told me "Theresa, I`m sleepy". lol Tell you the truth, I was too. I was terribly bored because I really didn`t understand any of it and I felt like one of my kids being restless and everything. But because I was their teacher and am technically responsible for the kids here since their parents weren`t here and I was the only person that the kids knew, I had to set a good example and tried to look attentive. When my kids would start falling asleep or talk too much or fidget in their chairs I would get up and give them a light nudge and a look (nothing scary) and they would be quiet. THough I totally understood how they felt. When it was over all the kids were like YES! lol
We then all went back to the changing room and they got bags of snacks. And since there was an extra one the firemen gave it to me, even though I did absolutely nothing. Apparently after this, all the kids were supposed to go eat out together with the volunteer firemen and the kids told me to go with them. But it`s because I`m not part of the thing I told them I couldn`t go even though I badly wanted to. During this time all the kids would crowd around me in a semi-circle and talk to me and play with me. I felt loved. =) But soon after they left and I left to go back to the middle school and back home.
Jan. 9 Saturday
Today I went to AEON`s Sports Authority to buy my snowboarding outfit because on monday Satomi is gonna teach me to board! whoo! So I bought a set outfit for $185. Not bad for a set. It was a dark grey Ellesse jacket with a furry hood and beige pants. I looked pretty cool. Now if only I can snowboard, I would complete this look. haha. I then decided to call Alan to see if I can borrow his extra goggles and discovered that he was also in AEON and in Sports Authority of all places! Coinky Dink! He was also with Meghan, a wonderful ALT gal from Scotland! So we bought our stuffs and then decided to head on out. And on impulse, when I saw CoCo Curry house, I stopped and said let`s eat. Here. Now. lol I looooovee CoCo Curry! They`re soooo good. Oh, and did you know that Hokkaido is famous for our Soup curry? Well, Hokkaido is famous for a lot of food though. Anyways, I ended up getting back home at 9pm instead of the 7pm I was aiming for. haha.
Jan. 10 Sunday
Coming of Age ceremony for my town was today. I was invited to go watch it. I walked in there and was just impressed and amazed. Everyone looked soooo beautiful and cool in their kimonos and suits. The girls all wore the most beautiful Kimonos ever and had wonderful hair styles and accessories! I so wanted another kimono after that. Actually, I should go and get one because my dad has mine hanging in his restaurant and I don`t have one here in Japan. Want a blue or green one. ^^ The guys looked so cool and hot in their suits and formal kimonos. Actually I was like "dude, where have all these hot guys been!??!" I`ve never seen any of them before and they seriuosly were good looking, but I had to remind myself that they were only 20 (because that`s the coming of age in Japan). I felt kinda old after that even though I`m only 22. But everyone was so much taller than me that I felt that they could`ve been older. lol We don`t look that different in age do we? >) Just seeing all of them there was impressive to me and I kinda wished I had a coming of age ceremony too.
Jan. 11 The official Coming of Age Day, Monday
So today at around 1:30pm Satomi came to pick me up to go boarding. I`m temporarily borrowing my boss`s daughter`s board and shoes. But the shoes were a tiny bit tight. At least I didn`t have to buy one yet since I`m trying it out to see if I like it or not. Tama-chan and Mago-chan also decided to come along and go skiing. It was also snowing like crazy today. We went to Wassamu`s ski hill. So I first went over to the family slope/bunny slope and started practicing strapping in the board and standing up. After 10 minutes I was able to stand up properly on the hill without falling backwards on my butt. haha. And I saw alot of my lil elementary students there too. So they would gravitate over towards me and talk to me and ask me why I`m so inept. lol But I was like "kids, maybe you shouldn`t get too close to me while I`m boarding. You might get hurt" as I don`t know how to stop yet and how to control the board when I`m sliding.
I was also able to slide straight down without falling! Although, when it came to trying to stop I would tumble down. lol Not exactly the most graceful I`d say. The kids would then, again, come crowd around me after I fall and be silly with me. =P After 3 hours of falling on my butt and tumbling around in the snow with my kids laughing at me we decided to all head on back home. Oh, man I know I`m going to be sore the next day. Although luckily, falling here means falling on soft powder snow. So it didn`t hurt as much. So now I am dfeinitely going to go buy my own board. woo.
Otsukare for reading!
*sigh* Work. Work on school break time. All my kids are all off somewhere playing and I`m stuck coming to school and my BOE to work. Booo....So anyways, I was stuck sitting at the BOE at first, but around 10am Sakurai-san came to the BOE looking like he needed to get something. When really, he just came cuz he wanted to see me and take me back to the middle school. He says that Iwata-sensei also told him to get me. lol Apparently, they were feeling lonely without me. Personally, I totally didn`t mind. Actually seeing Sakurai-san made me feel all happy because he was the bright light in the dark BOE. lol The atmosphere in the BOE is a lil stiff you know.
So I packed up my stuff and went with Sakurai-san in his car to the middle school. I was so relieved and even told him that he was my saviour. haha. When I got into the staff lounge everyone looked at me and then Sakurai-san and then started laughing. Because everyone was like "so you went to the BOE just to bring her back, huh?" And Iwata-sensei just had a knowing smirk on her face. lol Already, the atmosphere was great. Sakurai-san was like "why, is it not good?" And they said if it`s Teari, it`s okay. Yosh! Haha, but it was such a bright atmosphere here compared to the dark BOE. Heh. So I spent my time here doing nothing except getting on the comp. I`d rather do nothing here than the BOE really.
Jan. 8th Friday
So I`ve just been spending my days at the middle school lately. Doing almost nothing, except for the occasional preparing for my Parent-child English Conversation classes. But today, there was a special event going on. It`s the town`s traditional beginning of the year Fire Prevention Ceremony. So my teachers told me to go watch it. They said I had to first go to the BOE, so I did, whereupon I met all my school`s principals there and some other really high up ther peoples. Everyone were old men in black suits and I was the one lil girl in her golden jacket and white scarf... I felt really out of place and just said that I can just walk to the venue that the ceremony`s being held at. But the middle school principal said that it`s fine because a bus is coming so I should just take the bus. So I did. And sat there awkwardly with all the old elite men waiting for the bus. lol
When we walked outside to get on the bus it was like a ray of sun fell on the awkward day because I saw my elementary children standing outside in happis(mini kimono jacket things) waiting to do the march through town. And of course they saw me since I was the gold in a sea of black suits. =P I couldn`t help smiling when I saw them as that`s usually my first reaction whenever I see my kids. They were all like "Hey! It`s Theresa!! Hello Theresa!" and would wave enthusiastically. I would respond with the same enthusiasm. Oh, my children. The light of my day. Anyways, I still had to get on the bus. That was terribly awkward. The bus was small and just full of elite old men. They all knew who I was and I guess didn`t really question why I was there since I`m the foreigner who wants to see the town`s ceremonies and stuff like that. lol
When we got to the destination (which was the bank that is only 5 minutes away from the town hall/BOE and I could`ve jsut walked) all the old men filed out behind the town mayor and I followed behind and squeezed myself in between 2 cars so that I wouldn`t feel awkward standing there with all of them. I basically tried to hide myself away to deter attention cuz I was obviously not an elite old man. The firefighters that I knew were also kind of giggling when they saw me because they thought it was funny that I went with the group and that I came to watch. But, alas, the high school vice principal called me out to stand more near the center and not hide between 2 cars. lol So I went over and watched the firemen march down the street and then, "LLAAA~", my children marched up behind them. Again, my face went from serious-paying respect to smily laughy face. I stood over on the side so that I wasn`t really near the men, so all the children could see me. When they saw me they all waved at me and acted like lil kids do. I wasn`t sure if that was okay in front of all the elite people and worst off was they were doing it jsut to me, so I was like err...I hope they don`t mind the children and I waving to each other in this time of seriuosness... I can`t help it, I love my kids and become like on when I`m with them.
After it was over and everyone tried to file back on the bus, there were no seats left cuz somehow more people got on the bus then last time and so I and some other elite old men decided to walk the loooong 5 minute walk back to the town hall. I was talking with one of the genkier old men about the ceremony when I saw my children walking back as well. And so I sped up my pace and went towards them. They were happy to see me and talk to me, but the old man was still talking to me. So I had to use my respectful Japanese and feign interest with the old man while at the same time the children were trying to talk to me. One of the girls even held one of those warm packet things (that when you rub them they become warm) up to my face, so I bent over sideways a lil to let her do it and at the same time continued talking to the man. So I walked awkwardly the rest of the way back. lol When we got back I walked with the kids to the changing room and then over to the big hall for a reception ceremony of some kind.
The people at townhall thought it was funny to see me walking with the kids...I think because they`ve only all seen the polite straight side of me, cuz when I`m with the kids I let loose you know. Even the girls that I usually hang out with here thought it was funny. I got in late to the ceremony because I was talking with BOE people, so I wasn`t sure where to sit, but I just saw my kids sitting in the center, so I just went to sit with them. And then I heard "kiritsu!" which means stand and saw my children and everyone in front of me stand up and bow and sit down according to the commands and did the same. I did that about 5 times before I looked around to see that people sitting in the left and right side of the room were all the elite old men and spectators and didn`t bow and stuff whereas the middle of the room were the children and all the volunteer firefighters in their suits........And I felt superbly embarrased and dumb. I got up and did the bow thing when I didn`t need to and no one told me that I didn`t need to....Man. But ah well, I just kept thinking to myself that I`m a foreigner and I`m expected to not know what to do here and like having new experiences. And I hope that that`s what everyone else thinks too. =P
During the whole ceremony though I could see my children totally falling asleep and getting restless because it was 1 hour of just awards giving and speeches. My kids even told me "Theresa, I`m sleepy". lol Tell you the truth, I was too. I was terribly bored because I really didn`t understand any of it and I felt like one of my kids being restless and everything. But because I was their teacher and am technically responsible for the kids here since their parents weren`t here and I was the only person that the kids knew, I had to set a good example and tried to look attentive. When my kids would start falling asleep or talk too much or fidget in their chairs I would get up and give them a light nudge and a look (nothing scary) and they would be quiet. THough I totally understood how they felt. When it was over all the kids were like YES! lol
We then all went back to the changing room and they got bags of snacks. And since there was an extra one the firemen gave it to me, even though I did absolutely nothing. Apparently after this, all the kids were supposed to go eat out together with the volunteer firemen and the kids told me to go with them. But it`s because I`m not part of the thing I told them I couldn`t go even though I badly wanted to. During this time all the kids would crowd around me in a semi-circle and talk to me and play with me. I felt loved. =) But soon after they left and I left to go back to the middle school and back home.
Jan. 9 Saturday
Today I went to AEON`s Sports Authority to buy my snowboarding outfit because on monday Satomi is gonna teach me to board! whoo! So I bought a set outfit for $185. Not bad for a set. It was a dark grey Ellesse jacket with a furry hood and beige pants. I looked pretty cool. Now if only I can snowboard, I would complete this look. haha. I then decided to call Alan to see if I can borrow his extra goggles and discovered that he was also in AEON and in Sports Authority of all places! Coinky Dink! He was also with Meghan, a wonderful ALT gal from Scotland! So we bought our stuffs and then decided to head on out. And on impulse, when I saw CoCo Curry house, I stopped and said let`s eat. Here. Now. lol I looooovee CoCo Curry! They`re soooo good. Oh, and did you know that Hokkaido is famous for our Soup curry? Well, Hokkaido is famous for a lot of food though. Anyways, I ended up getting back home at 9pm instead of the 7pm I was aiming for. haha.
Jan. 10 Sunday
Coming of Age ceremony for my town was today. I was invited to go watch it. I walked in there and was just impressed and amazed. Everyone looked soooo beautiful and cool in their kimonos and suits. The girls all wore the most beautiful Kimonos ever and had wonderful hair styles and accessories! I so wanted another kimono after that. Actually, I should go and get one because my dad has mine hanging in his restaurant and I don`t have one here in Japan. Want a blue or green one. ^^ The guys looked so cool and hot in their suits and formal kimonos. Actually I was like "dude, where have all these hot guys been!??!" I`ve never seen any of them before and they seriuosly were good looking, but I had to remind myself that they were only 20 (because that`s the coming of age in Japan). I felt kinda old after that even though I`m only 22. But everyone was so much taller than me that I felt that they could`ve been older. lol We don`t look that different in age do we? >) Just seeing all of them there was impressive to me and I kinda wished I had a coming of age ceremony too.
Jan. 11 The official Coming of Age Day, Monday
So today at around 1:30pm Satomi came to pick me up to go boarding. I`m temporarily borrowing my boss`s daughter`s board and shoes. But the shoes were a tiny bit tight. At least I didn`t have to buy one yet since I`m trying it out to see if I like it or not. Tama-chan and Mago-chan also decided to come along and go skiing. It was also snowing like crazy today. We went to Wassamu`s ski hill. So I first went over to the family slope/bunny slope and started practicing strapping in the board and standing up. After 10 minutes I was able to stand up properly on the hill without falling backwards on my butt. haha. And I saw alot of my lil elementary students there too. So they would gravitate over towards me and talk to me and ask me why I`m so inept. lol But I was like "kids, maybe you shouldn`t get too close to me while I`m boarding. You might get hurt" as I don`t know how to stop yet and how to control the board when I`m sliding.
I was also able to slide straight down without falling! Although, when it came to trying to stop I would tumble down. lol Not exactly the most graceful I`d say. The kids would then, again, come crowd around me after I fall and be silly with me. =P After 3 hours of falling on my butt and tumbling around in the snow with my kids laughing at me we decided to all head on back home. Oh, man I know I`m going to be sore the next day. Although luckily, falling here means falling on soft powder snow. So it didn`t hurt as much. So now I am dfeinitely going to go buy my own board. woo.
Otsukare for reading!
Monday, January 11, 2010
My first experience in a Love Hotel!
Jan. 1 New Years Day
So today, Leslie and I got up super early...well 7am, to go and catch the bus to go to the Formosan Aboriginal Village Cultural Theme Park in the next county. We got on the 8am bus and it took us 2 hours to get there. There were a bunch of young peoples going there as well. The place is located up in the mountains area, near Sun Moon Lake. SO it was a beautiful ride up to the park.
We got to the park and the first ride we went on was this knock off of Disneyland`s Space Tours. LOL It was soo old and so not exciting. But all the Taiwanese people were like OMG that was so crazy! lol Leslie and I just looked at each other and was like "what was that". =P Anyways, we then went in to the amusement center and rode the ever exciting carousel. And then rode the pirate ship which was so much fun actually. lol But again, the other peoples were like screaming and everything and only Leslie and I dared to hold our hands up. haha. We be brave cool girls. THen we rode the awesome knock off of Space Mountain where the inside was just totally all black and no lights or music and couldn`t see a thing. lol That was a fun ride though.
Then we walked a bit more towards the Formosan villages up the hill/mountain and saw some wonderful penis statues (see my pictures) and awesome aborigines. And we went further up to get onto the skyline/ropeway over to the Sun Moon Lake. The line was f-ing long that day. We waited a supposed 1 hour compared to the original 2 hours so we were lucky. So there was a kid that dared cut in front of us. And at first i was like, maybe he`s with the family behind us and just wants to see the carriages go up so I was fine with it, or he`s with the people in front of us. But then I remembered talking to the people in front of us and they were all couples and there`s no way they`ll take their siblings with them on a date trip, and the family behind us only had lil lil kids cuz I talked to them too. And I also saw him look back and smirk at people or friends in the back. So I was sure he was cutting. That one smirk gave it away. I asked him who he was with and he tried to lie to me and then I looked at him and gave a more severe "Say it louder" expression and he just shrank and wasn`t sure what to say. So I told him we were behind these couples and I don`t appreciate you cutting in front of us. I felt kinda mean, but alot of asian families and kids do this and I get soo annoyed and tired by this kinda thing and no one else saying anything that I take matters into my own hands and do it. bleh. Neways, The ropeways was awesome! Super high and freaky, but I kinda like high places, but going down was a lil freaky because the hill just drops below you and you`re floating via these ropes up on top.
So we get there, and the first thing I notice are all the hot guys standing around. That was nice. haha. But there was a shit load of people waiting to ride the gondola to the theme park. The lake was beautiful though! I wanted to stay there longer, but I didn`t want to miss the bus back home. So we left to get the bus, waited for an hour and a half for a supposed 15 minute wait only bus. It was stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic because it was new years Day and everyone wanted to spend it on the beautiful lake. In the end us and these 5 other girls from Hong Kong decided to take a taxi together as it would cheapen the price becuase it was about $15 because we were on the other side of our destination. The girls were really cute htough and was surprised that I could speak cantonese to them. They weren`t expecting it and just though I was Taiwanese who could speak English. I get that here in Japan too. haha.
We get halfway and the taxi driver told us to get off and charged us just $12 because he has to go back and get the other peoples stuck there since the bus isn`t coming. In a way, it`s valiant of him and in another he just wants to make more money. lol So we walked on the lake trail back to the big bus stop that would pick us up to go to Taichung. It was a beautiful scene and I do want to go back to the lake and stay in the luxurious hotel with a lake view oneday. When I am rich and famous I will. For sure! So we finally got to the bus stop and found out that the 4:30 bus was super late and it was already 5pm. Come 6pm the 4:30 bus came to pick us up. Due to horrendous Taiwanese traffic, 1 hour later we arrived at the theme park to pick other people up. It`s supposed to only take like 15 minutes to get over there from the lake. I was worried about getting back to Taichung on time since we have to get my supervisor, but luckily we arrived in Taichung station without further incident, but since we arrived so late, everything was already closing so we ate at Subway. I hadn`t had a sandwhich in a long time, so it was nice.
The one guy who made the sandwhiches there was ridiculous hot! But I`m pretty sure he was a college kid. Which made me feel old. lol But he had an ear piercing and spoke English pretty well and that made him even hotter! So he fixed up our sandwhiches for us and we went upstairs to chill and eat them as we waited for my supervisor`s bus to get here. Come 10pm we headed over to the station to meet her. ANd as I expected, because she`s a Hokkaidian and Taiwanese weather in the winter is like summer in Hokkaido, she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. haha. it was warm I have to say. Leslie thought so too, yet everyone was still dressed like it was Hokkaido in the winter. We caught one of the last trains back home and my aunt came to pick us up at the train station to go home.
We got home and Su absolutely loved the dogs! Hurray! Who wouldn`t? They`re fat and funny dogs. We settled in for the night and watched TV until like 3am and then went to sleep.
Jan. 2 Saturday
We woke up at 10am got dressed, drove over to my hospital, parked my car there, and walked up the stone stairs/hiking trail next to my hospital to Bagua Mt. It was a pleasant yet tiring walk up, but we made it in time for the morning market and bought lotsa foods and stuff. Then we went to see the Big Buddha. There were lotsa Vietnamese tour groups there and they kept saying hi to us because we were such an interesting group of peeople. lol It`s so hard explaining in Chinese to people who we were and where we`re from and our relationship with each other becasue that`s what they all seem to want to know. We`re all technically from Japan, but two of us are originally from America, one of us is studying abroad and one of us an English teacher, and the Japanese person is my supervisor/co-worker. It`s a mouthful. haha
We took lotsa pictures and I was able to eat my little conch shells snails in spicy soy sauce that I used to eat so much of when I was a kid. =P And I saw boiled ostrich eggs and goose eggs like EVERYWHERE! I wanted to buy an ostrich egg just to try eating it because it was so damn huge, but advised myself against wasting my money...lol We walked back down the hill to my car and drove to get delicious drinks. In the afternoon we went to buy stuff at Carrefour because they had stuff that Japan doesn`t, like American products for CHEAP! Ah, I missed these things. So we all bought a lot of stuff to take back to Japan to use. haha. At night we went to the nightmarket and bought and ate lotsa food (gaining 20 pounds and all). And afterwards we went to go get an awesome relaxing/painful massage for the whole body for just around $27! Woo! I felt very relaxed and dizzy afterwards though, i have to say. Su got herself a foot massage since she didn`t wanna get the full body one. The masseuse were very friendly and kept trying to talk to me, but talking to me while giving me a full body massage is dangerous, it`s already hard to breathe as it is and you want me to talk? But I will, cuz I`m trying to be friendly. ~~
We came back home at around 12pm (the massage place opens until 6am which made me kinda question it a little ^_~) and went to sleep because we had to catch another early bus in the morning to go to Taipei.
Jan. 3 Sunday
Got up and said goodbye to my family and dogs and left to go to Taipei. It`ll be my first real sightseeing trip there. hehe. So when we got there we first took the subway to get to the hotel which is supposedly located close to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We got outside and i was amazed! The roads were soooooooo wide and big and clean compared to Taichung! But then again, we are in gov`t area. So stupide me, I forgot to write down the address of the hotel and only know the English name of it so we had a hard time trying to get the taxi drivers to take us there. But finally we found it as we drove along the roads. At least I knew what road it was on, just wasn`t sure of the exact location.
We got in the hotel and it was so fabulous and modern looking! Everything was contemporary modern art style and it was so oshare/fashionable. The beautiful ladies who worked at the desk spoke English as well, so it was easy for Su and leslie to understand. We couldn`t check in yet, so we just left our bags with them first and then went to see the President`s house. Obviously, you can`t go in because there were guards just everywhere so we stood outside, stared the guards down, and took pictures. Then we left. And off to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. We originally wanted to go to the Palace Museum, but it was way too far away and would take us too long to get there and would deter us from seeing other things. So we decided against it and went to the Memorial Hall instead. It was a huge place! It also included the National Theater, the National Opera House, and the large courtyard upon which that day they had a special exhibit with a huge ass blown up Gulliver body which you can go inside to view the anatomy of a human.....it costs money, so we didn`t. heh. We then went to go see the Theater area, but you cant go in unless you have a ticket for a show. And finally we headed over to the memorial hall where just as we arrived they were doing changing of the guards.
Now that was cool. The guards looked hot and damn good in their uniforms as well as the body guards around them cuz they were wearing their black suits. =P I`m a sucker for men in suits and uniforms. I just like how they look, not necessarily who they are. Anyways, at the memorial hall there was a huge bronze statue of Chiang Kai Shek sitting on a chair much like the marble carved Pres. Lincoln in D.C. And then we went down the elevator to go check out the exhibits downstairs and found out that they were having a dinosaur exhibit. So we bought tickets for it and went in. Interesting, but not amazing. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, checked in and found a fresh new condom on the table in the room. And immediately we were all like "Omg, is this a love hotel? And saw that the bathroom doors were made of transparent glass....and so was the shower stall. woooooooOoOo. And to make sure of it, we flipped on the TV to check if there was porn, but no, no porn. We still weren`t so sure, so we said we`ll wait until night to check out the TV to see if there is porn on.
Afterwards we jumped on a bus and headed over to the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world (well that is until on Jan. 6th I read that Dubai`s bldg. is now the tallest). When we got on the bus I first asked the busdriver if this goes to Taipei 101 and he said yes. After my friends all sat down he motioned for me to come over, and he started talking to me. He was interested in who we were and found it interesting that I was like the tour group leader. haha. He was a cute young guy actually and really liked to talk to me. He recommended all sorts of places for us to go and helped me set up a sightseeing plan even though we were leaving the next day. I didn`t tell him that because I felt he really wanted to tell me these things so I let him talk like we were staying here for awhile. He even helped to tell us that we were at the stop for the Taipei 101 otherwise I would never have known.
On our way to the bldg we passed by a lot of hot young guys and I was wonderin why whenI noticed that there was a car convention going on in the bldg next to Taipei 101. We decided we would go after we went to Taipei 101 (which we didn`t end up going back to the convention). We got in, took the elevator up to the 5th floor to buy tickets to get up to the tower and realized how expensive they were. It costs $16 to go up in the world`s fastest elevator to the 89th floor. >.< So expensive, but we decided to go up since it was a once in a lifetime chance I suppose. Oh, and all the guards were kinda hot too. So filed in line and went into the elevator and the whole elevator turned dark and the ceiling lit up with shooting stars. You could also see how fast you were going and what floor you were on via the moving picture of the elvator going up the bldg. We got to the 89th floor in 37 seconds! Amazing!
The view from up here was amazing! And breathtaking. Althouhg we couldn`t see very much because of the fog since the air wasn`t so good today. But towards evening, since we stayed up there for a good 1-2hours we saw the lights of the city below and watched as the sky cleared up. It was magnificent. We even went to the 91st floor`s outdoor observatory so that we could brave the high winds and look over the rails to the world below. It was such a wonderful feeling! ^^ We then went back in and took pictures with all the cute lil Damper Babies (see pictures). They`re wind damper mascots, so they call them Damper Babies. I wanted one, but for lil figures they cost $6 and I didn`t want them that bad. Anyways, we then went off to the Shilin Night Market from there.
At the Shilin Night Market there were just hot guys EverYwhERE! I was ecstatic. haha. I bought lotsa heels cuz it`s cheap. I swear, the main things that I bought in Taiwan were the Taiwanese puppetry merchandise, food, and shoes. When we went to go eat Taiwanese shaved ice and I had to translate in English and Japanese (even though I realized that I could just speak one of the either since they both understood enough) and then back into mandarin/Taiwanese for the shopkeepers I sometimes would accidentally spill Japanese while speaking mandarin. And it kinda confused the people. haha. But I heard one of the workers talking later saying how I had to translate the Chinese first into Japanese then English then Japanese and back into Chinese again. lol I thought it was funny hearing him say that.
After buying stuffs we went back to the hotel cuz we didn`t want to miss the last train back and turned on the TV to find that there was porn on 3-4 channels!! YES! So we were in a love hotel!!! Woo! So we all sat around watching porn for a good 15 minutes because we were so fascinated by it. (Picture my supervisor, my friend Leslie, and I all sitting on the bed watching porn with fascinated faces. LOL =P) I have to say, the porn with story/plot in it was kinda interesting, while the other ones just were funny to watch. Anyways, we spent a wonderful night altogether on the king sized bed. The next morning Su and I left at 6am to catch a Taxi to the bus station that would take us to the airport to head on back to Hokkaido. Our plane, btw, was extremely small and only had 31 rows dude. lol But no incidences. Everything was good and calm.
And that is the end of my wonderful 9 day Taiwan vacation. Otsukare! My pictures are all posted, so take a look if you`d like! Love you all!
So today, Leslie and I got up super early...well 7am, to go and catch the bus to go to the Formosan Aboriginal Village Cultural Theme Park in the next county. We got on the 8am bus and it took us 2 hours to get there. There were a bunch of young peoples going there as well. The place is located up in the mountains area, near Sun Moon Lake. SO it was a beautiful ride up to the park.
We got to the park and the first ride we went on was this knock off of Disneyland`s Space Tours. LOL It was soo old and so not exciting. But all the Taiwanese people were like OMG that was so crazy! lol Leslie and I just looked at each other and was like "what was that". =P Anyways, we then went in to the amusement center and rode the ever exciting carousel. And then rode the pirate ship which was so much fun actually. lol But again, the other peoples were like screaming and everything and only Leslie and I dared to hold our hands up. haha. We be brave cool girls. THen we rode the awesome knock off of Space Mountain where the inside was just totally all black and no lights or music and couldn`t see a thing. lol That was a fun ride though.
Then we walked a bit more towards the Formosan villages up the hill/mountain and saw some wonderful penis statues (see my pictures) and awesome aborigines. And we went further up to get onto the skyline/ropeway over to the Sun Moon Lake. The line was f-ing long that day. We waited a supposed 1 hour compared to the original 2 hours so we were lucky. So there was a kid that dared cut in front of us. And at first i was like, maybe he`s with the family behind us and just wants to see the carriages go up so I was fine with it, or he`s with the people in front of us. But then I remembered talking to the people in front of us and they were all couples and there`s no way they`ll take their siblings with them on a date trip, and the family behind us only had lil lil kids cuz I talked to them too. And I also saw him look back and smirk at people or friends in the back. So I was sure he was cutting. That one smirk gave it away. I asked him who he was with and he tried to lie to me and then I looked at him and gave a more severe "Say it louder" expression and he just shrank and wasn`t sure what to say. So I told him we were behind these couples and I don`t appreciate you cutting in front of us. I felt kinda mean, but alot of asian families and kids do this and I get soo annoyed and tired by this kinda thing and no one else saying anything that I take matters into my own hands and do it. bleh. Neways, The ropeways was awesome! Super high and freaky, but I kinda like high places, but going down was a lil freaky because the hill just drops below you and you`re floating via these ropes up on top.
So we get there, and the first thing I notice are all the hot guys standing around. That was nice. haha. But there was a shit load of people waiting to ride the gondola to the theme park. The lake was beautiful though! I wanted to stay there longer, but I didn`t want to miss the bus back home. So we left to get the bus, waited for an hour and a half for a supposed 15 minute wait only bus. It was stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic because it was new years Day and everyone wanted to spend it on the beautiful lake. In the end us and these 5 other girls from Hong Kong decided to take a taxi together as it would cheapen the price becuase it was about $15 because we were on the other side of our destination. The girls were really cute htough and was surprised that I could speak cantonese to them. They weren`t expecting it and just though I was Taiwanese who could speak English. I get that here in Japan too. haha.
We get halfway and the taxi driver told us to get off and charged us just $12 because he has to go back and get the other peoples stuck there since the bus isn`t coming. In a way, it`s valiant of him and in another he just wants to make more money. lol So we walked on the lake trail back to the big bus stop that would pick us up to go to Taichung. It was a beautiful scene and I do want to go back to the lake and stay in the luxurious hotel with a lake view oneday. When I am rich and famous I will. For sure! So we finally got to the bus stop and found out that the 4:30 bus was super late and it was already 5pm. Come 6pm the 4:30 bus came to pick us up. Due to horrendous Taiwanese traffic, 1 hour later we arrived at the theme park to pick other people up. It`s supposed to only take like 15 minutes to get over there from the lake. I was worried about getting back to Taichung on time since we have to get my supervisor, but luckily we arrived in Taichung station without further incident, but since we arrived so late, everything was already closing so we ate at Subway. I hadn`t had a sandwhich in a long time, so it was nice.
The one guy who made the sandwhiches there was ridiculous hot! But I`m pretty sure he was a college kid. Which made me feel old. lol But he had an ear piercing and spoke English pretty well and that made him even hotter! So he fixed up our sandwhiches for us and we went upstairs to chill and eat them as we waited for my supervisor`s bus to get here. Come 10pm we headed over to the station to meet her. ANd as I expected, because she`s a Hokkaidian and Taiwanese weather in the winter is like summer in Hokkaido, she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. haha. it was warm I have to say. Leslie thought so too, yet everyone was still dressed like it was Hokkaido in the winter. We caught one of the last trains back home and my aunt came to pick us up at the train station to go home.
We got home and Su absolutely loved the dogs! Hurray! Who wouldn`t? They`re fat and funny dogs. We settled in for the night and watched TV until like 3am and then went to sleep.
Jan. 2 Saturday
We woke up at 10am got dressed, drove over to my hospital, parked my car there, and walked up the stone stairs/hiking trail next to my hospital to Bagua Mt. It was a pleasant yet tiring walk up, but we made it in time for the morning market and bought lotsa foods and stuff. Then we went to see the Big Buddha. There were lotsa Vietnamese tour groups there and they kept saying hi to us because we were such an interesting group of peeople. lol It`s so hard explaining in Chinese to people who we were and where we`re from and our relationship with each other becasue that`s what they all seem to want to know. We`re all technically from Japan, but two of us are originally from America, one of us is studying abroad and one of us an English teacher, and the Japanese person is my supervisor/co-worker. It`s a mouthful. haha
We took lotsa pictures and I was able to eat my little conch shells snails in spicy soy sauce that I used to eat so much of when I was a kid. =P And I saw boiled ostrich eggs and goose eggs like EVERYWHERE! I wanted to buy an ostrich egg just to try eating it because it was so damn huge, but advised myself against wasting my money...lol We walked back down the hill to my car and drove to get delicious drinks. In the afternoon we went to buy stuff at Carrefour because they had stuff that Japan doesn`t, like American products for CHEAP! Ah, I missed these things. So we all bought a lot of stuff to take back to Japan to use. haha. At night we went to the nightmarket and bought and ate lotsa food (gaining 20 pounds and all). And afterwards we went to go get an awesome relaxing/painful massage for the whole body for just around $27! Woo! I felt very relaxed and dizzy afterwards though, i have to say. Su got herself a foot massage since she didn`t wanna get the full body one. The masseuse were very friendly and kept trying to talk to me, but talking to me while giving me a full body massage is dangerous, it`s already hard to breathe as it is and you want me to talk? But I will, cuz I`m trying to be friendly. ~~
We came back home at around 12pm (the massage place opens until 6am which made me kinda question it a little ^_~) and went to sleep because we had to catch another early bus in the morning to go to Taipei.
Jan. 3 Sunday
Got up and said goodbye to my family and dogs and left to go to Taipei. It`ll be my first real sightseeing trip there. hehe. So when we got there we first took the subway to get to the hotel which is supposedly located close to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We got outside and i was amazed! The roads were soooooooo wide and big and clean compared to Taichung! But then again, we are in gov`t area. So stupide me, I forgot to write down the address of the hotel and only know the English name of it so we had a hard time trying to get the taxi drivers to take us there. But finally we found it as we drove along the roads. At least I knew what road it was on, just wasn`t sure of the exact location.
We got in the hotel and it was so fabulous and modern looking! Everything was contemporary modern art style and it was so oshare/fashionable. The beautiful ladies who worked at the desk spoke English as well, so it was easy for Su and leslie to understand. We couldn`t check in yet, so we just left our bags with them first and then went to see the President`s house. Obviously, you can`t go in because there were guards just everywhere so we stood outside, stared the guards down, and took pictures. Then we left. And off to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. We originally wanted to go to the Palace Museum, but it was way too far away and would take us too long to get there and would deter us from seeing other things. So we decided against it and went to the Memorial Hall instead. It was a huge place! It also included the National Theater, the National Opera House, and the large courtyard upon which that day they had a special exhibit with a huge ass blown up Gulliver body which you can go inside to view the anatomy of a human.....it costs money, so we didn`t. heh. We then went to go see the Theater area, but you cant go in unless you have a ticket for a show. And finally we headed over to the memorial hall where just as we arrived they were doing changing of the guards.
Now that was cool. The guards looked hot and damn good in their uniforms as well as the body guards around them cuz they were wearing their black suits. =P I`m a sucker for men in suits and uniforms. I just like how they look, not necessarily who they are. Anyways, at the memorial hall there was a huge bronze statue of Chiang Kai Shek sitting on a chair much like the marble carved Pres. Lincoln in D.C. And then we went down the elevator to go check out the exhibits downstairs and found out that they were having a dinosaur exhibit. So we bought tickets for it and went in. Interesting, but not amazing. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, checked in and found a fresh new condom on the table in the room. And immediately we were all like "Omg, is this a love hotel? And saw that the bathroom doors were made of transparent glass....and so was the shower stall. woooooooOoOo. And to make sure of it, we flipped on the TV to check if there was porn, but no, no porn. We still weren`t so sure, so we said we`ll wait until night to check out the TV to see if there is porn on.
Afterwards we jumped on a bus and headed over to the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world (well that is until on Jan. 6th I read that Dubai`s bldg. is now the tallest). When we got on the bus I first asked the busdriver if this goes to Taipei 101 and he said yes. After my friends all sat down he motioned for me to come over, and he started talking to me. He was interested in who we were and found it interesting that I was like the tour group leader. haha. He was a cute young guy actually and really liked to talk to me. He recommended all sorts of places for us to go and helped me set up a sightseeing plan even though we were leaving the next day. I didn`t tell him that because I felt he really wanted to tell me these things so I let him talk like we were staying here for awhile. He even helped to tell us that we were at the stop for the Taipei 101 otherwise I would never have known.
On our way to the bldg we passed by a lot of hot young guys and I was wonderin why whenI noticed that there was a car convention going on in the bldg next to Taipei 101. We decided we would go after we went to Taipei 101 (which we didn`t end up going back to the convention). We got in, took the elevator up to the 5th floor to buy tickets to get up to the tower and realized how expensive they were. It costs $16 to go up in the world`s fastest elevator to the 89th floor. >.< So expensive, but we decided to go up since it was a once in a lifetime chance I suppose. Oh, and all the guards were kinda hot too. So filed in line and went into the elevator and the whole elevator turned dark and the ceiling lit up with shooting stars. You could also see how fast you were going and what floor you were on via the moving picture of the elvator going up the bldg. We got to the 89th floor in 37 seconds! Amazing!
The view from up here was amazing! And breathtaking. Althouhg we couldn`t see very much because of the fog since the air wasn`t so good today. But towards evening, since we stayed up there for a good 1-2hours we saw the lights of the city below and watched as the sky cleared up. It was magnificent. We even went to the 91st floor`s outdoor observatory so that we could brave the high winds and look over the rails to the world below. It was such a wonderful feeling! ^^ We then went back in and took pictures with all the cute lil Damper Babies (see pictures). They`re wind damper mascots, so they call them Damper Babies. I wanted one, but for lil figures they cost $6 and I didn`t want them that bad. Anyways, we then went off to the Shilin Night Market from there.
At the Shilin Night Market there were just hot guys EverYwhERE! I was ecstatic. haha. I bought lotsa heels cuz it`s cheap. I swear, the main things that I bought in Taiwan were the Taiwanese puppetry merchandise, food, and shoes. When we went to go eat Taiwanese shaved ice and I had to translate in English and Japanese (even though I realized that I could just speak one of the either since they both understood enough) and then back into mandarin/Taiwanese for the shopkeepers I sometimes would accidentally spill Japanese while speaking mandarin. And it kinda confused the people. haha. But I heard one of the workers talking later saying how I had to translate the Chinese first into Japanese then English then Japanese and back into Chinese again. lol I thought it was funny hearing him say that.
After buying stuffs we went back to the hotel cuz we didn`t want to miss the last train back and turned on the TV to find that there was porn on 3-4 channels!! YES! So we were in a love hotel!!! Woo! So we all sat around watching porn for a good 15 minutes because we were so fascinated by it. (Picture my supervisor, my friend Leslie, and I all sitting on the bed watching porn with fascinated faces. LOL =P) I have to say, the porn with story/plot in it was kinda interesting, while the other ones just were funny to watch. Anyways, we spent a wonderful night altogether on the king sized bed. The next morning Su and I left at 6am to catch a Taxi to the bus station that would take us to the airport to head on back to Hokkaido. Our plane, btw, was extremely small and only had 31 rows dude. lol But no incidences. Everything was good and calm.
And that is the end of my wonderful 9 day Taiwan vacation. Otsukare! My pictures are all posted, so take a look if you`d like! Love you all!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
More Taiwan!
Dec. 28th Monday
So today was a day of maintenance. I was able to borrow my uncle`s old car to drive Leslie and I around, but it took me a lil while to get used to driving on the other side again. The car was a cute lil burgundy Nissan Verita. I loved it. It was just a little bit hard to drive. So we went morning shopping for things. I bought some fake nails to glue onto my fingers because I missed having my nails decorated/blinged out like a gyaru`s nail. It makes your hand just so much more interesting. haha. The nails were pink with light pink and white sparkly criss-cross designs at the tip and on some of them there were acrylic white flowers and fake diamonds. It was sooo cute! (Check out my pics) But sadly they only lasted a day. ;_; Then we went to go buy some milk tea, after all, we`re in the land that created it and boba and all. I missed it hardcore because it`s so damn good here. So I ordered my sweet mung bean drink from my favorite store. I love the place. We also bought some awesome popcorn chicken and Taiwanese tempura. Oh man I missed this. Street food bought from vendors is the best. And I knew from that day I was gonna be gaining a hell of a lot of weight. Actually, I knew before I went to Taiwan that I was gonna become fatter and eat from day to night. Cuz that`s what you do in Taiwan. Eat and shop.
In the afternoon we went looking for a hair salon cuz Leslie wanted to get her hair dyed and cut and I decided to get a hair treatment. After getting lost 5 times and almost hitting a rogue moped driver (I swear, moped drivers are freakin crazy and reckless in Taiwan. Oh, and there`s no concept of pedestrians here.) we found a cool looking place with young people who work in there. And there was one ikemen guy in there. So at first it was a lady who was talking to both me and Leslie, but when I asked her about the hair treatment stuff she called over the treatment specialist who turned out to be that hot guy. I was like "no way, oh man. I`m gonna have a heart attack" lol. So he touched my hair and after asking him what was best, I decided to go along with his recommendation. He took me over to the washing basin and started to wash my hair. Along with the hair wash was the most amazing head massage EVER! Damn it felt good! His hands were like magic! Leslie said I was there for a good 10-15 minutes and said that he must`ve liked me enough to massage for that long, kya! Yeah, it did feel like a long time, but I enjoyed every second of it. >D Leslie got her hair dyed a beautiful burgundy red color and my hair felt soft and silky aftewards.
We went back home ate some wonderful Taiwanese hot pot with lamb and then left to go to the night market for some shopping. I got there and ate food again....lol Then came back home to play with my doggies. Oh, and it was only 16 degrees C outside but people here were sporting thick winter hokkaido style jackets. I was like WTF? It`s warm outside! But then again, I have gotten used to Hokkaido weather.
Dec. 29th Tuesday
So today we went to Taichung!! Yay! Took the train over. Actually we woke up at around 11am and watched some TV and ate lunch before heading over to Taichung. ehehe. So our goal today was to watch Avatar in 3D. We went over to ShinkongSanye or Mitsukoshi and watched the 2pm showing. It was soooooooooooooo GOOOD! Watch it peoples if you haven`t watched it! The story is pretty typical, but it`s the graphics that you have to watch it for. It`s beautiful, like ridiculous beautiful. And it really is like a pocahontas story. =P Anyways, afterwards we went to the Taichung Fengjia Night Market to shop and eat dinner. We just went to eat alot of stuff sold by the vendors, got some mega long ice cream, ate stinky tofu, and drank Indonesian pulled tea which was manned by this hot looking in-man`s-clothes-girl. There`s a lot of them here in Taiwan. I believe they`re lesbians. But I think they`re terribly hot and sexy. I`d totally go for them because they just look soooo good. They`re girls who dress up like guys, act and walk like guys, and do their hair like a guys. I actually have a couple friends like them and I think they`re hot! And they usually always have some really hot girl with them too, maybe their gf? Anyways, Taiwanese lesbian couples are hot hot hot. >D
We had a wonderful evening and caught a taxi back to get one of the last trains back home.
Dec. 30th Wednesday
Today is Lugang day. Lugang is the second oldest city in Taiwan and its chocked full of historical stuff and old alleys. It`s also very Buddhist. Lugang translated into English means deer alley, but I didn`t see any deer. Anyways, the meat buns here are the most famous and this is about the only place you can get dragon whiskers candy. It is made from sugar spun into thin strings so they look like whiskers and they wrap them around sesame or peanut powder so it looks like a cocoon of sorts. I love it and missed this as well. I went to the temple to do some praying because I haven`t done so in a while. I did the usual thing then went out to buy some wonderous mini deep fried shrimp. Then we walked around the old alleys where there were vendors everywhere and we bought liquid molasses candy that are in bags with sticks sticking out of them closed off with a rubber band so that the liquid cant flow out. You cut off the tip of the bag at the top and start sucking out the molasses. It`s super sticky but not extremely sweet, just perfect. Walked around a bit more and then went on back home late evening. I also bought mung bean and milk powder cakes. Lugang is also the only place for these things. Anywas, getting back home we were pretty tired from the days excitment but still went to the Changhwa night market inmy town. And there we bought papaya milk and ate more foods. Yup that`s all you do here.
Dec. 31st Thursday
Spent the day in Taichung again. Just chillin and shoppin and then went to the Sogo Dept store for a nice New Years Eve dinner. We ate at California Skylark. I ordered a nice 3 course steak meal and Leslie ordered a four course one. Appetizer was a shrimp and mushroom grill. Soup was puff pastry chicken cream soup. Entree was steer steak and chicken nuggets on a teppan plate. And my drink was fruit tea with an assortment of cut fruits floating around inside. It was delicious! We then went home and went upstairs to the roof to watch the fireworks at midnight to bring in the new year. Woo 2010!
So today was a day of maintenance. I was able to borrow my uncle`s old car to drive Leslie and I around, but it took me a lil while to get used to driving on the other side again. The car was a cute lil burgundy Nissan Verita. I loved it. It was just a little bit hard to drive. So we went morning shopping for things. I bought some fake nails to glue onto my fingers because I missed having my nails decorated/blinged out like a gyaru`s nail. It makes your hand just so much more interesting. haha. The nails were pink with light pink and white sparkly criss-cross designs at the tip and on some of them there were acrylic white flowers and fake diamonds. It was sooo cute! (Check out my pics) But sadly they only lasted a day. ;_; Then we went to go buy some milk tea, after all, we`re in the land that created it and boba and all. I missed it hardcore because it`s so damn good here. So I ordered my sweet mung bean drink from my favorite store. I love the place. We also bought some awesome popcorn chicken and Taiwanese tempura. Oh man I missed this. Street food bought from vendors is the best. And I knew from that day I was gonna be gaining a hell of a lot of weight. Actually, I knew before I went to Taiwan that I was gonna become fatter and eat from day to night. Cuz that`s what you do in Taiwan. Eat and shop.
In the afternoon we went looking for a hair salon cuz Leslie wanted to get her hair dyed and cut and I decided to get a hair treatment. After getting lost 5 times and almost hitting a rogue moped driver (I swear, moped drivers are freakin crazy and reckless in Taiwan. Oh, and there`s no concept of pedestrians here.) we found a cool looking place with young people who work in there. And there was one ikemen guy in there. So at first it was a lady who was talking to both me and Leslie, but when I asked her about the hair treatment stuff she called over the treatment specialist who turned out to be that hot guy. I was like "no way, oh man. I`m gonna have a heart attack" lol. So he touched my hair and after asking him what was best, I decided to go along with his recommendation. He took me over to the washing basin and started to wash my hair. Along with the hair wash was the most amazing head massage EVER! Damn it felt good! His hands were like magic! Leslie said I was there for a good 10-15 minutes and said that he must`ve liked me enough to massage for that long, kya! Yeah, it did feel like a long time, but I enjoyed every second of it. >D Leslie got her hair dyed a beautiful burgundy red color and my hair felt soft and silky aftewards.
We went back home ate some wonderful Taiwanese hot pot with lamb and then left to go to the night market for some shopping. I got there and ate food again....lol Then came back home to play with my doggies. Oh, and it was only 16 degrees C outside but people here were sporting thick winter hokkaido style jackets. I was like WTF? It`s warm outside! But then again, I have gotten used to Hokkaido weather.
Dec. 29th Tuesday
So today we went to Taichung!! Yay! Took the train over. Actually we woke up at around 11am and watched some TV and ate lunch before heading over to Taichung. ehehe. So our goal today was to watch Avatar in 3D. We went over to ShinkongSanye or Mitsukoshi and watched the 2pm showing. It was soooooooooooooo GOOOD! Watch it peoples if you haven`t watched it! The story is pretty typical, but it`s the graphics that you have to watch it for. It`s beautiful, like ridiculous beautiful. And it really is like a pocahontas story. =P Anyways, afterwards we went to the Taichung Fengjia Night Market to shop and eat dinner. We just went to eat alot of stuff sold by the vendors, got some mega long ice cream, ate stinky tofu, and drank Indonesian pulled tea which was manned by this hot looking in-man`s-clothes-girl. There`s a lot of them here in Taiwan. I believe they`re lesbians. But I think they`re terribly hot and sexy. I`d totally go for them because they just look soooo good. They`re girls who dress up like guys, act and walk like guys, and do their hair like a guys. I actually have a couple friends like them and I think they`re hot! And they usually always have some really hot girl with them too, maybe their gf? Anyways, Taiwanese lesbian couples are hot hot hot. >D
We had a wonderful evening and caught a taxi back to get one of the last trains back home.
Dec. 30th Wednesday
Today is Lugang day. Lugang is the second oldest city in Taiwan and its chocked full of historical stuff and old alleys. It`s also very Buddhist. Lugang translated into English means deer alley, but I didn`t see any deer. Anyways, the meat buns here are the most famous and this is about the only place you can get dragon whiskers candy. It is made from sugar spun into thin strings so they look like whiskers and they wrap them around sesame or peanut powder so it looks like a cocoon of sorts. I love it and missed this as well. I went to the temple to do some praying because I haven`t done so in a while. I did the usual thing then went out to buy some wonderous mini deep fried shrimp. Then we walked around the old alleys where there were vendors everywhere and we bought liquid molasses candy that are in bags with sticks sticking out of them closed off with a rubber band so that the liquid cant flow out. You cut off the tip of the bag at the top and start sucking out the molasses. It`s super sticky but not extremely sweet, just perfect. Walked around a bit more and then went on back home late evening. I also bought mung bean and milk powder cakes. Lugang is also the only place for these things. Anywas, getting back home we were pretty tired from the days excitment but still went to the Changhwa night market inmy town. And there we bought papaya milk and ate more foods. Yup that`s all you do here.
Dec. 31st Thursday
Spent the day in Taichung again. Just chillin and shoppin and then went to the Sogo Dept store for a nice New Years Eve dinner. We ate at California Skylark. I ordered a nice 3 course steak meal and Leslie ordered a four course one. Appetizer was a shrimp and mushroom grill. Soup was puff pastry chicken cream soup. Entree was steer steak and chicken nuggets on a teppan plate. And my drink was fruit tea with an assortment of cut fruits floating around inside. It was delicious! We then went home and went upstairs to the roof to watch the fireworks at midnight to bring in the new year. Woo 2010!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Christmas and Taiwan!
Dec. 25th Friday, Christmas Day and Elementary Bounenkai
So after a fun day at the elementary with the kids today (I had absolutely no classes whatsoever) there was the bounenkai for the elementary staff. Ueno-sensei was still as oshare/fashionable as ever with her Vivien Westwood clothes and bag. I love this teacher, we have the same tastes in wierd things like Rilakkuma/Mameshiba/and Vivien Westwood. Noso-sensei (whom I also adore cuz she`s such a sweet teacher) drove us over to the ryoukan where the bounenkai was held. This ryoukan was in like a back alley area where I`ve never seen before and it was old, but had a very Japanese rusticness about it.
So when we got into the room we had to pick a piece of paper that matched where we would sit. At the elementary and middle school there is no heirarchy seating. It is all based upon chance and matching, which is pretty cool cuz you get to sit next to people you`ve never sat near before. So I got a picture with a Prius on it and sat down with Tanaka-sensei (the nurse) to my right. And then I heard a "Yes we can" from behind me and saw Mr. Wonderful sit down to my left. Now, this is not the first time we`ve sat in proximity together actually. The first time was the welcome party for me and him so they had us sit next to each other, him on my right. The second time we sat diagonal from each other. And now he drew the picture that matched the one to my left. Each time we drew pictures we somehow ended up getting seats near each other or next to each other. Could it be....fate? lol Not getting my hopes up though. ^_~ Anyways, he looked soooo good in his black suit and he also had black leather gloves and a black long coat. In fact, he kinda looked like a host it was so hot. Serious. I wasn`t the only one who thought that either. One of the other male teacher was also wearing a suit and going around pouring beer for everyone and Kikuchi-sensei was like "You look like a host" And then the other teachers chimed in and said "But Mr. Wonderful looks just like one." And I was sitting next to him so I was like does that mean I`m like his client? =P He was hot that night I have to say.
Anyways, Mr. Wonderful and I had wonderful talks about stuff and he told me all about Fuji-san and the cave underneath it. I would love to do those things. I have a penchance for adventures and exploration. hehe. Anyways the dinner was wonderful! It was Hokkaido`s famous kegani/hairy crab, baked scallops, kobe steak salad, chawanmushi, hamachi (fish), and oyako-don (salmon and salmon roe rice). SOOOOO Good! And then to end it, the 5th grade teacher did a presentation on the big 10 news of the year. One of them was me coming to the school and he also had a special thank you for me for teaching the kids fun games and doing wierd gestures so the kids will remember the vocab. Hehe, I felt happy and glowy. Then we went to go to nijikai at an all you can drink bar place for 90 minutes. Upon aftewards we went home via taxi or the vice principal`s car. I should`ve gone home via the vp`s car because then I could`ve sat with Mr. Wonderful!! >.< But it`s okay, the taxi was a nice ride and I was able to talk to my 5th grade teacher more. He paid for the whole taxi ride which cost $30!!! I insisted on paying for half of it, but he paid for the whole thing instead! Dude! I owe him one.
Anyways, I went home, packed, and barely slept cuz I was happy and excited that i get to finally get out of the snow and everything so that I can go and visit family in Taiwan. Ah, warm Taiwan.
Dec. 26th Saturday
So I got there on time and everything (which btw, I now hate the Chitose Airport`s international flight section because the lines are so ridiculously long and not enough counters and stuff and only one security check which ended up causing the long ass lines) and got on the plane at 3pm which it was supposed to take off at 3:45pm. And we ended up taxi-ing on the plane until 7pm.........yes...It was definitely not going to take off. And what`s worse was that there were about 4 tour groups all from Singapore on the plane in the seats near me. Luckily for me, no one sat next to me and I had a window and aisle seat open, so I spread myself on there. But the tour group was all around me and complained alot and were loud and annoying.
I have to say, no offense to anyone because I`m actually also one and so are my parents, but many (not everyone) Asian people from China and southeast Asia just have no consideration for those around them. And this always annoyed me. Everytime. I think that maybe only Japanese people don`t annoy me as much. At least they kind of have the courtesy to take in consideration for those around them. Seriously, I had tour group families sit in front of me and behind me and they would just crowd around the area talking loudly to each other, making an abundance of complaints, and actually crowding into my seat area. I was like `dude, I sit here and you`re leaning all over my chair and getting all up in my space yo!` I kinda felt sorry for the non tour group families sitting around because they also had to endure the same thing. I also felt bad for the flight attendants because they were trying their hardest to calm everyone down but everyone was complaining that it was their fault! It isn`t! It`s the weather! What did you expect from Hokkaido in the winter? Happy sunflowers and coconut trees under a beautiful blue sky?!!
I was sooo annoyed and I could tell that the flight attendants were too! I`d totally want to punch someone if they kept coming to complain to me about the plane not taking off. I`d rather sit in the plane for a couple hours than have the plane take off in the blizzard, slip on black ice somewhere during take-off and have a fiery crash. And it wasn`t just our flight either. 4 other flights sheduled to take off around the same time were also delayed. The main problem was that they couldn`t get the 2 main runways cleared of all the snow and ice in time for us to leave. It was reasonable because if you looked outside you`d understand. And I do understand that many of the tour groups had to catch a connecting flight to Singapore from Taiwan and were frustrated that they`d miss their flight, but I`m sure the airport will organize something since you paid all that money and you have to get home somehow. But complaining like that will get you nowhere under these circumstances. At least the mother who sat in front of me apologized for the situation with everyone complaining and crowding around me. She actually helped me a couple times because maybe she felt bad for all the disturbances. But they still continued.
But just fyi, that was not the first time I experienced this. Everytime I get on the plane to Taiwan or from Taiwan back to America, Taiwanese and southeast asian families/groups always annoyed me because they were so loud and loved to complain about everything and paid no heed to courtesy. I`m Taiwanese and Southeast Asian, but I have to say out of all the Asians on planes or in groups, they annoy me the most. Sorry, but my Mom is the same way and she`s Southeast Asian, I love her and all but her friends and her really annoy me when they get together and stuff like that because it's basically the same as the above; my Dad`s Taiwanese, but he`s really not that bad. Just please please please take in consideration those around you, don`t be stupid and let others think so of you, and first try to understand why things are happening the way they are before you make judgements and complaints. If you do so, other people won`t make rash judgements on you, maybe won`t dislike you, and be a little more open to your feelings. Because all I could think about during that time was not how I had to wait for so long on the plane (cuz I`d really rather be safe than sorry) but of how annoyed I was with the tour groups around me!!!! I don`t know, maybe I`ve been living in sweet polite (maybe fake?) Japan for so long or am pretty Americanized (where space and courtesy is well enforced otherwise you`d get your ass kicked) that these things annoyed me soo much.
Anyways, sorry for the long rant on the plane tour groups stuff. I was just terribly annoyed and couldn`t really do anything about it because I was the lone person in the section with all the tour groups and I didn`t want to get ganged up on if I said anything or ruin my teacher`s reputation. bah. I kinda feel like a coward now and stupid for not saying anything. But ah well. The flight ended up being cancelled until the next morning and so the airport/airline provided hotel rooms for us to stay in. And I have to say, I totally didn`t mind the flight being cancelled because these rooms were serious nice! They were huge! I told them I was just by myself, but they gave me a double sized bedroom! The hotel was called Classe Hotel, sits on top of a hill, and it just opened in August. It was a beautiful hot springs spa hotel and would probably cost 100-something a night to stay (luckily free for us). The view from my room was spectacular. I could see mountains and distant city lights. My bathroom was gigantic with so much space in the middle of it I wasn`t sure what to do with it. haha. I had a vanity as well! The only thing is we arrived at around 1am when the hot springs were closed. So no chance for that. But I took full advantage of the room for the night. hehe.
Dec. 27th Sunday
The bus came to pick all of us passengers up to get over to the airport in the morning after a splendid free breakfast buffet. This wonderful Taiwanese couple from last night who helped me get a room when I was confused with what was going on (because all I could hear was complaining and all the airport people were being bombarded by the complainees that I couldn`t really get a chance to talk to them about what was happening) also were with me so I made new friends. They came to Hokkaido to tour on their own without a group. (Like I said, not all Taiwanese/Southeast Asian people are annoying, some are pretty nice) They helped me along and everything and I was able to get on the 11:30 flight to Taiwan, same seats and everything. Again, I spread myself over the two seats I had free. Woo. I finally watched District 9 on the plane! It was good!
I arrived and got through customs at 4:30pm and waited around for Leslie to arrive from Tokyo at around 5pm. And boy was I so glad to see her! I missed seeing my friends from back home and seeing her was a wave of exhiliration and relief. I`m finally with my old friends and family again. I missed them so terribly much. Oh, btw, Fahrenheit is Taiwan`s representative, like how Rain is for Korea. I saw their life sized cutouts welcoming me in Taiwan immediately upon entering the arrivals hall. lol We both caught a bus over to Taichung and had a wonderful fun talk which I haven`t done in a while on the way over. My aunt and uncle came to pick us up at the Taichung bus stop and then we went back to the house. Upon arriving I was so happy to see my 2 wonderful dogs, Kin-chan and Bobby. I missed them soo much! They got skinnier!...I think. Anyways, my grandma was happy to see me as I was her. I missed Taiwan and I missed my family. Actually, it was a pretty funny change from seeing the white covered winterland of Hokkaido to seeing the still lush moist green fields of Taiwan. I was like, man, I don`t need my jacket. And indeed I really didn`t. It was not cold whatsoever. Well, to us Hokkaidians and the one from Tokyo. The coldest it got was 13 degrees C and it was mainly 17-18 degrees C most of the time. So I actually got hot on some days.
So Happy New Years to all and I will write more on Taiwan later! Peace! Oh! And, pics are all up. All 300 of them! So check out my old updated album and my 3 new ones! My kids are all in them as well!
So after a fun day at the elementary with the kids today (I had absolutely no classes whatsoever) there was the bounenkai for the elementary staff. Ueno-sensei was still as oshare/fashionable as ever with her Vivien Westwood clothes and bag. I love this teacher, we have the same tastes in wierd things like Rilakkuma/Mameshiba/and Vivien Westwood. Noso-sensei (whom I also adore cuz she`s such a sweet teacher) drove us over to the ryoukan where the bounenkai was held. This ryoukan was in like a back alley area where I`ve never seen before and it was old, but had a very Japanese rusticness about it.
So when we got into the room we had to pick a piece of paper that matched where we would sit. At the elementary and middle school there is no heirarchy seating. It is all based upon chance and matching, which is pretty cool cuz you get to sit next to people you`ve never sat near before. So I got a picture with a Prius on it and sat down with Tanaka-sensei (the nurse) to my right. And then I heard a "Yes we can" from behind me and saw Mr. Wonderful sit down to my left. Now, this is not the first time we`ve sat in proximity together actually. The first time was the welcome party for me and him so they had us sit next to each other, him on my right. The second time we sat diagonal from each other. And now he drew the picture that matched the one to my left. Each time we drew pictures we somehow ended up getting seats near each other or next to each other. Could it be....fate? lol Not getting my hopes up though. ^_~ Anyways, he looked soooo good in his black suit and he also had black leather gloves and a black long coat. In fact, he kinda looked like a host it was so hot. Serious. I wasn`t the only one who thought that either. One of the other male teacher was also wearing a suit and going around pouring beer for everyone and Kikuchi-sensei was like "You look like a host" And then the other teachers chimed in and said "But Mr. Wonderful looks just like one." And I was sitting next to him so I was like does that mean I`m like his client? =P He was hot that night I have to say.
Anyways, Mr. Wonderful and I had wonderful talks about stuff and he told me all about Fuji-san and the cave underneath it. I would love to do those things. I have a penchance for adventures and exploration. hehe. Anyways the dinner was wonderful! It was Hokkaido`s famous kegani/hairy crab, baked scallops, kobe steak salad, chawanmushi, hamachi (fish), and oyako-don (salmon and salmon roe rice). SOOOOO Good! And then to end it, the 5th grade teacher did a presentation on the big 10 news of the year. One of them was me coming to the school and he also had a special thank you for me for teaching the kids fun games and doing wierd gestures so the kids will remember the vocab. Hehe, I felt happy and glowy. Then we went to go to nijikai at an all you can drink bar place for 90 minutes. Upon aftewards we went home via taxi or the vice principal`s car. I should`ve gone home via the vp`s car because then I could`ve sat with Mr. Wonderful!! >.< But it`s okay, the taxi was a nice ride and I was able to talk to my 5th grade teacher more. He paid for the whole taxi ride which cost $30!!! I insisted on paying for half of it, but he paid for the whole thing instead! Dude! I owe him one.
Anyways, I went home, packed, and barely slept cuz I was happy and excited that i get to finally get out of the snow and everything so that I can go and visit family in Taiwan. Ah, warm Taiwan.
Dec. 26th Saturday
So I got there on time and everything (which btw, I now hate the Chitose Airport`s international flight section because the lines are so ridiculously long and not enough counters and stuff and only one security check which ended up causing the long ass lines) and got on the plane at 3pm which it was supposed to take off at 3:45pm. And we ended up taxi-ing on the plane until 7pm.........yes...It was definitely not going to take off. And what`s worse was that there were about 4 tour groups all from Singapore on the plane in the seats near me. Luckily for me, no one sat next to me and I had a window and aisle seat open, so I spread myself on there. But the tour group was all around me and complained alot and were loud and annoying.
I have to say, no offense to anyone because I`m actually also one and so are my parents, but many (not everyone) Asian people from China and southeast Asia just have no consideration for those around them. And this always annoyed me. Everytime. I think that maybe only Japanese people don`t annoy me as much. At least they kind of have the courtesy to take in consideration for those around them. Seriously, I had tour group families sit in front of me and behind me and they would just crowd around the area talking loudly to each other, making an abundance of complaints, and actually crowding into my seat area. I was like `dude, I sit here and you`re leaning all over my chair and getting all up in my space yo!` I kinda felt sorry for the non tour group families sitting around because they also had to endure the same thing. I also felt bad for the flight attendants because they were trying their hardest to calm everyone down but everyone was complaining that it was their fault! It isn`t! It`s the weather! What did you expect from Hokkaido in the winter? Happy sunflowers and coconut trees under a beautiful blue sky?!!
I was sooo annoyed and I could tell that the flight attendants were too! I`d totally want to punch someone if they kept coming to complain to me about the plane not taking off. I`d rather sit in the plane for a couple hours than have the plane take off in the blizzard, slip on black ice somewhere during take-off and have a fiery crash. And it wasn`t just our flight either. 4 other flights sheduled to take off around the same time were also delayed. The main problem was that they couldn`t get the 2 main runways cleared of all the snow and ice in time for us to leave. It was reasonable because if you looked outside you`d understand. And I do understand that many of the tour groups had to catch a connecting flight to Singapore from Taiwan and were frustrated that they`d miss their flight, but I`m sure the airport will organize something since you paid all that money and you have to get home somehow. But complaining like that will get you nowhere under these circumstances. At least the mother who sat in front of me apologized for the situation with everyone complaining and crowding around me. She actually helped me a couple times because maybe she felt bad for all the disturbances. But they still continued.
But just fyi, that was not the first time I experienced this. Everytime I get on the plane to Taiwan or from Taiwan back to America, Taiwanese and southeast asian families/groups always annoyed me because they were so loud and loved to complain about everything and paid no heed to courtesy. I`m Taiwanese and Southeast Asian, but I have to say out of all the Asians on planes or in groups, they annoy me the most. Sorry, but my Mom is the same way and she`s Southeast Asian, I love her and all but her friends and her really annoy me when they get together and stuff like that because it's basically the same as the above; my Dad`s Taiwanese, but he`s really not that bad. Just please please please take in consideration those around you, don`t be stupid and let others think so of you, and first try to understand why things are happening the way they are before you make judgements and complaints. If you do so, other people won`t make rash judgements on you, maybe won`t dislike you, and be a little more open to your feelings. Because all I could think about during that time was not how I had to wait for so long on the plane (cuz I`d really rather be safe than sorry) but of how annoyed I was with the tour groups around me!!!! I don`t know, maybe I`ve been living in sweet polite (maybe fake?) Japan for so long or am pretty Americanized (where space and courtesy is well enforced otherwise you`d get your ass kicked) that these things annoyed me soo much.
Anyways, sorry for the long rant on the plane tour groups stuff. I was just terribly annoyed and couldn`t really do anything about it because I was the lone person in the section with all the tour groups and I didn`t want to get ganged up on if I said anything or ruin my teacher`s reputation. bah. I kinda feel like a coward now and stupid for not saying anything. But ah well. The flight ended up being cancelled until the next morning and so the airport/airline provided hotel rooms for us to stay in. And I have to say, I totally didn`t mind the flight being cancelled because these rooms were serious nice! They were huge! I told them I was just by myself, but they gave me a double sized bedroom! The hotel was called Classe Hotel, sits on top of a hill, and it just opened in August. It was a beautiful hot springs spa hotel and would probably cost 100-something a night to stay (luckily free for us). The view from my room was spectacular. I could see mountains and distant city lights. My bathroom was gigantic with so much space in the middle of it I wasn`t sure what to do with it. haha. I had a vanity as well! The only thing is we arrived at around 1am when the hot springs were closed. So no chance for that. But I took full advantage of the room for the night. hehe.
Dec. 27th Sunday
The bus came to pick all of us passengers up to get over to the airport in the morning after a splendid free breakfast buffet. This wonderful Taiwanese couple from last night who helped me get a room when I was confused with what was going on (because all I could hear was complaining and all the airport people were being bombarded by the complainees that I couldn`t really get a chance to talk to them about what was happening) also were with me so I made new friends. They came to Hokkaido to tour on their own without a group. (Like I said, not all Taiwanese/Southeast Asian people are annoying, some are pretty nice) They helped me along and everything and I was able to get on the 11:30 flight to Taiwan, same seats and everything. Again, I spread myself over the two seats I had free. Woo. I finally watched District 9 on the plane! It was good!
I arrived and got through customs at 4:30pm and waited around for Leslie to arrive from Tokyo at around 5pm. And boy was I so glad to see her! I missed seeing my friends from back home and seeing her was a wave of exhiliration and relief. I`m finally with my old friends and family again. I missed them so terribly much. Oh, btw, Fahrenheit is Taiwan`s representative, like how Rain is for Korea. I saw their life sized cutouts welcoming me in Taiwan immediately upon entering the arrivals hall. lol We both caught a bus over to Taichung and had a wonderful fun talk which I haven`t done in a while on the way over. My aunt and uncle came to pick us up at the Taichung bus stop and then we went back to the house. Upon arriving I was so happy to see my 2 wonderful dogs, Kin-chan and Bobby. I missed them soo much! They got skinnier!...I think. Anyways, my grandma was happy to see me as I was her. I missed Taiwan and I missed my family. Actually, it was a pretty funny change from seeing the white covered winterland of Hokkaido to seeing the still lush moist green fields of Taiwan. I was like, man, I don`t need my jacket. And indeed I really didn`t. It was not cold whatsoever. Well, to us Hokkaidians and the one from Tokyo. The coldest it got was 13 degrees C and it was mainly 17-18 degrees C most of the time. So I actually got hot on some days.
So Happy New Years to all and I will write more on Taiwan later! Peace! Oh! And, pics are all up. All 300 of them! So check out my old updated album and my 3 new ones! My kids are all in them as well!
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