I had a date?

Hey all, sorry again for the super late update. Coming back from summer break and starting 2nd semester has been keeping me really busy as of late. I actually have a lot of work to do...so, unfortunately and fortunately, I`m not just a tape recorder. I`m to plan lessons for majority of my classes and then in the evenings I either have taiko or teach other classes. And I`ve been studying for the JLPT 2. At the end of the day, I`m usually too tired/lazy to write my blog. So I apologize for the late update. FYI, this update is hopefully going to contain up to the month of September without being too long...eheh. ^^;;

August 9th Monday

Last full day my family is with me. I taught at the nursery today and brought my family along. It was so cute because when I introduced my family to the babies, all the kids had questions for them like,"What color, aniimal, food, etc, do you like?" After teaching/playing with them we all had lunch together and this was the first time my kids got the oppurtunity to try communicating with my family who spoke and understood no Japanese. And I was quite amazed with what these kids could do in communication. They were very smart in finding out ways to "talk" with my family even though my family didn`t understand Japanese, but were able to understand the kids. I was so proud of them!! Yup those are my kids.(o^_^o)

In the evening, I cooked for my family. Our last meal together here.

August 10th Tuesday

Left early this morning with my family to catch the train to Chitose airport. At the airport my family started crying and I was about to tear up too but held on since it would be sad if we all were crying...>.< I saw them through security and waved goodbye. Hopefully, I`ll be able to see them again in December. (United airlines business class??!!)

After that I left and went into Sapporo to hang out on my own. I went into Daimaru department store and checked out the place and found an awesome afternoon tea cafe and sat there to eat and read my book. After a little while I went back to the station and went back to Asahikawa whereupon I met up with Collin who had just come back from Fukui and was crashing over at my place for the evenin before heading back to his place next morning. We had dinner and then went back home. Luckily, Linda was still here for one more week so I had someone to come home to. It`s always a nice feeling.

August 11th Wednesday

I slacked from going to work early in the morning because it`s still summer break for everyone and the teachers don`t get to school to "work" until later in the morning. So I waffled a bit until Collin had to leave to get on his train and then went to work.

August 12th Thursday

Went to the middle school today. Empty as usual. But in the afternoon the good looking chem teacher came back from baseball practice with the kids and I had something to look at. =P But get this, I had a slight inkling that he was somewhat interested in me. He`s 25, very oshare (fashionable), healthy tan, and not bad looking. Above all, he has a playful fun spirit. I found talking to him to be easy and uplifting. Btw, his hair always looks really really good. I think I will now dub him "Mr. Oshare (fashionable/trendy)". Anyways, he figured that I was around the same age as him and really likes talking to me. Whatever chance he gets, he`ll swivel his chair round and talk to me. And I`ve seen on many occasions that he`ll look back (he sits diagonal from me with his back facing me) when I`m talking with a student or when the teachers around me are talking with the students. At first I thought that he was just interested in the conversation but out of the corner of my eyes I could see that he would occasionally glance at me. He also had offered to help me drive my family around if I can`t fit everyone into my car which was super sweet of him.

So I decided to try something. I told the vice principal, who is sitting at the head of the room with Mr. Oshare sitting in front of him, that I was going to go practice my dancing in the empty multipurpose room. The vice principal already knew this habit of mine so thought nothing of it and was like "oh yeah yeah, sure." But I noticed the chem teacher perk his head up when I talked to the vp about it. There was few work to be done that day so there were only 4 teachers there including me. So I went to the room to practice dancing and after 10 minutes he came up to the room to watch me dance. I knew it. I kind of knew that he was going to come up. hehe. So we talked for a while and I finished dancing and then went back to the teacher`s lounge. After a little while I heard someone playing with a ball in the gym and went to see who it was. It was Mr. Oshare playing basketball. He saw me walk in and was like "Come play with me!" And so I spent the afternoon playing b-ball with him. When I left to go home and was in the entryway putting on my shoes with no one around, he came over and asked me for my number. =P teehee. I went home happy.

August 14th Saturday

Left for Sapporo today with Linda. Her flight was on Sunday so we decided to spend the day in Sapporo shopping and hanging out. Actually this day coincided with the Sapporo welcome party for JETs and the Sapporo Orientation for new JETs. I was able to meet up with Steph at the welcome party for a short time, but after that I went with Linda to go eat and all you can eat shabushabu, went shopping and did other stuff. hehe. Good day.

August 15th Sunday

Took Linda to the airport and said our goodbyes. I`m going to miss having people with me all the time. ;_; After this though, I went to hang out with Steph and Heidi. Yay for Heidi being here in Sapporo! I`m able to hang with her!! Hoorah!

We went to the Ghibli exhibit today, made makkurokurosukes, and took a picture on Totoro`s belly. Super cute! hehe~ Afterwards I chilled with Heidi as Steph went to go do preparations for the Sapporo orientation. Heidi made me an awesome dinner and then, after complications, I spent the night at Heidi`s.

August 16th Monday

Took this day off so was able to chill, get myself a chai latte, and then head back to Kembuchi to relax. Hahh..

August 20th Friday

The Hell Festival in Noboribetsu was this weekend and so I went down to spend the weekend at Steph`s and chill. I met Andy who is a new ALT in Tomakomai area. Awesome guy!

August 21st Saturday

Met two wonderful ladies who are also new ALTs, Teresa and Keri. We then all headed over to Noboribetsu for the hell festival. We met up with a bunch of other new and old ALTs and walked around the town. Then went to the jigoku dani (hell valley) and hiked around for a bit before returning to the festival area and buying alcohol and eating dinner. The hell festival was awesome. We all joined in to dance the oni dance. Then, when we returned to Muroran we did an all night Karaoke until we saw the sky getting brighter...lol 11pm until 4am....eheh Good times.

August 22nd Sunday

Bid goodbye to everyone and went to Sapporo to get my JLPT study books. Then chilled in the Kinokuniya cafe and read my book. I really wish there was a place like this near me to just chill and read in a cafe like this. Neways, later on, I met up with Keri to go home since she lives on the same train line as mine.

September 5th Sunday

Met up with the new Nayoro JET, Holly, and then later Vvn! These two were so awesome to hang out with and will definitely be hanging out with them again since they live so close to me. Whoo! And because of Holly, or thanks to Holly, I got up the courage to message Mr. Oshare about going to see a movie, particularly "Inception". He not only quickly responded back to me about going and what days he`s available, but he also called me. lol I told him that the best day for me would be the 23rd of September. So we set up everything up for that day. (o^_^o)

September 8th Wednesday

Mr. Oshare cut his hair again and looks really good. Again. *o* I complemented his hair and then he started talking to me about the movie thing. He told me that the movie was only showing until the 17th so we should go soon. And after trying to find a good day, we decided that tomorrow was best. Thursday. Oh man that was quick. And he got really close to me today when he came to stand over me as I was sitting pointing out the schedule of movies on a piece of paper on my desk. I could smell his cologne and he smelled good. =P

Originally he couldn`t do Thursdays as he has volleyball practice to go to, but he told me that he could take a break from his practice to come watch the movie with me. Wow. We texted each other that night about what time we were leaving. I thought he didn`t get back home until 6pm, but he said that we should leave at around 5pm so we could go do some "window shopping" and that he`ll come pick me up in his car. Is this...a date..?

Septemeber 9th Thursday

I was pretty nervous this afternoon. I got back home early to make myself all happy and cute looking before Mr. Oshare came to pick me up. When he got here he gave me a text saying he was outside. And man did he look GOOD in what he wore! He had on a plaid vest over a white half sleeve button up shirt and khaki pants (I`m weak against vests and blazers fyi). The inside of his car was also very oshare. I got in the car with him and off we went on a one hour drive to Asahikawa.

Our car ride was pretty nice. We had good conversations and when we got silent it never felt awkward. Upon arriving in Asahikawa he asked me if I`ve eaten yet and asked me to choose a place to eat since he doesn`t know the area well enough. The only place I could think of at the moment was soup curry. So I took him to the place and it was just full of couples and quiet. The food took forever to come and so we had a lot of silent times as we sat across from each other at the table because we weren`t sure of what to talk about. Plus with my limited amount of Japanese it`s difficult. After we finished our food we went down to pay and he paid for me. I was thinking, oh he`s just paying together right now so it won`t be troublesome to the cashier. I asked him after how much it cost and he just smiled and said "I forgot". I looked at him incredulously and was like "OMG, no. That`s very sly of you. Seriously, how much?" And he just answered the same thing. But then he was like "alright, if you really want to, you can get the movie tickets?" And on that I agreed. He then asked me "Don`t guys in America usually pay for a girl?" I didn`t want to say "It`s usually only if you guys are dating" which would be stating that this was a date. I`d rather this be left as an ambiguos situation. I just said "Well, sometimes. But yes, most guys do that in the states" "You mean like gentlemen?" "Haha, yes! A gentleman usually is wonderful enough to pay." "Well, then, I`m a gentleman!" At which we both chuckled/giggled a bit.

I`m not used to guys paying for me and so wasn`t sure what to make of it and usually feel in debt when ppl pay for me. So I was totally fine with getting the movie tickets. We had to wait a little bit before we could go in to see the movie so I went to the bathroom. When I came out he was sitting on a bench waiting for me looking at his cell. His posture plus his clothes and his hair as he sat there made him look so cool and gave me a butterfly in the stomach because of the fact that he was waiting for ME. And upon coming out he gave me a smile and said "let`s go in!" It`s just a fluttery feeling to know that someone like him is with you and waiting for you. I don`t know. It`s hard to explain, just a nice feeling.

So we went in to watch "Inception". And let me say that this movie is too complicated for majority of Japanese people I think because of all the nuances and the complexities of the movie. So naturally, he fell asleep. It`s actually my second time watching the movie and I admit there are parts where I was like "okay okay, get to the action" but that movie is still one of my all time favorites. I like deep movies. He told me he likes movies where he doesn`t fall asleep and where the plot is simple and easy to understand....well, total opposite of this movie. lol

Anyways, at the end I asked him if he knew what the contents were about. He said he got the gist of it. lol After that it was already 11:30pm so I was pretty tired after a day at the high school and elementary so I didn`t have as much energy to talk. So we spent majority of the ride back in silence listening to Kpop. I told him he could just drop me off at his place since it`s only a 1 minute walk to my apt from his. But he insisted on dropping me off in front of my apt. I told him "It was fun today. Thank you." The thank you I said in English and he replied in English "No, no thank you." lol

I have to say, there was no doki doki feeling or butterflies or exhilaration afterwards. Maybe I was just too tired to feel anything or I`m just getting used to these things...So it`s all good. I can continue my friend relationship with him, for now.

September 10th Friday

Today I went to the middle school so saw Mr. Oshare. And he didn`t have his hair styled today, but had it in a messy down look, which looked really sexy on him. Damn. It was kind of funny today because for some reason all the teachers kept asking him "So how was yesterday?" where they were referring to a meeting he had at another school yesterday morning. But I saw that both him and I kind of panicked for a bit thinking that it was about last night, and he was like "Uh, yesterday? What was yesterday?" And I was like "Uh, what!?" And the teachers just looked at him and were like "You know, yesterday." I was thinking in my head "Please no, please no." And finally he was like "....Do you mean...the meeting?" "Of course! What else? Why did you do something else?" "Huh? Oh, yeah, the meeting. It went well!" Whew...panic moment averted. lol I chuckled inside though because of this little conversation.

And then today Mr. Oshare put on Korean music in the school at lunch and it was awesome!! First time hearing Kpop in the school. I went around the hallways and danced. haha. Then talked to my kids who like Big Bang since they`re so big here in Japan now.

Otsukare for reading guys! Thanks for keeping up with my lack of posting!! Love ya all!