Hey all. I apologize from being way behind on my blog posting. But again, I`ve been ridiculous busy that I haven`t had the time. And at the moment I don`t remember what happened between the last blog until the beginning of October...so I`ll get back to writing that later. eheh. ^^;
October 8th Friday
Starting from today was the HAJET Fall Meeting held in Asahikawa. Yay for being close to me! I finished work and managed to head on over there right after. The meeting was held at the Washington Kankou Hotel. It was a pretty nice and fancy hotel and I got a room to myself. Upon checking into my room I got a phone call from *dum dum dum* Mr. Oshare!! He asked me if I`ve eaten dinner yet and if I wanted to go to dinner with him. The ONE time he asks me out to eat with him, I`m in a different city for a meeting. Of course. That`s how it always is. >.< But he just said, no worries. There`s always next time. Yay!
Anyways, I waited for Keri to arrive and we headed over to MOS Burger for dinner. Then we met up with other peoples and decided to go karaoke-ing and after that, clubbing. Yeah, the actual meeting and parties don`t start until tomorrow morning at 10am, but we were already partying it up until 5:30am. I didn`t actually get to sleep until 6am cuz I took a bath. Lotsa fun! But extremely tired.
October 9th Saturday
Woke up for breakfast, then went back to the room to sleep for an hour, then went to the HAJET meeting, then went to sleep until 2pm and went out with ppls at 3pm to walk around. Tabemarche was happening this weekend which is a festival where each town/city of Hokkaido has a booth selling their delicious foods. And for some reason, we all decided to eat a big meal before the enkai at 6pm. Smart of us. lol
The theme of the enkai was "Fall of the Roman Empire" so many of the ALTs were dressed in togas or costumes relating to that theme. And there was about 90 or so of us foreigners walking down the street in costumes to the izakaya. You can imagine the amount of staring we got from the confused Japanese people. Everyone in all the shops we passed by just stopped what they were doing and stared at us...lol I would too if I was Japanese...haha.
The enkai was a 7 course meal (right after our late lunch) and included a costume party. I met many new cool ALTs and had a lot of fun. During the enkai I received a text from one of my taiko mates, Ayako. She told me that she was going to go to her friend`s bar in Asahikawa and asked if I wanted to go as well. She has been wanting to go drinking with me for awhile and upon hearing that her friend had a bar, I was all for it. I invited other ALTs to go, but they already had plans after, so I went on my own to the station to get pickedup by Ayako.
Apparently, this bar is not in the heart of the city, but more in the outskirts in a residential area. And literally, it was all houses around this place and actually, this bar was a garage turned bar. The house that the owner lived in was right on top of it. And the owner is a 30year old cool dude who is friends with Ayako. And did I mention he`s rich?! This bar is only opened once a month because he gets enough money from his other job that he doesn`t need this bar to be opened all the time. He drives a Mercedes too, btw. And all the patrons of this bar are all friends with one another and know each other and are all hot young relatively wealthy people. Dude. I came to the right place and made an awesome decision by coming to this place. Ayako introduced me to the owner, Naoki-san, and I was surprised to find out he spoke a good relative amount of English. I was able to have a full on conversation with him in English. He`s been to the US 3 times and he travels ALOT. Actually, he`s going to go to Bali like next month or something. Anyways, he said he stayed at the Radisson hotel in Santa Monica before!!!! RADISSON HOTEL IN SANTA MONICA YO! He`s got moolah. Plus this man is a legit bartender. Like he makes real cocktails. None of this lame mixed with water crap that the Japanese like to do. No, it`s full on Martinis and straight mixed alcohol. No water. Thankfully.
I also met the other bartender. He`s 26 and damn hot! And makes delicious martinis. We all became fast friends...I think it`s because everyone`s interested in talking to me because I`m not Japanese...lol I also met some other hot guys who`re friends with Ayako as well as her wonderful girl friends.
The bar closed at around 2am and I was shown the inside of the owner`s house afterwards. It was AMAZING and screamed wealthy bachelor! Black shiny tile floors, marble walls, black leather sofas, beautiful mood lighting, a mini chandelier, and a giant surfboard displayed on the wall behind his mini-bar. And he had the cutest little happy dachsund. And yes, he actually does surf. COOL!
He told me afterwards that we should all go on trips together. Like travel around the place. I was all up for that. Afterwards, he took me and my new friends out to eat ramen and then my friend took me back to the hotel.
October 10th Sunday
Woke up today, checked out, and got ready to go to Sounkyou Hot Springs village for some hot springs chillin with 3 wonderful girls. Holly drove the 1 1/2 hours there which I am very thankful for. We went to check in to the room and had to wait in the lobby for a bit before we could go to our room, which was a pure stroke of luck. As we were waiting my friend (who`s from Hong Kong) suddenly nudged me and said "OMG, I think that`s (insert name here), the famous Hong Kong actor!" I looked over and lo and behold, it was him!! He`s a pretty famous actor in Hong Kong and has been in numerous dramas and movies and I`ve watched many of them, thanks to my mom. And his wife, who`s an actress, was also with him. We were ecstatic. And I`m pretty sure they were on to us giggling girls.
I finally went up to him to ask if we could take a picture with him and he said, "Sure!" I have the picture with him to be posted on facebook. So wait for it! You probably might recognize him if you watch a lot of Hong Kong stuff. Anyways, we checked into our wonderful hotel room after and went down to the hot springs. It was wonderful! After all the dance teaching I`ve been doing at the elementary for their festival my muscles were incredibly sore and I was beat. Btw, the school festival was on the 17th, which I`ll get into details later.
The trip was an awesomely wonderful experience. And I`ll be going again the weekend of the 23rd for the elementary school teacher`s faculty trip. Woot!
October 12th-15th
I`ve been working my ass off at school these last few days and going to 3 different schools a day. Why? Because the Shibetsu district Junior High English Speech and Performance contest was coming up on the 19th. Every day after I finish work and classes at the high school and/or elementary I head over to the middle school and stay there helping the kids rehearse and stuff until 6pm. Mind you that I don`t get paid after 4pm. I actually don`t mind because I really love helping the kids and being with them. But there came a point where I was just ridiculously exhausted and was maybe hoping for a day off from "working" at the school for so long. Actually, I would even settle for just half a day off.
I pitched the idea to my boss and supervisor of maybe getting a day off or half day off because of all the work I`ve been doing with these kids the last few days. But they just told me because I was doing this stuff off hours and my bosses were not the ones to appoint me to helping the kids, it`s all considered volunteer work where I technically don`t have to go. So, I won`t be able to get even a half day off. But on the papers at my middle school, I`m officially the appointed head teacher of all the English practices and was even appointed a proctor for the big national English test well after school hours. If I don`t go to these things I`m just making myself look like an ass. So in a way I was obligated to go and not at the same time. A wonderful situation to be in as an ALT, I have to say. Anyways, upon hearing that I was unable to get any compensation I was so frustrated I could`ve cried. It`s just a lot of built up stress and things that I was just so pissed at my bosses for a while. And then I have to also go to school on Saturday the 16th from 10am until 3pm (but it turned into being from 9am until 6pm, a freakin full day at work) and I`m not going to be compensated for any of that. True, I`m technically volunteering, but I just want a bit of a rest. *sigh* I just have to keep thinking that this is all for the kids. If it`s for them, I`ll shut up. Otherwise, I`m afraid my bosses won`t let me help the kids or work with them after school anymore.
Damn Japan and it`s strict unable to go around things ways.
Anyways, something wonderful happened on Friday the 15th however that made me feel a little better. I was at school until 6pm that night as well as the chem teacher. So, he knew I hadn`t eaten dinner yet so he texted me when I got home to ask if I wanted to go with him to Asahikawa for dinner and shopping. I was, of course, quite ecstatic to see his text and agreed to go with him.
It was raining hard that day so instead of picking me up by the street like he usually does, he backed his car up in front of my door to get me so that I wouldn`t have to run around in the rain. It was very sweet of him. His music player broke and that`s why he needed to go shopping for it. So we had a full hour of talking in the car. He looked so cute/hot that day. He wore a hat, scarf, grey zip-up hoodie over a white tank, olive green loose pants, tucked into his brown leather boots. Oshare. This was after work too. Thankfully I made myself look good as well.
We went to go eat Italian food and he paid for me. We actually had quite an awesome time talking with each other and it was really fun! Then we went shopping. At first on the escalators I would stand one step behind him, but as the night went on and as we got closer to each other he started to stand next to me on the escalators. When I was buying candy for a Halloween party he brought over a basket for me to hold and as I was about to grab the basket from him he told me that he`ll hold onto it for me. I`m a real sucker for these little gentlemanly moves. *sigh* At the end of the night I ended up falling a little for this guy. At first I just thought of him as just a friend. But the more I hang with him, the more I want to actually be with him. Ugh, I feel like a sap. I`ve also been glancing in his direction more often when I`m at the middle school.
Bleh, I just need to work things out here. >.<
October 17th Sunday
After Saturday`s ridiculous "work" hours from 9am-6pm helping my middle school kids at school with rehearsing and prop making with no compensation I get to jump right in to my elementary`s school festival. Man, so much things going on these last few weekends. Actually, I was suppose to have left yesterday with the town hall`s young people`s club to go on an awesome camping trip with them. But because of the ridiculous busy scheduling I`ve gotta stay here and work. I feel like a real freakin Japanese teacher and not just an ALT anymore, which is good and bad at the same time.
Anyways, my 5th graders, whom I taught my dancing to did a wonderful job at the festival! I was sooo proud of my kids. After that, the teachers had an enkai at an onsen restaurant and then we went to sing karaoke. I left early because I had work the next day because I`m not given a day off to rest from working on Sunday at the festival because it`s technically not part of my work schedule that my bosses set up for me. Usually, all the teachers who work during the school festival get a day off of work to recuperate, or basically, in compensation for them having worked. I would really like to have that, especially since I`ve been helping out at all the festivals. *sigh* Whatevs. Anyways, not a bad day.
And now, I`m up to date with what`s been goin on. I think. Otsukare for reading and I`ll post up pictures soon!
Showing posts with label Sounkyou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sounkyou. Show all posts
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Lotsa naked ladies! >D
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!
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!
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