I believe my liver is going to kill me.

March 20 Saturday

Yay 3 day weekend! I’m excited! Time to hang with people! Today I spent my morning cleaning up my apartment for my friends who are coming to chill at my place on Sunday. At around 3pm I left to go to Asahikawa to meet up at Alan’s where Steph and Erika were also chillin. The girls decided to come up to visit Alan in Asahikawa for today and then tomorrow move over to my place to spend the night. I drove over there to discover that they weren’t home and was actually at the local supermarket. So I headed on over there with my car. I was containing my excitement at being able to see them. Living out here in the countryside it’s really difficult to see people, so any chance I get I become really excited. I just had to look for the tall foreigners wandering around the store and finally found them passing an aisle. I ran over to them like a happy puppy. Alan says that the image of me running down the aisle like that was pretty funny. I couldn’t help it, I was happy and excited. Haha. Apparently they were shopping for the next days’ breakfast…though I don’t know if we’ll be able to actually wake up early enough for it, seeing how I’m pretty sure tonight is clubbing and drinking. Lol
At around 7pm we headed over to catch the bus to Asahikawa station to meet up with Alan’s Japanese teacher and her friends. They were going to take us to eat at an izakaya. Their English was amazingly good. They could speak it quite well actually. We spent quite a while walking, trying to find izakayas that would accept 7 people or had room for us. We had no reservations so it was pretty difficult. But, finally, we found a place that was able to take all of us in, providing we were able to finish eating before 10pm because there was another reservation in place. We ordered a nomihoudai, or all you can drink and loads and loads of food. We talked for a serious long time and ended up going past 10pm, but the waiters didn’t come in to shoo us out. So, there must have been an extra room available for them.

After that we all went to “The Den” which is the international bar in Asahikawa. There were a lot of other foreigners that night because it was St. Patty’s weekend. So there were many people there drinking and stuff. But my friends and I were just content with talking and being with each other. There were some strange guys there too, so we basically ignored a lot of them. Eheh. From there we went to “Monarch” which is the new club located in the basement of a building. I guess I’m already pretty used to going underground for clubs as shady as that sounds. =P The club was small, but it had a dance floor and a bar. It was pretty classily decked out, but the music played was definitely not good for dancing. Not hip hop at all. So it was a lil difficult to dance to. The DJ wasn’t that amazing either. When the DJ can leave the dance floor and leave his gear unattended, you know that the club’s not exactly up to par…lol We met some other foreigners there too, some who were pretty cute. But there was one particular guy we all found interesting to talk to. He worked in some kind of bank accounting thing in Tokyo area and has been working there for 13 years, yet doesn’t speak a word of Japanese and has no interest in Japan. Why would you stay working in a country for so long and not speak a word of the language or dislike being here? If it were me, I would have moved ages ago. But, I guess he’s making bank, because he seems to be having the good life as much as he doesn’t care for it here. At around 4:30am we left for Alan’s. At Alan’s before we went to sleep, we stayed up for another 15 minutes still talking…and then fell silent as we all drifted off to sleep at around 5am.

March 21 Sunday

Well, needless to say, we were tired, and didn’t wake up until the afternoon around 12pm. Lol Collin was already on his way down from his village, but we were still in the middle of getting up/getting ready. Since I didn’t have futons and many blankets at my apt, I asked to borrow Alan’s and load them in my car. Okay, so my car is very small. Not meant for a shit load of people or things. So when we crammed all those futons into the back, my car was ready to explode. Pile in 3 more tall foreigners and my car was gonna fall over. When I started to move the car, I thought it weird that it felt so heavy. I knew that everyone and all the futons and thick blankets in it weighed it down a little, but not that much. 10 minutes into the road, my car was shaking bad. We weren’t exactly sure what was going on. So we stopped at the local Lawson’s (conbini) and checked what was going on. My back left tire was flat. Actually, it was completely depleted of air. So that was why my car was shaking so violently. I went into the Lawson’s to ask one of the employees where the nearest gas station was because my tire had gone flat. And he was sweet enough to come out to take a look at it and change it for us…even though Erika was totally ready to do it. Awesome man.

However, in order for us to get the spare tire out of the trunk we had to unload all the futons crammed in the back, but it just burst out our doors as soon as we opened them….lol It was quite a funny sight to see though, I have to say. So it was basically us 4 foreigners stuck at Lawson’s with a flat tire. I’m sure the old man must have thought it funny. And it would be a good story for him. Haha. So with our spare tire tacked on, we went on our way to my place. We arrived there at the same time as Collin. We unpacked the spilling futons and dumped them in my little apt, which it just took up all the floor space. Lol We then went out to eat at the “Hillside Box” restaurant in Shibetsu. Since there were 5 of us big foreigners…well, I’m kinda tiny… so they gave us the large relaxation room with sofas to sit on and a huge window to view out of. We spent a good 3 hours just sitting in the room doing nothing but fun talking until the lady came into the room to tell us that there was a limit to how long we can stay in this room. So at that sign, we decided to leave and go sing Karaoke. Collin was awesome enough to drive us all so he wasn’t able to drink with us at the karaoke bar. Sorry! >.< Next time, for sure, yo!

We then came back from Karaoke to go to Yamamoto-tei in my town, but it was already closed. So we decided to head on back to Shibetsu and went to a ramen shop to eat. Lol We were all pretty tired by the end of it so we just returned home. Although we did not sleep until 4am since we just stayed up late talking. The next morning…at around 11am Collin went back to Sarufutsu and the rest of us decided to cook a very late breakfast. We didn’t eat until 2pm…lol After that, I drove everyone back to their houses on a super slippery/icy road, but was able to make it back in one piece on my spare tire. Haha.

March 23 Tuesday

Today was my Taiko performance debut! And it was at the elderly care center. Lol So, there were a lot of old people there that weren’t really aware of what was going on. But they were cute! I performed with no mistakes, but then again I wasn’t really nervous because I had gotten used to being on stage or in front of a lot of people, thanks to Tomo Modern and teaching. Everything went well and afterwards all the kids and their parents and I went to go have a little celebration party. Lotsa good food and a wonderful time spent with my children. I love them wholeheartedly and am sad that many of them are quiting after this to focus on studies in middle school and club activities…like baseball…Everyone in this town does baseball, dude, why not be different and do something else? Ah well, at least I still get to see them in school.

March 24th Wednesday

Today was the end of the year closing ceremony for all my schools, except my nursery. All the teachers who were leaving to change to go to a different school all said their goodbyes on the stage to all the students. It was a little tearful, but I still see them for another week or so before they actually move away. After the middle school’s farewell ceremony I went to the elementary to have lunch, bought by my principle for all the teachers. It was huge and delicious.

In the evening was the farewell party/soubetsukai for the middle school held in Shibetsu. The food we had was wonderfully delicious, but so fatty because it was drenched in butter. It’s butter yaki or so they call it. You spread a block of butter on the hot plate and then cook meat and veggies on it. I didn’t drink at all at the 1st party because there was nothing besides beer…and I’m kinda on a diet so I didn’t want to drink just beer. But at the second party which was at a lounge/bar there was all you can drink alcohol! YES! And it had shots! WHOO! I asked the teachers around me if it was okay to order a shot and they were like “er….sure…?” They weren’t used to drinking shots and were surprised to hear me say it. When one of them asked the bartender for a shot of tequila for me, the bartender just stared at him incredulously and was like “A SHOT?! OF TEQUILA!? REALLY?” And I saw the teacher point to me and said that it was for me…and that was what surprised the bartender even more. Haha. Well, when I got the shot, even I was shocked. It was basically a double shot of tequila! The glass was the size of a whiskey glass. Like, dude, this was a shot, one shot, of tequila!???!! Well, I didn’t question it too much and just gulped the whole thing down. I didn’t bother to stop after drinking half of it, I just downed it all….Yeah, I’m crazy. After I set the glass back on the table, all the teachers just looked at me and was like “Wow, we just lost.” Lol Waha, American drinking style right there! And then I had a lot more alcoholic drinks after that. Mainly strong drinks made specially by the bartender for me. Heh =P

March 26th Friday

Tonight was the farewell party for the elementary school. It was in Asahikawa, at the Asahikawa Grand Hotel. The most expensive and luxurious hotel in all of the city. And that is why the entire night, plus the hotel room, cost me around $200…..>.< Geez. For one party, I forked over that much money. But I think I’m getting used to tossing my money around for all these parties Japanese people like to have and order expensive foods and all. *sigh* It’s just part of the life here. Well, this was a formal party that everyone had to dress up nicely for and I decided to wear my tube top dress with black leggings and my silver heels. Because the top was too revealing, I wore my faux fur coat over it the entire time…lol When I walked into the room, all the female teachers were like “AH! Kawaii!!” hehe. I saw out of the corner of my eye, Mr. Wonderful look over at me. He himself was looking pretty fly in his suit as well.

Sadly, our seats were at different tables, so we didn’t sit next to each other. We had some bomb foods. Like they were seriously high class and you can tell it was expensive. The dinner alone cost everyone $70.00. Then all the leaving teachers came up one by one to be presented with flowers and thank you notes. Apparently, from what I heard later because I seem to have not been paying real attention, Mr. Wonderful made a shocking announcement that changed my feelings about him. That day marked the anniversary of his breakup with his girlfriend of 3 years…Yeah. He announced it basically. So, obviously, he’s still carrying some baggage about it. There’s no way that he went out with her for 3 years and didn’t still think about or have feelings for her now. Not by the way he announced it at least. I mean, he didn’t look dejected or sound like it at all…but still, there’s a reason why he would announce something like that. I don’t know. All I know is that the whole announcement thing really settled the fact that I just want to be friends with him for now. I don’t want to date a guy who’s still got this problem of an old flame. I don’t want to be a rebound girl. I thought that most people, after a year, would be over it by now, but I guess it depends on the person. So I’m not gonna go after him. I’ll wait until he’s more available mentally. So, friends it is.

After the 1st party, we had a second party with all you can drink alcohol for 120 minutes up on the 17th floor where the hotel’s bar was. We had a private room reserved for us complete with a beautiful large window to view the nightscape. Breathtaking. Yeah, my elementary teachers know how to live it up. *.* As we came in, Mr. Wonderful looked a little sheepish and laughed a little bit. One of the teachers was then like, “Oh yeah! That’s right! You used to work here right?” And he said, “Yeah, I used to be a bartender here.” O.O OMG! THAT IS SO HOT! A BARTENDER! Hello! And the thing is, I can totally see him doing it too. >D I sat between Yuki and a leaving teacher and in front of me was the vice principal. He called over Mr. Wonderful to come sit next to him. So Mr. Wonderful sat diagonal from me. I took that chance to talk to him as much as I could. I just kept saying his name before I asked him questions and stuff. And plus I had a shit load of alcohol to drink, so my confidence was building up and my courage was overflowing. Words just seemed to come out of my mouth asking the randomest questions.

All the teachers there were fairly tipsy, if not drunk. So we had a grand ol’ time laughing it up and being all cooky. And because Mr. Wonderful used to work there and the bartenders knew him, they brought over complementary fruit plates for all of us! Awesome! After the 2nd party, we all went out to a local bar for more all you can drink alcohol. By that time, I was pretty relaxed because I had so much alcohol. But when we walked into the bar, I got excited and was like, omg, I’m ordering shots! No shots, no party. And it was a bar dude! You had to drink a shot at the bar! We got our own little room to sit in and, unfortunately, Mr. Wonderful sat 2 people down to the left of me. But that did not hinder me talking to him. I would look over and chat him up still. Haha. And then my tequila shot came and I downed it. One of the teachers asked me if I was feeling okay and if something bad happened to me recently. I was like “No. These are shots of happiness! I love shots! This is how Americans drink most of the time at parties. We tip our heads back and down the shot.” So he was like, “Alright, Theresa, order me one too!” I stared at him and was like are you sure you want one? Because in Japan, people don’t usually do shots and it’s not exactly normal at parties. So they were all surprised to see me chug it down. Lol Well, I ordered him one more, and me one as well. We cheered and downed it. The principal had a drop of it before we downed it and was like, “My throat feels really warm right now…actually kind of burning.” Lol Yes, that’s what tequila does to you. And it’s one of the strongest alcohols. So, yeah, of course we ordered another pair.

Mr. Wonderful then asked me if you usually always lick the salt first, then drink the tequila, and then eat the lemon. I was like “Well, yeah. I don’t know of any other way to drink tequila.” And he said, “Well, I have a friend that sniffs the salt, drinks the tequila, and squeezes the lemon in her eye.” And I just stared at him and said “That. Hurts. It’s not normal.” At the same time I thought ‘you must be drunk or that girl was high.’ Because that’s not normal…at all…no matter how crazy a party….you have to be on ecstasy or something to get up the courage to do that. When the principal asked him if that wouldn’t hurt, he answered that it hurt the girl’s nose when she sniffed the salt. And I was like, ‘and the lemon didn’t when it was squeezed into her eyes?’ Seriously, what kind of person do you have to be to like that kind of excruciating pain!!?? Salt and lemon, yo! Salt and lemon! In yo nose and eye! WHA?! This is going to stay in my memory forever dude. I’m not going to be able to forget this….lol

Before we left, there was still one more shot of tequila left to drink, so I was like “5th grade teacher! The tequila! Drink up!” And he had this resigned look on his face, “Oh Theresa. You`re riding in my car tomorrow, right? (Implying that is it safe for him to drive tomorrow after so much alcohol?)” “Yes, I am. So drink!” lol I was chocked full of liquor and I wasn`t too conscious about what I was talking about anymore. Much like Mr. Wonderful and that tequila story…lol eheh.

For the fourth and final party we went to sing karaoke. When Exile`s song, "Choo Choo Train", came up all the young male teachers stood up to dance to it. It was awesome. Yes, it reminded me that the male teachers are still really young (at heart as well) and still boys, and pretty cool hip for teachers. But then again, this is Japan, where the teachers are pretty oshare and don`t act like teachers when not in the classroom. They reminded me of college friends. heh. =P Again, we had all you can drink alcohol/nomihoudai and by that time, I was feeling pretty loose and very little control over myself. So, I was ordering alcohol left and right. I would yell it over the table to the waitress since I was sitting in the very back of the room. Oh, and because I had so much alcohol from the beginning, I also began constantly pouring alcohol for the other teachers and calling for more alcohol and other drinks for the other teachers. ~~;

Mr. Wonderful and I sang a duet together. Well, I sang, he rapped. It was to Aoyama Thelma`s "Soba ni iru ne". He`s so damn good at rapping! Anyways, afterwards we all parted ways to head back to the hotel at 4am. I was wearing my silver anklestrapped heels not made for walking in the snow. So I was basically skipping and hopping around because I kept getting snow inside my heels, very f-in cold. I was hopping around saying "OMG, cold! Cold! Cold! Snow in heels! Cold!" The other teachers were all laughing and Mr. Wonderful chuckled.

Finally when we went back to our rooms, he was on the same floor as I was so I took that chance to ask him for his cell phone info. I told him "I want to send you text mails, but I can`t" He just kind of gave a chuckle of sorts and sagged his shoulders. I wasn`t sure what that was, but we were able to exchange info. So I wasn`t going to get too caught up in analyzing that action he did. We then said goodnight to each other and went back to our rooms. I took a bath and chilled until around 4:30am and fell asleep to wake up at 7:30am....Yeah....

March 27th Saturday

Woke up at an awful early time after sleeping so late last night and then went to eat some McDonald`s with Yuki. We discussed all the stuff that happened last night. I asked her if I sounded strange or out of the ordinary when talking with the teachers last night because I had so much alcohol. And I remember myself constantly calling Mr. Wonderful`s name and talking to him. She was like, "Yeah, you really talked to him alot! Like constantly, but it didn`t sound bad! You sounded very natural when you were talking. It was actually a very good feeling between you two." YES! Good, but I doubt he remembers anything because he was drunk...lol

Oh, and a bit of info I forgot to put in for something that also happened yesterday: At the third party in the bar, sitting next to Mr. Wonderful was one of the leaving teachers who read fortunes and stuff. So she was explaining to me my fortune. She said that right now is not a good time for me to get into relationships and stuff. And not many things will be going too great for me, but come July things will get better. Hopefully. That`s when my family might be coming and when I will be able to go camping, possibly, with Mr. Wonderful. I`ll wait until that time to see if anything happens. The teacher also said that I`m a really easy person to date. I`m thinkng that means I can date and get along with just about anybody. Well, that`s good to know. Eheh. Alright guys, maybe something awesome will happen in July. Waiting on it.

Otsukare guys! I know this was a long post, but there`s been so many things happening that I wasn`t able to create the time to write in my blog. But thanks for reading nonetheless and sorry for the late delay.

I think by the end of this month, I`m going to be sick of parties.

Alright guys, it`s been a while since my last post. I`ve just been too tired and busy lately. But now that I have nothing to do while I`m at work, I can post! Yay! =P

Dec. 13 Sunday

Today is the Christmas party at the storybook library/museum for the elementary and nursery kids! I volunteered to help out but there really wasn`t much for me to do except look after the children. So all the volunteers all had little Santa aprons and hats on and because I didn`t, I decided to be a reindeer with snow on it. I wore my reindeer ears, a brown tank, and brown leggings with a white fluffy poncho like thing(shawl?) that represented the snow. =P I got there and people weren`t expecting me to be all dressed up, so they were all like WHA?! lol I love dressing up for the occasion so I couldn`t pass it up. The kids thought I was funny and liked to play with my ears because I was the only reindeer. There were lotsa santa`s helpers and santas though. haha. Several of my high school girls also decided to volunteer at the party. So it was a jolly good time bonding with them! I normally don`t talk to them very much at school, but I was happy to be able to talk to them now. They`re sweet and happy children.

I felt so popular at the party because I knew basically every kid! They were all my students. When they came in through the doors and saw me, all smiles. I love them, my babies. I met a lot of the nursery kids parents and they all already knew who I was. I even got invited by one of them to go over for dinner. Turns out she`s the wife of one of my cool high school teachers that I actually talk to. Their son, Genshuu, is seriously adorable and loves English time. ^^ Anyways, when it was time to do a dance together,(I think I must have lost all shame by now) a couple of the kids came over to hold my hand because they wanted to dance with me. haha, cute!!! And I was the only one going all out on the little cute dance because I had to keep up my image of a fun wierd exciting teacher for the kids. haha. -Seriously, at school, I`m quite the wierd teacher and sometimes even the teachers are like "What...are you doing, Theresa?" Or they`ll just laugh at me because I do weird actions. It`s all for my kids. Oddly enough, by me being my weird crazy self, the kids respect me more. The class becomes more fun and lively that way. I like it. The teachers get a kick out of it too. And by chasing students down and poking them until they finally say hello in English to me, I`m getting the students to be more into speaking it (cuz they have to, otherwise they`ll be poked endlessly >D). But that`s mainly only at my elementary.-

Anyways, the kids all had fun at the party and went home happy and with presents. I hung around and went to the otsukare party afterwards with my high school girls. But I didn`t feel right staying there too long and eating the food because I really didn`t do anything to help, except clean up and mind the kids. But they all still gave me a present and homemade cake which is very good btw! ^^

Dec. 16 Wednesday

So, I found out yesterday that my high school has a dormitory. I was like, really?! A dorm in high school? It`s my first time hearing it, but I`m sure there are other high schools like this in the states...i think. It`s located right behind the school. It`s super nice and cozy and has 22 students living in it, seperated into the boys` dorm and the girls` dorm. Although there are only 5 boys living there. lol The boys` area was super dirty compared to the girls even though they clean the dorm everyday after school! Dedication! But they had a PS3 and Grand Theft Auto! I was like, "DUDE! You guys realize I`m coming over here more often now, right?" It also had a cafeteria in it with the cafeteria ladies. The ladies told me about a party happening Wednesday night for the students and teachers in this dorm for Christmas! They invited me to come! I was super excited and said yes because I wanted to spend more time with the high school students and come back to this dorm because it`s awesome! And then I realized that I`m going to be having Christmas party overload. This month is the month of Bounenkai`s or End of the Year work parties and Christmas parties. Parties galore to be exact. I have two more parties tomorrow night to go to too.......

So at first on this night I wasn`t sure if I wanted to go because I was super tired after work today, but I`m quite glad I went. Actually, the free food enticed me to go. haha. So when I entered the cafeteria, all the kids were like "OMG, Theresa!" And were all excited! One of the boys was even like "Tension agatta zo!" which basically means the atmosphere is getting more exciting, for a lack of better translation for this...lol The food was soo good and I got to eat Japanese pizza. I had one with shrimp and mayonnaise and one with raw ham on it (proscuitto?) But food was so damn good and my kids loved talking to me. And then the boys decided to go dress up or cross dress and came in wearing sexy dresses and evreything. haha. They were sooooo skinny! More than some of the girls! I took pictures. =P Afterwards, we played some games like bingo, charades, and quiz games. It was pretty fun. I kept getting the "Kawaii!!~" from all my girls too. And then they all asked my if I had a bf and when I said no, all the girls were super surprised and was like "Wha? But you`re so cute!" lol Thanks girls. You make me feel special.　So the night ended at 9pm and was wonderfully fun. Mainly because the dorm was really comfy feeling. Woot.

Dec. 17 Thursday

A hectic day of partying. Seriously, no joke. I had two Christmas parties today, one starting at 6pm and one at 6:30pm. Yes....they were basically at the same time. And I had just finished teaching at the elementary school today, running around and playing with the kids, so I was already ready to just pass out. But since I payed for the 6pm one, which is for the 30 years old and under workers in town crew I wanted to get my money`s worth. And I promised my Taiko kids (the party at 6:30) that I would be there to exchange presents and play with them. So I first went to the 6pm one at really hot nabe (hot pot) really fast, burnt my tongue, and then at 6:25 went over to the club hall for the other party. Actually, I would`ve been able ot eat more and a little slower if there weren`t so many speeches before eating. That`s about the only thing I don`t like here that people have to give long speeches before eating taking up precious eating time and letting the food go cold. Just kampai and lets eat! >.< At the 6pm party I didn`t really talk to other people very much except for Su because she`s the easiest to talk to for me and the funniest. So I was actually pretty excited to go to the 6:30pm one with my kids.

At the club hall my kids and their parents had already arrived and were sitting down at the tables waiting for the teachers to all arrive. I was second to last to arrive and felt pretty bad, but my kids were excited to see me and my girls were like "Theresa-sensei, come sit next to us!" And they even said, "It`s good isn`t it? Theresa-sensei is sitting with us!" I felt more glowy and happy. It was much more comfortable sitting there with my students and their parents and the taiko group rather than the 6pm party with people who are the same age as me. Either, I`m really just a kid at heart or maybe the atmospehere was better. I don`t know. It made me wonder though. Anyways, we played a fun and cute game with stuffed animals and Bingo and then did a present exchange. Most of the gifts that the parents got were all given to the younger kids because the presents were mainly fun kids things. I got 2 nice pens and cute erasers from one of my 1st grade boys. I was quite happy actually. I need them! ^^

Then after sitting and playing with my kids for a lil while longer, I was called by Su and other peoples at the 6pm party to go back because they want to start the present exchange. So as much as i hated to leave my taiko party, I had to because, one I was still hungry for more food, and I paid for the thing, and I didn`t want to be rude to them. So I bid my kids farewell for the night and went back to the other party. I actually got lucky and got this huge apple pie made by the local bakery. It looks so damn good, but I can`t eat all of it, so I think I`m gonna give some to other people, or just Su since she eats so much anyways. lol After the first party ended, there was a second party to go to, which i wasn`t sure if I should go or not. But against better judgement i went. I drank no alcohol though because I was driving. And I didn`t want to drink anymore after all the drinking in Sapporo. I wanted to give myself time to rest and let my liver recover. lol So I stayed there and talked to everyone for a little bit and then left at around 11pm. I was quite exhausted to say the least. And now I`m at work writing my blog update. I`m really quite tired right now, but pumping myself full of coffee to keep me going throughout the day. Hahh.....I have more parties next week too...3 more to be exact. One on the 22nd, 23rd, and 25th. Luckily, on my B-day, the 24th, I can just stay at home and chill. Or, maybe go out and party......

Otsukare-sama! Pics willl will will be up soon. There will be about 300 or so pics so just be warned. Love you all!