Aug. 12 - Sunday
I had a banner day today, first I met up with Marc, the guy whose place I took at work, a co-worker named Richard, and Marc's girlfriend Maiko. It was great because I posted on a local website that I was looking for a Japanese teacher that I could exchange languages with and she responded! Apparently she was looking for me, and I was looking for her on there, too, so it worked out! I also found two other Japanese females who want to exchange with me, and many more but I settled with 3, I think that's more than enough ^_^
We were supposed to go play baseball, but it started pouring rain as soon as we got in the taxi! We ended up turning around and going to the gym that I didn't know existed (it's literally right down the street from where I live!). It only costs 250 yen to get in, and I think that's for 2 hours, so it's fairly cheap and you don't have to become a member or anything which is also cool. We had to rent "indoor shoes" so that we could enter the gym, and that cost 100 yen, but overall it was still fairly cheap. Apparently, if we had worn different shoes and carried our gym shoes in it would've been ok? I'm not really sure. We worked out for maybe an hour, then ran into an Australian guy who started talking to us about his very interesting life. He's done literally everything and it was amazing to hear how he'd been to all of our hometowns. He was able to find this house by the beach here in Fukuoka and bought it for all of about $10,000, only because it was older! He said he renovated it for about $4,000. If I had that kind of money, I would totally do that. . . He said that he wakes up to dolphins jumping in the ocean every morning! He also said that he was preparing for this 100k race that lasts 3 days. It's pretty much like camping and you have to swim part of it for 20k and hike part of it! He said that he was the undefeated champ for 5 years, which I thought was impressive until he told us that he started the race! I thought that was kind of cheating since he built the course :P But, he had a million other cool stories of things he'd done so it was interesting. He told us that we should leave our company and start on our own, which of course we won't do, but it was kind of a funny idea.
We just played catch, which I was really glad about since I don't know if I ever successfully hit a baseball with a bat before :( But it was a lot of fun, and I was able to get back into it again since I don't remember the last time I ever threw or caught a baseball!
Here are more pics that I stole from Maiko's facebook!
This is Marc, the guy I replaced at work. The guy further back is Richard, my co-worker.
This was Fukamizu, he joined the game later! He's on Marc's baseball team so it was intimidating, but he was very nice, as Japanese people always are :P
It was a lot of fun even though it was really hot, and of course my face turned beet red like it always does when I exercise. I didn't notice it until I got home, so it was embarrassing to think it was red that whole time! ^^; I looked it up to see if other people had the same problem, and apparently they do. They all said there was nothing wrong with them, it was just something genetic, so I guess I will never have an explanation for it, or a cure. I just have to deal with it! A few people said they had major problems, like one girl said that she constantly had to go home early from school after P.E. because the nurse always thought she was running a fever or something serious was wrong with her . . . I'm glad I never had that problem!
After we finished playing, everyone was ready to take a shower and eat lunch, so we parted ways. Later on at 4 PM, I met up with another new Japanese friend named Madoka and we went to have some matcha smoothies! Matcha is basically ground green tea and the smoothie had vanilla in it! It was really good ^^ Before our smoothies, she took me to the subway and helped me buy subway passes which will save me money in the long-run, because when you put money on the card, you get 900 yen's worth free, which is about 3 and a half free subway tickets! If I had more money, I could've saved more, but for now, that's good enough. I will get reimbursed for my subway tickets at the end of the month, I can't wait for that . . . After getting my pass, she took me to a key place where the guy got me a copy of my keys. I was so glad she was there, because I couldn't figure out how to ask him to make a copy ^.^; She said that I definitely need to learn Japanese to function . . . After the smoothies, we went to a different 100 yen shop that was a lot nicer than the 2 other ones that I'd been to before. She picked out a kids book with hiragana and another one with kanji so that I could practice more! She walked back towards my apartment with me and helped me pick out groceries at Sunny, which is actually owned by Wal-Mart. She told me what I could use to make certain things, and when I got home I was able to make my own yakisoba with pork! It was so good and so easy!! We are supposed to hang out again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I think I might hang out with Marc and Meiko again. I am so happy to have made some Japanese friends finally!! Since I actually have days off now, it will be nice to get out and do things with other people. I feel like I've been stuck inside for centuries now, and am dying to get out, which is weird for me since I'm usually so reclusive. My only worry is spending too much money, since mostly people here like to get coffee or go to eat, but I'm glad I found friends who like to do other things, like go to the gym or play sports because it's much cheaper :P When I get my paycheck I hope that I will be able to save up, yet still have fun. I don't know why, but I feel so much more alive here, everything just feels like home.
YAY!!! I'm so happy for you!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks ^_^
DeleteI also forgot to tell you that on another T.V. show out here they played the music from Cardcaptor Sakura's Kero-chan Check! :P