Sept. 22nd - Birthday Party!

I had a lot of fun at my birthday party! Here's me before the party:

    

 Nomihodai! :D

 

This was thinly sliced ham I think, I've had it before here. It's very delicious!

 

 This is sausage with ketchup and some other kind of sauce, it was actually very good! We also had fish and chips, pizza, and pasta but I forgot to take pictures of those since the food and drinks kept coming! It was all very good and very filling . . . It was a lot of fun!

 

Here is the dried flower that my new friend, Yuka gave me! Apparently her mother made it because she's very good at making dried flowers. I think that only the rose is dried, the other flowers are silk. I will take it out of the bag, but it just looks so pretty!

 

Here is the rose close-up:

 

Here's the entrance into my apartment. There's a cabinet where you can put your shoes, so I put pictures on top. The balloon is the one that I got at the Japanese festival.

 

Here's my hallway for those of you who weren't able to watch the video of my apartment from earlier.

 

here's my bathroom, well the toilet and shower area are separated, so this is literally the bathroom! The rest of my house is messy so when I clean it up I will post more pictures.

As for this week, I did have some funny stories I forgot to mention earlier. The first happened on my way back from one of the schools I teach at. I was waiting for the subway and I had five minutes before it would leave, so I thought I would use the bathroom really quick. Of course, someone was using the Western-style toilet, so I went into the Japanese-style toilet. I couldn't find the switch to flush the toilet though, so I saw a button to my left and pushed it . . . it was some kind of emergency button and I didn't know what to do, so I got out of the stall and saw the lady that had come out of the Western-style toilet washing her hands, so I just washed my hands, too, and walked out like nothing happened. I think everyone knew it was me though because the alarm was only going off in the women's bathroom and I was obviously foreign . . . needless to say I know what that button is for now . . . but I still don't know how to flush the toilet!

My second story is more odd, I was sitting at the park where I normally eat lunch and I had just pulled out the food that I'd made the previous night and was about to eat it when I saw some guy standing over me. He kept speaking to me in Japanese and I had no idea what he was saying, so I told him I didn't understand. I had my notes open because I was studying for my next student, and unfortunately he knew English . . . so he started talking to me in English. He admitted that he was a drunk, I guess they call them drunkies out here, because he told me his children wouldn't visit him because he was a "drunkie." I told him I had to go back to work and tried to eat my lunch in the stairway but people kept walking by so I ended up eating my lunch in the bathroom . . . Unfortunately, I don't know anywhere else to eat lunch but I don't want to waste money buying food . . . I'm not sure what to do now. He wasn't mean at least or anything like that, I just really wanted to eat and study my notes and not have to practice my Japanese and teach English to a "drunkie" while on my lunch break! It was interesting but not really something I'd like to repeat . . . 

Later I might describe the appalling experience I had at work on Friday. One class was like the class from hell, something I never would've imagined in Japan. They weren't really all that bad I guess, I just couldn't get them under control, so it's going to take a lot of work and I'm really not looking forward to it. I think I've pretty much got all of the other classes straightened out though, thankfully.

Thursday September 20th

Just a couple of weeks into my paycheck and I've already gained five pounds! I still only weigh 110 right now, which is definitely not normal for me . . . anyone wanting to go on a diet, come to Japan! I'm finally uploading my pictures from the previous two weeks since I didn't have internet. I have it now, but it's not stable so I think I need to figure out how to hook up the router. Right now I just connected it directly and it works, so we'll see!
I'm hoping to have my belated birthday party this Saturday, although it looks like only two of my friends can come. One is bringing a friend that I've never met, so it should be fun. It will be girls only with girly drinks for nomihodai (all you can drink!). One of my other friends says she will come, but lately she hasn't been feeling well, so I hope that she can still make it, otherwise I might not have enough people and I might have to cancel it . . . I have to have at least 4 people so lets hope that doesn't happen!

Here are the pictures that I promised:

 

The cakes I bought myself the day before my birthday because I didn't know my boss was going to get me a cake! The one on the left happened to be banana pudding, which usually I hate, but of course everything in Japan is so much better, so I loved it! The one to the right was an amazing chocolate cake that I can't even describe. Oishi! (delicious!)

This was the cute box that my birthday cake was in when my boss gave it to me. They even put little tiny ice packets in it with a bag that keeps things cool! Japanese stores are so thoughtful to provide all of these things! :P  They even gave me ice packets when I ordered the other two cakes and they asked me how many I wanted! It's so nice that they actually care! ^_^  I guess because people walk everywhere rather than go to air conditioned cars . . .

 Here is the cake!! Look at how beautiful it is, and notice how it says "Happ" I thought that was cute :P

 

Here it is all lit up! I hope my wish comes true . . . of course I can't tell you what it was ;)

A treat! One of many that people we work with give us or students give us if they go out of town. My favorite: red bean paste!! It's so sweet and good for you! :D

 

My new favorite beverage since I have to stay away from coffee now because I found out it was causing my face to break out. 

 

Here's a video of the cake. yes, I really loved it!! I didn't think I would have a birthday cake at all, so I was so thankful! ^_^

Ok, so back to talking about what happened today. I met up with Masayo and her friend Yuka today at Tully's which is a cafe. I don't know if it's British or American, but the cafe is supposed to be Western like Starbucks. Yuka was really cool and kept saying she didn't know much English, but was awesome at speaking it, and seemed to understand me even when I spoke somewhat faster, so I think it was all just being humble like Japanese people do. She was really cool and loves Western culture as much as I love Japanese culture, so I think we should've switched bodies :P  

Here are pictures of the wonderful dessert and drinks we had: 

 

My dessert! Ice cream (vanilla and chocolate with something like rice crispies at the bottom? strange but awesome) with mochi! Those two ball-like things on the right are mochi wrapped around vanilla ice cream, yuuuum! Needless to say I am still very full even though I ate this 4 hours ago or so . . . of course I got tea, this was a milk tea with some other flavoring in it. For those who are wondering (like I was), "mochi" is: "ice cream is a Japanese confection made from mochi (pounded sticky rice) with an ice cream filling."  So, basically, it was almost heaven. Maybe if it had chocolate ice cream in it, it would be heaven ;P

 

These are the desserts my friends got: a crepe cake which was amazing, and a milk tea cheesecake?! Of course, both were awesome. As seems to be Japanese custom, we all tried each others food . . . something I found odd and had to resist my germophobia, but I'm glad I tried them all!

 

My new friend, Yuka, on the left, and Masayo on the right!

 

Here's the wonderful rice paste that my godmother gave me for my birthday!! I made it tonight along with some teriyaki chicken, it was wonderful! :D

Stay tuned . . . I'm sure I forgot something else but for now, here's my update. I hope you enjoyed, and thanks again for reading! ^.^

Sunday Sept. 16th Update!

Since I'm at Starbucks, I don't have all of my stuff to load pictures on here, so I hope this will do for now until I can get pictures. Still can't figure out how to get my internet to work, but I will play with it today and tomorrow, and if I can't get it, they are supposed to help me out if I call on Tuesday.
One of my co-workers quit on my birthday so we were scrambling to prepare for our students, it was a terrible day . . . but my boss got me a giant Japanese fruit cake that even came with candles! It was amazing . . . The day before, I had bought myself two little cakes because I was sad not to have cake on my birthday. Apparently, I didn't need to do that :P
I had bought a cell phone and a dress to wear to my brother's wedding last Sunday, so those were kind of my birthday presents to myself. My friend Madoka helped me get the phone and pick out the dress! This week was hectic because we lost a teacher, but thankfully we didn't have to go to one of the schools on Friday so that lightened the load a little, and this week I get Monday and Saturday off, so I technically get three days off this week and three days off next week!! I'm very happy to get two days off in a row two weeks in a row!  I was going to finally go to the beach, but it's been raining because the typhoon is coming on Monday. I did go to a festival last night (saturday night) and it was so amazing and beautiful! I filmed parts of it and took pictures, so I will post those later, too. Madoka took me there and it was really fun and free besides the food that we bought! I was like the Japanese version of a fair, really.  On Saturday afternoon, I was outside eating lunch at my favorite park near where I work and found that an Asian Festival was going on! They had musicians and food from all Asian countries, but unfortunately I had already bought a cheap little tasty sandwich from the convenience store, so I plan on going back there today.
On thursday, I spent time with Masayo and we went to a Sudanese restaurant with felafel, kebabs and humus! We didn't have any humus though, I had a kebab sandwich which was amazing, and Masayo had felafels. The lady spoke English perfectly, it was great! Apparently she speaks English, Japanese, and Arabic! The food was really great though!
I'm sure more happened that I'm forgetting, but if so I will update more later when I have pictures :D

Love you guys and thanks again for reading!!

Sunday September 9th Update

Happy birthday to my uncle! A lot is new since I was last able to give an update. I was able to get my alien registration card, which is actually just my work visa, they had to put the address on the back of it which somehow took them about an hour and a half to do . . . and I also got my health insurance card in the mail! My internet should be coming on this coming Saturday and I was able to open a bank account this past Thursday. I got paid on Friday! :D So now I'm pretty much set, I just have to get a cell phone! I was supposed to meet a friend today to see a baseball game, but apparently her boyfriend, who's the translator for the team, isn't in town so we can't get free seats. I pre-ordered Domino's tonight as my birthday present to myself, it was about 25 bucks for the regular size . . . thankfully when you're a foreigner and it's your first time ordering pizza from them in Japan, they have a buy one get one free deal! So I should have enough to last me at least two days. I've been craving pizza too badly, so I'm very excited!

On Thursday, I met my friend Masayo before I went to the bank and we had Japanese-style spaghetti! I know, I'd never heard of it either, but it was delicious! It didn't have spaghetti sauce, so it was more like Japanese food with spaghetti noodles. It had fish roe, which was supposed to be spicy but wasn't at all, and shrimp along with seaweed and some other vegetable. I added hot sauce to it but it still wasn't hot at all. It was really good though! I meant to take a picture, but forgot . . . She let me try some of hers, since Japanese people are all about sharing, and hers had a familiar taste. It was like something my mom used to make: pork with a peanut sauce, only this time it was with spaghetti noodles! It was wonderful, and it was only about ten bucks for a ton of spaghetti as well as iced tea (which I add milk and gum syrup to so that it's like milk tea, my new favorite drink) and a bowl of clear soup. I thought that was pretty good, especially since I didn't have to tip the waitress and I was super full for the rest of the day! After that, I went to the bank and it took about 2 hours to set up my account, but I think it mostly took so long because they make the card right then and there rather than mailing it to you! I was lucky that my guy spoke English fluently so I didn't have to have a translator like my co-worker did.
Speaking of, I originally went on Wednesday with a co-worker to get our accounts set up, but the lady said it would take more than an hour and it was already 11am so I didn't want to be late for work. He was late though, and I think that set my boss off for the rest of the day because she was acting really weird. First, she said something in Japanese that I didn't know, but my other co-worker knows Japanese and said it was really rude so I have no idea what she said but kind of don't want to know . . . then that night I thought she misunderstood the other teacher (my co-worker) so I was trying to explain to her what he said, because sometimes she doesn't understand. This was a bad idea because I guess I offended her, so she acted frustrated, then picked up the calendar, looked at it, then tossed it in front of the other teacher, I'm guessing as a passive-aggressive way of showing her frustration. This calendar is like the large one that people put on their desks underneath the glass, not like a wall calendar, so it wasn't heavy or anything, it was just an odd gesture. My co-worker told her to please not throw that at him and that was the end of story. When I went back to work on Friday, she seemed perfectly normal, so I don't know. I guess I'll see, I just hope that it doesn't get worse . . .

I'm meeting Masayo on Thursday and hopefully getting a cell phone and maybe some stamps! I think we might be eating somewhere afterward, so hopefully I'll remember to take a picture this time! Now that I got paid, I hope to go with my friends to pick out a dress to wear at the wedding :D  I'm still so excited that I can go, I can't wait!!
It's been a long week, so I'm sure I forgot something, but if I did then I'll just talk about it in my next blog, hopefully on Thursday. Love you guys, and thanks for reading!

Random phone pictures!

 Here are the pictures I meant to upload from my phone. I guess I never did, so here they are!

 Cute flower thing promoting something. It was so small but I really think there was an adult in there! It was adorable, I wanted to hug it! ^_^

KFC, asian style! I knew Col. Sanders was part Japanese . . .

 

This is the building that I work in, I keep forgetting to take a picture of where I work. I guess if I get there early one day I can take a picture of it from the outside. 

 

This is me with the parasol that I got out here because it gets so hot. The girls out here use it to keep their skin white, but I did it to keep out of the hot sun!

 

My first Japanese-style toilet! It was . . . interesting . . . but when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Sunday Sept. 2nd update!

The best part of this week, by far, was when I got up the nerve to ask my boss if I could have off for my brother's wedding, and she said yes! She had to think about it over the weekend, so I was worrying all last weekend, but I was so overjoyed to find out, I can't even tell you how much it means.
Besides that, it was a pretty average week. I need to work on timing with the kids because generally I don't have time to work in their activity books and don't have time for a game so I need to work things in better and just not let the slower kids finish, otherwise we'll never get done. It's hard for me because I don't think it's fair to not let the slower kids finish, but they just take too long and sometimes it's only because they are just trying to write perfectly nice. But other than that, I don't think there were any major issues or anything, none of the kids acted up this time, I only had to move one kid because he and his friend were talking too much.
One thing that did go wrong was I was supposed to see a move on Saturday night with Ms. Maeda, the manager of the company. She's really fun and I was really excited, but she was even more excited. Unfortunately, because of retarded directionally challenged self, I wasn't able to figure out how to get to our meeting spot which resulted in me running around like mad. It was so easy, I really don't know how I got so lost. The worst part was getting back to my apartment and having to call her and tell her, 30 minutes later, that I couldn't find the place. I could tell she was so disappointed I didn't know what to do. I still think she's really upset about it but I don't know. I hope that we can see it another night but I think this was the only night we could do it since we get off work earlier on Saturdays and this Saturday happened to be the day when the tickets were half off. They only do it on the first of the month, and I'm pretty sure they won't be showing The Avengers next month, so I really let her down. I just hope I can make it up to her, especially since she's doing me a favor tomorrow and helping me get my residence card, bank account, and possibly health insurance. I really hope we can see the movie Wednesday but she made it sound like last night was the only time we could've done it so I don't know . . . I do know it'll be pretty awkward seeing her tomorrow after all that. I tried calling her today and she didn't answer so I tried leaving her a message but she didn't call me back so I'm worried.
Today I'm just relaxing, I was able to Skype with my family this morning and let them know I could go to the wedding! I am so excited, I can't even describe it. For those of you who live in Memphis, unfortunately for the short time I'm there, I will be spending it with my family so I don't plan on hanging out with anyone since I'm not going to be there long. I hope to visit again though some day and for a longer period of time.
Thanks again for reading, I know this post wasn't so interesting, but this week I'll be going out to eat with some friends so hopefully I can get more pictures and such.