Ichigo Ichie!

I am now sitting at my desk at Suma Tomogaoka High School. It has been awhile... I will do my best to recap the last several weeks which are, in fact, more or less a whirlwind of craziness.
Tokyo was awesome.. I met lots of good people, sang some karaoke.. good times. We loaded onto buses headed back to our respective Jay-pan locations. The Hyogoians got to ride the shinkansen (bullet train), which I've been on before, but it's always cool to ride the shinkansen. I had an awesome bento meant for children but it had EVERYTHING. French fries, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, sandwich, chicken, mini hotdogs with cute little designs cut in them. Japanese people make good bentos:) I was exhausted for most of the trip and more or less struggled to stay awake. We read some fun articles about scary Japanese bugs that thourougly freaked most of us out... especially the more rural JETs.
So we got to Kobe station.... I was about to die of heat stroke from the fricken humidity and carrying hundreds of pounds of STUFF. Not really hundreds of pounds, but all the stuff I did carry was awkward and a pain in the butt so it made it feel like more than it was I suppose. We took a bus from Kobe station to Yashiro in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of a roundabout way for me to get home, as I live about 30 min from Kobe station, and about an hour and a half from Yashiro. But whatever. So they took us to Yashiro and we went in this room with a whole bunch of teachers. They introduced us ceremonially (in Jay-pan everything's a ceremony :) ) and then the teacher from our school came up to us and took us back. I had about an hour drive ish and spent most of it looking things up in the dictionary and trying to remember my Japanese. It worked out. I heard of many people who suffered through silent car rides so luckily my JTE was patient haha. I got back to school, and some of the female teachers met me to take me back to my apartment. It's a nice apartment, actually. It is on the first floor of a high rise... I was hoping for higher up, but its convenient I suppose. There's, of course, the customary entryway (genkan I think it's called) to leave shoes and whatnot. Then a little hallway with a bathroom area on the right, including a sink that comes up to my knees, a small toilet room that I could barely turn around in, and an ofuro room, or a room for showering and bathing. The hallway runs into a decent sized kitchen, and then there are some sliding doors, with my bedroom on the other side. I have a tiny balcony outside as well which is nice. My bedroom is the only room that will have heat and airconditioning... that will be fun in winter :) But I've done it before and survived it... so maybe I'll do okay this time??????? Everyone send blankets!!!
K so here's when my life gets fun. After looking around the apartment and taking everything in, I begin to notice that my predecessor apparently had no concept of CLEAN. The floor wasn't swept, the bathroom tiles had NEVER been scrubbed... most surfaces were COVERED in DIRT and DISGUSTINGNESS. And OMG CLUTTER. I am admittedly not the neatest person but I mean holy cow. I eventually spent an entire afternoon going through closets and cabinets and drawers and everywhere else things could be stored and combining things and throwing out things and cleaning and organizing and tearing my hair out. I spent an entire night cleaning black mold... yes the deadly stuff... out of the shower room. Actually only half because I was so overwhelmed and overheated I just gave up. The fridge was moldy, all the molding on the walls was BLACK (supposed to be off white).. the place was just gross. It made me so mad because I knew if the previous renter (my predecessor that biatch) had even remotely tried to clean it wouldn't have been as bad. She was just fricken lazy and that's it. She sent me all these emails asking me to pay her for things she left in the apartment, which at first I was going to pay her, but after spending $$money$$ and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.... and hours and hours cleaning up after her I told her I wouldn't pay. She originally said it was cool but then sent me a nasty email questioning my integrity, and trying to say I spent so much time because I was trying to put everything in my definition of clean which she said was clearly different from hers. Yes, Carla. I'm sorry that I don't like to live my life rolling in filth and inhaling black mold. I apologize for questioning you. I could go on, but I think she doesn't deserve any more space on my blog. She's not worth the time it takes to type her name. MOVING ON.....
So thankfully I had friends who are 2nd year JETs and know about this MIRACLE that is Kabi Killer. Anyone reading this who is in Japan and has a dirty bathroom needs to use this stuff. I'm sure it gives you cancer on contact, but it kills mold without any scrubbing or effort whatsoever and its amazing and I love it. My bathroom now sparkles. Very happily:)
So yay...a week after I get to my apartment it is finally clean. I get to go about the business of figuring out how to throw away trash in Japan. Again, thank God for older JETs. I had read about Japan being all complicated with their rubbish and recycle bins, but didn't really understand until I got here and realized that not all plastic is the same, everything needs to be washed before being thrown out, burnables, non-burnables, recycle, pet-bottles, batteries, electronics, .... every category you could think of!!!.... all go out on different days of the week and different times of the month, and some things you have to take them to the store to be thrown away, and some things you have to pay for people to come get them and omg headache. I have the majority of things figured out... the big things anyway. It's not as intimidating as it used to be I guess, but it's still kinda crazy. I miss America where you throw everything in one bin and no one cares haha.
Around the 12th, I had another orientation to go to... back in Yashiro aka prison. Haha actually it wasn't that bad... but there is absolutely NOTHING in Yashiro, and we're stuck in a building that feels like a hospital all day trying desperately to stay awake while we're lectured (i.e. Japanese people read lengthy powerpoints word for word) about Japan and education and yadda yadda. There were some interesting JETs who helped out and helped mix things up a bit. One Austrailian guy told us `just don't be muppets' which made me laugh a lot. I pretty much just doodled the whole time. Oh and I got massively lost on my way there. I was running a bit late to begin with (story of my life), but nothing major. But I got to Sannomiya train station aka the LABRYNTH and spent about an hour trying to find the correct bus station, then another 20 min trying to figure out how to buy a ticket. Thank God there was a very nice Japanese woman behind me in line that was also going to Yashiro, otherwise I think I would still be looking for the bus itself. Luckily I got there just in time for lunch :)We definitely had really good food there.. and there was a bakery down the street we all ventured out to and I got ice cream and it was awesome. We were finished our meetings in the evening around 6ish and during and after dinner we'd all hang out and talk and stuff (all Hyogo JETs) and these Japanese guys in the kitchen apparently have a band that performs at a local bar so after dinner they'd start playing music in the kitchen. They were pretty awesome... they only played older music like the Beatles (their specialty haha) and Twist and Shout and Country Road and stuff like that. It was soooo cooool. Everybody was drinking gigantic beers and singing along and it was so happy. We had a curfew though, which was pretty lame. We were supposed to be in our rooms and asleep by 11. Supposed to be muahaha. The first night a bunch of people went to the Irish guys room and the next night the party was moved around as we got caught, but we still managed to sneak back out and find other rooms. Apparently the only reason they were so strict is because some stupid JETs in the past did dumb things like attack some guy who was in charge so they had to lock down a bit. But whatevs it was fun:)
We got back on Friday night, I spent the evening wandering around Kobe. Saturday night we had our welcome party in a beer garden in Kobe that was on the roof of a building so it was pretty cool. There were beer machines that poured your beer for you. It was pretty sweet. It was cool to see even more people I hadn't met yet... I got a bunch of numbers of JETs. lol I only remember who some of them are... but if I can remember they're all cool people:) That was over around 9:30ish? and afterwards we went to Karaoke... where else haha.
So most of my days run together... today is apparently Friday? I just found that out. I know at some point I went to Himeji castle, which was really pretty. Its cool cuz you take your shoes off to walk around and its really big and you can see all of Himeji from the top. Apparently the walls used to go all around the city... it was super gigantic. The grounds are really nice as well, but it was so hot and humid and we were hungry so there wasn't much walking around. During spring they have a nice cherry blossom display, and I imagine fall is really nice as well. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant near a friends house... they make this stuff that I cant for the life of me remember what its called but its awesome. Its like a stew kinda thing and first you eat all the stuff out of it, then you put noodles in it and eat that, then you put rice in it, and by that time you're so full you can't stand upright. We then went to our friends house...'Pablo' haha... who is super cool and also a JET. He has a bathroom with shiny round stone floor tiles and sparkly walls that made me happy. We all hung out there for awhile and played guitar and watched Youtube, and basically did all the things I do with my friends at home, and I had a lame Stage 2 moment where I started to cry because I missed home which was really dumb. But everything was cool. When I went home I listened to happy music and everything was good. Until two days later when I started crying as I was putting on my shoes lol. Yeah they warn you about this stuff at orientation but you don't think about it til it happens lol. Don't anybody worry though. There are just certain things that frustrate me, and I suppose everything's been kind of building up since I got here little by little. Like how I can't get ready in the morning without being drenched in sweat by the time I leave the house (no central air with ridiculous heat and humidity), and when I do leave the house, my hair is sticking out in all directions, regardless of hairspray and bobby pins. And Japanese people don't tend to show their shoulders, but it's really hard to convince yourself to layer up or wear anything other than a tank top when its a billion degrees out. Happy day. That kind of thing would wear on any spoiled rotten American who's used to constant AC, being able to jump in the air conditioned car and drive somewhere when its hot, and wear anything they want without worries of a social backfire. Compound random little things like that with a horrible predecessor who made you spend your first week drenched in sweat, cleaning like a fricken Japanese Cinderella and I believe you may hit your phase 2 a bit early lol.
I say phase 2, but really I'm still enjoying myself here. My main problem as of yet is trying to find my routine, but I haven't been here long enough for that yet. But I have my cell phone, I ordered internet, I'm going to work everyday, going out on weekends and whatnot... I think a routine will be coming any week now :) Work has been really nice. Such a HUGE contrast to the fast-paced, suck-your-soul-out-of-you, stress Factory where I used to work (though strangely, I miss it :( ). I get to work around 8:30 am and sometimes I have to write an introduction, or work on some other small assignment, but usually I just kinda chill out and wait for lunch and then chill some more til it's time to go home. I spend a lot of time studying (yay Facebook Kanji Box!) and some time Facebooking and checking email. For lunch, there's a grocery store across the street that most teachers go to get bento (very cheap... lunch for about $4), but sometimes I go to restaurants to have lunch. Since school isn't technically in session yet, there really isn't too much for me to do. It's quite relaxing, and doesn't feel like work at all. Yesterday, I got a tour of the school and it's big and I will get lost. But it's all good.
The teachers are all very nice too. Yamashiro sensei is the main JTE that has been helping me out and taking me everywhere. She is super awesome. Tonight she invited me to her house for dinner. I get to meet her two daughters and her dog lol. Her husband is also a teacher, but he won't be home. He is apparently an American football coach. I use the term American to describe the football, not her husband. The team went to Northern Hyogo to practice, where I suppose it is cooler. The funny thing is, she said her husband can't play football at all. I've found that many teachers that coach sports don't actually know how to play them. They just coach them. But being a coach of a team is very important to Japanese teachers. I've heard of instances where some become teachers just because they want to coach a sports team. Quite interesting. I met the teacher that is part of the kendo club. She's very cool and actually lived in Belize for awhile. She said I can come try kendo sometime, which might be fun.
The other day, I went to Kyoto. We basically just went for dinner. We went to this place where they have yakiniku and it was tabe/nomihodai (all you can eat and all you can drink) which is always a dangerous thing. We ate soooo much food it was ridiculous but it was so good. Since I've been here I've had cow tongue, chicken heart, and cow cheek, which I hadn't had (or didn't think I had haha) the last time I was here. The cheek freaked me out just a little cuz I couldn't help thinking about reading Hannibal Rising and anyone who's read that book knows what I'm talking about lol.
So.... so far Jay-pan is definitely the happy place I remember it being. I got paid recently so I'm quite excited to go shopping again... which will make it even happier:)
Yay Jay-pan! Come visit!