Happy 4th of July!

Now that it's July I really feel like I'm in the home stretch. In less than a month I'll be home preparing to meet my first class of 7th graders for math. These two years have gone by so fast, but I still have a few more adventures before I return to the States!

On Monday I went to Colet with Megan. She wanted help picking out a yukata for the summer festivals starting soon. We grabbed dinner and a coffee and we had a great night. On Wednesday Leah came over for a drink. Jupiter and Venus were both visible and almost touching, so we went up to the top of my building for a beautiful view of the city and the stars and planets overhead. Tanya came On Friday I went to Costco with Kikumi and Shinki. We went out for sushi afterwards and even won a capsule prize!

On Saturday I was up early to clean my apartment and getting all the 4th of July food ready to travel. I headed out to meet Caol and Megan at Cha Cha town to catch the first screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron playing near us. Megan and I had already seen it in Korea, but Caol hadn't seen it yet and because of the early morning time, it was fairly cheap to see it again. We all walked back to my place afterwards and pretty soon Kazuki was there picking us up! We loaded up our rental car and headed off to Yamaguchi. The drive was a little less than two hours and we had no trouble finding the campsite. We got there a bit early, so we stopped for lunch before checking into the cabin. The cabins were beautiful and had a fully stocked kitchen, so Chris and I got started on prepping the food while Caol and Kazuki headed out to get drinks and a few extra things. Once Caol and Kazuki came back and the food was all prepped we walked back to the main camping headquarters and spend some time in the onsen there. After relaxing for a bit we headed back to the cabin to start our 4th of July celebration! We started by drinking red, white, and blue sangria (strawberries, blueberries, and white wine). Soon after I started cooking the burgers and corn. We were originally going to have a BBQ outside, but the weather didn't hold up. Thankfully the cabins had a great kitchen and we were able to cook everything without a problem! We ate and drank all night and even played truth or dare for a while. It was a ton of fun and we all had an amazing night.

The next morning we made chocolate pancakes topped with the extra fruit and whipped cream from the night before. We also had red, white, and blue sprinkles to make them extra American. We headed out around 10:00 AM and found another onsen to stop in on our way back home. There was an outside pool and the water wasn't too hot, so we ended up staying there for over an hour. We headed straight home after that to return the car, but all had lunch together. We decided to get yakiniku since that involves grilling and we wanted to get some grilling in to make the holiday official. We had a great lunch, but parted ways afterwards. Megan and Caol came back with me to pick up their bags they'd left at my place. Megan hung out and we watched some videos until she had to go home. The rest of my night was pretty quiet.

This week should be another exciting one! I'll meet Kikumi and Shinki tonight to watch movies and make hamburgers. They really wanted to come for our 4th of July trip, but had to work on Saturday, so they couldn't make it. I'll be meeting Leah and Tanya for a girls night later in the week and on Saturday I'll have another goodbye party. I'm starting to pack things up, but it doesn't quite feel real yet that I'll be leaving. These are going to be a hectic and bittersweet few weeks. And although it wasn't my best performance, here's the video from last week as promised! Sorry it took so long.

First Goodbye

School last week was again pretty normal. I had a good time at Matsugae and enjoyed eating lunch with the students in their classroom during the week. I went out for dinner on Monday with Kikumi and Shinki, but other than that I pretty much stayed home getting work done during the week.

Friday night I went out with Leah and one of my teacher, Yamato. We went to a restaurant in Kokura that none of us had been to before, but passed by often. It was really good and I'm so glad we went! After dinner we went to Orange Door. I was helping Kikumi and bar tending that night. Before it got busier I was able to sit down and play cards with Leah, Yamato, and Caol who came to join us. Around midnight my friends left and I stayed behind the bar until I headed home. It was a really fun night!

On Saturday I cleaned up my apartment in the morning and ran errands in the afternoon. For dinner I took the train into Fukuoka and met with a bunch of JETs for the (first of many) Sayonara Party. It was at one of my favorite restaurants in Fukuoka and it was really nice to see everyone. I don't often go into Fukuoka, so I don't get to see them very often. Jake, Greg, and I left a little early to grab one more drink before going home and it was nice to spend some time with them. I caught the last train back to Kokura and all in all it was a great night.

Sunday I had work for an English camp I won't be attending. It was fun seeing all the students, especially the students I knew from last year or other schools, but it was a little sad for me to be there since I will be gone before the camp starts. It was just an afternoon full of meetings, so it didn't take too much time. After we got out I went over to Heart Key to practice with Kikumi's band. I'll sing two new songs with them next Sunday and we wanted to practice for a bit! For dinner I met up with Leah, Juha, Marc, Tanya, and Megan at Cha Cha Town. We ended up at a 回転寿司 (kaiten zushi, conveyor belt sushi) restaurant. We had an early dinner so that we could catch a movie afterwards. We went to see Mad Max: Fury Road since it came out here on Saturday. We all really enjoyed the movie! Leah, Juha, and I all walked home together afterwards and it was a great end to a great weekend.

Weekend in Korea

It's only been a short time since my last post, but I've got a lot to tell you! I had a great two days back at Asakawa before the weekend started. On Friday I went to Marc and Tanya's after school. Juha and Megan came as well and we ordered take out for dinner. We hadn't all gotten together in a while and it was really nice seeing them again. We hung out and played board games for a while (I won!) and had a great night. I meant to go home early to get some rest before my next trip, but I ended up staying later than I meant to because I was having such a good time!

On Saturday I met Megan again to head into Hakata. We went in early to exchange our Yen for Korean Won and then caught a ferry at noon. The ferry was a little under three hours and we quickly landed in Busan, Korea! Our hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the ferry terminal and we found it pretty easily. We'd gotten the hotel because of how cheap it was, but were really happy to find the room was beautiful! We even had a view of the bridge and nearby ocean! Although the room was nice, we were eager to get out and see things. We walked over the bridge to the shopping district. We walked around for a bit and had a late lunch. We really wanted to also go see Avengers: Age of Ultron because it wouldn't come out in Japan until July, so we found a movie theater nearby playing it and went. It was a great movie and afterwards we went to get some coffee and talk about the movie. We were at the coffee shop for about an hour before we started getting hungry for dinner and decided to check out the area around our hotel. I'm really glad we did, because although it had looked a little dead earlier in the day, at night it was completely lit up with small restaurants and bars everywhere! We just wandered the streets for another hour enjoying seeing everything we could. Eventually our hunger got the better of us and we decided to try a small BBQ place. I wish I could tell you the name of the restaurant, but it was all in Korean and I have no idea what it was called! It was small, but one of the servers spoke both English and Japanese, so we could easily communicate. Despite having gone in on a hunch and not knowing anything about it, we ended up with a fantastic meal! The restaurant's specialty was pig skin, so we had that along with some pork for the BBQ. For Korean BBQ you also get lettuce, vegetables, garlic, and sauces to wrap the meat you cook. It was a perfect end to the day! We headed back to our hotel after dinner since it was almost midnight by the time we finished and got a good nights sleep.

We slept in a bit, but were our of the hotel by 10 AM. We found online a 4D version of the movie and decided to see if we could go. We were hoping to go to a 4D version when it came to Japan, but in Korea is was much cheaper! There were just a few seats left, so we grabbed some before heading out to find breakfast. We wanted to also go to Yongdusan Park, so we found a cafe on the way called Whoever Cafe. Breakfast was perfect and we continued to the park afterwards. The park was beautiful and had a lot of famous building and statues. We saw Busan Tower, the Palgakjeong Pavilion, Cheongdongyongtap (bronze dragon statue), the Flower Clock, and the Busan Citizens' Bell Pavilion. It was a really beautiful spot and I'm so happy the weather held out for us to see it all! We stayed at the park for a while, but eventually headed back down toward the shopping district. Megan wanted to buy a shirt, so we did just a little bit of shopping before heading back to the theater for the movie. The 4D was really fun! All the seats moved, air blew around you, and there were even squirts of water all timed and relevant to the movie. I'm glad we'd already watched it once, though, because all the movement could get a bit distracting. It was really, really fun, though! After the movie we headed back to the ferry terminal and got there just in time to catch the ferry back to Hakata. We had dinner a great Mexican restaurant before catching the train back home.

I'm back at Asakawa this week and I'm excited for some quiet. I'm glad to be back at this school for now with no plans but to relax for a bit.

Leah's Speech Contest

It was really nice to have a normal, quiet week after all my traveling. I'm also back to updating on Mondays again! I'll also most likely be going back to shorter posts for the next few weeks.

I left off last week on Tuesday with my dinner and karaoke night with Caol. The next night, Wednesday, Leah came over for dinner and we had a last, little birthday celebration since we hadn't seen each other for our birthday's over the weekend. We sat and talked and had a great time. Thursday I went to Orange Door to visit Kikumi and Friday I went to Megan's to watch movies.

On Saturday I tried a new food for the first time, loco moco. Loco moco is a popular dish in Hawaii with rice, hamburger, fried egg, and gravy. I went shopping with Megan in the morning and helped her cook before everyone came over. We made the hamburgers and gravy from scratch and everyone loved it! We all sat around the 炬燵 (kotatsu, heated table) and talked and watched movies until dinner time. We all decided to go out in Kokura together, but none of us were hungry yet, so we decided to sing a bit before dinner. We went to Carnival Karaoke for a few hours and then headed over to 鉄なべ (Tetsunabe) for some gyoza. We went to one more place, Bob's, after for another drink and some more karaoke before finally all heading home.

Sunday I stayed home and cleaned most of the morning, knowing I'd be out that afternoon. I left home a little after 1:00 PM for Move Hall. There was a Japanese speech contest going on and Leah was a guest speaker! She had wanted to participate, but it was only open to language students at the YMCA. I went to go see her and her speech was fantastic. The speeches in the contest were all really well written and performed, too. Our supervisor, Ms. Tsuruta, had also come and she treated us to coffee and snacks afterwards. Leah and I got dinner after that and stayed out talking for a while before leaving.

This week should be another quiet week. I'm back at Shinozaki and these are my last full two weeks here. I'm really sad to be leaving, but I'm excited to make the most of my last class time here!

Late New Years Concert

It was thankfully another quiet week for me. I stayed late at Ishimine all week to help the chorus club prepare for an upcoming concert, which meant I wasn't getting home until after 7:00 PM. I did get the new ALT board up at Ishimine to talk about Valentine's Day and got a lot of work done throughout the week. I'm thankful for these quiet weeks now because soon I'll be off again to Tokyo and then Okinawa!

Friday I met Leah, Satoshi, and Caol at a sports bar after work. Japan was playing the UAE in soccer and the bar was serving all-you-can-drink during the game. Satoshi and the other patrons were really into it and the atmosphere was really fun! The game ended up going into over time and even after the extra thirty minutes the teams were still tied, so they moved onto penalty kicks. After five penalty kicks the score was still tied and it became sudden death. Unfortunately, the kicker for Japan missed the goal and the kicker for the UAE made it, so Japan lost. It was a still a lot of fun, though, and we made a new friend. After the game we decided to get dinner at the Turkish restaurant down the steet. Bec and Chris joined us there and Satoshi's friend Mihoko came as well. It was really nice to sit and talk and have dinner with everyone. After dinner I headed over to Orange Door to quickly say hi to Kikumi before going home.

Saturday I made myself a late breakfast and cleaned in the morning before heading over to Marc and Tanya's apartment. Juha came, too, and we spent Saturday playing different games. The first game we played was called Room 25 and it's a little like the movie cube. Our characters are all stuck in a 5x5 grid of rooms and we have to find the exit, but not all the rooms are safe. The goal is to find the exit room, have everyone get inside, and push it out of the maze before time runs out. There's also a chance of someone secretly being a guard and trying to kill us. We played with a lot of the dangerous rooms, so we only won once out of four games, but it was a lot of fun! After Room 25 we played a new game Marc had gotten called Lords of Xidit. It was about fighting monsters and trying to get castles, influence, and money. It was everyone's first time playing and we really liked it! We finished with a game called Lords of Waterdeep, a board game based off Dungeons and Dragons. I really like game and it's always a lot of fun. After the games I headed home for dinner. Megan came over for dinner as well and we had a Marvel movie night! She brought ten different movies, but we only ended up watching two because we talked too long between them. By the time we finished the second movie it was 2:00 AM and we decided to go to bed.

In the morning we went out to meet some friends, Riley and Aoife, for breakfast at a French bakery. We sat and chatted for a while before heading out. Riley and Aoife were going shopping afterwards and told us there was a big sale on, so Megan and I went too. I got a few small things I needed before we all headed home. I met back up with Megan for an early dinner at Kokura station before we headed over to a music hall near Riverwalk. My students from the Ishimine chorus club were performing in a New Years concert along with the Yomiuri concert choir I had seen back in May to help with with the English version of a few songs. There was also a live orchestra, ten or so opera singers, and ten professional ballerinas. The ballerinas also danced with some elementary students learning ballet and it was really cute! Everything was amazing and my students were really happy afterwards! Even my supervisor, Mrs. Tsuruta, sang as part of the choir and had a lot of fun! The concert was over pretty early and after saying goodbye to my students Megan and I grabbed a coffee and chatted before we each headed home.

This week will hopefully be another quiet one. On Saturday I will be hosting a dinner party with some of my co-workers who are interested in learning English. Megan, Leah, and Tanya will also come and we'll have a girls night. I have no idea what I'm going to cook yet, but I'm really excited. I'm also getting ready for my trip to Tokyo. I picked up my shinkansen tickets and hotel reservation last week and I head out on February 7th.