It's Snowing!!

Well, not really right now....but read the following post as if it were yesterday!

Yes, yes...there's a crazy snow storm in Kizaki! I came out of my apt this morning and was welcomed by crazy snow in crazy wind! All the teachers are talking about it...well, there really isn't a time when they're not talking about the weather, but yes, this is so cool! If it's gonna be cold anyway, bring in the snow!! Wheeee!!!

Hmm...now for an update on the past weekend. On Friday, my shougakkou classes were observed by the students' parents. Luckily, the students were genki and the games worked out really well. Good good. Anyway, that night, I went out for kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) w/ Jenny, Sean, Em and Jeff at a place near Sean's place. It was SOO good! Mmmm mmm. After that, we met up with Tim at Fujiya for dessert. That was disappointing. After that, we managed to go to two bars, b/c we were drowning in cigarette smoke in the first one so we had to leave...disgusting! If anything, I hate returning home w/ my clothes and hair smelling like smoke...yuck! Anyway, that was Friday.

I slept in on Saturday and met up with Jeff at Ota Station for our walking tour of Ota. Surprisingly, there are many places we can go to by foot if we only walk three steps farther than we usually do! Yaay for walking! We decided we'd have ramen for lunch. We went to this one place and ordered the spiciest miso ramen on the menu, thinking, "This is Japan...how spicy can it be, right?" Um, big mistake. Big big mistake, as we paid the price for it. The miso ramen looked normal enough...but after I took my first bite, I should've stopped there. But I didn't. We continued eating the spicy ramen meanwhile going through pitcher and a half of ice tea (half of which we discreetly poured into our ramen to water down the volcanic miso lava, not to mention the 10 other condiments we dumped in there to ease the pain), sweating as if it were summer time, watching our lips catch on FIRE, and having immediate stomach pains after each spoonful of soup we drank. Why didn't we just stop eating, you ask? Because we are retarded. Yes, retarded indeed. We literally both felt sick to our stomachs after finishing our meal. This was indeed the spiciest thing I've EVER eaten, not to mention the fact that it's in Japan of all places! Strange, but yes, I shall stay away from "spicy ramen" for awhile.

That night, I attended Ann's aunt's shinnenkai (New Year's Party). It was me, Ann, Ann's aunt and about 10 of her friends...all of whom were over 60 years old, I think. Anyway, we had a 7-course meal at her uncle's sushi restaurant. It was good, but well, let's just say that I was really full by the 5th course, though we ALL had to continue eating every bit, as it was considered rude to not finish our food. What was meant to be a nice meal turned out to be a stuff-yourself-till-you-pass-out dinner, because everyone was trying to be "polite" at her uncle's place. After dinner, they all decided to go to karaoke. I had to pass, first b/c I think I would've felt very outta place at karaoke w/ them, and also, I could barely move after the meal. I made Kouji work hard for his money when I got back home...

I was very proud of myself on Sunday. I biked from my place to Time Clip, which ended up taking only 1/2 an hour, and not 1 hour as assumed in the last post. Anyway, I biked there, returned my movie and got a new one as well. I also visited Uniqlo...which is just across the street. I think Uniqlo in Japan would be like GAP for us in the States. Anyway, after an unneccessary purchase, I biked from Uniqlo to Ota Station. Thus, my bike is finally parked at Ota Station for good! Well, maybe not for good. I can now bike anywhere in that area...which really doesn't mean too much considering I DO live in Ota. Hehe.

Thought of the day:

The title of today's reading in class was, "Let's Save the Earth." My JTE asked me, "Cindy, what do you do to save the earth?" Umm...ummm....."I recycle?" He then said, "That's it??......What about saving water?" Umm...umm...."I take shorter showers?" (Which, by the way, is totally made up.) K, do Japanese people "save the earth" in ways that I don't know about? Someone, please enlighten me.