Hello Sanae

Well The day started off great!  Sanae my internet penpal from Tokushima came and picked me up at my apartment at a little after 11....and since I had accidentially slept in we headed out for lunch before getting started.  I'm sorry to say I forgot to get a picture of the Okonomiaki place we went to, it is supposedly a pretty famous one in the city.  She had a magazine it was featured in with her so she could find it.  I'm not the biggest fan of okonomiaki, but it was pretty good there!  She then took me to an Endo style Villiage about an hour from the center of town.  Not something I would have thought up for a first time meeting of 2 people, props to her for creativity.  We wandered the street taking pictures going in the shops and chatting for a few hours....and then found a cute little coffee and cake shop near the end of the street.  It was great, we got 2 coffees and a dessert each and them split them so we could both have a bit of each.  I had the sakura cheesecake and she got the strawberry tart.  Both were FANTASTIC!!  I may decide to add pictures of them later but for now just know I had a had no difficulty consuming my portion of either.



Right after we arrived



view down the street



Dinner after a few hours spent wandering the 100円 store.



 On the way back to Tokushima center, Sanae told me she had been chatting me up to her co-workers at Villiage/vanguard...a really neat store located inside big shopping centers around town.  She asked if I minded going to meet them all....having a foriegner friend here is kinda a bragging right...odd but whatever, its Japan stranger things than this are concidered normal here.  We spent a little while wandering the store chatting with her co-workers....her boss gave me some free pocky (whoot!!!!) and then we left.  As we were heading out I noticed a 100円 store and asked if she minded me shopping for some things for my currently bare apartment.  I think she probably regrets saying "yes" now...we were in there for something like 2 hours getting things.  In case you didn't figure this out a 100円 shop is the Japanese equivalent for a dollar store...only they have a huge selection of actually useful items at a semi-decent quality.  I spent nearly 10,000￥ ($100)  and it took 3 carts to fit all of it!! haha we pretty much stuffed her car to the brim.



Dear Feet

I am SOOOO sorry for the pain I have put you through over the last 24hours.  During which time I tromped all over Shibuya, Yayogi koen, Meiji Temple, The Imperial Palace, Tsukuji, Akihabara, and Ueno koen.  All starting at 7am yesterday not stoping until 7pm except for short dinnner at 4:00....and then shoving you (already sore) into heels as I stayed out all night in Shibuya at Club Camelot where I danced ALL night long, and am only just letting you rest.

After all your hard work, I solemly swear to give you at least 2 weeks before puposely causing you such ecute pain again!

Sincerely,
Me

Parks in Tokyo

Fun little lake/river in Yayoi park I sat and chilled at for like an hour

wishing well in Yayoi Park

I had a bit of fun with my camera on the walk to the park!

As close as you can get to the Imperial Palace

*YAWN**

DaTing's been sick since yesterday morning...and Adrian and I have NOOOO ideas of how to have fun in Taipei for the day......

Is it bad that I've been in Taiwan for less than 5 full days and I'm already bored and miss Japan? 

10pm on a Saturday already out of things to do in a big city....since Adrian doesn't like clubbing. I was ready to fly back today, I have no clue how I'm going to get though the rest of today and tomorrow!

Mistaken Identity

Riding the escalator to the train platform I hear:

"Lisa" or what sounded like it spoken behind me a little ways back. Instinct had me turning half way around before I caught myself...'wait this is Taiwan and my only friend is standing right next to me' I turned back facing forward and continued to chat when..."Lisa"...my stupid brain forgot my last argument and I again turned halfway around when I again caught myself...'You're still in Taiwan, and your friend is still standing next to you NOT saying your name.'  Also just so you know it was in a kind of conversational volume, and sounded a bit like part of a phrase in Chinese this time...so I again ignored it and faced forward.  My friend  is now laughing at me for reacting a second time! 

The two of us get off the escalator and move down the train platform to stand in line to get into a train car.....when.....I get tapped on the shoulder.  Note my friend was about a foot in front of me.  I then hear "Lisa, why didn't you respond when I called you just now." Says a woman...who sounds just like the voice I had heard a second ago on the escalator and dismissed as not calling me.  No mistaking her both saying Lisa and talking to me this time.  So I turn around and the woman goes "Whoops I'm sorry, I thought you were my friend Lisa.  You looked just like her!"

Now tell me how awesome is that?!?  Getting mistaken for a woman who has the same name as you?!  I told the woman it was alright, since my name really was Lisa.  She was kind of stunned for a second, and then laughed and the coincidence of it. 

It's going to get nuts when I'm in Japan and Risa (closest they can come) is an actual name in Japan.....and a very common one....it's just asking for trouble....I ALWAYS look when I hear my name.  Damn!

Starting a trip off right!

I had been hearing the loud banging for like the last half hour, and thought it was really annoying construction or something.  So when we got down to the apartment lobby I was super suprised to see a festival parade going on right in front of the building.  DaTing said it was because today was a holiday, they have a parade put together by all the temples the day before.  How awesome is my timing?! I mean first full day in Taiwan and I get to see a festival!  It wasn't as nice or cool as some of the ones I've seen in Japan, but still very cool.  After watching the parade for a few minutes we went to the bank....so I could stop freaking out about not having money....and the ATM at an actual bank actually worked...so now I feel kinda bad about reaming out the woman Tuesday night. 

One of the boys gave me his pole of the Dragon to hold for this shot.  It was soo sweet of him!

Ahh oh well can't do anything about that now, anyways after I got money DaTing took me to get some noodle soup, and we ended up walking right along side the parade (again) to get to the food shop she wanted to take me to.  I got to see a different part of it! and I took some great pictures with the different groups of people. I felt kinda weird, but DaTing told me it was ok since I was a foreigner...they kinda expected it...I'm not sure how I feel about that asumption!

At Danshui

We then jumped on the train and headed to Danshui the major river front way on the far side of Taipei...it took almost an hour to get there.  Grabbed some donuts and then strolled along the boardwalk looking at shops and playing carnival games.  I did the dart/water balloon game and won a thing of bubbles for breaking 2.  Makes me embarassed since we had a dart board in my parents house growing up! I took a lot of pictures and we had fun shopping.  I baught a suvenior for mom...which I'll mail back home once I get to Japan, I think she is going to love it!  Other than that DaTing and  I were content to just stroll along the streets trying different snacks and buying a few.  I got some new hair accessorys...which...hey when in Asia right?!?  You can't see it in the picture, but I'm wearing one of them in the club we went to later. 

Shinlin Night Market....It was nuts!!

Once it started getting dark we went to a night market....man was that some crazy amount of people packed into a very tight area.  but again fun.  It was kind of like a high quality flea market!  I got an awesome leather braclet...something I've been searching for for over a year.  And it was only NT290...something like $9...I'd have to do the math to find out specifically.  We ate some really weird egg, veggie, sauce and gel mixture of a dinner and a bowl of some really good soup. It had at least 10 different things in it.  Note to self to ask DaTing the name of both.  The egg thing was really hard to eat...the jell didn't like to be seperated from itself in order to get it into pieces, and the sauce made it kinda slippery.  But still it was good....weird, but good!  There were sooo many different side allies and such, I'm glad DaTing knew where we were going since I was totally lost.  I had started looking for a cute bad to hold my camera...the one I have is kind of ulitilitarian for where I'm living, and DaTing had been having an amusing hunt for fake glasses.  Anyone know why Asians like to pretend to wear glasses?  I mean most of them don't even have lenses...? I've noticed this in Japan and now here in Taiwan...I mean yay she looks cute in the ones she's been wearing the last few days, but most of the fake glasses she was trying on were SUPER nerdy...like what my grandfather wore 20 years ago.  I was really tired by the time we decided to head back.

After about an hour back at the house, DaTing asks if I want to go to the club since Nelson's (her BF) friend can get us into one for free, with free drinks.  I didn't have to think about that very long. We got dressed and headed out at midnight, drank, danced.  A group of guys came over to me after a little while and asked where I was from...standard first question any foreigner is expected to recieve before even a hello or what is your name. A little backwards from how we start a conversation in the US!! When I said America, they told me they were from Japan, so I had fun talking with them in Japanese for a few minutes.  It was nice...my Chinese is limited to maybe 10 words...none of which are helpful in a club (though I have gotten DaTing to teach me a few new ones every day).  So chatting with them gave me a bit of a break from demanding DaTing and Nelson to talk to me in English!   At about 2:30 we had to leave, Nelson had class this morning..I kinda felt back about making him come with us.  But hey apparently unless you have a lot of girls going out together, girls shouldn't go clubbing without at least a guy in Taipei...and it was his friends that were going to get us in. 

My poor feet...they were only just starting to recover from Monday's night in heels and I torchered them again last night

DaTing after we got back..she'd had a bit too much to drink!

Taiwan. Arrival.

So getting to Taiwan did not go quite as smoothly as I would have liked.  First, since I didn't get to bed till after 6am!  Second, the 3 tour group friends were up for their scheduled events at like 9am so blog buddy and I got up when they were headed out to say goodbye.  Blog buddy was staying another night and so would see them again, but alas, it would be the last time for me.  Since we were up blog buddy and I decided it would be pointless to try and sleep for just 20 more minutes.  Instead she helped me do my last minute packing and then took the things I wouldn't need or want in Taiwan to help lighten my suitcases to the post office to mail them to my apartment. Which was an ordeal as I didn't know the hostel's address for a the return label.  And then blog buddy helped me get my luggage up to the platform.  From there to the airport was pretty uneventful....it was once I arrived that things went to crap again.

And 3 the biggest reason.
So I'm standing in front of the clerk checking in and she tells me that since I was only flying from Japan to Taiwan and not The United States my ticket purchase did not cover both suitcases...which was crap, since there was nothing like that mentioned when I checked to see if China Airways had free baggage....one of the reasons I end up flying with them.   I figured their ticket was more but it covered luggage unlike Delta...meaning that after luggage charges Delta would have been more.  ANYWAYS, she tells me it would be 370000yen to take the second bag...which is a little over $400...I was like SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! I paid $508 for the flight round trip!  After a minute or so she retracts her statement and checks both my bags for free, but told me my carry on was too heavy (I had thought carry on luggage didn't have a weight limit?!  I've never had one weighed before!)  SO I had to find about 4kg in things in my carryon to move over.  I managed 1.5kg....when I told her it was my computer making my bag heavy she told me just to take it out and have it under my seat.  Apparently they just have shitty over-head bins that might fall on people!

I ran to my departure gate...since by this time it was nearly 2pm and my flight had started boarding at 1:55~yikes!  I made it just in time....and I ignorned the clerks instructions about my computer.  I mean come on! 3kg is not going to destroy the bins, and I didn't want to be stepping on my computer.  I slept almost the entire flight over.

DaTing and her boyfriend Nelson Took about an hour to arrive, he had class.  Not a big deal, I chilled in the pickup lobby and I charged my phone then pulled out my DSi....where I practiced what few Chinese words I know on My Chinese Coach. 

Since I was starving...airplane food never being fantastic...from the airport they took me out to eat.  Something I need to pay them back for.  I hadn't been able to withdrawl money out of the ATM to pay for my own dinner.  It was delicious, DaTing says I have Nelson to blame for us going to an expensive resturaunt, but I think the food was worth it.  They tell me it's a pretty famous place especially in Japan, though I have never heard of it.  Why they took me to a Japanese resturant when I am going to be eating that food for the next year I don't know, but it was soooo good!  Have I ever mentioned my absolute love of Japanese cusine?  If I haven't, note I LOVE JAPANESE FOOD!

After dinner I took a shower and watched some TV with the 2 of them, and called PNC my bank about the ATM problem.  When I opened the account the woman had told me it would work in every ATM in the world. Needless to say I had begun to panic about being in a different country without money!  She gave me a bit of attitude when I told her if getting a credit advance from a bank was my only option. It would cost me money, and I thought PNC should reimburse me should this route be neccessary.  I mean it was they who lied to me and put me in this predicament in the first place!  Must admit I got a little verbally abusive, not my best moment, but she was not helpful. 

Not long after though I started getting extremely sleepy...airplane sleep is never a substitute for the real thing! So we went to bed, Nelson because of class today, DaTing because she's always tired....and me, well I think we all know by now why I was sleepy!

Club Atom

Alright had a chance to recuiperate....mostly!   Valentines Day spent at Club Atom as I said was fabulous...aside for the walk to and from the station.  It had been a pretty nice day, but started snow....slushing around 4 in the afternoon, and so by the time we all left for the club at around 11pm quite a lot of the cold extremely wet stuff had collected on the ground to start the attack on my poor defenseless toes.  After the 5 minutes from the Hostel to the station I was wishing my dress would allow me to tuck them under my feet....by the time we made the 10 minute walk to the club my feet officially needed to be defrosted.  I did my best by immidiately getting on the dance floor and partying it up in to hope that the movement would warm them up quicker. 

Within just a couple minutes bunk blog buddy and I had already attracted some attention.  Now my Japanese isn't the best, but unfortunately for the poor guys they were from Osaka....meaning they speak nearly a different language....from the different one I already hardly speak! I managed to convince them I wasn't interested after a bit of manuvering.  Blog buddy, the 3 tour group friends and I left to check out the other floors.  Music was great and really varied.  I had so much fun all night rotating between the 3 floors listening to all the different music.  The bottom two floors varied with the DJs between techno and popular dance songs from the US.  Top floor was all Jpop....which was great for me, but none of my friends are really into that so we didn't really spend as much time up there.  After about an hour my feet were completely back to normal...unfortunately I hadn't had dinner and with the constant motion I'm afraid I chugged the water just a little too fast.  I wont go into more details, but lets just say it wasn't pretty.

Pretty quickly after we returned from the above floors I got approached to dance by a good looking Japanese man...who (BONUS!!) was quite a bit taller than I was, even in heels.  It was fantastic.  His name is Kagiyama, and he was really sweet.  I was so mad that I chose that morning to walk around in my heeled boots.  My feet haven't been in heels in a while and with the mornings abuse my feet didn't have nearly the stamina I would have liked. I kept having to sit down for like 10 or 20mins and let them rest before I could head back out.  But other than my feet, the night couldn't have been more fun or perfect!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at Atom.  I thought my cell phone would be a good enough camera, but either it doesn't have flash or I'm a huge idiot and couldn't get it to work.  Sigh, hopefully the other's got some pictures.  I know Kagiyama got some of the 2 of us, but due to my lack of a Japanese phone he couldn't send them to me.  I got his number, so maybe after I get one I'll give him a call and have him send them to me. 

Walking back to the station from the club was more miserable as the walk to the club.  Kagiyama walked with us, showing us the way.  We had gotten turned around so weren't exactly sure how to get back.  So having a guide worked out perfectly.  And I loved that extra time to chat....where I could easily actually hear his responses. We had to transfer from the metro to the JR line in order to get back to Asakasabashi. That train didn't arrive for 15minutes and the platform was completely outside and exposed to the cold.  I had to wrap a scarf around my legs in order to not freeze...but again...my poor toes.  Just outside the station was a 7/11...I took shelter there till I had some feeling in them to make the remaining 5minutes of walking back to the hostel.  Bed hasn't felt that nice in a long time!!

Journey to Taiwan...still to be continued!

Happy Valentines Day!

Ok so I had like THE best Valentines Day of my life yesterday.  It was awesome.  It started kinda crappy when I got woken up kind of early by some of my roommates getting up at like 7am eckkk! But after they left for the day I managed to fall back asleep and it was great for the rest of the day.  I officially got up and out of bed at about 9:15...man I'm turning into an early bird...that's when I've been getting up ever since I arrived in Japan. Went up to the lobby and got myself some toast, jelly and a soft boiled egg....not the best breakfast I've ever had, but hey, this is a 2800yen a night place..I didn't expect them to have breakfast at all...so YAY! things started off pretty positively!

After breakfast I chilled in the lobby with my new blog buddy and coincidently bunkmate (no kidding...not just my dorm roommate, but the girl actually sharing the bunk right below mine!) cool huh?  She and I..along with Luc (one of the guys that was still hanging around)...decided to go out yesterday and celebrate the holiday by partying it up.  All 3 of us are single and just wanted to have an awesome night out in Tokyo.  But between that discussion and clubbing time I had some exploring to do.

 

As I surmised in my previous post, I did indeed just explore around Asakusa.  Luc had no plans for the day and didn't feel like wandering Tokyo alone again so he joined me.  We went back to see Seisoji.  It was just as great as I remember from my last visit to Tokyo....though I must admit I went there on a mission to get chocolate covered bananas and visit an awesome Udon shop I happened upon last time.  Mission objective 1 was an utter failure.  I dragged Luc up and down the allies and around the temple grounds looking for what had apparently gone from an abundance of banana stalls to them being in hidding.  NOT cool! Luc found some really good melon pan and shared a bit of it with me to tide me over  (melon pan is a must have while in Japan...along with green tea ice cream).Mission 2 on the other hand was complete.  Found it just as the hunt for chocolate bananas made me so hungry I could hardly go any further.  I ordered Tempura Udon (super delicious).  I highly recommend going to this place if you want to get some fantastic Udon while around Tokyo.  It's off the main gift buying street to the left on the left...I want to say the second road, but it could be further.  I'm going to be in Tokyo again next week...I'll go back and confirm this for anyone who might possibly be interested! OHH! And this isn't just me.  The resturant was packed, I went there with Masa last time and he loved it...plus (if he counts) Luc said his was amazing too.

Source of my lunch!

my Udon

After wandering eating Luc and I decided to try and find a park somewhere and chill on a bench while having a can of coffee (cocoa in my case).  We went to the station map and saw a decent sized one depicted on the other side of the river and so asked a station clerk for directions.  Most we got from him was out exit A4 and across the bridge.  It took a lot of keeping down that road and then asking for directions before we actually it.  Well worth the round-about wandering too.  I stupidly decided to conform to Japanese fashion and wore heeled boots!  my feet hurt by the time we finished meandering around the park and selected out bench.  The park (Sumida Koen) was beautiful...see pictures below...there was even a cute temple in it, something I didn't feel the need for photos of, but still very cute.


After our coffee/cocoa break we headed back to the hostel.  My feet hurt and was pretty chilly after having been outside nearly all day.  Blog buddy (I will refer to her as this..I know she'd want a nickname) was again in the lobby plugging away at her blog.  Bit behind after her trip to the Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo in Hokkaido.  An event I had wanted to go to and then realized how much extra time, effort and money it would take.  I made my previous posts prettier with pictures she showed me how to upload, and we chatted until we decided to go get ready for going out.  Another girl and 2 guys from a Pharmacist University tour group decided to join us, as well as Luc's roommate.  I would name name's, but I'm not sure if they want to be mentioned.  Luc I'm sure is too into anime memorabilia to notice I gave up his...or even to care!

The 7 of us left the hostel at 11...needed to make it to Shibuya by midnight when the trains stopped in order to make it to our intended destination of Club Atom, which was having a great Valentines Day special.  Club Atom and the adventure that was getting there deserves it's own post so I'll leave you for the night....



...On a side note..I'm now in Taipei, so I need to get to my first day here as well!

Japan thus far.....

I arrived in Japan on Wednesday..since I failed to mention my arrival in my post on Friday...my getting to Japan went relatively smoothly.  Out of Grand Rapids we had a frozen pipe and so had just over an hour delay while it thawed and then had to wait for maintenance to give us the OK....I was fine, but others with shorter layovers than mine were starting to panic.  Kinda wish I had had longer in Chicago than sitting on the plane in Grand Rapids...I was planning on using all my time to make sure all the my batteries were fully charged.  As it was, my ipod was dead and only had time to charge my nook up to 36% battery capacity. My nook lasted me till the end of the book I was reading....which was still about 10 hours from Japan...most of which I slept...So I guess that part of it was OK. 

The entire flight I mostly kept to myself.  I was seated next to 2 young Japanese exchange students...who I think were dating.  They talked to each other in extremely hushed tones and hardly acknowledged my existance.  They were probably just shy...as most Japanese people are when it comes to speaking English to native speakers....not that I couldn't have done a semi-decent job in Japanese...but they didn't seem interesting in finding out if I understood.  Kinda depressing.  But oh well, at least I wasn't right next to the couple with the baby that cried almost the entire flight!  After landing in Narita I had to catch a bus to Tokyo Station (a 1.5hr trip) and then transfer to a bus to Iwaki (another 3.5 hours) which is where my friends picked me up.  The 4 of us went to eat Japanese style hamburgers (this is 9:30pm Japan time) we ended up leaving Iwaki around 10:30 to go to their house....(yet another 1.5 hours away).  So basically I woke up at 5:30am on Tuesday morning and was on the move till the 10am on Wednesday if I was staying in the same time zone.  Impressive right!?

The Hanafuda cards we played with!



Over the last couple of days my friends have been making sure I was entertained.  I was not expecting that, since I knew they had jobs.  Turns out they took Thursday off, and Friday was a holdiay.  Thursday I went to the local onsen (hot spring) for an extremely relaxing bath in the morning.  I would have liked to have stayed longer, but they had made plans to take me visit their son Yu who is close to my age and speaks decent English (for someone who grew up in rural Japan) and lives in a tourist town.  I'd met him a few times last time I was in Japan, both in Kawauchi at Hiroko and Ken's house and in Koriyama where he was living at the time.  It was nice seeing him again. He showed us around and then we went shopping at an outlet mall. He is training to be a chef and supposibly made us pasta for dinner, but I didn't see or smell anything.  He said it tasted so good that he ended up eating all of it before we got there.  I think he was just lazy, didn't make anything, and then lied about it!  So we ended up going out to dinner...which was probably better than what Yu  would have made us.  I've had pasta in Japan before....it leaves much to be desired.  The day was fun, on the drive back to their house I fell asleep...I was apparently VERY tired since they told me yesterday that I was snoring really loud the whole way back.  Man was I embarassed.  I usually never snore, in fact I'm usually so quiet friends have told me there were concerned I was alive and breathing...why or why did the first time in forever have to be in a car ride?!!?  Once we got back we turned on the TV and played a Japanese card game called HANAFUDA...I'm still not sure if I know how to play it, it's kind of like a wacky Japanese version of poker I guess. 

Friday they paraded me around to their families, Hiroko made Curry Rice for lunch...I did my internet browsing and then we went bowling.  Hiroko predicted the order of winners would go as follows:

1.Ken

2.Hiroko

3.Akiko

4.Me

I played tennis with them when I was living in Kawauchi before....and unfortuntely told them I was good at it.  I hadn't played in probably 6 years...how was I supposed to know that in that time I had gotten horrible in that time?  They brought this up and used it in their reasoning that I would royally suck in bowling too!  They continued to birate me about idiotic things I had done last time for the whole 45 minute drive to the bowling alley.  Lucky for me I love bowling and go a decent amount of times.. after 3 games the final rankings turned out as:

1.Ken

2.Me

3.Akiko

4.Hiroko

Turns out Hiroko is the one that isn't good!! I was SOOO amused about this!  We had italian for dinner and then came back to watch Tv at Akiko's house before taking turns enjoying her EXTREMELY hot and large bath tub.  I was pretty much crashing by the time Ken had his turn so we got in the car and headed back to their house. 

mmmm...yummy!

Yesterday there was about a foot of snow...it had been coming down non-stop since Friday morning, so we decided to stay in.  We had gotten the ingredients for apple pie, steak and mashed potatoes when we were in the bigger town for bowling on Friday and I cooked them an American dinner.  I was really worried about the Apple Pie..Japanese ovens are tricky.  While the steak marinated and the dough for the pie is rose we watched an eating contest on TV....it's sooo much more civilized than eating contests in the US....AND they do with time limits....not till people fall over overstuffed.  For once I didn't feel like barfing right along with the contestants as I watched.  Half way through baking of the Pie, Akiko called and told us she wasn't coming as she decided to go out on a date..or at least I think that's where she went.  So Ken called one of his co-workers who is my age that he gets along really well with and asked if she wanted to join us and try American food.  She got there just as I was starting the mashed potatoes and Hiroko sent her into the kitchen to be my "assistant."  It was interesting and dinner turned out delicious...including the pie...which was a raving success!  When we were done eating and just sitting around talking Hiroko mentioned I loved going to the onsen, but how Hiroko refused to go with me....Sat-chan (not sure if this is her actual name) suggested we go right then.  I wanted to go, as I said I love going to the onsen, but was a little leary about going with someone I had met mere hours ago.  It was one of those only in Japan things that you should expect, but still never do.  Think nothing of making a friend by going and taking a bath together!  OH, and to top it all off...on the way to the onsen she pulled out her keitai (cellphone) called a friend of her's and invited her too.  We didn't even exchange names (Ippo-chan) until we were undressing!! AGAIN...only in Japan!  After the onsen the 3 of us headed back to Hiroko's and stayed up chatting...I crashed out at 3am.  When I woke up at 7 to use the bathroom Sat-chan, Ippo-chan and Hiroko were all still sitting around the table entergetic as can be and talking.  Shaking my head I used the facilities and then crawled back upstairs and fell asleep again.

 I arrived in Tokyo about 2 hours ago...it took me practically the entire time to drag all of my suitcaes around the subway...yes subway....to get to my hostel.  At the entrace I got 3 nice Japanese guys to help me carry down my bags....thank goodness I did, as it turned out there were at least 7 flights of steps.  I wasn't quite so fortunate for the trip back up to street level, but luckily that time it was only 2 flights of steps.  I'm in Tokyo for 2 days and then I am flying to Taiwan for a week....I have no plans or ideas in mind for what to do the rest of today and tomrrow.  The front desk staff here seems nice...maybe they will have some suggestions.  I've done Tokyo before...so I'll probably just explore around my hostel.  It's in Asakasa..a really cool area that I only looked around briefly before....hopefully everything goes well! 

Better I promise!

Ok so as I mentioned this is the first time I've ever had a blog, and now that my life is going to be different all the time and I'll actually have something interesting to report, I promise I'll get better at posting more frequently.  Not that Anyone has missed my lack of posts I'm sure!!  I posted on facebook a while back the link and my mom (who is a more frequent facebooker than I am) asked me on Sunday if I had started a blog yet.  Thus leading me to believe anyone who would actively seek out my blog specifically doesn't know or has forgotten it exists!  Maybe once I start work I'll remind everyone about it!

So to again to an update.  I finished working at the hotel on January 14th...my bosses went for one last overnight trip, so my last work shift was from 10am on wednesday till 5pm on Thursday.  Which stunk, but I do understand since they wont be able to go anywhere for a while as they will have to wait till my replacement has shown they can trust her for such a long period of time alone.  I spent Friday morning and early afternoon packing up and cleaning my apartment as well as settling as many tasks as I could in Petoskey before heading home and then to Florida. 

Saturday morning my mom drove me down to the airport in Grand Rapids.  The day was pretty uneventful, I arrived in Orlando at a little after 5pm...but between waiting for the other passengers for my shuttle to my grandparents and the ride there...I didn't get to their house till around 9pm.  Totally worth it though.  My grandmother was fantastic and escaping from snowy Michigan is something I don't get to do often in winter.  Apparently it was cold in Florida most of the time I was visiting.  I of course, didn't notice.  I kept getting strange looks and people kept asking if I was cold when I would be out and about without a coat, or in a skirt.  I got it really bad the first day it was really nice and sunny...I was out sunbathing in a swimsuit.  The golfers on the hole behind my grandparents house thought I was nuts till I explained I had just arrived from Michigan and this was the weather in June there!  A depressing thought now that I think back on it. 

While in Florida I took my grandma to see my grandpa a lot, he is in the hospital for a little while longer from a broken hip.  He's doing better now though so that is good to know now that I'm in Japan and wont be able to see him for myself.  My grandma didn't want to cook the whole time I was there...and wouldn't let me every time I suggested it.  We ate out for every day for lunch and dinner and the occational breakfast.  Well except the days that we stayed in and had Sam's Club food we heated up in the microwave..or food left over from going out.  Some of those times was really good luck.  We got stuck inside for a few days when there was really heavy rain, and another when there was tornado warnings in the area all day.  That freaked me out!  Luckily the tornado that did touch down didn't come over where we were.  Though it did get pretty close.  It was, of course, my luck that a tornado would threaten when I am visiting!While in Florida I got to meet a lot of my grandmother's friends and they seemed to enjoy having me over.  Hopefully it was genuine and not just being polite! 

My grandparents!  Aren't they so cute together?!?

She stole my sunglasses!

Also while in Florida I got to see 2 of my best friends. They got married last summer and in March they moved down to Georgia with their daughter (my Goddaughter) and I hadn't had a chance to see them since.  Every time they managed to make it back up to Michigan I was swamped at work and unable to make the drive back to my home town.  Even luckier for me the place they live is right on the Florida/Georgia border....so I drove 2 hours and they a half hour to Jacksonville.  We met up for lunch and then went shopping and hung out at the mall all day.  It was a ton of fun and their daughter has gotten even more adorable that last time.  She actually remembered me too, something I find amazing.  I mean she was just over a year old last time I saw her! 

I was at the airport to greet the sun (T_T)

Flying back was not a pleasant experience.  One of my flights had gotten cancelled and I didn't find out till 10pm the night before when I checked my email before heading to bed.  I ended up spending an hour on the phone with Delta straightening it out and changing flights around so I would still land in Grand Rapids around the time mom got out of work to make it convienent to pick me up.  With the cancellation they had me not even leaving Orlando till 4pm, which put me in Grand Rapids at 10ish...on a day where half of the country was to experience extreme weather!!!  I got them to change my layover airport, but because of the change I went from having the shuttle pick me up at 7 to it picking me up at 5 in order to catch my newest flight....2 hours of sleep I had planned on when I picked 10pm as my bedtime.  I think I only ended up with like 3 hours of sleep after all the stress the change caused and the time re-arranging everything took.  I ended up getting into Grand Rapids around 4 instead of 5.  I just had to wait at the airport for my mom a while.  As it was, I got in with perfect timing...my first flight was extremely turbulant the entire way.  I saw more than one flight attendant fall the few times they had to get up and check on us.  The blizzard we were expected hit in earnest when my mom and I were almost home.  I probably would have been stranded out of state till Thursday if I had left my tickets the way the cancellation changed them to!

As for my Visa...as I mentioned in my previous post..I'd been terrified that I wouldn't get my visa in time to catch my flight.  With the huge blizzard and storm on the 1st, EVERYTHING was closed.  I had planned to be waiting at the post office when they opened on the 2nd and head directly to the consulate office to get my COE processed as early as possible.  Of course that didn't end up happening...making me even more worried about flying out as I had lost yet another day.  By 3pm the roads had been sufficiently cleared that I went to the post office (mercifully they were open that day) and then started over to Detroit.  I stayed the night at a friends in East Lansing so that with less diving the next day I could get there earlier in the day.  I turned in my COE and Visa application and begged them to get it done early.  She promised end of day Monday at the lastest, but said she would try for the next day.  (Thank goodness!!) After shopping and hanging out with my friend for the rest of the day...staying up late watching movies and such, I got woken up at 9am by a call from the consulate office telling me they had my Visa ready and I could pick it up anytime (PHEW!!!!!!!). 

Over the weekend I spent as much time with as many of my friends and family as I could, they helped me speed up my packing and errands for leaving.  Moving abroad for a year is no easy task...or at least it isn't when you have loans and bills to keep on top of.  I had to change and set up the payments for the next year for my car loan and insurance.  Plus my cell phone bill which I can't just cancel yet since I have to be in Japan for a while before I will be able to get a phone here.  Anyone reading this blog who is interested in coming  to Japan keep this in mind.  Getting a cell phone contract requires you posses an alien registration card.  Which takes anywhere between 3 to 6 weeks to get once you apply...and applying requires you have an address and proper visa (same goes for a bank account so be prepared to carry a very large amount of cash around with you until you have one.  Japan has very few places that accept credit/debit cards outside of hotels).  Coming to Japan 3 weeks before starting work means I have that much longer before I can even apply....I wont be getting to my town to apply till the 24th of February.  Hopefully I will get there early enough in the day to apply immidiately!

ahhhhh!

Why do I have such bad luck?  Both this trip and my first time in Japan the first morning after my arrival there was an earthquake....Neither were a big deal.  But really?!?  BOTH times!  I mean does Japan as a country go "OK Lisa's here lets give her a special freakout welcome."  I mean I'd never felt an earthquake until I came to Japan the first time...only had a few of them the whole 8 months I was here...and never felt any the whole time I was back home!!  And yet THE FIRST DAY I'm back they have one.  And though it wasn't a big deal in Kawauchi...it did last for a while...which means it WAS probably a big deal somewhere. I didn't check the news to find out if it was or where!

better updates on my life later!