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!

things I find awesome

love the license plate!!

I know it's an abreviatoin..but really?  On the back of a SCHOOL BUS?!?!

Title of a chapter in a book!

WAHH so busy

So December flew by SOOO fast.  Work was extremely slow for the first couple of weeks, but with the onset of holidays its been nuts around the hotel.  3 ski resorts within 15 minutes of town is just asking for trouble during school breaks.  Everyone in Petoskey calls the week between Christmas and New Years "Hell week" and ladys and gentlemen....it's very well named.  My internet time before today was like an hour or two in the last week one of which I used to post yesterday!  So glad New Years is behind me now, it means business is going to slow back down and my days will be way less chaotic.  Plus, my time left before I quit has now been cut in half.  I'm going down to Florida sometime next week and visiting my grandparents for a few weeks before flying out to Japan.  I can't wait.  I haven't seen either of them since summer.  Though I wont be posting the whole time I'm down there.

Speaking of Japan, when I emailed PKC about not working for them on the 11th of December I got a simple response of: "Thank You." Nothing else.  Can you believe it? Nothing about what I needed to do or what was going to happen.  I got an email from my "YAY!!" school on the 27th about my COE application. It seems the COE application from PKC out of the Nagoya immigration branch was never cancelled.  That is 2 full weeks after I told them I wasn't going to work for them.  So my new COE application from the Shiikoku branch couldn't begin processing my COE.  Obviously one person can't get two COEs from two difference schools.  Now leaving on Feb. 8th might be causing some problems.  Since my new COE hasn't even been started (as immigration and PKC have been closed for the holidays)...that is a full month, plus then the time it takes to get it in the mail, and turning my COE into an instructer's visa at the embassy.  All of which take time I am running out of!!! AHHH!

I did let "YAY" school know I want to visit Taiwan. So if I do run out of time I can have my COE mailed to a friends house in Japan I am already planning on visiting before going to the Yuki Matsuri up in Sapporo on the 12th and 13th.  If I have to do that I'll fly right out of Sapporo to Taipei, visit my 2 Taiwanese friends that have been wanting me to visit while my Visa processes, and then fly back into Tokyo in time to catch my already booked flight to Tokushima to start work.  Hopefully everything works out.  *fingers crossed everybody!*

New Years

Wow New Years was fun.  My Mom and Dad drove up to Petoskey to spend it with my sis, brother-in-law and I.  I was supposed to work the morning shift and get out at 5pm in time for them to either not have arrived yet..or not been in town long.  Well that didn't work out so well.  On top of this week being "Hell Week" (more on that later) Monday my boss caught the night desk clerk red handed drinking at work.  Now we suspected it for months but could never prove it, and she was still mostly performing her job correctly.  And not only was she drinking at work...she had come to work trashed...and my boss saw that she had made a copy of the master key to his house and was drinking HIS alcohol!  MASSIVE no no.   So he fired her on the spot.  Made that week extra hectic. 

As his sons were in town he wanted to have dinner with them outside of the house.  He asked if I could work night shift...I being the extrememly nice person who usually bends over backwards to help people said yes.  Thankfully they knew I had plans and didn't stay out really late.  They got back at 10:30 and let me go.  I changed and made it to the casino club my family and friends had gathered at and stayed out partying till 4am.  I had to get gas on the way home...I was stunned to realize it was nearly 50 degrees outside.  I mean this is MICHIGAN...in JANUARY!!! 

I slept till early afternoon and then went to my sister's house where everyone had spent the night.  They were all up and drinking by then...my mom has a fantastic picture of them earlier in the morning of everyone passed out on the couch.  Litterally everyone....like 12 people I think.  It was an extremely amusing picture.  If I can get ahold of it I might post it~!