August 2, 2004

• well i got to my own town and then by chance i found out ppl in my larger area were planning to do something in the city, where everyone meets to do stuff.  well i wouldnt want to miss that right?  so i went.  it was a good thing i asked because otherwise i think that i wouldnt have been the wiser.  and it was the first time the newbies were meeting the veteran JETs.  but it was a total typhoon which sucks.  it still is.  and it s rainy season so that means wetness everywhere.  the city was a wash (pardon the pun)  we went to an all you can eat and drink place.  (never worth it for me)  they charge men more!  haha.  then we proceeded to do a pub crawl so some places so small, we couldnt even wedge ourselves in, tho most tried.  i was forced in these situations to hang outside and insist all was well.  we went to about 3 or 4 places.  one we went to twice.   i hadnt thought of how i was going to get home, i was glad enough to receive a ride there because i wasnt in the mood to figure out the train just then.  so i ended up sleeping on a kitchen floor on some blankets at 5am after waiting for someone to finish doing tons of karaoke and for the other to get sufficiently drunk.  then we took a cab with the drunk one insistently and confidently giving directions until he confesses, i dont have an idea where we are.  we also notice there is some weird blood stain running down his leg.  its not his, he insists.  i also feel that the americans are a bit of a minority.  at least so far.  which is cool.  there are canadians, kiwis, irish, brits, one girl from south africa.  everyone is very nice, but if drinking is all there is, i may have put my life on hold in the wrong country.  its not, one girl tells me.  she is also not the bar type, too bad she is leaving and just came out with us on her way out of the program. 

  
  

  my place is really cute.  super small, but thats fine.  im pretty set up with a tv, vcr, stereo, rice cooker.  send vhs tapes!  the tv is not bilingual!  address:

  
  

  GIORDANO Joanna
  48-5-303 Kayano, Kawabata
  Itano, Itano TOKUSHIMA
  779-0102 JAPAN
  

  theres always travelling and stuff, which i will work my way up to.  that s what i like to do, work up to things.  i took a bike ride, went to a bookstore, went to the supermarket.  its kind of rude, but i apparently HAVE to drive to one of the schools im working at on the first wed after i start.  lets all thank god that that isnt for a few weeks.  if i had to drive right now, someone would die.  and that s probably in addition to me.  after Osaka, i hear, my prefecture has the worst driving record and the most deaths related to driving accidents.  and osaka gets the out of being really crowded.  that means that ppl by me must just be bad drivers.  great.  and on the other side of the road too. 
  

  while taking refuge outside one of the tiny karaoke bars the other night, i struck up a convo with a german fellow who is not with the program.  gave him my email and he emailed me already.  so theres a reason to venture out to the city, to foster other international relations.  and to talk to someone else in english.. not that i havent been talking to myself.  i have.  there are some video tapes aleady there, but so far they are bad quality, but there are a bunch and about half are ones i would want to see.  they re taped off tv.  there are a lot of food shows and kids shows on the 10 stations that i get.  i think the typhoon is the reason why i only get one lately. 
  

  im almost afraid to talk to ppl because im afraid that a few things will happen, none of them good.  either, they will not understand me at all - score.   they will look at me like im retarded - i me i am asian.  they will dislike me for butchering their language - could happen.  i hear that a lot of ppl speak some english even tho they say they dont.  i mean, most ppl took like 10 years of it in school.  and even tho they are probably horrible speakers and comprehenders, its there right?
  

  i have a tiny futon couch in my apartment that is only about  5 feet long.  that s short even for me.  but its more comfy than the futon mats at least so far.  i think i have the trick to the futon whereas before i could only get it open every other night, i ve had it two nights in a row now.  i ve been living on onigiri, sushi, bento, ramen, udon and jelly desserts.  the onigiri is like a surprise because there are so many and theyre mostly all good and i can only read wasabi. they re color-coded but i havent figured it out yet.  chicken, spicy fish eggs, tunafish , salmon, who knows?  i brought some microwave popcorn and easy mac, but the microwave is sort of a mystery.  its a toaster too!!  and there arent numbers, there are presets.  so that makes it difficult.  how do you do popcorn or mac and cheese when you have to cook it in terms of sake, cookies, spongecake, gratin, and milk.  tough i know. 
  

  the toilet has a two way flush.  luckily i can read big and small.  charming.  the girl before me left me a  huge jar of peanut butter because its not that common in japan.  cool!

  
  

  MACGYVER: right when i got to the apartment, emily (girl before me) was supposed to have left the keys in the mail box.  its the kind inside the door so i dont know how that was supposed to work out, but suprise!  it didnt.  we could see the keys on the floor inside the kitchen. bummer.  so after my arm, not fitting, duh, we tried an umbrella.  that didnt do the trick.  i suggested two umbrellas like chopsticks.  i thought that idea would get across.  them Aki, my supervisor`s husband pulled some antenna thing out of the trunk and bent the end into a hook and used that and the umbrella to hook the keys.  wow!  i was impressed.  and thank god, he speaks great english because his wife does not so much even tho she is supposed to be the one who takes care of stuff for me. 

  
  

  the teachers` room is pretty bare now, im hoping its not pouring outside because i have to bike home. first im going to the supermarket because i have no food and at least another few days before anything happens that makes me leave the house.  how sad.  im like  a hermit.  a hungry hermit.  getting to the schools computers will make me get out i guess.  this was easy.  im surviving...

  • 3:06 am
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