Cock-a-doodle-do

Today was testing at chuugakkou, so it was the acceptable day for me to go to Takasaki to get my re-entry permit for my visa (so that when I go somewhere, I can actually come back into the country....why do they not give us with the visa, I ask?). Anyway, it's a good thing that one has to go to Takasaki to get it 'cause it gives ALTs excuses to leave work and shop, woot!

I woke up at 6 to catch the train....that was interesting ;) I rode my bike to the eki (station), and what did I find? A ROOSTER. Yes, a motherfucking rooster was just chillin' where you park the bikes at the Yabuzuka eki. Um, if that isn't a sign that I live in the inaka, I don't know what is. The most amusing thing is that the locals just walked by it like it was a normal occurrence. "Ah, yes, there's the bike parking lot, there's the rooster, there's the train...." It was even weirder than being mooed at by unseen cows while biking to the station once (one doesn't expect to meet cows in Japan).

Anyway, I trained for about seven million hours, then got to Takasaki and booked it to the immigration office, where I discovered 20 gaijin in front of me, sniff! That wasn't very encouraging, but I only had to wait a little less than an hour, which wasn't bad at all. I do have to say that government workers are slow in any country. Seriously, I don't know what they were doing, there are literally only five things that are done there, so you'd think they'd be really good and quick with those five tasks since they do them every day? Who knows!

Fortunately there was some sketchy lady at the third window who didn't take ticket numbers, but if you went up and gave her your stuff, she would just do it? It took me a while to figure this out, but I gave it to her and got it done within five minutes. I still have no idea why she was doing that, but I'm not complaining, considering they were on number 10 when I left!

So, what does Jeff do when he is done with his business trip by 10 AM? Go shopping, of course! And shopping, I did, deeamn! I definitely enjoyed being in a proper city! I miss it! I made up for the crazy 6 am by getting some oishii Starbucks.....mmm....I wish they had the pumpkin spice lattes here (mmmm), but a caramel macchiatto was enough to make me happy!

How to be even happier when drinking Starbucks? Get pastries from a bakery! I got melon bread (hello, it's necessary for existence), and tried my first andonatsu, which is a donut with sweet bean paste inside (k, in English it sounds gross, but...yeah). Anyway, it was fucking good, so now I have yet another new addiction, sigh.

I then proceeded to spend WAY too much time Vivre (department store). I took my sweet time and ended up with: 2 belts (one normal-ish, and one Japanese-ish), 2 pairs of sexy new underwear, a pair of the most comfortable (and cheapest!) pajama pants in the world, a leather bracelet thing that is totally not me, but I am making it me, hmph!, honey body wash and a loofah (I have NO clue how to spell that). This is the second loofah I have bought in a month, but fortunately I didn't mysteriously leave the bag somewhere like I did at Aeon. I still have no idea where that loofah is, but hopefully a poor person with lots of dry skin found it. I'm sure it changed his or her life forever. Oh, I also bought a ring, too.

Maybe it is a fortunate thing that I can't fit into any Japanese pants because I kept eyeing the most Japanese style-type of pants ever and wanting them really bad. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but a) I bought like five pairs of jeans before coming and b) they are expensive here, so it's good that I am too huge for this country.

Found a Korean place (well, a very Japanified Korean place!) and got a HUGE lunch special for 600 yen. That helps me pay for some of the shopping! It was good and muy filling, woot.

Did a bit more window shopping, then forced myself to leave the city before I spent my entire salary. It took more than two hours to get back, so thank god for keitai and iPods! I used up my entire keitai battery by 4:00 today. It can last me two days at a time, so I must have used that thing a lot today!

Anyway, here are random pics of the day, thanks to my keitai...


.........so strange


Mmmmm!


My an donut



The cutest pastries EVER! These are of Totoro. If you haven't seen Totoro before, you need to fucking rent that shit NOW!



What does one do when eating by himself? Take pictures of his food!


And, by popular demand, a crappy picture of some of my students running from the imaginary fire on Tuesday....