So, I wasn’t previously aware of the huge hard-on Japanese people have for Wham. I mean, I love George Michael as much as the next mo, but I literally heard it in nearly EVERY store I was in yesterday. There is only so much Last Christmas I can take, people! At least put a few more Christmas songs on your CD, people!
Anyway! So the weekend was fun-as but WAY too short, yo. On Saturday I met up with peeps at Takasaki eki and we took what looked kind of like a special ed bus to our ryokan at Lake Haruna. Well, I’m calling it a ryokan ‘cause it isn’t a hotel, but it is big-ass to be a ryokan. Anyway! So, I don’t know if I had said earlier, but me and 12 JETs went to Lake Haruna for a Christmas enkai. An enkai is a Japanese custom of drinking, eating and bonding with your co-workers. Haruna is in northern Gunma, which means it’s prettier and colder than Ota. It is a BEAUTIFUL area with snow, mountains, trees, water….yes, very different than Ota ;) Hehe. It was really great to be out in nature; it was definitely very Oregon-y.
K, my thoughts are all bara bara, I apologize. K, focus. So! Being the cheap-ass bastard that I am, I must say that the place we stayed was the most amazing deal ever. For $85 we got a shuttle to and from Takasaki eki (one hour each way), a night at the ryokan, a huge Japanese dinner, breakfast, two hours of nomihodai (all you can drink), karaoke, and onsen. What the hell?! I think it would be cheaper to live there than in my damn apartment! The first thing I did when I got there was get naked and go in the onsen. It was sooooo nice and relaxing. I mainly stayed in the rotenburo (outside bathtub), which was awesome, as it was snowing outside so there were snowflakes falling on your head while you were hot in the water. Mmmmm, nice.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t had enough water during the day and also stayed in there too long (and got out too fast) and felt like I was going to have a bloody heart attack after I got out. I was so light-headed for like 30 minutes! Bad news! After drinking about 2 gallons of water, I joined everyone downstairs for an enormous Japanese dinner. It was soooo good, yo. I do, however, have to question the Japanese custom of having every little thing on different dishes. While I enjoy the separation, can you imagine doing dishes for a meal like that?! There were literally like ten different kinds of food (and, hence, at least ten dishes) per person! I made a what-I-believe-to-be-funny joke about Eduardo being able to find a job easily in this country, but based on the silence it received, everything thinks I am the biggest racist bitch in Gunma! Come on, people, it was funny ;) Eduardo would have laughed! Hee hee.
During the course of the nomihodai we literally ordered probably 40-50 huge bottles of beer, at least, and I definitely got way drunker than I expected. Bad news! I hope I didn’t talk about embarrassing things. I fear I may have. Hmm. Well, at least most people were equally as drunk. Cindy and Ann are the ones to fear; I am sure they have blackmail-worthy gossip on all of us now!
According to pictures we sang lots of karaoke, but I don’t really recall all of that. Um, yeah. SO! The next morning ;) I got up at 8something and was disturbingly genki and awake for being up that early on a Sunday after drinking. After having some breakfast and taking pictures of Haruna we all got on the special ed bus with a big group of old Japanese people and went back to Takasaki. Bahia, Ann and Shinders and I shopped around Takasaki for a while, and spent what felt like about six hours in the cold looking for a restaurant. Apparently people in Takasaki don’t need to eat? Once we found an Italian restaurant and sat down, we got a dirty look from a Mom, who promptly took her child and moved to a different table. Fucking xenophobic ho needs to fucking get over her issues, that shit pisses me off. But I digress…
K, I refuse to end my post on that bitter comment, so I will talk about Monday at work! I am so proud of my 3nensei, I had my favorite 3nensei class today and I played Jeopardy with them, and their listening has improved SOOOOOOOO much since September, it is awesome. I love my 3nensei, I don’t want them to graduate!
I also am apparently a real teacher, as my 1nensei JTE was gone today (sick kana?) and they either forgot to or didn’t want to send a substitute my way, so I taught two classes by myself. I really didn’t mind, and they went fine, but technically that is illegal, since I don’t have a teacher’s certificate. Oooo, I can blackmail my school now! But yeah, it was actually good.
K, I promise my long-delayed pics will be posted this week some time….this blog is looking very color-less these days…
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Every time I think about my 3nensei graduating, I get very sad, so I try to not think about it at all. I DO love my 3nensei as well, and you are right, their hearing as improved significantly over the last few months. Yesterday, I explained a game in English and my JTE didn't even have to translate! They're SUCH good kids...
Oh yeah, we DO have the same entries! But you're right, people enjoy reading them...so that's all that matters!!
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