My oh my, it's been a crazy few days. Last Thursday was the International Understanding Education Meeting, held at one of my elementary schools. I'm not quite sure what the first part of the meeting was about, other than a group of teachers sitting around a table, but I had to give a five-minute self-introduction. I had no idea how I was going to talk about myself for five minutes, so I just printed a bunch of pictures of my family, house, friends, hometown, etc. beforehand and passed them around — luckily, everyone seemed really interested, and it filled up the time.
The second part of the meeting was way more fun. We went to a classroom, and Kataoka-sensei led a sample class where we got to be the students. We watched a DVD of Matt explaining numbers, then played a counting game, an adjective game and a rousing game of Go Fish.
It was a lot more laid back than I thought it was going to be.
Work on Friday was nothing new, just another uchiwase (meeting about teaching plans) at one of my schools. Friday night, I kicked back in my apartment, prepared for another long, Internetless weekend of nothing, when I got a phone email from Emma in Kochi City inviting me to come hang out with her and some of other the Kochi City JETs (and since the last Aki-bound train leaves Kochi City at 10:30, she said I could stay over at her place — she's a sweetie).
I grabbed a train into the city, and she met me at Harimayabashi:
(The bridge is a landmark in Kochi City... it's mentioned in the Yosakoi song.)
We went to a bar, where we met up with James, Lauren and Rob, but, sadly, the place was neither hip nor happening, so we left and went to a different bar called Stylish. This one was the place to be. A lot of JETs were already there, so I got to catch up with people I hadn't seen since Prefectural Orientation, as well as meet a couple of new people.
George (a fellow Californian), Emma and I were the last to leave. We said goodbye to George, then walked to Emma's apartment. It's pretty cute, maybe about the same size as mine, but it's hard to tell since my apartment is shotgun-style. She doesn't have a living room, but she has a much bigger kitchen.
Anyway, the next day I left Emma's place and decided to check out Kochi-jo (Kochi Castle) since it was nearby. The castle is inside a park:
Then I explored the grounds for a bit:
And now, the castle!
View of Kochi City:
For ¥400, you can tour the inside of the castle:
And a few more pics I took as I was leaving:
After leaving, I grabbed lunch and headed back to Aki.
I made plans with Arisa for Sunday, so she picked me up. We were going to do dinner and karaoke, but neither of us were that hungry, so we somehow ended up going to Aeon in Kochi City.
(God help me, I have discovered a mall.)
We did a bit of shopping (there was a tense moment when I forgot to take my shoes off before entering a dressing room), and P.S. — Japanese jeans are NOT designed with the booty in mind.
Then we headed to the food court. There was a crepe place!
Good thing this mall is far away from me, otherwise I'd probably be there all the time.
On the drive back to Aki, we stopped at Arisa's house in Yasu so she could get her Doraemon books. Doraemon is a manga/anime series about a robot cat who goes back in a time machine and uses his 4-D pocket of gadgets from the future to keep a kid named Nobita out of trouble. She bought the first six books of the series, and since the ones she bought have both English and Japanese, she's reading them in English and loaned them to me so I could read them in Japanese.
I waited in the car while she ran in the house to get her books. I heard something clatter to the floor of her car. I scanned the floor but didn't see anything, and she, like any normal person, has a bunch of random crap in her car, so I didn't think anything of it.
About half an hour after she dropped me back off at my apartment, I realized, in horror, what it was — my cell phone.
I was panicking to no end about how to get it back: How am I going to call Arisa, since all her contact info is in my phone? I could call my own phone and hope she hears it, but that would require her to be in her car at the same time, and what are the chances of that happening? What if she's listening to the radio and doesn't hear it? Soon, my mind started jumping to more dire conclusions: Eventually my phone will die, and what if she never realizes what happened? She would call me one day to hang out and I would never answer. She'll think I'm not only blowing her off, but also that I stole her books. If I get a new phone, will it have a new number? We'll never be able to contact each other again and it will be the end of our friendship forever!
It went on like this until I got to work Monday. Before coming to the Board of Education office, I had to give my self-introduction at one of my schools, at an assembly in front of the entire school. Introducing myself in front of the kids was actually a lot less terrifying than when I've had to do it in front of teachers and coworkers. I think the cuteness factor helped alleviate some of the anxiety.
Still, getting my keitai back was all I could think about. When I got back to the BOE, I enlisted the help of Matt, who dutifully called my phone at intervals throughout the day to see if Arisa would answer. I sent my phone an "ARISA, if you read this please help!" email in the desperate hope that she would see it. I tried Googling her. Matt feverishly searched Mixi (the Japanese Facebook). Finally, we told our supervisor what was going on, he made a few calls, and somehow he found her! (Maybe there's a Japanese 411?) So he called and explained the situation, and she said she'd search her car and call back when she found it.
I had plans after work to meet Sarah. Sarah was the first JET in Aki, 11 years ago. When she first emailed me, she said she had only planned on staying one year, but then she met a Japanese guy, fell in love, got married, had two kids and is still here in Aki. As I was walking out the door, Arisa called my apartment phone with good news — she found my phone! (I could actually hear it ringing in the background as I spoke to her.) She said she'd call me back when she was done with work for the day.
So Sarah and her kids picked me up and we hung out at their house for a while (her son Connor actually goes to the school where I introduced myself at the assembly that morning). Sarah and I chatted while her kids excitedly showed me their toys. Then they took me back home, and I had barely walked in the door when Arisa was calling my landline again. We agreed on a time to meet in Yasu. I had seven minutes to dash out of the apartment and be on the next train. She met me at the station, my keitai in tow, and we hung out and goofed around in Yashi Park, which is right next to the station. (There's a beach there, too!)
There are a few restaurants in the park. We were going to go to the Italian place, but it was completely devoid of customers (never a good sign). Meanwhile, the Indian place next door was bustling with people. Arisa was worried that the Italian place was empty because the food sucked, so we decided to play it safe and went to the Indian restaurant.
They had the most amazing curry on the face of the Earth (except for, I assume, India). Now, I know what you're thinking: "Brittany ate curry? But she hates any food that's even the least bit spicy!" Well — bless their souls — they let you choose the level of spice you want! Mild, medium, hot, and for ¥100 more, extra spicy. It was mild all the way for me :)
Now, before I came to Japan, I got an International Driving Permit. Even though I wasn't planning on driving here (left side of the road + no street signs + narrow roads = no thanks), I thought it would be good to have just in case. The first time I hung out with Arisa, she said I should try driving. The second time I hung out with Arisa, I purposely left my permit at home so I'd have an excuse not to. But this time, I slipped up and had the permit with me. She insisted I drive, and I was out of excuses, so I drove from Yasu back to Aki. It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be — though, since the car is reversed, I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I meant to hit the turn signal.
When we got back to Aki, we went to a (the only?) karaoke place in town.
(I stuck to the basics — Disney and Spice Girls.)
We stayed there for about an hour, then she dropped me off at my apartment — and I made sure I had my phone.
I've got another uchiwase today, and tomorrow is my first day of classes!
Peace,
B
No comments:
Post a Comment