Travel Day

Today was crazy for me. It started last night with us (Limor and I) not wanting to say goodbye to everyone and not hang out. So we didn't get to bed until around 02h00 or 03h00 - then we got up at 05h45! *wince* We got ready for the day and went down to have breakfast with Devin and Jake (and Shawn and Tom but they're going to our prefecture - well technically Shawn will be in Aomori, but he's part of our branch) as we were having to say goodbye to them to head to our respective areas. We were told to get to the hotel lobby by 07h45. So we ate and hugged and said our goodbyes and got on the shuttle bus to the airport (all 30 of us going to Morioka plus Bryan, Satou-san - our branch manager - and Angel and Dan). Luckily last night we were able to send one bag forward to our apartment so I only had one big bag and my carry-on. It was still pretty rough. The stairs were the scary bits and I actually dropped my 70 lb bag, wheel first, right on top of my left foot. It has been aching and tender all day. In any case, we caught a train West and then caught the Shinkanzen (bullet train). It was really cool but not as fun as I hoped. We found Jake & Devin in a car further up (which made sense and I'd said, why aren't we all taking the same train as our areas are North) and got to hang out some more (mmm). Unfortunately, the train does not have an a/c. It was almost murky. And on top of that, a big group of teenage girls sitting behind us took off their shoes and it REEKED of feet. I wasn't able to eat lunch it smelled so awful. Fish onigiri + smell of feet = very upset stomach!

Once we got to Morioka, we walked to our hotel. Bryan informed us in the lobby that we would not have our same roommates (I was quite dismayed), but it turns out that we get our own rooms. Ya... I wish I were sharing. I couldn't breathe at first when I entered the room. There is .. nothing. It's a miniscule box! I had to push my bed over a foot into the wall and move the little night table so I could stop feeling claustrophobic. It's SO tiny! (I'm going to try and get batteries for my camera today as right when I went to take pictures of me and all my friends the battery died. :c - They took pics that they're going to post on fb and I'll just steal those and put them here! Also, btw, I posted pics on the older posts.)

After we dropped off our bags we walked to our branch office. It's about a 15 minute walk. The air was quite brisk and Limor and I were freezing. It was really nice though, considering I can already feel the humidity and I would rather be cold than overheating (mmm). At the office we did paperwork - including filling out tax forms that were completely in Japanese. It was a sort of long and arduous process. Then they started going over how to fill out the paperwork for your car. I'm the only one who doesn't have a car or location allowance so I went to go settle my housing (pay for it). It ended up being ¥30000 more than they said it would be :/ Living in Japan is expensive! In any case, I paid and I also was able to read through my apartment contract and sign it with my hanko! (I'll take a picture when I get batteries.) I went back into the meeting and was just so exhausted I started getting really silly. Limor and I laughed and laughed at stuff that doesn't seem very funny now. LOL

They started pulling people out to do their housing and it was taking forever. By the time our meeting was over it was 17h15 but we were going to go to that work "meet and greet" at 19h00. So we got permission for Limor to do hers later and walked back to our hotel. (The fact that I was able to walk right back and not get lost was awesome for me! ... Not that I'm not good with directions... but I AM in Japan. Also I have yet to see street signs.)

We went to our separate rooms to get ready to go out. Once I got into my room it was hard to leave. I was so tired it took me a while to get ready, lol. But once I was ready to go, I went downstairs. I planned on getting dinner at the bar as I didn't really have the time or will to go find some before then. I was told I would have to pay for the nomihodai though I wouldn't be drinking. I asked my mum her opinion about it since I felt like it was sort of a waste to pay ¥2000 and not get anything to drink. Everyone was saying, "Oh they have Coke!" -"Carbonation gives me migraines." -"Oh... sucks to be you!" In any case, I figured if they do mixed drinks I can ask for juice. So eventually the guys showed up (veterans of the surrounding areas) to take us out. Oh man.. we went to a pub that touts itself as an "Irish-Mexican Pub," cuz you know... that makes sense. And good news! I didn't have to pay for nomihodai. Everyone was saying wait until everyone had their drink to take the first drink together. I held up the group because they insisted I have something so I got water. (The heavy drinkers: a brit, a kiwi, and the scotsman started early, but ya it was actually kind of fun to clink glasses with everyone.) And off we were... I found out very quickly that I had accidentally sat in the smoker's corner. It was making me quite ill and I didn't want to smell of smoke so I tried to stay long enough that it wouldn't be TOO obvious why I left then I jumped seats. (Because really I love these guys and they're so much fun - it's just that smell of smoke.) Oh! Before I jumped seats I ordered nachos for dinner. I was so excited - I got the deluxe nachos and had a blast trying to explain extra jalapeños *rolls eyes* - and for ¥1250 it was NOT enough food. It was actually really strange. It was like... someone wrote down the ingredients for nachos and then that list got water damaged and torn and they could only kinda read what it said. They were funky but fairly good. Anyway, we had reserved a room so when I moved across the room, I thought nothing of this new table at which I sat. Come to find out during the conversation, none of them worked for Interac. o.0 Yup.. I sat with a bunch of strangers. They were super nice though. I started to tell them about how I was going to teach at a Deaf school. One of the guys asked me about CI (cochlear implants) so it was fun to tell him all the things I've learned. It turned out that the Japanese woman sitting with us (who works as a translator) had a Deaf nephew. I had the best conversation with them. Then in comes a Japanese guy. He walked up to our table and asked what everyone was drinking. When he got to me, I said, "Mizu (みず)." -"えええほんとうに? (Whaaa, really?)" -"そう ([Yes] that's so)" [My translations may be a little off as I'm just getting started into this!] He asked me 3 or 4 more times then resorted to English, "Wataa?" -"Yes, I don't drink." I, oblivious, didn't know why he had asked until he came back with drinks for everyone. One of the other guys asked me why I don't drink so I told him I was LDS. (Oh and it turns out another girl in our group is LDS. What are the odds!? I believe we're the only 2 in our training group of 170.) It actually was really fun to talk to the Japanese guy. He spoke more English than I do Japanese but not a lot. Poor guy was trying so hard and I was trying to speak in Japanese back to him. At one point he reached out and startled me by grabbing my ear. He wanted to see my earrings (I wore a pair of parrots my mum gave me). I learned a few new words and then ordered ice cream. In fact, when I tried to order it, the Japanese guy ended up ordering it for me. (It was a tiny cone for ¥300.) I then proceeded to spill it on myself. *facepalm* LOL I went to the bathroom and cleaned up and when I came back someone was in my chair so I moved around and talked to a few different people. A couple people in our group were so intoxicated they became almost unbearable but I was excited since we'd been told we were going to karaoke (からおけ) next!

Finally it was time to go to からおけ! Some people chose to go home and I was onto my first time going to participate in Japan's national sport! ;) I assumed it was like it shows in the movies... nope. When we got there one of the veterans who spoke Japanese rented us some rooms. All the big rooms were already taken so the 21 of us had to rent 4 different rooms. You pay by the hour and there's giant books of songs. Unfortunately the remote and machine are all covered in Kanji. A girl came in and gave us a quick tutorial on working the remote and took off. When it came to my turn I chose "Our Truth" by Lacuna Coil. I was so excited to sing though I was one of 2 sober people... and one guy totally ruined it. He didn't know the song and kept screeching into the mic. I was so frustrated (btw it was the same guy was a jerk to my roomie during her test)! Finally I left that room and went to another. I waited and waited to see if he would come in but he didn't. When I had entered that room, the Japanese guy was there and he left as soon as he finished his song. He was singing a crazy song in Japanese. He did really well and the video from it was really funny. If I ever find out the name, I'll post the link to the video on youtube!) OOOHHH! I found it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUOegCG3v1A - It was a longer version of this song, but this was it. I have no idea what was going on but I understood the English. :) In any case, I waited around a bit to see if that guy would come in and ruin my next song but after a couple songs I entered in my favorite band: System of a Down, Innervision. I was STOKED. Right before my song was Wonderwall. The Kiwi (James) and a tall American guy named Scott were singing it together (you get 2 mics per room). I knew the song so I was singing along as well. They then got on either side of me with their arms around my shoulders, I put my arms around their backs and we started swaying and singing. It was pretty funny. One girl (another Aussie in our group) got tons of pictures. I hope I can get some later! Oh and before that the Japanese guy came back with a drink for me. I was like, "Uh oh!" I tried to thank him and turn it down but it turned out it was juice! He went down and got me an apple juice. I thanked him profusely. I was touched that he was showing me that respect. :) -- Sorry back to the song... so during the opening bars of MY song, in waltzes in drunk jerk who ruined my other song. He then grabbed the other mic and slaughtered my song. I was so upset. I tried to sing over him but singing over shrieking without doing my vocal cords injury is impossible. *sigh* So my first experience wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but I'm glad I went. :) I found Limor and we walked home together. That's another thing, I managed to get home without help from anyone! Win!

So that was my evening. It was mostly super fun and I'm glad to got to hang out with everyone and didn't have to pay for nomihodai.

Funny moments:

When the girls were helping me with my housing I was asking them questions. One of which was, "When I open my bank account (which btw can be opened with ¥10!), will they give me a debit card?" One told me that they would mail me one and in the meantime they would give me a bank book. I know I looked slightly alarmed, as I was, and said, "To write checks?" She nodded and I said, "But I only know like 10 kanji!" They laughed and laughed and laughed at me. Apparently the bank writes it for you. Thank goodness!

One of the things Limor and I laughed about was each others' accents. Well, she went to say that something was awful only she said it with an American accent. She got all wide-eyed and said, "THAT was awful!" Then started practicing her own Australian pronunciation over and over. I told her I was rubbing off on her and started saying it the Aussie way. There's a restaurant in Provo called the Awful Waffle, so then I started saying that. Then I started saying "Waffle" with the a of .. well the way Bugs Bunny would say "Ah/Eh, what's up Doc!?" It was all nasal-y and sounded horrible. We practically peed ourselves laughing.

At one point during karaoke Saz (Sarah, from England,) ducked into our room. She was a little wild-eyed and I asked her what was up, "---- won't leave me alone!" Sure enough, a few seconds later he tries to cram himself into our TINY room. She's already got an admirer! - This story would be funnier if I could tell it in person. Try to picture it. 

Love to you all! XOXO, A