Beaucoup de Izakaya

hello from jpan! All is well here, althought the homesickness is starting to settle in and its really affecting my work haha. Last weekend Maria and I took the train to Okazaki and met up with Briana at the station. She took us to an izakaya for dinner--its a restaurant where you order a bunch of different foods to share and its fairly cheap, but lots of fried food :). There was a couple sitting next to us and our waiter never wanted to come and take our order or theirs so the man started shouting sumimasen and hiding behind his menu...it was hilarious. so then we felt it appropriate to shout sumimasen loudly as well. One thing about japan is that everyone in restaurants and stores shouts at you...they constantly shout welcome and thank you over and over again. After dinner we went to karaoke for about an hour and a half and then went back to Briana's house to sleep. On saturday we decided to go shopping, of course, and we went to Aeon mall near her house. I bought some jeans at Gap...seriously they were the only ones that fit my hips and were long enough. And they were WAY too expensive. bah. We found a massage place in the mall and decided to get 30 min back massages which was grand...im pretty sure i was drooling but whatever. Then we went grocery shopping for Briana and went back to her house. Then we met up with Matt and Annie at Yamachan--its a famous restaurant in Nagoya or "world famous" as they claim to be and the mascot is a man who is 3/4 chicken...its sweet! They have the best chicken wings tho...yum! The environment is really fun tho and the waiters attempted to speak english to us and made the dinner highly enjoyable. After dinner we went to a bar called izakaiya jaa nai (not an izakaiya) where all the foreigners hang out for chris's (a third year) bday party. There we drank a lot...they had miller lite...and then went for all night karaoke after. We karaoked until 5am...yikes! it was fun tho, i thought it best to constantly sing backstreet boys and 'nsync songs, im sure everyone else appreciated it! Sunday we slept in until about noon and then went to breakfast then back on the train home--its only like an hour train ride away, not too bad. Sunday I just went grocery shopping, made some fried rice for dinner, and went to bed. Monday I sat around as usual at school, reading everything and anything I could find online. I actually did finish my first lesson tho, its just my self-introduction in which i made a power point with pictures of the fam, the friends, etc and a quiz about me that I will make into a competitive game. After school I wanted to go to the foreign food store and see what they had so I found the bike Dan left for me and attempted to ride it....oh god, its so small and old and falling apart I almost didnt make it...trust me everyone I passed was laughing cuz i looked hilarious on it. I got some junk food tho and peanut butter...score! On Tuesday my supervisor helped me sort out some bills for gas, water, electric which are all overpriced but i guess thats the way it is here. Around 12:30 he took me to my other two schools that I teach at once a week...Taketoyo HS and Utsumi HS, both senior high schools in the chita peninsula. I met with the vice principals and english teachers, who were all quite nice and spoke english well enough. Utsumi is a low level academic high school, so that should be fun I'm sure no one will listen slash care what I have to say, but the school is located close to the ocean and Utsumi is like a beach town, its very pleasant! My supervisor got lost on the way and we drove around in circles, so I cant wait until I have to go there by myself next week....After work I met Maria in Sakae to get my cell phone, which now i have one!!! We went to Soft Bank in Sakae, there are a couple english speaking employees so it was easy enough to get a phone! Then we found a subway and omg it was so amazing to have a real sandwich again...we both ate footlong subs and were in heaven...i think we are going to make it a monthly trip! After that we went to HMV to get blank cds, wandered around by all the hostess clubs and men holding up signs with girls, and call girls in the streets...its a very wholesome city haha. Im at work now and about to go into the gym and give a speech in front of oh 1000 people, no worries I'll be fine...not. Oh and its in japanese...ouch. Wish me luck!! Today is Opening ceremony day so all the students are here and almost ready to start school, although i dont start teaching until next week! Ahh i have to go now and make a fool of myself, just a typical day for me! Lots of LOVE! Miss you all! Oh and its been raining here all week which brought some cool breezy weather which is a nice change from the humidity! :)