Domannaka

OH I have so much to tell you all! Well last I left off I was going to my opening ceremony speech in the gym...it went really well! I didnt trip, or fall, or forget my speech! I jsut gave the same speech I gave to the teachers about me, so it was short and sweet! Kawai-sensei says I have really good japanese pronunciation, but we'll see, my first japanese classes start on friday so im hoping i can learn more vocab and verbs so i can communicate with people better! Anyways, after my speech on wednesday i sat around and did nothing of course..but then after school I went to Akaike to have dinner with Matt and Maria. Maria cooked us spagetti and it was amazing! She is a wonderous cook and i love going to her house for dinner! Then we watched a movie and called it an early night since we were all tired and had to get up early for work...so responsible i tell ya. On thursday night I had my english converstaion class in Agui! I met them around 8 and our class consisted of reading parts of a book about Japan. I learned a lot about the origin of the name Japan and the flag and also the difference between Nippon and Nihon, which im still a little unclear on..i think Nippon is more official and governmentally used. But yea, so we had class for about an hour and a half...everyone in the class is just so sweet and the old guy, Roy, loves to interupt and tell us odd facts or question me about state flowers haha who knows, but i really enjoy them! On of the older women eeko oda brought me a bag full of hello kitty stuff cuz i told her i loved cats! And then she invited me to her house, so I think I will go to visit her next weekend! After class we went out for tea again and just sat and talked about japan and wisconsin, it was quite enjoyable. But then the rain started and didnt stop all night, it was pouring and pouring and thundering all night! On friday morning the trains were all delayed due to the rain and there was major problems in Okazaki, which is near me but not too close, with flooding and houses collapsing etc...not good. So friday morning it was hectic around the school, but as I am paid to do I just sat at my desk and did nothing! Friday after school I met up with the other jets at Oasis 21 in Sakae for dinner. We went to another izakaya, but I didnt eat (I ate ahead of time to avoid the greasy, fried food) so we just drank kirin and sake...then the ladies--maria, me, annie, and deanna--headed to a club called i.d. for the night. We decided to miss our trains and stay at the club all night, not too bright. The club is sweet tho, it has 5 floors, each with a different genre of music playing...we hung out on the hip hop floor of course! There were lots of other foreigners there, so we didnt feel so out of place. But after 3 hours of dancing we were tired, so we walked to matt's apartment and crashed there. On saturday we slept in and had doughnuts for breakfast at mister donut...i love that place! After lunch it was still pouring and I decided to still go to Sakae to watch the domannaka in the rain. The domannaka is a dance festival in the streets of sakae and a tons of dance teams participate in a competition...it is too much fun to watch. They wore very traditional clothes and make-up and dances despite the cold rain! After the festival I took the train home to change and pack clothes to stay at maria's and then hopped on the train all the way back to sakae to meet everyone again. We went to another izakaya (a much much better one that has amazing wings and fried cheese...yum) for a going away party for an older yet. I got to meet some new older alts that I haven't met yet which was fun! After dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) we went to the hub, which is a foreigner bar in sakae. We keep seeing the same foreigners everywhere so we finally go a chance to meet some other people on different programs and here in japan for other various reasons. After the hub we decided to miss our last train and go to an all night dance club instead. We headed to club Mago, which is a well-known club that many famous djs have come to. But that particular saturday night it was techno music night, and oh my lord it was awful. It was a small club, too smokie, and continously flashing strobe lights...it was not good. But we met some interesting people there and this one sweet girl named Miyu who we hope to keep in contact with! So at about 5am we left the club and walked to the station, since the subways dont start running until about 5:45am, ugh. Tom, an alt from Wales, and I went back to Maria's and slept until about 2pm on Sunday. After our nap we went back into sakae to watch the dance festival again. It was beautiful out and there were crowds and crowds of people there watching! We ate lunch at a Hawaiian Korean BBQ restaurant called Yummy...I think the restaurant was a little confused with what kind of food they were serving...but we had delicious cheeseburgers so it was alright with us. After the dancing was over we wandered around the rest of the festival, there were stages with people singing and tons of little tables with different foods. We ate some yaki-soba and listened to music and then called it a night. I came home and went to bed. Monday morning I got up early since I had to find my way to Utsumi high school for the first time. I got off the train at Kowa station and followed the students to the bus and then rode with them to the high school. I gave a speech to the teachers and to the students and then they let me leave early at 12:30, which was fantastic. I rode the bus back with the students, who were asking me a billion questions and so excited to see me, but our mutual language skills are crap so it was hard to have a conversation. Since Utsumi is the lowest school in Aichi prefecture I will most likely be having trouble communicating with the students and teachers, who speak little english, if any. After school, I came home ate some lunch, called mom and dad :) and then finished planning my classes from tuesday. Tuesday I finally got to teach at Handa, I had four classes--two first year and two third year classes! The third year classes went very very well, Kawai-sensei is easy to teach with and has amazing english skills. All the students were excited to see my pictures and asked many questions...like if I had a husband or a boyfriend...and broke out of their shy shells for a while! I really enjoyed teaching my first day and I think it will be a good year! The students at Handa are really bright and eager to learn. After school I had english club and listened to the students speeches for the speech competition at the end of Septemeber. Their speeches are all so funny, one girl is reading the very hungry caterpillar! After school I caught the train back to Sakae again to meet Maria for dinner at Los Tacos, I really really miss Mexican food. It was a fun little hole in the wall restaurant, but they had delicious and cheap tacos, burritos, and nachos...just what I needed! After dinner we went to a coffee shop for some iced tea and just relaxed until we had to catch the trains back home. This morning, wednesday, I had to go to Taketoyo high school, my third school, to talk with the teachers and arrange the class plans. The train ride was easy but then I had to walk a half hour to school in the extreme humidity through the rice fields! I got to school all sweaty and gross, but thats to be expected in japan. Im probably going to sit around and do nothing for the rest of the day, but everyone here is really friendly and the lady in charge of me, Kume-sensei, is so sweet and helpful! Tonight I am going to relax and clean my apartment, maybe do laundry, although my washer smells funny eh. Tomorrow I have two more classes at Handa and I'll probably be giving my self-intro for the first two months of classes and by then I'll be sick of talking about myself! I hope everything is going well back in the states! Miss you all so very much! Much Love!