August 31st, It's Not Always Sparkles and Fun

8/31
Work was boring today and all I wanted to do was stretch after last night’s run, but I was afraid people would judge me. I also went to the bank to pay my rent, where I subsequently checked my paycheck, sent a postcard, and withdrew some money. On the way back to school I bought a ham and egg sandwich, which is quite good and quite popular here in Japan. I had no communication problems, and I rode my bike the whole way which made everything go quickly.

I’m starting to feel more and more guilty about my workload. Things will pick up once I have classes, but the last few days I feel like I’ve been paid to do nothing but study and write things to my friends and family. Granted, I worked really hard on various things on Thursday and Friday, I still feel like I shouldn’t be here if I’m just dicking around.

September 6th, A Nice Place to Visit

9/6
My computer’s been screwing up, but I don’t want to talk about it. Now everything seems to be fine except the internet, which I can get sporadically but it won’t seem to stay. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to navigate necessities of life without the proper language skills.

Last night I went for a sprint instead of a run, since I got such a late start and have been realizing more and more than I need to start sleeping.

I’ve been trying to shop lately so as to finish my apartment, but the thing about Japan, is that no matter what you want to find, it is only available in “powder pink,” “powder blue,” “flowers,” or “kitty.” While that may *sound* like cute paradise, it really pisses the hell out of you after you’ve bought a few dishes and are ready to move on to respectable carpeting. Cuteland is a nice place to visit, but you don’t want to live there.

Today, as I was going around the major home store and getting really really frustrated by all the unmatched adorable, I finally just gave up and left. Suddenly, I read “home fashion” on a sign and followed it, so I was lucky enough to find a wonderful, wonderful store!! It’s like the Pier 1 of Japan! I went ahead and bought a futon cover and some wall hangings, and I plan to return for other things after I take some measurements. I think maybe after Silver Week (my 7 days off in a 9 day expanse with nothing to do), my apartment might be finished.

As I was coming home, my neighbor across the hall also happened to be coming out. That never happens and I hadn’t met him yet, so I introduced myself and he was like, “just wait!” and he came back out with a melon! The man gave me a cantaloupe! Do you know how much those are worth in Japan?? It’s like a $15 fruit! So I scurried in the house, packed his omiyage with some extra chocolates (best I could do in short notice) and came back to ask him about his work and explain that I would have introduced myself earlier but I wanted to practice my Japanese before going around the neighborhood. It was a pretty good conversation, but I was so nervous that I rehearsed it in my head a million times first while packing the omiyage. I definitely want to make it up to him for giving me a melon! It was sooo good ^.^ and it was really nice to have an American food for free so that I could eat it freely, which meant sitting down to half a melon for breakfast without feeling any guilt!! Though if anyone asks, I shared it with 8 of my friends for dessert, ok?

September 9th, Exercise In A Good Way

9/9
When I went running the other day, it was 10 PM and I was coming up behind one of my neighbors who also works at the desk next to me at school. I thought I was loud enough, I'm a loud runner, but when I caught up to him and said "Konbanwa!" he jumped out of his skin! I couldn't think of what to say fast enough, so I just kept running. But then it was a good opportunity the next day to apologize and have a conversation in which I impressed him by caring enough about my health to jog for fun.

I've received some great homemade gifts this week, sweet potato cake from Independent-woman-sensei (a hollowed out and sweetened sweet potato with cream mixed in, not exactly an american dessert but the texture was FANTASTIC) and inari sushi from Taiiku-sensei. Taiiku sensei and I have taken to talking about things every morning. She's a great person and the inari was AWESOME. Sweet, gooey, sushi. Such a good combo.

Today was our first day of taikai - spots festival. It's not as fun at our school as it is at most schools, nor as long as it is at most school's, but essentially all the students are required to participate on one sports team or another with their other home room classmates. Our categories were basketball, ping pong, soccer, or volleyball. In spring taikai there's a teacher team, but this time it was just match after match after match between students. It's a little unfair expecting everyone to be physical, especially when they don't like sports, but like anything else in Japan (think: karaoke), they make everyone do it so you don't have to be good because everyone has to by default, and because of this Japanese approach, it avoids a lot of the hard feelings students in the States would get by having mandatory exercise in school. I sat outside and talked to Taiiku-Dad-sensei (he's a typical gym teacher, but not the dickish joke kind, the friendly joe, I-could-be-your-father type). His Japanese was very difficult to understand, but we survived and that's another teacher I'm closer to.

Yesterday I had my first lesson with the international club, it was pretty low key and I wish I could have made it more exciting, but when your students are so mellow, you feel rude being genki. I went home, had make-shift dinner, did some more running again (WTF who am I?), and sat down to Skype with my mom.