Busy Busy Busy!

WHEW. This past week has flown by; at the same time it feels like I've been in Japan a month already, even though it's really only been seven days. I've just been that busy.
Let's see. Tuesday was more sessions for orientation. We had one in the morning explaining the school system and the objectives of the different levels of English classes (elementary versus middle versus high school), and then we had lunch, and then we split off into hour-long sessions. I went to one about making the most of your time on JET (how to get involved, basically) and then to one about living in rural areas and driving in Japan. Then I went to our prefectural group meeting for the Yamagata JETs, where Alex, the Prefectural Adviser, told us that we'd be taking the bullet train to Yamagata in the morning and gave us tags with all our info on it to mail anything ahead that we could. I ended up mailing ahead my big Air Boss case, because I didn't want to get bruises on my shoulders again from lugging around 20/30 pound bags. So I went back upstairs and repacked, then lugged that thing down to the takkyubin place and they took care of it for me for a mere 1100 yen.

When I was done, and Sara and I met up with Justine and Jenn (Tiffany was meeting up with another friend of hers in Tokyo), and the four of us went to an Okinawa soba place. I ended up ordering this really expensive, small fried fish dish on accident, which was good but really upset my stomach. After that we went back to the hotel and met up with Jenn's sister's husband, Naota, and he took us to a small ramen shop about a fifteen minute walk away. Jenn and Justine split a bowl and I wasn't hungry, so I just watched and took pictures. After they finished eating we went  to Harajuku, where I got a tiramisu strawerry crepe that was delicious. Then we walked around some more and went back to the hotel, where I ran into Alex, and the two of us wandered off to the Dubliners' pub, where we met up with a big group of the JETs from Ireland. I had a short of Baileys (which cost like 600 yen!!) and a beer that one of the Irish guys, Chris, so generously bought for me, and then we were off to go to a karaoke place. We wandered around for what felt like hours before we finally got to wherever it was we were going, then we all (I think there were about fifteen or twenty of us?) filed into a big karaoke room and belted out Journey and U2 and even a Killers song. Then we went back to the hotel; Sara was still up, which kind of surprised me 'cause by now it was like 1 am. I Skyped Mom for a few minutes, then went to bed.

The next morning, Sara and I didn't have to meet up with the Yamagata people until 9. Tiffany and Christina came by our room at like 6 or 7 and said good-bye 'cause they were leaving, and then Sara and I got ready and went down and had breakfast at around 8. Then we went and got our stuff from our room, checked out, and met up with the Yamagata group that was going by shinkansen. There was another four people going by plane to a different part of Yamagata, so they met up somewhere else.
Our bus from the hotel left at 9:30 for Tokyo Station. We got there just after 10, which meant we had a really long time to wait since our train didn't leave until just after 12. We set our luggage down in a corner, and while Alex watched it for us we all were able to wander around and explore all the different areas of Tokyo station. I bough some onigiri and an obento, and a bottle of water and green tea for lunch. Eventually we all wandered back, and we went up to the platform to wait for the train there. It was super hot and humid, but thankfully there's a small waiting area closed off that's air conditioned, so we filed in there and waited. We talked to a group of high schoolers who were going somewhere for their sumo club, and then our train came and we left. It took us three hours to get to Yamagata-shi, where most people got off (there were two people who had disembarked before that), leaving Sara, Ben, Peter (an Irish guy who's also in Shinjo), me and Alex. Sara got off a few stops after Yamagata, and then it took another forty minutes to get to Shinjo. We were greeted by two people from the Shinjo Board of Education at the platform, Kurita-san and Koseki-san, and Peter was greeted by someone from his contracting organization (since Ben and I are elementary/middle schools, and Peter is high school, we have different employers). Nishida-mama was at the station waiting for us too, so I was super happy to see her! Koseki-san needed to take Ben and I back to the city office though, so she and I agreed to meet up later after dinner.
Then Ben and I went to the office with Koseki-san, where we had to wait for a little because we couldn't go into our apartments yet. Then they took us to our apartments, which are really nice even if they are sort of small. It's a place called Leo Palace, and there are only two stories with nine rooms on each floor. There are pictures up on Facebook of my apartment, and I'll put some up on Shutterfly eventually too. I'm a little sad that the kitchen is so tiny--hell, it's not even really a kitchen, just two electric burners and a sink--but I'll make it work!
Let's see... after we dropped our stuff off at the apartment, Junko-san helped me put my futon together, and I pulled things out of my suitcase trying to find my key ring to put my apartment key on, only to remember after I'd gone through all four pieces of my luggage that I had put it in the box I had shipped ahead of myself. After Ben and Koseki-san had come upstairs and helped me set up my internet, we all went to a restaurant where there was a small welcome party for us. I had some beer and some yummy food, but I made the mistake of askinng Takeshi-san about Papa-chan. I had asked Koseki-san about it earlier, and he had gotten all serious and quiet, and I thought that he had told me that the Kontas' grandpa had died, but it turns out it wasn't the grandpa, it was Papa-chan. It really shocked me to hear that he had passed, because he wasn't even forty yet and he was so healthy. I remember going on jogs with him in the morning, and when Mama-chan and I would walk he would follow on his bike and ride around ahead of us. He was one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and that sounds like such a surface-level thing to say, but I don't know what else I can say. I can't even imagine how Mama-chan, Misaki and Misato must be dealing with this. They're such a close family, I'm sure it was a huge blow to them when he died.
I couldn't help but cry when Takeshi-san told me, so I went into the bathroom and tried to calm down before I went back out. It took me a while, because at this point I had had a couple beers, and I cry easily normally, so the combination made it really hard. But eventually I stopped, so I went back out. Koseki-san called Nishida-mama for me, and then she picked me up and I went with her to see everyone at her house. We talked for a while, and then Nishida-mama took me to see one of her friends who wanted to see me, but she wasn't home so Nishida-mama took me back to my apartment. I showered, tried to clean up a little, then went to bed.

So now we've made it to Thursday! Nishida-mama had Ben and I over for breakfast since we hadn't had a chance to really grocery shop or anything, and then she dropped us off at our apartment, where Koseki-san picked us up and took us to run errands. First we went to set up our alien registration card, then we got bank accounts, and then we went to Softbank and got iPhones! We also got a few things at Daiso, the big hyakkin (hundred-yen shop), while we were waiting for Softbank to set us up. We ran into Peter and his predecessor Michelle while we were at Softbank, and we made a plan to meet at 5 at the train station to go together to the welcome party in Yamagata city. They left, since Peter couldn't set up a phone yet without a bank account, and then Ben, Koseki-san, Junko-san and I did a few more errands--it started to rain really heavily too, so that was fun--and we had to rush and drop our stuff off at our apartments before they could drive us to the station. We got there just after 5; Ben and I bought our tickets to go down, though Peter had bought a shinkansen ticket to ride down with Michelle and Scott, her fiance, because they were leaving to go back  to Australia and he wanted to talk with them some more. Michelle and Scott were relieved that the trains were still working, because there had been some delays due to the rain.
We got to the station in Yamagata around 6:30, and met up with Clea, our block leader, some other current Yamagata JETs, and some new JETs too. Then we all headed to an izakaya where we ate, drank, and sang raucous karaoke. It was a blast, but Ben, Peter and I had to leave a little early to catch the last train home to Shinjo, so Isaac, the one who organized the welcome party, figured out what we owed and walked us to the station, where we got on the train. I napped a little (at this point it was close to 11), and then we got off and we walked home. Peter lives close to Nishida-mama, which isn't too far from us, but he headed in one direction and Ben and I headed in another. We got soaked, cause it was still sprinkling, but I didn't really mind. I got home and toweled off, brushed my teeth and went to bed.
The next morning sucked, 'cause I was exhausted. We had to be at the city office by 8:30, so Ben and I went to Lawson's to grab some breakfast and biked over. We met the mayor, and then Koseki-san and Junko-san took us to run some more errands to get things for our apartment.
Afterwards, Ben and I met up with Peter and Amanda, another high school JET who took over Nicola's position last year, and we went to Nishida-mama's restaurant, Shokudoen, for bibimbop and yaki veggies/fish/meat (in Ben's case). Then the four of us went to a bar called Loft Munk, which Amanda recommended, had a beer and played some pool, talked, and then went home.

Saturday! Kurita-san picked Ben and me up at our apartment at 11:15 to go to nagaisomen, which is the thing where there's a bamboo slide that has water running down it and you have to catch somen noodles with your chopsticks. I did it last year with the Kontas--it's a very fun summery thing to do. It was at the mayor's temple--turns out the mayor is also an ordained Buddist monk! Way cool. There were tons of kids there, so I got to meet a few students from Numata Elementary, one of the schools I'll be helping out at. It was nice to get to see them outside of school first, I think it'll help them enjoy class more to have that socialization with  me outside of class.
After we ate, Ben and I walked over to Daiso--the temple was pretty much right behind the shopping area where Daiso is--and met up with Amanda. Nishida-mama, Aya and Takkun were there by chance too, so we all shopped together. Amanda locked her keys in her car on accident, but Nishida-mama called someone to come jimmy the door open for her so all was saved! In addition to Daiso, we went to King, which reminds me kind of like a Walmart or something akin to that, and also to MaxValue, a grocery store.
Then Nishida-mama and Amanda dropped Ben and I off, helped us carry our things in, and Amanda showed me how to use the washing machine, and they left. Ben and I had full fridges now, but we were so exhausted neither of us wanted to cook, so after we had kind of cleaned up we biked down to Kappazushi and had sushi for dinner. That was the first time I had had sushi since coming to Japan, and I had almost forgotten how delicious and melt-in-your-mouth-y it is. We wanted to get taiyaki (this waffle-like thing with sweet filling in it) from the small shop next to Kappazushi for dessert, but they closed at 6 and we were there at 6:30, so instead we went to Yamazawa, the grocery store right near our apartments, and got some snacks. We dropped those off at the apartment, and then walked to Yamaya, which is a liquor store that is literally right behind our apartment complex. I got two drinks that are kind of like carbonated fruit juice with alcohol (called chouhai) and a two-liter carton of umeshuu. We went back to my apartment and watched Boondock saints and had a snack and a drink or two, and then Ben left and I cleaned up a little more and went to bed.
There was another earthquake this morning at around 4 (same time as last Sunday's one--weird!), but DON'T WORRY because it wasn't very strong here. I woke up around 8, cleaned some more, and then Kakizaki-san picked Ben and I up to go practice with some Yamagata University students for the Shinjo Matsuri, even though we'll be missing the matsuri since we have to go to Tendou those same days for our prefectural orientation. First though we stopped by the Tamiyas, to say hi and see if we could come back later. Obaa-san was home and she told us everyone would be back by 3 or 4, so Ben and I made plans to bike back around then since they live very, very close to us.
At the practice, we tried playing the flute, which is really freaking hard to do, and then had lunch at an udon place. I wanted to try the taiko, but there wasn't time before lunch, and after lunch Ben and I were both pooped, so we asked Kakizaki-san to take us back to our apartment, which he did. I organized my room some more and napped a little, and then Ben and I biked over to the Tamiyas a little after 4. We talked with ojii-san and Mie-san (Tamiya-san's wife), and then ojii-san showed Ben the temple since Ben has an interest in Japanese temples and shrines. Then we left, but not before ojii-san randomly presented me with a bottle of red wine from Italy, just because. I'm excited to try it, since I love red wine, but I need to buy a wine glass first. We left at around 5:30, and then I got home, started some laundry, had some grapes, and then continued writing this blog post. I had started writing it earlier when Kakizaki-san came to get us.

I've spent a TON of money since I got here, mainly just buying the necessities for my apartment, but it's totally worth it! My apartment finally feels like my own place. The floor is pretty much picked up, except for a corner of omiyage, and my small table is covered in make-up and other things, but for the most part it's pretty well put away. There are a few more organizational things I think I need to buy, but for the moment I'm pretty proud of myself. It's odd living by myself, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying everything about being in Japan, actually. I just can't stop smiling and there's this giant bubble of happy that just wells up in my chest every time I go outside, look around my room, eat food--really just when anything at all happens. Ben and I are calling this our "stage one" party, because we've been beaten over the head with the diagram of culture shock, in which "stage one" is called the "honeymoon stage," in which one feels complete euphoria over everything. =3 Which is totally true. When I first got here,  I was going up and down super quickly between loving being here and intensely wishing I could go home because of an Idon'twanna mentality that would strike me occasionally, but now I've levelled out and am just loving every second.
Tomorrow, Koseki-san is going to take Ben and I to get cars in Sakata. I'm hoping for a Subaru, since those drive well in snow, and Shinjo gets meters and meters of snow every year, and since I want a kei-car (which are less expensive than normal cars since they're smaller, both in body size and engine, and use less gas), a Subaru kei-car would be the best bet. Originally I was hoping not to have to drive, but because so much snow falls it's kind of hard to avoid driving, especially since Hagino is so far north. As much as I don't want to drive, however, I am rather excited to be getting a car. I don't drive often, so I doubt I'll spend that much on gas, but it will be nice to have that kind of freedom here. Of course I'll  bike and walk everywhere I can as much as I can, but in the winter when those options are fewer and far between, a car will be quite handy.
We'll see, I guess. For now I should probably make some dinner or something--it's after 7 and all I've had since lunch is a bunch of grapes and some watermelon at the Tamiyas.

Hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now that I'm somewhat settled. In fact I know I will--having to remember everything that's happened for the last five days or so takes a crapton of energy, and I've been writing this post for a good hour and a half now, not including the hour or so I spent on it this morning before Kakizaki-san came.
OK, dinnertime now. I'm thinking curry maybe?