Yesterday at work wasn't too eventful. Ben and I started working on our introductions for class--we have to introduce ourselves and Colorado/America, in English of course, so Koseki-san asked us to start thinking about what we would say. Ben started printing out pictures to use on the whiteboard, and I got some poster board and some origami paper and started drawing a map of Colorado. I finished it today--it looks pretty spiffy. Then Koseki-san took us to fill out some paperwork for taxes--we don't have to pay Japanese taxes for the first two years here, whoo-hoo!--and then took Ben back to Softbank to figure out his iPhone since apparently his normal speaker isn't working. I went to Daiso while they were at Softbank and shopped around for some more house stuff, and then they met up with me and we went next door to King to get a bookcase and a laundry pole for me. Then it was back to the office where we worked on our introductions a bit more.
When Ben and I got home yesterday, we changed and went for a short jog. It's been so long since I've worked out, it completely killed me, but it was awesome to get back into the grove of exercising. I think I'm going to start trying to jog in the mornings, though--afternoons here are just too hot and humid.
Afterwards we split up for showers and food and such, and then we left a little after 7 to go meet Peter. Nishida-mama had offered to take us to the Shinjo Matsuri taiko/kane(cymbals)/flute practice on her off days, and Peter lives right by her and wanted to come too, so we biked over and met him and then went to Nishida-mama's house. Then she took the three of us to her friend Natsumi's house, which is right down the street from where they practice. On the way over, Nishida-mama decided Peter was her boyfriend, even though on Monday when I showed Natsumi Peter's photo she said he thought he was ikemen (hot) and wanted him to be her boyfriend. Of course when we got to Natsumi's, Nishida-mama apologized for taking Peter first, but Natsumi waved it off and started trying to get Ben to be her boyfriend. It was all great fun--Ben and I had to keep translating for Peter though, since he only knows a little bit of Japanese, but it was still pretty hilarious.
After we chatted with Natsumi and jii-chan (I don't know his name, but he's an older guy that lives at Natsumi's--I'm not sure if he's her dad or what), we walked down the street and joined the practice. They gave us the kane to try, which are small hand-held cymbals. You think they'd be easy, but far from it--there are only two songs that they play at Shinjo Matsuri, and we practiced three times in a hour, but I still don't think any of us really got it near the end.
After practice we hung out with jii-chan, Natsumi and Nishida-mama some more. Peter and Ben arm wrestled with jii-chan randomly, and I even tried, though he didn't really use all his strength. He's pretty strong for an old guy! I don't even know how old is is, really--maybe in his sixties? After a while Nishida-mama drove us back to her place, and we left and Peter showed us his apartment. I'm a little bit jealous because he has three rooms and a full-sized kitchen, but he says I'm welcome to come over and cook for him any time I want as long as I make enough for him, too. Works for me!
We biked home around 11, and then I went to bed 'cause I was exhausted.
This morning I woke up and was able to make some curry! I was so excited to finally be able to cook something, rather than just grab some tofu and sprinkle some furikake on top of it for breakfast. I made a small bento for lunch too, and then met up with Ben and went to work.
After I finished my map of Colorado, Koseki-san and Kurita-san took Ben and I around town to all the different schools. We came back to the city office for lunchtime (Ben and I walked to the station, where he bought food from the convenience store and I had my curry, and then we bought the hand-made ice cream from the gift shop for dessert), and then we went to even more schools after lunch. Before lunch was mainly north-side schools, which I'm responsible for, and after was south-side, which are Ben's schools. I was so excited when we went to Hagino-chuu--I got to chat with the principal and one of the new English teachers, and I'm really excited! I already got a speech from the English teacher that one of the students wrote to go over. There's a speech contest in September and I'm excited to help out!
We got back to the office around 4, and since we don't get off until 4:30 we hung around and I worked on more details of the map. Ben had to go with Koseki-san to Softbank again (poor guy), and I biked home, cleaned my dishes, had a peach for a snack, and now I'm cooking rice for inarizushi while writing this post.
Friday we're going to Yamagata for the Hanagasa matsuri with Peter, Amanda, and the new JET Alyssa who just got here today (that I haven't met yet). It should be great fun! I'm looking forward to it, especially since we have to miss the Shinjo Matsuri for training.
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