Sunday 8/30

I can't sleep.

Three hours after laying in bed, I remembered that cup of coffee I had with my dinner... Great.

On Friday I found out that my dad is a FBW.

I played some pachinko last night for my first time.... it was.... a money vacuum.

I have 1000yen left!

Thursday 8/27

I need some beach in my life right now.

Wednesday 8/26

I went into work a little later today to go to the speech festival. One student from each middle school participated and 13/17 schools participated. The top three finishers won a trip to Naha to go to “states” and the first place also got an electric Japanese-English dictionary! In my opinion that dictionary should have gone to the last place person… That’s the person whose gonna need it most right?? At the speech festival the kocho-sensei from Kita middle gave me this head-band thing that you wear when you do kendo. He’s so awesome.

Tonight: Second Kendo practice. I was looking forward to practicing again with the youngins. But today I got special treatment! I got private lessons from one of the sensei, whose English was good enough for me to understand. He taught me the basics.

Towards the end he was teaching me this type of step that you do.. It’s just basically taking a step with your right foot, stomping really hard and then follow with the left foot. When he demonstrated, his stomp made a “BAM” sound with a slight echo. oooo sugoi. When I tried to do it, my stomp sounded like a “SMACK” sound with pain on the bottom of my foot. It was like the feeling you get on your belly when you do a belly-flop in a pool, but on my foot. The entire practice I couldn’t get the BAM sound, so tonight I’ll be practicing my stomping at home. I don’t think anyone lives on the first floor below me.

Practice is so fun. It’s gorging hot in the gym, so everyone sweats like crazy. It’s the good kind of sweat tho. Not the kind of sweat you get from sitting around at home scratching yourself.

Anyway I wouldn’t mind some shave ice right about now.

Tuesday 8/25

Today I went shopping with Diarrhea (also known as Gary, or GE-RI). I needed a fridge, washing machine, and a dining room table. We decided to go to MakeMan and the Used Store. I wanted to go the the Used store first, and oh boy am I so glad that we did!

The deal with the Used store is that you gotta be lucky. Everyday there’s something different, depending on who buys what and who sells what to the used store. SO, today was my lucky day. I bought my fridge for 15000yen (compared to MakeMan’s 27000yen), a washing machine for 17000yen, and a dining room table+4 chairs=9000yen. CHA-CHING. And it’s same-day delivery, unlike super gay MakeMan who delivers the next day.

I’m finally getting settled. Slowly but surely.

Monday 8/24

I forgot to write in my 8/17 post…. but there was an EARTHQUAKE!!! it was so awesome. It lasted kinda long… 20 seconds. I was just chillaxing at my desk, doing… I think writing my blog, and then my butt starts to dance around. I look up, and we were all giggly shaking. jishin! I was like… Ummmm are we supposed to crouch under our desks or something??? But everyone else was just sitting and doing their work, so I was just basically freaking out by myself, looking around to see what everyone else was doing, which was nothing.

Today nothing exciting happened today… O WAIT. I got internets!!! woohoo. About time.

ALSO, today was my first day of KENDO practice! I was nervous/excited. When I arrived at Kendo practice, Satoshi-san gave me a sword (I forget the Japanese name). COOOOOOL. I was with the beginners, which was cool with me cuz I had no idea what I was doing. The beginners were also the 1^st grade boys… when I walked over to them, all 7 of them just stared at me with their jaws kinda hanging open catching flies. Satoshi-sensei was like, “yes onechan is going to practice with you guys” and they kept staring. Akkkkwaaarrrd. They were a bunch of cuties tho.

First impression of Kendo: The students are very disciplined, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun.

Saturday 8/22 & Sunday 8/23

Today we go on a boat to Tokashiki iskand! It was about an hour boat ride (there’s a fast boat and a slow boat… we were on the slow boat). Ummm I don’t really know where to start with Tokashiki… 700 people live on it, there’s one ALT on the island, it’s really pretty!

We went walking around to this cave that was super cool. Hilson and Dana swam a race.. Dana pwned HIlson. Had super delicious “soba salad” with goma dressing on top! Watched a pretty sunset, ate yakiniku dinner. Loren doesn’t eat meat so he got a SPECIAL lobster! It was pretty good.

For sleep time, some people slept at the camp site where all the bugs are. The AWESOME and SMART and COOL people slept on the beach. I was part of the awesome smart cool people group, obviously. We all eventually fell asleep when at about 3am it started to DRIZZLE. Some people headed to the camp site where all the bugs are. The AWESOME and MEGACOOL people stayed at the beach. I was the awesome megacool person, obviously. I just went under my sheet so I wouldn’t get wet. So smart.

We had the natural alarm clock to wake us up. THE SUN. I heard people start to wake up but I didn’t want to. When I finally DID wake up, I was the only one who was still sleeping… People were already swimming, running around, chillaxing. What time was it? 7am.

At around 8 we got food. At 9 we hung out in this awesome shade area. What a long day it felt like, and only 2 hours had past.

At 1 we went on the FAST boat back to Naha, and I caught the 530 flight back to Miyako. Back HOME to Miyako.

What a good weekend.

Friday 8/21

Orientation… It was okay. Nothing I haven’t heard before.

For dinner we had “reservations” for this place called BEERDOME (all you can eat, drink and …sing), but later we found out that it doesn’t exist anymore…. how sad. So we headed over to a place called RIO, all you can eat and all you can drink… BUFFET style. I forgot to take a pic of the buffet foods but I got a pic of the buffet drinks! It was also all you can drink beer.

I think we were there for 4 hours. One of the JET’s boyfriend’s name is TORU!

Thursday 8/20

Today flew to Naha. We have an OkiJet orientation tomorrow, but Yoshinobu said I should go a day early. I could tell in his eyes that he wanted me to go shopping! So I did. I got there at about noon and met up with Dana. She let me stay at her apartment to avoid renting a room! sweet. Her place is awesome.

We went walking around/shopping. By the way Naha is not as humid as Miyako, but it was still an oven. In Miyako you could bake a ham, but in Naha maybe only heat up some leftover french-fries.

Met up with Gary and Hilson to eat dinner. They got coupons from their hostel so we ate there. The coupons were for a free dinner all you can eat! And it was on top of a roof. Pretty awesome.

After we just chillaxed. All day orientation tomorrow…

Wednesday 8/19

Today nothing eventful happened except for one thing: Kendo. At the JET orientations they brainwash us and tell us to participate in something, so I decided Kendo would be a good one. I asked Yoshinobu where I can take Kendo lessons, and he said that one of the other workers at the office is a Sensei! Sweet deals. So the sensei (Satoshi-san) told me to just come watch today.

It’s super convenient cuz it’s right down the street from my house; it was a nice little afternoon stroll, I must say.

Basically this Kendo class is for youngsters. They were super cute and when I practice with them, I’m gonna look like a giant. They are also super intense! Always yelling and stuff.

Looking forward to Monday’s practice.

Wednesday 8/19

Today is my last day of work before I head off to NAHA for the weekend! I am… uber UBER excited! Thursday=shopping, Friday=orientation, Saturday+Sunday=Camping on some island!

So all day today I spent my time typing out lesson plans and such. The guys here are super funny. Every time someone tries to speak English, the other guys just laugh and make fun of that guy for speaking English.. not sure why.

Here's a sign that they made for me: