Ack, too much happened!

I've been so busy that there hasn't been time to update!

Well, first of all, the trip with Watanabe-san went very well. We all piled in his car and went to a tiny seaside place. (Later you'll see sunset pix on a beach where the opposite coast is North Korea.) At Matsukura, a famous sushi restaurant, we all had chirashizushi, which is a mix of raw fish and sometimes egg or fish eggs or whatever is around, over rice. Ours had raw tuna, shrimp, lots of fish eggs, what else....other stuff, squid, scallop? Some other fish. Lots of food. And it came with miso soup on the side---with shrimp heads in it!!! hahaha! Yikes. Made for good flavor, though.

What did we do that night when we got home? I don't remember. Maybe played video games or just went to bed. The next day we went to Asahikawa, which is a city near Utashinai WHICH to clarify IS the smallest CITY in Japan. There are smaller classifications of city-type areas, though, like villages, or something. SOOOOOooooOOOoooo it's not quite as small as you might imagine, but still quite small. ANyhow, Asahikawa was nice. We picked up a couple other JETs on the way. The plan was arcade, karaoke, and a movie, but one of the other girls had to leave early so we sort of condensed everything by splitting up.

Round 1 is a huge entertainment center that had nearly everything. Bowling, karaoke, darts, arcade, etc. I sang karaoke with the two girls I had never met, which was fun, but sort of annoying because they made us buy food. It was like...part of the cover charge or something. I was sort of sick of sweets by then, since we had some dango (sweet sticky mochi with sweet sticky sauce) in the car so I ordered something cheap that didn't look like ice cream or soda. Turned out to be nachos, only crazy Japanese nachos made out of regular potato chips instead of tortilla chips, and with aonori seaweed powder on top. DELICIOUS and totally deadly hahaha

Sang some songs, mosty in Japanese. The girl Ari and Caroline turned out to be really really good at singing. Esp the J-stuff. They really had it all down, so that made it extra fun. After that we hooked up with Three and Melissa for some videogames. Tried out a Gundam simulation (even got my very own pilot ID ;D) and then hit up the purikura for tiny insane pix of the five of us. I dunno if we have such crazy photo booths in the states, except when imported heh. One of the pix looks like a horribly 80s boyband poster, while another has us all popping out of a giant mouth. In one, we are being hugged by a huge koala. Really crazy stuff.

From Round 1 we went to an Asian restaurant where I had some fusion pasta with anchovies, ham, asparagus, and cabbage. Really really good, except they dust it with some kind of salt and I didn't realize I had to toss it, so the first bite or two was pretty awful, heh. Caroline had to go home, but Ari stuck around and ordered chili cheese fondue (chili the spice, but not spicy...it was pretty weak, actually, as far as anything with the name chili cheese tends to go), Melissa had cream sauce pasta, and Three got garlic steak that was actually pork. All very good! (And once again, the constant refrain, pictures on facebook when I get back!!! Cuz I suck!!!)

After dinner we made it JUST in time to the new "Indy Jones" movie. Well, actually we were a couple seconds late. But only a couple. So it was ok. I liked it well enough, I suppose. Campy as hell XD So whatever, that's fine. There are a few too many moments where you're thinking, "Oh hrm, this is cute cuz everyone is old hee hee hee" which is a bit uncomfortable, but other than that, the corniness is pretty managable.

It was a late night, then, because there was an arcade in the movie theater, too, with some actually good games. Like Mushi Hime Futari. I got the high score on Twin Bee, which rocked. I have a pic of my scoreboard initials DUK and they are way higher than anyone else. Not like anyone comes to this arcade to put scores up on the Twin Bee, but still cool.

The next day, which was yesterday, we couldn't sleep in at all. In fact, we had to get up early! I went with Three to the local elementary school to teach English. I've wanted to visit a Japanese school pretty much since I started learning Japanese, so it was really ridiculously exciting to be able to interact with kids in the classroom. We taught them numbers and how to tell us their names, letters of the alphabet, just simple things, but it was pretty sweet. They were all very surprised and excited to see me, and they clamored that we run around with them during recess. We totally did, too, except I was wearing the slippers that visitors have to wear inside the school (since visitors don't know/remember to bring extra shoes)

OH SPEAKING OF SHOES

The shoes I have not even had for a year that my mom bought me in August have holes in them. BOTH shoes have holes by the balls of my feet and this is me in the rainy season in Japan lol lol lol Oh well. I have other pairs in the states. Just a silly coincidence that I should happen to have holes now of all times.

Anyways, the kids were adorable. My favorite part of the day was either being beaten up by a crazy babbling chorus of RASENGANs and KAGE NO BUNSHINs (good thing I got into Naruto, or I wouldn't have any idea what they were talking about--turns out a big part of socializing with Japanese school kids is knowing all the cool characters in popular anime etc) or kyuushoku. If you remember last time I went and had fakey kyuushoku at the delicious kyuushoku toban restaurant in Akihabara. THIS time, though, I had the real thing with real 1st graders. There was rice, cabbage soup, veggies with tofu, and salmon. I didn't take any milk which caused a minor scandal among the kids, heh.

It was a tiring day, after not sleeping much, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we went to the board of education offices. The people working there were nice, though. Three was right when he said that it was one of my only chances to practice "real" Japanese. Elementary school chaos might as well almost be another language. (Also, Three's friend Yuuko's daughter uses so much slang that Yuuko told me she can't understand her--i.e. sutaba for sutaabakkusu = Starbucks)

The tiring day wasn't even close to over yet, though, because we went to Yuuko's house for tea. She showed us the temple where she works. It's pretty nice and the entire area around it is being rebuilt, including a new house for Yuuko and her family. I very nervously rang a HUGE bell that you could probably hear all around town.

Tea was great and she bought tons of fancy Japanese desserts like mango pudding, anmitsu, the best dango I've ever eaten in my life (with black sesame sauce....zomg...just too good). I'd like to say if I gained weight on this trip that it was alllllll rice and fish, but that would be a lie. That said, I did eat LOTS of rice and fish.

We went out to sushi yet again (the third time) but this time it was at Three and Melissa's favorite restaurant, which had just that day re-opened after being remodeled. Couldn't have had better timing! It was some of the best sushi I've ever had. The salmon alone was heavenly--and about A DOLLAR. Yes, 130 yen for two delicious strips of pinky perfection with dabs of wasabi to hold it to the rice. Dipped in soy sauce, the finest thing you will ever eat. Ever. Also tried some types of sushi I had never had before, like engawa (still not sure what exactly that was, in English) and kanimiso (crab and miso paste) We requested copies of the grand opening fliers to commemorate the occasion. SO GEEKY.

To top off the final Hokkaido evening, we watched Party 7. Actually, they both fell asleep, and I nearly did, but it is tricky without subs. I would love to see this movie again to see how much I actually managed to catch for realz and how much I just pretended I understood. Definitely worth seeing again in any case, it's crazy time. The opening credits are anime, too! Whoo! There are some people in a hotel and some people spying on the people in a hotel, and a very unprofessional travel agent. You kinda just have to see it...with subtitles o_o I wonder if there is a domestic release.

This morning Yuuko picked me up at 7 am, so that was it, my time in Utashinai come to an end. She and her husband had to go to Sapporo anyhow so they were able to take me to the station. Actually, her husband took the car and left us at a bus stop not far from Sapporo so he could go on ahead. It was nice to hang out with Yuuko a bit before leaving. We talked over scones and Hokkaido butter (which, incidentally, IS different from regular butter, but I'm not sure how-- sweet and delicious, though, that is fact) and then ran down to the depachika (department store basement) so I could pick out a lunch box. Shellfish rice! Veggies! Egg! Yum!

The train ride was hellllllla boring because I finished my magazines and my headphones are even more broken. On the way over I could wiggle the cord and hold it a certain way to get both ears to come in, but now that trick won't work anymore. Plus it started getting staticky. That might be fixable with new batteries, but with just one ear, I mean, some CDs don't record for mono. For instance, the new Mates of State has some of the harmony split so you can't hear it all through one 'phone. I mostly just daydreamed and dozed in and out. Tomorrow I will re-up on magazines before getting on the plane.

It was nice to meet up with Kayo again when I got to Tokyo. She made tasty beef curry, which I had been looking forward to this whole trip. We put spinach on top! Yummmm. She also whipped up this psuedo-fancy strawberry jello/pudding/yogurt type thing for dessert. Pretty nifty. That and I had a kiwi shochuu cooler from the grocery store. Finally got the pix from Halloween, and then we've just been relaxing. Or rather, she sacked out and I've been blogging. Which is cool. Been a lot to talk about. And there are so many little details that I don't really get to mention, but I guess that's good so there is something to discuss in person.

Tomorrow in the morning I am meeting Kayo's friend, Dan, who wants to grill me (I'm marinating to prepare...) on the game writing biz. We're hooking up along with Kayo at a parfait shop that one of Three's friends recommended. AS IF I NEED PARFAIT! Should be a good send off, though. For now, I should probably go to bed, since I need to get up and shower/pack in less than six hours...