Tokyo to Urakuwa

Well, due to typhoon I was unable to explore outside of Shinjuku, instead we went to an indian resteraunt (in the middle of Tokyo) that liked to play the beatles and had "Sheek cabob". ^^ Then we visited a conbini (convenience store). Did you know they sell shirts and ties and things at the conbini? It was so cool!

- view out my hotel window. I went to the observation deck of that building twice. ^^

- funky button toilets! Told you they exist!

My plane to Nagasaki was one of the last ones to leave so I spent the morning exploring more of Shinjuku with two fellow Canadians. Amy and Herbert. We found a beautiful shrine/temple place and took pictures around it.

After that Herbert and Amy had to go catch thier plane so I went up to the observation tower by myself and took lots of pictures of Tokyo in every direction.

Heading back to the hotel all us Nagasaki-ALTs(and one CIR), got into a bus and headed for Haneda airport. We passed tonnes of cool stuff on the way there. I got a picture of half of Tokyo tower, and that huge ferris wheel, and the TV station with a huge orb in it that gets destroyed in Digimon. ^^

On the plane to Nagasaki I sat next to Tamotsu who is an ALT going to Iki island. He was super nice and took lots of photos out the window so when I hit him up for those I'll try to post them.

I was met at the airport by Yumiko Yamaguchi, a teacher from my school and before I could introduce myself we were off running to catch a taxi/bus to Sasebo. ^^ My school board decided I might not make the last ferry out so I would spend the night in Sasebo and then go to the Island.

The ride to Sasebo was beautiful, green green green everywhere. Poor Yumiko must have thought I was nutts trying to take photos of things outside the window while we trundled along.

In Sasebo we met up with Yumiko's friend who married and American soldier and is now living in Guam (but visiting family in Sasebo). They were super nice and the food was delicious. The salad was interesting...it was like shredded lettuce, with regular lettuce on it, plus friut and vegitables, two types of salad dressing and something that tasted like taco seasoning sprinkled on top...it was surprisingly good. ^^; They took me shopping and I picked up more Jrock magazines.

The next morning we caught the first boat to Shinkamigoto. I showed Yumiko some pictures I had of Calgary for a while until she got seasick and lied down for a nap. For breakfast she bought me sandwiches, I've never had a ham and macaroni salad sandwich before...it was interesting.

On Kamigoto we immediately went to the school and I met the vice Principle (who was super nice to me) and then some of the staff and got to see my desk. It was so nice, they'd decorated my desk with oragami and a little poster and stuff. Then they gave me this huge bento box full of everything! I didn't know what half of it was! I was a good girl and tried everything except the shrimp. ^^

Later in the day Maki-sensei took me to see my apartment, which is much larger than I thought it would be. Peter (my pred) was nice enough to leave me some rice, sugar and curry spices so I had to go shopping right away for food. As my mother suspected he was indeed a boy and seemed to flourish without the use of such things as coat hangers and soap dishes.

My bedroom and brand new futon and sheets. Apparently sheets don't exist in japan, I have a striped towel for a blanket, a comforter and the futon cover...I tried to find just a sheet at the walmarty-type-place and had no luck...weird...

That's my sitting room with my kotatsu (heated) table in the middle. it used to have a small wooden (broken) bookshelf but I switched it for that white metal one that I found in the spare bedroom. As the story goes Peter was chasing a poisonous centipede and bumped into the bookshelf and broke it...and then left it for me. ^^;

If there is interest I'll show you my kitchen and the spare bedroom but trust me they're boring. ^^ My shower is ancient, and I have a sort of tiny sitting tub thingy. It took me several days and the help of a teacher to figure out how to turn down the fricking heat on the damn shower so I wouldn't scald myself. Finally took a relatively cool shower yesterday, felt so nice. ^^

I've been raving about how green it is here:That's the view just out the door of the Supermarket. Our town is surrounded by hills like that. When it stops raining I should try and take a walk down to the beach and see how it looks.

Everyone has been super nice and Maki-sensei took me out for dinner and then after a while another english teacher and some of the Japanese teachers came to join us, which was very nice. Vicky, the new ALT from Whales who lives in the next town over visited on Sunday and then we walked back to her house.

Carrie's Culture shock: I tried to phone a cab from Vicky's house and the cabby wanted to know the name of the building we were at, not the address, but I had no idea why he didn't understand the address so I started to cry. ^^; Poor Vicky. I had to phone Yumiko and get her to order me a cab. ^^ The cab driver and his assistant were really cool about it though, they didn't even charge us. When they found out my name was Carrie they started talking about Stephen King, I couldn't beleive it, made me laugh so hard. I can't escape it even here, at least they didn't mention Star Wars. ^^

Carrie's Bug War Scores:
Carrie 1 - Spiders 1
Carrie 1.2 - Cockroaches - 1.8 (I smashed him good but he scurried away)
Carrie 2 - Poisonous centipedes of doom 0 (although I'm not sure the one counts, I found him dead under my electric fan, did he die there himself, or did I squish him without realizing?)

Merissa: i did take photos of the gackt waste for you, but they're on my camera at home so you'll have to wait. Maybe I'll use the next entry to share some of the Engrish I ran into in Tokyo. ^^ I can prove my Sheek Cabob story! ^^