In which the Traveler Floats like Ice

It's been a pretty eventful week~

First, a confession. Well, not so much a confession as an excuse. Everything I own with batteries this week decided it'd had enough of my shit and went on strike. That means my camera died, my iPod repeatedly died, my phone was in a perpetual state of near death, and Panda-tan, my trusty panda-shaped speaker, decided to chuck me the sonic finger and whisper at me for four hours. What this would mean for normal people is that photographic evidence of this week's escapades would be scarce. For me it means I have justification for my few photos.

Also it underscores the reason why I should never buy myself a real-people camera. They are expensive and would be utterly useless to me.

Anyway!

When last we left our trusty Traveler (that's me, by the way... have you been reading the entry headings? Get it? This blog is kinda like a book? Did you notice? Anyway.), she was deathly ill and fading fast. Well, not really. I had a cold and was actually feeling pretty good.

I didn't go to work on Friday. This is partially because I still had a slight fever when I woke up, but mostly because I looked out my window and saw that my car had grown an eight inch snofro overnight and I didn't wanna mess with that craziness. So I emailed my supervisor and went back to sleep. I was kinda sad at that, tho, because that meant I didn't get to see my Oda kids. I love my Oda kids. I have no real reason why, except that maybe they were the first class whose names I all remembered. Of course, there are seven students... But they're awesome! But I stayed in bed and tried to focus on getting better.

Sunday was the closing ceremony for the Oda schools. (T-T) This is slightly misleading in that we still have school for another month. But hey, free food! Seriously, whoever said that there's no such thing as a free lunch has never been a mildly cute foreign girl living in small-town rural Japan. I get free food all the time, and I'd probably get it more if I was a bit more proactive when it came to socializing. Ah well. I went to the ceremony with my other office coworkers, but really there was nothing for me to do (I asked, but every time I even stood up someone very graciously asked me to sit back down and relax, was my cold better now?, I still shouldn't overdo it, and I arrived a bit early as nothing would be happening for another hour or so). The first part of the ceremony was rather boring--speeches, more speeches, and people still talking. A long rattling off of names of teachers and administrators from the past 30 years or so or something.

One of my adorable fifth years gave a speech. He was so bloody cute.

 

Then one of my middle schoolers gave her speech. Sorry, Oko-chan, I don't have a photo of you. =(

After the speeches we went outside and watched the unveiling of the monuments outside the schools. I thought I had a photo but I guess not. I'll get some eventually. Oku-san, the lady who shares my desk at the middle school, was seated next to me during the speeches and sort of took charge of me throughout the day. "Okay, now that they're done talking--it was really long, wasn't it?--we're going to go outside and look at the monuments. Wait for me at the entrance, okay?" "Okay, now we're going to go to the middle school." "How about we go inside and have lunch now?" "We're at the same table! How about we move these name plates so we sit together?" xD She's really nice. ^-^

I keep finding chocolate shavings all over the place in my apartment. >.<

Lunch was really awesome. The schools provided a lunch spread of sushi, sashimi, some sort of pasta-salad thingy, fruit, chicken, meatballs--it was really good. I even tried some of the raw fish! It was...palatable...

Yeah. Still not on the whole fish thing, but I'll at least give it a shot.

Did I tell you I ate horse the other day? On purpose, even?

I may have been slightly intoxicated at the time.

Slightly.

Lunch cost 2000 yen for guests but was free for the teachers and people who worked the event. Of course, I didn't really do anything. At all. I was effectively a guest, one of the 300 plus. (The population of Oda is 400. Over 300 people came to the closing ceremony.) But I still was counted as a staff member, I suppose, because I didn't have to pay. Which is good now, because I'm slightly broke. Stupid Valentines Day. And planning for Kyoto. Rawr.

The kids had some performances during lunch. The elementary kids did taiko and the middle school kids busted out the band.

My kids know how to do band properly.

Oku-san sat next to me through most of the lunch, but towards the end people started getting up and mingling. Some guy had randomly sat next to me during eating time--he wasn't the teacher assigned to the seat because most of the people at our table were staff and would be too busy to eat and I knew that teacher besides. But he got called away and left. So during the last fifteen minutes or so of the lunch another guy I'd seen around sat down next to me. I saw him quite a few times during the event--he was quite remarkable. He has an afro, for one thing. Well, not really, but he has very curly voluminous hair. And he sat down next to me specifically to talk to me. Which is nothing new, really--practically the only foreigner in town, I'm a decently popular conversation partner for at least five minutes.

He was really nice. ^-^ Maki-san is really interesting, and we have some things in common when it comes to music and movies. And then he asked for my phone number and would it be all right if he asked me out for a drink sometime? xD ^-^

There was a dinner party at the section chief's house. I went but couldn't stay long because I had to drive to Obihiro.

Why? This is why.

What is that, you ask?

That, dear friend, is drift ice! Frozen ocean that you can sail through!

Sunday night I drove to Memuro to stay at Sheri's house, then in the morning, she, Sean and I piled into his car and drove to Abashiri, a coastal town about four hours away, to take a cruise through the drift ice.

We're on a boat!

It was really pretty, but really cold! Sheri and I also got to ride in a raft pulled across the frozen lake by a guy in a snowmobile. Sheri told him to drive fast, so he did a bunch of donuts. ^-^v That was pretty fun. 

Photodump!

You can see the path the boat cut.

 


We spent the longest time trying to get that bloody flag to fly straight and act right.

That's the ski coat from the suit I spent $250 on but never got to wear because I never went skiing. And my $40 hat. It's lined on the inside to protect my ears.

I really like this photo. Partially because it's turned sideways like that. I'll admit it, I did that on purpose.

My camera interpreted the sun as a black hole.

I don't know why. I just thought it was kinda nifty.

Closeup of the ice.

 

Closeup of me. My hood was up to keep my hat from flying off.

We were going kinda fast at the time. 

  After the cruise we went to the drift ice museum. There was a room that actually housed some ice (and some creepy taxidermy animals), and they gave you a damp towel when you went in, right? If you spun it around for a moment, it froze stiff. 




 

Sean, rocking his frozen towel. 








Other trip highlights include ice fishing....

 

And ducks! That you can't really see because my camera doesn't zoom that well.

My narration to this photo (and I have this on video): 

"Shouldn't you be somewhere warm?.... Hey, wouldn't it be sad

if this was their warm place?" 

Poor ducks.

Chapter Seven: In which the Traveler Falls Ill-ish

So, I have a cold.

I've been feeling sick for a few days. My ears have been hurting for a while, and I've been occasionally getting nosebleeds. Figuring it was a lack of humidity in my apartment, I got a humidifier for my room and started keeping a pot of water on my heater. The heater lets the water slowly evaporate out, you see. Perfect. Also I did laundry a couple of times. The heater evaporates the moisture from my damp clothes and works as a really good humidifier.

However.

I still got nosebleeds. My ears still hurt. I got headaches and my throat was kinda scratchy. Wasn't remotely hungry about three out of seven nights.

My supervisor thought I may have a middle-ear infection, because my ears hurt and I've been getting nosebleeds. Apparently people with middle-ear infections get nosebleeds easily. So he found me a clinic and last weekend I got up early and went to an EENT in Obihiro. Yep, I drove an hour to go to a doctor on a weekend because my hospital here in town is closed except for emergencies on the weekends. I could've gone during the week but I don't want to miss class, you see. I adore my students and I'd feel bad skipping out. Except for a week in Okinawa*--see ya!

Anyway, Obihiro actually turned out to be a really good day!! ^-^ On the way I got an invite for lunch from a friend who lives in Obihiro. He's an older gentleman who's really, really nice. His nickname in the group is Satan because they all say he looks like Satan. However, Satan in katana sounds an awful lot like Saturn (or satin), so I think of him more as Saturn-san.

A dinner group party at Sensei's house in October or November.

In the back from the left is Yko-san, Oda-san, and Sensei.
In the front from the left is Saturn-san, me, and Satou-san. 

All the little old ladies are conspiring to hook me and Satou-san up. 

They want him to teach me tennis. Inside I laugh.

Anyway.

So I go to the hospital, which is actually an EENT clinic. Coolies. The receptionist lady is rather impressed with my Japanese, however she goes through the sign in information sheet with me, which is probably a good thing. Even though I brought my electronic dictionary for the kanji, it would've taken me quite a few minutes to work through it, and it was much easier just answering verbal questions. Eventually I see the doctor.

Dude. EENTs here are so. Cool. They did the usual let-me-look-at-your-ear thing, and he knew immediately that I had tubes in my ears when I was little. All the doctors know this immediately, and I was always vaguely puzzled. I mean, I knew I had scarring on my eardrums, but is it really that obvious? I finally have my answer, and the answer is yes.

I got to look at the inside of my own ears.

How many people can say that? The scope thingy that he had had a teeeny tiny camera on it, and there were monitors on the walls so I could actually see what he was looking at. It was really nifty! And guess what? My eardrums are white. Apparently they're supposed to be pinkish or pink? But mine are like snow white. They are quite scarred. I've always had problems with my ears, but dayum. 

The bummer is I didn't get to look up my nose. Boo. Ah well.

So the verdict was I don't actually have an ear infection. Probably I have an allergy to something else, possibly house dust or something, which caused the initial irritation and nosebleeds, and poking at my ears with q-tips to make sure I get all the moisture out of my ears just made my eardrums mad so they were pouting. Okay, that might be paraphrasing a bit. He gave me some allergy drops for my ears and away I went. Including medicine, the whole thing was less than 2000 yen, around maybe 20 dollars. Insurance kicks ass here.

Dude, there's a really cool system set up in the pharmacies here! You get a little book thing, kinda like a passport, that you show to the pharmacist when you give him your prescription, and they keep it updated with what medicine you were given when. We need something like that at home! It's so annoying when patients come up and you ask if they're currently taking anything, and they're all like, "Oh yeah, I'm on a little green one for blood sugar." Turns out it's something for blood pressure or something completely different, and it's orange. 9-9 So this little book thing is really, really cool.

After my visit I met up with Saturn-san for lunch. He works on Saturdays, but gets Sundays and Mondays off. We went to a pasta restaurant that was really yummy, actually. ^-^ He asked about my ears and my health, and during lunch we talked about a whole bunch of things. All in Japanese, of course. I'm at least getting much more comfortable in Japanese, if not necessarily better. Yay? We made a deal--if I'm still here in a few years, we'll travel the Silk Road, or travel to Southeast Asia sometime. xD

I walked him back to work and decided to do a bit of shopping while I was in town. I wanted a new hat and undershirts for the Ski Classes this week,* and I wanted to look at stationery supplies because I love stationery supplies. I went and bought my hat and went to the large shopping square that has Homac (kinda like Home Depot but less warehousey), Nitori (home goods, like dishes, blankets and futons, tables, etc), Daiso (100 yen shop, kinda like a dollar store, but generally better quality stuff, and -huge-), shoe store, Uniqlo (cheap clothing), and an electronics shop. I wanted to look for new windshield wipers at Homac before I did my clothes shopping at Uniqlo. My windshield wipers decided to die last week and left huge dirt smears right in front of my face. I found another set of wipers in the depths of my car (I'm still finding new things every now and again, and I've had it for five months) so I decided to change them out. I've never changed my own windshield wipers before, but hey, how hard can it be? 

I forgot two very important things. 1. I'm a girl. 2. I'm clueless when it comes to cars. I couldn't figure out how to get the old ones off!! I was getting annoyed, so I decided I'd ask Mori-san or Ichi-san to look at it for me on Monday.

I heard someone say my name behind me. I turned around and lo, there's Ichi-san, pulling up in his car!

Now, you see, a few months ago I was driving home from Obihiro and decided to pull over on the side of the road to take pictures of the snow. It was all very pretty and all that jazz, and it had only recently begun to snow so it was still vaguely novel. I'd been standing there maybe three minutes by my car taking pictures when another car pulled into the divot in the road along with mine. I ignored them, figuring I'd be done soon enough and it was probably just someone on their cell phone. Driving and talking on the phone is illegal here, you see, so everyone pulls off to the side of the road to talk on the phone. But again I heard someone say my name so I looked up, and there was Ichi-san, walking towards me! He'd been driving home from Obihiro as well and saw me on the side of the road, recognized the car, and recognized me with enough time to pull over into the divot in the road in front of my car. xD 

And now he'd done it again. I walked over to his car and asked him if he was following me. He said very clearly in English, "I am not a stalker!" 

xD Oh, Ichi-san, I adore you sometimes. 

And he changed my wipers for me! ^-^ We did a little window shopping together and then on a whim he took me on a drive to a frozen lake a couple of hours outside of Obihiro. It was really pretty, but really chilly, too. We made it just after sunset.

Isn't it pretty?











This is the cover photo on my facebook now. I love the pink and red behind the mountains. Oh yeah, we were a ways into the mountains. We saw a deer running along the road on the way to the lake.

There's a dam and you can go across it. We're going to go in the spring when the snow's gone. 

Ichi-san decided that he needed to look cold in the photo. He hunched up specifically to take it. However, it was actually pretty cold. 

We had to go through a pile of snow that came up to my knees to get to where it'd been cleared away. Things were fine going away from the car, but on the way back my foot sank in the snow and he had to help me out of it. xD My leg was white from the knee down. 

When we made it back to Obihiro we went to dinner at Tacos Locos. I love that restaurant so much, which is vaguely odd because I very seldom eat Mexican food at home. I wish they'd use more sour cream, tho. =( But it's very delicious. ^-^

So I was taking my ear medicine properly, but if anything my ears just hurt worse. And Monday I woke up -exhausted-. Tuesday wasn't much better, and I got a raging headache all day. Yesterday I was so very tired even though I went to bed early and slept fine. 

The Ski Class started yesterday! I wanted to go to it, so I bought a ski suit (over $200), a hat (over $50, especially when one factors in that I accidentally bought a kid's hat at first and had to buy another), gloves, the whole kit and kaboodle. I decided not to buy goggles because they're between $80-200 depending on which ones you get, and I didn't even know if I -liked- skiing yet. So I was really excited about this ski class thing, but at the same time I was quite scared. I'm a klutz, and new things scare me besides. But I was going to do it, dammit! 

You'll notice there are no pictures. That's because not only did I not go, I was told specifically not to. xD

Yesterday morning, I was still super exhausted, right? Someone asked me how my cold was. Mori-san, my section head, immediately turned to me and said, "Cold? What cold?" See, once he found out it wasn't an ear infection, my supervisor decided I had a cold. So I told him that I wasn't feeling too hot but that I was fine, really. He asked what my symptoms were so I told him. Headache, tiredness, occasional nosebleeds--they've been getting better, I promise--Reika-san, the lady who sits next to me, pipes up and says 「血！水じゃなくて、血！」 "Note she says bleeds, not runs!" Nose is bleeding, not running.--sore throat, I was sneezing a lot last week.... Their eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally Supervisor-san says, 「スキーやめてください。」"Please don't come to skiing." Basically, stay home and rest. The ski classes are at night, and it's really cold on the mountain besides, so stay home and rest. 

They also asked if I'd been eating. Apparently saying I'm on a diet means I stop eating, period. Not true, I eat lunch every day at school, and I usually have something for dinner. True, a couple of times last week I didn't eat dinner.... I didn't tell them that. 

They told me I should probably wear a mask when I go to school, because if I didn't have a cold already I'd probably catch one pretty easily. So I loaded up the car and drove out to Oda, wearing one of those bloody masks. I hate those things. I hate breathing in moist air. I twist mine in front of my ears so it gapes out a bit at the sides. I get more cool air, but in exchange I look like a duck. 9-9 Anyway, apparently I really didn't look well because the teacher asked me five times if I was sure I was up to going to class. I told her really I was fine, just tired. 

When I got back to the office they sent me home. -.- So I went home after lunch yesterday and cleaned my living room on the off chance someone came by to check on me, then passed out on the sofa. I slept all afternoon, woke up around 7 to make dinner, and went back to bed around 930. 

I felt a lot better today, but about an hour after waking up I started getting tired again, and my throat got kinda itchy. My head started to hurt, so I took some ibuprofen. When I got to school the teachers looked at me and told me to go home. Seriously, I wasn't even there twenty minutes. So I went back to the office. 

On the way into the office I slipped in the parking lot and fell down. T-T 

Everyone looked up when I came in and when I told them I got sent home, they told me to go to the doctor. They were appropriately sympathetic when I told them I fell down in the parking lot, too. 

So I went to the doctor. Again. They did a flu test, which involves taking a long plastic qtip thingy and sticking it up your nose. Good god that thing is awful. x.x But they get results in 10-15 minutes. No flu, just a cold. So the doctor gave me cold medicine. I have two pills and a powder I'm to take three times a day with meals, so I have to eat at least three times a day. Yay?

The two green bottles are the ear drops the EENT gave me. One is already empty, the other about halfway, which is odd because the bottles have the same amount of liquid in them and I was to use them exactly the same--four drops in both ears, twice a day... How did one run out twice as quickly as the other?  o.O Then there's the powder and the two tablets. Powder medicine is... weird. You're apparently supposed to tip all the powder into your mouth and drink it down with water? Was the general consensus of the internet. I don't know. 

After the hospital I went to the store and bought new boots so I'll stop freaking falling down, and a bunch of food. So I have food now. Atsu-sensei from the middle school offered to bring me medicine and food if I wanted her to. x.x I'm fine, really! Well, more or less. I'm super tired, and I started to get cold despite the heater. So I'm going to go to bed now. Hopefully they won't send me home tomorrow, too. 

Oh, the Okinawa trip! It's off. Well, offish. My dad's not coming anymore (I really don't like his new company sometimes), so instead I'm going to go for a few days on my spring break and then to Kyoto for a few days. I'll still take about a week off, but it'll be two weeks later and I'll go to Kyoto to visit Jun-kun as well. 

Provided I haven't died by spring break. 

<3 Take care, everyone!

In which the Traveler Has a Few Flashbacks

First was Halloween! We had a party at my Conversation Classes and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

My Halloween "costume!" I had a few accessories and was an "evil fairy." Or "lazy," take your pick.

My kids playing outside in the snow. Look at all the snow!!

Just about the most adorable girls you'll ever see. The girl on the right adores me and I adore her in return. ^-^

In December I went to Tokyo to see a Cirque du Soleil-type performance! This is the Shibuya Scramble Crosswalk!

I went to the SkyTree, too! It's the newest skyscraper in Japan and the second-tallest building in the world. I had to cut my visit short tho, since I had a dinner date with a friend.

 

The SkyTree all lit up for Christmas!

 

Isn't this about the saddest shirt you've ever seen?

I made a snow angel. Halo courtesy of Day-chan.

I took up cooking! Sort of. xD I need to get lids for my pans.

 

Christmas came! I got a bunch of goodies from my best friend and bought a Christmas Cake. That's what you do here, you eat Christmas Cake. And fried chicken, but Christmas Cake!

There's actually a saying in Japan, that women are like Christmas Cakes.

Nobody wants them after 25.

Ouch.

New Years! I stayed over at Yko-san's house and on the first we went to Taiki's shrine. Both of us got Small Luck on our fortunes. Apparently this year love is going to come veeeeery slowly. Thanks, Love. 9-9

Awesome blossoming tea from Sara! <3

Yko-san's dog Hayabusa. He loves the snow but hates to get bundled up for it.

I bought a kotatsu! A heated table. There's a heater on the underside and the blanket keeps the heat in. I put it together all by myself and it hasn't caught fire yet! I call that a win.

It's the Year of the Snake! I was born in the Year of the Snake, so this year I'm a 年女、toshionna, a Woman of the Year. This is an adorable bread snake with chocolate filling.

Also it's my golden birthday this year. I was born on the 24th and am turning 24. Awesome? Yes. Quite.

Oh yeah. It snowed.

And snowed.

But the town looks really pretty.

The car-ish part in this (panorama) picture is actually Ichi-san's car. He happened to be driving on the same stretch of highway and saw me pulled over taking photos, so he stopped to say hello. 

The elementary kids get to go outside and play in the snow during their breaks. I remember when I was that excited to play in the snow.

I actually couldn't see the road on this day, it was snowing so hard. As in, I couldn't see the end of my car, but I had to drive back to Taiki from Oda! Oh dear! See those arrows on the poles? Those are to show you where the road ends. They're quite necessary.

I got a new friend to cuddle with! He's very soft and quiet.

Some of the brownies I made in Conversation class this Monday. All nice and wrapped up individually in seran wrap. I gave them to my office coworkers. Luckily on Tuesday the men all had to schlep over to Oda and shovel snow, so they were a welcome snack when they got back.

Chapter Six: In Which the Traveler Parties on a School Night

So last night we had a work party to welcome New Guy-san to the office and say goodbye to Sasa-san from the other section in the office.

Wait, what's that you're saying?

What about the last four months?

No idea what you're talking about.

Never happened.

<.<  >.>

Seriously. Last year the world skipped the last half of September through the end of January. I checked.

I'll probably post anecdotes. I'm just terrible at keeping up with any form of diary.

But back to last night. We've had two unofficial welcome parties for New Guy-san already, but this was the official-official one. On a Wednesday night. o.O But okay.

The party was at the 焼肉, yakiniku (kinda like barbecue) restaurant in town. I like yakiniku! (Literally it means burned meat. Fitting, huh?) I wound up sitting across from my three-times-removed boss (as in my boss's boss's boss's boss) and -his- boss, as well as a lady I've never met before but apparently runs a cafe here in town somewhere, and between Yko-san and New Guy-san. The Uber Boss kept talking about me and how great my Japanese was and I know everything about Japan and Japanese society and I'm so polite and I could only understand about half of what he said, honestly, but good god he kept talking about me. x.x

And then he looked at New Guy-kun and says, "Oh dear, New Guy-kun, Ashli is your senpai!" (先輩, senpai, means senior or upperclassman. It's a somewhat complicated relationship, but places me higher than New Guy-kun in the office hierarchy [in theory, anyway]).

So New Guy-kun turns to me and bows really low at the table. 「あ、アシュリーさん、僕はただの日本人なんですけど、何も知りませんです！どうか教えてください！」 "Oh, Ashli-san, I'm just a Japanese person but I don't know anything! Please somehow teach me!"

He was laughing and really it was a joke, but how am I supposed to respond to this?!

Apparently I have a very nice speaking voice in Japanese. It's not too high, it's very calm and soothing, and I have an excellent accent. I get these compliments a lot, so maybe they're true. Hm.

Someone came by and interrupted the Uber Boss and his Ashli-centric train of speech, so I seized the opportunity and ran away. xD One of my coworkers came in quite late and conveniently a couple of spaces around him had opened up, so I went to say hi and make sure he was okay. He's very nice to me at work, Ichi-san is--he talks to me a lot (like, real conversations, not "Hey, Ashli, you're schedule's changed a bit for this week" or "Are you catching a cold?") and he randomly gives me chocolate.

Actually, last month at the 忘年会, literally "Forget the year party," a kind of year-end party, he won a box of chocolates as a prize and gave them to me, saying he didn't like chocolate. But then a few weeks later when work started up again after the holidays, he started randomly giving me chocolate at work. Like, he'd get some from the kitchen and bring me some too. o.O But he's really nice to me. (^-^)

Actually the other day in the morning I saw the bag of chocolates in the kitchen while I was getting coffee and thought, Huh, why hasn't Ichi-san given me any chocolate lately? And I was kinda bummed about it, too. I mean, it's free for grabs, if I wanted chocolate I could just take it, but that wasn't the point. And then in the afternoon he passed by my desk.

Ichi-san: 「アシュリー、チョコレートいる？」 Ashli, do you want a chocolate?
Me: 「あ、ありがとうございます！」 Thank you!
Ichi-san: 「あ、そうだっけ、アシュリーは今ダイエット中じゃない？」 Oh, that's right, aren't you on a diet?
Me: 「。。。そうだね。」....yeah.
Ashli's thoughts: Yes. Yes, I am. I'm still eating this, tho.

Ichi-san, smoothly offering me chocolate
and then pointing out my diet.

Yeah, I'm on a bit of a diet. Not like strict diet or anything, just cutting out most of the junk food and not eating after 9 pm unless I'm out drinking. And he knows this because I was kind of complaining that my English Conversation classes decided to make brownies for our cooking class and I was on a diet, so I'd have to make two pans of brownies that I couldn't eat. Of course, we had a party last weekend too, and Ichi-san kept giving me chocolates at the bar, too, so I'd thought he'd forgotten. xD'

Anyway. Last night's party. I escaped my table to talk to Ichi-san.

The Uber Boss was asked to give the closing speech. He stood up and looked around. 「この部屋には、美人がいっぱいいますね。そうですけど、アシュリーさんが逃げてしまいました。」 "Hmm, this room is full of beautiful women, isn't it? Though Ashli-san ran away."

He seriously said that. In front of everyone. >.<'' Through the laughter Yko-san pointed out that I was sitting two people to his left. xD

Anyway. After the dinner about half the people went to a bar for karaoke. I like karaoke, and people like asking me to sing English songs, so it works out. Japanese people are always so surprised when I can sing Japanese songs. Granted, I only know, like, five, and half the time the bars here don't have most of them, but still. Ichi-san remembered where I sat the last time we were at this bar and sat across from me so he could ask me to sing songs more easily. He had me sing the Eurobeat version of the Mickey Mouse March. I don't know the regular version of the Mickey Mouse March, let alone the Eurobeat version! But it was actually fun. ^-^

One of the ladies from the school lunch office,

New Guy-san, and Ichi-san

My boss's boss, me, and the new lady at the school lunch office. 

She's really nice!

So all in all it was a rather fun night. ^-^ I drank too much, tho, and was decently drunk when I got home. Which is great, for work parties, because everyone acknowledges that I talk more when I drink, in both English and Japanese. But it's not so great when I have to get up and go to class in the morning. Why have a work party on a Wednesday night!?