My writing regularity has been abysmal, but everything else has been going well. I'm studying Japanese diligently, as well as working on a website programming project. I still haven't made any Japanese friends though, so I'm working on exploring more possibilities in that area.
Weekends have mostly been very fun. I already wrote about my first two weekends in Japan. The third weekend's plans were threatened and nearly canceled by a typhoon, but in the end my closest co-workers and I braved the unfriendly weather and went to a modern-style izakaya, which is basically a Japanese-style pub/bar (there are probably more technical differences, but I'm not experienced enough to know about them). There, I had sake for the first time in Japan. The waiter put a small glass (maybe 3 oz?) in the middle of a wooden square-shaped cup (called a masu). Then he poured the sake into the glass until the wooden cup and the glass were both full to the brim. How on earth do you drink that? Somehow, I didn't make much of a mess. Some of my students told me that they had never seen both the glass and the masu used, and that it was probably just for show.
After a couple of hours of conversation, food, and drinks, we started walking back home. On the way there we passed a still-lit sign (not so common in this city) advertising a bar, and one of my co-workers said we should check it out. A man was standing outside, and he told us in very few English words that there was live music inside, which solidified our plans.
The bar was probably the smallest public establishment I've been in, with enough room for maybe 20 people at most. We had arrived in the middle of an open mic session. One of my co-workers played about half of the Mario theme on a guitar that was offered, and I played and sang one verse of Hallelujah. After me, a real musician from Tokyo came up to the front and played several songs with an electric guitar. All the songs were in Japanese, but it was still fun to feel the atmosphere of a pub getting into the music, and I was able to join them.
The next weekend was the company welcoming party for me and another co-worker. We invited our adult students, but only two of them came. First we had dinner at an Indian restaurant. From there we went to karaoke, a visit I had been promoting more or less ever since I had started working. It was a blast. Some of the best songs were "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Don't Stop Believin'". After that we probably should have gone home, but we were still on a karaoke high, so we went to an izakaya. The spirit died out before long, so we headed home soon after. It was probably the most fun party night I've had, at least since the Christmas parties in Vietnam.
Last weekend was much tamer. The three of us language school teachers met in a flat and just hung out and chatted for a few hours. It was going to be a game night, but we didn't really have enough people or the will to play games.
On Thursday night I realized that I had a cold and couldn't sleep. At 2:30 I said to myself, "There's a convenience store 3 minutes away--why not try to buy some medicine there?" Well, it seems that they didn't really have any. I bought an expensive one-dose bottle of herbal remedies which didn't do much. At 7:00 I was still awake so I decided to walk to the Japanese Wal-Mart which is 12 minutes away. When I got there, I could see the medicine I needed, but the pharmacy section was closed off until 9. I bought some tissues and mandarins and came home. About 8:30 I fell asleep and slept until 10:30. It was cold outside and raining, so I put off going out until I had to go to work, and bought medicine on the way there.
I barely managed to make it through my classes on Friday, and I had to wear a mask while doing so, which is quite uncomfortable when you have to talk a lot. I spoke with my boss and arranged for my later classes on Saturday to be taught by another teacher. By Saturday afternoon I felt fine, but my voice was almost gone. Saturday night I slept a lot--at least twelve hours, so I skipped church on Sunday. On Sunday though I had no voice at all, except if I tried hard I could do a decent impression of Batman. Monday (today) was supposed to be my day off, but another teacher got stuck after traveling and so I'll be teaching a couple of her classes. My voice is only at about 50% though, and I kind of sound like a valley girl. I sure hope it will be better tomorrow.
So in conclusion, I haven't done any cool Japan-specific things, but I have been fairly social and productive. I have been invited to do some touristy things next week, so if that works out I should have more to talk about by next weekend.
