Befor the week starts

What a wonderful weekend! Good times, good freinds and new discoveries. Cannot be beat!

So Saturday at work was plenty well. I pretty much took care of all the logistical work that I needed to (except for two small things) and all the classes went well considering how sleep deprived I was. It went by pretty quickly. One sad thing is my co-workers totally moded me on something though. There are no written symbols in Japanese for the sound "We (as in the first part of my name)" and I have been asking and looking for symbols that sound close to it and have a pretty cool meaning. I wasn't having any luck until a student said she found a cool symbol combo that would mean "on the beach." But alas, she was mistaken as my coworkers pointed that out. Now I am back on the search once again. Bummer.

The Mom of one of my little molesters came in for class and I hung out with her daughter while she was being taught. It was cute as she had me look at her homework and help her. Then if I were to go away at all to go talk to another student or handle something real quick, she would get all jealous and territorial. She would stomp her foot or grunt frustratedly in order to get my attention. So after five minutes of that, I started referring to her in Japanese as if she were royalty (using the "Sama" title with her name). She was also doing everything she could to get the attention of my head teacher, who was doing and interview in the interview room. It was an entertaining 50 minutes haha.

That night was the event of Bon Odori in my town. It took place right next to the train station, so it was two minutes from my house. The week prior I had arranged (with the help of a coworker) to tag along with one of the kid students and her mother, who had also planned on going. So that night I rushed home from work, changed into some traditional style Japanese clothes (jimbe) and rushed back to the school and waited to be picked up. When they arrived, I was so impressed with how beautiful they looked in their Yukata. The student was an absolute doll and her Mom looked very elegant. Both of their yukata designs were gorgeous also. We took a picture and then walked over to the festival.

It was hella crowded! Considering the location of the festival, it makes sense, but it was still impressive to see how many people were actually there. Tons of people were wearing Yukata or jimbe, lined up to buy food, or dancing round/on Yakura (festival platform). The music was quite traditional, and was accented by Taiko drums played by middle school musicians. It really enhanced the feel of the event. For about an hour and a half we got some food and ate a bit and then I just watched my companions do some dancing until the festival was done for the night. There was so much to see and so many people to watch. My eyes were feasting. A couple of friends had joined us and after the festival concluded, we got some dinner at my favorite curry place and called it a night. What a good Saturday.

On Sunday I just did all my laundry and got my house into some better order. It has been in need of some attention -_- Cleaning went well enough and it wasn't too long till I was out of the house. From there I made one of the best discoveries thus far in my trip I think. On my running rout, I run by this dance studio called junk-b. I picked up one of the flyers at their door one night to see what they were about. The only things written in alphabet were some of the names of instructors and the names of classes of course, but I thought I would give them a shot anyway. It could not have worked out too much better. The first lesson is free and you pay for 5 classes up forward that are good for any class of the proper length (70 or 90 minutes) anytime during the week. Oh and they have classes everyday! I am soooo excited!!! I get to do choreo out here for a fair price and their schedule is flexible to the demands of mine. I really lucked out with my location also, as this dance studio is only one stop away from me >_< I dare you to tell me to not be excited! Check their site:

http://www.junk-b.net/

So after the class, which was an awesome class in terms of difficulty and quality (warm up and choreographer attentiveness). I went to one of the towns to do some shopping and scope another train station I will need to use to get to Tokyo tomorrow for work. It was a good trek. I know how to get to where I need to go on Wednesday and I finally got some stuff I have been needing pretty badly at my place.

Yesterday, I got to see and catch up with an old friend from Irvine. It had been ages since we last saw each other (since she has been here a year already). We met up in Yokohama and went to the top of Landmark tower for our first stop. It was a breathtaking view and wonderfully set up tourist arrangement. The building had elevators that had only two stops for the roof and bottom floors and they had an attendant give you some info on the elevator and building as you went up. It was pretty fast to. We went up some fifty-something floors in a matter of seconds . . .my ears were popping hehe. We spent about 20 minutes up there chatting, taking pictures and enjoying the view. There was also a water tank with fish in it that would eat the dead skill cells of your hand if you stuck it in there for long enough. It was a funny feeling, but a cool experience. I had never heard of that before.

From there we got some cold stone and walked around the city a bit and checked things out here and there. We didn't spend too much time in one place as it turned out my friend was looking for Kamakura and did not have as much free time as I thought. So we took the show to Kamakura, where it had started to pour. No biggie. We got some umbrellas and visited the Daibutsu like she had wanted and got some good pics out of it. Overall, It was a really nice time and I was glad to see her again and get the opportunity to explore together. Hopefully I can get down to see her in Miyazake later on. We shall see.

On the way home I did the last bit of shopping I wanted to take care of and went home where I caught up with peops from home and put the dried clothes away. Twas a good weekend ya’ll. I hope yours was similar or better! I am off to work to start another week ^_^