Monday, Monday.

I've only been in the office an hour and a half, and already I'm sleepy. (And a wee bit grumpy, as my back hurts. Must have slept in some funny position.) Excluding yesterday, though, I've been relatively busy since my last communique on Thursday afternoon.

True to my word, I got paid at four o'clock (already about five hundred dollars, and I'd only been on the job, what, four days?), and then we drove around town a bit. I remained glued to the car window, trying to fix the location of everything in my mind. I haven't gone on any long excursions into the wilds of Sonobe from the apartment yet, but I also haven't gotten lost yet, so I'll count that as a win.

Thursday evening, Stephanie and I hopped the train into Kyoto city to meet a few friends of hers for kaitenzushi. I have quickly discovered that I have an extra stomach just for sushi, allowing me to eat great amounts. Fortunately for my weight and my wallet, I managed to restrain myself from going overboard. (Though it didn't stop being tempting.) I was introduced to Stephanie's pals Nick and Jane, who both live in Arashiyama (another stop on the same train line as Sonobe, but much closer to the city). Jane is staying on another year, but Nick is leaving soon, and being replaced by a South African girl named Lerato. I recognized her from orientation, and we had a few nice conversations.

After dinner we wandered around a nearby shopping arcade for a bit, where I bought two pairs of lacy dress socks (huzzah dollar store) and a box of blueberry tea. When we went home, Stephanie got off with the others at Arashiyama. It was her last night to say goodbye to Nick, and they were going to set off some fireworks. I was really tired, though, so I went on home. By some miracle, I did not get lost in the dark during the twenty minute walk from Sonobe station to our flat, though there were a few nervous moments when I thought I had.

Friday at work was spent, like most everyday in the office so far, alternately brushing up on my Japanese or chatting with Stephanie and Wakabayashi-sensei. He is a trip to talk to, and we had some nice long conversations about law, and politics, and international relations. I was surprised to learn about the North Korean Mass Games, which somehow I had never heard of. That is some serious business.

Stephanie and I grabbed a large lunch at this really tasty restaurant called Bisque, and in the afternoon we went to get me a keitai and to have Stephanie's cancelled. It took two hours to get my plan and everything set up, and then have the phone activated, so we ended up getting off of work an hour later than usual. Poor Wakabayashi-sensei hates bureaucracy and paperwork, and he got stuck translating for me! (I think I'm going to give him some peach coffee I brought from home as a thank-you.)

On the upside, the phone is rad. Cute, pale pink, with an (admittedly not great) camera, text messaging, internet access (though I'll use that sparingly), et cetera. Through much trial and tribulation, I even navigated a Japanese website to download myself a fun ringtone; "Hikari no Machi" by the band TOKIO.

Friday night we went and met the other local foreigners at a place called Good Bar. The local foreigners mainly consist of: myself, Stephanie (who is leaving tomorrow), Nelis (the SA kid in my apartment block), Mike (an American here on another English teaching program, who is leaving soon), and Brad (a British guy here on the same program as Mike, but who is staying on). There's also Kristin, who will be working with me, but she's in Canada on vacation currently. Also, Mike is being replaced by some British person named Timothy Vickerman. I suspect he might hate us when he arrives, because we have already nicknamed him Vickers.

We arrived to find Good Bar closed, actually, but Mike just called the owner up, as they are apparently good friends. We poked around in the supermarket to kill time, and after fifteen or so minutes, the owner, Hiro, appeared to open the bar for us. I ate a decent ham and egg sandwich on garlic toast, and we all mainly got to know each other.

On Saturday, I woke up naturally around 9:30 a.m., and spent the morning laying around the apartment and finishing the second season of Dexter. (Whoa, by the way.) Stephanie had left before I awoke, off to visit her sister in Hiroshima for two days. Around 10:30, I received a text message from Brad, who was going into a local town called Kameoka for some shopping, and wanted to know if I'd join him. I got myself cleaned up and met him at the station at 12:30, only to discover that he was driving! So we piled into his little two-seater car, and hit the road.

In Kameoka, Brad mostly showed me some good shops to get used goods (called "recycle shops" here). I bought a cute pink umbrella, which I'm really tempted to use as a parasol against the melting summer sun. Then we went once again to kaitenzushi (it never gets old, I'm telling you), and headed back to Sonobe. As we approached town, Brad mentioned that there was a lake nearby, and did I want to see it? Neither of us had anything better to do, so off we went, driving on through Sonobe and up to Hiyoshi Dam. The lake was quite pretty, and we spent a good hour just driving on these nearly empty mountain roads around it, listening to KT Tunstall in the background, with everything all green and sunshiny and overlooking the water. It was a lovely time. Often we weren't positive where we were going, but we just followed the edge of the lake and rivers as best we could, stumbling across a little campsite, the town of Hiyoshi, and managing to accidentally find our way back to the Dam in the process.

At last on our way back, Brad was kind enough to take me by the grocery store, so I wouldn't have to lug my purchases home through the heat. I only bought a little bit to get me through the weekend; bread, jam, some truly good camembert cheese, Japanese rice snacks, and a bit of pre-marinated beef that didn't cook up so well in the end.

We broke for dinner at five o'clock, having had a four and a half hour adventure, and then made another short trip to Good Bar that night with Nelis. Poor kid had to work that day, even though it was Saturday, because his school was having an open house. He seems a bit stressed every time I see him, and for a variety of reasons; most of all, because this is his first time ever out of South Africa, and he doesn't speak any Japanese. I think he's beginning to settle in, though, and we're all trying to help him out where we can.

As for yesterday, I did a whole lot of nothing. I read some, sketched a little picture, and watched a whole lot of Japanese television. My excuse is that it's improving my comprehension. Yes.

Stephanie got home in the evening, and we cleaned out a lot of old food in the kitchen, and then, under the cover of darkness, she snuck a microwave left here by Kristin out to the garbage pile. Evidently, it would cost some 100 dollars to dispose of properly, which is why she was sneaky.

I also finally spoke to my parents via Skype, which was nice. I miss all of you guys in the States! Get this program, it's golden!

And this morning so far has been, continuing endlessly, studying Japanese. There is so much I've forgotten! (And also, I have nothing else to do, as Stephanie's last day was Friday, and Wakabayashi-sensei is in Mie Prefecture for the day. On my own, and trying to look busy!) Ah, well. Back to it, I suppose.



kaitenzushi: Literally, "revolving sushi." You sit by a counter, and a bunch of tiny little plates with usually two pieces of sushi each come scooting by on a conveyor belt. You just grab off whichever ones you want to eat, and then get charged for the number of plates you consume.

keitai: Japanese word for a cell phone.

Hikari no Machi: Literally, "City of Light." It's a good song, so check it out! :)