A few thoughts...

This was us pretending a certain Rank ALT was coming into the room. The reactions are priceless... and totally accurate.


This was not planned, I swear!


Another earthquake hit Japan today. It was only a 3 in Niigata; the epicenter was in Sendai and it was a high 6, I believe. That's huge. I was just sitting at the Town Office waiting for my last half an hour to pass, when the familiar swaying began. I looked up to see the lights shaking above me and the telephone cords outside swaying slowly. It lasted for quite a few minutes during which all you can do is look around the room and make awkward faces at your colleagues. It's weird, and it's a totally helpless sensation that I have become all too used to in the last year here.

Other than that, I've been wasting my life away for the last few days. I didn't have to go into work at all on Monday, so instead of cleaning the mess in my apartment, I sat around all day and watched like a million DVDs. Then I went into Niigata for the Orientation party. It was, um, annoying... as most ALT functions are. Lots of people acting like best friends, when you haven't seen each other for months;lots of BS conversation; and since it was the first party of the year, lots of weirdos looking to hook up. A rather uncomfortable situation for me. But, I did meet some cool people who replaced some of my old friends. So that looks good. I'm afraid my energy levels are a bit low right now, so I didn't really bother to get anyone's information... but we'll all run into each other sooner or later. The best part though was that Kate and I didn't pay for the Nomohoudai/Tabehoudai. We were meant to pay 4000 yen at the door, but no one collected money from us. And in the insanity of having 100 foreigners at the bar, we just blended right in. AWESOME!

We are planning on hitting the famous Sado Island Earth Festival this weekend. Makiko and I are both nervous cause we hate camping, but we have to go. I've heard the Kodo drummers are amazing, and people come from all over Japan and abroad to go to this festival which is a mere ferry ride away from where I live. This is another part of my being-more-excited-about-Japan plan: I'm going to bite the bullet on weekend trips that I have thus far put off. I am going to make it down to Kyoto/Osaka/Nara, Kobe and Hiroshima before I leave... Seeing other parts of the country will be interesting. And getting out of Niigata never hurt anyone!

And, the most positive thing of the last few days is that I've been feeling pretty confident with my Japanese lately. Which is funny since I was out of the country for two weeks and my class doesn't resume til September. But I've been using it a lot more with my English-speaking Nihonjin friends - a nice crutch for when I don't know a word or can't express an idea. Also, I think it shows them some respect for their culture/language. I had a conversation with Miyuki last night and another 2nd year ALT actually commented on how good it sounded. That was nice.