Never boring! An eventful weekend!

Many things happened this weekend, and I had lots of fun and some good experiences!

It started on Friday...

So, I knew that there was going to be a live on Friday night, and I had asked a friend to join me, but she said no because she wanted to spend money on other things that weekend. Fair enough, although it was the type of live where you only pay for your drink (and a tip later if you choose), no set entrance fee. But anyway, all of Friday I couldn't decide if I should go or not. Of course, I wanted to go, but I was waffling about it. Not entirely sure why though...maybe because it as in a new place for me?

Anyway, at the end of the day, I was talking with one of the Japanese teachers about weekend plans, and I happened to mention that I couldn't decide if I was going to this live or not, and I said I probably wasn't going to go after all. But, right after that she said to me, "If it's okay with you, can I join you in going to the live?" I was very surprised, as it was kind of out of the blue, but still, it made me really happy!  Then later, when I got home, she texted me and asked if was ok if she asked another teacher (my teaching partner) to come as well. So of course, I said of course!  

Oh! As a random interjection--on Friday night, there was all kinds of crazy lightning! It's the first time I've seen lightning since I've started living in Japan!! And there was some insanely strong rain that happened while I was on the train, but luckily it had mostly stopped by the time I got off the train. 

Back to my story-- so I met them at the train station closest to where we had to go (they ended up getting there a train or so after me) and we headed out. Turned out to only be a 3 or 4 minute walk. It was still raining a little, so they shared umbrellas with me! So kind!  Once we got there and walked in -- there was the normal mutterings that happen the first time I go to a new place from the bartenders -- basically asking ヨシダさん if I'm his girlfriend. I don't know why they always jump to that conclusion and think I can't hear them, but no. My accompaniment ordered themselves some food in addition to their drinks (and later forced me to try some of it). Then we listened to music, talked and laughed a lot. It was a really good night, and so much more fun than either staying at home or going on my own! Somewhere in the course of the night, one of them wanted to take a picture with me (see below) and they really seemed to enjoy the music (possibly because it was a cover night so they already knew many of the songs). 

 

Oh! And I found out something about my partner! Apparently she really likes my voice and from what I  understand, I'm the only one who didn't know that. When I asked her why she liked it, she said she likes high tone voices and is always listening to people's voices. (I don't think my voice is high though) Then she said that she has a voice fetish. My reaction was just, "oh..." Awkward!! Did she have to say it like that?? It was funny though. And then, the other teacher told me I should go to karaoke with my partner because it would make her very happy. Ah...karaoke...hahaha....

When he was finished singing for the night, the two of them headed out and I stayed for a bit to talk with ヨシダさん, as I hadn't really talked with him at all (and I needed to make fun of him about something). He told me he was glad that I had brought friends and was happy for me that I have Japanese friends out here.

Saturday, I headed out to the beach for a while, and although I had things I should do, I spent the time getting some well-needed relaxation time. Later in the afternoon, I headed back to get changed for the evening's event. I was meeting up with some friends to go to a big fireworks event down at Harborland. 

We met up an hour before they started so we'd have enough time to find somewhere to sit and get food and things like that. Well that was the plan. Unfortunately, we had to wait about 45 minutes for one person. So, as a result when we got there, the fireworks were starting already, and they wanted to stop for food, and took forever to find somewhere to watch, and even then, kept getting up to look for new spots because we couldn't see well. I was kind of annoyed. Eventually, they settled on a spot, but we could only see the edge of the fireworks. And I didn't mention, there was a group of maybe 12-14 of us--about a 50-50 mix of foreigners and Japanese people. 

 

If the video doesn't work, click here to watch.

Then, when there was only about 15 minutes left to the fireworks, they decided they wanted to move AGAIN. At this point, I dare say you can imagine how I felt. Since I wasn't so keen about it, I ended up at the back of the group. Then, as I stopped to look at the fireworks for a second while we walked, next thing I know, everyone, except for one of the Japanese boys, was gone!! So the two of us found our own nice spot and watched the finale while sending messages to the others asking where they ended up. The finale was pretty awesome...lots of big and very vividly colourful fireworks. And we could see them really well. I'm sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the finale though. I was too frustrated. When it ended, Hikaru and I waited out the masses of people leaving the area, and waited for replies to out messages...which eventually did come. While we waited we talked. Well...tried anyway. It seems however that neither of us was particularly skilled at talking with new people though. It went something like this: question, answer, reply to answer, looooong silence, and repeat. Oh my....hahaha....

Once we met up again with the others, there was of course some requisite teasing, and then we headed out to a convenience store to pick up some ice cream and drinks before we headed back to an area where we could sit and chat. 

Our girls are feeling hot! (Both ways!)

 Then we sat and talked for a couple hours or so. (May have been interrupted temporarily by a cockroach though -_^)

One of the girls asked me to take this photo of the boat coming in because her battery  was dead...

Throughout this whole time, I talked with the other people I know (the foreigners) and a some with the new-to-me Japanese people. But the entire time, Hikaru basically stuck with me, and didn't  really talk with anyone else. Kind of puppyish--but I also understand really well, because he didn't really know anyone else--and that's probably what I do (or used to)...stick with the people I know I can talk to. Interesting for me though--I was thinking to myself, "is that what I look like in these situations?" It was all good though. What started out as an extremely  frustrating night turned out to be rather fun! We all ended up walking back to the station together and dispersed from there to our various trains.

Sunday, I got up early again (apparently, I just don't sleep much at all anymore). Everyday, burning both ends of the candle. Anyway, I went out and picked up my fruits and veggies (and got some pretty awesome prices) before heading out to the beach again. It was hot. It was so hot...what else can you really do other than the beach?

Feels like 41?!

This time however, I got down to business at the beach and got a good amount of my homework done. I was really sad and kind of grumpy though, because I forgot my fruit in the fridge at home. While I was there, a friend messaged me to come to another beach for lunch, but I had to say no, because I was already at a beach, and if I went there, there's no way I could've done my homework. This particular day, there was a group of guys sitting somewhat behind me on the beach, and they were kind of amusing. At one point one of them came and talked for a little, was quite nice, and expressed his concern that as it was quite hot, I should make sure to drink lots of water.  Not to worry--I had nearly 2L with me. (Didn't forget that at home!)

Then, Monday morning at work, so many people commented about how tanned I was -- although they were all looking at my legs when they said it. I guess that's what I get for not wearing full length jeans for once. Because they didn't really get that much darker this weekend than they had been last week.  And this evening, as I'm writing out this blog post, I'm sitting in Osaka, enjoying the nice cooling breeze and listening to a street live from オカダユータ. 

Good times these past few days!! I hope it keeps up! ^_^