土曜日は楽しかった!! (Saturday was fun!!)

This past Saturday, as the title suggests, was really fun for me!

I met up with my Australian friend, and the two of us started by going out for lunch. We ended up at this nice little café, and shared a pizza and got cheesecake for dessert. If you were wondering the pizza was 4 cheese, but in Japan they serve cheese pizza with honey. Now this might not be something you would think of as normal, but it's actually really good! You just spread out the honey goodness on your pizza, and wow! I did try a piece plain for comparison, but it was really better with honey!  The cheesecake was incredible!!! It had kind of Oreo crumbs on top, was served with ice cream and garnished with a tropical fruit sauce. Soooooo yummy!!! Look and drool:

At the café we talked about all kinds of interesting things, and one of the interesting things I found out is that Queensland on Australia has a big problem with these giant toads. Apparently they were first introduced to help with insect problems on the sugarcane they grow there, but in my friend's words: they were too lazy to do the job they were brought there to do. And since Australia's climate is so warm they reproduced like crazy. She told me that people tried to keep them as pets for a while, but that didn't work so well, (possibly due to giving people warts and that they're poisonous) and now they're considered to be pests. Now the really interesting part: according to her people go on hunting sprees for these toads--her method of choice was to run them over with her vehicle, and apparently her neighbors spear them. BUT....she told me even if they're speared straight through the middle, they can pull themselves off the spear, so it requires a little more to kill it. Creepy! They're like zombies!

After we left the café, we went and quickly found a geocache in a nearby park. On the way there we ran into a random guy who shouted, "Remember Pearl Harbor!" at us. Neither of us being American, we were kind of non-plussed, but there are all sorts of people everywhere after all. And, of course, neither of us appreciated being taken for Americans. (No offense, my American friends)

Then we headed off to the live--when we went hiking she'd asked to join me at one -- and this happened to be the day for that! It was at a new location for me, and had a new musician for me as well, but it was good! Plus, it was nice to have a friend to talk with. When we first walked in, the other musician turned on his English switch and said, "nice to meet you" to us, at which point ヨシダさん basically told him not to worry about it and that Japanese was okay. And of course, we are happy to practice our Japanese, but it's also nice sometimes when people try to make us comfortable by using our language (although personally, in this kind of situation, I usually prefer to practice my Japanese, but that's me). During the live, ヨシダさん played a song that he usually tries to get people to sing a little bit with him, and usually he'll ask everyone, then girls, then boys, then everyone to do it. Being the shy person I am, I generally don't do it, but this time he singled us out! He called on the "people with different colored hair" to do it. Ahh...seriously?! He should know better by now. And did he have to say it like that? My friend turned bright red--turns out she's a little shy too. It was kind of funny though.  After the live, my friend had to hurry off to go meet other friends that were waiting for her in Osaka, and ヨシダさん seemed super surprised that she left me there, but I knew beforehand, so it was ok!

Afterwards, I went back home to my fruit shopping area, and then went home and took in some sunshine.

That evening ヨシダさん had another live  in Kobe, in the place where he goes pretty much once a month, and since the afternoon live was kind of short and it wasn't like I had plans, I decided to go for a little while (not right at the beginning, but later). When I got there, there were a few people, and I got to hear a couple songs before he took a break. Then a couple more songs, and then all the other customers at the time left, leaving just me, the bartender, and ヨシダさん. I thought that he would sing a little bit more, because there was still an hour and a half-ish before his time was finished, but he didn't! What am I? I'm a customer too...tsk...am I being taken for granted? But the three of talked together, and that was nice too. I learned more about them and we talked about some random things, and of course, music for a while.  Yay!! Practice time for me! Oh... I said it was nice, and it was...UNTIL...they pulled out the karaoke machine. We had been talking about various musicians, and then suddenly they were like, "we want to hear Amanda's voice." Of course, my response was, "WHAT???!!!! No!" No way I'm going to sing karaoke, especially not by myself, and even more especially not in front of the musician whose music I love. Not to mention, I had lost my voice on Thursday and Friday (which I think was what let me off the hook). Lucky?  Anyway, eventually after that one more lady came in -- I'd seen her before and she remembered me as well, and we talked for a bit. After she came in, ヨシダさん sang a couple more songs before finally finishing for the night.

That's it, that's all! Good day, don't you agree? 

Golden Week 2016

This year for Golden Week, I didn't really do any travelling and just stayed close to home.  Partly because moving in Japan is extremely expensive, but also partly because I just needed a break.  This week, I was able to really enjoy myself, and although I already knew this, I re-realized every day, that I really love my new location, and I am so happy here.

Now, if I didn't do any travelling, what did I do with myself for a whole week, you may want to know. Well, let me tell you....

For me, Golden Week started off on Friday, and to be perfectly honest, I did a whole lot of nothing that day.  In the morning, I heard loud noises from the street outside my apartment and I saw a big group of people going down the road...

 

Other than that, I did go out a little bit and did a bit of exploring, and found a really nice park area along the water relatively close to me.

 

Random giant frog on a roof

Saturday was a little bit busier.  I went into Osaka to meet a friend who was arriving from Takamatsu that afternoon.  I believe it was her first time to come to the Kansai region.  Once I found her, we headed out to find the hostel that she was staying at.  After a little bit of confusion due to the lack of large signage, we were able to find it and got her set up.  However, at that time, I was able to confirm for myself that hostels will definitely NEVER be my style.  While she was checking in, the guy who seemed to run the place (a Colombian), was kind of strange.  He said to ME, not to her, who was staying at the place, but to ME, that he had a present for me.  Immediate creep factor.  Then he adds that, of course he has it for my friend as well.  Hmmm....well...not really interested.  Then he wanted to confirm if we were going to be in Osaka for the evening.  I cheerfully was NOT.  His response to that was, no present for me.  Wonderful!  Things were looking up!  It turned out that they have a bar associated with the hostel, and he was going to give us a ticket thing that would get us in for no charge in addition to a free drink, as they were apparently having some kind of party that night with Latin techno music.  Oooh, so exciting....not.  Anyway, my friend got one anyway, and I believe she went.  But enough about that.  Once she dropped off her stuff, we headed for central Namba, as she wanted to see the famous place in Dotonbori.  Easy enough.  Well, after crawling through the hordes of people that were out due to the holidays, anyway.  Then after that, she didn't really know what she wanted to do, so we took a walk down to Shinsaibashi and ended up in Umeda, where we went to the Sky Building, and then went for dinner afterwards.  After that, I got her back on the train to Namba, and headed home. 

It was a really nice night, and I wanted to go out for a walk, so I did, and during that time, I found out that ヨシダヒロキ was having a live that evening in a place that's fairly close to me!  So, of course, I went!  It was, as usual, a really fun night, and I actually got to talk with more people that night as well, because the bartender kind of made other people talk to me.  The only problem I had with that was that he told them to talk to me in English.  I want to practice my Japanese though!!!  One woman I talked with was apparently his classmate from junior high, and she told me that he always tries to make people talk together when they come into his bar, and that he has a kind of magic touch in that regard...but it was the first time he had done it to here.  Hehehe....sorry!  Another person I talked to actually knew Calgary is in Alberta, which was surprising for me, because most people don't seem to know things like that.  At the end of the live, as I was getting up to leave, a couple girls who had been sitting kind of behind me, were like, "A FOREIGNER!" (in Japanese), which got awkward laughs from me, the bartender and ヨシダさん.  That was followed up by an explosion of English, which was mixed with some Japanese (and whenever one used Japanese the other would jump on her and be like, "THAT'S NOT ENGLISH, IT'S JAPANESE! YOU SHOULD SAY THIS....")  Did I mention they had been drinking?  It was fun though.

*Borrowed photo*

The next day, I went hiking with an Australian girl that I work with.  We hiked in Rokko mountain, from Ashiyagawa station, all the way to Arima Onsen.  Which is kind of far.  It must've taken us 4 or 5 hours to do.  But it was tons of fun, we got to talk about many things, and we bonded a lot, so I definitely made a new friend!  Also it turns out that she's also interested in music, and she wanted to go see a live as well, so I suggested she come with me to a live later this month (and checked to make sure there were still seats available), and so we will do that!  I'm excited!  But anyway, back to the hike.  I felt like I was kind of unprepared for it as I had missed my alarm that morning (probably due to staying out late at the live), and was in a rush to get there at the time we said we'd meet.  But, there were many people there when we arrived and so we were able to follow some of them in the general direction of the hiking trail.  Along the way, my new friend apparently decided to try to give me as many minor heart attacks as she possibly could by doing things like jumping at a falling stick (could've been a snake!) and nearly screaming at a lizard crossing the path.  When we got about part way up (about 450m elevation), we stopped to have a bit of a snack in an area where many people were doing the same thing.  

At that point there were quite a few cats roaming around, and my friend was making up stories about how they would be really valuable to catch and sell.  One did look like a baby bobcat to me.  

Anyway, as we were eating, suddenly a boar came out of the trees super close to where we were, and my friend just tossed her cherries at me and climbed up onto a rock.  Good friend, right?  Passing me the bait.  Anyway, this boar was fairly calm, just roaming around, and didn't even seem too bothered when some not so smart people started following it around, trying to get close to it to take a picture or whatever other reason.  I did take a picture of it this time (from a distance), as proof that I did indeed see one, as I failed to do so at my previous encounter.  Eventually it went on its way with no casualties. Wonderful!  We also continued on our way.  

 

As we continued to walk, we began to wonder when we would get 'there' and all kinds of ice-cream cravings came out.  Once we got to the rest house at the top, we actually ended up with shaved ice though.  It was good, but not ice-cream. 

After that we started making our way down, following the path with a 'good feeling'.  And eventually we got to Arima, where we finally got our ice-cream, and watched a monkey performing as we ate it.  Following that, we took the train back into the city, and my friend headed home as she was kind of tired.  As for me, I went grocery shopping, and then out for a walk (because I clearly hadn't walked enough yet that day :P)

Not the exact path we took, but a general idea

The following day, was quite simply a day to relax at the beach and enjoy the beautiful weather.

On Tuesday, I had been planning to go a street live by another artist, but it was cancelled due to the fact that it started to rain quite heavily.  I was already on the train though!  But instead of wasting the trip, I just decided to get off in a different location and hunt down where exactly the live later in the month would be (as it was a new place for me).  After some misdirection from Google Maps (leading me into the back alley of a residential area), I was able to find it easily enough, so I won't be getting lost on the actual day!

The next day, I spent the morning at the beach, and then I had to do some things, not really worth mentioning, but I ended up going into Osaka again, and had dinner with my friend from Takamatsu (although it took a long time to mutually agree on a place).  Oh, but that day at the beach, I did see something interesting...one person had hooked up a parasail thing to himself and then went out on a kind of surfboard and was surfing around with the wind and did some really high and long jumps. It was kind of cool!

On Thursday, that friend had said she would be coming out to Kobe to visit, but didn't actually give me a when, which was a little frustrating for me, as I had things to do as well.  But when she eventually did come out, we went up the Shin-Kobe ropeway to the Nunobiki Gardens, which are always pretty.  We wandered around up there for a little bit and then came down afterwards to go find some dinner.  We ended up going to Chinatown, and ate there.

Friday it POURED all day long, so nothing worth mentioning happened.

On Saturday, I went to the Shinkaichi Music Festival for a little bit in the afternoon.  It had many stages, some in a park, and some down the shopping streets.  Of course, some were better than others, but it was interesting and kind of fun too. 

Sunday morning I heard another interesting event going on.  Not exactly sure what was happening, but I could hear really loud singing/chanting from outside, so I went to go take a look.  There was a group of 4 or 5 men in robes and the kind of hats that pilgrims wear, and they were going down the street doing their chanting, but they would stop and bow in front of almost every house.  Some kind of blessing ritual maybe?  There is a shrine just down the road from me....I really want to know what it was though!!

In the afternoon I went to a park as a friend I work with invited me to come to a picnic. There were some people from work and some other people who were new to me as well.  But before I got to them I got cornered by these people who were having some kind of rally--they were literally everywhere! Anyway, turns out they're lobbying for things like an increase in minimum wage, more free wifi spots, free child insurance and Monday mornings as a holiday. I think the last one is maybe a little far fetched, but good for them for trying.  Basically they just wanted people to choose the points that they agree with and mark it down. But for me to do it? It seemed kind of odd as I'm not a Japanese person, but I suppose I do live here after all. Now about the park...In the park there was lots going on: soccer, football, skateboarding, dancing, drumming, basketball....all kinds of stuff--seems like a popular place. And did I mention there was grass?! Real, thick, grass, not just measly tufts in the sand. That is so rare for a park here!  

And that is pretty much the main points of my Golden Week this year. Tomorrow: back to work.

First Month in Kobe

April has been an incredibly busy month for me.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I started work at my new job on the 1st.  There are so many people who work at my campus -- over 60!  The first day was just our school's staff, but after that it was all of the new staff for all of the campuses (including the Tokyo campuses).  The first evening, most of the staff from our school went out for dinner and drinks and things together, and so we started to get to know each other.  Myself and some others left a little bit early (as we had had a quite long day as it was) but others continued on and from what I understand, went out for karaoke as well.

That first week was a lot of training for us.  Most of it took place at the campus that I teach at, however, I did have to go into Tennoji for one day of training.  And I hope to never or rarely have to do that again, for one simple reason -- the train ride there was brutal!! Between Kobe and Osaka was busy enough, but then when I got on the subway to go between Umeda and Tennoji -- it was beyond ridiculous!  I couldn't get on the first train that came because there was already too many people, and while I did make it on the next one -- it was equally packed!  Everyone was so tight together that I couldn't move a muscle and my arms got pushed so close to me that it was actually mildly painful.  A lot of our training was on teaching methods and planning and such things, but there was also some other unique things as well.  For example, our intruder training.  Apparently our schools have these stick things with a u-shaped prong on the end and we can use them to immobilize intruders (so long as we don't get them taken away from us by force).  Originally, us new teachers had thought that we wouldn't have training or only a little bit on the Thursday before the students started (they came on a Friday), but we ended up having training for all but about 30 minutes.  That made it kind of stressful because we also had to prepare our classrooms (in my case I had all blank, white walls, no toys, and things like that) and also figure out what we would be doing with our students that first day.  So -- as a result everyone put in some overtime that evening --- I must have stayed til around 9pm, at which point I decided to go home or I wouldn't be useful at all the following day (not to mention - I was SO hungry!!)  In addition to the overtime --- that first Saturday was also the entrance ceremony for the new K1 (3 year olds) students at all of our campuses -- so add another half day of work.  Apparently this ceremony is usually held in Osaka, but this year they couldn't book their venue so they ended up having it in Kobe, actually in a place quite close to my apartment, which was very convenient.  Since then, the overtime in the evenings has continued as I have been trying to complete my classroom displays and such, but hopefully with time that will calm down somewhat. 

On the first Saturday of the month, I got my hair cut (just a trim) and I ended up going to another live that evening (as he had told me about it on Thursday evening and recommended I come if I had time).  That evening was really fun -- he did the live with another singer and in the second half when it was his turn to sing -- he only used his guitar for a couple songs, and then had a guy who played accordion accompany him. It definitely made for some different feelings for some of his songs (and I prefer his guitar), but it was interesting anyway.  Although when they had finished, the accordion guy kept staring at me....kind of uncomfortable.  But I got to talk together with ヨシダさん and he made me try on the new glasses that he was selling as part of his products, and he kept high-fiving me and gave the impression that he wanted to talk more.

Outside of work, in that first week -- the sakura were blooming, so I took many walks in the evenings to go see them...

 

Of course I also saw them during the day as well...

 

 

 

On the Saturday afternoon that we had the entrance ceremony I went in to Osaka because there was a place I knew of which had many sakura trees along the river, and I wanted to see them....

But...there was a festival going on that weekend and there were so many people that you couldn't really enjoy it because the stalls were in the way and you had to spend your time focusing on making your way through the hordes of people.

After getting through all those people, I was really tired so I headed back to the Umeda area and listened to a street live for a little while before heading back home.

 

In the middle of the month the weather was great so I found a beach which is really long and went to take in some sun and read for a little while.

The day following the beach, I went into Osaka again, for various reasons, but I was still looking for things that I needed for my apartment, and on the way home, I saw ヨシダさん again at Grand Front! I was surprised, and it turned out that he was just getting ready to start his street live. Lucky! So I stayed and listened to him again.  As it was a Sunday evening not so many people were around, so when he finished, I got to talk with him a lot and he asked me to watch his guitar and stuff while he put away the music busker sign and got to talk some more. Good night!!

The following week, on Friday evening, I had been out for a walk and I got a big surprise --- while I was on my way back to my apartment, I saw something big on the sidewalk, and thought someone just left something there.  And then it started to move.  It was a boar! A giant boar!  It was dark, so I couldn't see it well, but based on what I could see it was probably tall enough to come up to my hips, and was quite wide as well.  My reaction was to freeze, quietly back up to the intersection of the street (while keeping an eye on it), and cross to the other side of the road.  I had wanted to go hiking that weekend, but after seeing that, I was understandably less enthusastic about that, and decided to do ither things instead.  Later, when I told some of the staff at my school about this encounter, they told me stories about people's bags being stolen by boars, and other such things.  Not particularly reassuring.

The last Monday of the month was a curriculum meeting for my student's parents and it was a kind of intense event that we had to spend a lot of time preparing for (more overtime).  The last week of April was a 4 day work week because on the 29th, Golden Week started!  And that will be the topic of my next blog post, so look forward to it!

Also, I have updated my previous blog post, as I realized I didn't add in a video I had taken, and there were a few more pictures I wanted to add as well.  You can either check it out by clicking on the links on the side of the page, or click here.

March Madness!

I don't even know where to begin! This month has absolutely flown by!

February ended with me being a little sick--nothing too bad, just a rather high fever. Luckily it only lasted for a weekend.
 

Then, the first weekend in March I had to come into Kansai to *drumroll* look at apartments in Kobe. I looked at apartments all day long on the Saturday. It was a really long day. Which wasn't helped by the fact that my real estate agent kept getting lost (I mean, okay, maybe she doesn't live in Kobe, but it felt kind of unprofessional of her). Also we had to go back and forth between various real estate offices to pick up keys and bring them back and such things. Anyway, we looked at a few apartments and I found out a lot of interesting things about apartments in Japan. For example, most of them don't have any pre-installed lighting except for in the bathroom and if you're lucky, the kitchen. Also, a lot of apartments don't have any cooktop system installed either. There's a space for it, but often you have to go buy it.
 

Anyway, at the end of the very long day, I decided on one and we headed back into Osaka (where their main office is) to fill out some paperwork. As a side note --never drive a car between Kobe and Osaka unless you have a lot of time. By train it takes about 30 minutes, but there was so much traffic that it took almost 1.5 hours by car. I may have been mentally pulling my hair out... Then, as we were driving and almost to Osaka, she got a phone call from her boss telling her there was a small problem. They wanted a guarantor. Now this is a kind of big snag-on Japan a guarantor is someone who is legally responsible to pay for you if you don't pay by yourself. So Japanese people are understandably leery of becoming a guarantor for someone.  But, it was possible for my new employers to become my guarantor, although I wasn't going to be happy with the conditions attached to that. So the real estate agents said to wait until Monday and see because all of the apartments we looked at were supposed to not need a guarantor, so they wanted to contact them again. And good news for me! Turns out I didn't need one after all. However, at this point, I was already back in Takamatsu, so all the documents and such had to be sent via mail. Luckily, I was at home almost all week (so I could receive them) because I woke up that Monday morning with an extremely high fever that lasted almost the whole week--I got tested for influenza at the hospital, multiple times, but it kept coming up negative although I had all the symptoms.
 

It wasn't all frustrating though--I was able to see some street lives on both Saturday and Sunday thanks to that trip! Actually, when I showed up on Saturday night,ヨシダさん said he was really surprised to see me there, and so I told him about looking for apartments, and we also had a nice conversation after he was finished as well. On Sunday night, I saw one of the older women who I've seen at his lives before, and she came to talk with me, which was quite nice. And when she found out that I had come in from Takamatsu, she actually kind of started scolding ヨシダさん and FASE (they were doing a joint live) that they should talk with me more because I came from so far. That was so sweet of her. Unnecessary, but sweet.

I also visited Osaka castle really briefly in the afternoon, and saw the plum blossoms.

The following weekend, I spent Sunday afternoon and evening with Narumi. It was raining that day, so we basically just ended up taking a drive while talking. We drove all the way to Tokushima! When we got there we went into a shopping mall and Narumi looked at things in various stores and showed me clothes that she thought would look good on me. After that, she was a little worried about me because I still wasn't 100% after being sick, so we went and got some dinner. After that it was getting late, so we headed back home. On a strange and convoluted route on back roads because that's apparently what Narumi's GPS likes. I was so happy to hang out with her, but really sad after because I don't know when I can see her again!

The week following that was my last week at work and I spent as much time as I could playing with the kids between practing for graduation and getting things ready for when I left. Some of the kids said really sweet things to me and they were constantly hanging on to me. Not sure if it was because I'd been sick for a week or if it was because they didn't want me to leave. Some combination probably. On the Friday, we had a kind of going away party for me and my class and the younger class had both made a present for me and they have it to me and I got hugs and pictures taken with each and every one of them.

Monday was graduation day, and my final day of work. I was like the MC of the ceremony again this year, although the ceremony this year was a little different--this year none of our students cried! At the end Rainbow class brought me a bouquet of flowers from the parents and I got smothered in a giant hug! After that Sun and Sky brought me a present they made, and more hugs! Some of the students wanted to have pictures with me and a couple of them brought me things they had made. It was so nice!!

 

After the ceremony and cleaning up, we went for lunch (curry) and I got a gift and flowers from the staff.

 

After that I had a day or so to finish packing and get things closed up. So many phone calls in Japanese. True story; in the past week I've not only used my phone more than I have in the past 2 years but also more Japanese too! Deliveries, appointments, set-ups, cancelling things. Ah...kind of difficult!

When I left Takamatsu, Narumi came to the bus stop to say goodbye. So kind!!! I was happy, but of course also sad to say goodbye. Once I finally got to Kobe I had to go into Osaka to get my keys. My stuff arrived on Friday, so I spent the first couple nights in a hotel and spent my days doing shopping. And shopping. And shopping. I hate shopping! But I had to buy stuff like a bed (actually a sofa bed), table, chair, fridge, washing machine, microwave, curtains and more. Ahhhh!!!!! So many trips to the stores and lots of going back and forth to compare prices and then find out that they couldn't deliver, or couldn't set it up or all kinds of ridiculous things. But I got them eventually. I had to build the table and chair, but I can do it!

 

Here's a quick tour of my apartment:

 

If it doesn't work for you, click here

 

 

There was also some exploring as well, but maybe I'll talk about that in a later post. And of course the requisite visits to city hall, immigration, the bank and I don't even remember where else at this point. There was a lot to do.  

Tonight---nice live and tomorrow 1st day of work. I can do it!

ギルガメッシュ Live - A New Experience

Alright, this post might be a little bit surprising for some of you, but here goes.

This afternoon/evening I went to see ギルガメッシュ here in Takamatsu. Actually, I wanted to go last year when they came, but there was a school event that day, so I couldn't make it. But this time I could, and it was a lot of fun!

I guess I should give a little bit of background information so you have some more context first. ギルガメッシュ (girugamesh) is a Japanese visual-kei metal band. I started listening to their music when I was in university. I know it's kind of surprising that I listen to metal but a lot of their earlier music wasn't necessarily screamy and that was the music that made me like them.

Anyway, I was a little bit uncertain about going as it was my first time going to a live of this particular genre of music and I didn't know what to expect, and I was going by myself.

When I got there it was fairly straightforward. You know, give your ticket and go in. The venue was bigger than some of the other lives I've been to, but was actually smaller than what I was expecting. For this particular live it was standing only, so basically you could go wherever you want. 

When the live started, the sound was super intense. It was extremely loud and you could literally feel the vibrations! There was no intro band or anything like that, once they got on stage each member did their own thing really quickly and then went straight into their lead song. And that was when I realized exactly how out of place I was. Pretty much the entire audience started banging their heads and swinging their hair around. (No, I did not do this). Then they had various hand motions to go with the song as well. I was really surprised! I don't know why though because I was well aware what kind of music it was.... Anyway, after the first song, Satoshi, the vocalist did some growling about welcome to the Takamatsu venue and then did some MC stuff, and then there was lots more music! During some of the songs they got the audience jumping and during one song a group of girls started running around in a circle, and of course more head banging and hair swinging ensued. I recognized some of the songs they played, whereas others were new to me. 

*Borrowed from Twitter...*

Also, you know how I mentioned you could feel the vibrations, well I was also kind of fascinated because if you lifted a foot up a bit (to move or shift positions), you could feel the vibrations coming up through the floor and going to your shoe, and it kind of felt like magnets pulling at each other. Interesting.

The one problem I'm going to say I had with this live was the volume. It was SO loud! After a few songs, anytime Satoshi went to just talk or when people were clapping, it sounded really muffled because the level of sound was so different.  As a matter of fact, I'm curious to know how long it will take for my ears to stop ringing.

Anyway, it was definitely an interesting new experience for me. I don't know that I would ever be able to go to something like this anywhere other than Japan -- Japan just gives this sense of security about things. But I definitely enjoyed it and had a fun couple of hours listening to their music!

Busy, busy, busy!

So, a quick update about what has been happening in the past month.

After getting back from winter vacation, life has been incredibly busy for me.  Partly because after I got back, I had to catch up on some work as I'd been away for a while, and partly because in addition to my normal workload, I have also been doing a lot of interviews and demo lessons to try to get myself a new job.

Yes, that's right, after a long and difficult decision making process, I decided not to renew my contract here in Takamatsu (for a variety of reasons), and started to search for jobs in the Kansai area.

After what seemed like doing interviews every other evening, or multiple interviews per day, I moved onto the secondary interview processes, which involved various things such as creating a video demo lesson (which was in multiple parts and had to be 6 minutes or less --- so difficult!!), and actually going into Kansai to visit some of the schools I applied to so that I could show them how I interact with the students or do a demo lesson, or do more interview type talking.

Eventually, it all paid off, and I got an offer for a job...and again, considering the situation, and other various factors, I decided to accept an offer.  Breath of relief! So...more details on that in the coming months!  While it's definitely exciting starting a new life, it's also kind of stressful and intimidating, because once again, it means picking up all my stuff, finding a new apartment, moving, and then of course figuring out what's going to be around me, where my new favorite places will be, etc.

Not to mention, it's kind of sad too, because I really love the students that I'm working with right now, and I want to see them grow up more, but if I consider what's best for me, I think I made the best decision I could.

And other interesting things that have happened -- on one of those trips into Kansai to do those interviews, during one evening I went to a street live from FASE, who I haven't seen since September.  It was a little bit cold, but I enjoyed it.  Although, some strange things did happen.  While I was listening, one lady came up to me and told me that I should go listen to another musician, just across the way because he could apparently speak good English.  Ummm....but well, I wasn't interested in his music, and FASE speaks really good English as well, and don't just assume that I can't speak Japanese please!  Then, after the street live was finished, many of his fans went up to talk with him, and I was checking out where I should go from there on my phone, when he suddenly shouted out "Amanda-san!!" and waved me over.  Enter the stares/glares from his fans.  And then he started talking with another person and then ran away for a few minutes.  So why call my name???!  Ahh....seriously....at least some of his listeners were nice...one older woman asked me if I was Amanda, and kept motioning me to come closer.

Oh, and of course my birthday happened, and once again this year I received many nice and thoughtful presents from the staff at my school.  However, it did make some awkward questions come up from the students.  First, the accusatory, "Why is it your Happy Birthday?" and then the "Why don't you have a baby here?" (touching my stomach).

For my birthday weekend, I ended up spending the whole thing doing prep work for my demo lessons and interviews as well as going to do those things, which meant extremely little sleep and lots of time going to various places for work, so it wasn't so much fun for me this year.  I did, however, go out for a birthday supper of waffles and fruit tea.  Which was delicious, although, slightly less so because I had to spend the time talking with a random Japanese person who decided that it would be good to sit down at my table and start talking to me.

So, since my birthday weekend wasn't that much fun, I decided to change to day of my birthday to this past weekend and celebrate it then instead.  So, Friday night after work, I got home, changed and hurried off to go into Kobe.  When I got there, I checked in to my hotel for the night, and then headed out right away again to go to a live that was going on that evening. Yes, it was a ヨシダヒロキ live.  This time it was in a small little bar that I'd never been to before, and I had a little bit of difficulty finding the place because google maps led to the general area, but not the shop itself.  So I had to ask around a little bit.  The first person I asked was like, "Yeah, it's in this area."  You think?? So helpful.  So I found another person to ask, and they directed me to someone, who took me to the place I needed to be.  Thank you!!  When I walked in, I was really surprised because it was already after the time it was supposed to start, and there was only the bartender and one other person there.  So I asked if it was the right place, and he said it was, but　ヨシダさん had forgotten something.  So I spent some time talking with those two, and they thought my Japanese was pretty good, so I was happy, even though it isn't.  When he finally got there, he went into the story about how we met, and how we know each other and various things, and eventually he got set up and started singing.  At one point, the bartender asked me if I had any song requests for him...only one?? hehehe.... Anyway, it was generally decided that I wanted to hear one of his original songs, and ヨシダさん figured that I wanted to hear "Love, love, love", which I really do like, but he actually didn't play that song.  Lol.  Most of the songs he played that night were actually cover songs, but it was a good night anyway.  When he finished it was around midnight, and so we had one last quick chat, in which he found out that I'm finishing up in Takamatsu and will be coming to Kansai.  I think he was a little surprised, but he said it's good that I can be closer, and told me to contact him when I know the area I'll be living in (I guess so he can let me know about lives near to the area??) Then he had the bartender point me in the general direction I had to go to go towards the station and my hotel (I guess he figured I'd have been turned around after walking around in circles to find the place).

The next day, I went and checked out one of the potential locations that I could be teaching at soon, and it seems like a nice spot.  Also on the train ride there...I scouted out a location of a potential beach area I could go to in the summer, so I think it was productive.  I came back to Takamatsu that afternoon, did my grocery shopping and then spent Sunday catching up on a little bit of sleep -- I got a whole 7.5hours....can't remember the last time I slept that much!!!!!  I think it was good, because I could relax a little bit and since I felt like I might have been getting sick, I was able to deal with that.

That's it for now.  More soon!!