Being the only foreigner in town

Being the only foreigner in town has its good and bad points.  A good point is that I'm a featured item.  I'm pretty much a local celebrity.  Since we're so far out in the countryside, I might be one of the few foreigners that comes to town.  People want to introduce themselves, kids will shout "hello!" as they ride by on bikes, I've seen people do double takes of me, and generally, people want to make me feel welcomed.  I do!  One drawback of being the only foreigner in town is that I'm the only foreigner in town.  :(  That means that I don't have any other JET friends that will stop in for a bit or someone to grocery shop with, etc.  The closet JET to me is in the next prefecture.

It is soooooooooooooooooooooo hot.  Today was HOT AND MUGGY with very little breeze for relief.  I sweat....and sweat....and sweat.  I have sweat glands in places i didn't even know existed!  I took a cold shower tonight, and it felt great.  I know that sounds weird, but trust me, it was awesome.  One thing that I don't really understand about Japanese culture is that despite how hot it is, they don't mind drinking hot tea.  ugh.  I hate when I get offered hot tea.  I like it, don't get me wrong, but whenever it's sooooooooooooo hot out, the last thing I want is to drink something that is going to make me hotter!

Today was a great day at work.  Despite the language barrier, I've been talking to my co-workers more often.  I brought my scrapbook to work and showed off pictures during lunch.  Everyone really liked the picture of Ian and I last Halloween when we went as a geisha and ninja.  haha!  Today, I met one of my co-worker's daughter.  She studied English in college and lived in Vancouver for a while.  She could speak English really well and was really sweet!  I enjoyed talking to her.  She looked through my scrapbook.  Something that I wasn't anticipating was explaining holidays.  She knew Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc, but one that I had to explain was Mardi Gras.  I told her it was a French tradition in New Orleans to put on masks and hand out beads and have a big parade.  Even as I was explaining it, I thought to myself, wow, this really seems like a weird holiday, lol.

Tomorrow I have to drive to a neighboring town for a meeting.  Wish me lots of luck!  It's very weird to drive in Japan since everything is opposite.  It really screws with you mind to think in opposite when you're so used to doing it your way!  I was asked to participate in an English camp, which I was more than happy to do, and the informational meeting was in the morning.  My supervisor drove me to the town today to make sure that I knew exactly where I was going.  Despite the language barrier, my supervisor is amazing!  She really watches out and takes care of me.  :)