Thursday-
Brittany decided that she would leave on Thursday since we had to go to Kumamoto. We had planned this about a month ago before we knew that she would be here this week. We had to go to Kumamoto to get our re-entry visas so that if we leave Japan, we can come back. Without a re-entry visa, if you leave Japan, your work visa is null and void. We told Brittany that she could stay, but she said that she had a couple of errands to run in Hiroshima before she leaves the country on Saturday. My supervisor was taking us to Kumamoto because she had a conference she had to attend, and Brittany said she’d take the train. We didn’t officially say goodbye in Yunomae because we planned to meet again in Kumamoto. The plan was for us to call her when we were finished or for her to call us when she arrived, whichever happened first.
My supervisor gave me a map of exactly where I needed to go and where to meet her later in the day. She dropped us off at the building we needed to go to. We had to go to the immigration office, which was weird. I’ve never been an immigrant before. J We had a paper to fill out, go downstairs and pay for a stamp, take it back to the immigration office and were finished. It was a fairly simple process with minimal bumbling around. We met another American in the office, Sebastian from Massachusetts. He wasn’t with the JET Program but taught in a private school in Kumamoto. He talked to him for a bit before heading out into the city to find Brittany.
Thank God for google maps. It has served us well as a GPS. When we’re in the car or on foot, we use it to get around. I could not even imagine trying to find some of these places without google maps! We used it to get to the train station. We had called Brittany when we left the immigration office to tell her that we were on our way to meet her, but she didn’t answer. We got to the station around the time that we thought her train would arrive, but she never came out. We called and text her several times, but nothing happened. She never answered. We began to wonder what could have happened. Did she miss her train? Did she lose her phone? Where was she??? Ian and I waited and waited and waited for her. We took shifts waiting outside the station for her and going inside to look around for her. Nothing happened. We weren’t sure when to give up. Since we didn’t get to say goodbye, we didn’t want to leave her, but we also knew that it was useless to wait and wait and wait for nothing to happen. We drown our sorrows in a delicious sweet treat at Mr. Donut beside the station before moving onto the Daiso (dollar store). I love going to the Daiso. Everything is cheap, and you can find some pretty cool and handy things there.
It was getting time to head back, and I persuaded Ian to walk to where we needed to meet my supervisor. The train price had jumped from the 220 yen we had paid to get there to 1100 yen because it was rush hour. Google maps told us that it would be a little over an hour to walk there. I enjoy walking, and I feel like it allows you to find cool places and explore a little easier than driving or riding to places. One of the best things about our walk was holding hands. I know this seems odd, but it tickled me pink. Any form of PDA in Japan is frowned upon. Holding hands is becoming more acceptable, but in the conservation countryside of Yunomae where everyone knows us, we don’t do it. However, in the large bustling city of Kumamoto where we’re just another foreigner, we could hold hands without worrying about it! It felt good. J We received a facebook message from Brittany during our walk saying that she had left her phone at our house. When she arrived in Kumamoto, she looked around the station, but since we hadn’t made any plans to meet anywhere definite, she wasn’t sure what to do and hopped on the next train to Hiroshima. There, she had internet access and was able to message us. It sucked not being able to see her one last time or saying goodbye, but I told Ian that we should just be thankful of the time we were able to spend with her. Our walk turned out to get us there just in time. We had to be back by 4:30, and we arrive at 4:27. I was getting very worried because we got lost for a few minutes, but luckily Ian is a great navigator and was able to get us back on track!
On the ride home, we were both sleepy and nodded off in the back seat as my supervisor drove us home. Despite the fact that I had to take a vacation day to go get my re-entry permit, I still had to teach my Thursday night class. We got back to Yunomae around 6:15, and class started at 7:00. It was just enough time to go home and eat quickly before class. We found a great surprise sitting on our stoop when we got home! Someone left us a grocery sack with a two liter of coke (they know me so well!), six pack of beer, snacks, and a newspaper. There was a note in it, but of course it was written in kanji. :S Therefore, we’re not sure who it’s from, but we appreciated it!!! J
Ian didn’t come with me to class last night, so I was on my own. When I pulled up in the parking lot, there was some guy getting out of his car. This is very abnormal because generally, there is no one in the parking lot. He approached me saying….something. I said sorry but that I don’t speak Japanese. He showed me a name tag of some sort and a camera and said something like “class interview.” He stayed the whole time, taking pictures of class and writing things down in his notepad. Hopefully they were good things! J During the break time, he asked the students questions. I feel like class went pretty well last night. It wasn’t the best class, but it also wasn’t as out-of-control as it is sometimes as well. We started off with a review of animals and played duck, duck, goose…..except it was koala, koala, rabbit, panda, panda, mosquito, and bee, bee, tiger for reviewing. After that, we played a relay race game in which I would call out an animal, and they would have to leap frog over each other to get the flashcard of the animal. That got slightly out of hand. :S Then, it was break time. I brought a roll of cookies that I bought at the Daiso, and those kids lined up like little baby birds with their hands out, basically saying “Gimme!!” lol. After break, we reviewed the concepts of “Do you like?” and “Do you play?” and played a scavenger hunt game with those concepts. Finally, at the end of class, I taught them how to play spoons. Except, we didn’t have enough clean spoons to bring to class, so I packed chopsticks. Lol. Explaining the concept of spoons was a bit difficult, but I think once everyone got into the swing of it, they liked it.
Today so far has been a bit boring…..hence me blogging so much! I don’t have any classes today because it was test day. I asked my English teacher if I could do anything, but she said to “wait a minute.” I’ve been waiting for three hours. J I have plenty of busy work to occupy my time, like planning what to do at the nursery school next week, planning my Thursday night class, begin to print and cut out my November English board, figure out what to do for my intro to Halloween lesson at the elementary school next week, and write a few letters to send home. *Sigh* It’s so difficult to get paid so much to have days like this. :D
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