Folkloro Matsushima

... language by foreigners.

We did the paperwork, and then I was introduced to my homestay person, Mr. Ito, who is a section chief of the BOE. He wasn't nearly as intimidating as I expected him to be. Rather, a friendly-seeming older man.

Mr. Ito then took me to my base school, a junior high school, where I did another self introduction and quickly met most of the staff before going back to his home.

(END Part 1. Part 2 is more interesting)

... so much better live. Shou told us that we called him by the wrong name during “High Collar Naru Rondo”, and then we remembered that he wanted to be “Masamune”. ^^ The encore was the best. They played older songs like “Cradle to [Alpha]” and “Tsubasa”, and there was a lot of fun headbanging and furi. I was a bit overenthusiastic during “G3” because I ran into the chairs in front of me. It was ...

... On my way back, I came across a singer/keyboardist named You-ki Kitamura performing on Ichibancho. She was really good, and I figured that my mother would like her music so I bought her CD. The people around me were all businessmen. ^^;; When I told her my name, one of the businessmen said, "Oh a foreigner." She seemed a bit surprised.

Glossary
takyubin - delivery service
omiyage - gifts

Yesterday was the last day of work. After handing out everyone’s presents, I talked with kouchou-sensei. Then when it was time to go home, the teachers gave me a send-off. They tried to form an arch for me to go under as I exited the building, but since there were maybe 6 teachers, that didn't work so well. ^^;;

In the evening, I went to the farewell party for the Southlake visitors. I discovered that either I’m too accustomed to ...

... Mika explained in Japanese, and I added that all the ALTs love Date (the dude did inspire Darth Vader). I noticed that the artist was wearing VAMPS wristbands, and we had a little fangirl moment. There were other things that I considered buying, like something from one of the goth accessories vendors. One of them showed us the guillotine clock, which was cool in a creepy way. There was also an artist who drew J-rockers as ...

... Kavita’s curry night. Spicy foods aren’t my thing, but I still ate a lot. I came back home really late, which was bad considering I had another early morning. There were more tears because I read people’s goodbye notes. I don’t have time to make any, which makes me feel bad. I’ll send something from home.

Glossary
Natsu Matsuri - Summer Festival

After our unfortunately late night last night, waking up was difficult this morning. We managed, however, to get to the train station with plenty of time. The first leg of our ride was about 4 hours and involved crossing between the island of Hokkaido and the island of Honshu via a long undersea tunnel (kind of like the train that runs ...

... se promene sur une ile accessible via un grand pont rouge de 250m. On peut voir les multiples iles de la baie de plus pres, et en plus on assiste au coucher de soleil ! Remarque : contrairement aux Russes, on voit que le tourisme est une activite importante au Japon (autant pour les japonais que les etrangers). Le moindre petit village a son office de tourisme, generallement a quelques metres de la gare. Tres pratique en tout cas !

... there because it was late in the day. It was a little mountainside religious community complete with post office and utilities. Stopped at the booze store for Sado weekend partying. Sushi (with coveyerbelt style) and Joe's first sushi experience. Late night driving back to Niigata, ~4 hours drive thru the mountains at night. Did laundry at 1am and then passed out cold!

... really nice and helpful. I think they assumed that I was Japanese because a lot of times I'd have to tell them that I was American. I ran into the manager of MK Farm with his baby granddaughter. He was the one who recognized me. Before we all met up again, I got some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Eric had went off on his own adventure with Seikoh and Maki to a CD store nearby; and you thought I was bad about the music. ^_~ In the evening, the city threw a party in ...