3/30/2021

 So I missed the 1 year point, but it's close enough, right?

So who could've guessed that this virus would last a whole year? It means that like everyone else in the world, I've spent the last year inside for the most part. Which means I haven't done any travelling, no crazy antics, just myself enjoying alone time.

Things of interest? Looking through my phone I'm reminded that I did the lion mouth thing again that I should really remember the name of. I'm reminded that I went to see the kouyou, the changing of the leaves, in Yamagata city, and also that I've been taking pictures of my own food I've cooked if it's been a well rounded meal. 

One of my friends moved north, and I made friends with a baker nearby. I've continued to do my Eikaiwa lessons. I haven't been to volleyball in a while because of the pandemic. 

In the more forthcoming future however, there are things happening, which is why I'm able to write this. I'm going to a basketball game on the 3rd, and I might have people coming over that weekend as well. There's a handmade market that my baker friend will have a stall at, and I want to say hi to them there. 

Other than that, things have been going well. The new year of kids are coming in next week, as well as a new English teacher, so I'm excited to see what that brings. 

It's a short post, but it's a post nonetheless. Will we get back into gear soon? Hopefully.

3/23

Corona Virus!

That sums up all of the time since I've posted last. It's been a real pain to deal with the repercussions of all the cancellations and things being moved around, but for now it seems to have died down a little bit.

On 1/11 I went drinking with some ALTs and some other Japanese people at a bar that was fashioned to look American. It had blues album covers over the walls and a bunch of American music things hanging up, and it was a lot of fun. One of the Japanese guys was from Tokyo so it was cool to talk to him.

So I think the next interesting thing to happen was that I went out to the mall on 1/13. After D&D we decided to go to the mall and afterwards hang out in Akita City.

And then nothing happened for a week besides tests for the kids.

On 1/25, me and some friends went ice skating at a place in Akita. By coincidence, we met some other ALTs there who were also ice skating, and we decided to play Tag on Ice. It was fun, even though I'm not really good at turning and doing anything other than moving in a straight line. After that we went to get bubble tea, walked around the nearby stores, and then later that night went to a nice small karaoke place near my house.

On 2/1 there was a trivia night with some of the ALTs in the area, which I feel like I would have been better at if it was more Jeopardy style trivia. In this case it turned out to be pop culture and local trivia, which I wasn't as good at. After that we decided to get some food at a conveyor belt sushi place, and then went drinking with everyone afterwards, because this is the countryside and that's really the only social event possible.

2/4 was the day that my internet went down. I had no clue why, and this is when I realized how complicated internet service is in Japan. In America, if you have a problem you just go through Verizon and you're done. In Japan, you have at least three different companies that you have to contact if there's a problem with your internet. There's the company that made your router, there's your internet middleman, and then there's the company that provides your internet. In my case, they are Buffalo, Docomo, and Plala respectively. I tried contacting Docomo, but was told that they weren't the problem. So I contacted Buffalo, but their service was text based so it was taking a very long time to get anything solved from them. After that I decided to contact my supervisor, who was busy and was giving me basic advice. These problems continued until 2/8, where I was told just to buy a new router, which fixed the problem. Luckily I had points from buying my kotatsu, so I was able to get it cheaper.
During this time I went out a bit because I couldn't do anything at home, going out for curry on 2/5 and drinking on 2/7.

The night of 2/8 I went to a festival very popular in Akita called Namahage. It was a really cool experience, even if it was snowing heavily and just extremely cold in general. THere was a large bonfire in the middle of the area to keep everyone warm, and the namahage costumes were really cool to look at.

2/9 I got a group to go ice skating again, and we again went for bubble tea afterwards. I think at this point I just wanted a social thing that wasn't drinking.

Because of all the going out I took the next week off, and then on 2/15 was a cooking event that I was a part of. I made Tuna Cakes and Shiitake Burgers. They were really simple to make, but we were told there would be 40 people that would come. Maybe it was because this was the start of the Corona virus panic, but only 20 people came. There were plenty of leftovers. Also, this event got my picture in the newspaper, which everyone began noticing me again afterwards. That night was a birthday party for an ALT near me, and it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people I knew and it was a good time all around.

2/19 was the day where an ALT and I tried to fillet a mackerel by ourselves and with the help of Big Chef Dai on Youtube. It was a really cool experience, and we got some baby bok choi along with it. It was really delicious, even if we didn't put any seasoning on the fish. It definitely sparked my interest to try and fillet fish more often.

2/21 was the "pray for the third graders to pass their exams" celebration, which was cool to watch. It was very formal, with a priest waving the paper streamers back and forth. The food afterwards was good, and an interesting time was had.

2/22 was the day we went to Sendai. Me and two other ALTs went to Sendai and spent the night in a sharehouse, which turned out to be really cheap. We went to a Mexican bar and a pub, and also went shopping around the mall. I was able to have the most delicious thing I've had in Japan so far, the Zunda Shake, which is honestly what I've been craving since I had it the first time.

Which was kinda bad timing because the following week was when everything turned upside down. The night of 2/27 was when PM Abe told all the schools to shut down because of Corona virus. So all of us went into 2/28 not really knowing what to expect. It turned out that the following Monday would be the last day of the year, and then schools would be closed after that. The graduation ceremony would be held as normal, but everyone else would be off for the rest of the school year. Because I'm an assistant teacher, it didn't affect me that much, but most of the other teachers started panicking because of the implications that losing this much class-time had.

And so began the Social Distancing period. I still had to go into work everyday, but because there were no classes for me to help with, there is literally nothing for me to do. Starting today is the official spring break, so the teachers can start working towards the next school year now. As of right now, the plan is to start school up again on the 6th of April.

The graduation ceremony was interesting, as it was only students and faculty, with everyone required to wear masks. The real interesting part for me was after the ceremony where everyone went outside to take pictures, cause that seemed the most genuine from all the students.

But otherwise I've been not going out much because of Corona. I've gotten coffee a couple times, I've gone and gotten curry, but other than that it's been quiet. I went drinking on 3/14, and again 3/19, and then on 3/21 I went out to a farm nearby that specializes in milk. And now I'm here, with March almost over.

As of right now the plan is for school to start on April 6th. Official cases in Japan have been rising slowly, but there are people saying that Japan is purposefully not testing to keep their numbers low. There aren't any official cases near me yet though, so maybe it will be safe. Nothing to do but stay inside and wait, I suppose.

1/7/2020

And then three months passed.

The only reason I'll be able to actually make this post is because I've been keeping records of every day in a folder at school, though some of the weekend stuff didn't end up getting in here.

10/16 was the ceremony for the kids going to America, who I had been giving extra lessons. They left on the 22nd, and had a blast as far as I can tell. The 17th however was a kenkyuu jugyou, which is where me and my JTE teach a lesson and teachers from all over come and look at us teach. It was nerve-wracking of course, but it went ok. We spent time after school having teachers critique our class, which was a little boring but I understood where they came from. 10/18 was tests so I was bored that day. The 19th, Saturday, I went to a ramen place that my students go to a lot, and ended up being there at the same time as some of them. The next day I went to a coffee place that I have actually begun frequenting as much as my money permits.

The Halloween party on the 21st was alright, I didn't have much of a costume but it was fun seeing all the ALTs in one place again.
The 24th I ended up teaching a class mainly by myself for the first time, which was stressful but I feel like I ended up doing alright. The 25th was a conference for all the ALTs in my prefecture, where we discussed how to team teach and things like that. It was informative to see different perspectives on teaching. The 26th was the school festival for one of my elementary schools, and it was great to see the kids perform their own plays. Some of the parents I knew from other places as well, which was nice to see them again.

On the 29th, I went to my first izakaya in Japan. It was more like a house than a bar, with me and two of my Japanese friends sitting in a tatami mat drinking beer. It was a chill time and I was able to talk for a while with them.

On 11/1 I went drinking with my Japanese friends, which as this post continues will become a theme. On the 2nd, another ALT and I went to a gorge in Yuzawa, or Oyasukyo Daifunto. It was pretty to see the changing of the leaves and the steam that came from the gorge.

11/9 was the 60th anniversary of my junior high, so there was a lot of pomp and circumstance with a ceremony held at school. After school I went to the party ceremony that was held in the hotel, and I ended up going to the afterparty as well. My Japanese friend invited me that night as well, so I went drinking with him after the afterparty. It was a long night for sure.

11/15 I went to my first sushi restaurant, as in an actual sushi restaurant. It was with the same friends that I went to with the izakaya, and it was a great time. Apparently one of my students' families runs that store, so it was cool to see them serve sushi.

11/22 was a special day indeed, as it was the day I got my kotatsu, which is a heated table with a blanket covering it, keeping the heat in. It's fantastic. Especially because I dont use the heater in my house, It means I'm warm for most of the time regardless.

11/30 there was Christmas bowling with the ALTs, which was a lot of fun getting to know them, considering there were people there I hadn't seen before. Afterwards some of us went to a bar owned by a former ALT, which was cool to experience. It was crowded that day though.

12/5 I went to the orientation for the gym that's in my town. You need to go the orientation or else you're not allowed to use it, which is an interesting way to minimize injuries in the gym.

12/6 I went to a volleyball group that is held south of me, and it was nice being able to play for the first time in a while. Everyone is better than me, but regardless I enjoy playing, and hopefully can throw away my pride. Afterwards, I was invited by my Japanese friend to come drinking in the city, and so I said yes, and it was a wild night indeed. Tequila was involved.

The next day we went to get ramen as a way to help the hangover, and afterwards when I went grocery shopping in the city I ran into other ALTs. We hung out for a little and got ramen, and started talking about skiing during the winter break.

The rest of December isn't well documented, but I know I went to volleyball, kept going to D&D, and drank with my friends once or twice.

The workplace end of the year party was on Christmas day, the last day the students were in class. Which was weird, considering the next day I had to come into work anyway. I ended up sleeping at an ALT's house who lived close to the place we had the party.

The 28th I got together with that same ALT to play a mystery solving board game, which was a lot of fun. We ate at a conveyor belt sushi place too, which I always enjoy a lot.

On the 29th I went drinking with a combination of my Japanese friends and other ALTs, and the ALTs ended up having a good time, which made me feel good about inviting them.

The 30th, I was invited by my school nurse to an izakaya to celebrate the new year. She said to invite people so I did end up inviting an ALT, and the school nurse brought her daughter who had gone to school in England. It was a nice mix of English and Japanese, and they reminisced about travelling all around the world.

For New Years, all the ALTs nearby that didnt go home went to a shrine in town and got the whole midnight experience. There was a ceremony that happened with some chanting (that I didn't understand at all) and we were able to endure the cold and snow. It was a great experience that I'm glad I took.

1/2 my Japanese friend called me to pick him up from a work party he was at, and so we hung out for a little before going back and talking with another group of people. Everybody at the bar had come back to the town for New Years, so there were people from all over Japan, mostly Tokyo. It was cool to meet all those new kinds of people.

1/4 I went skating down in the city where they have a huge skate rink. We went around the city to an import store, where my friend asked what tasty American thing he should try. I pointed him to a jar of alfredo sauce, and when we went back he boiled some pasta and actually enjoyed it.

And now it's my birthday. I may go and eat out to celebrate, but if not I'm perfectly fine with that too.

Looking at this , I didn't realize how busy I seemed until I started writing everything down. This way I at least know I'm not wasting my time here, even if I do take an occasional week break from doing crazy things. I'm gonna be here for another 20 months at least, so as long as I can keep this kind of pace, I feel like it'll be an enjoyable time here.

10/15/2019

Wow it's been a month. I really just have been busy or tired pretty much all the time, so I guess its time for a recap.

Sendai was amazing. It was a bit of a trek to get there, considering it was a 2 hour drive to the half-way point, where I then bussed another 2 hours, but it was definitely worth it. Hanging out with my friends from college was a blast, and I was able to do city things like go to karaoke and game centers and all that. I was able to experience the city of Sendai, and also head over to Masamune Date's grave for a little historical experience too. I bought clothes there and ate plenty of good food, like yakiniku and beef tongue.

Coming back after that, 9/25 was another english class that I taught the middle schoolers who are going to Oklahoma. 9/26 was a dinner that the Thursday English Class invited me to as a kind of welcome party, and it was a multiple course affair that was kinda like a fusion restaurant. It was very good.

Then that Saturday and Sunday I had to go to work. But that was because the school festival happened then. The kids had been spending the past month getting ready for all of the different things that happened then, like the newspaper contest and the chorus contest. It was amazing to see everyone's hard work on display.
Afterwards was an Enkai, a celebration for all the teachers for their hard work. I got to know all of my teachers a lot better that way, and it was also served as a welcome party for both myself and the student teacher who came for three weeks.

Monday and Tuesday were relaxing days after the craziness that was the school festival.

The next week was getting to know the student teacher more, and helping her out with her classes for the most part. Nothing extremely exciting happened.

On 10/6 however, there was the Udon Expo over in Yuzawa, which was essentially a national Udon competition. I had a saba and nattou udon, a thick homemade noodle udon, and an udon with mussels in it, which were all fantastic outside the nattou one.

On 10/8 I participated in the club volleyball practice, which reminded me how rusty I was at volleyball. It was nice to move around but also humbling because the middle schoolers were definitely better than me.

That Friday was the last day the student teacher was at the school, so everyone said goodbye to her.

On the 12th I got a haircut, and the 13th was the kiritanpo festival. Kiritanpo is an Akita food that is pretty much a rice cake that still has grains of rice in it. Go ahead and look it up on google, its interesting. Oddly enough I was able to buy really good kimchi there, in the form of octopus kimchi. Raw octopus in the kimchi...sauce? Seasoning? I don't know what the terminology is but it's really tasty. The next day I went to a nearby cafe and ended up chatting with one of the people who works for the big tech company in town. She was nice and I was glad that I could hold a conversation with someone. It definitely emboldened me to go around my town more and try everything here.

So things are defintely going into more of a rhythm, and I'm trying to find a good balance. The weekdays are usually more calm, with D&D every Monday and Eikaiwa every Thursday. The weekends are usually some kind of festival or event that's happening, like the Halloween party that's going on this weekend. So I'll be back whenever work gives me the time.

9/19/2019

The reason this is always slow to update is because I'm always exhausted when I get home. The only time I really am awake enough to do this is during school when there's nothing for me to be working on. And so here I am again.

On 9/3 there was the Honjo-Yuri English Speech and Recitation contest. It was an all day event, but the highlight of it was definitely the kid from my school winning first place at the speech. I was very proud of both her and the recitation kid from my school, because they both did their best out there. Because the speech kid won, that meant that she was going to the prefectural level competition. Which turned out to be next week. 

The rest of the week was very chill as I began to start getting into a little bit of a rhythm, trying new things occasionally and feeling out how to actually teach and what my responsibilities are here. That Thursday, the 5th, was my first time teaching at a small English class in the community center, where older people try learning English by reading simple newspaper articles and talking about them. It's good practice for them and a good thing for me to do after school. 

That Saturday, I went to a small bar and karaoke place near the Nikaho station with one of the other ALTs. This is when I discovered that I was on the front page of the Nikaho city magazine for this month. I was recognized when I went there as people pulled out the magazine and pointed at me, which was humbling yet still odd in a way. How do you react to that?

The next Monday, the 9th, I had my first D&D session with other ALTs, using 5E as the system. It has been fun so far, and I'm looking forward to where it goes. I'm a player this time, and not DMing, which does decrease the workload quite a bit. 

The next day, Tuesday, was my first time going to the Hirasawa Elementary school, which was interesting too. It runs completely differently than the other elementary school I go to. It was a little weird doing introductions a month after I had arrived.

Wednesday began the first of the after school English classes I am teaching to a group of 8th graders who are going to be going to Oklahoma on exchange. I'm teaching them basic survival phrases and how to communicate with their host families and friends that they will meet while in the US. It's me and another ALT almost every Wednesday for an hour.

Thursday was the Prefectural English Speech and Recitation Competition. This was another all day event, and was an hour drive away from the middle school. This whole week involed me staying after school coaching the speech kid, and focusing on how she presented and putting emotion into her speech. She worked really hard, and ended up getting first place in the prefectural competition as well! This means that she goes straight to Nationals, in Tokyo. I hope I'm able to go to, but my guess is that they're not gonna pay for an ALT to go to Tokyo, considering they already have to pay for the English teacher to go already.

Friday I was the DD for the ALT trip to Socket, a karaoke bar that has all-you-can-drink. 

And so after all of that busy week, I spent Saturday relaxing. Sunday was a festival in Yurihonjo, so I went there to see some of the floats that were around. Monday was a holiday, and so I went with a friend to my first hot spring, which I can't say I'm a huge fan of, and then went to play D&D for 6 hours.

That Tuesday, the 17th, was a Scheduled Lesson, where my English Teacher and I had to team teach to a class while being evaluated by a group of other teachers. It was pretty stressful, and they had a lot of things to say about our class. It was a very formal affair, although because it was all in Japanese I don't really know what kind of impact it has on my job. Obviously I want to do well, but they had a lot of things they wanted us to improve on. It makes me nervous for when I have to do this again next month.

Yesterday after school I watched the auditions for performances that are going to take place during the school festival. There were a lot of dances and some singing too, and all of it made me very impressed on how much time the kids had spent remembering and practicing everything. Japanese middle-schoolers really do have a lot of things to do.

And today isn't anything really special. I've got the community English class, like I do every Thursday, so that's really all I've got.

Writing all of this out makes me realize that I've been busy, so I can hopefully keep putting these posts out. I'm going out to Sendai this Saturday to meet up with people from college, so it'll be yet another adventure. Until next time.

9/02/2019

So I'm at work as I write this, because whenever I get home at this point I seem to forget about doing things. It's very true when the people at orientation said that you need to keep yourself out of the house.

However now that I'm writing I'll start where I left off before. The next day of the intensive Japanese course was more of the same, just me and the two other people talking about random things, being handed some worksheets to do, et cetera. After the class however, there was a beer festival that everyone was set on going to. Now I dont like beer, but I was still fine with going with everyone because it seemed like a good time nonetheless. The beer was crazy expensive, it being like 300 yen for a small plastic cup worth of beer. I was glad I didnt pay for any of the beer, and after a couple of hours of us standing in the festival and witnessing a 40 year old dude get absolutely trashed, we decided to get some food nearby. The group was set on pizza, however it is very hard to get tables for 9 in Japan. The first place we went to was too crowded, and the other was closing. So we did what any gaijin would do, which is go to a conbini and buy dinner there. One of the JETs had an apartment five minutes from the dorm, so we went to his place to eat it. After finishing food and splitting a bottle of wine between us, I took the last bus to my hotel where I passed out.

The next day was much less exciting, as we had the last day of class, followed by being immediately driven back to Nikaho. I spent the night in my apartment, in where I was then picked up the next morning to go straight back to Akita City for the Akita prefecture orientation. There we spent most of the time in informative yet long presentations that told us about life in Akita. Conbini became the food of choice once again, and I ran around the orientation as usual. However, I did find some people who played Magic the Gathering. After a sushi dinner provided by a charity organization, I went up and played Magic with them, as the person had brought enough decks to share. He told me where to get good cards and where he went for pre-release, which was fantastic information.
The second day was alright, as there were more panels and then it just kinda ended. I was driven back to Nikaho where I finally was able to get my car, which gave me a very large amount of freedom. The next day was my first day going to the school itself.

August 21st, 22nd, and 23rd were me sitting at a desk trying to find ways to pass the time until 3. Most of it was spent organizing the desk that was given to me, sorting all kinds of colored paper and past handouts that were still in the desk.

Saturday a friend and I went down to Akita City just to explore the city a little bit. We went to a Kanto mueseum, an old building that had some cool metalwork crafts, and an old house that used to be a streetside store. However the most interesting thing that happened was that there was a group of old ladies giving tea out in the street. There was a cruise that had landed in Akita that day and, knowing that, they decided to set up a free drink stand for people that came. In addition, they pointed my friend and I to a place that was giving free green tea made traditionally, known as sadou. The lady we met there was very friendly, and seemed to have taken up sadou around 20 years ago. From what I gathered, her husband was the CEO of a sake company that started in that very house, and because of that she has a lot of freedom in what she can do to spend her time. She invited us back for Hinamatsuri, the doll festival. Apparently she decorates her house for the occasion. Those kinds of encounters that are made on a whim are probably what Im going to remember most about this experience.

That Sunday was the Yuri Block Welcome Party. Yuri block contains all of Nikaho and the larger city north of us, YuriHonjo. It was a barbecue, and I managed to make my own burgers for it which turned out ok. Making substitutions was pretty fun if I say so myself, and the meat for all of it wasnt as expensive as I was anticipating. When we arrived at the park, there wasnt any running water, which was a bummer for someone who wanted to do slip&slide. However halfway into the barbecue, it started raining. Which worked out great for slip&slide. It eventually did clear up enough for us to go around and try the small zipline that the park had, which was neat too. The food however was the highlight of the event for me. Which shouldnt be that surprising.

The next day, the 26th of August, was the first day of school. I had to introduce myself to the whole school, and the idea was to not let the kids know that I knew Japanese. The English teachers wanted the kids to talk to me only in Japanese. However during my self intro the principal just told everyone I went to college for Japanese. So the cat kinda leaped out of the bag right there. I gave my whole intro speech in English regardless, and everyone clapped and such. The day went on.

The next day was my first time appearing in a lesson. I had made a self-introduction powerpoint that I was to show to every class as I went through the week. I talked about DC, about how large my college was, and about how much I like cooking and my favorite kinds of foods, with of course the famous American Meal picture in there as well. It got easier as I kept giving it, and it helped me get used to what kinds of English the kids knew already. I dont envy these kids trying to learn English as a second language. And so the week went on, with me getting up at 6:30 and falling asleep at 8 or 10.

The next weekend was the Omagari Fireworks festival, which was a trek to get there even initially. The fireworks started at 5:45, so I left my house at 8:30 to pick up a friend, and then get to Akita City by 10:30. We wanted the 11:45 train, so we stopped by an environmental festival that was being held at the station. The train got us to Omagari by 12:45, so we had 5 hours to kill. Most of that time was spent finding a spot to sit down. The reason being that there were 750,000 people there. We didnt buy tickets to the official grounds, but we set up on a very nice spot across the river. We had gone to the supermarket before to get food for this specific purpose. It however, rained while we were waiting. And I didnt have an umbrella. Or anything water repellant, for that matter. I had to use the mat that my friend got as a shield to block the rain, which worked for the most part. One side of me still ended up completely soaked. But the fireworks made up for it in spades. My friend and I were smart in realizing that getting here was easy, but having 750,000 people all leave at once was going to be a nightmare. We managed to go for the 9:00 train, which meant we had to leave before the fireworks show had completely ended. However as we waited for the train to leave, we could see the rest of the fireworks out the train window. I ended up getting back at 11:00 without much of a hassle at all.

And here I am on Monday, sitting at my desk about to go to lunch, using my free period today to type this up. The biggest thing for me to do at this point is to find something to do once I get home. It will hopefully end up being cooking, because I can at least force myself to cook interesting things with the knowledge that I have to eat after work. But thats something for me to think about. Until next time.

8/16/2019

Yes, I'm still alive. At first I didn't update this because not enough had happened, but then I found myself too busy to update it. So here we are two weeks later.

I left off with myself in Tokyo, and I can say that I safely arrived in Akita. My supervisor and the two other Nikaho JETs met me at the airport, and from there we drove an hour down to Nikaho, where I got my citizen certificate and my hanko, or stamp. We then went to the Board education,  where my supervisor told me and the other new JET what our next week would be like. We then met the director of the BoE for Nikaho, and he officially have us our positions. Afterwards we went to lunch at Gusto, a family restaurant, which if you read earlier you'll remember was actually my first meal with my host family when I landed in Yokohama did years ago. Funny how these things come around.
Afterwards my supervisor dropped off the other two JETs, and picked up my luggage from the BoE. to get any groceries I would need for the next day. He then showed me to my apartment and said that he would pick me up at 9am to start the process of getting settled in. At this point, I finally had a second to rest, and left most of my bags unpacked, immediately falling asleep.

The next day consisted of my supervisor and I running to the bank, the docomo (internet and phone) shop, and the car dealer, all while juggling possession of my hanko between the BoE and myself. I needed my hanko to sign for anything, but the BoE needed it for paperwork as well, which meant going back and forth to each place at least twice. Starting at 9, it was around 3pm before we could have lunch and go informally visit the schools I would be working at. The middle school was nice, and the English teacher I met seemed very respectful and easy to get along with. The elementary school teachers seemed happy to have me. Everyone was commenting on how young I was, and praised me for my Japanese. Around 5:30, my supervisor was able to drop me off at my apartment.
However, that wasn't the end of that day. There other JETs from Nikaho and the nearby city of Yurihonjo had dinner at a soba tempura place and invited all the new JETs, so I went along with them. It was great seeing everyone there and getting to meet the people nearby. After dinner we went and got drinks at an open karaoke place they frequent, which was fun.

The next day I was able to settle in a little bit, but also I got to go to a D&D one-shot that some people in Yurihonjo were having. It was good to go out there, and luckily one of my Nikaho JETs was nice enough to drive me along with him. It went fairly long, until 2am, but because of that we got a great view of the lightning storm that passed through.

The next few days were spent taking it easy. A jet from yurihonjo came down to visit and we talked, and I spent a lot of time in the supermarket trying to find things to cook. However later that day I started feeling feverish, and spent the next two days recuperating. The 12th however, I was feeling well enough to go out to some waterfalls with a Nikaho Jet and the same Yurihonjo JET. It was so nice to see them, and it's something I recommend doing if you come down to Nikaho.
Afterwards we drove up the mountain nearby, Chokai. Our little K-car struggled, but we managed to get it up there and had a beautiful view, even if it was cloudy.

The next two days were spent relaxing. My desktop came in the mail without any problems and I could hook it up to the TV with just an HDMI. I made curry, some kind of Chicken onion donburi, and simple stuff like that and it filled my soul. I also wrote introductory messages to my apartment neighbors on DC postcards as a form of greeting, attaching a packet of Old Bay to it as well.

And on the 15th I came to Akita city for an "Intensive Japanese Course". I'm staying in a hotel, which is coming out of my paycheck, but I do get to enjoy the city while I'm here. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I honestly don't think there's much of a reason for me to be here. The BoE said to come here so I did, but this course was meant for people who hey just started learning Japanese or wanted to start learning now. That is not me, or the other new Nikaho JET for that matter. As of now we've just been sitting on the advanced class giving speeches about what we want to do in Japan and things like that.

What has been fun however is the excursions our whole group has taken into the city. Today our class ended early because the typhoon passed by the city today, so we ate out at Gusto, went to Uniqlo (clothing store), Tsutaya (book store), one of the Akita City JET's house (which was bigger than mine in the country), and went down to the train station to wander. And when I was there I found the best shirt I've ever seen. I'll leave that picture at the bottom.

And now it's 10pm on the 16th. I'm tired. A lot has happened now, and I'm excited to see what will keep happening.