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.