STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 17

DECEMBER 22

While still in Toyohashi, I had a small interview, or briefing session, for a possible job opportunity. It’s a small cram school located near Toyohashi station, but here is the current situation:

1) The new location that they are moving to in March is a bit farther from the station.

2) The new building is actually a one-story house, in which I would be able to live. Classes would be from the evening, so during the day I would have the place to myself.

3) From February I can start working there a couple days a week to build experience until my study abroad is over, and then I can start to work full time.

4) Gathering students and promoting will be necessary.

At this point there are a lot of unknowns, and I have a few concerns, but I think I’ll try the place out for a bit and see how it goes.

DECEMBER 23

Rio and Yuki invited us to join them at the A Cafe for a Christmas gift exchange. It was kind of last minute, but we met them there for lunch. It was the same cafe we always had the English Cafe at; however, we had never tried to the food before. We ordered a large plate of fries for the table, and two dessert pizzas (apple cinnamon). The gift exchange itself was kind of interesting. I brought Nutella, which is more expensive here in Japan. My gift in return (all was drawn from a lottery) was a pen. It’s a good pen though, with red, black and blue ink. It’s also erasable, my favorite part.

DECEMBER 24

Survey class presentations: comparing Christmas and New Year’s celebrations between Japan and our home countries. Everyone was able to do their presentation in a group, except for Totoro and me. The Hawaiian students presented on New Year’s, and also some special traditions they have in Hawaii during that time. I mostly focused on Christmas, since we’ve always had a Christmas gathering at my grandma’s house ever since I was little.

In the same spirit, since today was our last day of school before winter break, I sort of arranged a Christmas potluck during lunch. As usual, more people showed up than I thought would, and one even dressed up as a reindeer. We feasted ourselves on all kinds of snacks and chatted through the whole lunch break. We didn’t even finish all the food in time for the next class, so we had to hurry and throw all the extra food in baggies. I’ve been sharing the leftover goodies with random people all day, so thankfully there’s none left for me to carry home.

DECEMBER 25

Merry Christmas! Let’s go on a road trip!

Mark, Long and I made plans to join Long’s friends on a trip out to Nagashima’s outlet mall. I was looking forward to it because I hoped I could find a lot of discounted clothes and shoes. Not so much. All the stores were top-brand names, so their idea of discounts seemed anything but. I did, however, buy an Adidas hat on sale, and also some gloves and a shirt from the Gap. I guess there were time sales also, but we missed most of them.

(Nagashima’s artistically designed outlet mall.)

It was about 6pm when we left the mall and I assumed we would then return to Nagoya. Again, not so; turns out that our driver and one of the girls were dating and he wanted to take her to see the famous illuminations in Mie Prefecture, Nabana no Sato. I had a hard time enjoying it the second time around, but I did my best for the couple. It was also 2000yen I didn’t plan on spending, so when we put in our money for the rental car and gas, I had to borrow my portion from Long.

At least I got to eat the beef rolls again~

DECEMBER 26

Tonight is the Christmas Party/Winter Break Party that I set up at an izakaya called Nezumi. In preparation for the party, and the 19 people that said they were coming, I stopped at the hyaku-en shop and bought 19 different odd items. Then, I wrapped them and stuck a number on them, which the party attendee would select at random.

We started to gather for the party just after 6pm. Once all the members had arrived I tried to say a short ‘thank you’ speech, but that was overridden, so I just passed out the numbers and let people receive their gifts. It was interesting to see some guys receive pink and purple patterned tissues, while other people received portable ash trays and they didn’t even smoke, or a light for their bicycle, when they don’t have one. As for the menu, at first, it was just an all-you-can-drink deal, but in order to get that deal there must be at least one food order per person. We could have all ordered a 300 yen stick of meat, but in the holiday spirit we ate all kinds of food. In the end, we even managed to keep the bill at less than 3000 yen per person!

When we left Nezumi it was nearly midnight, but I’m not sure if we had to leave because our group was so loud, or if we just decided it was time to go. In any case, we had to take the party to karaoke!

All in all, it was a successful end of the year party. Hopefully, that’s the last one that I have to initiate.

DECEMBER 27

No plans today except to take it easy until Jordan’s party. I headed down to Toyohashi around 4:30, but it felt as though it was already getting pretty dark. This was a special Christmas party because we were having tacos!! Jordan invited one of his coworkers, and her friend, and also another ALT. It was a small, but fun party. And, of course, it’s been so long since I’ve had tacos~~!! I can’t thank him enough for that. Had I known it would have been so much fun, I would have stayed all night to play games. However, tomorrow I plan on playing futsal, so it’s back to Nagoya for me.

DECEMBER 28

I’m still feeling a bit under the weather. It’s not a full blown cold, just fatigue and sinus drainage. I ended up deciding against going to play futsal, which I regret a little because that was the same time that it started to snow: the first snow in Nagoya. Then again, I don’t want it to get colder…

As a side note, I learned that I can roast a sweet potato on my little stove if I wrap it in foil!