Bonenkai Bonanza

What a weekend. Saturday was the AJET bonenkai (forget the year party) in Hiroshima city. It sported a hefty price tag of about $40, but it was worth it. I started the day with Hessen shopping in the city, then she left, and I continued onto the party with Greg. The bonenkai was at a restaurant called Ninnikuya, translated as Garlic Shop. haha. Awesome. So for 2 hours we pounded gin and tonics, til there was no more gin, and ate what probably amounted to an entire head of garlic. The first course was a literal roasted head of garlic on a plate with some creme sauce and butter. Anyway, we ate, we drank, we got drunk. Kate, Cybil, and I planned to catch the last train out of Hiroshima at 12:07 back to Kure to sleep. So we caught a cab around 11:45, spent 1000 yen getting to the eki (station), then proceeded to change our minds and decide we weren't done partying. We hailed a cab to a bar called Mac, where everyone was said to be migrating to. It ended up being this tiny gaijin bar that played 80's music for the first half of the evening. We knew at this point that we had to stay out until the first morning train at 5:41, so we were in it for the long haul. So we danced. And we danced, and we danced. And we eluded creepy older gaijin men (some of us more successfully than others... Cybil was captured a record 3 times throughout the evening). At some point an hour or 2 in, Greg realized he'd lost his scarf. Apparently a very important, hand knitted scarf with significant sentimental value. So he spent the rest of the evening freaking out, going in and out of the bar asking if anyone had seen his scarf, dancing intermitantly, and eventually passing out in a chair around 4:30. haha. Dancing was... awesome. At some point, Kate ran off with another male JET, who's name I won't mention, and proclaimed only that she would meet us at the eki at 5:30am. Kate is proactive.

Around 5, Cybil and I decided it was time to head out, and we stopped at a conbini to ask when the streetcars started running. We asked five people. No one knew. So we took a cab. It was glorious when we finally plopped down on the train. We slept all the way to Kure, and when we got off the train, Brandon and Greg popped out of the next car. With a nod of acknowledgement, the girls and I dragged back to my apartment. Just for shits, before we went upstairs, we looked out back to make sure that Cybil's car, which she had parked illegally there earlier in the evening, wasn't ticketed or anything. Well, the car was gone. We sort of stood there for a minute staring at the empty spot, and eventually decided that we needed to sleep. Greg ended up coming over and crashing out, too, cause he had a little while to wait before the bus to his island came. So everyone snuggled up in my place and passed out. It was 7 am.

Around noon, I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. So I got up, ran to the market around the corner, and got some extra breakfast stuff. I made french toast with a banana walnut syrup, and everyonen else woke up just as I was finishing the cooking. We stuffed our faces, and then Cybil began the freak out process. She called her JTE to ask what to do about her car, and then her JTE started freaking out. The JTE called Cybil every 10 minutes (literally) for the rest of the day. We ended up at the police station, with Greg communicating for us in his insane Japanese (he never fails to impress me) . The police directed us to the transportation office, where we underwent an hour long ordeal to get her car back. It cost her 27,000 yen ($250) and lots of undue stress. I felt horrible. But we finally made it out and went for coffee. We ran into Hessen at YouMe, had some Starbucks, and then everyone finally parted ways around 6:30pm. It was a wacky 24 hours. I'm exhausted. Sleep tonight is gonna be good.

Tomorrow I go to Etajima, and after school I have my first Japanese lesson with a woman from Miyahara. I can feel my Japanese finally improving. The last week or so I have impressed myself a few times. I accompanied Hessen to the dermatologist's office a few days ago to check out a possibly cancerous mole, and I actually successfully translated most of the consultation both ways. Thursday night was my school's bonenkai, and I was randomly placed at a dinner table with teachers I'd never met before who didn't speak English. So I made conversation in Japanese. Baby steps, you know, but steps nonetheless. It's a good feeling.

Okay, that's enough for now. Hope everyone back home is well. I miss you.

Sukunai!

I officially have Japanese hair. My first haircut in Japan... I knew it would happen. You can't tell from the picture, but my hair is sooooo thin. Hessen and I went to Spice after work today for haircuts. We were recommended there by Chizu, who got us appointments with the owner. All I knew about him was that he has done hair expos all over Japan, and he cut Chizu's hair, which is fab. And I'm not complaining about my hair, really. I definitely haven't fully adjusted yet. I need a few days and some product to see what this cut can really do. For now, I am trying to accept that my bangs can stand straight up without the use of gel.