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Published: February 6th 2010
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A tight squeeze
james' new sofa on james' lap. hilarious driving down nangoku bypass! A friend in need... James decided he needed some new furniture to furnish his bare crappy flat, so he went to the furniture store on the 55 to see what wares they had to offer. He managed to find a small soft poo-coloured 2 seater, which he asked if we wouldn't mind helping him take home. So we went with him later in the evening to pick it up, but it wouldn't fit in the boot. So he put it in the back and managed to climb in under it, being pinned to the seat/window - a pretty amusing sight, considering he's like 8 foot. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it was still funny. There was a taxi parked next to us in the car park, and as James climbed in and we were about to drive off, the taxi driver laughed at him. Understandably. HA!
Salmonella scare After one of the mid-year conference days, Alex, James, and I went bowling at Bowl Katsurashima. We had 3 games and I came second, beating Alex - woohoo! I had a kiddies ball though, which had 4 finger holes. Interesting. After bowling, we went to Fuji Grand
My bowling ball
i'd never seen one like this before - it was amazing! in Kochi City for some dindins and we ended up going to a yakitori joint. Our first yakitori dinner!! The first set of chicken to come out was partially raw, which worried Alex and me a little, what with all the “you have to make sure chicken/pork is cooked thoroughly before eating, otherwise you will die” talk we get in the UK, but James dove straight in and I followed suit. It was actually really tasty. Alex refused to eat it, bless him. We got a load of thigh, breast, and gyoza to share, and it turned out to be a really nice meal. Yay!!
Getting the hang of it 23rd January 2010 was the greatest day of that week. We went boarding again to Tokushima, and I actually linked my turns! Without falling over! I can’t describe the intense pride I felt at the end of the day. It was like when I realised I could drive a manual car - something just clicked. Yes, I came back with bruised knees and arse, but that was from the 180 attempts on ice. Now I’m just worried that when we go to Niseko, I’ll be TOO confident and end
peck peck
the raw chicken yakitori - yum! up tumbling down all and every day…
Japanese yoots In the next block over from ours, there lives some dude with a moped. Either he’s done it up, or I never realised how frickin loud these things are!! Usually, we hear him coming and going up and down our street, and sometimes he has a buddy with him. Tonight however, he took it to another level. We had James over for the day and Alex decided to drive him home around 23:00-ish. On our way back, our drive was filled with about 10 guys with their bikes all lined up behind our parking spot. Now back home, we’d probably s*** ourselves at the sight of a motorbike gang in our drive, but being Japan, I simply stared in awe and joked with Alex about calling the police to report these young ruffians. The safety in Japan’s one thing I’ll definitely miss when I leave. However, it did mean that we had to hear 10 very loud bikes revving their way down the street. Oh the pain of it all!
Japanifying myself Along with another ALT, I decided to get my hair done to look more Japanese. The original
Japanese makeover
my new fringe. makes me look about 10. idea was to dye it the infamous Asian orange colour and then cut a fringe and curl it a bit, but I only did 1 of the 3 in the end. The first thing the hairdresser said was that I could just curl the ends on my own with a curling iron, which I could pick up at the shop for a few thousand yen. So he cut me the fringe, which was actually really scary, as I thought it wouldn't suit me at all. But the whole idea was to チャレンジ (challenge!), so I went for it, but then thought that the whole new hairstyle AND colour would be a bit much at the time. So I ended up dying it a rosy brown, going only slightly lighter and only really noticeable in the light. Next time I'll take the plunge and orangify myself. Maybe.
My first karaoke experience in Kochi Ever since Alex mentioned to his student that he wasn't enjoying Japan that much, she's been trying to get him out, so we thought it would be a good idea to get a whole load of people out at the same time one night in our town.
BIG Karaoke
before alex got distressed and left. We ended up going to Akashiya izakaya, where Alex, James, and I had drinks and dinner with Hamasaki and Morio (2 teachers from James' school), Miki, Ayako, and Maiko (1 of my JTEs, her friend, and someone I met in Aki), and Spanish Alex (some dude James met somewhere at some time). Alex's student did come, but she just stopped to say she wasn't staying and then left. It was a good (and very cheap!) dinner/drinks session, and we didn't want the party to end, so James, the Alexs, Hamasaki, and I decided to head on to the karaoke place. Before we left the izakaya, one of the waitresses wanted to have her photo taken with all the white guys coz she hadn't seen many foreigners before. So they all had to pose with her for some photos - bloody hilarious!!! I don't think they were particularly happy about it, but I guess that comes with the whole small town mentality. At least I can blend in...!
We reached the karaoke place at 22:40, and the price gets cheaper from 23:00, so we killed 20 minutes playing pool. We managed 2 games in that time, playing 2 games of
doubles, and I was in the winning team with James - woohoo! When we walked into the karaoke room, it was a bit surreal, because it was huge and really nice! James even considered living in it if the rent was cheap enough, because it was much nicer than his flat. English Alex chose Mr. Boombastic but didn't sing it, claiming he chose it for James. Spoilsport! He ended up sleeping on the sofa for a bit before going home only a few minutes after we started 😞
The karaoke was interesting. Clearly the Japanese love it because they're so damn good at it!!!!! Hamasaki showed all of us up with her singing, but that didn't stop the rest of us making tits out of ourselves. What a night!
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