Carissa's Exploits and Fabulous Adventures




Japan Round Two

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

The last few weeks have been interesting. Two typhoons have hit Japan (we even had classes canceled for one of them, although I once again believe that people were overreacting). Three earthquakes have shaken us up (the epicenters were far away so the only thing that happened to me is I got sea sick). I signed up to take the Japanese language proficiency exam in December and have been attempting to study.

My new co-worker Sean and I have been trying an experiement in poverty (or we ran out of money several weeks before our paycheck). It is amazing the fun things you can do in Fukui without any money (and how little money you actually need to survive). We have taken day long walks around Fukui, poked in and out of funny stores (suprisingly we haven't been kicked out of any of them despite our gaijin behavior), learned to play Rugby, wandered the club district laughing at the drunk people, had superspy trash adventures (we have to avoid being spotted by The-Evil-Super-Villian-Neighborhood-Trash-Nazi who chases us down the street in the middle of the night screaming if he catches us taking out our trash) and oh so much more. While wandering Katamachi (the club and bar area) we met some very drunk Japanese people who wanted to have drinks with us, so we went into a bar that I know and had a very interesting conversation about Iraq and Islam and terrorists and Bush. The conversation rambled back and forth between English and Japanese depending on who knew what word in what language, but it was quite fun (and free because they insisted on paying).

I have also been jogging and going to dance practice. I had been planning on entering the 5 km leg of the Fukui marathon with a friend of mine and so I was training, but then we missed the deadline (which might be for the best because although I can jog 5 km, it is a very slow 5 km and they would probably have dismantled the finish line and gone home by the time I cross it). I have another Yosakoi dance performance in a few weeks which is exciting.

I will hopefully be getting internet in my apartment soon and will be posting with more frequency. Sean keeps harrassing me about the fact that I never ever post anything. (never ever defined as 3 weeks apparently)