Crazy busy week without internet! I am stealing from the school's network :)

Well last Wednesday was great! I was able to take a "business" day. I really had no choice in the matter. John, Yamada-san, and I were off to Narita airport! No, not to go anywhere but to see Lauren off. Well, Lauren is my predecessor and so of course I HAD to go to the airport and not go to school. I had to meet her, right? We had a great day! Once she arrived, she re situated her luggage. She had been traveling in S.E. Asia since the day I arrived in Itako (Aug. 6). We had lunch and dessert and we then saw her off. It was really nice to meet her. We could not be more different! Other than we are both American :) You will see in the pictures!

Lauren, John, and I! :) Oddly, we all have on dark colors with a red accent :)

Yamada-san offered us Natto. That was a big HECK NO for me :) It took John about 5 minutes to finally, fully swallow it. YUCKY!

I would like everyone to observe, I am standing on my tip toes!!!!!

Thursday was great! We played sports at school all day long :) in preparation for sports day!!

I raced home from school to get ready for Tokyo! My friend Kalani, from LFC, was/is here visiting! We had a blast! He has seen Lost in Translation and therefore wanted to go to the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku! We met at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office :) spectacular views of the city! Especially since we were there at night. It was a beautiful, clear night.

Park Hyatt: Shinjuku
Kampai! To good friends!

After the Park Hyatt we were off to this strange part of town to find a bar called "The Office". How funny?

With the help of some locals we found our way to the bar. Well at that point I had to make a crucial decision. To be lame and go home at 10 or get a hotel/hostel and stay and go out! Well since I had already spent the money getting down there, I figured I should stay! Plus it isn't every day that Kalani Man is in Tokyo!!

So we went to the Office and man was it such a rough day. Ha Ha.
Yes, they had a copy machine!!! It was the office afterall.
View from the office

We were a little disappointed at the decor of the office. We were hoping it were more like an office!!
Kalani having a rough day at the office.

We then were off on our final adventure of getting back to Kalani's hostel. The area, how can I say it?, was a bit of a red light district. It was a safe area but definitely sketchy. But first we had to take photos in the subway!
Our day of work at the office is over!!!

oops. his glasses fell when he jumped!
Insanely crowded subway!!! We caught the 2nd to last train! 12:13!

The hostel was very clean, and really nice. I paid about $27. It was great! It was about 2 am at this point :) Kalani was helping me make my bed. Please keep in mind that I had to wake up at 5 AM to get back to Itako to go to Mito for a business meeting. Well no one is in the room when I get there. I have also asked at the front desk if it is women only or if it is mixed. WELL for that night it was mixed. I said fine, I just needed a place to lay down for a few hours.

Well, in the midst of making my bed, four, very nice and very drunk guys walk in. They announced we are really sorry but we are really drunk. We stayed up and talked until 4:15 AM!!! Kalani went to get his bottle of wine and we split it amongst the 6 of us. I didn't care, it was all fun.

Friday; however, was a drag. I got back to Itako around 7:45 and John and I left for Mito at 8:15. It was a meeting on Team Teaching. I stayed around with Annelyse and we chatted at Starbucks for a long time. It was great. We had makeshift Mexican food. Weird but not bad. I then went home and rested from my night of craziness because I had Sports Day on Saturday.

Saturday was great!! Sports day was sooo much fun! I was able to participate as well! I was on team blue with the other 2 English Teachers. I did a self-introduction after lunch to the entire school and their parents. There are only 250 kids here. It is nice because I was always in schools with this many kids. The relays lasted until about 3:00 pm. The relays are much different from those in the states. Here are some pictures!

Running across their backs, aaaaaaaaa.

The adorable announcers!
Team Yellow doing their dance.
Ummm, can we say LAW SUIT in AMERICA. These kids are doing a chicken fight on land!!! WHAT?!
Nesaki-Sensi was the one that was actually dressed as a cheerleader. She was half way down the field and we had a run a basket back and forth and dress her in a cheer leading outfit. Well, after she was done, I somehow ended up in it! I taught the kids, "Let's Go Team Blue" it was great! My first of many English lessons :)

Everything ended around 4:00. I felt sooo nasty and we were all going out for a party. My welcome party!! :) I quickly went home, showered, and was back at school by 5:00. The party was really fun and then some of us continued the party after at karaoke. I had no idea we had karaoke in my town! Nice to know early on! We had a an absolute blast! Fun Fact: Karaoke was invented in Japan!
Ogata-Sensi, Osato-Sensi, and Nesaki-Sensi. Sensi is the proper title of teacher.
Murakami-Sensi, me, and Kanazawa-Sensi
Really? You eat the entire shrimp?? It ended up actually being really good.
Kanazawa-Sensi at Karaoke!

Jun and I rockin' out at Karaoke!

Sunday and Monday were lovely. I spent both days at the beach. Sunday was a bit cloudy and I spent most of the time driving around figuring out which beaches I liked most. Monday, yesterday was wonderful! I drove to Hokota and went to the beach there and also to Oarai beach. We had yesterday off because we had to work on a weekend! More pictures and adventures to come!!!