Day 3 and morning after

Okay, so it’s 2:30 in the morning again, and my brain is running so hard that I just can’t get back to sleep. So lets try to do something with it, eh?

This morning we went to seminars—I went to this really good one about teaching in Elementary school, and then another really good, but different one about teaching in elementary school. Then one on driving that had some useful information, but they were so rushed they didn’t explain things very well (verdict: I’m SO glad I got my motorcycle license ahead of time.)


We also had our prefectural meeting that afternoon. It was mostly us meeting Gabe (my new PA) and him telling us that we have to meet in the lobby at 10am (I’ve heard some groups leave at 4:30) and that Hawaiian shirts and slacks is considered business attire for Okinawa. Woot.

I’m so over the luggage weight limit for domestic flights. Apparently it’s 15kilos. I was over that before I left the states, and then they gave us ALL of these useful BOOKS. Hmmmm, hopefully it won’t be a problem.

After the meeting we had to go ahead and pack our bags and send them downstairs. They just have to be ready to go to the airport on the bus separately from us. Many of the prefectures have to send their luggage ahead of them (like Chris and Marnie), and they say that it’s worth the 1000yen to send it, but no one told us that would be the case ahead of time, so I just have my carryon, and my laptop bag. My carryon is down stairs right now, and somehow I’ve got to pack up all of my toiletries and clothing I wore today into my laptop bag. Ha. Ha. Ha. Nope. But we can repack at the airport before we get on the plane to Naha. 1pm flight, no idea the flight number. We’re flying ANA because they’re the only ones that do. Then after a 2 ½ hour plane ride we have an hour layover before going back to Miyakojima.

After the meeting, Chris, Marnie, Veronica, and I went out on the town! Or just found an Apple store because somehow my adapter didn’t get packed (the one that makes my Mac book a 2 prong instead of a 3 prong) and I have NO idea where it might be, so I went ahead and bought the universal adapter set so that if I go X I’ll be able to take my comp.

After the Mac Store we split up, because Marnie needed a bag, Chris wanted to hit a 100yen shop, and Veronica needed a universal power adapter (for whatever, not just a computer) and an electronic dictionary. Marnie and Chris stayed in Shibuya to do all that (our hotel is in Shinjuku, 3 stations down), while Veronica and I went to Akihabara in hopes of finding a shop still open that sold electronics. Veronica apparently took Japanese in the past, but her program focused more on the reading and writing, where as GSU focused more on speaking, conversation, and GRAMMAR, so she said she was very relieved that I was there to ask directions, as questions, and double translate for her (in my beautiful broken Japanese) so that she was very happy with her purchases. We went to a shop called Yodobashi Camera (www.yodobashi.com), which had really good prices and was open past 8:30 (which it was by the time we got over there, Akihabara is on the other side of Tokyo than Shinjuku, it took us a little more than 30 minutes). ~8 stories of tons of electronics at decent prices (my dictionary I bought before I left was only 2000 more than what I paid, and I got a really great sale). I also picked up several universal adapters for ~700yen. I figure I can probably sell the extra 2 amongst my fellow JETs and they’ll be rather happy, cuz that’s a wonderful price.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for food. It was my second time eating out (first was the first night’s curry, 650y with drink) and this time I got soba (buckwheat noodles) with ebi tempura (fried shrimp) in a broth for 480y. Beautiful. I love how “fast food” here is so my better and healthier than back home. McDonald’s, eat your heart out :P

Also on the way back we met a very nice man on the train who understood English pretty well and told us that that the train we were on was done for the night. The conductor was speaking such polite Japanese that we couldn’t understand him, so I was very relieved for the man. We had an amusing moment when a mosquito landed on his face and I tried to explain that he needed to slap it. He got the idea after a moment.

After that, I was really not tired, and Chris and Marnie hadn’t made it back yet, and my roommate was asleep so I went to the 47th floor and got some pictures of the city and finally submitted to going to bed. Now, like I said, it’s 2:52am and I’m tired, but not really sleepy. I realized that I just wasn’t going back to sleep when I started acting out my introduction speech in Japanese in my head, so I’m writing this to give me something for my brain to do that’s productive instead of just pissing me off that I can’t sleep.

I’m sooooo nervous. Until this point I’ve had Curi and Maru-ne to help me. They’ve honestly been my security blanket, and I know I’ll be fine. Tonight when I went off and talked for Veronica and myself just reinforced that knowledge, but it will be really hard to be so far away from them. I’ve left messages with their room to come meet me at a particular breakfast in the morning, so hopefully I’ll see them before we leave. Chris is heading out at 9, Marnie’s like me around 10. I’m really much more upset about them leaving then I thought I’d be. But yay for the power of the internet, right?

Okay, I think maybe I’ll take a shower after posting this. Maybe that’ll help me konk out. At some point I need to get my email list together to start emailing all of the people who wont know that I’m writing this. Sigh, even now that I’m here, there’s still too much to do.

Peace love and rock and roll.

PS: I really wish they’d given us some more time in Tokyo to see Tokyo. For those of us going very far away it’s not like we can easily come back and visit on a weekend . . .