japan= <3 August 27, 2007

Last night was absolutely hilarious. We all sat around the dorm for a bit drinking our good time beer then a whole crew of us headed out to find a bar. First we grabbed a beer from the convenience store which we could legally drink while walking down the street. A group of adorable Japanese kids ran up to us as we walked by Okayama station, one of the girls was studying English in college so she was able to speak to us. They ended up coming out with us and taking us to this cool resteraunt bar, where you take your shoes off b efore you sit down and the table is all low to the ground. We drank numerous beers and talked to our new Japanese friends and taught them english slang. We were all drooling over the one boy who was dressed soooo cute in a Mikey Mouse t-shirt and knew like 5 words in english. I spent the night trying to talk to him, it was hilarious. he proposed to me by the end of the night. haha.

Today Lindzy, Kanika and I went to Okayama gardens and castle. it was soooooo beautiful. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Bamboo trees and waterfalls and adorable Japanese buildings. I couldn’t believe it, it was breathtaking. That was when it finally hit me that I’m in Japan. You could never see anything like that anywhere else in the world. We stopped at another adorable little clothing store today, I wanted to buy a beautiful pearl necklace with lace bows but I didnt know how much it cost, when I tried to ask how much it was, the adorable girl who worked there told me she wanted me to have it as a present. The people here are just incredible. Everyone is so friendly. When we asked a guy at the gardens to take a picture of us, he stopped and opened up a box of candy he had just bought and gave us each one before he took the picture. Lindzy’s taken a ton of pictures  and I’ll do a huge photo post as soon as i get them from her. She’s going to give me a disc at the end of the week.

 We bumped into our new Japanese friends on the way home from the gardens so Lindzy and I are going to meet up with them now to hang out for a bit. We start training tomorrow which is depressing. It’s like going back to school after summer vacation. I have to get ready now, but i hope to talk to you all soon.

Listen to Plain White T’s- hey there Delilah.
its been the song of the trip so far. It was on the plane like 8 times and we all teared up when it came on and it’s stuck in our heads constantly. I’m listening to it right now. I miss you all.

first day in Okayama August 26, 2007

Today Lindzy, Kanika and i took on Okayama. we went exploring and found a billion amazing little clothing shops. We found this awesome street with vintage clothing, the dollar store where i bought a cute little umbrella to use as shade from the stifling hot sun (it’s sooo ridiculously hot here. like tropical, i’m not even exaggerating) and adorable pink chop sticks. We also found a grocery store where we bought food for dinner, went back to the dorms and made a delicious salad and had sushi and endamame. Now i’m just hanging out in Lindzy’s hotel room, drinking some free espresso (they have free internet here which is the best thing in the entire world) unfortunately it’s like 5:45am back home so none of you guys are on msn which is depressing. Lindzy’s just taking a bath, Kanika’s taking a nap next door, soon I’m going to head back to the dorms and shower and get ready for a fun evening on the town. Lindzy and I grabbed a 6-pack of tall boys, some beer called “Green Label” and it says it “guarantees a good time.” There was an amazing rhyming slogan underneath that which I can’t remember, but I’ll definitely write it down and post it because it was the only reason we bought it.
        The locals are amazing. the most adorable school girls were soo excited when we asked them if we could take a picture with them. There were a couple girls in one of the clothing stores who could hardly speak any english at all, but were so happy when we understood what they were trying to ask us where we were from and what we were doing here.  It was neat when we told them we were here to teach and they said “OH! Sensei”. Yeah, I’m a sensei. A big thing with the kids here is wearing t-shirts with English slogans on them. The funny thing is that none of the slogans make any sense whatsoever and you know they have no idea what they mean since they actually don’t mean anything. 
       Funny story, there’s actually a girl staying in the dorms who’s with the AEON group (I’m in the Amity group, we teach kids, AEON teaches adults) and she’s from stoney creek. She lives on Green rd and went to OP. what a small world it is indeed.
        Since Lindzy and Kanika have the net in their hotel room I’ll be able to be in touch this week. Hope to talk to you all soon, keep the facebook updates and emails coming. I love hearing from you.

hugs and kisses
-alyssa

ARRIVAL August 26, 2007

9am JAPAN TIME
        I’M IN JAPAN! the flight was ridiculously long. tediously long. I slept a maximum of 20 minutes maybe. We finally get to Osaka, and it’s like 3pm Saturday Japan Time. It takes us an hour and a half or so to get through Immigration and customs and get luggage and we meet up with the Amity crew. The other teachers are…. well… they’re characters, that’s really the only other way to put it. Lindzy said it best “they’re the kind of people who were on student council.” That explains it. Our trainers take us out for a light meal in the airport while we wait around for the other arrivals who won’t be getting there until 7pm. At this point we’re already zombies. I bought my first pack of Marlboro lights from a Japanese vending machine which cost me 320 yen, which is basically $3.20- amazing. we sit in the smoking section of the resteraunt in the airport where there’s a million extremely cool looking Japanese kids hanging out. Lindzy and I had a field day squealing over how well the boys dressed. We finish our meals and we finally get to board the shuttle bus which will take us to the training centre in Okayama, which is a THREE HOUR BUS RIDE AWAY. yea, we wanted to absolutely die. at this point we’ve been traveling for over 24 hours. I slept the entire bus ride. We get to the training centre only to find out that there’s not enough room for all of us to stay in the dorms there so Lindzy and Kanika are sent with two other girls to stay at a hotel down the street. I wanted to cry. I get roomed with the student council president, yea no, I know, exactly. She’s nice, but I cannot relate to her whatsoever. We shower and go right to bed. I woke up this morning just after 8am Japan time but everyone else is more than likely sleeping. Lindzy and Kanika are supposed to come meet me at my room when they wake up, which I hope is soon because I’m totally sitting in my room being bored. My roommate went to visit some castle that’s near here, but I totally just want to go walk around and look at stores with my ladies. Bad news, I totally don’t have hairspray and I put all my accessories in my other bag that got shipped to my apartment in Okazaki, kill me now. I still cannot believe I’m here. I’m dying for the internet.

en route to Japan August 24, 2007

music: Kelly Clarkson (haha no, no I know. they get the guilty pleasure station on this plane too.         

        I met up with Lindzy, Nick and Kanika at the airport in Vancouver. we all had lunch and talked about how excited we are, and how we’re all going to Thailand in December together. Kanika and I found payphones and called our parents to let them know we were okay. We boarded the plane to Osaka and found that I was sitting beside Nick with Lindzy right in front of us, awesome. poor Kanika alone at the back of the plane, but she needed to sleep really badly so it’s good she didn’t have us to distract her, considering Lindzy and I basically just squeeled for the first 20 hours of takeoff. Know what’s awesome? international flights= free booze. I’m on glass number 5 of white wine. With still seven hours of flying to go. Movie on this plane? Blades of Glory. I love life. I’m so excited right now, you have no idea.

GPs August 24, 2007

music: dave matthews- satellite         This entry is for Jeremy. haha. I found a station on the airline radio network thing that plays nothing but my guilty pleasures. amazing. This is the only Dave Matthews song I like and Jer, it made me think of you right away. before this was Skynyrd, I send that one out to Jenni and Andrea. Before that was Feist I feel it all- that one was for Dan Gurman. I’m thinking about all you guys. Oh and when I was talking Guilty Pleasure lineup, I was totally talking about Fergie Big Girls Don’t Cry, Rhianna- Umbrella, The Fray- How to Save a Life, Vanessa Carlton- A thousand Miles, Maroon 5 (for my mama). Yeah I know. terrible. but sooooo good. The movie was Shrek 3. I watched like half of it and then I got over it and did my homework for teaching. I’m in better spirits now. But I’m still not looking forward to another million hours on an airplane.

departure August 24, 2007

music: The Strokes           
        I’m on the plane to Vancouver right now. it’s a terrible feeling knowing I still have a good 24 hours of flying left until I finally reach my new home. This morning was ridiculously difficult. I hardly slept last night. Leaving was so bittersweet. I’m so excited about the next year of my life but at the same time saying goodbye was terrible. I’ve learned a lot about friendships this past summer. I made a lot of great friends recently and became reacquainted with old ones and it’s so difficult to just put those on hold for a year. A lot of really special people just entered my life and it’s heartbreaking to just all of a sudden leave those behind in hopes that they’ll still be around when I get back.            
         Saying goodbye to my parents was probably the hardest. On the ride up we listened to the mix cd I had made my mom and we all just drove and cried in silence. I’m going to miss hugging them for a year and that hurts a whole lot. It never really hit me that I was leaving until last night. I sat in my room in the dark listening to Wilco, sending out last minute emails and packing my final items and I just had this intense ache in my gut. I was wondering whether or not I was making the right decision. All the reasons I had for leaving seemed like nothing and all I wanted to do was stay. I’m nervous as hell.I’m going to miss everyone so much. I know I’ll love Japan and I’ll love my job, but the thought of not seeing all the people I love for a year is extremely depressing.           
        Regardless, the flight so far is alright. I just stopped myself from buying a beer or glass of wine from the beverage cart and told myself to wait until I get on thenext plane in Vancouver. I chose a coffee instead. The stuff they’re playing on the television looks like crap so I’ll stick to reading and writing and listening to my ipod. I can’t wait to meet up with Lindzy and Kanika in Vancouver. I feel ridiculously alone right now.-alyssa