Update on life
Feb. 13th, 2011 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frellnikJust got back from an awesome weekend at the snow festival in sapporo, Hokkaido. I wasn't sure if I would be able to go because I've been sick and not eating for a week. I graduated to crackers on Tuesday and managed half my lunch on Wednesday without a stomachache, so Wednesday afternoon I got on a train and went to meet up with the other JETs in Sendai!
My principal let me leave school early...earlier than I had planned to leave. I took vacation time starting at 2pm, but my VP asked me at 1:10pm if I would have enough time to get to the station. I told him I was clear until 2pm. Then around 1:30 I was completely alone in the teacher's room...and very lonely...so I left lol. I got home at 2pm and made myself some onigiri (rice balls) and a half a jam sandwhich and changed and then headed out for the train. The train left at 2:59pm.
Kim and I both ended up in the same car as Eden, and although we had assigned seats, the train wasn't crowded so we all sat together. The attendant asked to see our tickets because we weren't in the right seats (well, I was) and said that we would have to move if the people with those seats showed up. They didn't, so we sat together the whole way.
We got to Senday at 5:13pm and were supposed to meet the rest of the group at 5:25pm. Then we all headed out to catch a bus to Sendai Port. We all managed to get on one bus and the only Japanese person on our bus was a little old lady who got off 10 stops later. lol Then not too far from the port a young guy (about my age) got on the bus and then looked around and looked a little bit unsure. So I started talking to him. Once he realized some of us could speak Japanese he spent the rest of the ride chatting with us.
We got to the Ferry Terminal and waited for our time slot to get on the ferry. This wasn't the kind of ferry I was on last time I went to Hokkaido. This was a small cruise ship! There were about 5 levels for the passengers to occupy and then the levels for the crew. While we were waiting to board we put our bags all in one big group and all the Japanese people who were seated were just watching our every move lol. Then one older guy (who was with a few other people) came up to me and asked me if Japanese was ok. I said yes, and he looked back at his family and went, "see? It's ok!! They talk!" LOL so then he talked with us for a bit. When Cathy, who organised everything, wanted to tell us stuff, we all gathered around and I started eating my onigiri. When we broke up the group, one of the ladies that was with the older guy's group, came over and handed me a bunch of nori and told me to eat it with my onigiri because it would make it taste better!! So I thanked her and put them in the bag with the other onigiri ball. She was happy :) I hate nori! lol Hate it with a passion. But I thought she was really nice to share it with me! lol
We got onto the boat and were told where our room was. We were in a room made for 60 people. Basically it was a large tatami room with 60 futons side by side on the floor. The pillow was a rectangular peice of foam. Very Thick! I am so glad I brough my pillow with me!!! Dinner was an all you can eat buffet for 20 bucks. There was a lot of food that I couldn't eat, including steak ;( But I ate what I could and not too much and I was ok. Then from 9 until 11 we had booked the Kareoke room. I ordered pancakes :) and ate them in the Kareoke room. We sang and danced and had a great time. 11pm came and went and no one came to check on us, so we kept on singing. At some point we dragged two Japanese guys into the room with us. One older man and a guy probably in his 30s. The older guy looked terrified the whole time! I got a picture of him...sorta, when he realized I was taking a pic of the area where he was he tried to duck out of it lol. The younger guy had a great time!! At midnight we decided that we should stop. No one checked on us or complained and we basically got an extra hour for free :)
I crashed out around 1am and didn't sleep all the great. At 7am someone came in our room and turned on the lights! Oh, that pissed off most of us. Most of the Japanese people were already out, it was mostly just us foreigners. Breakfast ended at 9:30 so why the hell did they turn on our lights at 7am?!??? So we turned them back off.
Breakfast was good, more food I couldn't eat but enough that I could eat so I was happy. We got into Port a little after 10 and got another bus to Sapporo station and then had to take the subway to Nakajima Koen where we walked 3 minutes to the Best Western! This place is so much nicer than even the Best Western's I've been to in Canada! It was amazing!!! Comfy beds! Spacious shower! Really good food!! And friendly people behind the counters and in the elevators!
Just up the street from the hotel was Susukino where the ice sculpors were. 2 stops on the subway in Oodori is where the rest of the festival was. 11 blocks of snow scultures and food and skating and concerts and even a snowboard jump! It was a lot of fun! I took way too many picutres! I spent the day with Jennifer, a fellow JET from Ottawa. The side walks were designated as one way so we went up 11 blocks and stopped at every exhibit to take pictures and then came back down the other side. It was amazing!! Here are some examples!
ok, so you get the picture. There were lots of small ones ligning the sidewalks. There was so much to see! It made Winterlude look like child's play. These were the snow scultputes. The ice sculptures were not as big and not as fantastic, but still really detailed.
On Saturday I went out with Sam and Chelsea and we looked at the ice scultpures and then went to a really big dollar store (6 floors!). Then we met with with Sam's friend Louise and went to an Okonomiyaki shop for lunch. It was my first time at at one so I wasn't sure what to do. I enjoyed it. I like my okonomiyaki plain compared to everyone else lol. We each ordered one, about 6 bucks each. I didn't finish mine.
We had to meet back at the hotel for 2pm to all go together back to Sapporo Station and to the bus terminal to get the bus back to the Ferry Terminal. We got to the Ferry and did some shopping. We all needed to buy Souveniers for co-workers (Japanese custom). I ended up spending 70 bucks on cookies. I will be passing them around tomorrow at work. I also bought this really good chocolate thing. ROYCE KURUMARO CHOCOLATE MILK . LOL it is not chocolate milk. It's a bar of chocoalte with "walnuts and marshmallows in smoothly melting milk chocolate" LOL. It's basically rocky road. It's sooo good.
Then we saw the boat...and Cathy promtly started doing her happy dance. This was the boat she was hoping for! It was even bigger than the other one. Our room was on the 7th floor, and instead of having to share a room with 60 people, we were 16 people per room (so two rooms) and one person by themselves in a room full of Japanese people. A few of us volunteered but Matt won. He ended up in a room full of Soldiers. LMAO!!! These guys were on their way to Koriyama for 2 weeks of training. They were awesome! Really nice and fun to hang out with!
I'm guessing the water was a lot more choppy going home then going out because we could feel the movements a lot more going home. It was like trying to sleep through an earthquake. Sleeping wasn't all that fun. But it was dark and quiet, for the most part. I slept pretty good once the boat stopped bouncing so much. I crashed at 10 last night instead of 1. There was kareoke too but it was earlier. We were done by 9pm.
We arrived in port early and were out and waiting for the bus by 10am. The bus came at 10:10am but wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:28. We all managed to fit on the bus with a few Japanese people. Then about 8 minutes before we were supposed to leave, another bus pulle up beside us and the driver got out and talked to our driver. Then they asked all of us to please move to the other bus and that bus (which was not in service) would take us where we waned to go. lol So we got our own bus that didn't have to follow a route! Nice!! we got to the station in 30 minutes and had an hour to get food and take the early train home. I got back into Izumi at 3:36 instead of 4:24 :)
So now I'm home and relaxing, watching figure skating on tv. I will be uploading a tone of pictures to facebook for anyone who is interested. There are just too many to even think of uploading here. oh, and while I was writing this, one of my fifth grade students stopped by to give me some valentine's day chocolates! Her parents drove her. Her entire family was sitting in the car watching while we talked at my door LOL. I got three chocolates...that look like they might be home made. I guess I will have to give her some of my ROYCE KURUMARO CHOCOLATE MILK. lol
IT's going to be an early night tonight! I'm pooped :) I also have a sore throat. I swear to god, it's something different every week!!! BUT! I am going one assumption that it is just a cold. I have gargled with salt water and have taken meds for it. I will be fine. I've turned on both heaters in my apartment. My bedroom was 8.5C when I got home. Hopefully by the time I want to sleep it will be up around 17C.
OK, off to figure out what to do for dinner. Might have to run out to the 7/11 again for stuff that isn't pasta. I'm getting sick of pasta lol.
Have a good week everyone!
My principal let me leave school early...earlier than I had planned to leave. I took vacation time starting at 2pm, but my VP asked me at 1:10pm if I would have enough time to get to the station. I told him I was clear until 2pm. Then around 1:30 I was completely alone in the teacher's room...and very lonely...so I left lol. I got home at 2pm and made myself some onigiri (rice balls) and a half a jam sandwhich and changed and then headed out for the train. The train left at 2:59pm.
Kim and I both ended up in the same car as Eden, and although we had assigned seats, the train wasn't crowded so we all sat together. The attendant asked to see our tickets because we weren't in the right seats (well, I was) and said that we would have to move if the people with those seats showed up. They didn't, so we sat together the whole way.
We got to Senday at 5:13pm and were supposed to meet the rest of the group at 5:25pm. Then we all headed out to catch a bus to Sendai Port. We all managed to get on one bus and the only Japanese person on our bus was a little old lady who got off 10 stops later. lol Then not too far from the port a young guy (about my age) got on the bus and then looked around and looked a little bit unsure. So I started talking to him. Once he realized some of us could speak Japanese he spent the rest of the ride chatting with us.
We got to the Ferry Terminal and waited for our time slot to get on the ferry. This wasn't the kind of ferry I was on last time I went to Hokkaido. This was a small cruise ship! There were about 5 levels for the passengers to occupy and then the levels for the crew. While we were waiting to board we put our bags all in one big group and all the Japanese people who were seated were just watching our every move lol. Then one older guy (who was with a few other people) came up to me and asked me if Japanese was ok. I said yes, and he looked back at his family and went, "see? It's ok!! They talk!" LOL so then he talked with us for a bit. When Cathy, who organised everything, wanted to tell us stuff, we all gathered around and I started eating my onigiri. When we broke up the group, one of the ladies that was with the older guy's group, came over and handed me a bunch of nori and told me to eat it with my onigiri because it would make it taste better!! So I thanked her and put them in the bag with the other onigiri ball. She was happy :) I hate nori! lol Hate it with a passion. But I thought she was really nice to share it with me! lol
We got onto the boat and were told where our room was. We were in a room made for 60 people. Basically it was a large tatami room with 60 futons side by side on the floor. The pillow was a rectangular peice of foam. Very Thick! I am so glad I brough my pillow with me!!! Dinner was an all you can eat buffet for 20 bucks. There was a lot of food that I couldn't eat, including steak ;( But I ate what I could and not too much and I was ok. Then from 9 until 11 we had booked the Kareoke room. I ordered pancakes :) and ate them in the Kareoke room. We sang and danced and had a great time. 11pm came and went and no one came to check on us, so we kept on singing. At some point we dragged two Japanese guys into the room with us. One older man and a guy probably in his 30s. The older guy looked terrified the whole time! I got a picture of him...sorta, when he realized I was taking a pic of the area where he was he tried to duck out of it lol. The younger guy had a great time!! At midnight we decided that we should stop. No one checked on us or complained and we basically got an extra hour for free :)
I crashed out around 1am and didn't sleep all the great. At 7am someone came in our room and turned on the lights! Oh, that pissed off most of us. Most of the Japanese people were already out, it was mostly just us foreigners. Breakfast ended at 9:30 so why the hell did they turn on our lights at 7am?!??? So we turned them back off.
Breakfast was good, more food I couldn't eat but enough that I could eat so I was happy. We got into Port a little after 10 and got another bus to Sapporo station and then had to take the subway to Nakajima Koen where we walked 3 minutes to the Best Western! This place is so much nicer than even the Best Western's I've been to in Canada! It was amazing!!! Comfy beds! Spacious shower! Really good food!! And friendly people behind the counters and in the elevators!
Just up the street from the hotel was Susukino where the ice sculpors were. 2 stops on the subway in Oodori is where the rest of the festival was. 11 blocks of snow scultures and food and skating and concerts and even a snowboard jump! It was a lot of fun! I took way too many picutres! I spent the day with Jennifer, a fellow JET from Ottawa. The side walks were designated as one way so we went up 11 blocks and stopped at every exhibit to take pictures and then came back down the other side. It was amazing!! Here are some examples!
ok, so you get the picture. There were lots of small ones ligning the sidewalks. There was so much to see! It made Winterlude look like child's play. These were the snow scultputes. The ice sculptures were not as big and not as fantastic, but still really detailed.
On Saturday I went out with Sam and Chelsea and we looked at the ice scultpures and then went to a really big dollar store (6 floors!). Then we met with with Sam's friend Louise and went to an Okonomiyaki shop for lunch. It was my first time at at one so I wasn't sure what to do. I enjoyed it. I like my okonomiyaki plain compared to everyone else lol. We each ordered one, about 6 bucks each. I didn't finish mine.
We had to meet back at the hotel for 2pm to all go together back to Sapporo Station and to the bus terminal to get the bus back to the Ferry Terminal. We got to the Ferry and did some shopping. We all needed to buy Souveniers for co-workers (Japanese custom). I ended up spending 70 bucks on cookies. I will be passing them around tomorrow at work. I also bought this really good chocolate thing. ROYCE KURUMARO CHOCOLATE MILK . LOL it is not chocolate milk. It's a bar of chocoalte with "walnuts and marshmallows in smoothly melting milk chocolate" LOL. It's basically rocky road. It's sooo good.
Then we saw the boat...and Cathy promtly started doing her happy dance. This was the boat she was hoping for! It was even bigger than the other one. Our room was on the 7th floor, and instead of having to share a room with 60 people, we were 16 people per room (so two rooms) and one person by themselves in a room full of Japanese people. A few of us volunteered but Matt won. He ended up in a room full of Soldiers. LMAO!!! These guys were on their way to Koriyama for 2 weeks of training. They were awesome! Really nice and fun to hang out with!
I'm guessing the water was a lot more choppy going home then going out because we could feel the movements a lot more going home. It was like trying to sleep through an earthquake. Sleeping wasn't all that fun. But it was dark and quiet, for the most part. I slept pretty good once the boat stopped bouncing so much. I crashed at 10 last night instead of 1. There was kareoke too but it was earlier. We were done by 9pm.
We arrived in port early and were out and waiting for the bus by 10am. The bus came at 10:10am but wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:28. We all managed to fit on the bus with a few Japanese people. Then about 8 minutes before we were supposed to leave, another bus pulle up beside us and the driver got out and talked to our driver. Then they asked all of us to please move to the other bus and that bus (which was not in service) would take us where we waned to go. lol So we got our own bus that didn't have to follow a route! Nice!! we got to the station in 30 minutes and had an hour to get food and take the early train home. I got back into Izumi at 3:36 instead of 4:24 :)
So now I'm home and relaxing, watching figure skating on tv. I will be uploading a tone of pictures to facebook for anyone who is interested. There are just too many to even think of uploading here. oh, and while I was writing this, one of my fifth grade students stopped by to give me some valentine's day chocolates! Her parents drove her. Her entire family was sitting in the car watching while we talked at my door LOL. I got three chocolates...that look like they might be home made. I guess I will have to give her some of my ROYCE KURUMARO CHOCOLATE MILK. lol
IT's going to be an early night tonight! I'm pooped :) I also have a sore throat. I swear to god, it's something different every week!!! BUT! I am going one assumption that it is just a cold. I have gargled with salt water and have taken meds for it. I will be fine. I've turned on both heaters in my apartment. My bedroom was 8.5C when I got home. Hopefully by the time I want to sleep it will be up around 17C.
OK, off to figure out what to do for dinner. Might have to run out to the 7/11 again for stuff that isn't pasta. I'm getting sick of pasta lol.
Have a good week everyone!
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Date: 2011-02-14 04:58 am (UTC)I really, really hope you don't get sick again. That would suck soooo much.
Hope to talk to you soon!