Blogging is hard...

So keeping up with this blog thing isn’t as easy as I thought it would be... in between watching Dexter, Facebooking, and the internet not working... how can I find the time? Not to mention going to work... grocery shopping... cooking... eating! So much to squeeze into a day :) I apologize to anyone who cares to read this... I will try and get better at it, I promise. 

So now for an update. I’ve officially lived in Okazaki for 24 days... 25 by the time I post this... maybe even 26. I’d say I’m pretty settled. Unpacked... my place has already gone through a messy, clean, messy, clean cycle and I’ve done laundry more than once.  That sets it in stone. Needless to say, I am still discovering my area. I’m starting to realize what some buildings are although I still can’t read the signs. I’ve found my city pool/gym, although I haven’t joined. I’ve explored the upstairs of ComTown (where I grocery shop) and found a whole new world of Ikea meets Best Buy meets Toys’R’Us’-likeness in the form of Eiden and to the left of the grocery store on the main floor we have D2 (think Walmart) as well as a small food court which houses the one thing that may keep me sane this next year.... DipperDan (crepe house!!!). I’ve also explored the library, so uniquely named Libra and discovered that they do in fact receive English copies of Vogue! Gasp! They also have an international centre upstairs where they offer free Japanese classes and an occasional cooking class... I’ve got all the pamphlets and will be joining tomorrow quite possibly. 

After a particularly long Skype session my 2nd morning off, I got some shooting pains from my lower back into my legs. I was supposed to do run 3 (13km) in my marathon training but the pains only got worse as I changed into my workout clothes. Sara told me to listen to my body and it was telling me to f-off so I scrapped that idea and opted to find my nearest onsen (hot spring). This made sense at the time.... back pain... hot spring.... ease muscle pain... I hopped on my bike which wasn’t too painful, although putting my legs down to stop was excruciating, and headed towards what I think is the closest one. About 30 mins later, I got off my bike and proceeded to walk trying to find this bloody place with no luck. I asked 2 people who had no clue what I was talking about even though the onsen was clearly supposed to be in their backyard, according to the map. Just as I was about to give up and head home, I opted to ask one more lady who promptly left her yard to walk me to it. I was on the wrong side of the main road and she led me right up to the front door. What a nice lady. She even cracked some jokes... or so I think. They were in Japanese and she didn’t understand English but she’d tell what seemed to be a story and then crack up. I just smiled. What a nice lady.

After figuring out how to work the ticket purchase machine and the lockers for my shoes and personal items, I proceeded to do what everyone else around me was doing... get... get naked (I was thinking of the song the whole time). You’d think it was weird but strangely it wasn’t as bad as I thought. So when you’re in your birthday suit, you then proceed into this huge area that has a little vanity with a stool and a handheld shower. You sit down and shower (weird concept). They have soap, shampoo, and conditioner there for you. After you shower you’re welcome to go buckwild.... there’s a steam room, sauna, various whirlpools with jets to target every muscle, a cold dip pool, and the outdoor hot spring baths. I tried all of them, my favorite being the outdoor bath because of how pretty it was. Think fountains meet nature with just the right amount of lighting. The sauna was pretty cool as well but only because it had a tv in it playing a Japanese soap opera... just as ridiculous as the ones back home. I was feeling pretty good so I proceed to dress and blow dry my hair after about 2 hours of bathing. 

There’s also a restaurant in the same building so I decided to eat there as it was starting to get late. It wasn’t until I got up to pay my bill that I realized that my pain was back but 100 times worse. I literally could not walk. I just stood there. After a few minutes I shuffled along holding onto the wall and sat on the couches out front. It took about half an hour to leave after that. Standing, sitting, walking, breathing, everything was excruciating. Nothing like I’ve ever experienced before. I walked my bike for a bit and then somehow made it home riding although it all felt like a dream. I saw stars the whole way. Needless to say, sleeping was brutal and so my next day off was spent doing all of nothing. I couldn’t sit up and I could barely walk and so I lay around the whole day praying for it to get better. The next day walking was fine so I took off. 

I decided to plead ignorant foreigner and ventured into City Hall with my ARC (Alien Registration Card.... yes, aliens don’t go unregistered here... UFO or not) pick up slip which so clearly said it would be ready on the 18th.... not the 16th when I happened to go but it was ready anyway!!! This ARC allows you to get a life, essentially. I promptly hopped on the next train into Nagoya where I could set up a bank account with Citi Financial and a cell phone with Softbank, all thanks to English speaking staff! Without an ARC, you can’t do any of this. I then walked around aimlessly for a bit, wanting to justify coming back into the city after just being there on a shopping trip 2 days prior. I went to a bar (by myself) and had a glass of wine (because that’s just how I do). Talked up a storm with the bartender/part-owner (she spoke English) and got the low-down for Christmas and New Years Eve. 

For the record, I still can’t sit up.

Okazaki - Week 1 (Halloween)

So I’ve been in Okazaki for almost a full week. The move in went fine... aside from having to lug around a ridiculously heavy suitcase, carry on, bag of semi-wet laundry, and purse across train platforms and through stations.... most of which DID NOT have elevators :S I was exhausted by the time I got to Okazaki-Higashi station but thankfully my PS was there waiting and he took over the lugging :) 

My apartment is.... cozy? It’s actually not too small. The main room is a good size and the bathroom is fine. The kitchen completely sucks to be honest. There’s one electric burner that takes a very long time to heat up and no counter space whatsoever. Storage is also severely limited but I’m moving stuff around to see what works best. The fridge is small but manageable and the toaster oven is grimy as hell but works great! I’m extremely thankful for the plug in kettle because boiling a small pot of water takes about 15 mins on the burner (this is not an exaggeration). I’ve managed to pick up a wireless signal on one side of my apartment which is the only thing that has kept me sane over this last week. Between talking to people and watching Dexter, there’s not too much else to do but wander and I’ve managed to do that almost everyday. 

In fact, I managed to find a shopping mall type of place with an awesome 100 yen store today which was great! They also had this kitschy shop with the funkiest stuff.... Xmas presents anyone? 

I was gonna be a cat for Halloween but all I could find were bunny ears. Thankfully they were black like my cat ensemble so there won’t be too much adjusting :) I’m still not sure what I’m even doing for Halloween if anything at all but there are 2 options at this point and I hope I can pull at least one of them off. Wouldn’t want to spend Halloween all alone.... I’m not that strong :S I really need to start meeting people in this area before life gets too depressing ;) Can’t wait until I get my new British neighbor! At least then I have someone I can bother.

Work.... work is good thus far. All my kids are sane for the most part and behave well :) For now of course.... I’ve team-taught with some other teachers and one in particular has thee worst behaved child that I’ve seen thus far. Ignore my complaints about any children prior to this because this kid tops it all. He gets to class a half hour late (for a one hour lesson) and then proceeds to run into the wall kicking and punching it. He runs into the room on the side and starts dumping stuff out of boxes at which point the teacher picks him up. Not only does he hit the teacher in the face but he also spits in his face. To top it all off, he then takes off his pants and proceeds to run in front of the teacher exposing himself to the other students. He remains pant-less for awhile and then when its time to go home he seems to want to stay all of a sudden. It was nuts watching this and then having to restrain the child for a bit so that the teacher can actually teach a bit :S I feel horrible for this teacher.... absolutely horrible.

At this point I’ve also met the high school students that I’ll be teaching and they are great! They’re really smart and the class is pretty laid back which is nice. One of the guys is OBSESSED with origami. My boss taught the class last week and confiscated the origami paper and so this week, they guy kept looking for it and even contemplated using tissue to origami. When we handed out scrap paper for them to write on he started to cut it down to size.... obsessed! lol  The only thing that sucks is that this class is every Saturday evening.... there goes my social life :P Not that it exists currently but there is potential! :)

In fact.... continuing on this blog since my internet all of a sudden no longer works so I wasn’t able to post yesterday :S I did end up going out for Halloween. I went down to Sakae with a teacher that I taught with and we met up with the girl from my training group and her set of friends. On the way down, we also met a Brazilian guy dressed as a character from X-Men and he brought us to a gaijin (foreigner) bar that was completely rammed :) We stayed there for about 5 mins before heading to the Hub (another gaijin bar) to meet Frish and her friends. X-Men guy left but re-appeared a few times throughout the night. We hung out at the Hub until about 5 am, only leaving to go eat. There I met a guy from New York and Mao, my new Japanese friend. Mao has the coolest job selling guitars and drums all over the world and he had just gotten back from Moscow the night prior. He is also in charge of distributing to a bunch of European countries including Poland. He was there a few weeks ago and had receipts to prove it. We became fast friends :) See.... potential social life developing slowly! Too bad I don’t live in Nagoya though.... so many English-speakers there!  

     So training is officially complete!!! Yay! Passed my test so I guess I can stay :) We wrote the test on Saturday and everyone did well so we went out to celebrate at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Talk about cool. You sit at the bar and sushi just rolls by you on different coloured plates... the colours represent different price points. You also have a little tap in front of you that dispenses hot water for green tea. Delicious!! I got a tad adventurous and tried natto (the fermented bean stuff that’s supposed to taste like garbage... it only kinda did) and eel (kinda fishy but OK) :S I also grabbed some green poop looking thing which turned out to be the best dessert ever, ok well next to melon pan. It was green tea something on what tasted like a cookie and it was great! As you ate, you stacked your plates and when you were done, a waitress would come by with a scanner to scan your plates and then give you a card to take to the cash with how much you owed. Really neat actually. 

After dinner we all pit stopped at the 100 yen Lawson store and stocked up on booze... mmmmmm, plum wine!!! It was a celebration afterall. We then came back and watched ‘Invictus’. Thank God for Omar’s donation of English movies to Joe’s computer!

The next morning we all got up fairly early to head to Oktoberfest at a park about half an hour away by train. Park space seems pretty rare in Nagoya so it was pretty exciting! Anyhow, we got there and the park was huge! And really nice! There was what appeared to be a gold fish judging contest going on and various photo shoots throughout. Not to mention a field where kids were playing lacrosse and soccer. We walked around as we waited for Oktoberfest to begin and got to see turtles and huge fish in the ponds throughout the park. 

About 2 hours after the festival was supposed to begin, it actually did and they opened with possibly the most random song you could hear in Japan.... Soulja Boy - Kiss me through the phone!!!! You can only imagine how pleased I was.. lol. The DJ was sick and played everything I liked. I also found out he writes his own magazine and this was super exciting as its probably the only English reading material I’ll come by for the next year :S There were a few good performances and we all ate a cabbage and meat dish that quickly ran out. Thankfully the all you can drink beer didn’t! We got to meet a bunch of other English speaking people, some of which taught for PKC, others that didn’t. I even met a girl named Sarah who just opened her own Yoga Studio close to downtown Nagoya and offered yoga classes in English!!! How exciting! Eventually the beer and food and sitting around got to me and I somehow passed out while sitting in the grass only to be awakened to my name being called out because I won a raffle prize :) It was a Heineken t-shirt!!! OH YA!!

Now what to do for my next 3 days off :S ?!?!?!

I also forgot to mention that I taught my last class with my PS (aka my boss) and the kids were honestly the smartest angels I could have ever asked for. They honestly had halos around their heads and understood everything I asked them to do. I also found out I’d be teaching for Wish Academy (high school students!!!). He was happy with my lesson and turns out he’s super cool too. He’s taking me to my area to orient me on Thursday :) I get paid to walk around with my PS and check out where the grocery store and such is :) :) :) Good stuff!!

I also now have someone moving into my apartment on the first for more than I was even asking for per month!!! Thank you my gorgeous Jeralee. I owe you HUGE!!!!

Everything is looking up :) This week is gonna be great. I even found a river on my last run :) Oh the little things that make me so happy these days!!

Myself and Laura headed to Nagoya castle yesterday as well that that was pretty great. We even got a free English speaking tour guide because of some special event or something. The castle was pretty fantastic and we had great timing... we basically shut the place down :) We then proceeded to walk around to find a Tokyo Hands store (they sell EVERYTHING... almost). We each had to get an inkan (little personalized stamp the you use to sign with).... apparently people don't just do that with a pen here and I don't blame them... it'd take me forever to draw my little symbols :S My inkan says Jo Lo but also somehow means 'success road'. Weirdest experience having someone try to explain this to us. Laura is 'misty god' or something similar. Hahahahahaha. My inkan is pinkish purple and ohhhh so pretty! Walking around near Sakae Stn was also a crazy experience. It's where the nightlife clearly happens. Good times. Another day off today but I think I'll be a bit lazy. I'm going to my city tomorrow to check it out :D :D :D

Japan - Hardest day thus far....

So I'm at a point where I'm second guessing whether or not I can do this... Not living in japan but teaching kids. 

I did my demo lesson yesterday and it went horribly. I resorted to over explaining and I'm still not 'energetic' enough. This was ok because it was just a role play but it got me questioning how I'd do it in an actual class. I was teaching the difference between see, look, and watch. It's so hard with this language barrier :S

Then there's my back to back classes today... Even worse! As if 2 classes are not stressful enough to prepare for. And I thought shiobara was bad... Yudai jumps off tables. Climbs vacuums. Sits on peoples heads. When I ask him to move, all I get is no! He's also obsessed with this phenomenon sweeping amongst little boys here... They make what looks like a gun with both their hands and shove it up other little boys' bums... I think it's called kunsai or something similar. We're supposed to not allow it to happen but good luck getting Yudai to listen to you :S poor bums. Eventually the class ended and I got through the majority of what I was supposed to get through. After thinking about it some more, Yudai is on the same level as shiobara... Not worse but not any better. 

The next class was ok. They were older but would not stop talking amongst themselves. Now I understand why teachers used to yell so much. Lol. It's annoying and makes teaching difficult. Guess I can't expect it to be easy, especially not this early on. I'm just thankful today is over. With the school being 2 hours away and 3 classes it's been a very long day. 

Tomorrow is my last teaching day while in training :S I only teach one class but my personal supervisor (PS) will be watching :S he seems nice enough... He's from Toronto as well. I got to speak to him the other day and I think we'll get along fine but at the end of the days he's still my boss. Ah well, I know I'm still new. Im bound to mess up a few times or get frustrated. Apparently this should all get easier and if it doesn't then maybe teaching isn't my cup of tea. And everyone knows how much I like tea! It's gonna take quite a bit to earn that title.

On the upside, I also get to check out downtown Nagoya tomorrow before work with Laura :) window shopping will be great stress relief!

Japan 3 - I promise to get more original with the titles soon!!!

So week one of training is officially over and I’ve already started week 2... yay! From what I’m hearing, training is way more work than I will ever do in my actual job so that’s pretty exciting. I observed my first class on Friday which was great because I was able to shift my focus for a bit (I received some devastating news that morning about my uncle’s passing and needed to try and occupy myself so that I wouldn’t go crazy). It’s hard being so far away when stuff like that happens. Thankfully my trainer let me bypass my demo lesson that day and so I took off for my school fairly early and managed to grab a quick nap in the back room before anyone got there.... I was only 3 hours early :S 

Once the teacher got there it felt like no time before the kids started rolling in. They all looked at me wearily at first but then just went on playing. And here I was all worried I’d freak them out... gayeka gayeka! One girl did however come in crying which quickly turned into screaming and crying, which then turned into snot bubbles, which then turned into the teacher asking me to watch her?!? but only after she had tried to make a run for it :S Yikes! I tried not to stare at her snot bubbles... I really did... but they were just sooooo big! So after about half an hour of screaming her head off, she proceeded to pass out sitting up... funniest shit EVER... she kept falling forward and then sitting back up. All I could do was put my arm around her so she wouldn’t slam into the wall. The teacher then thought it’d be a good idea to wake her up so she could lie down but this was promptly met with more crying before she lay her head on my leg and fell asleep. Cutest thing EVER! Snot bubbles and all! I also learned one very important thing.... I think it’s the magic phrase to make upset kids forget all their troubles... ‘let’s colour’. No word of a lie, the little girl sat up and walked right over to the table and started colouring as if nothing had ever happened. She was fine for the rest of the class. By the end of the lesson, the kids worked up the nerve and came to show me their pictures. Japanese children are seriously the cutest kids ever... or so I thought... Shiobara will be discussed shortly.

That same day I watched another class but this time with older students... around 10 I believe. There were only 2 girls and they were pretty good. When they were leaving, they kept saying something to the teacher in Japanese but like a good teacher, he ignored them... hahahaha. We aren’t really supposed to acknowledge Japanese or that we understand it (super easy for me!!!). He later told me that they were telling him I was cute... I love those 2 girls! lol 

Ok so the next day was my first experience actually teaching. I went to the school and met this SUPER nice Aussie guy (who’s moving back to Australia next week so don’t go thinking anything). He was there to observe my lesson and then I’d observe his. He was seriously the best help ever and so I felt pretty confident going into the lesson. It wasn’t long before the kids started rolling in and I got a few weird looks as I checked their homework but most seemed to embrace the teacher switch, at least a tiny bit. Hard to compete with the Aussie though. Everything was going great until HE arrived... Shiobara. We’re starting our lesson which took long enough because he wouldn’t come sit down or stop talking and I pull out the flashcards to review when he, all of a sudden starts grabbing them out of my hands and sitting on them with this smug look on his face. If you only knew what was going through my mind at that point. I tried to joke around with him... big mistake because it only got worse and so he made my class a living hell. He even ran out at one point to the bathroom without asking. Thankfully, the rest of the students were decent and so I did my best to ignore his behavior with the hope that he would just stop. He didn’t but thankfully my lesson came to an end and he left. He made it out alive and that says a lot, lol. The next class went by quickly since I didn’t have to teach it and we were out of there pretty fast. 

We did, however, get stuck in a torrential downpour which was apparently a light shower in comparison of what Japanese clouds are capable of. Not looking forward to that :S Someone send rubber boots!! Burberry preferably! I’ve gotta keep up with the stylish-ness of all the women here (that will be discussed in an upcoming post as I’m still in the observation stage). 

I also seem to have somewhat mastered the subway system although I got off a stop early without realizing it and had to walk in the rain :( I also managed to trip the bottom LCI on my phone (gasps from the Apple crowd) :S The open pockets in my lulu bag were also full of water... if only I had a straw....

I got up early today to talk to the family on skype for turkey day. It was so nice but depressing at the same time. My family hasn’t all gotten together for over a decade and they managed to do it when I wasn’t able to be there. Everyone was there!! Frank, mom, my aunt (who I don’t think has ever even been in my mom’s house before today), my cousin and her fiance (squeal!!) from BC, my other cousin, his wife and their son AND.... my uncle from Poland who I haven’t seen since I was 7 or so! They all took turns rotating seats and Charlie even made an appearance. It seriously made my morning!! I also managed to catch Michelle who I haven’t seen since I left :) Oh the things you miss when you get all adventurous! 

One last thing... I got the address to my place!!!! Check FB for it :)  

Japan 2

       So week one of training is nearly over!!! Thank God! If I have to pretend to be a child or sit on the floor any longer, I swear.... oh wait, that’s pretty much what my job now entails. Long gone are RFP counts and RAM upgrades, although just like now, I worked with children... that means you Sean :) Play, play, play! Tomorrow is my first day observing a class and the day after will be my first time teaching. Stay tuned for how that turns out :S

My body is giving me the big ol’ middle finger. It’s a combination of walking everywhere, carrying around a heavy bag, sitting on the floor all day, topped off with sleeping on the floor. If I attempt to roll out of bed, I don’t really get anywhere. Some would say I get to the floor, I would say that’s still my bed. This is what I get for trash talking sleeping conditions when camping. But honestly, if you have a bad back or suspect you may be on the path to getting one, DO NOT COME TO JAPAN. Sure the oversized tub allows you to soak in the best way possible (up to your chin) but good luck trying to figure out which bag contains epsom salts at the grocery store. Sugar bath anyone?

I did take the subway once which went fairly smoothly, although I think that was because I followed behind and copied what my subway-experienced friends did. It was not crammed like that youtube video but I discovered that they have female-only carts for the days that it is. Girls don’t usually grope girls in Japan, I’m assuming. How considerate of them! The bus, however, was a different story. Still blindly following, I threw my money in but the bus-driver stopped me. I blankly stared as he tried to explain something to me. Long story short, the stupid machine ate one of my 50 yen coins and so he thought I did not put enough in. Joe came to my rescue because the only thing that could make this any worse was not having anymore change... ya... Oh and the man I sat beside was old and smelled like dead feet. Dead cheesy feet. 

On the plus side.... I have started to pick up some Japanese!! Some of my favorite words include hot-toes (pigeon), sue-betty-died (slide), and hya (think Karate kid) - ku (one hundred). 

I’ve also taken up running again which feels amazing! Actually it feels pretty horrible because of the conditions listed above but that’s usually the next morning when I’m struggling to get off the floor, I mean - get out of bed. It’s started to cool down which is great because traffic smells slightly less offensive and I can safely wear my long sleeve Lulu pullover. Why is this last point important? Well.... it turns out that walking around in Japan in a tank top is almost the equivalent to walking around naked with offensive tattoos all over your body AND nipple rings. Girls here wear underwear as shorts but lord help us if they show shoulder. I wish I had known this as I packed all my tanks and left all my t-shirts behind :S P, the amount of tanks that I brought has nothing to do with anything... just saying. What do I do with all my lulu workout tanks now? Shhhh, P! Wear them under all the lulu workout tees everyone is going to send me???

I ran my first time in Japan with Kyle. Kyle likes to explore. Kyle wanted to explore this park a few blocks over. It was dark out. The park had many trees. Trees have spiders in them. The park had no lights. Joanna asked Kyle to leave the stupid scary park. Kyle obliged. Kyle explored the next day by himself. He got lost. Joanna ran today up one street and back down. No exploring past dark. She did not get lost :) Ha, Kyle, ha! Needless to say, exploring would be pretty cool because of all the random temples situated amongst the most random buildings. Exploring with a map of course!

I also tried sushi for the first time. It was from the supermarket and half-priced at the end of the day... meaning it was the crappier kind that you can find here. It was DELICIOUS!!! No need to say more. I think there was a sliver of cucumber in it. That is probably the only vegetable I will have this week. It’s sad but vegetables are THAT expensive :S I don’t even like them much but feel sad about not eating them. Apples are about $1.50 each... just a tad bigger than what you get at home. Bananas seem to be the cheapest fruit so I’ll eat lots of those and I’ve developed the craziest craving for grapefruit juice. I dream of it day-in, day-out. 

Lastly, for anyone that cares, I do apologize for not coming online more often. Turns out interneto is worse than dial up here. Dial up in the case of your phone cable being chewed by the cat as you try to connect. It works about once every 2 days and when it does it’s slower than the Japanese grandmothers that walk the streets here. Video chatting works for about 3 mins.... the time it takes to get anyones attention online. I’m hoping that internet will be a tad better once I get to my city. Stay tuned... only 2 more weeks!

Japan 1

So I’ve been in Japan for a solid 2 days.... and it already feels like a week... long enough to be comfortable with my surroundings but not long enough to have any clue as to what the locals are saying or what the cryptic signs around me mean. I feel like this will still be true after being here for a month. So I guess I just won’t magically pick the Japanese language up afterall.... thank God for my phrasebooks and Huy’s dvd! Even the phrasebooks are useless when trying to figure out what is being said to you. Nowhere does it tell you how to ask the person to slowly repeat what they are saying so that you can look up each word. I find smiling, nodding, and backing away works just as well, just make sure you pay for whatever it is before you back away. Japanese prison won’t be any less confusing than their streets. Lets start from the beginning.

The first night here was interesting enough. I went to the grocery store with Joe, my new friend from Oregon who has been to Japan a few times before and possess the most basic communication skills that I’m struggling with (never thought I’d be so relieved to meet another Joe!). I walked around and settled for bananas, grapefruit juice, and some Japanese corn chips which ended up tasting exactly like cheetos! The fluffy kind though :( He pointed some stuff out that I probably wanted to avoid such as natto.... this fermented red bean paste that he said tasted like fermented garbage smelled. Notta eating the natto! They also had the biggest assortment of fish anything and everything... do I look Portuguese, really? When it came time to check out, his interaction went off without a hitch while mine abruptly came to a halt when I tried to pay with what would be more than a $100 Canadian bill (10,000 JPY). My bill was about $6 Canadian.... ya. Apparently they don’t carry that much change. Joe was nice enough to lend me a modest 1,000 JPY while I tucked away my new wallet (thanks Jera) which contained close to $300 Canadian. I clearly grossly overestimated how much groceries would cost me or more accurately, what the conversion was. Ballin at the grocery store is just how we do in Japan clearly. 

We walked back to the apartment and said good night. I walked around the apartment a bit trying to take it all in before deciding to take a shower. My roommate, Laura was slated to be picked up at the airport at around 10pm and it took about 30 mins to get to the building. That gave me enough time... or so I thought. I proceeded to undress and throw my towel just outside the shower door on the washer. Just as I was about to step in I remembered that there wasn’t any toilet paper in the toilet room which is actually in a separate room. I packed some and thought Laura may need to use the bathroom when she got in. I ran back in my room butt naked and grabbed it out of my luggage. I dashed back to the toilet room and proceeded to change it when I heard a knock at the door. I froze as I decided if I had enough time to run back to the next room and hop in the shower. Before I could decide, the door was being unlocked by the guy that had picked Laura up from the airport. Kill me now. I shut the door and proceeded to flush the toilet so it seemed like I had just used it (not sure why). The toilet is pretty weird in that it has what looks like a sink at the top of it. Water kept pouring out of the top and I fiddled with the knob convinced that I had broken it. When the water finally stopped and I could hear myself think (sounds like Niagara Falls everytime you flush) I called out to Laura and asked her to bring me my towel. She must have thought I was a freak. Her perpetually naked roommate. I proceeded to try and make conversation in my towel before finally escaping to the shower. What an awkward first meeting. Who the hell goes to the toilet room butt naked? Really? Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be anywhere nearly as weirded out as I was or as judgmental as I made her out to be. After dressing, I found out she was from BC, a begitarian (vegetarian in Japanese), and super laid back and pretty cool. We called it a night as both of us had been traveling for the equivalent of forever.