Ube happenings and Hiroshima Baseball

I think it’s time for an update!

To begin.  Here is a random picture I took from my apartment the other day.  You can see a Japanese house to the right, the supermarket called "Maruki" in the back, with the mountains in the background.  Yep, this is where I live.

Things in Ube have been pretty good.  Last weekend was the first full weekend I’ve had in Ube for a long time.  It consisted of karaoke with friends and lots of eating out… because that’s all there is to do here!  But it was really fun!  Since I last updated, I’ve met another ALT in Ube – Saranne from Australia.  She’s not a JET though.  She works for some other company at a private high school.  She’s been here for 3 years.   I’ve also been hanging out with this girl named Mayuko who Meng and I met from going to this Indian restaurant all the time because she’s a waitress there for her part time job.  We were actually going to head to Fukuoka that Saturday night for a fun night out, but the bus never came because it got into an accident or something.  But anyway.  I’ve also met another girl in Ube.  Her name is Mitsue and she’s really cool.  My friend Eric, who lives in Yamaguchi City, met her when he studied abroad here in college and introduced her to me because she lives in Ube.  We went to the Shimonoseki Aquarium one day – it was cool!  The dolphin show was awesome!

This past weekend I went to Hiroshima to watch a baseball game – The Hiroshima Carps.  It was an AJET event.  It was fun.  Saranne drove us from Ube so we didn’t have to take the train and it was way cheaper that way too!  We got there Saturday and had some awesome okonomiyaki for lunch.  Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki and it was really good!  Then we walked around the Peace Park for a little bit before the game.  I didn’t have any desire to check out the museum this weekend because I already did when I was there 5 years ago… and it is so depressing.  Really good though and I highly recommend it.  I just assume I’ll be back with my family when they come to visit next year – so I’ll wait until then to see it again.  Here are some pictures from the Peace Park and then some random shots of around Hiroshima City:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The game was a lot of fun!  I really like going to baseball games – and Japanese baseball games are especially fun.  The crowd has all these chants and songs and noise makers and it’s like that the entire game.  The food is so weird though!  It’s not hamburgers, pop corn, and hot dogs.  No – it’s all Japanese… it’s weird!  Here are some pictures from the game:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

On our way back home on Sunday, we stopped in Iwakuni which is in Yamaguchi.  There’s actually a military base there as well… but you have to know somebody in order to get on it… I really want to meet a marine so I can check it out… and I hear there’s a TACO BELL on the base as well.  I really want to go just for the taco bell.  But anyway.  We stopped to check out this really old, famous bridge.  It was cool.

So yeah.  Things are pretty good.  Last Tuesday was a national holiday for Autumnal Equinox Day – which means it was the first day of Autumn.  It’s really weird because ever since, the weather has been pretty nice.  The humidity is GONE.  Weird.  I’ve never experienced Japan without humidity.  I was actually cold today.  Apartments don’t have heaters here.  I have some sort of kerosene heater… I guess.  It’s under a sheet in the corner of my kitchen.  I’m not looking forward to figuring out how to use it.

Oh!  On Friday I had to go to Mine City to judge a middle school speech competition.  It was SO BORING – but the middle schoolers were so cute!  I hope I never have to judge one again though.  Sitting through 50 speeches, judging, is boring.  Not to mention, they all memorize the SAME speech.  Ok, well there were 3 different ones, basically.  So I sat through 50 speeches of the same thing being repeated over and over again.  Yeah.  Oh, and we have to give them comments and I totally wrote the word “enthusiasm” wrong on about half the papers.  I kept spelling it “enthusiasUM”… whoops.  I thought it looked funny…

So yeah.  I started Japanese class - FINALLY.  Last Wednesday was the first class.  It's held at Yamaguchi University (the Ube campus) in the engineering building.  There are 5 levels and I tested into level 4.  I was kinda surprised... considering I haven't studied Japanese for a good 2 years.  So yay!  I'll go to that from 6:30pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday up through December.  Wednesdays are a busy day because I don't leave work until after 5pm thanks to English club.  

Friday I’ve got to go to Yamaguchi Orientation for our JET program fall orientation or something.  Then I’ve got to rush back to Ube for my enkai… or welcome party!  My base school is having a welcome party for me.  I hear all the teachers usually get hammered at these things… Should be interesting!