Gaikokujin Taikusai, Onsen, Camping, & Caving

After A LOT of time trying to figure out why my internet browsers weren't working... after a lot of help from my unlce... and after having the computer guy at my technical school mess with my computer for a few hours last week - my computer is finally back to normal. I have no idea what the problem was, though. What it came down to was that, after trying everything in the book... and then some... the computer guy suggested that I just completely restore my computer back to how it was when I bought it. So I did - and now it works again. Luckily I didn't lose anything because I have my external hard drive... which I back everything up on anyway. So my internet browsers work again and my computer is basically like new : )

Anyway. Last weekend was a lot of fun. There was a Yamaguchi AJET event. A bunch of us went to Mito city on Saturday and we had our own "Gaikokujin Taikusai"... and it was a lot of fun! "Gaikokujin" means foreigner and "taikusai" is what they call sports day. So if you look back at my post from October 7, 2008 - I talk about sports day at my technical high school... that was all about their "taikusai." But like I said, we had our own last Saturday and it really was a good time. I haven't had that much physical activity in a very, very long time. I was so sore afterwards... and for a few days afterwards... but I love that feeling! After the taikusai in Mito (we had it at Mito Junior High School - where one of the JETs works), we went to an onsen... which is an outdoor hotspring type of thing. It was the first time I'd ever been to an onsen because when I was in Japan before I was really weird about the whole thing and didn't want to go. But I finally went to an onsen - and it was actually really nice. Next, we made our way to a camp site at Akiyoshidai and camped out that night - bon fire and all. Akiyoshidai is a really interesting area in Yamaguchi - "The area's interesting geology has its roots in the Paleozoic Era (543 to 248 million years ago). Three hundred million years ago, the plateau was a large coral reef. Fossils from Fusuline, Coral, Brachiopod, Bryozoons and Calcaleous algae are abundant in Akiyoshi Plateau's limestone rock. Today, the plateau is well above sea level and is famous for its lush pampas grass landscape which is spotted with grey limestone boulders." I took that from this website - so check it out if you're interested. Anyway, Somebody knows a guy in the military who's stationed in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi... actually, she's dating him... and he gave us stuff to make s'mores which were bought on the base. The camp site had this really awesome jungle gym... it was SWEET! The next day we went caving... excuse me, spelunking... at Kagekiyo-do Cave. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend : )

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I had a lot of classes this week - a few more than usual. I've started teaching my Halloween lesson plan to the first year students at Ube Nishi - my base school. They seem to enjoy it... but by the end of the lesson it's hard to keep their attention going from a game back to a dialogue. Oh well. Sometimes I don't have time for the dialogue and it's actually better that way. Yesterday at the boys technical school classes went really well... so that was nice. One of the JTE's who I work with took me to the bank after 5th period. They all think it's strange that I get paid in cash and suggested that I talk to the office people at my base school... because that's a lot of cash to carry around and it's hard to get to the bank before it closes. Although, she did teach me how to use the ATM to deposit money. I hadn't actually used the ATM yet. My bank's ATM - Yamaguchi Bank - doesn't have an English option... so I've just been avoiding it... because ATMs can be confusing and it's hard to read all the kanji (Chinese characters that they use). But it wasn't that hard and I now have confidence that I can withdraw AND deposit money by myself at an ATM. ATM's in Japan are really weird though... because they "close." Some ATM's shut off after a certain time (say 6pm-ish)... and the ones that don't shut off charge you for using the it after 6pm, on Sundays, and on holidays. That is just strange and really inconvenient! She also helped me set up automatic withdrawal for my water bill because for some reason I have to pay that bill at the bank - as opposed to at the convenience store like all my other bills. Banks close at 3pm, so it's really difficult to find time to go... so automatic withdrawal of my water bill is definetely better.

So, now is the beginning of another 3-day weekend. No holiday on Monday... just the second of my "no working days" that I get in October since there are more than 20 working days. It's pretty nice. Tomorrow morning (Saturday), I'll head over to the commercial school I teach at (Ube Shogyo) because they are hosting an English speech contest and my 4 English Club students are in it. The only thing we've been doing in English Club thus far is preparing for this contest... I think they'll do a good job. Last week all the 2nd year students at that school got to go to Tokyo for the week for their school trip. I know they went to Tokyo Disney Land... and probably some other important parts of Tokyo. Two of the English Club girls are 2nd years and they both got me souvenirs from their trip... it made me really happy : )

I was cleaning my apartment today and found 12,000 yen that I had left in an envelope! That made me happy too.

One last note: the exchange rate is beyond shocking today...

$1USD = 92.685 yen

but that is definitely in my favor considering I get paid in yen and not USD : )