Teacher's Weekend

Teacher’s Weekend
November 3 and 4, 2007

At 7:40am we are supposed to be boarding the bus. Of course we are late, our legs are pedaling quite as fast as we’d like them to, and our phones start ringing. We try to ignore them and just pedal faster but the persistence of the ringing intensifies. What a way to start the morning…the third Saturday morning in a row for a bus trip I might add!
So we were really only down the street and the boarding was supposed to start at 7:40 and we were leaving at 8:00. We were there at 7:45 but for some reason everyone was ready to leave at 7:40 even though they don’t come to lessons on time (hey, no complaints). Whatever, “Let’s go together!”

At 8:00 the bus pulled out from in front of Futaba School and we head off towards the freeway. About 30 seconds later, Tara realized that the tour guide was the same one from the week before when we went to Osaka. Is he on the payroll? Also there is this lady who apparently comes with the bus. Her job is to talk…and talk and talk and talk. She wouldn’t be quiet. She was telling us everything about everything. She was great, I’m sure, but I speak and understand English, not Japanese, and I didn’t understand her. It was like listening to the teacher from the Charlie Brown movies, “Wha, wha, wha…”

Japanese snacks
everyone on the bus
The lady who wouldn't stop talking
Here she is talking...

While everyone is sharing a seat with another person, Tara and I get our own. The joys of being a VIP. Upon boarding the bus everyone was given a treat bag full of Japanese snacks and we also got two bottles of water. I love bus trips like this! We kick off the trip by interviewing Masami and Myaka on Tara’s video camera. It was quite hilarious! We are also told to put that the roads are curving and dangerous-seatbelts requited. Since it’s so early, we all settle in for naptime before we hit the conbini for our first rest stop.

Masami during the interview

At our first conbini stop there was a long restroom line. Tara and I decided to skip it and get some food instead. Finding food in Japan conbinis is really hard if you don’t care for Japanese style food. I grabbed some coffee (yes, me, I know) and a new Hello Kitty charm and then we hit the bus again. We would soon regret skipping the restroom.
Back on the bus, Misaki was walking around handing out food. At first glance it looked like small pieced of beef jerky but a purplish color. She insisted on giving me one. I took it to be polite but I didn’t know what it was (I never know what they are feeling me here). The teachers said it was dried squid. So I have a seven year old handing me dried squid like it’s the normal thing to do and now everyone’s expecting me to eat it. Fine, try something new today, Amanda. I ate it-it was fishy.

By the time we stopped again I ran to the restroom. This stop had no food and I was starving but my main concern was getting to the restroom. Two bottles of water and coffee were not so smart on a bus. This restroom had only Japanese style toilets. There was also a musical, relaxing fountain for you to listen to. Interesting to say the least.
Back on the bus, we seemed to be making good time. We passed a place where they farmed oysters. We went over a cool bridge but Tara didn’t like that (she doesn’t do well with bridges), and we passed a huge chicken statue and a rollercoaster. Finally we made it to the first temple.
Parking the bus was like landing a plane on the smallest runway in the world. Then, just to be Japanese, we had to back in. We walked to what seemed like that top of a mountain to a restaurant to have a traditional Japanese lunch. Our food was in a jewelry box-I’m not kidding. My food was in drawers and you were supposed to eat them from the bottom up but I didn’t know. I don’t think it mattered though really since I didn’t eat much. I tasted everything but I really didn’t like it.

Help me!! I want to live!!


Yummy...raw fish

After lunch we finished the hike and ended up at the temple. We toured the inside and then bought fortunes. We walked around the gardens and saw many statues. We saw a giant Buddha, and relaxed. Afterwards we descended the mountain and shopped along the way. There were a lot of weird things but I am pretty used to them…cats tied up like dogs and the strange smells. At the bottom, Tara and I couldn’t find our bus. They had moved it. What a dirty trick to play on the Americans!

Tara and me at the temple

Some of the Japanese teachers in front of where you tie your fortunes if they are bad.

We left the temple and drove on to the next one. Apparently the parking lot was full so we just kept on driving. We went on to our third destination, a shrine. They were doing some construction on the torii so it smelled like very strong rubber cement. Once we went in it was better. We had to hike to the top and then we saw some monkeys in a cage. Even better, we same some little children in kimonos. They were all dressed up and had their hair done. They were so gorgeous!
We rang the bell at the shrine and saw many little different shrines (I was told that they are each from a different god). We found a Japanese flag and we took our picture with it so that you would all know that I’m really in Japan (if you didn’t believe me from the people). Then we went back to the bus.

We rode on and ended up at Biwako Grand Hotel where we made a celebrity entrance. We headed to room 502 where Myaka, Masami, Tara, and I would be staying. It was pretty awesome. There was a tatami floor (straw) and yukatas for us to wear. There was tea on the table so we had a tea party and read our tea leaves. Well, sort of.

Room 502

Me in our room

Afterwards we went to the onsen to relax before the enkai (Japanese party). We finished at the onsen and put on our yukata’s and then went to the party. Myaka modeled how to wear one so that we’d be professionals and not freshmen.

At the enkai we ate another traditional Japanese meal (I really wanted a pizza or a cheeseburger) and we played games and sang karaoke. Tara and I sang “A Whole New World.” We actually butchered it more that we sang it. We were laughing and coughing so hard.

Traditional Japanese Dinner
Enkai
Enkai
Karaoke

After dinner we went back to our room. We decided that we should get a massage. We called up and had the massage people come to our room. Our massage idea was probably the worse idea of the weekend. The massages were terrible. It was like we were being beaten to death my Japanese people. Hearing Masami tell about it was hilarious. She had to get out her English translator dictionary to help. At one point, Tara’s lady was standing on her.
With massage time being over, more teacher friends came over and hung out. It was like a sleepover! We talked about boyfriends, life, exchanged love fortunes that were bought at the temple, etc. It was fun having everyone come together and be girls.
Right before bed, Myaka told us a story about something Japanese and then we were out. She also told us not to snore, but then admitted that she snored a little.

Masami after talking about her massage

Tara in the "bed"
Teacher friends
Me in the "bed"
Myaka warning us not to snore.

The next morning I woke up at 6:00am and went to the onsen that overlooked the lake. I watched the sunrise. It was gorgeous. We left the hotel and went to Osaka for a few hours of shopping before we would go to the theater. We hit up a photo booth and took out picture together. We shopped for Hello Kitty and Rilakuma. We saw a mall concert. Then we ate lunch. At 1:30 it was time to head to the musical.

sunrise over the lake

Tara exceeded the purchase amount and got a free balloon.

Rilakuma and Tara (rila-relax kuma-bear)
Hello Kitty is one of the faces for Softbank (my cell phone company)
The clock in Osaka Station

The musical was pretty cool, although it was hard to follow since it was in Japanese. All of the participants are women. They play all roles, including the male roles. After the musical they had an intermission and then came back out and did a dance half. It was pretty neat.
It was a fun weekend but I was glad to get home. I was so tired and I knew that Monday morning was going to come early!

Osaka Bus Trip

Osaka Bus Trip
Saturday, October 28, 2007

6 am comes really early, especially after being Baby Spice at a Halloween party with all of your friends. That’s okay though, we were going to Osaka for a day of relaxing.
Tara and I caught the train and headed to meet one of the principals that arranged the trip. She and many of the teachers had invited us to go with them for the day to Osaka. We were going to have a big lunch and then have free time to shop or do whatever. Some of the teachers brought their kids and we going to go to Universal.
I slept the whole bus trip, right through the Japanese voice over for Shrek. Thank goodness, I hate hearing Disney movies in Japanese. To be honest, it freaks me out. I totally expect English and then it’s not…just confusing. We stopped a few times at conbini’s to get food and have rests but I didn’t get off that bus. It was the best bus I’d been on so far!

When we got to Osaka, we were early for lunch so we went into a shopping building that had many nice stores like Luis Vuitton, etc. All of the stores were closed when we walked in so we had to wait. At the stroke of the bell everything opened. The escalator, which was previously blocked off by a rope, was unroped and a guard hopped in front and then everyone followed him. He rode all the way to the top of the building to silently announce that the stores were open. It was weird but cool.
See the guard up in front? Leading us up the escalators?

A glass elevator...a long way down

We were taken to the Hilton. We went up to the 35th floor to a restaurant where we were going to be eating lunch. It was a gorgeous vies and the best part was that it was a buffet!! This may not sound like anything to you, but for Tara and me it was heaven. We are always served a small portion of something that we hate and then we are starving for the rest of the time. A buffet was the best news we had heard about food in a long time. Osaka, 35 floors up
Our resturaunt
Some food...Western style

Japanese teachers

We went shopping after that. Tara and I went to an arcade (an outdoor strip mall thing). It was fun. I bought a few gifts but mostly had a good time walking around and looking at stuff. We didn’t have too long though because we had to meet up with our group again. Our lunch took a lot of our time!

After meeting our group, we finagled our way back to our bus, riding subways and running through train stations. When we finally loaded the bus again we were tired. The kids were back from Universal Studios and they were all decked out with face paint. I slept on the bus ride home to avoid listening to another Japanese movie.