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Bits and Pieces

Girls’ Night Out

On the fourth of January, Pei, Hannah, Tomomi-san and I all went out for dinner. We went to a restaurant at the far end of the road, which resembles what a Japanese restaurant is like in Australia… except cheaper! We ate a lot. The place is famous for it’s gyoza, in particular red gyoza. It doesn’t really taste any different, they just give it a different colour! In addition to that, we had yakitori (Teriyaki chicken is almost non-existent in Japan! =S), Ika-buta-tako (butter octopus), ramen, tako-kimuchi (octopus and spicy fermented cabbage stuff) and a vegetable salad. Ah, finally, fresh vegies!! It was all very yummy (no, I didn’t count the seafood in that). After that, we couldn’t go to our usual bar because it was full (these places only hold about a dozen people each) so we ended up going next door for drinks. It was a good night out.

Room Issues

I think I’ve mentioned before that the TV in my room doesn’t work. Well, in addition to that, I had issues with my heater. It’s not good when that breaks down, because it gets a little cold! On one night, I woke up suddenly about 1am because I was freezing! I sat up and saw my heater was off. I had had this problem before. It would beep really loudly (I didn’t hear it this time) and stop and “E-12” comes up on the screen. To get it going again, I have to turn it off and then back on. On this particular night, I did that (when you turn it on, the screen shows the temperature you want and the temperature of the room. I have the temperature set to 22 degrees, it was 2!) and went back to sleep. Fifteen minutes later “BEEP BEEP BEEP”! I got up and turned it back on. Fifteen minutes later “BEEP BEEP BEEP”! *sigh* You’ve got to be kidding me! This happened for about two and a half hours before I just turned it off and put on several layers of clothes and my blanket! I was so so cold that night. My body was OK, but my face was FROZEN!

Anyway, the next day, I went to speak to Sakurai-san (my boss). I explained that the heater was playing up and that my TV didn’t work. So, he came to me room and fixed both. For the heater, he just cleaned the filter. The TV took a bit more work but I can use it now!! Yay!! Japanese TV is weird though!! They have some of the weirdest shows. Some interesting ones though: I watched a show that was teaching English and another teaching Chinese! I watched a singing show where in the first part contestants had to sing a song in time. If their score dropped below 79, they had water tipped on their head! No one succeeded! The second part was to sing a song in its entirety without making a lyrical mistake. If he contestant could do that, they won 2,000,000 yen ($20,000). Two people one that and one person lost on the last, last, last word! If they got so much as one particle wrong, they were buzzed out!

Serious Injury

No, not me. James, one of the lifties, was out snowboarding and whilst attempting an advanced jump (apparently 12 metres high?!), fell and hurt his arm and chest. He was spitting up blood and in a lot of pain. He went to hospital and they had to take Satoshi-san too, to translate. He has fractured the left-hand side bone in his right wrist and, where the lumpy part on the wrist is, he has chipped part off that bone and it hasn’t set properly, so he may require surgery. Thankfully, he didn’t break any ribs. He’s going back to the hospital today (Monday 7th January) to find out whether he’ll require surgery.

He’s probably going to be dismissed from the resort because he can’t do his job. Lifties do a lot of brushing, shovelling and snow removal as well as having to pull lifts around to get them moving. None of which he can do one-handed. When I spoke to him, he said if he has to leave, he won’t go back to Australia, but try and get a job somewhere else in Japan to make full use of his visa.

Shopping

Tako-san, the vice-CEO, took us out shopping last night because we were all desparate to go to a 100 yen shop and a supermarket. There was nine of us altogether, including Toru-san, Tomo-chan (Tomomi-san) and Shizuka-san. The 100 yen shop was great. You can pick up some amazing stuff for roughly $1 a piece. I bought a cushion (we can’t sit on the tatami because we get straw all over us!), some containers (my room is too open. I need to compartmentalise things!), a lanyard for my room key, magnets, sticky tapea bowl, chopsticks and a couple of other bits and pieces. What we really wanted though were baskets and this 100 yen shop didn’t have them. After that we went to a supermarket and then back home.

On the way back, I had a nice little chat with Toru-san. I was curious about whether or not he remembered our little experience on New Years Eve!! (Well, New Years Day) He said yes and that it was very kind of me to walk him to his room. However, he only has selected memories! He doesn’t remember the “Kiss? Kiss?” episodes and previously, I had only told Hannah what had happened. Everyone was in hysterics when I told them and Toru-san sat there in shock! Since he didn’t remember though, they decided to tell him that he actually kissed me! I just felt me face go red!! I’m certainly more embarrassed about it than he is! He asked me if he did kiss me. だめ！だめ！だめ！(No, no, no!) So very embarrassing!!

Apology

Before I finish, just letting you know, I don’t think you can post comments without registering. Sorry about that, I didn’t realise. Please feel free to email me. I may take ages to reply, but I will eventually! I’m just having difficulty getting internet access at the moment. However, my 12-day straight working period is over!! HOORAY! I have a day off today (7th January) and so does Hannah and Pei, so instead of trying out snowboarding like we originally planned (Firstly, we’re anxious because of James’ injury and secondly, the ground is very hard because there hasn’t been snow) we’re going to go to Nagano to look around and more shopping! We’re still not sure how we’re getting there, but we’ll work it out! We also have to go to the city office to get our alien registration cards. Days off should become more frequent because the busy period is over. As well as the 7th, I also have days off on the 10th and 15th. Definitely skiing then! =)