Fun, Friends & Food

Three of my favorites! And this weekend involved a lot of all three. :)

The teachers at Misaki Jr. High School had a welcome party for me on Friday night, so I ate dinner with all 11 teachers and the principal in a private room at a restaurant. It was so much fun and quite a feast! The English teacher at the school speaks English extremely well, so he acted as a translator.

We took our shoes off before entering the room. (I have to do this at all the schools, too.) And during dinner, we sat on the floor and used chopsticks, of course. The traditional Japanese dining experience!

The whole group. The English teacher, Mr. Nakano, is on the far right in the white shirt, and the principal is in the middle, wearing a tie.

One of the teachers from Misaki gave me squid as a welcome gift. How...err..umm...wonderful!!

At the end of the evening, we decided that sometime soon we'll have an "okonomiyaki party" at school. Two of the teachers tried explaining to me the ingredients in okonomiyaki. "Cabbage fried...yes, cabbage...and umm..soy sauce and...mayonnaise. And what is it? Bread...made from bread. You know...made from bread!!" (I think the English teacher/translator was involved in his own conversation at this point. So I had to figure out the mystery ingredient on my own.) As soon as I said, "flour??" they both at the same time shouted, "FLOUR!! Yes!" *High-five!* Haha.

I also had a good time yesterday evening, when I went to a cookout on the beach for ALTs in the Iwate area. Iwate is the prefecture (kind of like a county) that Kuji is in. There were probably around 30 or so people there, and I had fun making new friends. It was also nice to speak English at my normal pace and be easily understood! Everyone brought different kinds of meat and vegetables to grill, and I enjoyed the delicious food.

Today (Sunday), I went with the other ALTs from Kuji to the U.S. Airforce base in Misawa to watch an airshow. I went expecting to see some amazing airplane acrobatics, but there was none of that. Maybe because of the rain? I also didn't see as many Americans as I had anticipated, although there were definitely more Americans at the base than in Kuji! But it was worth the drive to the base because I ate lunch at Taco Bell!!

You know the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder?" Well, I think absence makes the taste buds grow fonder, too. :) I don't think a burrito has ever tasted so good to me! Even though it's only been a little over a month since I last had Mexican food, I've missed it. I savored every bite of the scrumptious burrito, knowing that it could be months before I have another one.

In addition to Taco Bell, there was also a Pizza Hut, a Baskin Robbins, a Cinnabon and a place to shop for American foods! So all of us walked away from the base loaded down with shopping bags.

I now have a Cinnabon to eat for breakfast tomorrow, and I'm pretty pumped about it! Oh, and I also have a packaged squid to eat for dinner -- not quite as exciting. :)