Baby Pixie’s blog

So a couple weeks ago, I headed to the neighbouring city to visit an apricot farm.  Actually, the day started out as a drive to Ueda City to see the Sakura blossoms but as they weren't fully in bloom yet, and the apricot blossoms were, we decided to stop here instead.

It was well worth the detour.  The apricot blossoms were in full bloom.  And this area, "Anzu no Sato," was a whole village where apricot trees were planted in every front yard, backyard, and free space possible.  Everywhere you looked, it was pink!  Might I say, it was an awesome sight.  Unfortunately, none of my pictures of the town turned out very nice.  However, the actual apricot farm itself was in full bloom and it was just breathtaking to see.

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Anyway, I did manage to take some photos of myself so that you're not stuck looking at pictures of only apricot blossoms.  And might I add, the top that I'm wearing was bought in Japan!  Imagine my surprise when I actually fit something here.

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Anyway, you can go to my photobucket to see the rest of the pictures.  I bought a ton of souvenirs that day too.  Apricot sake and beer, anyone?  Heck, can you even send alcohol by mail?  I don't want to leave it until August to take home when the beer's gone stale.

Up next:  Sakura (Cherryblossom) pics.  The sakura season is over already but give my lazy ass some time to upload the pictures.

I'm addicted to O'Zack Black Pepper and Cheese potato chips.  They will be the death of me.

BTW, I have internet at home now.  Yatta!

So...it's offficial!  I'm out of my apartment on March 19th and into a new one!  I haven't seen it yet but my supervisor tells me it's awesome and he's showing me photos tomorrow.  So glad to be finally settling down and getting some darned internet in my place so I can stop wasting money at the net cafe!

I have an unexpected day off today.  Although, I wish I found out before I spent 1760 yen getting there and back. -_-"  My area manager told me that I might get today off in lieu of subbing in Matsumoto this past Monday but when she faxed me my schedule on Wednesday, it showed that I was working.  I assumed she just couldn't find a replacement for me.  Then I show up at the school today and find a Japanese teacher already there!  Damn faxing me the wrong schedule.  -_-+ Frig man...I want my money back.  And I even woke up early today too to get there despite not sleeping until 3:30am last night. T_T  I hope I get my money back.  *crosses fingers*

And so, since I have time on my hands, I'm gonna watch Ghost Rider tonight.  Although I probably shouldn't be spending money on things like this considering I've almost worked my way through the half-month pay cheque I received at the end of last month.  Although, what else is there to do when I suddenly have a 3-day weekend?  I wish I had time (and the money) to plan to go somewhere...like Tokyo...or Hiroshima...or someplace. 

I finally, finally have a cell phone!  Yay!  It's nice and white and pretty and clunky.  But I don't care about clunky, all the phones in Japan are clunky anyway.

E-mail me if you want my phone number.  Oh, my phone has internet!  It's so addicting!  Which is bad...cuz it'll cost me extra if I go over my internet limit...which might happen since I've started downloading songs onto my phone...which is really expensive too...but it's my only source of entertainment at the moment.

Here's my phone's e-mail address: babypixie225[at]softbank[dot]ne[dot]jp.  If you're gonna e-mail me, remember the time difference and don't wake me up in the middle of the night!  I'm 14 hours ahead of T.O.

So I learned on Friday that my supervisor isn't looking for his own place anymore and I won't be moving into his apartment.  Honestly, I hope they find me an apartment soon!  I'm being kicked out of my current apartment on March 25 and not having a place lined up right now for me to move into makes me very nervous.  I don't wanna be homeless in Japan! T_T  Seriously...I'm verging on annoyed at how things are going at the moment with the apartment situation. 

That's it for now.  Nothing interesting's been happening lately.  I'm subbing in Matsumoto tomorrow but that sounds more like a long commute than an adventure in a new city to me.  Oh yeah, and thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday!  ^_^  It makes me so happy that I wasn't forgotten even though I'm halfway around the world.

Whew!  I finally got all my photos uploaded!  Granted...I haven't taken pictures of my crappy apartment yet to show off.  I guess I'll leave that for the before and after shots of when I move into my new apartment.  I'm still internet-less so I hafta hit up the net cafe once in a while.  The good part is at least I'm getting a cell phone on Wednesday.  I'll give out my phone's e-mail address once I get it so please e-mail me there!  I'll get ur e-mails right away.

Let's see, what do I have to add?  Well, to catch up, I have finally uploaded the rest of the photos from training.  Firstly, here's Osaka Aquarium:

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Clickety click for the rest of the pictures and videos.

Second, here's the Golden Pavilion from Kyoto.  Definitely wasn't as interesting as Kiyomizu Dera....should've went back there.  Ah well.  This day made me think that I can take nice pictures:

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Golden Pavilion Pics...and I swear there are pics of me!

What's next?  Well, I guess that gets me all caught up to Nagano.  I'm surrounded by beautiful mountains wherever I travel here.  Yes, I'll get pictures of those soon.  Bored of boarding at Blue Mountain?  Shoulda came to visit me!  We have great slopes here.  They did have the Wintern Olympics here before after all.  Okay, well, no pics of mountains but I did visit a park last week where I got to get up close and personal with monkeys bathing in hot springs.

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Clickety Click

I also got to get up close and personal with another type of monkey who thought that they could finish 10kg and 4kg parfaits:

Well, they did finish them though...

Despite how it looks, there were three guys working on the 10kg parfait...but that one guy finished the 4kg one of his own...I dunno whether to be amazed or disgusted.

And finally, we come to yesterday.  Yesterday, I visited the star attraction of Nagano - Zenkoji, a temple.  That's right, the star attraction of Nagano...is a darned temple.  They had a light festival where the lit the buildings up in the colours of the Olympic rings...something in commemoration of hosting the Olympics or something.

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Pics...I did a tea ceremony!

And that's it for now.  Guys...please comment.  I feel like I'm talking to myself.  At least if you comment, I can comment back and actually talk to you!  There are so many of you guys that I haven't talked to since coming to Japan.

I'm finally in Nagano...and I'm miserable!  My apartment looks like it'll fall apart at any minute, my heater's broken, my tv's broken, and I have no phone or internet.  The apartment's actually quite spacious so why in the world did they make the bathroom sooo small??  And why is there a scary alleyway that leads to my apartment?  *sigh* Ah well.  I'll bear with it until I move into my other apartment...which I hope it soon...really soon.

Other than my crap-ass apartment though, I'm liking Nagano.  I'm like a five minute walk to Nagano Station which means I'm near shopping and other stuff.  I'm totally behind in posting up pictures so I'll eventually get to pictures of my crappy apartment.  In the meantime, here are some from training.

This was a picture drawn my one of the other trainees.  I've finally been animated!  Guess which one is me!

Ah well, the guessing is completely taken away if you look at the second picture.  My head grew cuz he started to erase the board but then the trainer said he wanted to keep it up...so he had to redraw the three heads he erased.  Haha.  My caption says "typical chinese try hard perfectionist... xox."  Ah...I miss their company already.

Pictures from Nagoya.

Pictures from Kyoto.

More to come.  I promise.  It's just hard to upload from a net cafe cuz it takes so long and time equals money!

My hotel room just shook a little moment ago.  It feels weird to be swaying in your seat when your not sitting in a boat.  I know earthquakes are common in Japan and these buildings are made to withstand quakes, but the thought that I'm six floors up and my room is shaking is kinda scary.   It's a long way to fall if your building collapses.

Ah well, I'm going to bed.  Maybe the gentle rocking will rock me to sleep.

Wow...training's been hectic!  Non-stop from morning til night.  I don't think I've ever been awake for so long and had so little sleep.  Hahaha.  Went to a genuine izakaya yesterday.  Amazing place!  Taught my first lesson today.  It was a complete disaster!  Wow...like...wow...  I'd like to drown my sorrows with some alcohol but I gotta wake up at 6:30am tomorrow to catch loooong train ride to my training centre tomorrow.

Up next:  Some pictures and insights into my few nights in Nagoya.

So...after a very long flight, I finally made it to Nagoya....just to find out I`m being shipped to Osaka on Monday for my training there.  Ah well...more of Japan to see.

So...flight was okay...if I was 10 minutes later to the airport, I wouldn`t have been able to check my luggage...then who would be screwed??  So....I made it in time to check my luggage, jumped on the plane and got comfy for the 15 hour flight.  It actually wasn`t too bad since the plane was pretty empty...so I got two seats to myself (though I should claimed a middle row so that I could get 4 seats to myself and lie down.  Ah well).  Anyway, it was pleasant until I started getting sick near the end.  Then I had to dash for the connecting flight to Nagoya.  I don`t think I`ve had such an anxious experience before!  We landed 20 minutes before my Nagoya flight was supposed to load passengers so we had to run to claim our bags, check them into the other flight and then run for the Nagoya plane...which was on the OTHER side of the airport!  Wow....

Anyway, I got in last night, slept like a baby and woke up this morning all adjusted to the time zone already.  Yay!  Anyway...time to leave this internet cafe and actually explore the sights and sounds.  Later!

Ehh...empty blog...time to get filled up!  I am...two and a half days away from boarding a plane to Japan.  I'm a nervous wreck.  I saw some of my friends for the last time for eight months over the weekend and I already miss them.  What will I do without them?  What will they do without me??

I haven't been nervous/excited/scared over any of this until revently.  It all seemed so...unreal.  But as the date looms closer, I'm getting more and more nervous.  What will it be like?  Will I survive living in a small city with possibly no internet?  Will I meet anyone or be a loner for eight whole months?

Sigh...