New month, new room, new phone, NEW CAMERA!

Since my last post, I received my first paycheck and had the great pleasure of opening a Japanese bank account. I arrived at the bank at noon with Will and Nicole, who were also in need of a bank account. We did not end up having too much trouble with communication, but I was required to write (copy down) my address in Kanji, which seemed like an impossible task and I still don't know how the teller read my henscratch, but he said that it was okay. At about 2:30pm, after waiting two and a half hours, we received our bank book and were free to go.

We took a break and went to Big Boy, a restaurant which serves hamburger steak. Every restaurant in Japan seems to serve hamburger steak, but this one only served hamburger steak. Many different kinds of hamburger steak. But not that different, really. After this little excursion, we attempted our next challenge: getting a cell phone. We ended up lucking out because Nicole went with us to help and the salesperson spoke relatively good English. This still took about 2 hours and by the time we were finished I was exhausted.
PS. My cell phone number is 080-1650-4243, don't EVER call me (unless it is an extreme emergency)

As promised, I took some pictures of Roger, my new (actually really, really old) car.

One thing is true about Roger, the birds seem to love him. When I picked him up he was covered in bird poop and it was washed off by the rain. But now he is covered again. I have photographed Roger's good side and left his crushed side to the imagination.

Also, I was so excited to get my new camera that I walked around my school and took lots of pictures.





The gymnasium at school where many an assembly is held.

Where I spend hours after school playing table tennis like a nerd.

This room is used for Kendo and Judo. The Kendo club practices on the wood and the Judo on the tatami.

During one of my free periods at school, two of the English teachers invited me to come with them to go and 'dig'. I didn't know what I was getting into, but it was so nice outside that I would have done anything just to get out of the boring teachers' room. We walked down the road, accompanied by the Wakatake(special needs) students and stopped at an opening into some woods with bamboo growing. They explained to me that they eat bamboo in soups and such, and from there we started digging up baby bamboo with a shovel. Evidently, the smaller the bud, the better it tastes. After struggling with getting the first one uprooted, I quickly became a professional bamboo bud digger and could pop one out of the ground with a single kick to the shovel. We gathered quite a few while the teachers took pictures of my struggles (while wearing dress clothes, by the way) and then walked back up to the school. They let me take as many as I wanted home but I told them that I did not cook and had no clue what to do with a bamboo bud. So they told me to give them to the owner of the onsen as a gift, which is exactly what I did.

Some of my handiwork.

When I got home I had an intense two hour, self destructive exercise routine complete with weights, lunges, and an hour long run, all from which I emerged barely able to walk. But when I got back home I was finally allowed to move into my new room! Compared to my old room, it is like heaven. I have a genkan (entrance), a place to put my shoes, a vanity, a door that actually locks from the inside and out (with a key), a separate kitchen with hot water, a little porch with a screen door, and new tatami mats that smell clean and fresh.

My new microwave!!




Please stay tuned for my next update, where I will detail my trip to Tokyo in an exciting and awkwardly amusing first person narrative.