The weekend of June 27th, aka "the boat and the concert"
The weekend started right after work when I traveled about two hours to Shin-Kiba for an all you can eat/drink boat cruise. It was fantastic, but not quite what I expected. The boat was much smaller than I anticipated (fit about 50 people snugly), and it was designed like a traditional Japanese restaurant with low tables and tatami flooring. We ate a lot of okonomiyaki and monjya. After the cruise, I went up to Omiya and met up with Laura and Liz for a few hours of Salsa (which I can't do) before crashing in Laura's apartment. On Saturday, I went home, showered, cleaned my apartment, then went out to Kawagoe for a concert. I'll admit, I'm biased, but I prefer the opening act over the headlining group. Highlights of the night include inappropriate use of an afro wig, a song featuring a kazoo, and 4000 yen's worth of Shaka Shaka chicken. The party raged on after the concert, but I went home to sleep.The weekend of July 4th, aka "the accident"
So, picture this: I'm riding my bicycle to school down the same route as I have everyday since September. It's a beautiful Friday morning. The sun is shining and the sky is clear in the way it gets when it rained the night before. I'm cruising down a hill when "bam!" I got hit from behind, and fell into a storm drain that was full of mud (which broke my fall). I pull myself out of the mud to see no car has stopped. My dress was dripping with muddy water, my shoes were buried in the ditch, and the back tire of my bike was visibly crooked. I walked the last five minutes to school, rinsed off (mostly), then stumbled into school about 30 minutes late. Anyway, to sum up the rest of the story, my principal insisted on calling the police and my co-workers (and the police) strongly suggested I go to the hospital. Therefore, I spent over half my day in the hospital and talking to police officers. The orthopedic doctor wasn't in on Friday, so I had to trek out to the hospital again on Saturday morning. The doctor asked me where I was hurt, ordered some x-rays, checked the x-rays, and said "Shoulder, no problem. Elbow, no problem. Foot, no problem." (For the record, I had four x-rays in a month. I hope I don't need anymore for awhile.)
After my Saturday hospital visit, I went to the other side of the city for lunch with some friends. After a surprisingly good vegan burger, I lounged next to the river while my friends swam (Mr. Lucas and Mr. Crouch really drilled the dangers of leptospirosis into my head and I had numerous open wounds). It was a gorgeous day, and I'm hoping I'll go out there more frequently this year.
The weekend of July 12th, aka "the awards."
One of the other teachers changed apartments. In an ideal world, her gas and water wouldn't be turned off between tenants, however, in Japan, she was out of luck for two days. So she stayed with me. On Friday night, I made spaghetti and we watched Flight of the Concords. On Saturday morning, I made pancakes. Then Dan and I met up with a teacher at Dan's school for eel boxes (yummy!) and paper-making.
From there, I went straight into Omiya for the Dasai Awards. Dress was black tie or soccer uniform (many people combined the two). It was a great night. Due to (at the time) unforeseeable consequences, three of us ended up staying in Laura's apartment in Omiya again. I slept in my pretty dress.
On Saturday, we ventured out early in the morning in need of greasy food. I was still in my pretty dress. Also, lately I'm kinda obsessed with "That's how you know" from Enchanted. Emma loaned me her tiara and I sang and pretended I was a princess in Omiya station. At 8 in the morning. Because I'm awesome like that.I got home, showered, changed clothes, and went out again. I met up with Katie and Chika in Ikebukuro, we had coffee and spaghetti for lunch, then went shopping. I bought new t-shirts and a purse. We topped off the day with Milky Way parfaits. Ooh, and in other news, we bought tickets to see Wicked (well ウィケッド) in August. Yay!
And now we're all caught up. Hopefully I won't wait another three weeks to post again.
