Ok, so I haven't written a real update in quite sometime. And, to be honest, I'm not quite sure where to start. I'm currently sick, bored, and lonely at home. I don't think I really intensely missed Dan until this weekend. I'll spare you the details, but I woke up on Sunday morning and needed to go to the hospital. Since it was 4am on a Sunday, I held out for a few miserable hours and called my mom to confirm that I needed to go. On a weekday, I would have called my friend in the BOE, but she's newly married (I'll talk about that later) and it was a Sunday. The other English teachers in my city always have phone issues, so it seemed pointless to try them. Finally, I took the bus, then a taxi by myself to the hospital. Luckily, I already had registered with them (the bike accident) so I didn't have to deal with paperwork. After explaining the situation to the doctor, he nodded and asked who brought me to the hospital. "Umm... taxi" I said. He looked at me strangely and asked "where's your husband?" Naturally, since I'm living in Japan and I don't speak fluent Japanese, I'm married to a Japanese guy. Anyway, he hooked me up to my first IV ever (good thing I'm fine with needles), and I learned that the word for Nebulizer is the same in Japanese. I taxi-ed home a few hours later feeling much better. Anyway, I'm mostly fine now, and the hospital wasn't really that scary on my own, but I wish I had someone with me. I've been home for two and a half days and talking is difficult, but I miss people. Everyone lives far away, and I don't want them to travel over an hour to come here. It feels like this is the first time I'm really living alone. When I was sick last year, Dan called often and asked if I needed anything because it was easy for him to drop off a loaf of bread or a movie. Now, I have friends who would if I really needed it, but they're so far it's completely impractical. Also, I've been missing DG a lot lately, especially with the recent activity on a photo of the 2007 seniors on Bid Day. Sick in DG meant soup from Adam, curling up in the lounge, and watching Project Runway and Sex and the City for hours with my sisters. Even further back, I miss being sick at home where I would watch Sesame Street and eat rainbow Jello, charsiu, and rice. Anyway... I should be fine, hopefully going to school tomorrow.

The most ironic thing about the entire sickness adventure? I had my first Japanese health check on Friday. Mostly uneventful except for the part where I almost had an accident with a cup when the toilet paper roll fell off the holder... yeah, that would have been bad... I learned I need new glasses.

Irony runner-up is that this was a three-day weekend. Luckily, I didn't have any major plans for 2/3rds of it (the plan was mostly to get new glasses), but I spent two perfectly good holidays sick at home. I took today off too, so I disappointed a bunch of elementary school kids (I tell myself that they really enjoy my English classes).

I did have fun on Friday night/Saturday. In fact, I had such a good time that it almost makes up for the fact that I otherwise had a miserable weekend. I went on my school's staff trip to Ikaho, Gunma. Ikaho is a onsen (hot spring) tourist destination in the mountains north of Saitama. I felt like I was getting a cold, but I couldn't resist since that was likely the last chance I'd get to go on a trip with the teachers. Anyway, we had a great enkai (dinner/drinking party) and I won a Care Bear hot water bottle thing.

The interesting thing about onsen in Ikaho is that they water has iron in it. Like, it's a murky orange-brown color that smells like rust. Oh, but it felt amazing. Of course, I don't have pictures of the onsen itself (since everyone's naked), but seriously, it's amazing to sit in a pool of hot water and look over the railing to see mountains and a blue sky. One of the other teachers and I went off early in the morning to the outdoor onsen and giggled as we froze while cleaning the pool before we got in. Her English is terrible, and my Japanese was failing me, but we had a great time anyway. Then I got sick the next morning (I think the temperature changes, drinking heavily for 24 hours, and not sleeping much had something to do with it). No regrets, I'd do it again.

Here's a picture of us. I introduced her to the wonder of the self-photo. She didn't believe me when I said I could catch us and the stairs in one photo. Behold, the amazing skills I learned in college.