Hi. I am free. Free of students, at least for the night time now. I will see them again tomorrow, but not till the afternoon. After being with 9 16-17 yearolds non stop for 11 days, any sane person needs a break. I caught some of the boys with b-b guns that they bought, and had been shooting in the hostel. I had seen the bullets in one of their beds and it looked like rabbit poos. It just proves how immature some of them still are. So I took the selfish approach and ranted on at them about how stressed out I would have been had one of them gotten shot and hurt and I would have had to find some japanese hospital and not had the health insurance papers to pay for anything and how it would not have been a pretty sight. I think they got the message. Either way, now it is their new host families problem!
So having properly vented to you all, the day today was pretty basic. We commuted to Chiba (more specifically Kimitsu) to deliver the students to their new families. We took a bus through the Tokyo Aqua Line (or something by a similar name) which is a tunnel (one of the longest underwater highways in the world) which spans the Tokyo Harbour. It was cool, especially because we stopped for lunch about halfway at this man made island full of restaurants and shops (like a fancy truck stop). I caught a glimpse of Mt Fuji (which really does over look the city) but not truly enough to say that I have seen it.
Tonight Tomi and I went shopping and both bought an Ipod and then he took me to the sports store district. Note: almost every different subway stop here has its own specialty (like electronics stuff, food markets, sporting good, funky clothing, etc etc). So I found a shop that sold volleyball stuff and shooed Tomi off to his night time plans so I wasn:t rushed. It was bliss. I am hoping I will get reimbursed for some of the stuff I bought by the Sports Coordinator at school, but we;ll see. It was fun, nevertheless!!
Tomorrow I get to sleep in and then we go back to the school (which is a 1 1/2 hr journey) for the welcome party where I get to reuse my speech from the other school. The day after is Sea World and then I have 2 free days before we fly back on Sunday.
I did want to mention some things I have noticed about Japan. Like the toilets. I have yet to be in a bathroom that has the same toilet that I have seen in the one before. There are so many things to notice and do in the stall, it takes so long becuase you want to see it all. Like the panel of buttons along the side of the toilet (in one I saw) that had 4 buttons. One was a bidet, one was a bottom wash, one was a flushing sound button (like in case you didn:t want anyone to hear what you were getting up to- in the real fancy restaurants this just happens automatically), and one was a stop button (to stop the bidet,etc). Then you have the standard NZ option of whether you should do a flush for a #1 or a flush for a #2, although its written in Japanese and its not normally the situation where you can show someone else and point to the button and ask which is which. THEN there is the flushing sensors which are individual in each stall as well. Plus most seats are heated. Again, another weird sensation, even if you have covered the seat in paper, you feel a bit grody, like some big woman has pre-warmed it for you. Anyway, I will conclude by saying that toilets in Japan are an experience.
Last note, the traffic lights are red, yellow and turquoise. So instead of "go on green" they say "go on blue".
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