7.26.2009

Hello -

I have had quite an eventful couple of weeks. On July 16 (Thursday) I went to Japan to get a teaching VisA. I left my apartment at 4:30 AM and took the bus to the airport. THe flight and eveything went fine and when I arrived in Japan I got on the bus that takes people from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. I took out the map that showed how to get to the Korean embassy in Fukuoka, Japan. I was sitting on the bus and a guy from Chicago sat down next to me and said that he had to do the same thing. This is about 9:00 AM and we decided to go to the embassy together. We got there about 10 o'clock and filled out the paperwork and had the entire day to explore. We ended up walking around the city for quite a few hours. We saw a Hard Rock Cafe, a big baseball stadium, and lots of other different things. We were walking around trying to meet some Japanese people and we ended up talking to some university students. We asked where should we go and they said to come with them. They took us to the campus and we went into the big open area and were greeted by everyone staring at us. It was a really cool experience. We ended up finding out that there was a baseball game 'Yahoo Stadium' and we decided that we would try to go. We ended up finding our hotels/hostels first and then we came back to buy some cheap tickets. Our seats were almost dead center field and it was amazing. There is a 'director' for the fans and everyone follows this guys instructions and does the same cheers. It is nearly non-stop chanting/cheering the entire game. The Japanese ladies behind us gave each of us 2 little triangles of seaweed and rice to eat, the people in japan were really nice. The coolest part of the was during the 7th inning stretch. We were getting ready to leave and all of the sudden everyone started to blow up these big yellow balloons. All of the sudden everyone let go of the balloons at the same time and it was just an incredibly high pitch noise from all of the balloons, and then balloons just started falling all over the place. It was a really crazy experience, but it was a great time. One more story, we needed to exchange some money in Japan. We ended up going to a few banks and we finally found one that would exchange our money. We went upstairs and found a guy that we could communicate w/ using broken english. It took forever to exchange the money but when he came back with the money he also had 2 packages of seaweed. Each of us got a big bag of seaweed (dried, almost like pieces of paper) along with our money. It was really funny, but when we left the whole office upstairs bowed and smiled at us and then we went downstairs and the whole office downstairs did the same. We left to a bunch of bows and smiles, it felt like we were celebrities. We ended up walking around a lot in Japan together, but I ended up spending literally almost the entire 24 hours with the guy, Randall, from Chicago. We had to pick up our passports w/ the VISA's the next morning and we happened to go at the same time and then we went to the airport together and had the same flight home. My hostel was amazing there are some pictures of it. It was a traditional Japanese hostel and it was huge. I booked the room the night before and I got very luck. All in all, the trip was amazing except for the weather. I thought that Korea was hot, but Japan was much worse. It was pure humidity and it seemed like there was almost a blanket as soon as you walked outside during the day. Japan is a really clean place though, and the people are very nice.

That same weekend I went to Insadong (spelling?) This is a traditional city and it is a big tourist spot. I didn't take many pictures but that is where I will probably go to buy my souveniers before I go home.

Another funny thing happened a couple of days ago. I hadn't gotten a haircut since I've gotten here so I decided that it was time. I came home after class and washed my hair and then left to go the the hair place. The weather is so hot that a lot of times when I get out of the shower without the air conditioning and dry off it seems as though you wipe the water away and then the sweat starts to come. This was the case this weekend. I dried off my head and then headed to the place. The other thing is that when you walk it doesn't seem to be hot but as soon as you stop it really catches up with you. So I made it to the hair place and sat down and immediately felt like I was going to begin sweating. I just sat and the sweat started forming on the forehead and sure enough the lady saw it too. There was one girl cutting my hair and also another girl that was almost like a dental assistant. She would get things for the lady cutting my hair and I am assuming she is training. First, the cutter says "Air COND!" (air conditioning) That was a welcome statement, but it didn't make the sweating stop. ha Next the lady says "Tissue!" and so then there's a tissue for me and I insisted on wiping my own face. Fast forward another couple minutes, the assistant brings me a glass of ice water. ha Still sweating... And then the lady actually got more tissues and wiped my forehead for me. It was really embarassing but the lady didn't miss a beat. She finished and when I had to pay I didn't have the right ammount and when she gave me my change I just laughed and pushed it back to her and laughed. To add to it, there was a huge language barrier. A lot of laughing but it was actually a really funny experience, embarassing yet funny.

That's my last story for this update but there will be more to come, hopefully everything is well and I will talk to everyone soon.