High Risk Behavior

Monday, October 2, 2006

I realized over the weekend that it might not be the safest thing to be friends with DoCoMo guy. I never felt unsafe or harassed in the least. I always felt like he was just a nice guy who enjoyed the company of many women. Huh… I’ll think twice about going out again. But it’s always so much fun!!!

SO lot’s of stuff happened this weekend!

First, I woke up Saturday morning and cleaned just a little since I woke up late and wasn’t in the mood. I wrote the blog entry and then headed over to Adams place. From there, we rode my little pink bike all the way to Kochi.

Alright, let’s put this into perspective. First, I have two bikes at the apartment (had). I wanted one in Kochi city (20min train ride, 15min car ride) so I could ride it around there. Since Adam knew the way, I renounced my loner status and had him pedal the bike while I sat on the back. We ended up taking the long way though because I wanted to do a little bit of shopping. Instead of going diagonally to Kochi we went down and then over. It added about an hour to the trip. Meandering as we went, it took us about three hours.

On the way, we passed the same furniture store that I had seen that awesome but overpriced couch in. We decided to check it out and lo and behold it was still there! I asked Adam if he might be able to haggle the price down. $200 was just way too much for the display model couch which was clearly dirty from too many people sitting on it.

It turns out that the couch was half price to begin with. After shipping costs, it was only $110. I was sold the instant I heard it. So, next weekend, I’ll be getting a new couch!!!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!

Back to the bike ride. It was so enjoyable. Since being here, I have done a few things that I had fantasized about. You know, when I’m in Japan I’ll eat a bento lunch and I’ll sit on the roof of the school in spring when the weather is beautiful and I’ll shoot off fireworks with friends and wear a Yukata at the obon festival! Well, I did about half of those but they never had the same fantasy feeling.

The bike ride this weekend felt like a fantasy. The weather was beautiful and we were listening to music and just enjoying the ride. With the mountains in the background and me waving and smiling at the people staring (and waving and smiling back) it was completely breathtaking.

As soon as we got into Kochi city, we got some water and ice cream and took a rest. I wasn’t up to par since I didn’t get a great nights sleep to begin with. After about a half hour I got on the train back to Tosayamada where I met Kae. I stayed the night in Odochi one day early because Wakako’s (9yr old daughter) sports day was Sunday. Sports day is when all the students get together and just play a bunch of relay races and games outside all day long and everyone including teachers are involved. It always looked like a lot of fun!

But Sunday came and so did the rain. So Sports day was postponed. Instead, I spent a lazy day at the Shinozaki’s. I got some decent studying in too. It helps immensely when I actually find time to study. I don’t spend nearly as much on it as I did in college but the amount of knowledge that I am retaining is amazing. Unfortunately, it’s still not good enough.

Ikuo invited me to Karaoke around 3. He said that it was from 3 to about 11 at night. I thought, hmmm strange that we would be partying for all the time but whatever. He’s my age and he said his friends are coming and by golly I want to meet more people my age!!! So I accepted.

As I was on the door out, I stopped in front of the mirror and noticed three new pimples on my face. Not a good first impression but no worries, there’s nothing I can do about them anyway. And we were off.

In the car, Ikuo asked me if I knew of a company called Amway. He said it was pretty popular in America. I don’t know where this guy get’s his information from. I’ve never heard of it in my life. He then starts talking about “Network Business” of which I understand practically nothing so I just kept nodding my head and smiling.

We ended up heading to Kochi city and there we sat around for about 15 minutes waiting for his friends. While we were waiting he asked me if I knew how to apply makeup. It took a little while to actually get the question out but as I was realizing what he was asking me, I was slowly getting more and more insulted. What the hell does he mean by that? Is he implying that I should be wearing makeup like the rest of all Japanese women so I can cover up those three pesky pimples? He can go to hell!!!!

But that wasn’t the case.

After 15 minutes, instead of actually meeting his friends, we went up into some building and that’s where I spent an hour of the afternoon at a cosmetic party.

You heard me.

The same as a Mary Kay-Tupperwear-Candle-WhateverSparksYourFancy-Party. It just wasn’t at a persons house and there were about 50 to 90 people crammed into a room that didn’t have enough chairs for everyone. Oh, and half the people (men and women alike) had notepads.

I tried desperately not to fall asleep. It wasn’t nearly as interesting as a real Mary Kay party. It was just some woman talking about the different products and why they’re good for you. I heard “America” a couple of times and I’m sure she was saying that her products are popular there but whatever. Who am I to tell her she’s wrong. At one point, Ikuo leaned over and showed me some pictures in the catalogue of vitamin extracts and herbal supplements and told me that they were also popular in America. Ok, if you say so! Sure we have them and some people take them but….ok whatever.

Afterwards, he told me not to tell his mom where we had gone. He said that there was some misunderstanding and she doesn’t like Amway.

So instead of actually going to Karaoke, I got to pretend I did and lie to someone that I really care about!

Whatever, I met some of his friends and I really like them. I also ended up getting invited to a party next weekend which should turn out to be very nice. All people my age and no other gaijin! It should be interesting to say the least.

Today

The sports day was rescheduled for today. But I had work today! So, during lunch I ducked out and walked the half a block to the Junior High School where the Elementary school students were having their sports day. I ate delicious food and watched some fun games that had it not rained on Sunday, I would have actually been able to participate in. Classes went well too. I think Oodochi is turning out to be my favorite school, dare I speak too soon!