First Snow!!

The first snow of the season finally fell today!!!! And it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!

My god, I couldn't stop staring out of the window....getting lost in those gorgeous huge soft flakes.

The weather here is crazy. You'd look out the window one minute, and there would be dark dark thick grey skies creating a huge white snowy beautiful thick BLIZZARD, and then 30 minutes later, the skies would be bright blue, not a cloud in the sky, all the snow gone, hardly any puddles around, and a bright shining sun. WTH! haha. This carried on the whole day. One period it would be a snow storm, the next period it would be sunny as any LA day. CRAAAZY.

But gosh, it really is beautiful. Haha, we'll see if I still say that 5 months from now.

Anyhow, other than that news...

O, I finally went to an onsen for the first time yesterday. An onsen is basically a natural spring hot bath house water place -- usually in the mountains. From my understanding. Haha. Anyway, it's hot, congested, and absolutely glorious. I want to go back when it snows, cuz they have these natural spring water rock pool things outside, so you can soak here while it rains (which i tried for a while but the droplets were too big and hurting my head, haha) or snows. But this place is super cool...there are numerous tiny pools - all with a different perk and purpose. They have a pool designed for you to lie down in - like grooves are built into this pool, so you can rest your head on a marble "pillow" and rest your arms to the sides. I fell asleep and when I tried to get up, I nearly fell onto the naked japanese lady next to me, cuz the heat and all that relaxation was making me real light headed and disoriented. I'm not entirely good at these things - jacuzzis and things, but I bear it out cuz in the end, it really IS relaxing. O, so back to the other kind of pools....there are massage showers - which are showers that beat down really high pressured water, and it feels amazing. There are hot baths. And hot jacuzzis. And not so hot baths. And private tubs. And saunas. And...misty thingies that mist out the all-naturale mineral water that comes from the surrounding mountains. And an ice cold tub to soak in at the end if you're brave enough. All the while, everyone is completely naked. Obviously, this took some getting used to, but after the first few minutes, I was more concerned about procedure and confused about where to go and how to do it that I forgot about being naked really. Well....sometimes. Man....naked in front of 100-some Japanese women....never would have thunk it. haha. But yea, procedure and proper etiquette is so freakin' important and intimidating and scary in Japan. It feels like, if you get it wrong once, you're totally fucked.

Oh, and all of this was for $8US. The best part of it too, is that they don't just provide this great beautiful atmosphere in the middle of the mountains, in all-naturale spring mountain water, that's heated to the most hottest perfection you can experience, but they provide all these little tiny things that totally add to the experience - like body soap and shampoo (they aren't skimpy or cheap about the products), hair dryers and brushes, that they heat and clean between uses,....I dunno. Tons of tiny things. That are cute and thoughtful. Haha. O these darn Japanese, they think of everything.

Everything works here. I have no complaints thus far.

Nothing like China. Bah.

Anyhow, other than that...I had my third private Japanese lesson tonight. So I'm pretty pooped - I wanted to begin with an overview of what my school is like, and some pictures of the kids, but I'll do that another day. I figure, if I can get a post in, even if its just about my boring weekend, then that's better than nothing.

Anyhow anyhow, I can read hiragana now!! O it's so much fun. I can't understand a word of anything I read, but I can read it nonetheless. Now I understand how the kids feel, when they read English. Sure you can pronounce it out loud, but you can have not-the-faintest idea what you're saying. Totally different from Chinese. You can't read a character and not know what it means. It doesn't work that way. So yup...now I'm onto katakana - hopefully I will have this down by Thursday (I have 2 1-hour lessons a week, with this amazing Japanese teacher)...and then I can read things like...what kind of cheese they're selling in the store!! Which btw, I found brie cheese in a grocery store near my school today and I was very excited, because the grocery store near my apartment, has a very small selection of cheeses - from what I can gather. And for what ever reason, I've been on a mad cheese binge.

But i couldn't buy it, cuz I'm down to my last $9US. 

O ok, that's one complaint I have about Japan...the mailing system. Apparently, they mail something like an ATM card (or your internet modem or etc etc, any package of the sort), and if you aren't personally there to receive it, then it gets shipped back to the bank that originally sent it. So of course, the bank I applied in is ALL the way across town. Like an hour away on the subway practically. And of course the banks are only open something obscene like 9am to 3pm. And closed weekends and all holidays. So its impossible to find time to go there and pick up my ATM card. So though I did receive about 10 days worth of pay so far, I can't get to it. And unless I go tomorrow, I'm absolutely broke.

But it's been kind of good, I've noticed, I've been a lot more smart (thrifty which in this case ACTUALLY equals smart, and not annoying) about spending money this past weekend. And I've made $30 last quite awhile, while not impinging on any sort of fun, like going to an onsen an hour out of the city up in the mountains, or singing karaoke, or....you know, all that jazz in between.

Not sure if any of this makes sense....to those without a brief overview of my current living situation in Japan. But I'll get to that later in the week.

As expected, this post turned out longer than I thought it would, and took up more time than perhaps I would have liked.

Hope it wasn't too confusing, and you guys enjoyed!

It's weird....writing a blog.

I'm still not entirely used to it. It still feels a little silly. But if you all like it, I'll try my best to keep it up. =)

OMG!!! AND IT'S SUPER TUESDAY!!!! WAAAAAAAH!!!!

go out there and make THE WORLD proud!!!! (trust me, the WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING AND WAITING!!!! so don't fuck it up - haha, the whole 3 people who are reading this right now).

We're all so excited here, one girl is gonna skip work to go home and watch CNN tomorrow afternoon. Some of us are going to a bar to hear all the big speeches. HOW EXCITING!!!

HISTORICAL!

you're living in a moment of history. THIS is history. weeeeeeeeee!!!

well night for now. finally. =)

cheers and beers, <----- ?

-j9

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