Summer Vacation!

So last week was AEON's summer vacation (from the 9th to the 15th). I had a pretty good time:

On Friday (the 9th) I spent the day taking care of some basic errands including getting my hair cut. That in itself was an interesting experience. Firstly because when I went in, all I told the barber was "とてもみじかい" which means "very short." Fortunately it came out all right. He used a 6mm guard, so now I know exactly what to say next time. The other reason it was interesting was because of what happened after the haircut. Normally after I get my hair cut in the states my face is covered with tiny little hair regardless of how well the barber brushes me off. This Japanese barber literally vacuumed my head. Felt a little weird, but was very effective. I actually looked clean enough to go out in public when I was done there.

That night I went by train to see Cheryl at her apartment! The train was just over 2000 yen, which is really not bad, and if I had gotten on all the correct trains it would have only taken about 3 hours. Unfortunately the latter part didn't happen so I made it there in about 5 hours XD. Then because it was late and Cheryl didn't yet have a car, I took a taxi to her apartment. 3000 yen. Ouch.

Yamanashi (the prefecture where Cheryl lives) hasn't yet realized that it's on planet Earth and not the surface of the sun. Whereas Fujisawa is hot and humid just like North Carolina, Yamanashi is on a whole other level. A majority of our time together was spent sitting in front of either the AC or the fan and trying not to melt, haha. We did get to watch some TV/movies together and it's not like we were totally unproductive: we did make it out to go grocery shopping a few times and I helped her clean up her kitchen a bit. Overall I had a great time and can't wait to go back (especially since next time Cheryl will most likely have her vehicle and we'll be able to explore the area together).

Cheryl decided to take this picture of me while we were walking to the grocery store. We found that going there in the early evening was much much preferable to going there at noon because of the heat.

Tuesday morning, since the taxi was so expensive, I decided to walk to the train station from her apartment: an equally bad idea. >_< It took an hour and a half in the baking sun and with only about 30% of the roads having sidewalks. I'm going to avoid repeating that experience as much as possible, haha. When I got back in Fujisawa I stopped at my apartment real quick but then got back on the train to go to Kamakura, which is a pretty famous area close to Fujisawa. There I met up with some of the other AEON teachers from initial training and had dinner with them. We also did some shopping and I bought some fancy handkerchiefs to hang on my wall as decorations (as soon as I figure out how to hang them).

These are the handkerchiefs spread out on my futon. I decided to go with a bird theme, and I liked having a variety of colors. Can't wait to see them up on the wall.

Wednesday I did some shopping, which was cool. I was able to pre-order a special-edition Pokemon Nintendo 3DS, which I'm proud of simply because of how little Japanese I know. Then Wednesday night I went to Shinjuku to meet up with the same teachers from Tuesday (minus one person and plus a different one) for karaoke and then dinner. All-in-all had a great time, and barely made it home since I caught one of the last trains back to Fujisawa. XD

Thursday was my "last-day-of-vacation-so-I-need-to-do-EVERYTHING" day. In addition to cleaning my apartment, I paid my bills, went and arranged for NTT to come set up my internet (which will be tomorrow morning. I'm so excited! I should be getting 100 MB/s for just over 4000 yen per month, which is awesome), did some shopping at the 100-yen store, and found time to explore Enoshima, the island near Fujisawa. It was a short but pretty awesome excursion. I crossed a bridge to get to the island, after which there's a short road with a bunch of snack and souvenir shops. Past that you start going uphill towards a shrine. Then there's a path up to the top of the island. You can pay to take an escalator up, but of course I made the hike on foot. On top of the island there's a tower from which you can see the coastline. Spent some time up there and then headed back to Fujisawa. I spent my evening at a cafe studying math in anticipation for retaking the GRE Math subject test, and then headed home. It felt surprisingly good to do some practice problems out of my study book - like stretching a muscle you haven't used in awhile.

I taught classes on Friday and Saturday, then I got Sunday and Monday off as per usual. Saturday night was fun since it was my "Welcome Party" to Fujisawa. The staff (those who could make it) took me out for shabu-shabu, which is similar to what you'd get at a fondue restaurant back home. Everything was delicious, and it was really the first time I've interacted with some of my coworkers outside the office, so I had a great time. Sunday I slept in, then did some shopping and then went to a Starbucks to continue studying. Finally today I went back to that recycle shop to look at chairs again. Unfortunately a few weeks ago when Rodney was supposed to help me get that nice green one (for 5000 yen) it was gone. However, today I found something that'll fit my needs for the time being. It's much simpler, but also much less expensive.

 

I say that's not bad for 500 yen.

And that brings me to tonight. That's all I have for right now, so I'll leave you guys with some pictures from my short trip to Enoshima.

This is a view of the island from the opposite shore. This is a pretty popular beach in the area (it's where I went swimming before).

  

On the way up the trail, there's a little garden and across from that is a small pond with turtles in it!

If you're very patient and your camera has enough zoom, then you can get a picture like this one from the top of the tower.

Decided to get a picture with me in it, so I took this somewhat awkward one of me at the top of the tower. It turned out alright, I guess.

At the top of the island, just outside the garden where the tower is, there are some street performers. I sat and watched this one for 20-30 minutes. He had some pretty cool tricks, but I only got this one picture. I also think it's awesome how the Japanese sit down to watch so that everyone can see, whereas in the U.S. everyone stands and is just pushing to get a better view.