Kyoto and More Bugs

Well, Friday I had an orientation in Kyoto that I had to go to. It was actually kind of fun. I like Kyoto. It's a big city with a lot going on, but it's less...overstimulating than Tokyo. It's still pretty overstimulating though.

After the orientation classes we walked around in the shopping districts. I got Alex a birthday present (His birthday is Sept. 2nd - No I'm not going to say what it is! He reads this thing!) and stopped at a 100-yen store to pick up some essentials that we didn't have around the house, but were just common things, like a bathroom stool and a little lunchbag for my bento box. It has English on it. It's grammatically OK, but it's all cute and stuff.

So after the shopping was done, I wasn't going to walk around with the couple of guys, 'cause I wanted to take the train home that night, and there aren't many trains that go to my local station at night because I'm out in the middle of nowhere. So if I wasn't on the train from Kyoto by...like...6:30, I wouldn't be able to get home. So I said goodbye at the nearest subway station and headed down to find my way. Turns out the subway line I took doesn't go to Kyoto station, and doesn't connect with any other lines that DO go to Kyoto station. But I had like an hour and a half, and the road I was on went straight down to the station, so I figured I'd just walk.

Bad idea.

I walked, and I walked, and I walked, and I walked. and I walked. AND I WALKED. I met some people at a big intersection, and approached them, asking them in Japanese if this road goes straight to the station. They were astonished by my Japanese and said yes, it did, but it was a little ways yet, and asked if I needed to catch a train urgently. They said they were headed down that way as well, and they would walk with me. Turns out they were Korean tourists and had just come from Okinawa, so they were flabbergasted that an American had managed to learn Japanese. It was cute.

So I walked some more with them, the pace picking up near the end...long story short, I was walking/speedwalking for that entire hour and a half and ended up sprinting to my train. But I caught it! I was bummed out though because Kyoto station is an awesome place to shop, and I was hoping to do some looking around at the import store, Jupiter. (I craaaaaaave mexican food!)

Over the weekend, we had a couple of my students prank our apartment, you know, the ringing the doorbell and running away thing. It happened like three times, so I hid out on our balcony after closing our door somewhat loudly the last time, and when they crept back up I popped up and was like, "Miemasu yo..." (I can see you...) They freaked out, fidgeted, and were like, "Natalie-sensei! ...er...Nice to see you!" *FLEE* I talked to Sekiguchi-sensei (one of the English teachers at the middle school who lives in the same apartment building) and she laughed. Since everyone who lives in that complex pretty much works for the school system, it's a common playground for the students.

Today I saw a massive, beautiful dragonfly at school. Turns out it's called an "oniyanma" and is what the Yanma pokemon is named after. I was amused.

Turns out the Japanese eat these too. I hope to god I don't have to make an entry about that.