goodbye roommate, hello karaoke

friday, two weeks after my arrival, was natasha's last day of work with nova. that evening another teacher from my school (and a friend of natasha's) named bec came over and we drank wine and chatted until the wee hours of the morning. by the end of the night i had planned the next year and a half of my life: after a year of teaching i would take off and do some traveling around japan. after i'd seen what i wanted to see i would head over to the asian continent and make my way through thailand, cambodia, vietnam, maybe malaysia and some islands. *then* i would go to india and meet bec and natasha at an ashram. after a month of yoga and meditation i'd finally go home.


bye natasha!
good plan. fueled by the chatter of two australian girls who had already visited much of asia and, along with me, drank quite a bit of wine. bec left and natasha and i finally went to bed around 4 in the morning, only to wake up a few hours later for work. (the worst part of a nova teaching schedule: weekends are early shifts, weekdays are late shifts)

saturday evening was natasha's last night out in marugame. the plan was to meet a bunch of other teachers and friends at an izakaya and then go to karaoke. despite having gone to an izakaya the previous week with natasha and mariko, i wasn't prepared for the amount of food we had. there were some heavenly cabbage and cheese rolls, sashimi, fried cheese balls (which i burnt my lip very badly on, had a scar the next day), fries, grilled garlic with miso, edamame.... so much food and so good.


grant, dave, and gavin
after we'd eaten our fill it was off to a karaoke bar, which was on the 5th floor of a building just down the road. (while most floors above street level would be residences in america, they are often businesses in japan) it was a small place, not at all like karaoke bars in america - there is no stage, nor much light. along one wall there was a long bar with stools, on the opposite wall was a long couch, in front of which were tables and small benches. we sat down and were given warm cloths for our hands and a basket of chip-type things. straight away people started looking through the telephone directory sized song book. once i got up the nerve to sing my first song ("it's not unusual" by tom jones) there was no stopping me.

also on this momentous first night of karaoke i met two of my future favorites: dave and paul. i went over and talked to paul after he sang a U2 song (my *favorite* band). i was introduced to dave, as he was new and soon to be teaching at my school. while chatting with dave i was glad to hear that he was interested in going out for some beers sometime. natasha had told me that most people didn't really like to go out that much. i now had hopes that we could change that.


me
it was 6 in the morning by the time we left the karaoke bar. i had to work the next day and natasha had a bus to catch in the morning. she asked me to make sure she was up, i was instructed to hit her if i needed to. that time came too soon and while i had quite a time waking her up. but when she finally did wake up, she popped out of bed still dressed from the night before. i walked with her to the station and we said our goodbyes, still talking about meeting up in india. then i walked home alone.

get into the groove

i started to get into the groove of the teacher's life in marugame. after 11 days all traces of jet lag seemed to have worn off. i had enough lesson plans in my file that i wasn't spending every waking hour planning. i was dealing with riding my bike to work. and then it started to rain.

i had seen loads of japanese people riding their bikes with umbrellas, and on my first day of work where it was raining i attempted to do the same. before i even turned off my road i had given up on the umbrella idea, i just wasn't coordinated enough for that yet. and by the time i passed the train station it really started to rain. so i pulled into the local mini-stop and bought a clear plastic poncho.

despite my new purchase, my legs were still soaked by the time i reached work, though i had luckily packed my work outfit in my bag instead of wearing it. these first days of miserable rain turned what could have been a mild dislike of riding a bike everywhere into a hatred which spawned fantasies of lighting the thing on fire and chucking it into a rice paddy.


at natasha's suggestion i took the train to takamatsu on my "weekend" (really just two days off in a row, which for me was tuesday and wednesday). there was one short page about takamatsu in my rough guide to japan guidebook (which i only bought, instead of my favorite let's go brand because it actually mentioned marugame) and it claimed the highlights of a visit to the city were the beautiful ritsurin park and the shopping. after a long (very long it seemed on that first day) walk to the park and a wander through the shopping arcades and department stores, the highlight of takamatsu, in my opinion, was starbucks.

though i'm not normally a starbuck's person (i normally patronize dunkin donuts) it felt so nice. sitting in a big, comfy starbucks chair. sipping a nice hot latte. it was heaven. it gave me a chance to sit back and reflect on my day. i did quite like the city. i was relieved to see some trendy citizens and quite a few gaijin. the shopping was good. but as i sat there, i decided i wanted to go somewhere bigger. i still wanted to transfer to a big city.