(no subject)
I had another busy week of listening to explanations, and going on more "cultural explorations" with my coworkers... coworker, actually, and then finished off with two more days of manual labor. This weekend has been spent recuperating and getting more holiday blues.
Okay, I'm going to try to avoid the depressing shit, but I will say I don't ever want to be out of the country for Christmas ever again. My Japanese teacher offered to ask her other friends if they'd like to host me for a few days during my vacation, so I might get to get out of here and NOT be all alone, but I haven't gotten anything back about that yet. I'm starting to look at sites for volunteer guides in Nagasaki, but I'm not sure how long I can go without making a reservation. Ugh. But I figure if all my flimsy plans fall through, I ought to at least go to Uwajima and visit the sex museum there. I've heard it's three floors of sex-related stuff, located right next to a fertility shrine. XD I have to go there before I leave Japan, no question about that. I only wish I had some equally perverted friends to go with so we could take lewd pictures together. :P
I am finished with Logistics. It was a short time because they have a lot of the same departments as the other blocs, and I've already learned about those in pretty good detail, so they didn't bother dragging me through all that again.
I think the one thing that was most difficult about this bloc was I was mostly being taught/guided around by one person in the department, and we didn't always have an easy time communicating/keeping a conversation going, so it got awkward and I didn't have as much fun even on the the touring days. Also, there didn't seem to be room for me over there, so he'd often have me hang out in Kaihatsu in the mornings and wait for him to finish a meeting or something first, and then we'd start touring together. But he'd almost always be late, and we'd be rushing around the rest of the day trying to keep up. On Wednesday I was supposed to be taken to Matsuyama Castle, a place I've wanted to go for a while, but have missed out on it several times. And once again, because he was about 45 minutes late starting out for the day, I ended up missing it. And here I thought the Japanese were all punctual and stuff. >.<
We did, however, take this awesome boat ride around some of the little islands in the Seto Inland Sea. It was cold and cloudy that day, but it felt so good to ride around on the waves and get a closer look at some of the tiny islands--well, some are more like rocks jutting out of the water than real islands--in the sea.
For the last two days of the week, I went to another logistics/warehouse type place. There they had me doing even more mindless manual labor than at the last place. I was on an assembly line helping to pack cans of (mostly) beer into special gift cases. When I wasn't there, I was in the back folding up cardboard separator pieces for the cases. They only do this for summer and winter, during the two biggest gift-giving seasons of Japan. I guess during the rest of the year they do something else. Working on the assembly line was fine, except when people tried to talk to me, because then I'd get distracted and have to scramble to catch up with things.
I liked the other place better because it generally felt more hospitable, and I felt I had slightly more autonomy than at this place. Yeah, there were still people breathing down my neck, making sure I didn't screw up, but at least once they knew I had the hang of it, they'd kindof just stand behind me and only talk to me if I made some kind of mistake. Otherwise I could just work peacefully. I actually felt like I was doing work that was helpful in some way. At this second place I was just shuffling beer from one case to another, and it all seemed like a bit of a waste.
Plus, on Friday I had to get myself there, and I totally got on the wrong bus, and that was rather... well, normal, well-adjusted people could probably have handled it, but it was rather traumatizing for me to get on the bus, ask the driver if he was stopping at (X) bus stop, and he had no idea what I was talking about, but he kept driving while I tried to figure out a different way to explain where I needed to go. And it was the same for the next guy, who made me get off at some station kindof in the middle of nowhere, telling me to get on the next one that came, etc. And it was raining the entire time. I finally made it to the place on time, but before that, I was all like, "Here I managed to fly from one end of the world to another, and I can't even get on the right bus to take me to another side of one town." It was supremely embarrassing.
I was relieved when the weekend finally started. I did Mochitsuki (mochi pounding) for the first time on Saturday. I tried doing it, pounding the rice with the big wooden hammer with the guys, but it's really hard! I only did it for like ten minutes and my arms are still sore. I spent most of the time afterward helping the women mold the finished mochi into little cakes, and we all ate as we went. I liked mochi before, but it's even better when it's freshly made and still warm. *happy sigh* I get to do it again next week, but there won't be as many people there, so I'll have to work even harder...
A friend invited me to go see Inglorious Basterds with her and her husband that night. It finally came to Japan, and luckily they left it the way it is, only with Japanese subtitles. I enjoyed it. I'm glad I got to see it in theaters. Also, I learned movie tickets are cheaper after 9 o'clock. Apparently in Japan it's more popular to go to movies in the morning/daytime, so late movies are less crowded and less expensive... go figure. Also, it's cheaper for girls on Wednesdays, so that'll be convenient someday, I'm sure, if I'm ever up to seeing a movie after work...
And today I was going insane at the apartment alone, so I managed to message someone and hang out. We went out and had some sushi. ^^ So I had some fun this weekend, but I still don't feel quite right. I think I'll feel better after the holidays are over and I've decided where to work for the next six months.
And if anyone was curious, I'm posting the answers to the meme:
1. D. Gray Man - Kanda
2. Sailor Moon - Jupiter
3. Yugioh Abridged - currently, it's Marik
4. Final Fantasy 9 - Kuja
5. Final Fantasy 7 - Vincent
6. Ronin Warriors - Sage
7. Gundam Wing - Duo
8. Gintama - Katsura
9. Angel Sanctuary - Uriel
10.SaGa Frontier (even though no one here's played it, I'm sure.) - Blue
11.MegamanX series - Zero
12.Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) - Giles (with Spike as a close second)
13.Spice Girls - at the time they were most popular, my favorite was actually Sporty. Bet you didn't see that one coming. XD
14.Avatar: The Last Airbender - Zuko