So this week, I've managed a grand total of one photo. Goodness gracious, how I have slacked. I do sincerely apologise for that. I guess I could take photos of things that for me have become usual. How about that? I can walk to school one day and take photos along the way; it's a lovely view, really. I just see it so often that I never think to take photos. I'm sorry.
I had to pay my national healthcare bill for the year this week, so I'm severely short on cash for the next couple of weeks. I guess I'll be getting really frugal henceforth. We'll see how it works out, hm?
Friday I stayed up super late to watch the Greece versus Germany game with a few friends of mine. It was a lot of fun, but I wound up spending a couple of dollars getting some snacks for game time. Whoops. The game started at 03:45, so I went up at about 01:30 and sat with them and watched dumb videos on YouTube until it was time for things to start.
I wanted Germany to win as my personal revenge for Greece defeating Russia by the skin of their teeth. Fortunately, for those of you who didn't know, they did. 4-2 win, awh yes. It was beautiful to watch.
Saturday I woke up at about 10:30 after going to bed at 06:00, so I was impressed with myself on that--I do value my sleep quite a lot. I went out to Machida with a couple of friends of mine, and we had lunch. Went to that burger joint I found a while ago, and I discovered that when I start to panic, I can hardly communicate in Japanese at all. It's frustrating and embarrassing.
After I overcame my embarrassment and was once more able to speak, though, I found a little vending store selling a traditional Japanese food that I'd been wanting to try for a while now:
Awh, yay.
The only photo I managed to take this week. Awhhh. Fishy.
At 13o yen, this fellow was actually quite cheap considering how large he was. A waffle batter of some kind, he was filled with the sweet bean paste that I love so very much, and it was still warm and delicious. We came home after a while of wandering around aimlessly, and I returned my room for a much-needed nap.
After I woke up, I looked at myself in the mirror and decided that it was time for me to pick up some kind of exercise. Sure, the food here is good for weight loss to an extent [as long as you eat in moderation, there is generally less oil and the food quality is better], but there is only so much that eating well will do for you. I decided to pick up yoga again, and so I did a hunt on YouTube for a good online lesson and got down to business. They have a yoga class at my school, but it's during a time that I have a class, so that does me no good. I found a really good YouTube channel for yoga [YogaYak, if anyone is interested], and promptly set to meditating and stretching.
Wonder of wonders, I felt so good afterwards.
So Sunday, after I taught a spot of English [and got a free meal], I did it again. And it felt just as good as the last time. I took a rest from it so far this week; Monday, my hand was painfully sore, as I think I accidentally bruised it on something, and Tuesdays are my long classes. Today I had a friend over, and I think tomorrow I'm making dinner for some people. I'll definitely be stretching again on Friday, though. My goodness, I felt so good.
Monday was relatively uneventful, though, as far as I remember. I went to school, came home, took a nap, and then had a friend come over to help me study for my tests Tuesday and Today. Afterwards, even though I had no money, my friend and her boyfriend dragged me with them to go eat dinner, and almost bought me ice cream after it was all said and done, as well. It was only by the grace of the owner of the restaurant giving us free ice cream that I was spared the embarrassment. I promised them tacos tomorrow for re-payment, and tacos they shall have. Maybe I'll stretch a bit beforehand. We'll see.
So, Tuesday was my long class day. Nothing really fun happened after that. Today I had a friend come over after class and I made dinner for the moth of us, which was really good, because although we got nothing accomplished, it kept me awake so that I could go to bed at a decent time.
Yeah... this week's been painfully uneventful. Sorry, guys. I'm broke.
My healthcare bill was 17,000 yen, roughly 200 dollars, thereabouts. Mind you, it's for the year, so that's actually really cheap, and it's nice to have healthcare again, but still and just. It's a bit chunk of change to give away all at once, and it damaged my bank account pretty well.
But after doing my skimpy grocery shopping for the week, I do have a couple of things that I can tell you all about.
Melons and fruits get cheaper in season--well, all the vegetables and fruits do, really.
But if you absolutely cannot stand a life without melons and apples, wait until they're in season. The prices on them now are much more reasonable. Still ridiculous, as far as I'm concerned, but much better than the price they were when I first got here.
Don't forget to look in the sales bins just to see what might be newly available.
Make those friends! I got a free steak out of being friends and the promise of tacos on Thursday, which I already have most of the ingredients for. Japanese sense of amae [dependency on friends and family, literally means "sweet"] is a lovely thing sometimes. Really, though, I've noticed that it seems to exist just about everywhere. It's just that these people have a term for it, and that's what I'm approving of at the moment.
Finding free hobbies are good ways to pass time without spending any money. I'm going to be doing a lot of stretching and drawing this weekend, I think.
If you do find yourself stuck in a rut and in need of money, such as I am, and you're over twenty, look into this website:
http://www.findstudents.net/
In it, you can offer your services as a foreign language teacher to people looking to learn whichever language you offer, and you can even set the price you want.
I won't be able to do this until September, but it's worked for the people I know who already can. You can also look into: http://www.gaijinpot.com/.
In there, you can find jobs [full-time or part-time], apartments, classifieds, and just about anything else in there, and in English.
Sorry it's short this month, but maybe this post will be useful.
I'll try to find more to talk about next week.
See you later, guys.
-RD
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