Friday Aug. 22, 2008: A Busy Day and Hole in the Floor Toilets!

I didn't have training today, so I rode my bike to Brandon's work so I could meet him and then we could attempt to open my bank account. Luckily, the door greeter at the bank spoke great English! We were thrilled!! That makes a huge difference and it made the process much easier. She even gave us her personal phone number...people are so sweet! It is funny because Brandon was convinced that we wouldn't be able to set up an account...not only did we do that, but we also made a new friend in the process!


Later that afternoon, I had an appointment to visit my school, Kaho Koko High School, for the first time. Yukari (an employee from the OWLS office picked me up to take me there). We walked in the school, took off our shoes, and put on red visitor slippers to walk through the school. I met the principal, vice principal and a few English teachers. Pretty much the whole time I was just smiling and nodding. Yukari would sit there and talk to them (about me), meanwhile, I had no clue what was being said. It's an odd, helpless feeling. However, when I met some of the English teachers, they spoke good English (which makes sense, but apparently some don't speak very good English). Sano Sensei (you put the word "sensei" after a teacher's name, to acknowledge their title) was so energetic and she greeted me with "Welcome Aboard!" She may only be 4'8", but she is going to be a HUGE asset to my life at the school (I can already tell). The school is big! Over 1000 students. Sano Sensei was so polite, sweet, and kind. She even offered to give me a ride home.

Kaho Koko High School (I love looking at the mountains...such a great view!)
Side note: high schools over here only have three grades and they typically have to pass tests to get into them (it's not required to go to H.S.) & I will be teaching mostly first year students.

By the way, this whole time, Brandon was trying to get a hold of me because I had our one and only copy of our house key. He took the matter into his own hands...he went back to our apartment and tried to scale the building (we're on the 3rd floor). He didn't try too hard to be Spiderman because it was raining and he probably would have broken his neck if he fell. Yikes! I eventually got to his office (this is after he tried climbing). We both went home and the man from his office was able to come clean the junk off our balcony (which is why Brandon was so desperate to get in).


















We met up with JD and Cara for dinner in Hakata (about 45 minutes to an hour away by train). JD's Japanese expertise is so handy and he was able to track down a yaki torri restaurant. It was pretty good! Pork, chicken, bell peppers, cheese wrapped in bacon, potatoes...each on skewers. JD was able to order and communicate flawlessly with our waiter. We looked around for a coffee shop after that...coffee and pastries for dessert. Yummy! The only drawback to this fun night was that we dropped about $50 or 5000yen for everything...that is just how it is when we go out.

When we made it back to the station to catch the train, I used the bathroom...it was a 1st for me using their "hole in the floor" toilet. So, you have to really get good at squatting and they even had toilet paper (which I'm told may not always be the case).

These are just a couple examples of a typical "Japanese" toilet. The first one is at my school and the other at a restaurant! So, you guessed it... everyday I get a thigh workout, but at home, it's back to sitting because we have a "western converter." It's like putting a plastic potty over the hole in the floor.

~Sarah