Last night, I found the cutest little lizard in my apartment...the little bugger was fast, but we caught him. I love the little lizards here - last week during cleaning, some students let me hold one that they caught and it started sleeping in my hands. I think the approaching typhoon is causing the critters to come out. Looks like we're getting a big one tomorrow, so the students are not coming to school. The teachers do have to be here, but I was told I can take nenkyu (vacation day). This is a bit of a culture shock, since we didn't have to take vacation for natural phenomena in America. I've been questioned many times about Katrina by my colleagues, and whether or not it affected my home. It's hard not to get emotional about it, because a city I went to regularly as a child is destroyed. It seems like yesterday I was walking through the French Quarter, and now it's a disease-infested swamp.

And now for a lighter topic:

This weekend, aka "Around the Hanto in 24 hours"

Part I - Friday night enkai
Friday night was the school enkai at the onsen. We had a fancy dinner at the spa restaurant, which consisted of many things I could not identify, but they were nice enough to only serve me fish (I hope!). One of the teachers made an origami figure with red hair to mark my seat, which is absolutely delightful. I saved it and will take a picture soon. One interesting thing I noticed about the enkai is that although I was told many times in orientation that it is polite to fill up other's glasses, I didn't expect it to be so frequent.

Gaijin Observation #1: Drinking with coworkers in Japan will get you drunk.

I would literally take one sip from my glass before someone topped it off! It was a rather nerve-wracking experience, especially when they put me in the spotlight and asked me questions. I don't usually like being the center of attention, but will have to get used to it here. After the Q&A session with the gaijin, I headed off to the onsen with my JTE and a few other teachers.

Gaijin Observation #2: Getting naked with your coworkers is weird.

In Japan, you always go into onsens naked. For this reason, they have men's and women's baths. So after stripping down, you go to the showering area to wash yourself before entering the onsen. I followed my JTE, and reasoned that it would be a good idea to shower for about the same amount of time. So two other teachers come and go, and my JTE is still washing. About 20 minutes of showering has elapsed, and she is still not done.

Gaijin sub-observation #2: My JTE is obsessive-compulsive.

So I decide to proceed without her. Wrapping my towel around me, I entered the onsen. She calls out, "Erica-sensei - no towel!" Shit. Modesty goes out the window in Japan, but the bath sure is nice. It was so hot I could only tolerate a few minutes of it though. After we got out, they all showered again. So in the end, I did about 30 minutes of preparation for a 5 minute bath. Welcome to Japan.

Part II - "Around the hanto in 24 hours" coming soon!