BIG THING, little thing

July 26, 2007

Okay, okay, okay, okay…okay. Sorry that nothing has been updated in a while. Things got really busy really fast. We’ve finished teaching at both Kasukabe and Ohanajaya now. The kids were awesome and they liked us a lot. I miss them very much now that all the teaching is done. All the teachers and even the chairman of the entire Kyoei corporation loved us! I’m really regretting not writing each day after class. Sadly there was not enough time. We had a lot of work after each day and it really was impossible to update. I promise I will retrospect on the teaching experience. It would be a crime not to. It was most definitely the best part of the trip.

Today was the day we moved out of the Ohanajaya Apartments. It was a little rougher than I’d hoped, but after much discussion the Fellowship of Nine was broken. Well, there are eight of us, but Dutak was eaten by a Morktor at the battle of Na. Also, Alex left this morning for the airport and I assume at this point he is at hour sixteen of his sixty-eight hour flight. So really, the Fellowship of Seven was broken. The girls are all leaving tomorrow morning, so they are sleeping in the school together. The boys, however, have officially begun their traveling. The four of us (Will, Sid, Ryan, and myself. Alex was supposed to come with us but he went home to see Miranda. Kissy-kiss!) are currently staying in Jesse’s one room dorm-sized apartment above a Soapland in Segendai. The place is set up like a bunch of dorms and the landlady lives right across the hall. We’re supposed to not be seen while we’re here, which makes taking showers and bathroom time very interesting. I believe Jesse’s exact words were “You are Jews living in Hamburg during World War II. Don’t get caught or…or you’ll get the gas chamber.” So there’s that.

It was an interesting journey here. After our departure, we began a trip I’ve been dreading since we arrived in Ohanajaya. Merely taking my bags from one train station to the other and then to another location a block away is torture. I have my duffel bag of crap I bought, my very full backpack, my laptop case, and my sister’s GIANT duffel bag, which I now regret taking with me. Everyone else has little rolly bags, and I must say, they are much easier for transporting down city blocks. At least I would assume so, as I was usually huffing fifteen feet behind Will, Ryan, and Sid the whole way here. After a while, I took the lesson I learned from the Mikoshi and just started breathing rhythmically and staring angrily forward. Also, I thought of a big-eyed duck doing boingy squats in a daisy field covered in rainbows. This kept my mind off the pain. My mind jumped back on the pain whenever I put my bags down to rest. This was unfortunate because I don’t like pain, and my fingers didn’t work either. I had to force them to clamp down on my duffle bag handles again. I’ve never sweat so much in my life.

After we met Jesse and plopped our stuff down in his room, we talked for a while and got ready to relax. Then we got a call from the girls. Chelsey, Cynthia, and Lauren wanted us to meet them in Ueno for one last night as a group…sans Alex. But a group nonetheless! We all wanted to go, but were way too tired. Being girls, however, they used their mind powers to sway us over and we were soon on the traino to Ueno. Sitting down on the train, I remember thinking, “Wait. How did I get here? I don’t remember agreeing to this. Stupid girls! How do they do it?” As soon as we saw the girls though, we were glad to be there. Cynthia had found an all you can eat restaurant where you pick raw meat and fish off of trays and cook it in front of yourself. Don’t worry, mom! I used a different plate to eat off of so I didn’t get salmonella…I hope. Anyway, it was really good food and we all talked about our favorite parts of the experience. Mine was teaching and clubbing. Most everyone else said Karaoke and the party we had with the Kasukabe teachers. I promise I’ll write about both of those. At the end of the night, we all hugged goodbye and it was sad. I guess it really hasn’t sunk in that the girls are gone. I guess it’s because I know they are safely slumbering in Ohanajaya at the moment, but once I think about them on their respective planes, it’ll really hit me that they’re gone. Then I’ll be really sad! I guess the trip is coming to a close, but at least I have a week of travel left with my good buds! After the first, it’ll just be Ryan, Sid, and me. Will will leave. That will also be sad. I hope we all make the most of this week. It’ll just be nice once we have a plan. Maybe we should have talked about this earlier… Nah!