My Hobbies Include Hanging Out With Foreigners

I received a call out of the blue last night from Sunil, one of the more senior JETs in the Hachinohe/Shimada area. He told me that all the JETs in the area were meeting up for bowling and lunch or something and asked if I would like to come with. Right before I left today I got a call from Elly, who was on the way with Kate and Alexis and told me to meet them at Baskin Robbins. Well I got there and Lorraine was also there (she’s like one of the prefectural advisors or something) so I told her about my power adaptor woes. She’s also a mac user I guess and she told me that they sell them at this Apple reseller in Misawa (where the American military base is located). So she drove us all up there but alas, the place was closed. So we then returned to the mall where we met up with the rest of the crew and ate at this Italian buffet. I wasn’t aware that tater tots and fried chicken were Italian dishes but I was thankful for the plethora of Western food, regardless.

We then went to this bowling alley in the mall that was so much like an American bowling alley that I completely forgot that I was in Japan for a while. Afterwards, we went over to the arcade where Charlie introduced me to the Taiko (Japanese drum) game, with which I think I will be spending quite a bit of time. Then we broke off into smaller groups, with Charlie, Lorraine, Kate and I heading to Hachinohe in search of my elusive power adaptor, as well as a phone for Kate. I quickly found a generic replacement adaptor at the first computer store we went to and bought an S-video cable (for hooking my computer up to my TV for movies) and some speakers as well. You’d think that I would’ve learned my lesson, having already spent $100 on speakers only to have them break immediately. Not so. After trying out all of the speakers in the store, I determined that only the most expensive ones would be acceptable for my needs. They’re pretty sweet though, they’re like little shelf speakers and the housing is made of real wood. All in all, I spent about $150 at the store.

We then went to the Yamada Denki (large electronics store) to get a phone for Kate, which was about $100 as well, for a cordless phone with answering machine. On the way back to Shimoda, we stopped at a Korean barbecue place (where there’s a charcoal pit built into the table and you cook your own meat and vegetables) and it was delicious.

Upon returning to my apartment, Charlie and I decided to hang out and watch a few movies. Some of you who live in apartment complexes in large cities may know what it’s like to have to park in assigned spots allotted to building residents. Well, every apartment building in Japan is like that, regardless of location. Anyway, I guess Charlie had parked his car in some other guy’s spot and the guy came and knocked on my door and very rudely told us to move the car. Charlie says he wouldn’t have even apologized to the guy but I wasn’t trying to make any local enemies, at least within my first few days of living here. The guy was a real jerk, though.