Losing steam

Losing bogging steam that is.  I don't know if it's that i just don't feel like writing, or if i just feel like there's too much to write about and i don't know how to put it all down.  I feel like writing diary-style is kinda boring and not creative but it's also the best way for me to get down all the details so i can look back and remember it all later.  But anyway.. 

Well first off, i finally- FINALLY- heard back from Amity about the job.  Took them over a month, but i finally got an email from them the other day, the day we got in to Tokyo.

They frickin' want me to work for them.  *cue confusion from me*  Seriously, i left that second, personal-interview feeling rather embarrassed with my inarticulate-ness and general ummm... lack of amazing responses to their questions.  When they were taking forever to get back to me i called just to check and make sure i didn't somehow miss a call or something from them, and they told me they were still confirming my references and whatnot, i had a feeling that the outcome would be good, but it still coulda gone either way really, so the email was a bit of a surprise.  And relief.  Because frickin' FINALLY.  Damn!

I will still be applying to other places while i'm here though, just to give me the maximum amount of options.  I still have my reservations about Amity, and about my ability to be a teacher in the first place.  I guess they wouldn't hire me if they didn't think i could do it, and if they didn't like my mini-lessons that i gave at the interviews.  But i have extreme performance anxiety.  For example, before the first interview when we had to prepare and present a little 5-minute English lesson to our interview groups, i was so nervous for the whole 1-hour break before the group interviews that i could hardly eat my lunch, i had a horribly upset stomach, was jittery and hot and sweaty... And then while i was actually giving my lesson i could feel all the heat in my body rising to my face and i was horribly sweaty afterwards.  I can suck it up and gaman (endure? persevere?) through it but i'm just afraid that the whole full-time teaching thing might be a bit overwhelming.  If only i could go into professional translating straight from college, but no, everybody wants experienced people..  Just gotta work my way through the stepping stones i guess.

Well this has turned into a bit of a long-winded post already.  I'll get to yesterday's adventures now..  Met up with some old friends from UW to hang out for the day.  S and i got horribly lost trying to find the station to get to Ueno where we were to meet, but luckily the rest of the day wasn't so rocky.  Had quite a good time, went to the Sensō-ji temple in Asakusa, then went and took the water bus (?  a boat, essentially) to Odaiba and explored the Fuji TV building.  Then we headed to Shibuya for dinner at a really nice restaurant and ended up having a lot of fun with the table of drunk guys next to us there after a wedding.

 Large lantern of Kaminarimon, up close

 Lots of stalls and booths inside the temple grounds

 In front of Sensō-ji

 Sushi-kins, E-chan (our "Sweetest Giiirl!") and S on the water bus

 View of Tokyo Tower in the background from the water bus

 The dinosaur cranes in the background reminded me of Seattle!

 Escalator up in to the Fuji TV building

 ..not sure what to say about this one!  Lovely reporters with a basket of fake fruit?

 Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station

 Chopstick Cafe, where we had dinner in Shibuya

 One of our dishes.. fondue-like and delicious!

 Some of the awesome drunk guys at the table next to us!  The guy on the left wearing the banner had just gotten married (I got to wear that banner later, lol. See below).  Omedetou to him!

 Yeah!  Sushi-kins on the left, and guy in the middle is totally rocking the Asian glow.

 The newly-wed, and the guy that sat next to me and was super friendly and shared his pitcher of beer and chatted with us in English (albeit quite broken English!)  We shared my birthday cake (see next picture) with him (Sushi-kins had the great idea that i should feed him a bite of it.. which got a lot of cheers from his friends.. lol, awkward!)  It was all good fun though.

 And yes, i got another surprise birthday dessert plate!  All the lights in the restaurant went off and some music started going and my table and the wedding table next to us were echoing each line.  I thought it was for their table, seeing as it was that guy's wedding day and all, but as the song progressed i realized it was a birthday song.. the same frickin' crazy one from the last restaurant!  ♪Very special~! Very special~!♪  So i was expecting it this time when they brought the plate of deliciousness with candles over to our table.  There was a little 'Welcome' note for S at the bottom of the plate too, although they spelled her name wrong in Japanese (they wrote it as チャーリー, which i assume would translate into Charlie, lol!)  There were lots of cheers and clapping from the tables around us, especially our wedding-party guys.  They gave me the little "main man" banner to wear that the newly-wed guy was wearing and congratulated me many times.

So it was a pretty awesome end to the night.  I love encounters like that.  You'll get people here who will be stand-offish towards you or will be afraid to talk to you for fear of language barriers or whatever (i think maybe because of the large amount of tourists that come here people assume that any non-Japanese person doesn't speak Japanese.. at least not well enough to have a decent conversation with.  This was quite the opposite case in Kyoto though), but then you get awesome moments of connection like, where differences are forgotten and inhibitions are lost- probably thanks in part to alcohol!- and you're able to chat and laugh and share a drink with each other, as people.  It's awesome!