AAAAACHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOO!

Note: This blog was written this week Monday. I’ve been too lazy to post it till today. Sorry!

Well this week I caught a cold again. Or maybe I should say my cold bug returned, all because I went to enjoy a trip to the Onsen on Saturday. There’s a cold water bath you can go into after you enter the sauna, and spending too much time in there probably explains why I’m sick. It does feel really good after a sauna though, so I couldn’t help it. One of the cool things about it is that the air in your lungs become cold and it feels really good when you breathe. Anyways, I have to get better before I take my next trip.

Yesterday (Sunday), was practice with a few members of my band. We completely forgot how to play the songs, since it’s been so long. Hopefully we’ll have another practice soon. Voting for the elections was finished yesterday, so it put an end to the long week of election campaign cars with speakers that would wake my afternoon nap with screams of “Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!” (literally translated as “Please take care of us”), “This is Joe Schmoe, running for something something, Thank you very much!” and the like. These campaign cars drove around town for a whole frickin’ week. From 9:00am to 6:30pm. It was annoying. I felt like I should have hijacked the car, Grand Theft Auto style, just so I could put an end to it. Thumbs down to Japanese elections.

The votes were also tallied yesterday. With 11 of the 12 candidates running, getting a seat on the town council (basically only one candidate lost). The candidate that my supervisor was supporting received a seat, so there was a celebratory party. Of course, I was dragged along to go, which I usually don’t mind when I’m 100% healthy. I left around 12, after drinking a large bottle of beer, to head to bed, since today was busy day. My supervisor, being the party animal that he is, stayed till 2 in the morning. Needless to say he’s pretty sleepy right now.

Today was the elementary and the Jr. High school’s ceremony for those just entering the school (so the grade 1’s and 7’s respectively). I had to do a self introduction, which I did in Japanese and English. At the Elementary, after I had spoken English, people were talking to each other saying things like, “Wtf, he isn’t Japanese?” At the Jr. High I had no such reaction, unfortunately. I’m starting to get a kick out of throwing off any Japanese person off, by speaking English. Yes, its kind of “assholish” of me (I just made a new word, and no my name isn’t George Bush).

So what’s next for me? It’s back to teaching this week, which I’m looking forward to. Sort of.

I most likely have a lot of drinking party’s to attend this week, seeing as it is the start of school and all. There is a drinking party for the hockey club to celebrate the wrap up to the season. Speaking of hockey, hopefully, I’ll be able to start working out soon. I have to recover from this cold still, but I want to start seeing if I can bulk myself up for the next hockey season. I looked on Nike’s Hockey training website, for a few exercises I could do. Some of them require a medicine ball and free weights, which my gym just doesn’t have.

Next Monday is concert, with some female singer from Sapporo, coming to Kamikawa. I believe she plays acoustic guitar, but I have no idea what type of music she sings. I’m pretty sure it’ll be more on the popish or folk side. The day after that is D-day. Basically, I’ll be working from 6:30am to about 10:30pm (that’s 16 hours) doing an interpretation job for one of the former MPs from Alberta. I have to travel to Sapporo to meet her in the morning, come back to Kamikawa, eat lunch and translate for her, then travel back to Sapporo, and finally come back home. So that’s pretty much 10 hours in the car. *Start sarcasm* that’ll be fun *end sarcasm*.

Hope you guys are doing well in Edmonton!