anotehr busy week and weekend
since i wrote last about what i have been up to recently, i have done heaps.
sat 3rd: went to the driving range with Umehara-san, a friend we made at the range who turned out to be my friend's unlce. then took a train for 3 hours to machida on the west side of tokyo to meet up with tom. had a meal with all the caddies at TGI fridays and then beat tom in a game of darts.
sun 4th: went the golf course early and hung out in the club house away from the cold while tom and the korean guy he was caddying for practiced. watched the tournament with what seemd a milllion other people. i couldnt get close enough to even wish them luck. in the end they came 7th, but that was pretty disappointing after coming 1st at one point in the tournament. number 13 was not a lucky number for them, triple bogey i think it was....
mon 5th: tom came back to mito to spend the week, and i went back to work.
tue 6th: as per previous post, was on NHK TV again for a short bit of advertising.
wed 7th: went to help out at a childrens taiko school for a few hours. i think i might have finally remembered the song that i have been learning for the last few months off by heart. the kids were doing the same tune, but a lot slower, so it was easier to get.
fri 9th: anotehr trip to the driving range, followed by a dinner at a restaurant called just "EAT". was recognised by the waiter there cause he delivers lunch boxes to my office every day. i didnt even realise. after dinner it was off to bowling with a few JETs from Mito area. Was completely thumped by Tom (must have ben payback for beating him in darts) but i still played my bets game ever, about 90 i think...
sat 10th: a sleepy morning and then a bit of japanese study for tom. at 4.30pm, tamami, a girl from my office picked us up to go to the JET christmas party in Itako, about a 2 hour drive away. actually it only took us 1.5 hours so we got there way to early. so a brief trip to a japanese pub to kill the time was in order. the party started at 7pm and was lots of fun. we played our family's style of kris kringle that involves a lot of stealing and everyone enjoyed it. i ended up with some chocolates and some "elephant" condoms, and tom got a bottle of whiskey.
sun 11th: we had got home from the party at 1am so that was enought time to sleep until we were getting picked up at 8.30am to go group bike riding in Tsukuba. it was a pretty laid back ride, only 30km over the whole day. we stopped every 5 mins to go to a coffe shop or bakery or cake shop. this was good and all but it was soo cold i wished we could go further between stops. the day finished off with a trip to the top of the tallest building to see the night lights and a walk through the christmas tree display. got home around 8pm and had dinner at groovy, our fav pasta shop near my apartment
mon 12th: tom left for okinawa and i went back to working as normal
tonight we have a birthday party for a mito JET called Mehn, actually it wiill be at groovy pasta again, so twice in one week!
on friday i am off to okinawa too, so i hope the weather gets a bit warmer down there. tom called me yesterday as said it wasnt as warm as expected, but anything is better than the 5 degrees we had here yesterday... i might not go on that scuba dive that i had planned though...
