Well, yesterday we dropped Steve at the bus that took him to the airport. While we were in the big city (Okayama) we made the most of it, picking up a few of our favourite things - Starbucks coffee (Jeff) and Body Shop products (me). Before anyone knocks Jeff for drinking Starbucks, you clearly haven't lived in Japan with only Japanese cafes. And me... well I'm getting much better at not stockpiling beauty products, but Body Shop continues to be the only place in Japan where I know what I'm buying. I'm sure the Japanese products are lovely, but most of them are whitening and this pakeha doesn't need any more whitening! If I get any whiter I'll be able to audition for Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter: the Stage Show (yeah... I'm four books into the series at the moment and my head is 70% in Hogwarts, 30% in Japan).
While it was lovely having Steve here and doing all the touristy things, when we dropped him off yesterday I realised that in exactly a month we would be flying out for Singapore. So we have a month of hard saving coming up so we will have spending money for Singapore and Malaysia. I'm working hard at reading lots to clear my bookshelf (I know, tough job for me...), so we can fit all the new books I intend to buy in Singapore. Other than that we might try to find shirts in Jeff's size (wish us luck!) and... eat! We have been assured that there is lots of delicious food for us to try in both Singapore and Malaysia, so we look forward to our culinary tour!
Of course, the month before Christmas is a bad time to attempt to save money - we need to send gifts home, get gifts for each other and pay for work Christmas parties. At least I combined touristing with Steve with Christmas shopping, picking up little things in Hiroshima and Sekaiminato (crazy anime town). But my work party is on this Friday. My ticket is costing 8000 yen - roughly $135. I don't know what is happening to be so darn expensive, but everyone always tells ALTs that they need to go to any work parties they can manage, because it's the traditional Japanese way to bond with your workmates. Apparently at work parties Japanese people drink excessively and really let their hair down. So far I'm tempted to believe it's an urban myth, as the only work party I've attended was a tame dinner affair, and despite the fact Jeff has been here a year and a half, working at something like eight different schools, he's only been invited to one party. Maybe people in Hiroshima are more restrained (I can't remember the example, but I've got that impression before. Not that I know any non-Hiroshima Japanese very well). Anyway, I'm curious as to how this big party will go down. I am nervous about interacting with the teachers who don't speak English, but I also know some of them are really keen to interact with me (I know this because one of them baked me cake today!) so I have to stop being a wuss, suck it up, have a beer and start butchering the Japanese language!!
In preperation for that, I should keep going on trying to catch up in my Japanese book. I still haven't done the test that I meant to do on Friday, so I need to finish last week's study so I can knuckle down. I won't have time tonight as I need to go shopping for Jeff's Christmas present... No, I don't know what to get him. It's really really hard to buy gifts for each other here - they have to be useful (so they don't end up getting thrown out when we leave, or costing lots to send home!), but we don't fit clothes. Also we try not to spend money from home so I TRY NOT to use the credit card. It will be a last resort!! Jewellery is really difficult because you have no idea what you're looking at - cheap metal, silver or platinum... we can't tell! We also live a long drive from the big malls that have things like cool shoe shops, the Body Shop or different import stores, so there's really not much range. There is one mall that we always go to that we have implicitly agreed to both shop at, but on different nights. Wish us luck!
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