Coffee with Yoko

So yesterday was coffee with Yoko. It was good times. She came over to my apartment and I made us some Macha (sweet green tea). Then we talked a bit and planned what we'll do after her piano recital. Unfortunately she says she'll be really busy this coming weekend ;(. So probably won't get to see her till after her recital on the 10th. It was a pleasant few hours and I look forward to seeing her again.

Date with Yuriko

Yes Steve is at it again XD. So last night was the first "true" date I have had with Yuriko (fellow teacher at Ohtsu). For those of you asking yes I'm sure she considered it a date. So first we went to Kobe and had dinner at OSF. It was surprisingly good for not being the real thing. Everything was smaller than it would be in the US or Canada. Also the tomato sauce was a bit weird, but it was still tasty.
After dinner we walked along the boardwalk near by in the Port of Kobe. We chatted a lot and I learned more about what she likes to do and how much she doesn't like the school. After that we headed back to the train and Himeji. I missed the last bus from the station and so Yuriko being the much more agressive person she is suggested we go get a drink. So we headed over to my favorite pub Hosana's. We got a few drinks there and then she felt like dancing. So we headed over to Roxy, the only dance club I know in Himeji, and got a few more drinks. Then we danced a bit. Somewhere in there we ended up kissing. So overal a productive night. I'll write another blog after today's date with Yoko (*^.-*).

Wow!!!

So before you get your hopes up I am going to say right off this blog will not contain any new news about Steve's torrid love life. That being said I am extremely excited as I write this post. I have done something today I have never done that I can recall. As some of you may know I started a new "exercise program" intended to make me loose weight, become more fit and hopefully uncover my six pack abs that have been hiding all my life. Anyway, as part of this regime I do Yoga twice a week in the evenings on days I do sprints in the morning. Today during my Yoga I touched my toes straight legged!!! I have never been able to accomplish this before. Infact I rarely in my life have been able to come anywhere near my toes. Usually my hand would hover around just bellow my knees :(. At first it was just touching my toes doing the hurdler's stretch where you have one leg straight and the other bent with your foot resting against the opposite knee. But, by the end of the session I wass able to stand and touch both sets of toes straight legged!
My second bit of news is that it would seem I intend to stay another year over here. I haven't offically signed a contract, but I am seriously looking into it. I have a few job offers that have the blessing of the Himeji Board of Education that will give me more oppertunities to teach and make some side cash. Also my Japanese studies are going slow and I would like to have more time to work on it. It's not set up yet, but a good chance. I also would like to go back to the school I taught at last term. I'll keep you all informed. Thats all for now!

Life streaming ...

So lots to tell since my last blog. My new school is going ok and I'll talk about it more later in this blog. Last Thursday and Friday I had a very boring confrence in Kobe for JET. It was the mid-year confrence and we discussed effect teaching plans and idea for teaching English classes almost conpletely in English (ie. no Japanese translation). The concept was good, but there was a lot of lecture on stuff to go along with the measley 3 hours or so of workshops over the two days. The only good thing is I didn't have to go into work either day.
So onto more news. Last weekend held two dates (yeah tricked you into thinking this wouldn't be a love life update didn't I). My first one was coffee with Yuriko. For those of you playing along at home that makes a Yoriko, Yoko and now a Yuriko. Yuriko is an English teacher at my new school. She is 26 and spent 10 months studying abroad in Canada. I won't go into more details about her likes and the such but we passed a nice 5 hours or so starting with coffee and then moving to dinner. One of our main topics was the "boss" English teacher who sits next to me in the staff room. Now being a foreigner she seemed to me to be a bit of a sour-poose, but I just chalked it up to being an outsider. However upon my discussion with Yuriko apparently she IS a bitch and everyone knows it. In fact thats what Yuriko calls her in her head XD. So anyway needless to say I was a bit upset by this revolation seeing as how I have to work with her til the middle of July (the bitch not Yuriko). Also Yuriko is considering quiting Ohtsu and moving back home and looking for a part-time teaching job. She doesn't subscribe to the work-o-holic attitude of the older generation in Japan and so being part-time would allow her a life (yes imagine that a life). She is also looking to go to graduate school outside of Japan (I've been talking up schools in the states, but she'd have to take the GRE to go to them ... I've already volunteered to help her study and take them with her cause hey I might need the score in the future anyway if the UW continue to be asses). So we had a good time. She has a good laugh. This coming Saturday night we are going to go into Kobe and go to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. She happend to mention that she misses OSF from her time in Canada so ... eh whats a guy to do :).
My second date of the weekend was coffee with Yoko on Sunday afternoon. We had a good time together as always and she decided that my Macha (green tea) was better than her coffee so I gave her mine :). We chatted a bit about the usual. Unfortunately she is uber busy this weekend so I can't see her, but I've been trying to find an hour or two to get together for coffee during the week either this week or next week. Only three more weekends til her recital and then she'll be less busy. She already has told me she'd like to help me track down Takuma (my home stay brother) and family. Also we are planning to spend some of our time together helping each other study Japanese and English :).
Anyway thats the update. More later!

Life update

So it's been what a week since my last confession ... lol. SO her it is. I started work at a new JHS this past Tuesday and much to my surprise I enjoyed it as much if not more than my time at Shikama Higashi. The teacher are nice and if the students are a bit rawdy they are fun to be around. Also there is a very cute younger teacher who just joined the school this school year. Can you guess what her name is? Yoriko! Lol, no not the woman I met last year but a new person also named Yoriko and how's this for skillz I already have her home phone number. Anyway the week went well.
Yesterday I had another date with Yoko and it was a lot of fun. She is a very interesting and alluring lady. Not a whole lot to tell on that side of things I'll be meeting her for coffee next Sunday. No new movement with Yoriko. She is very busy with her sister and her sister's new baby so other than a quick conversation last weekend no new developements there. Thats all for now!

Yoko

So today another date with Yoko :). She came over and we watched a movie (The Wild) and hung out a bit. It was in English so i don't know how much she understood, but she didn't seem to mind. I asked her several times if it was alright and she said it was. She definately enjoyed it cause she was smiling through most of it ... ofcourse she might have been enjoying the company too :). Before she came over I had ordered a pizza because last time she wanted pizza and it was too late to order. She seemed amused by my preparedness. Along with the pizza I had some strawberries (her favorite) some pop corn and some chocolate for movie snacks and whatever. Overall I think I did a bang up job of the date :). She sent an e-mail when she got home saying how she wished she could have stayed longer (I wished she could too) so I'd say it was an A+ date :).

Hmm ...

Ok so my love life continues to orbit planet weird. I lost contact with Yoriko for a while, apparently her uncle died last week so she has been very upset. However yesterday I got an e-mail from her saying she likes me (go figure). So there may still be something there. I haven't heard from her since last night so I can't report that we have a date set up.
On to the juicey bits. I had a date with Yoko on Monday and it went swimmingly. I made her lunch and then dinner. We got together at 12:30pm and she ended up leaving at 11pm! Yep we spent pretty much the whole day together. Other than eating we went on a walk and ended up on a mountain that over looks the castle and the rest of Himeji. It was too good an oppertunity to pass up and she was looking soo beautiful so I kissed her. Once we got back to my apartment we made out for a good 5 hours! So anyway Monday was a satisifying day. During our date on Monday Yoko and I decieded to get together for a movie (Erogon) today (before our make out session we planned this). So today we went and got lunch and then went to see Erogon. It was pretty good then we wandered back to my apartment where I gave her a bit of a massage and then we kissed a bit before she had to go. BUT our next date will be this coming Monday! She asked what I was doing next Monday after lunch and since I had no plans she suggested getting together. Then later when I asked what she'd like to do she suggested watching a DVD at my apartment. So next Monday movie at my apartment.
So other than that New Year's Eve was a bit of an adventure too. I went out with a group of friends to a bar called Coast around 10pm and we rang in the New Year with dancing and a little drinking. My legs still hurt we danced until 4am! For those of you playing the home game thats 6 hours of dancing with very little break. I spent most of the night dancing with Sachiko, a friend of one of my neighbors and I suppose if she wasn't a friend of mine now. Ofcourse I dance with other women including a little Japanese woman that was stick thin maybe 4'10" and weighed no more than 80lbs wet! She was a bit of a freak let me tell you. Anyway it was pretty fun and a darn better time than the last 5 or 6 New Years Eve's (last year took the cake driving around Seattle til 1am trying to find a friend who kept moving around).
That's about all I have to report now. Steve out!