The Weekend Review & First Bike Ride to School

I got a phonecall from home around 5am this morning. It's rare for my American friends to call, but when they do, they almost always forget about the time difference. The call was a nice surprise (just missed it - the message woke me up), but I couldn't fall back asleep. I laid in bed for a while and watched the sky turn pink and then the sun rise, but I decided to just get out of bed since it was apparent I wasn't going back to sleep after about an hour.

Since I was up and awake so early, I decided to bike to school today for the first time. It's about a 50-55 minute ride each way, so I usually take the train (which is a 30 minute commute on it's own). I was a little nervous about getting lost so I left around 6:15 (for extra time) and just followed the Shinkansen tracks pretty much the whole way. I've asked my coworkers about biking directions before, and have just been told the trip is "impossible" so I was a little surprised that I didn't get lost along the way and happy that it was not as horribly hot and humid as I expected it to be. I wore Dryfit clothing and brought a change of clothes for when I got to school, but I think I can actually just stay in my biking clothes all day... they're comfy and I'm not too sweaty. We'll see how the afternoon ride back goes, but I might try the ride a few more times this week.

So the end of the weekend went well, too. I spent Sunday at home, mostly getting caught up on uploading and labeling pictures from all my recent trips. I was going to meet Tobs and Trygve for dinner in Osaka, but they were pretty exhausted after their Peace Conference trips (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) and weekend in Okayama (and I didn't want to make the trip to Osaka just to see them for a quick drink), so we agreed we'd just meet up in Oslo (uh, いつか). Trygve leaves this morning, and Tobs and his girlfriend move back this week... sad to miss more time with them, but I really enjoyed the time we had. I know I'll see them again.

Instead of Osaka, my new neighbor, Tu, and I went to the yakiniku (Korean fried BBQ) place down the street. Wow, I really need to brush-up on my yakiniku vocab...did all the ordering and was really wishing I had brought a phrasebook with me. Somehow managed to get dinner, however, and it was pretty delicious. Afterwards, Tu and I walked back to our buildings and got our bikes so I could show Tu the view of the Akashi bridge from the man-made island near our apartment. It was a really clear night, so the view was beautiful and we could see the whole bridge. There was noone around, so we parked our bikes in the middle of the road on the top of the big bridge connecting the island to the mainland, and just sat out and enjoyed the stars. Last night was supposed to be the best night for shooting stars; I saw two of them. At one point, two guys rode by on a scooter. I waved and we started chatting, so they invited us to their BBQ party at the bottom of the bridge. We didn't take them on the offer, but one of the guys rode back with a girl about 15 minutes later and brought Tu and I some beers. It was a pretty random, but a pretty awesome Sunday night. I should probably be hung-over today, but I'm still feeling good (even after the bike ride). I'm also really glad that Tu is my new neighbor...he reminds me a lot of one of my friends from home, Aaron, and I think we're gong to have a lot of fun this year. It's good to have him and Miwa close by.

Now I'm just sitting at my desk in the staff room at school, pretty much alone. Almost noone is here this week due to Obon, a national holiday that people traditionally spend with their family (so most of the staff is taking the week off and visiting their hometowns). They are also going to wax the floors in the staff room and hallway either today or tomorrow, so I might get kicked out soon. I'm going to go check-out the Track practice for something to do... no tennies at school right now, or else I'd probably join.... so that's all for now. Do check out the new albums I just posted, however...the comments should tell a story on their own. Matta ne!