Goodbyes and staying behind

27 July 2011 - It's almost been a year since I arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun as an ALT. It's been an exciting year with many new experiences and it's been fun. As we approach August (the month we welcome the newcomers), I've been busy with goodbye parties. While I'm sad to see some of my closest friends here go, I'm also happy to see how excited they are to  close their Japan chapter. And, this makes me wonder if my decision to stay on for another year is right.

Staying behind was not an easy decision to make. I have things back home left undone and another year in Japan seems to be a way to escape returning to my "real" life in Singapore. As my parents constantly remind me, I'm not getting any younger and my job hunt in 2012 might be tougher. Similarly, going home means I got to put up with questions about my plans to settle down and bear children. It's annoying how people just keep pushing you to get married because they believe that a woman's value diminishes as she enters the ripe old age of the three-Os.

*sign* I'm whining.... going to leave this post as this. Hope my whining mood passes soon. It's probably all the goodbyes that are making me so grumpy. I'm also a tat worried that I might not be as chummy with the newbies as I was with Katelynn and Alex. I'll be missing them...  *sob*

I guess now that I have decided to stay, I'll just have to work harder at making my second and last year in Japan an amazing one!

運転免許 ga hoshi desu!

20 June 2011 - I woke up at 6:15am this morning despite not having to go to work today. Was planning to get up at 6:45am but my nerves were all jittery and I was way too nervous to sleep in or to laze in bed. Why? Today's the day I'm attempting to get my Japanese license and I'm freaked out. I hate driving tests. In fact, I hate driving too. When I first got informed that I needed to drive in Omagari, I was asking if I could get around using a bike or public transport instead. When I was told firmly that I would HAVE TO drive due to the infrequency of the public transport, the huge amounts of snow we get in winter and ba ba ba... , I was miserable. I even considered if I should just not go to Japan.

Anyways, I'm getting distracted. So, I got up early and left my place at 7:20am so as to reach the driving centre (located in Akita City) before 9:00am. Got a little lost along the way but thankfully, the ever-reliable and knowledgeable Bec was there to help. Reached the centre just in time to register for my written test and spent much of my morning just hanging around the centre waiting. Got to wait 30mins before I could take the test and after that waited another hour before I could get my results. Waited 20mins before I could take my eye test and another 50mins before I could walk the driving course. 

The only driving test centre in the prefecture

A shot of the driving course from the 3rd floor

 To convert my license, I had to take a driving test within the driving course. While I was thankful that there was no on-the-road test, I was still freaked out especially when I was told that I would have to memorise the route. WHY??  Isn't it bad enough that I have to deal with the butterflies in my stomach? Now, I got to remember the route, as well as, the "tips" to securing a license. Ahhhhhh...

So, I spent 40 mins (from 12:00pm  - 12:40pm) walking around the driving course to familiarise myself with the route. It was really hot and uncomfortable but it did make me feel better about the test. I still failed though T.T. I was so nervous that I failed the test within the first 10 seconds. HOW?? I somehow forgot that it was a single lane road and I drove into the lane with the oncoming traffic in my attempt to make a right turn. Yup. I know it sounds ridiculous but it's true. Ahhhhhhh....

My driving route for the day

Check out the rest of the driving routes

The guy in white is walking the course too.

All the obstacle courses are surrounded by these intimidating looking poles

I managed to continue on with the test and it was good because after the test, the instructor pointed out all the mistakes that I have made. This was really useful because there were stuff I did which I thought was fine but apparently not. So... I'm going to have to attempt the driving test again and hopefully I'll miss on my next try.  Wish me luck!

<Kit Kat corner> 

I managed to find Cheese Kit Kat at the snacks vending machine in the driving centre :) Can't wait to try these. Don't they look interesting?

My Cheese Kit Kat!!!

Insert the coins and just open up the box you want to retrieve your snack.

Found some Bitter Strawberry Kit Kats too (They melted in the car though. My bad!)

Wanko Soba Challenge- May 14th

Been really lax about updating my blog for the past few months. I'm attributing it to a mix of factors - the aftermath of the earthquake, my trip to Oz, Golden Week trip home, as well as plain old laziness. I have a few stuff that I've been wanting to blog about and I decided that I'll just start with this one first --- My Wanko Soba experience.

May was a really happening month for me :) Besides making a trip home, one of my close friends here in Japan got married too. *Congrats again to the new KJ!* When her newly-minted hubby was in Omagari, we decided to make a couples day trip to Morioka. It was great fun! We had our Freshness Burger fix at the town centre before spending 3 hours in Round 1. After that we took a short stroll along a weekend street market and went for Wanko Soba.

Look how genki we were before we started

I've heard so much about the Wanko Soba experience since arriving in Akita and this was definitely something I wanted to do before I ended my stay here. What's Wanko Soba? Well... basically it's a game. The aim is to eat as many little bowls of soba as you can possibly stomach and be real quick to cover your bowl when you are stuffed to death so that you can stop the endless flow of soba, which is being dished out by this lovely staff hovering over you. Each little bowl is about one mouthful of soba noodles and 15 small bowls made up a regular bowl of soba. 

I only managed to down 70 bowls because I was so sick of the taste of soba towards the end. My dearest was the champion :) He managed to consume a total of 93 bowls!!!!! KJ came in second with 85 bowls. It was all great fun. It was an interesting but rather pricey experience. To get the full Wanko Soba experience, everyone has to fork out about 3000 over yen. This deluxe package meant you get to have photos of yourself with all the little bowls you have emptied. If you got the basic package, which only cost 2700 yen (i think), matchsticks will be used for keeping track of the number of bowls you ate. The basic package also came with two more side dishes. We decided that since we were going to "torture" ourselves and we were most likely only going to do this once, we would fork out more for awesome photos and I'm glad we did. In addition to awesome photos to record the day, each of us also received a little certificate with the date, as well as the number of bowls we ate.

I'm HUNGRY!

 Here's the link to the restaurant we went to Azumaya Soba Restaurant. If you are ever in Morioka, do spare some time to do the Wanko Soba challenge. I'm definitely going to make all my friends who come visiting do it. In fact, I'm considering attempting it again.