This weekend

So this weekend was a crazy weekend.
Friday was the Fukuoka Orientation. The actual orientation itself only lasted like 6 hours. But there was dinner and an afterparty that took up the rest of the night. Since the city in which the orientation was held was a little far for some JETs, 2 buddies spent the night at my place on Thursday night. (Hurray! Company!)
So the orientation itself was alright. More informative than the Tokyo Orientation was (but that may have been the point since it's more specific to our living condition than just Japan as a whole).
Anyway, so afterwards, most of us changed to casual clothes which was a good thing since it started raining! Most of the people showed up to the dinner party somewhat wet or drenched! I got pretty wet. Though I did take an umbrella, the wind blows it all around you so pretty much the only spot that is dry is your head and part of your torso. But since I was also tyring to share it with other, my left arm got all wet. In any case, we all made it to the restaurant and ate appetizers really (not really a dinner but some of it was quite good) and it was all you can drink. Sadly though, most Japanese bars don't make cosmopolitans. So I had a screwdriver instead (actually, it was more like 3...and beer...). This was probably the best part of the night. AC room, lots of mingling around, pictures galore, food...little or no smoke around...)
Afterwards we all went over to a bar called FUBAR. If you don't know what it stands for...hehehe...take a guess...keep in mind, it's a bar... So the place was alright. Kinda small and not much dancing going on. There were some lockers to put your stuff in. I had a little trouble though because I had bought some sweets for the office and the slightly odd shape made it a little hard to fit into the locker. In the end though, I managed to squeeze it all in.
Taking pictures here was a little difficult because I normally don't use the flash setting on my camera (I like to take it the way it looks. Or so, in the original lighting). But in any case, I did manage to take some pictures of these. I'll most likely post these up on facebook.
The bar was also all you can drink but again, no Cosmo (guess I'll just have to make it myself...)
*A note to family back at home: You don't have to worry too much. I didn't get wasted at this and everything turned out fine. But it would probably be best not to tell the parentals about this...or of what's to come...*
So after a while, Mike, Laura and I started thinking about heading back to my place. We were going to share a cab with Emmette and Lupita but they were felt like staying longer. So Emmette was kind enough to show us how to get to the train station and let us know how to get back to Futsukaichi. On the way out of the bar, we found Chris sitting on the stairs and he felt like leaving too. So he joined us. We were an interesting group...all ranging from tipsy to drunk...and though we got on the train...we went in the wrong direction...and even if we did hope onto the other train to get to the transfer train, we'd be too late to catch the last train. So...we got a cab. It wasn't too too bad between us all but it felt like we overpaid once I found out from a neighbor that you can strike a deal with the cab driver...which makes it soooooo much cheaper...
In any case, we all made it back safely to my place. And within minutes we all found spots to sleep and just slept it all off. We all somehow randomly woke up around 9 in the morning...
Chris was the only one in the morning that wasn't feeling all too well...and the raining weather probably did help his day out. My neighbors invited us out to lunch but we decided to go out to a different place. Luckily though, Chris was able to bum a ride off of them to the train station only to return to his town to find his bike stolen...poor Chris...
Back in my place, Laura, Mike and I were craving something heavy like a burger. So off we go to an American diner fairly near my place. We considered having them deliver the food...but I don't have much table/chair/eating space at the moment (since I still have to move most of the stuff my predecessor left behind that I don't need/won't use) and we felt like going out and about.
So out we went...in the rain...that pretty much drenched us in the first 5 minutes out there! By the time we got to the restuarant, our shoes were completely went by the endless puddles we encounter in our walk. And the wind was nice enough to pretty much wet us to the bone...i think only our faces were dry...and not even that dry too... Once we got to the place, the only said, "Sugei" which literally means, "Amazing/Woooord". He gave us a towel to dry off with...but really...it only help for the arms...
Anyway, we had lunch and then walked all the way back in the rain, though it was lighter by this time...
The rest of the day was spent playing games and watching youtube videos. By the night, we felt like going out again (and luckily it wasn't down puring anymore). So we headed out for another adventure and looked at the train times to be sure we don't miss it coming back.
We went out to Tenjin, which is a major city here and has many restuarants and shops. We mainly walked around, enjoying the scenes and taking our time looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately I couldn't find one Thai place there so we went into one of the few restuarants that was open late and that would seat us in (one restaurant said that they didn't have a table for three and after we said we'd wait the lady said something along the lines that she didn't know if that was possible or if a spot would open up...something odd like that...).
We had some sushi and either grilled fish or fish soup. Though the soup was good, the fish had too many bones for me and I'm pretty sure I ate a fish eye...
After a good dinner and feeling good about catching the second to last rather than the last train back...we couldn't find a way INTO the station... We were able to see where we normally enter...but the metal rolling doors were down, blocking our way into the station.
...yet again...we had to take a cab... However, this time, we used the 4000-en deal. The cab driver stopped the meter at 4500-en. And so we only walked from the JR station to my apartment.
This morning, we went out to eat again (our "breakfast" are more like "lunch really...and it's not because we get up late but because we get distracted by youtube videos that by the time we get out it's lunch...well, hurray for specials!). This time, we looked for a place near the train station. We went for pizza this time. The Japanese do pretty good pizzas. Though sometimes they have some interesting toppings (like corn) it's still really yummy. And so we all walked to the train station together and we said our good-byes.
And now I'm back in my place, alone but not feeling lonely (yesh!).
I think having an internet connection helps with that...even if there really aren't too many people online because it's like 2:30am right now (but only about dinner time for me).

So...now to try to unpack my clothes and get more of a "I'm living here" feeling rather than a "I'm visiting" feeling.