weird people

a few weeks ago i got an email to my cell phone.
this guy, who i'll call taka, got my email from his friend tomo.
i met tomo and his other friend in a club in 2006, and while his other friend has invited me to gatherings he's put together, i never really talked much with this tomo.

so, i was surprised that he decided to hand out my email to one of his friends.

basically this guy taka wanted to meet with me so he could practice speaking english.
i was quite busy at that time so i said "i'm busy this week and next week, but i can meet you after that".

he responds with "can i meet you tonight?", then later "can i meet you tomorrow night?".
anyways, he sent a bunch of emails to my cell phone, and it was quite annoying, especially when i told him that i was busy.

so, after a short period of no emails, he sent me one this morning (sat) asking if we could meet this month.
i want to get this over as fast as possible, so i suggested this monday.
he told me that he was going to be busy until the 21st. to which i responded "email when you're not busy and we can arrange a time to meet".

this guy...is quite persistant. he asked for my phone number previously, and today he asked for it again. i told him that i don't hand out my phone number and besides that, i've had issues with people calling my cell and then hanging up.
"so you don't trust me?"
i don't know how much patience other people would have, but i've been pretty annoyed since the beginning.

i explained to him again that i don't like to talk on the phone, and that i don't even talk with my friends on the phone...(somewhat a lie, but here i usually email my co-workers rather than talk with them on the phone).
i end my email with "i'm going to study now. bye".

fairly innocent, yes?
apparently not.
while i was at the mall, (shopping/studying) he sent me an email:
"what do you mean by 'bye'"?
then a few minutes later this email:

"sorry for taking ur time
i apparently overestimated u & i feel so sick and dizzy just by thinking such a "proud" and "impertinent" lady has been "teaching" something f@ck-off"

i saw the email about an hour after he sent it.
i really should have left it at that because i am not really interested in meeting this guy, but i sent him an email telling him that "bye" could mean "see you", "talk to you later", etc and that i am NOT an english teacher, and he really has no reason to be angry with me.

about 30 minutes ago i got a reply where he apologized, asked to meet on the 21st and asked if i had MSN to chat.

*sigh*

yawn & rawr

i'm all tired...

basically, all of july was pretty busy with school visits and such.
at the beginning of august, my sister came to visit, and that was...
basically, her flight met with a number of issues coming to japan, and issues leaving japan (delayed both times).  besides that, my sister didn't/doesn't know japanese, so i think she was feeling bad about that.
and to add to that it was like 95F for the 2 weeks she was here, PLUS something like 70-80% humidity.
it was nice to have her come, but we had our fights and other issues.

in august, my friend also returned to her home country, ending her contract here.

this whole year i've been trying to save up money for my plane ticket home, but when my sister came, i used a bit of money so that she could have a little more freedom with the little money she brought.
so, what i am now doing, is trying to save up more aggressively for the plane ticket.
while i don't buy a lot of stuff, i do have a tendency to buy little things...haha i have so many things that i want to buy haha!

for the time being, i'm trying to work on improving my japanese and korean.

^ this is a picture of the bathroom at this one place i ate at with my coworkers.
obviously, only one person went in at a time & locked the door behind them!

uniqlo is not cool?

apparently uniqlo is not the store to visit amongst my female co-workers.

last week, there was a festival called "toukasan". this festival kind of kicks off the yukata wearing summer season and takes place over 3 days. it attracts a lot of people from around hiroshima city and prefecture. if you're a japanese girl, there's a 90% chance that you'll be in yukata, if you're a japanese guy, there's a 10% chance.

so, i asked my co-worker naoko if she was interested in going with me.  she said that she didn't have a yukata, and since most people would be in yukata, she'd have to think about it.

anyways, i later suggested uniqlo as a place where she could get a nice, cheap yukata, and she made a face.

"i mean...it's uniqlo...you know...?"

i've gotten the same reaction from female co-workers when i mention going to uniqlo to buy clothes.
i guess uniqlo is like old navy to japanese people?
the prices are similar to old navy, i think the clothing is pretty well-made, i don't see the problem.

but, i get the feeling that japanese people like paying a lot of money for things and this convinces them that what they bought was of good quality.

well, here's a pic of me in my uniqlo shirt and jeans.

er..

so, i got back to michigan yesterday afternoon/early evening.

i really did feel as if while i was in japan i was in a time warp.

but, i went to krogers and bought some yogurt last night. i lo~ve yogurt.
i especially love the chocolate mousse ones. (i tried chocolate mint last night)
i got nutri-grain bars, oven pizzas and i saw that vanilla coke is back!

today i went to visit my japanese teachers and give them some treats. i'll try and go back tomorrow and give some stuff to my other teachers and go to the library to give some stuff to my co-workers (but only the ones i like) lol.

it feels kinda weird to be back. like, everyone i know is NOT in a2.
i talked to tomo last night and today, and i want to talk to other ppl so...uhh..call me?

omg...i've got to bring nutri-grain bars, vitimin water, vanilla coke, candy, sunflower seeds, etc etc etc back to japan with me.

when i landed in chicago from japan i had ONE hour to get through immigration, check my bag and find my gate.
the dude at immigration was all like "your residence is japan" (because i wrote down USA...oops)
then there was this totally evil voice saying "welcome to america"...but it was like..."welcome to america" being said by a pissed off german...

anyways...