Driving, getting gas, and other things

I finally decided to be brave enough and venture out in my car. Baby steps, of course: This morning, I drove around the block. Then about an hour later, I drove to my school and back. And finally, I went to get gas and to Beishe (the big wal-mart-y place). In all honesty, it is very bizarre. I thought it would be just like regular driving, but on the other side of the road. Not so much the case. For one thing, I keep slamming my right hand into the window when I wanted to put the car in park/drive/reverse because I am used to the gear shift being on my right. It's on the left. If you are unaware, my left hand is nowhere near as functional as my right, so putting the car into reverse/drive is tricky! Also the A/C controls, radio volume, etc are done with the left hand. These things seem small, but I really had to think about which way to rotate the volume nob. Make fun, its ok. Good news: my car has working A/C. Yay!

Next, the roads. Very narrow (though my car is very small so its not a problem) but a lot of roads do not have lines. Also, the speed limits are very slow, the main road (117) is 50km/hr, which is about 30mph. For some sort of comparison, imagine if route 50 had a speed limit of 30mph. Its not the best comparison because the number of people and lanes, etc, but 117 is the "big" highway that goes pretty far around here. haha, its only 2 lanes actually, so by "big" I mean it goes a long distance. So cute. Anyway, the speeds are slow, and I have no desire to get a speeding ticket, so I am going at the limits exactly which results in Japanese people tailgating like crazy. As if I do not have enough things to worry about, let's add a driver in a hurry tailgating so close, that if I had to stop, they would hit me. Great plan.

Alright so 20 minutes of being tailgated later, I get to Beishe and I go in to try to find some food. I almost had a breakdown in the store, but I kept it together. All the signs are in Japanese (duh) and I have no idea what is where, or what is what. This place is pretty huge, as I have said, its like Wal-mart in inventory, but also in size. This was not the most successful trip, but I got some more bread, water, plastic wrap (I think thats what the package said), apple juice, a small bottle of tea, Coke (it was necessary) these pea snack things, and Teriyaki flavored Doritos. Yes, teriyaki. At the BBQ in Suzaka, I had coconut curry Doritos. What will they have next? They are pretty good, I should point out. I had them for dinner. It's the same as having Teriyaki chicken for dinner, isn't it?

Oh, let's rewind for a moment to me getting gas. I pull into the station and this little man comes out. THANKFULLY he spoke some English, so we were able to communicate, but here is a run down: I told him "mantan" meaning full tank, and that I would pay with cash. So he got things started and then brought two damp cloths. One for me to wipe the inside of my car, and one for him to clean the outside. He really did a great job, too, like scraped things off the windsheild with his thumb and just generally wiped it all clean. Wow. Again I say, the quality of service here is amazing, and these people do not get tips. He gave me a full 90-degree bow as I pulled out.

I should have tried to find the train station in Iiyama today, but I got overwhelmed by my shopping, so I just came back home. Tomorrow I am going to Nagano city for the prefecture orientation and I am supposed to meet Alaina at the station in Iiyama. I may just go to the platform by my house and then we will end up on the same train. One problem with that plan: the platform by my house is just a platform, and I have no idea how to buy a ticket. I also need to leave my car at the station because there is a tabehodai (all you can eat for one price) party and I plan to stay one night in Nagano so I can go on Thursday and get my re-entry permit taken care of so I will be able to travel outside of Japan as well as around Japan. Wow, run-on sentence there, did everyone catch all that? I do not really want to find myself outside Japan with an expired visa, and I do not want to use a holiday to do this, so Thursday should work out well, since I have nothing on my schedule in Iiyama. Part of me wishes I did have somewhere to be, but its ok. Next week I have things Tuesday through Friday, and then school starts on the following Monday (8/24) so I should try to take advantage of my free time. I have been reading through the books about teaching and teaching English, but I just need to get in there and do it. Easier said than done, but there is only so much you can get from a book.

I wish I could meet the teachers I will be working with before the first day of school. Everything I have read says they will be really busy, so finding time to plan lessons is not the easiest thing to do. I am a person who likes some sort of relatively-specific instructions. Thats not to say I am not creative or unwilling to work alone, but I do better with guidelines to follow, and then I can make projects my own without streching the guildelines too much. I think that describes me...

Alright, that is a nice long entry for reading, so enjoy. Also check the pictures, I posted a few new ones.