Japan: Where they ignore the 'do not disturb' sign

Today my room was supposed to be cleaned.  I realized that I had my things rather spread out and didn't want to pack them up or terribly inconvenience the cleaning lady, so I put the 'please do not disturb' sign on the door.  While I was out with Nicola this evening, she said she had her sign on the door and the cleaning lady just walked right in while she was there!  So when I got back to my room, and I saw the sign was off the door I wasn't sure what to expect.  The bed was made and the things I left of the bed were piled neatly on top.  I felt SO BAD but at the same time, I TRIED to warn her.  What more can you do for a person?


Breakfast was dull again.  I really miss breakfast at Narita!  D:  I LIKE having rice and miso soup for breakfast everyday.  But they don't have that here.  TT^TT


Training was fun.  We learned a bunch of games and got to play them all, then we took turns 'introducing' one.  Again, I have things I need to work on, but it could be worse!


For lunch, Helen and I split an 'olive' pizza.  This was a normal thin-crust cheese pizza, with very few olives on it.  <_<##  But it wasn't a bad price.  We went to the adjacent grocery store to buy something to drink and generally explore, and there was a little boy by the check out telling the cashier 'Thank you!' in English.  He was maybe 3, not older than 4.  He kind of looked at me, so I waved and said 'hi!'  He waved and said 'hi' back.  His mom told him to say 'Nice to meet you!' so he did and then said 'hajimemashite' (which is the Japanese translation).  SO CUTE!!  I wanted to chat to him a little more, but didn't want to seem like a weirdo, so I told him his English was very good!  And his mother told him to say 'thank you' but was herself saying that he really didn't know very much (in true Japanese fashion).  I told him bye-bye.  It was the best part of my day.  I know my students will be much older than that, but if they're half as cute, I'll be quite happy.


In the afternoon, we had a PowerPoint mini-lecture about how to be the best ALT we can be and how it extends to every part of our lives in Japan, not just classroom time.  Then we got our placement packets with our business cards, hanko (name-stamp), and other official document stuff inside.  That was exciting.  It took rather a while to go through even the small bit of paperwork that we did go through.  I learned that I'm not allowed to go into much detail about my schools or students.  This makes sense, but it makes me a bit sad that I'll have to be really limited with what I write about on here.  Japanese schools are very much gated communities and this is for the protection of the students.  Recently more than ever, because there have been some incidents with crazies getting into the schools and killing students and things like that!  D:  SO, they don't want outsiders knowing about their schools.


After all that stuff, I got to take the Japanese language test that I missed on the first go-round.  I think I did quite well. The room was noisy, so I had to ask her to repeat once or twice and there were one or two words I had to ask her the meaning, but other than that I felt I was able to understand and answer, even if my answers weren't really proper sentences.  If I 'pass' I get a bonus every month.  It's small, but it would be nice to have!  ^o^/


Nicola and I went back to the soba place for dinner, since it agreed with her last night.  This time I got the sansai soba (soba noodles in a broth with some veggies) which wasn't that great, but it was fine.  Then we went questing in the shopping center for a 'teacher' bag for me.  No cigar.  Every place closes at 8pm, so we got chased out by in the announcements over the speaker (not Auld Lang Syne tonight) and went in search of Baskin Robbins over at ZaZa City.  Alas, by the time we found it, it was closed for the night.  :<


So everyone's leaving tomorrow.  Well, most everyone.  People going further away and people staying in Hamamatsu but relocating are heading out in the morning.  I'm here until Friday!  I'm not sure why.  Maybe that's the first day my IC could meet me?  Anyway, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to try to go to the castle of the town.  It was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, so I'm pretty excited.  ^o^/  A few people who aren't leaving until Thursday or who are moving earlier in the morning are coming too.  At least, that's the plan.  We have to coordinate online, since none of us have cell phones.  :I


I'll be moving on Friday.  My IC is coming in a car to pick me up.  According to Google, it's a bit over a thirty minute drive.  I'm trying to decide if there will be enough room in the car for me to buy that scanner/printer that's on sale over at Bic Camera...  Or that iron.  The iron's only about $10... And the printer's a decent price. It's more than I really want to pay, but it's under $100...


Tomorrow morning, I think I'll go shopping.  Probably more window-shopping than actual shopping because I need to limit spending to stuff I really need for school or my apartment, but I might buy a few postcards or something.  ^_^