Hambuger Friend

So I spent 2 days in Maebashi City at Gunma Orientation, where I was sufficiently oriented in matters such as how to buy/rent a car and not get a wreck while driving on the left side of the road, how to put out a candle flame with my bare hand during a karate lesson, and how to properly file U.S. taxes, among other things. I also had my first Japanese karaoke experience with about 30 or 40 other JETs: it was a lot of singing Disney, 80s, and Broadway songs (with a little Lady Gaga thrown in, because no karaoke session is complete without a little "Poker Face").

When I got back to Takasaki, my host sister (the daughter of my host mom) was wearing the cutest shirt I've ever seen, that says, "Hamburger friend: It is not stopped if I have begun to eat it. The thing which is cuts it, and do not runout" on the front, and "I feel happiness when I eat a potato" on the back. I would die for that shirt in my size. She was also super cute because since it's my last night staying with this family, she said to me in Japanese, "I want to give you some Croc decorations!" and proceeded to give me a handful of plastic Croc designs to put in my empty shoes. So many people in Japan wear Crocs and have them super decorated. She even showed me her own little shoes and pointed at them to have me pick which ones I wanted for mine! She wanted to give me some of her own to take with me.

In all my goodbyes recently, this one seems like one of the saddest. Having a host family to take me places, show me how to do things, explain food labels, call companies, and everything else for me, was so nice. Now I'm about to do it on my own!

Tomorrow morning I move into my apartment in Munadaka, Gunma-machi, about 7 kilometers from downtown and maybe 10 or 15 from my host mom. But she'll still come visit (and apparently she can give me the hook-up with a great massage therapist in town!) and I'll still be able to call on her when I need her. It's so nice to have someone to hold your hand when you don't know what's going on. I'm hoping all the good karma I saved up working at the CNNC will come back to help me out, and I'll find a Thriving at Three for American girls in Japan, who will take me places and interpret and invite me to weekly group meetings to meet other American girls in the area. That would be helpful. :)