the weekend so far...

I am tired, and there is still one day of the 3-day weekend left! Phew! On Friday after school I got the train to Paul's for a night of doing nothing in particular. We ate at a local izakaya, while struggling to do the CELTA pre-interview test...really quite challenging! By the time we stuffed around, and decided what movie to watch, it was midnight. We haven't heard the best things about "Shall We Dance", and it turns out we can't pass judgement either, since we both fell asleep not long into it!

On Saturday, Tori came and met us for sushi, and then we headed off to Hiroshima for the big night out to welcome Meagan back to Japan! We shopped a little. I was the closest I have ever been thus far to buying an Ipod Mini, except they didn't have the 6GB in blue. We then met Jo, Gillian, Louise, Alex and Lauren to head for dinner. The plan was Shakeys for pizza and nomihodai...after getting off the tram one stop too far, we walked back to where we were meant to be...to find Shakeys is no more! Just our luck! So we headed back to town, and ended up at The Shack, where wemet Jocelyn, drank while we waited for a table. Just after ordering, Meag called and Jo, Jocelyn and I went out to meet her!

So exciting! It was like she'd never left! Jo couldn't stop staring at her! And I had forgotten how loud her laugh can be! I think the newbies who didn't know her, were thinking she was cracked when she let rip with that laugh for the first time! So we ate, went back to the Ryokan to change and met the non-Ryokaners for the night to really begin!

It was such a fun night. We ended up at The Mac bar all night, with occasional trips out to El Barcos, or the conbini by some. We danced around like idiots to old-school music. Paul tried to defend my honour when this NZ guy said that Timaru = Gang Warfare. So so wrong, as there has not been gang-related issues for at least 10 years! It cracked me up, but Paul was convinced that I was pissed off, so proceeded to tell all the others that I was pissed off at the guy, and they should hassle him. Paul's solution to my "greivance" was to try and engage the guy in a discussion about Shortland Street, by asking him ridiculous questions about characters from the beginning of the programme! It lasted about 10mins, before the guy begged Louise for help! Another major activity of the night was trying to keep random guys' friends distracted while their mate chatted to one of the girls! Paul deligated, and generally Louise, Gillian and Jocelyn did the task! Ah how fun twas the night!

So this morning Meag and I woke up after a few hours sleep, went to the station. We grabbed some food, and headed for the shinkansen, and while we waited to leave, it was delayed longer and longer. Eventually we were all told the shinkansen wasn't leaving, and we found out there had been a major earthquake in Northern Kyushu. I think we were on the tram when it happened. There were stranded travellers everywhere, and tv crews...all very exciting atmosphere. In the end we found out the train wasn't going to run until the tracks were certified safe, so we laxed back in comfy seats at Starbucks. We eventually were able to get the shinkansen back to Asa, but it ended up taking nearly 2 hours with big stops at each station.

Thankfully it seems their have been in deaths from the earthquake despite the magnitude of it. When we got home there were 4 things fallen on the floor from the quake. So yeah exciting weekend, and I just felt an aftershock as I am typing...freaky! Tomorrow I'm planning to get my haircut and coloured a little in Kokura. I seem to have come up with lots of plans, that I don't actually know if Meagan wants to do...Oh well, she'll get over it!