Coffee, Thailand, Typhoons OH MY!

As you may have guessed, I will be talking about coffee (sorta), Thailand, and Typhoons!!! AWESOME!

First, Coffee.

Yesterday I traveled 1 hour for coffee at a Starbucks, for a "date." Since it is hard for me to network in the sticks I have turned to the worlds largest network, the internet. After many fruitless efforts I got a reply from a 28 year old woman who lives in Kyoto! YAY! Although 28 is closer to the end of my datable age spectrum, I haven't been on a date for...a long time and if anything coffee is awesome! We both basically agreed that we were just looking for friends at the moment though. Which is fine by me because I like to get to know my women before I decide to begin anything serious.

Anyway, I was ready to meet this woman, who actually I didn't know her name, occupation, appearance (yes I never saw a picture of her), or anything really except we would meet at Starbucks at 6PM. At first sight, I would say she probably wasn't my type although I am sure having her charms. In other words it wasn't love at first sight.

Anyway, talking to her was fun. We both knew enough English and Japanese to basically carry on some conversations from about 6PM to 10PM. The good thing about 28 year old Japanese women is generally they are more mature than the early 20 year olds that almost seem like they are 16 (as far as mentality goes anyway).

Overall a good experience, and possibly a good friend. Which is great because everyone I meet builds to my ability to meet more people. Granted in the end this is probably not who I am looking for as far as a girlfriend.

Second, Thailand.

So I have been meaning to go to Thailand for some time now. Seriously for about 2 years since I made an amazing friend that lives there. I was planning to go in May during Golden Week, but I just caught wind of a volunteer opportunity in Thailand for abandoned children. Basically I would go to a remote part of Thailand and teach English and do other stuff (hopefully) while there. The place is called Baan Unrak and it is in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand. You can read more about the organization here http://www.baanunrak.org/

Overall it seems amazing. Yoga in the mornings, vegetarian food (although I myself am not a vegetarian) and best of all, it doesn't seem to be indoctrinated with a religion. Just people learning to be good without relying on the fear of eternal damnation if they are not! AWESOME!

If I end up doing this, I will volunteer there from December 20 - 27th. Christmas in Thailand with a bunch of cute little kids, sounds like a pretty sweet deal. The only problem is, I will probably have to take off quite a few days of work especially since I will probably want to stay there during New Years to travel a bit more on my own, visit my friend, and see a Thai New Year firework display!

There seems to be some things that I need figure out first though. Before I go I have to sell 300 Christmas cards (made by the children) for 100 yen ($1.10ish) a piece, which seems like a lot since I don't know many people in Japan. Even if I convince all my Japanese teachers (who don't even celebrate Christmas) to buy one, that is only like 30 cards... So I might have to employ my family and friends overseas to buy these handmade cards and deposit money in my U.S. bank account while I send a stack of cards to them. So with this said, if you you are reading this (especially if you plan on sending out Christmas cards this year) you should contact me and let me know if you would be willing to buy a handful of cards. All the money goes directly to supporting the kids within this organization, as far as I know anyway.

Third, Typhoon!!

So today I actually asked if I could take a personal holiday. I think I get 20 days a year, and in a way looking back I wish I didn't take it. But when I woke up today I was REALLY tired (maybe almost feeling sick) and didn't have any actual classes to teach this day (I was told yesterday they were cancelled). So most of my day would have probably consisted of sitting at my desk staring at my computer and trying to look busy when in all reality DOING NOTHING! Instead sleeping till noon and playing my Nintendo DS seemed like a better plan. Hopefully my supervisor wasn't too mad, or it didn't cause too much trouble calling him at such short notice. He said in a text message, "OK you can take nenkyu (holiday) today, but next time I would like you to tell me earlier. Have a good day!" After thinking how precious my personal holidays really are, I decided this will probably be the last time I will use it in this way. Since if I go to Thailand I will probably need to use about 10-days and then will want to use as many as I can when family visits.

Oh right typhoons...

Japan is going to get pummeled by a typhoon for the next few days. I probably actually missed some important info at work (if I would understand it) about typhoons and what to expect. But for those who don't know a typhoon is basically a hurricane, but in the Wastern Pacific Ocean and are generally stronger due to the warmer waters of the Western Pacific. Or so I am told. Since I am in central Japan and surrounded by mountains, hopefully the damage will be pretty minimal, but we are still islands and although the main part of the typhoon hasn't hit us (and won't for 2 more days) it is pretty rainy now.

That's all for my rather uneventful adventures for the beginning of October.