Everything is Daijyobu (wall of text alert)

So Sunday I decided to take a bit of an exercise/exploration walk to down town Yamashina. After about an hour of walking, I gave up and turned around. I think i found the place but there are no signs in english saying "Welcome to downtown Yamashina" so i guess i made it there... There was a sketchy/beautiful-looking path that led west following the Yamashina River into the mountains. I almost grew the courage to go down it and explore, but i forgot my camera at home, so the memories would have been wasted. I returned home and promptly destroyed my external harddrive, which contained my proposed entertainment for the next year. 400gigabites of movies, tv shows, and all of my music (which i stupidly did not back up onto my computer harddrive.) But such is life i suppose. Maybe it's a a sign from the gods that i should be out exploring the town and learning Japanese.

Monday was an exciting day. I arrived at work and met a new teacher, T-sensei...as compared with T-san, the office manager(names omitted to protect the innocent). We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and then gathered our things for the long trip to Todo, a small village outside of Uji City to the south west of Yamashina. The initial trip was met with exhaustion and slight boredom as T-sensei and myself traversed the sea of people at the Yamashina train station. We arrived at Kyoto station just a few minutes later, as the trip is only 1 stop, and attempted to navigate the ocean of suits, kimonos, and backpackers...darn backpackers. We eventually made it to the next train from Kyoto station to Obaku station, 7 train stops and about a 35 minute trip. More human swimming occurred as we de-trained (my homage to George Carlin) rushing to attempt to make the last bus to Todo High School...Yes, you read correctly. I have to now take a bus 10 minutes up a mountain to the school. Of course, we missed the bus.

Our courses of action are now limited to: A) take a taxi up the hill, or B) take a 20 minute hike up the mountain in the 90% humidity that has made Kyoto so famously sweaty. We both opted for option A. The taxi rides here in Japan are always a trip down awkward lane. The doors open for you and only one of the two backseat doors will open. But whatever you do in the taxi, do not, i repeat, do not touch the doors to open or close them. This action will ignite the international incident that will destroy American and Japanese relations for all eternity. Sixty years of relative peace, destroyed because of a damn taxi door. But I digress.

This being a business trip and this being Japan, I was not allowed to pay for the taxi, but unfortunately, T-sensei only had an Ichi-man bill($100). As a result, he attempted to use his mastercard, which the taxi did not accept. Then he attempted to use his visa, which the taxi did not accept. Then he tried to use a variety of other bank and transport cards, all of which were not accepted by this particular taxi. Then what followed was one of the most comical, Abbot&Costello-Three Stooges combination of please's, thank you's, im sorry's and physical/accidental comedy i have ever seen inside a taxi cab. Sensei handed the man the bill and the man returned with the change, only to accidentally release the coins prematurely onto the taxi floor. Naturally, both men apologized and then both said "it's okay" as they both leaned to pick up the change. T-Sensei hit his head on the back of the chair in front of him and the taxi driver struggled to reach the coins but because of the position of the chairs he could only tilt his head and worm his arm around making the most anguish filled face i have ever seen on a human being. After about 30 seconds and 15 or so "sumimasen's" and "gomen's" we eventually wiggled out of the backseat of this taxi.

At the Todo High School we did the obligatory remove shoe, put in cabinet, remove guest shoe, close cabinet ritual. As has become painfully obvious to me over the past few days here in Japan, my feet are easily 2 inches longer than the average indoor-guest shoe. We are greeted at the door by the receptionist who shows us the way to the principle's office. For me the 10 foot walk was a pained 10 foot shuffle as I attempted to cover the distance without tripping over or kicking the small rubber-esque shoe across the room. Eventually, when i arrived at the principle's door i noticed more shoes...this time they were the indoor-indoor shoes. By now my feet have already stretched the rubber shoe to its limit and caused it to form around. As a result, i cant slip the slipper off. My face reddens as the receptionist looks more puzzled by the second. Each horrifying moment that passes feels like an eternity of judgment. To my excitement, the shoe is dislodged and the receptionist breathed a sigh of relief. It seems the obligatory question, "do you need help," was about to be uttered by everyone, because they were all staring at me by now. I barely escaped having to commit seppuku there in front of my superiors for my failure at shoe technology. The rest of the meeting and tour of the school went off without a hitch.

The trip home was not without it's own story filled to the brim with excitement, action, comedy and Japanese custom destruction. We decided to walk from Todo high school to the train station. I was okay with this because it was cloudy, drizzly, and downhill. Which meant the usual 2 gallons of sweat that I leak while walking in Kyoto was reduced to 1.5 gallons. We eventually make it back to Kyoto Station where we decide that lunch was to be in our future. In what i think was an attempt to kill time before we had to go back to work, T-Sensei took me all over Kyoto station looking for a place that would satiate our hunger. He says we are going to an "all you can eat Japanese style Buffet." To which i replied in my head, "holy mother of god, that's heaven." To which i replied in reality, "Hai, sounds oishii." (oishii means delicious in Japanese). I was unaware that all you can eat in Japanese culture means that you should go back to the food at least 1 more time. I was very hungry, but not hungry enough to make a second trip. T-Sensei saw that i had finished while he was still mid-second plate and said, "was the food not to your liking." To which i replied, "no, no. It was delicious, i am just full." His face went from curious to upset. This was the first time in my life i have ever upset someone because i ate too little..."ate too little" never used to be in my vocabulary. So after a long, awkward walk back to Rakuto school from the train station, I settled down for the last two hours of an already painful day.

After all that was over...i still had to walk 1.2miles back to my apartment.

~gio