Internet is up and running!

Those of you who live in Japan already know this, but when you move in to a new apartment it takes about a month to get your internet rolling.

Why?

I have no idea. People in Japan don't move as often as Americans, often choosing to live with their extended families even after marriage, so there's no possible way that the internet companies could be this backed up! Anyway, last Friday I finally got the people from NTT to come out to my apartment for installation (aka running a cord through the wall and plugging it in to my computer--taking about 15min), and when the NTT man talked to my land lady, she said that they weren't allowed to install it!! Apparently she just kept telling him that she doesn't allow holes to be drilled in the walls of her building... (granted this woman is atleast 80 and living in the country-side so she probably doesn't understand how the internet works). Eventually she said that if we got permission from one of my supervisors at work that she would allow it. Too bad both of my supervisors were out of the office that day :((  I was told that I'd have to wait another two weeks minimum to get the guy to come back out too!  Luckily, one of the guys at my work helped me out, and in the mean time one of my supervisors saw my text message and put in a call to the land lady. The NTT guy was nice enough to come back out that very day (thank god!!!!) and he ended up having to run a cord from the power lines out on the street, through my wall A/C unit so as to not put a hole in the wall (lol). It was a needlessly long ordeal, but my internet is up and running, ladies and gentlemen.

And as promised, here is an incredibly long post about stuff that has happened over the last month that I have been disconnected from the Web.............

---August horse show---

Well now that it's almost been a month since the August horse show, it seems silly to write about it, but maybe it'll at least keep me focused on what I need to do for the next show. It was a night show as usual for the 80 cm division, so of course by the time the show gets going I've already been riding for about two hours straight and am quite tired. Plus, the day before the show, a friend was visiting from Asahi, so we went swimming together for several hours (I hadn't done any legit swimming in years unless you count jumping in the pool to cool off for a few minutes lol), so I was crazy exhausted that day. My trainer kept looking at me like he thought I was just going to collapse and fall off, and even asked if I wanted to scratch, but I told him I'd がんばるthrough. (Seriously who would consider skipping a horse show because they're tired anyway!?) In the end, the class went well! A lot of people had refusals because of the shadows on the jumps since it was night and all, but we went through with a clear round. We added in the first line though. I definitely need to work on not riding in weak to the first fence.

Also, some generous person filmed everyone's rounds! It was a really good way to see the difference between my riding style and the Japanese riders. I need to work on lifting my horse's front end a lot more. I got a little too used to the long and low hunter style :O Anyway, the next show is this weekend and I'll be doing 90cm this time yayy!

I also received a message from the trainer taking care of my horse, Taro in the states saying that he's been jumping around 2'9" and having a blast over there. Its a strange feeling to be working at the same level as him, but all the way across the world. I hope he pulls his shit together, because I know I'm working on it!

Also, one of my trainers told me last week that the October show will be during the day. So I'll probably be able to take photos then!

---Comiket---

Ok so as for Comiket, I went on Saturday this year, and I'm glad I did. Last year I went on Sunday and everything was sold out, so it wasn't as much fun. I ended up buying a couple things, and collecting as many flyers as I could in the commercial area, as well as taking a ton of cosplay photos. I was also entertained to find a guy dressed up as Madoka from MadoMagi! Hillarious. 

I found a girl dressed as her too, and when I went to post the photos on facebook, facial recognition tried to tag it as the same person LMFAO. Good job facebook. At least I got a laugh.

 Not the same person!!!!

I'm always surprised by how many people go to cons! I remember being surprised at my first con back in the U.S. but that will never compare to Comiket in Tokyo.

 

View from the "stairs of death" that you have to climb to get to the commercial area.

 "Welcome to the space for the world's Otaku!"

Working as a 国際交流員 I couldn't walk away without checking out this booth! They had a display of comic books written by people from all over the world!

 

---Tanabata Matsuri---

The following Tuesday I returned to Asahi city for the day to dance with the Asahi Ondo group at Tanabata Festival. I met up with the girls around one o'clock at the Board of Education for one of the ladies to put our hair in up-do's. 

As you can see, this lady does an amazing job with our hair every year!

  Though, she always puts crazy amounts of product in to the point where your freshly clean hair looks UN-salvageable when you take the bobby pins out at the end of the evening （笑）. But しかたがない I'd rather that than have my up-do fall out halfway through the festival. We also painted our nails, had some really talented ladies help us into the gorgeous yukata owned by the City Hall, ate bento, and pre-gamed a little before we walked over to the festival. 

It was nice to meet the new ALTs up in Asahi, as well as hang out with my successor up there. We danced, drank, and fawned over the beautiful tanabata decorations that the city put up this year. I wish I could go back next year too :(

 Getting ready to dance it up!

 Taiko drummers from our City Hall group in front of Asahi station

---Tateyama Hanabitaikai---

The very next day, there was a fireworks festival in Tateyama. Apparently it's really famous, and people come down from Tokyo to see it every year. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much since the fireworks festival in Columbus for Independence Day is generally pretty spectacular, but I was seriously impressed. The fireworks were shot off over the water on the ocean side of Boso, and they were shot off from about three different locations so that they covered the whole sky! One of the ALTs arrived two hours early, so we all had a seat right at the waters edge. One of the other girls and I wore our yukata to join in the celebration :) Of course I'll jump on any excuse to wear yukata. Anyway, they also had these really awesome fireworks that exploded from the ground straight up into the sky. Kind of hard to explain unless you've seen them, but they were really cool.　I read that this year they spent 330,556円 on fireworks for the event (roughly $4,200)!

---zairyuu card information---

I finally got my zairyuu card!

 After much confusion about whether I actually needed it or not, (thanks to the menkyo center for confusing the hell out of me over the seven times I had to go there) it turns out that you DO NOT need to get a zairyuu card unless you are newly coming to Japan. Your gaikokujin toroku shomeisho is still technically effective until you receive your zairyuu card (which I was told will happen next year, but there's no official date as of yet). HOWEVER, if your visa status changes, aka you start a different job, or go from being an exchange student to a tourist visa, then you will receive a card when you change your visa status. It usually takes about two weeks to get the card once you bring them your photo and all of your documentation. For those changing visa status, you have to make two trips (one to turn in the papers, and one to pick it up because they won't mail it to you), and for those new comers to Japan you should be able to receive it in the mail. Also, If you are trying to change your driver's license over to a Japanese license （免許切り替え） and you aren't carrying a zairyuu card yet, you need to bring your gaikokujin torokusho as well as a jyuminhyo that you can receive from the city hall (and in some cases the BOE if there is a 住民課）。Hopefully this information is useful for those who have some confusion, but when in doubt ask around at your place of work, or at your local city hall.