For the next few days before we started work we explored Himeji. We went into the city to try and work out how we were going to get from the Shirasagi Residence which is where we live to our schools. This was a very difficult task as we had absolutely no clue what the people at the information places were trying to tell us. We spent about one hour trying to figure out where we were going. Eventually we got some sort of information but it was still not 100% clear. When we got back to our residence we asked some of the Americans who live there to clarify the information for us and that made it 100 times more clearer. The shopping malls in Himeji are terrific. I haven’t had a good chance to explore them properly yet but everywhere you look there are shopping malls. Himeji is quite a big city. It is very clean like all the other parts of Japan that I have visited. I am slowly getting used to living here. On Saturday night we decided to hit the town. We went out for dinner and then went to find a pub to go to. When we first arrived in Hemeji Mr Izuka told us about a bar called the Tiger Bar. He said that this was where all the foreigners went. We were a bit hesitant to go there but we thought we should check it out. Well as soon as we got there we were pretty much ready to leave. Some Americans run the pub and were very full on. We stayed for 1 drink but couldn’t get out of there fast enough. The pub was very small and there was no dance floor. We left and walked down the road to another place called Cocktails and Dreams. It sounded like a good bar to go to so we went in to have a squiz. The place looked really classy and it was very well set out. No one was in there but we felt rude to leave once we had stuck our heads in – that was the wrong choice because we got ripped off badly. Everyone wanted to try Sake which is a Japanese type of alcohol. We asked the bar tender how much and he said that it would cost 800 yen which is $8.00. That sounded reasonable to us so we decided to stay.
The bar guy gave us some nuts to eat as well which we thought was a bonus. When we decided to leave we all got our 800 yen out but soon realised that 800 yen was not going to cut it. What the bar failed to inform us was that there was a 1000 yen cover charge just for entering the bar. This is now the second time I have been caught out by this rule. Instead of the Sake only costing 800 yen it ended up costing us 1800 yen each. What a rip off. I knew I should have asked for more nuts! That seemed to end our night right there. The dancing went out the window but I wish it didn’t because I was pretty ready for it after drinking the Sake. Very potent stuff that – I have no tried it cold and hot and they are my one and only times trying it. It is a drink that it very hard to swallow. Speaking of drinks – the alcohol here is very cheap. In the supermarket you can buy spirits very cheap. Baileys costs around 1500 yen which is $15, you can buy Johnny Walker for around 1800, Vodka was around 1200 yen – all very cheap. I think we will be planning a cocktail night at some stage!!
We went to the Himeji Castle on Monday which was the day before we started work.
This was the first time we had gone there since we have been in Himeji. It is such a beautiful castle. We booked into an English tour which was led by a Japanese lady. Her English was very good. The tour took around two hours. We actually got to go inside the castle. It was very interesting and freezing especially when you had to take your shoes off inside.
After the castle tour we did some more exploring of the city malls. Steve and I also bought some new bikes. The bikes were pretty cheap around $139 brand new including a basket, lock and lights. We are pretty happy with them and since we will be riding quite a bit we may as well have decent bikes. On the first day of school we were told that we had to give a speech in Japanese to the staff and students. I was so nervous and worried. The night before school started everyone came up to our apartment so we could come up with some kind of speech. I was so nervous – not only did I have to speak in front of 300 people, I had to say it in Japanese. (And they told us that it wasn’t necessary to speak Japanese to come to Japan – yeah right!) The rest of the night was spent preparing for my speech.
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