I`m Genki

This weekend was a big one.

On Friday night there was a fun and enlightening office enkai (welcome party) in honor of Hayden and I. Required attendance for all the people from our office, it was an interesting cultural experience. The evening began when my supervisor picked me up to ride bikes together to the restaurant. If people in Japan have plans to drink, they ALWAYS ride their bike or car-pool so as not to drink-and-drive. We went for an amazing nomi- and tabe-hodai (all-you-can-eat-and-drink). I ate lots of delicious and weird foods. Speeches and formail `cheers` were exchanged. I learned about my coworkers and laughed a lot. After the restaurant we went to a karaoke bar (properly pronounced kah-rah-oh-kay) and performed fantastic musical feats. Who knew the movie "Aladin" was so popular? I belted out a few and ducked out around midnight.

The next morning at 6AM, Nick and I met a group of fellow sojourners for a mountain hike. I had no idea what we were about to do. We hiked Teshiodake mountain. 5 hours up (straight up), and 3 hours down. It was spectacularly beautiful, and I feel incredibly proud that my body was able to get me up there to see it. Nick is in such great shape from rafting that the trip wasn`t as much of a challenge for him. He`s a good one. After that amazing hike we went to our first Onsen (natural spa) and learned some of the many official rules for how to onsen. And then ate the most delicious bowl of soba I could ever ask for. Yum.