I think I had a small heart attack

So, I hadn't seen the spider in several days. Everyone kept telling me how if it had a way in, than it had a way out. I started to think maybe they were right and it had left my apartment. After running 3 miles, I needed a quick shower before Taiko class. I hopped in the shower and turned on the water. I went to pull the sliding shower door shut......when I saw it. The freak of nature spider was in the shower with me. I screamed like I was in a horror movie. I threw the door back open, jumped out and ran clear to the other side of the apartment. I quickly realized I needed to trap the spider, so I ran back and shut the shower door. I found some nuclear stregnth bug spray and slowly opened the shower door. Luckily, the spider was on the opposite wall now. I sprayed the spider until I was chocking from the fog. The spider had curled up and was laying motionless. I ran to get something to scoop it up with. When I returned the spider was running away as if nothing had happened. I sprayed it again and grabbed my cleat which was nearby and beat it to death while it was laying there. I couldn't hardly breathe for 10 minutes from the bug spray, but the spider was finally dead and that was all I cared about.

After Taiko class, I came home and was finally able to relax knowing the spider was gone. I made dinner and took it into the living room to enjoy a nice dinner. Right as I sat down, I saw another spider. It was only a fraction of the size of the cat spider (as eric described it), but still ridiculously big by normal standards. This time I knew what to do. I grabbed my 2 weapons, bug spray and a cleat, and went after it. Thankfully, I got it on the first try. So, now I've killed two spiders in my apt. Hopefully there isn't some big brother spider waiting to get revenge.

This is dedicated to my friend Eric

Create Your Own!


This past weekend was so much fun. On Friday night, I went out with Etsuko. She is a Japanese girl that I met through another JET. She studied English in America, so her English is fairly good. We went to a bar that we've been to a few times where the bartender speaks a little English. It's a very trendy, but quiet place so we were able to all talk alot. It was great to spend some time with Japanese friends.

On Saturday, we all went out to celebrate Kristine's birthday. We ate at my favorite Italian place in town. People from Ise and Nabari came out so we had lots of people there. We then went out to Karaoke (yeah, we do it alot). As always, we had a great time singing and cutting up together. For those of you who are coming to visit me, start practicing your favorite songs now. We will definitely be doing karaoke.

In Ise, there was a huge festival this weekend. There was dancing, music, parades, etc. I was invited by my Japanese class to participate in one of the parades by helping to pull a float. This is very similar to the matsuri I went to in Osaka, except people aren't standing on top of the floats and you don't run at full speed. About 100 to 150 people pull the float. My float was this giant cube which had been hand painted by local artist. There were these men walking in between the ropes who were doing this traditional Japanese chanting, but I can't remember what it is called. We pulled the float down several of the main roads in town. We would stop every little bit for this insane ritual. Everyone would start moving the rope up and down so hard I thought I would fall. Then, one of the men in the middle would yell something and both sides of the rope would run full speed at one another and try to push the other line back while squishing the men in the middle. It was hysterical. The first time it happened, I didn't know what was going on and it scared me to death, haha. I only have a couple of pictures of the festival on here, because I wasn't able to take many pictures. Kristine and many of my other friends were there watching and took lots of pictures. So, next week I will add more pictures from the parade.

After the parade, we walked around and I saw so many of my students. They would scream and run up to me. I felt like a celebrity and of course loved every second of it. At the end of the festival, they had these men holding huge hand held fireworks. It was an incredible sight. I hope that there will be some nearby festivals in town when you all come to visit because it is defintely something you have to experience for yourself.

Ok, now to address the title of my blog. Several weeks ago, Eric posted a blog about an incident with a giant spider and how much it scared him. I laughed out loud when I read it and thought of how silly he was being. I think I even sent a comment to him making fun of him for it. Well, when I was getting ready to go out Saturday night, I was in my room getting dressed. I had one pant leg on when I looked up and saw a creature, yes a creature, on my balcony curtain just 3 feet away. I literally almost broke my ankle trying to get out of that room. If there was a 3 meter race, I would be world champion. I stood in my living room panting for about 3 seconds before I decided I had better turn around so I wouldn't lose it. When I turned around (from the couch I was standing on), it was gone. By it, I mean the biggest spider you've ever seen in your life. Although, I've stopped calling it a spider. It's more like a small, furry animal shaped like a spider. It's much to big to be an insect. I called Kristine immediately and whined into the phone for 10 minutes as I looked for the spider. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was running late now, so I got ready as quickly as I could and left the apartment. When I finally got home that night, it was really late and I had almost forgotten about the spider. As I turned on the living room light, I saw the spider at head level now on my living room balcony curtain. This time, I was determined to kill it. With my high heels still on, I ran across the apartment and grabbed a big umbrella. I then proceeded to chase the spider all around my place. I was batting at it as it scurried across the floor. I was screaming and stomping and hitting the floor everywhere...which I'm sure thrilled my downstairs neighbor at 4am. I knocked over the bookcase when it ran behind there and then pushed the dresser away from the wall when it hid there. I threw clothes on the floor that were on my bed and basically ran around destroying my apartment like a maniac for several minutes. So, what happened? Nothing, the spider disappeared into my closet and I haven't seen it since...except in my nightmares. Eric mentioned in his blog that the spider was more scared of him, but in my case this is not possible. Funny thing is, I'm not even really scared of bugs. As I said though, this is more like some kind of mutant creature. So, now everytime I enter my apartment, I scan the room for several minutes looking for that dumb spider. Sorry daddy, but if I ever get ahold of it, it's dead. And Eric, sorry I made fun of you.

Soccer, the aquarium, and my goofy friends

Create Your Own!


Well, the soccer tournament was a blast, except for my injury. The tournament was in Nagano, in the middle of the mountains. It was the most beautiful backdrop for our games. Before our team even had it's first game, there was another team that didn't have enough players, so Kristine and I volunteered to play a game with them. Within the first 5 seconds of playing, I pulled my quad. It hurt, but I was able to keep playing. We then played two games with our own team. By the end of the 2nd game, my leg was killing me. It hurt to move at all. I could only play a few minutes of the 3rd and 4th game and couldn't play at all on Sunday. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to play as much as I wanted. My leg is just now starting to feel better. I haven't been able to run for 2 weeks. I'm going to try to start working out again this weekend because the indoor soccer tournament is in 2 weeks. Hopefully I won't get hurt this time.

Last weekend, I went with Kristine to the aquarium. A 64 year old man who lives in her building is the president of the aquarium. He loves speaking English and offered to show her and a friend around. It was the first time I have ever seen any animal shows. The aquarium at Myrtle Beach doesn't have anything like that. We got to pet the walrus and I played catch with a dolphin. I felt like a little kid. We had such a good time. After, the president (as we affectionately call him), had planned a meal at this really nice place at the aquarium. Unfortunately, the menu was already decided....you guessed it, all seafood. They brought out a large assortment of fresh, raw seafood, including raw lobster. I could barely look at the food, let alone eat it. I hated telling him, but this wasn't something I could fake my way through. They brought me out some steak. Actually, they brought out about 5 more huge plates of food for each of us. I can't even imagine what this would have cost, if the president wasn't getting it for free. Even though I didn't like the food, we had a beautiful view overlooking the ocean.

We had Monday off, so Kristine, John, Taylor, and I hung out at Kristine's Sunday night just being goofy and having a good time. We later went out and walked around, stopping in at a few different bars that we hadn't been to yet. We even walked up to a shrine that was all lit up. This weekend is Kristine's birthday, so I'm sure we'll have lots of fun this weekend too. Oh and it's also my city's big Matsuri (festival). They will have traditional dancing, music, fireworks, and more parades with people pulling floats. At my Japanese class last night, we were invited to pull one of the floats!!! So on Sunday I will get to participate in the festival. I am sooo excited. Hopefully I'll have lots of good pictures to put up from it next week.

Oh, a quick update on my student penpals. They are still writing me and I love the letters. This week, the girl who first and most frequently writes me, brought me a letter from her mom. It was much like her first letter, introducing herself and asking me how I like Japan. It looks like I have a parent penpal now too!!! It's things like this that make me love Japan.