So, for at least a month, I hadn't seen any traces of any other foreigners in Takahashi. I had heard, from some of the JETs up north in Niimi, that there were other ALTs (assistant language teachers) from this private company called Interact. I hadn't seen anyone though.
On Sunday, I met not one, not two, but FOUR foreigners living and working in Takahashi.
I guess it's true that when they say when it rains, it pours!
It made me super happy though, because I finally have people within like... ten minutes from where I live. I don't have to take the train to the next city 30 minutes away to find people to do stuff with. I have bar buddies, so I don't have to go to bars by myself. HOORAY.
Three of the people I met were part of Interact, and they told me that there were actually three more guys (they were all guys) in various places in 'takahashi.' 'Takahashi' because the city is actually a conglomerate of smaller villages and towns that got absorbed into what is known as Takahashi. In reality, there's central Takahashi (aka downtown), the places across the river, and a whole bunch of places that are too far to reach without a car or motorcycle. It's kind of like how San Diego has the neighborhoods of La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Kearny Mesa, Ocean Beach, etc etc. They're still technically San Diego. But you need a car to get to them. The difference is, in Japan these places are more like villages, small pockets of houses and buildings nestled in the mountain foothills. But, they didn't live in Central Takahashi like I do. MOst of them are a little bit further out in the country side. And I thought I was rural... some of their schools only have 8 kids.
The even cooler thing about meeting these other ALTs is that they all had cars. Hell yes baby. It's like freshman/sophomore year of college all over again. OMG YOU HAS A CAR CAN I BE YOUR FRIEND????
Haha, seriously though, that's not why I want to be friends with these people...
I also met another girl through this company called Amnity, which is an after school English class. One of the girls I was helping at school also goes here, and gave me the number of this chick from Amnity. So I figured what the hell, I have no friends here, and sent her an email.
Turns out she's a super fun chick from hawaii. Sweet.
Oh, on a side note, I taught one of my classes to say 'that's sweet' haha. I giggled.
It was really amusing, meeting all those foreigners, because I met them all in one day. It was the day I decided to bug bomb my house, so I was killing time at the department store Polka in the 100 yen section.
That's when I heard it. Those magical words. I don't remember what they were. But, more importantly, they were in English. I feel like kind of a stalker, but I followed them through the 100 yen store and finally stopped them and asked if they lived in Takahashi.
I was practically jumping with joy when they said that they did.
The same day, I got an email from the Hawaiian chick. Saturday I guess, is the day to find foreign people.
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