Up to Nagano for the day

So on Friday I made my way up to Nagano in the early hours of the day in order to get my re-entry permit to come back to Japan after China. So I hopped on the bus bright and early at 7:45 and spent the next couple of hours on my way up to Nagano. I got off at the last stop, asked a guy for directions to the place I was going (since it was only a 5-10 minute walk from the last stop) and then was nice enough to even get a map! I was a bit thrown off though becuase I was under the impression I would have to buy my round-trip ticket on the bus becuase of a problem Kasuga-sensei had when booking them for me, but I was told I wouldn't be able to buy them on the bus. When we got to Nagano I asked the driver where I could buy them and he told me at the bust terminal, which was about 2 km back. I called Kasuga and he told me I should go there, but then called back shortly after to inform me that actually he had booked both tickets, I just couldn't buy them at the same time. Lul.

I found the place I was going to with no problems and went on upstairs and began filling out the form. It only took a few minutes, but in true Japanese beaurocratic fashion I then had to go downstairs to the first floor to purchase a ticket to put on the form in order to finish my app. I knew this was coming though so it wasn't a big deal. After that, I was all done, it took me all of 15 minutes, which left me with about an hour and a half until my bus returned to Nagano. I had spent some time talking with a girl named Jessica who is working up in the Hakuba area (huge ski resort area of Nagano) and was getting her visa extentsion. We chatted for a while and then after she was done I meandered along with her to burn some time, making my way over to Zenkoji temple (the big one in Nagano) before we parted ways. Zenkoji temple didn't seem particularly interesting (at least the parts I could see for free) and was dreary becuase of recent rain, cold weather, and no snow. :'(

So after that I made my way back towards the bus stop (at the prefectural office) and was kinda looking around for a place to snag some lunch. Lo and behold, about 2 blocks from my stop was a Denny's! Pretty much stoked, I stopped in and had an absolutely awesome sandwich for lunch.

Rode the bus home, and was lucky enough to talk to several groups of my students on my way back. :-) I got a bunch of wide eyes to see me 1) after not being at school 2) outside of school in general and 3) in street clothes. Haha!

I then made my way to buy some stuff for dinner and such. I found a delicious Japanese version of souju that's fantastic.

Today I made the christmas wreath cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. I feel awesome being a baker. Lol. The cookies are a bit brittle and I'm not sure what I did wrong, i think too much heat. :-/

This week I get to do some cooking at school with one of my classes which will be great! And hopefully I can get my christmas/new years cards lesson plan implemented, so I can send the good ones out! :-D