dinner dinner dinner

This week seems to have mostly been characterized by going out for dinner and meeting people, which is pretty cool. Also, the title of this post should be read like the Mario noises. (You can thank my college roommate for that.)

On Monday I went out for dinner with Gina and met one of her friends from Japanese school, who is from Korea. He's currently trying to get into a Japanese university (though since he did his military service he's actually older than I am), which I think is pretty impressive. We went to a place called Ninnikuya, which roughly translates to something like 'The Garlic Store'. We tried their garlic spaghetti, which included whole cloves of garlic, and it was pretty good! I was also amused because in the bathroom provided mouthwash, toothpicks, and those tongue-scraper things, presumably to combat garlic breath.

On Tuesday I found out that the Slovakian ambassador would be paying a courtesy visit to the mayor next week, since the Chiba City Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit of works from the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (a really big contest for picture book authors), which happens in Bratislava, Slovakia every two years. Even though it was really short notice and it's not really related to the International Relations Section, they asked if I wanted to try interpreting at the courtesy visit. At first I was really intimidated by the thought of it, since I haven't done any interpreting before and usually we have at least a month's notice before courtesy visits, but after thinking about it and talking to another CIR, I decided that I should challenge myself and try it. While I'm still terrified at the thought of interpreting, for an ambassador, no less, I'm sure it will be a good experience. Plus I got free tickets to the museum so I could go check out the exhibit before the courtesy visit, yay! So my first big job will be next week - hopefully I'll be nice and prepared by then.

Then on Wednesday, we had a welcome party for a Chinese lady who has come to Chiba City for a couple of weeks for training (or something, to be honest I'm not really sure), who will be spending time with both our office and the economic planning section. At first I wasn't planning to go, because that was the day my dresser was supposed to be delivered and I didn't know when, but it came a lot earlier than I expected so I was able to go after all! I got to meet some people from the economic planning section and enjoy food and drinks with them and some of my coworkers, so I'm definitely glad I managed to make it - it's nice to be able to relax and get to know people better outside of work.

Today I went to the nearby town of Yachiyo, to hang out with Cory and some of his friends for a little bit to celebrate his birthday tomorrow! It was pretty chill and mostly consisted of us playing some Pokemon game on his Wii (which was really easy but also pretty fun). I had to leave early to be able to catch the last bus home, but I discovered that there's another train station in walking distance from my apartment that I didn't know about, so maybe in the future I'll be able to stay later.

Tomorrow one of my co-workers is taking our Chinese guest to Lalaport for the day, so I'm going to join them (exactly a week after being there, haha) before heading to Tokyo to celebrate some more birthdays! And then on Sunday I plan on seeing the BIB art exhibit, so it should be an exciting weekend. :D