"Life in Joto" or "My poorly new neighbour"

This is the onsen I want to go to. It is called hotarakashi-no-yu and is located in Yamanashi City (15 minutes from Kofu) but there is no way to get from the station to the Onsen!!
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So life in my new apartment has been good so far.  My bike got stolen on Monday so it is a long walk to and from my house but my neighbourhood is much quieter and less busy.  I am very close to the grocery store and everything I need.  My bike was registered to my work so hopefully it will be found and make its way back to me.  In Japan it is very bad to get caught with a stolen bike.  It is very common for people to "borrow" them and then ditch them a bit later.  Apparently my bike has been stolen before when it belonged to others and came back.  When I climbed Fuji I hurt my hip really badly and it was starting to get better but when I started biking it got suddenly worse so I think that right now I should not be biking and when it is good for me again the bike will come back.

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My new neighbour's name is Gatito Negro.  She is around 2-3 months old and is so weak from hunger that she cannot walk properly and wobbles and falls whenever she tries to scratch or lick herself.  She also has calci something virus which is apparently not good but she is getting better.  I took her to the vet today and he gave her a shot of antibiotics and gave me some medicine and nose drops to give her every day.  He also gave her some food and she ate it so ravenously that we concluded she has not been able to get any of the myriad of food that is left by people in and around my building for the many stray cats.  Being only 3 months old and weak already she is certainly in no position to fight for it.  So I bought her a can of salmon and gave her some in a bowl outside.  I literally had to squat down hovering over her so that I could chase away all the cats trying to steal it.  I think this will be a daily task now.  The vet said that if she gets enough food, she should start getting better in just a few days.  Luckily it is the weekend now so I can concentrate my efforts on taking care of her.  She is still living outside.  Byron has not been vaccinated against this particular virus yet (I am going to take her tomorrow) so I would definitely not want to expose her to anything.  She is a tough little kitten anyway and I think that with daily feedings and adequate water she can really make an improvement.  I guess I can put videos on my picture site so I will try to post a video of her next week.

Being only 3 months old and weak already she is certainly in no position to fight.

Yes, this is the amusement park that was featured in the 8th season of the Amazing Race!! (they had to ride three very high and scary rides and look for a man on the ground holding a sign that would tell them where they were supposed to go next).
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By the way Gatito Negro means black kitten in Spanish.  She is named after a black kitten that my parents found and helped in a similar way while they were travelling in South America.

Next Thursday I will be getting the internet in my house!  So I will be able to post all the pictures, videos, and entries I want whenever I want!!  I am also looking forward to being able to download movies and music.  The hit or miss English subtitles on the poor selection of interesting-sounding movies at the library just isn't cutting it anymore.

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I have yet to figure out a plan for this weekend.  I wanted to visit an Onsen (hotspring) but it looks like all the good ones are only by car.  One of the branch managers, Yuka, said that we should go to one together some time (she has a car) and this sounds good.  I guess if a room full of strangers is going to see me naked, one person I kind of know isn't SO bad.  We'll see... But that would not be this weekend as far as I know.

I will definitely head back to the good library and see if I can find anyone who speaks English and maybe a few more cookbooks.  I have had great success with the one I got and am learning a lot about Japanese cooking and thus culture.  I have made several tasty dishes and I have to say again what a pleasant surprise it is that Japanese cooking is so quick and easy!

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This week at work has been super easy because we are preparing for Hallowe'en!  Next week we will have a Hallowe'en party in all of the classes and this week we did colouring contests and crafts.  It has been a lot of fun and will continue to be a cruisy schedule until Hallowe'en itself comes along.

Speaking of Hallowe'en, for my birthday I have made tentative plans with the Fuji-Yoshida English teachers with whom I climbed Mount Fuji, Lily and Kelly.  We may be heading to a pseudo-Canadian bar called The Rink and then to finally try out authentic Japanese-style karaoke.  Some of the crew from my Unitas may come along as well.  Birthdays are usually disappointing in my experience and of course everything is disappointing if your expectations are too high so all I can hope for is a pleasant evening!

While I am talking about plans that have not progressed beyond conception, we are also supposed to go to Fujikyu Highlands, an amusement park in Fuji-Yoshida.  One of the teachers at my branch, Greg, is running a mini-marathon thing on November 26 in a nearby town called Kawaguchi-ko.  The race will be over at around 10am and then a bunch of us are planning on heading to the amusement park.  Also, apparently Cirque de Soleil is coming to Tokyo soon (although I just tried to find some info online and there was no word) and I would also like to go to Tokyo to see the Phantom of the Opera (performed in Japanese).  I think it will be an interesting site to say the least.  The Phantom of the Opera is a musical that I know so well that I won't need English to know what is going on.

So that's all for now.  Stay tuned for pictures of Fuji, Gatito, and maybe an Onsen!  (It's not worth the trouble to try uploading them before Thursday).

Oh yeah, I guess I should explain that Joto is the name of my new neighbourhood.  My new address is (Post Code) 400-0861 Yamanashi Prefecture, Kofu City, 2-16-14 Joto, Mezon Yanagi 103.  This is the order in which the address is supposed to be written here (most things in Japan are literally backwards).  (Mezon is the romanji spelling of the katakana representation of the French word "maison."  It's kind of funny how things work here...)