Buckwheat tea

Friday, Friday! Today I finally met Ichigo-sensei, my actual supervisor. She’s in charge of the handball team so she was away in Osaka on a tournament trip. We headed off to the bank in the morning. We discussed the pros and cons of Gunma Bank and I mentioned to her that I’d like internet banking. She ended up getting me an account at a different bank, Ryokin. I think they have better access across Japan. Now I just have to wait for my atm card to come in the mail. As a foreigner, all we get is a cash card that you can use at ATMs. No debit or credit cards right from the get go.

We also went to fill out more paperwork to transfer gas and water for automatic withdrawal, and we visited my rental company. They served us tea while Ichigo-sensei kindly filled out forms for me all day, and I stamped my seal everywhere. Right near here was a gelato shop owned by the mother of one of my students. Must go! And next door, a local produce market. Supposedly fruits and veggies are a bit cheaper here.

Ichigo-sensei got me lunch!

We then headed off to go shopping at a large grocery store, Beisa. On the way, we stopped at Yamada Denki, an electronics shop, so that I could buy an adapter for my laptop. Beisa is like a slightly smaller Walmart. It carried the same diversity of products, and was definitely a large supermarket. I randomly picked some staple items and tried out edamame chips. I nearly had a heart attack at the fruit and veggie prices though. Gah! One avocado was $1.30. I later found out this was the cheapest grocery store too. All the packaging sizes were tiny as well. I’m used to European sizes, but this was even smaller! The tiniest little things. A bag of potatoes could hold 3-4 potatoes. I think I will be shopping all the time.

La Maison - French style resturant

After dropping my groceries off at home, we returned to school. After school, I took my bike out for a spin to McDonald’s in the search of wifi. I was trying to get my sim card ordered and my wifi application completed, both of which I needed internet for. McD’s was really close but over a steep bridge for my 6-speed bike. No wifi. I turned back home a desperate women. Still not feeling that well food wise, so dinner was small.