Martin's birthday and some other crap.

So today was Martin's big steak cooking birthday party thing. He bought 8500yen (about $90) worth of steak from the grocery store, which surprisingly wasn't much (meat is expensive over here) and he marinated it and cooked it for us. It was quite yummy! It was so good infact, I didn't have time to snap a picture of it. I ate it too fast. Ahaha.
We had Sam and Mike from the teachers over, and we ended up playing Pictionary for hours. But it wasn't normal type pictionary. It was like...car version. So it was a bunch of cards with pictures on them, and you had to take the cards and kinda sherades them to tell your team what it was. Apperantly I'm good at it lol. It was the Canadian showdown everytime it got to mine and Mike's turn ahaha. Good fun was had.

 Can't lie, the best pics of the night were Sam wearing Zoe's new wig, and Mike with a glow stick in his nose. Ahaha.

It's been quiet the last couple days in the hotel. But in refectory even though it's quiet, we had one lovely older couple visit and another older gentleman.
The older couple were absolutely adorable. I just wanted them to stay forever! So polite, very kind and just lovely people. I taught them some words in English and talked with them quite a bit while they were in the refectory. When they went to leave today, the lady went in her purse and gave me one of her business cards. She actually makes zori sandals (the sandals you wear with kimono) and she teaches how to make them. She has a place she teaches outside of Yokohama, she invited me to come visit and stop by. I thought that was so nice!
The other gentleman, he had wonderful English. He asked what brought me to Japan and where I was from. When I said I was so happy to have experienced sakura season, he said "you are as beautiful as a cherry blossom" ahaha. What a charmer. Really though, a lovely man. We talked about music, movies, directors and places that I should go see. It was quite nice.
I experienced my first staff leaving yesterday. Ian left because his contract was done. It was a pretty quiet departure. He was only here for 3 months but it was still sad to see him go. He was nice though, when he was cleaning out his room, he gave me his laundry hamper (YES!) and a Chopper stuffed toy. I'm not a fan of One Piece, but the thought was really nice. :3
One of the teachers just returned from a trip back to Australia as well. He said that because he knew how well my chocolate went over, he bought a bunch of Easter chocolates while he was home and he gave a bunch out at the pub. I got a Caramello Koala. It was tasty.

And one of the previous Japanese staff from refectory came to visit on my day off. I guess it's like the custom when you visit to leave food or something because when I went to work yesterday there was a box of biscuits for us from him. It was kinda sad though. George, Wendy and I thought they were waffles, and we were really excited, and when we bit into them, they had like a shortbread texture to them. They were yummy, but it was a surprise to be sure.

The sakura tree by the tea house is finally blooming. It looks really pretty. I took a picture while on my walk the other day. I also got a picture from the lookout point by the golf course.