Friday festivals with taiyaki!!

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh I'M GOING TO THE HOME MADE KAZOKU CONCERT AND I'M GONNA SEE THEM PERFORM LIVE AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So last Friday at the nomihoudai I asked Yuri if she knew Home Made 家族 and she said she did and she liked them! I told her about the concert in April and said I wanted to go and she did too, so I was like let's go together! And she said okay.

But then we didn't say anything much else about it, so a few days later. I texted her about it and she said she'd buy the tickets since the website was all in Japanese lol, and then last night she told me she'd just bought them! Ahhhhh!!! I can't wait! I'm so excited she's going with me and I'm so excited I'm gonna see HMK perform live in their hometown!!!!!

Spring has finally come to Nagoya! This morning I couldn't believe my eyes when my phone said it was going to get up to 63 today and then at breakfast, while I was eating my onigiri, Yuko was all like "kyou wa atatakai" yeaaaahhhh!!! And then I went to my room to put on my kitty tights and a skirt and not freeze to death for once and I opened my window and it was sunny and warm with a nice breeze blowing in and ahhhhh!! This is my favorite time of year! And it just makes Japan that much more beautiful! ;)

After breakfast, Ken Skyped on the new iPad so Miya could talk to him. I said ohayou gozaimasu. It was weird because he was driving while talking on it. I guess Japan doesn't have laws about that? I mean with all the TVs up in the front next to the steering wheels (btw there was one in Rana's dad's car when he picked us up last Friday and it was weird seeing it up there. I feel like I'd be so distracted by it while driving), I guess Skype is an okay thing to have as well.

(Pic because I <3 them!)

The bike ride to the station was sooo nice! I decided not to wear my coat today and it was the perfect decision, although I did worry my friends wouldn't recognize me without my usual massive amounts of pink... But every Japanese person I passed was all layered up in coats and hats and gloves and I just kept thinking y'all cray! 

At Yagoto Nisseki, I saw Esteban, Emma, and two other CJS girls all get off the train I'd just exited. So we all walked to school together. One of the girls had this bag of okashi and she didn't want the whole thing, so she gave us each two. They turned out to be these rice cracker things with a strong flavor I immediately recognized as ginger. They were actual pretty good!

She also had this adorable stuffed Rilakkuma head keychain on her backpack that held her train pass. I asked her where she got it and she told me at this store with stationary and cute things in Sakae next to a coffee shop called Hoshino Coffee. Ahh I really wanted it!

Nothing exciting happened in Japanese class today, but in project work I amazed sensei with my fast typing skills and the fact that I've typed in Japanese before. She had me do this typing practice packet first where I typed various words in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Then I typed out my whole report and she was shocked at how quickly I finished it. She had me read it to her, so I did and then I was done 5 minutes early, so she let me out early! :D

I went downstairs and talked to Rana about Tokyo because we'd been planning to go to a host club and perhaps maid cafe together. She said she'll probably be going Sunday through Tuesday, so we're going to hang out together then.

I was eating lunch with Rafa and Esteban, but I didn't see them in all the time I was talking to Rana, so after talking to Pearl for a bit, I headed to the cafeteria alone (Pearl had already eaten and was going to workout).

I got misokatsudon (ooooh big surprise!) and a few minutes later Rafa and Esteban showed up and came over to eat with me. Rafa got a huge ass dish because he ordered the ooki (big) version of the katsucurry. Look how big it was!!

When we'd finished, I decided to get on the secret wifi to look up Hoshino, the coffee shop that girl had been talking about so I could look at the store next door. I moved closer to Lawson's to get a stronger signal. It typed "Hoshino coffee Sakae" into Google and was only getting people talking about it, no maps. So I put the kanji of it in Google and got the Japanese page. Then I clicked on location and got a lists of every Hoshino coffee in all the prefectures of Japan haha.

I saw the kanji for love, "ai" and therefore knew that section was Aichi prefecture. But I couldn't remember the kanji for Sakae. So I went into Lawson's and asked the old dude working in there. He told me it was the first one on the list. So I clicked on that and finally got a map! And it was right across from Sunshine Sakae, awesome!

So I went back over to Rafa and Esteban and we left. First we stopped by YKK (one of the dorms) so Rafa could drop off his bag because he was going to go back there later to go drinking with some of the dorm kids. I was shocked there were so many dorm kids sitting inside playing video games on such a beautiful day!

I talked to this girl I'd never talked to before because she started telling me about how her host mom kicked her out because she'd lived there last semester but her host dad was coming home from a trip and they needed the room she was in now, so she had to move to the dorms. When we were finished talking, I was all like, I don't know your name lol. So she told me her name's Nikki. She was really nice!

It was cool seeing YKK and everything (I liked it better than NKK), but I was itching to go shopping, so I told Rafa and Esteban I was ready to leave. Rafa said he'd go too, but Esteban stayed to play a board game, that Rafa said was a pretty nerdy game. Haha I want to know what it was. But yeah I was ready to go back outside and walk around.

So Rafa and I took the subway to Sakae. We switched to the Higashiyama line because it was faster that way (I don't know why I didn't think of going that way all the other times I went!) we exited at the exit that goes into Sunshine Sakae and then went across the street to look for Hoshino Coffee.

Except we went to exactly where the map said it should be and it wasn't there. We were super confused. After looking at the map on my phone for a while, we noticed the place marker for it was in the middle of a street! Whaaat?

Then Rafa was like "Ohh, it's underground!"

Damn I'm glad he was there or I would have just figured the map was out of date and left. But no, we went down to the underground mall that I always forget is there.

It was like the freaking Houston underground down there in that it stretched for miles and miles, but shopwise, it was 10 thousand times better than Houston! We walked the wrong direction first but then Rafa asked this girl in one of the stores where Hoshino coffee was and she was all "tonari no tonari no tonari" haha. So we went down a few shops and then found it. And next door was heaven!

Like holy crap. So the place was called Olympia and it was like a shrine to everything cute! I pretty much died when I saw it. Rafa wouldn't go any closer than five feet of it and was all like "I'll be looking around over here..."

So I saw the train pass holders right away because there was an entire wall dedicated to them. They had both Rilakkumas, the brown and the white. The brown came with a red heart and the white a pink (yay!). I couldn't decide between the two of these card holders:

(Arghhhh look at them!)

So when Rafa came over because I was taking so long, I made him help me. He said the seal one seemed bulky. That was true and it was more expensive and the Rilakkuma one doubled as a pouch, so I picked the Rilakkuma one! Gosh, it was such a hard decision though!

Other cute pouches:

(Kitties!!)

(Rilakkuma in 2D form)

(More of the 3D pouches. The one of the guy above the seal is this guy Crayon man or something from this weird cartoon Miya and I watch)

And the phone cases were cute too:

(Pika!)

I wanted to stay and look at the stationary too, but Rafa wanted to get to Osu and I did too, so I'll go back another time. I paid way too much for the Rilakkuma pouch and then used it to cute-ify my backpack. Now it's so much easier to get out my train pass! I don't even have to open my backpack or my wallet!

(Before I put my card in)

(After I put my card in)

So Rafa and I headed back out of the mall and walked over to Osu. I knew the way, so I led us.

When we got to the covered mall, we walked through it trying to find the cowboy/Texan (I'd seen it before so I knew what he was talking about) store where Rafa wanted to try on some boots. We walked three blocks before we found it. On the way, we ran into a fellow foreign student from CJS who told us he'd just gotten his haircut haha.

Then we found the store! Rafa went in and I went over to a clothing store we'd passed that was nearby. 

And they had the kitty tights with the cheeks!!!! Ahhhh!!

Then Rafa came and found me and told me that he hadn't been able to try on the boots. I asked him what he was gonna do next because I was just gonna stay here and shop for the next couple hours haha...

So he ended up heading back to Sakae for a bit. I continued looking in the store with the tights out front. They were having a crazy sale! I almost bought this adorable girly wallet exactly like the one I have, except cute. It was only 500 yen! And I was also really close to buying this cute lacy purse because it was only 500 yen as well! But I didn't like how short the strap was. :(

Ugh I also wanted this adorable backpack, but it was over $20 even with 30% off. :(

(And I would have liked it better if it hadn't said "Lovely")

Ah well. So I walked back through the covered mall looking in every clothing store. I figured if I really wanted the wallet and purse I'd go back, but I ended up not missing them after I left the store. I was coming out of one clothing store when I saw this really tall girl. Like, I never see girls taller than me in Japan, and she was way taller than me! She had grayish hair too, that looked like a wig. Anyway, we did that awkward dance where you're both in each other's way, you know, and you both try to move out of the way, but you move in the same direction? Yeah, that. So I was like "sumimasen!"

And she said "gomen" except it was in this really deep, throaty man voice. So I expect she was really a he. My first encounter with a cross dresser in Japan, guys! Yay! I'm surprised it's taken this long, actually haha.

I ended up passing him a few times after that too. Super awks!

In one store, I was reading this shirt with a huge paragraph of English on it and the girl that worked there laughed at the fact that I was reading it and said something in Japanese to me, but all I caught was "mitte" which means "to see" so I just nodded and laughed along with her lol.

Then, in another store, the shop keeper started talking to me right away. She looked around my age, a little older. She asked (in English) if I was good at Japanese, and I said "sukoshi." And then told her I'm studying at Nanzan and that her English was really good! Later when I was leaving, she pointed at my hair and said words I didn't know, but I was pretty sure I knew what she was trying to say. I asked if she wanted to know if my hair color was natural and she said "yes! Natural?"

I told her it was and she told me it was really pretty! :) I told her her nails were cute. And I think we're pretty much BFFs now. She told me to take care when I left! :)

Weird store name:

Engrish on clothes:

("Future is exciting")

("Think rich look poor" why???)

("Except when they smile" wtf??)

(Not Engrish, but this was adorable. If you looked inside the mitten pockets, there were pictures of cats!)

And Engrish on a building:

After that, I decided I'd head back to Sakae and maybe check out the cute shop again.

On the way, I passed a whole buch of food stalls. It looked friendly and lively, so I headed for them.

Again and again stall workers would shout out to me using the few English phrases they knew, such as "how are you?" and "nice to meet you!" haha. I must have ventured down an area where not many foreigners go. One of them was giving out free samples and gave me a roasted chestnut! Mmmmm!

Every time someone would call out to me like this, I'd walk over and speak to them in Japanese for a little bit, telling them where I was from and what I was doing. They were all really nice!

 

(So many stalls!)

(Cute omelette and yakisoba stall. See all the little chicks?)

(I freaked out when I saw this stall! See it, Bridget? It's tons of different kinds of konpeito!! And the sign has the sootballs from Spirited Away, and Totoro!)

As I continued walking through the road lines with food stalls, I came upon a shrine.

(These cute harumatsuri decorations were everywhere, lining the street!)

So I headed into the shrine.

It was so awesome! All the old people were standing around the incense bowl because it was warm (even though it wasn't cool out at all).

As I headed back out, I stopped at a taiyaki stand because I still had yet to eat real taiyaki in Japan. I'd just had it in America and only the taiyaki parfait in Japan. And the taiyaki were only 100 yen, so I got one.

Ahhh it was delicious, with red bean inside! 

(Inside)

And it really added to the atmosphere, eating a taiyaki while walking past food stands. It made me feel like I was at a real festival in Japan.

Then I took my taiyaki around the corner, where I found another shrine.

I watched as this old lady bought three sheets of this super thin paper, each with a red mark in the center. She stuck the papers on top of a bunch of the same papers that were wet and stuck to a statue. Then she poured water from the little pool next to the statue, all over the papers she'd just stuck on the statue.

It was really interesting. I'd never seen this ritual before in manga or real life or text books or anything, and I'm really curious as to what it means!

More shots of the shrine:

And then I headed back to Sakae for real this time. No more detours, because I was running out of time!

(Cool house maybe I saw on the way)

I passed Ippudo, where Rafa, Esteban, and I ate ramen that time. Esteban really wants to go back. Then I passed the planetarium and the KFC man, so I knew about where I was and where I thought the Sunshine Sakae should be, but I just couldn't seem to find it.

My gut told me to keep going, but I doubted myself, so I asked a guy handing out magazines. He had no idea. 

So I just kept walking straight and the next block over was the Book Off! So I went in to look at the 200 yen clothes. I didn't see anything good so I went over to the games and DVDs. I was about to leave because it was 5:30, but decided I could look quickly at the 500 yen DVDs. And what did I find?

LoveCom!! The live action movie of a manga I never finished but my sister did. She and I always used to watch this movie in Japanese with English subs, and we loved it! And it has Teppei Koikei in it!! So yeah, of course I bought it, haha.

 

My feet hurt soooo badly at this point and all I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. Good thing we weren't doing karaoke tonight after all!

It was already 5:45 and I still had to walk a block over to the station. I was worried I'd be late for dinner, but then I had a breakthrough. I could just take the Higashiyama line two stops to Nagoya Eki and then Nagoya to Ichinomiya! Wow. I got home twenty minutes quicker by doing that! And it was the same price!

At home, I played with Miya a bit and then it was dinner time. We had salad and rice with vegetables and octopus tentacles in sauce on top. It was good!

Ken came home just as I was finishing up.

Then Miya and I watched the end of a Doraemon episode and then a Crayon man (or whatever he's called) episode. Then it was dessert time! We had pink mochi like things that I forgot the name of. They were really good, though! And tea. And Miya had heart shaped marshmallows!

(Dessert)

Then Yuko told Miya to help her and handed her and me dish towels. Then we had to help her dry the dishes. I didn't mind because I always feel bad that she does the dishes all herself, but I asked if I should do them one time and she said not to worry about it, and all my friends say that they asked their host parents and their host parents told them no, it's fine, so they don't help around the house either.

Miya dropped the first dish she started drying. It didn't break, but she started crying and so didn't have to finish. So I dried the rest myself until Yuko finished washing and helped with the last few.

Yuko asked if I often help my mom and I said I did and she asked what kind of things I help her with, and I said unloading the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, vacuuming, and cleaning the toilets. Ugh that doesn't make me miss home. 

And she also asked if I help clean by cleaning my room and I lied and said yes, haha.

After that, everyone took baths/showers while I wrote this and then it was my turn. I'm sooo exhausted, I'm going to sleep well tonight! It's supposed to rain tomorrow, too, so I'm glad I went out and  was active today. :) 

Today was a really, really awesome day! :D

Koukannikki

Last night I went to bed early because I had a headache. I think I was dehydrated because free, clean water is so hard to find in this country! Plus I swam a bunch and lost water then.

So I got a lot of sleep, yay! But when I woke up it was raining and that always makes it so hard to get out of bed!

We had soup and toast for breakfast, so I tried the hachimitsu today. It was really good! I don't usually like honey, but the honey here is way sweeter than in the states, so it was nom.

Then I used the other two pieces of the bread I bought yesterday to make a sandwich. I was talking about how the bread in Japan is way thicker than in America. Then Yuko laughed because the bread I had bought was a chocolate danish! I hadn't read the packaging and thought it looked like wheat bread. But she was all like, "you're putting peanut butter on chocolate??"

I was thinking girl haven't you ever tried a Reese's cup? Chocolate and peanut butter are made for each other!

But yeah, I hadn't realized I was making a pb&j on chocolate swirl bread lol. So I put the peanut butter and strawberry jam she had on and then put the breads together and it was humungo.

Yuko laughed and told me you don't use those types of breads to make sandwiches. I was like "oh well". I didn't think now would be a good time to bring up the fact that I had made a pb&j sandwich on chocolate chip melon pan, haha.

Anyway, then Yuko laughed and called me an "omoshiroi hito" (funny person).

(See how thick it is???)

It was pouring when I left which made for a fun bike ride. It was really nice waiting for the train, though, because the platform is covered by a metal roof and the rain falling on it sounded really pretty. But yeah, rain sucks unless I'm in bed trying to fall asleep.

We were squished on the JR today. I was next to this blonde, white dude listening to really loud rap music and I could hear every word of it. Smh.

So in class we were learning "to omoimasu" which means "I think" and we had to make guesses about Kondo sensei, using it and Mutsukawa sensei said we could make guesses about him too if we wanted.

So I said "六川先生は彼女がないと思います。"

Which means "I think Mutsukawa sensei doesn't have a girlfriend" and everyone cracked up!!

But yeah it turns out he was married so it was awkward. Idk why he doesn't wear a ring then...

After class, I ate lunch with all my friends and had misokatsudon, yeeaaaahhh! Everyone congratulated me on getting the bunny plate and told me how proud of me they were haha!

Then Esteban and I headed to the library to finish watching Spirited Away. He was able to finish it by 3 and left for class without me because I was at the best part of the whole movie (where they're flying up in the sky and Chihiro's crying and all that) and wanted to stay and watch it. I had to stop it literally like 5 minutes before the end, or I would have been late to class. But I checked it out to go watch at home tonight.

Then we had class. Everyone had really interesting things to contribute to the discussion about Spirited Away, some of which I'd never thought of before. I talked about the various things in the Japanese version that are missing in the English version and vice versa.

Like all the funniest lines in the English version (i.e. "not spicy enough" and "now that's an esophogus") don't exist in the Japanese version and were added in the English one for comic relief I guess.

Sensei also talked a bit about pink movies (what porn is called in Japan) haha.

Then class was owari and I walked through the rain to the train station. 

So after posting those pictures of Free! yesterday, for some reason I decided to make one my wallpaper on my phone. 

(Cute, huh?)

But then I realized that every time I slide to unlock, it looks like I'm like stroking the guys crotch, so I think I'm gonna take it off...

I'm kind of interested to know what actually happens in that anime aside from guys flaunting their stuff. But I've heard it's really weird and has a lot of guy-on-guy action and that's not really my thing... So idk.

On the train home the guy next to me was asleep and when I stood up at Ichinomiya, he woke up with a jerk. Good thing I woke him up, because it turned out to be his stop! It was still pouring when we arrived so I biked home in the rain and my legs got soaked. :(

Sad life.

When I got home, Miya was writing something really long in a notebook and I saw at the top she had written her friend's name, so I asked her if it was a letter.

She told me it was a koukanniki. I didn't know what that was, so I looked it up. It turns out it's a diary you exchange between friends. Miya and her friend Natsu write to each other in it. And they write a lot!! Miya counted out all the pages they'd written so far and there were 38!! I asked when they started and she told me in October of last year!

So cute! I told her I had one of those with my friend in middle school too! Yuko told me they're really popular in Japan among young girls.

Then we had dinner: spaghetti. At dinner Yuko exclaimed that tomorrow's the end of February already. Miya was all confused as to why there wasn't a 29th day, haha. I asked how to say "leap year" in Japanese and Yuko told me it's "urudoushi", but I found out there's no word for leap day!

I told her that my parents got married on leap day and she thought that was awesome! Then she told me her anniversary is Christmas Eve and asked me when I want to get married. I had no idea so I just made something up.

I was like "tabun 26" ha ha. Then I realized holy shit, that's in like 5 years...

Anyway, after dinner I watched the end of Spirited Away, ate way too much chocolate, and studied for my vocab quiz.

It turns out next Friday works better for a lot of people for karaoke, so it was moved to next Friday. That's when I'm drinking with Keiichiro, but Taylor was all like "you can come afterwards!"

Ha yeah, when I'm (hopefully) shitfaced, I don't think so. But I was considering it. But then Yuko told me tonight I wouldn't be able to anyway because if I only left there at 5 am, I'd get home after the time to leave for strawberry picking. And I'd rather do strawberry picking.

I do really want to experience all night karaoke (especially when I found out it's apparently a nomihoudai too and that's a deal for $20), but I think singing for 7 hours will get old after a while haha. Although Taylor did say she was going to bring movies. Ah well. I'll see how everyone likes it and then maybe we can do it again another time.

Suiyoubi!!

Last night I had my first nightmare since coming here. It was one of the super scary ones where I die. :S

But when I woke up from it, I had a bunch of messages from my friends to cheer me up! 

Esteban said he was going to swim with me today (he'd been thinking of playing badminton instead) and Minju said she'd seen that the Sen to Chihiro world we were going to go to after the Ghibli museum, closed at 4:30 so she decided she'd get the 2pm ticket too and we'd go there before the museum. Yayyy!!!

I just hope she can find someone to buy the 12pm ticket off of her.

Last night I ended up finding an awesome hostel!! It has free breakfast (the only hostel with free breakfast in Tokyo) and free luggage storage and is really close to all the major stations in Tokyo. It was also really cheap! The only problem is I have to share a room with 9 other girls! Ah well. Maybe they'll be nice. And I think the hostel has parties sometimes too, so I'll be able to make friends! :)

Also, I learned a new word at breakfast! Hachimitsu, which is honey! I asked what Yuko and Miya were pouring on their toast because they'd never used it before and they showed me the honey. It was less viscous than it is in America (so it was more runny and Miyabi kept spilling it off of her toast). That's why I didn't recognize it was honey.

And I was like "oh, hachi means bee!" Haha that makes sense.

I had anko on my toast today, because I wanted to try something other than jam and it was really good! But not as sweet. And I like sweet breakfasts!

For some reason I got ready super fast today (when I left, yuko was like, "whoa, hayai!") and ended up catching the 7:37 train to school today. Whaaaat?!? I haven't done that since the first day of orientation! Hahaha.

So I went to school and derped around online and looked up fun stuff to do in Tokyo. 

Class seemed so short today. Suddenly it was 10:50 and it was owari, whoo!

Today is Wednesday, which in Japanese, is Suiyoubi. The kanji for "sui" is the kanji for water, and the word "swimming" in Japanese is "suiei" so Esteban declared the day we go swimming to be Suiyoubi! It works out because we have such short classes.

When I got out, I waited around a bit because I wasn't sure if 400 had gotten let out yet, but when I didn't see anyone from 400 coming downstairs, I headed to the pool. I saw Esteban had gotten out of class early and already signed in. So I signed in and they were all like "hajimete janai, ne?" 

(It's not your first time, right?)

And I was like uhh actually it is. So after I removed my shoes and put these rubber croc things on, this cute old lady led me upstairs to the locker room. She only spoke Japanese, by I managed to talk with her. She asked where I was from  and I told her Texas and that Texas was really hot and at my house I have a pool I swim in and she thought that was awesome! 

When we first walked in, we had to take our rubber shoes off. Fortunately the wooden board things we walked on weren't wet yet because I was wearing socks. Then she told me to go up more stairs to get to the showers and toilets and go straight from there to get to the pool! So after I changed, I walked up to the pool. I saw a Japanese girl who said "konnichiwa" to me. Esteban's always taking about the Japanese friends he makes at the pool who talk to him in the locker room, so I want to make some too! But there was only one other girl in there.

The pool was beautiful! Next time I'll take pictures. It was on the second story so you saw the rooftops of the neighboring buildings out the window. The walls were all windows so it was nice and bright, unlike either of the pools at Tech.

And it had a spiral staircase up to a balcony where there were benches to watch people swimming, but the staircase was blocked off. So I guess it's only open during meets.

And then there was the Japanese swim team. Holy crap! It was mostly guys and they were all lined up along the side of the pool stretching. If anyone knows this anime called Free! that came out last summer (I've never seen it, but I've see pictures of it everywhere and it's basically five guys who are shirtless all the time because they're on the swim team and they're hot)... Yeah, imagine all those posters of Free!...

Actually, here I'll post a picture of one of them:

Yeah, it was that times ten. I was like ooooooohhhh my gosh. Damn they were fine.

Esteban kept teasing me about how there was all that eye candy and I was totally enjoying it haha. He told me they have a meet coming up so we might go watch it! Yeaaahhh!!

So anyway, Esteban and his friend Matt were in the first two lanes, which are the only two open while the Japanese team is practicing. But just as I hopped in Esteban's lane, they finished practicing, so I got my own lane.

After I warmed up, I decided to try a 500 to see if I could really still do it. And I did! I made it all 20 laps without stopping and it didn't take me quite as long as I thought it would. I kind of wish I had timed myself though. Oh well.

Then I noticed the 60 second clocks like we have in America, so I decided to see if  my sprints were still as fast as they used to be. I wanted to do a 50 in 31 seconds like I did in high school, but I could only do it in 36. :( I decided it was probably because I didn't dive in, so I got up on the starting block and waited for the top of the clock, but when it came Esteban shouted something to me from the other end of the pool and I missed it. I should have just dove in anyway, but I wanted to wait for the next top. While I was waiting, the pool attendant lady came over and apologized, telling me I wasn't allowed to dive off the blocks.

That's what Esteban had been trying to tell me. Because it was only 4 ft deep and they didn't trust us to only do surface dives.

That's so gay. Like, why are there even starting blocks in the first place, then? So I have no idea what my real time for a 50 sprint is. But I just swam more stuff like 100s and 200s until Esteban said Matt was leaving, but he was going to meet Rafa for lunch, did I want to come?

After the Japanese team had left, only guys came in to swim, so I went in to an empty locker room. Maybe if I come regularly I'll be able to meet more Japanese students!

Man, the swim felt amazing though! It was nice to get back in there after so long. I'm happy I still fit into the suit I wore when I was fourteen (I was legitimately worried I wouldn't). And swimming with my nice pink swimmer's goggles was so, so great!

Afterwards I had that tired, but happy after a swim workout feeling. 

(Selfieeee)

And I felt like I could eat anything and everything haha. So while we were waiting in line, I saw this Japanese guy eating this huge dish of meat on top of rice that looked really good, so I asked him what it was and he told me pork ginger. So I got that! It was only 360 yen, but I got the smaller version because I wasn't sure I'd like it.

It ended up being really, really good! I've definitely had it with at home before (like my Japan home, not America). Rafa got this humungo chicken meal for 500 yen, so he was good, but Esteban and I were still hungry after we'd eaten, so Esteban got a hot dog and I got the small rice bowl. I looooove rice!

There was this creepy guy, holding two cute breads, looking in the windows today. I'd seen him another day too when I was walking past outside and just figured he was making faces at someone inside, but today he just stood there looking in for forever. It was really scary. The Japanese girls sitting right under him didn't seem phased at all!

(There he is, such a creeper! After I took this picture, he moved a little farther down the windows to creep some more).

After we finished eating, the guys were still hungry haha, so we went to Lawson's. Esteban got a pack of dark chocolate (called black chocolate here) and gave us some. It was good! It tasted sweeter than American dark chocolate.

Also, look at these prices!!

We walked to the lockers afterwards and I dumped my stuff then parted ways with the guys. They were going home to take naps, but I was going to the bank.

Ugh so when I got there, I discovered my money still hadn't come in. I got the girl who was good at English, so I asked her to call and find out what the hold up was. She called the head bank and they said these things usually take a month!! So the earliest I'll get my money is Friday, but more likely it'll be next Thursday. Arghhh, I'm running out of money!

I'm so happy I have the traveler's checks, or I'd be up shit creek without a paddle. So I cashed another one of those today, but this is really stressing me out!

(Cute tree I saw on the way to the bank)

On the way back from the bank, I saw a cop car out in front of the 100 yen Lawson's. Then I saw two police officers talking to these three Indian guys and checking their ID and stuff. Ooohhh I wanna know what was going on!

(The back of the guy says "POLICE")

When I got back to campus, I got on the computer to send some emails and then went home.

On the way to the train station, I stopped at Lawson's to TURN IN MY COMPLETED STICKER SHEET!!!! 

I bought a thing of bread today and stole the other 5 stickers off other breads because very few had stickers left. The new wave of breads are sticker-less.

The guy took it AND GAVE ME A BUNNY PLATE!!!!! Ahhh! I was so sure he was going to tell me to mail the sheet in or give him an address to send the plate to or whatever, but he just gave it to me right then and there!

(Cute box it came in!!)

(It says Miffy Curry Plate :D )

(Me with the plate!!)

(Argh so cute!!)

When I got home, I made a half a pecan butter sandwich with the bread I bought. It was gooooood! The bread in Japan is so thick, though!

Then I took a shower. Miya and Yuko didn't get home until 6:30. Miya had this awesome thing she made today with paper, a bag, and a straw, where she would blow into the straw and the bag would fill up!! Sugoi!

When they got home I did my homework and then Ken came home and we all had dinner.

Dinner was soooo good! I told Yuko it was "mecha oishii" haha. It was a tofu burger with mushrooms in it that tasted exactly like the veggie burgers I eat and love in America! Yuko made it herself!

And we had miso soup with pumpkins in it!

Miya poured her tea in her rice bowl and I was like wtf? And her parents didn't say anything. They even encouraged her! Yuko must have seen my wtf face, because she explained that's a thing in Japan. She said you don't do it in a restaurant, only in your home, but people do it all the time lol! She said it's really good. Maybe I'll try it too some time.

After dinner, I studied for my dialogue check and did some of my worksheet due next week.

Ahhh today was such a good day!!

Friday should be fun too. Rafa and I are going to go shopping in Osu and then Taylor's organizing an all-night karaoke slumber party! I was telling everyone about it at dinner and I knew how to say all night! 

I learned it from Miss You, this song by M-flo I'm obsessed with and listen to every day. In it they say "asa made" which means "until morning". So I said the karaoke was "asa made" and everyone understood what I saying! Yayyy!

Also, here are pix of me and Minju from the science museum from the CJS Facebook page:

(Burning calories on the bike)

Matta ashita!