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.
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:
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:
And the phone cases were cute too:
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!
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. :(
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:
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!
As I continued walking through the road lines with food stalls, I came upon a shrine.
So I headed into the shrine.
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!
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:
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!
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
Omg the konpeito stall is so cute!!! And so are the kitty tights ahhhh (I love your outfit by the way)
ReplyDeleteAnd bahaha I cracked up at the "and then I took my taiyaki around the corner" and your taiyaki is in the pictures
Haha thanks!
DeleteYay, I knew you'd like the konpeito!
Hahahaha, glad you enjoyed my taiyaki :)