Ohinasama!!

Rana and I got up pretty early this morning considering we'd gone to bed after 1 and we both had drank a lot. So we just lay in our futons and talked until we went down to breakfast.

Keiko made potato salad sandwiches and vegetable soup. OMG the soup was amazing!! I'd been craving veggies recently. We also had the anpan Yuko gave her. I got to try caramel latte tea this time! It was so good. :P

Then I showered and got dressed. I couldn't fit another pair of pants or another sweater in my backpack, so I had to wear the ones I wore yesterday. And they reeked of cigarette smoke. I gagged as I put them on and felt all dirty even though I'd just showered.

Then Rana and I left with Haruka because Rana and Haruka were going to go shopping. Rana was all excited because she wanted to get closer to Haruka and be like a real older sister to her (Rana doesn't have any sisters), so she invited her shopping. They ride the bus to Aratama Bashi with me and then we got on the subway, but went different directions. 

I rode all the way back to Ichinomiya and then biked home. It was a beautiful day out, so I decided I'd do something crazy. I decided I'd go for a run. I know what you all are thinking:

Who is this girl and what has she done with Cate?

Because those of you who know me know I despise running. I'm a swimmer through and through. 

But idk. Being in a different country makes me spontaneous I guess. And I've been eating so much shit lately I'm scared I'll be obese soon.

So I dropped my stuff off and went into the kitchen where Yuko, Ken, and Miyabi were eating. Miya was much better and I saw no sign of chicken pox (although she showed me later a scan on her arm from one). They all asked how last night was and if I'd eaten and Yuko told me they'd be doing Ohinasama today.

Then I told them I was going running. They were all like "huh?"

And then Yuko was all like "oh, jogging! Doushite?" (Why?)

And I was like:

"Takusan tabemono o tabeta kara"

(Because I ate a lot of food)

And Ken cracked up haha. Yuko was like "sugoi!" (Awesome).

So I left. Miya was sad because she wanted to finally play with me, but I told her I would afterwards.

So I ran all along the Nikko River, all the way to Shubun Daigaku. I told Yuko and Ken this when I got home because they asked where I ran and Yuko thought it was totally awesome, especially when I told her I'm not a runner and I never ever run haha. She kept saying "sugoi".

I looked up the path I ran on Google maps later and saw it's 1.5 miles, so I did over 3 miles since I went there and back and added in a loop around the area of our apartment complex as well.

I saw on Google maps that there's a 100 yen Lawson's along the river before you get to Shubun. I didn't see it, but I'm gonna have to check that out sometime!

Then I showered again and cleaned my room a bit and then Yuko called me in because it was time to set up the Ohinasama display. I watched as Ken got out all the boxes of stuff and screwed in the metal planks to make the structure that the dolls would sit on. Miya and I helped him hold it up.

Then we put the red blanket thing on and Yuko unpacked box after box of decorations for the staircase thing.

Miya and I consulted the picture of the Ohinasama display that came with it and built all the decorations and put them in their place. My favorite decoration was the pink and white stacked mochi (not real of course).

(Lawlz look at Ribbon)

And then we brought out the dolls and I got to help place them! The two on top are the prince and princess. They're married. Many people just buy these two because they're less expensive.

(Me placing the dolls)

(Miya placing the dolls)

And then we were finally done! I was thinking "gosh I can't believe Japanese people do all this work just for a holiday." But then I thought about Americans and Christmas and decorating Christmas trees and everything.

(The finished product!)

Yuko told me this set was from her mother and is 40 years old! She said when a woman has a girl, she must buy a new set of dolls for her girl, but when Yuko had Miyabi, Yuko told her mom not to spend all that money (because sets are expensive), so her mom just got Miyabi the big dolls below.

(Miya and me with the dolls)

After Ohinasama, we had a snack of pan Yuko made yesterday with raisins and craisins baked inside!! 

(Cute!! Also Japanese marshmallows taste way sweeter than American ones!)

Yuko asked me for English help later. Ahh I'm always so bad at helping people with English! She asked me how to say "メールをかく" (write an email) in English, and I told her it's "send and email" and she asked like what if she was in the middle of writing an email and hadn't sent it? Because in Japanese writing and sending an email are different.

But I told her "I'm writing an email" sounded weird. I mean people don't really say that, right?

I told her people say either "I'm sending an email" or "I'm typing out an email" (even though I think that's bad grammar), but I said she could just say "I'm writing an email" and people would get what she means. Ugh so hard! She ended up using "Miya writes emails" because Miya was writing them, but not sending them.

And she helped me with my sakubun! I was writing that I wanted to go to Sweets Paradise everyday, but couldn't or else I'd get fat and she corrected the way I'd written it so it sounded better! :)

Then Miya listened to her English CD. She was sooo cute! She made me listen with her. It played this groovy music and said all the English words with pauses so you could repeat them. Miya bounced up and down along with the music while repeating the words with her cute Asian accent. It was adorable!

Then I did my homework. During snack time, Ken had aske Miya and me what we wanted for dinner and we both said "nan de mo ii" (anything is fine), but then I was showing Miya a picture of okonomiyaki I'd eaten in Osaka later, and Ken heard so he decided to make okonomiyaki! He went to the grocery store quickly to get ingredients and then made it!

While he was making it, the rest of us ate rice, fish, and soup. Yuko was amazed that I ate the fish skin. Then Miya copied me and ate it too haha.

The okonomoyaki Ken made was sooo good! It was Korean-style, which I didn't even know existed and it was great! :)

I was doing my homework after dinner when my pencil ran out of lead. So I stole Miya's cute pencil and she got really mad at me haha. So she write me another letter and folded it up all cutely.

So I opened it and it said:

"I don't lick Keit"

Hahahahahaha. I cracked up when I read it. She's adorable.