Fat Tuesday

Interesting fact: last night at dinner when we were talking about the fact that I was watching Mononoke Hime, Yuko was asking me about other Ghibli movies and if I'd seen them (btw she and Miya haven't seen Spirited Away - whaaattt?? Yuko said it would be difficult for Miya to understand) and she brought up Grave of the Fireflies. I said I'd seen it. Gosh, that was a sad movie. Anyway, firefly in Japanese is hotaru. And she and Miyabi both saw hotaru for the first time ever last year! They come out around Gifu and in June only. And the interesting part is in Japan, you're not allowed to catch them!! It's because they're an endangered species here. I found it hard to believe since there's soooo many in America! But one landed Miya's head and then finger and people around them started glaring at them and whispering that Miya was catching the fireflies lol.

So anyway, today at school I realized something absolutely TERRIBLE!! Heather and I were talking about how today's Fat Tuesday (I completely forgot until then!) so we have to feast since Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and we can't eat much. I was like crap, I'm gonna be so hungry without my in between class snack of chocolate chip melon pan!

And theeeennnn... Heather was all "oh, and remember, we can't eat meat on Friday"

And then it sunk in...

And I realized...

I CAN'T EAT MISOKATSUDON ON FRIDAYS!!!!!!!! 

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Omg what am I going to do????

There is literally nothing good to eat at Nanzan that doesn't have meat in it! 

:(((((((((

Also, I wasn't planning on going to Ash Wednesday mass tomorrow because I didn't want to miss Coffee Hour or get home too late for dinner, but Heather and Cam want me to go with them to this church nearby with an English mass after coffee hour. 

Argh I'm gonna get even more stares and comments from my host family than I already do when I have blonde hair plus a black cross on my forehead lol. Whatever, idgaf.

But seriously, look how busy I am this month!!

(All the dots are events in my life :S )

At lunch I had the lunch special because you know, it's Mardi Gras and all.

(Dayum, look at all that food!)

And I actually finished it pretty quickly for once! Then I went to the lockers to get my knives with Rafa and Esteban and on they way, I was all like "Hey guys, wanna come to the vagina festival this weekend?" 

They cracked up. Rafa said he was busy, but Esteban said he'd go! I'm so excited for it! I found out about it last weekend, so I'm trying to find people to go with.

In Hanga, I kept making Minju and Emma laugh because I was failing so hard. See, first I drew Rilakkuma on the block, but then I carved the part that I'd meant to not carve and put ink on!

So I flipped the block over and redrew him. Because we cover the block with a black paper and trace over that in order to get our drawing to show up on the block, I couldn't remember how much of it I'd drawn, but I was pretty sure I got it all. So I took the paper off... And was like "shit!" I'd forgotten the eyes! Emma thought this was hilarious.

So I put the paper back on and traced the eyes, but I ended up tracing them on the wrong spot! Emma, Minju, and I were dying of laughter at this point. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I finally just drew the eyes straight on the wood.

(The outline of the eyes is the first attempt)

Ugh, Hanga is so hard! So yeah, next week I'll have to finish carving.

I walked to the subway with Emma after school today and we got to talk to each other for a long time which we haven't done in a while! It was fun. :)

Then I rode the rest of the way home. I decided to stop at Seiyu before going home because it was just before 5, so I was home early for once! And yeah, bad idea. I bought sooo much, haha!

Fat Tuesday feast, guys!

(It was kinda expensive... But I got the 6 slices of wheat bread, the pink red bean buns, and the okashi on sale!)

I saw the okashi and I was like omfggg, I want! I've always wanted to try the pink thing with the leaf, but it's ridiculously expensive. But it was on sale today, so here was my chance!

The jam and the mikan weren't on sale but whatevs, I wanted them. I'll probably end up sharing the jam with my host family but oh well. I was thinking of walking into the kitchen and being all like "oh hot damn, this is my jam!" Hahaha.

Naw, that's only funny in English... Or if you're familiar with that song...

Anyway, so Yuko was home when I got home. So I went into my room to break into my okashi!

(It says it's for hinamatsuri, so that's why it was on sale! There was a bunch of mochi there too and thousands of those pink red bean buns that I got 1 thing of)

(The inside)

First I ate the pink thing with the leaf I've been wanting to try basically my entire life. 

(Yuuuussss, it had anko inside!)

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the leaf or not, so I decided to eat it. But after my first bite with the leaf, I decided it tasted too bad and peeled it off.

Then I had the giant green mochi ball.

(It was filled with anko too!)

I was kinda done with sweets at this point, so I ate a mikan. I decided to share the gray ones with pink on top with Yuko and Miya and eat the dango after dinner.

Then Miya got home and she and I sat under my kotatsu and watched the hour and twenty minutes left of Mononoke Hime. Miya seemed bored during a lot of it. I don't blame her. Out of all the Ghibli movies, this one's definitely my least favorite. But she stayed through the entire thing and nodded later when Yuko asked if it was interesting.

Then Yuko, Miya, and I ate dinner. Yuko made a big meal (perfect for Fat Tuesday! Although I told Yuko about Mardis Gras and she'd never heard of it lol). It was her first time making minced chicken with daikon (and it was delicious!), so she took pictures.

Yuko's pix:

I tasted ginger in the daikon and chicken and Yuko said there was ginger in it!

My picture of it:

After dinner, I brought in the sweets I bought to share and then Yuko made us all another small cup of tea. I asked Yuko about the pink leaf sweet (she said it's Sakura mochi) and she said you do eat the leaf, lol! Oh well. The leaf was kinda sour anyway.

Miya and Yuko said "gochisousama" and "arigatou Keito" to me! It made me so happy. :)

Ken got home after we finished eating and then I did my homework. I also ate the dango and it was a little hard, unfortunately. It wasn't as good as the one I had at Atsuko's. :/

Also, I have no idea what it's for, but Google's looking pretty snazzy here today!

(It's something about Hiroshima)

So yeah, Mardi Gras doesn't exist in Japan, so it was definitely an experience seeing absolutely nobody celebrating it. No beads, no boobs, no nothing. But at least I celebrated the "eat everything in sight" part of it haha!