Sunday, March 23
The priest had emailed me while I was in Tokyo asking if I wanted to go with the Church on a picnic in Kyoto this Wednesday (everything would be paid for)! I had been super excited and about to reply "YES!!", when I remembered that I had already signed up for the field trip to the Toyota factory with Nanzan. But he emailed me back and said I could still go to Mie with him, or anywhere else I wanted because right now there's a discount on trains around Nagoya. It's only 2300 yen for a day pass!
Sweet!!
When I got home after church, Yuko made me toast because everyone else had eaten earlier since we were going to McDonalds in a couple of hours on the way to Handaa.
But I said I'd be hungry again in a couple of hours. Heck, I'd be hungry again in 30 minutes! One piece of toast isn't enough to fill me up, especially because in Tokyo I was eating four pieces of toast for breakfast each day!
So after everyone got ready and I looked what homework I had due tomorrow (none! Although I have a test tomorrow and a lot of homework due in the next few weeks), we got in the car and left for Handaa.
In the car, Ken played that station that plays American music again and I knew over half the songs. I kept making Miya laugh by dancing and singing along.
Then we got to McDonald's. I wasn't too thrilled about eating at Mickey D's, but at least I got to try the new only in Japan sakura burger!
I wanted the sakura drink too, but Ken said it wasn't a set, so I guess it would have more expensive than a plain soda, so I just stuck with grape Fanta.
The sakura burger was good! It was a teriyaki burger with an egg. It came with pink mayonnaise made with radishes, but I asked Ken to say no mayo.
Miyabi got the sakura burger too. I was surprised because when I was her age, I could barely finish a happy meal!
So yeah, her parents had to help her finish it.
(Pink wrapping!)
(And the buns were pink inside!)
Also we found out that if you're wearing pink from March 29-31, you get the sakura burger for only 500 yen!! (As opposed to it's outrageous price of 630 yen - completely not worth it!) So yeah, that would be no problem for me! If only I actually ate at McDonalds...
After McDonald's, I thought we'd continue on to Obaa-san's house. We were approaching Costco and everyone started talking about it (people in Japan are obsessed with Costco). I figured we'd just pass by it, but we stopped there.
We got out of the car and headed in to the Costco's.
Except that wasn't happening. Because there was a huge ass line that wrapped around four times and then extended out even more. I figured Yuko and Ken would see that and decide to leave, but nope. They stayed. Apparently that's an every day thing at Japanese Costcos. And it was even worse today because after next week, prices raise due to the increase in tax.
Yuko asked me about American Costcos, and I didn't really have any idea because I've never shopped at Costco, lol. I told her usually only large families shop at Costco.
The line actually moved quicker than I thought and we were inside in about 20 minutes.
It was basically America inside. There were tons of American products that everyone was freaking out over. They wanted to buy and taste all of it, and I was just like ugh, this is the food I'm currently escaping from, don't remind me it exists!
Although they did have my favorite healthy, natural burritos! But in a huge pack I could never finish.
Literally everything there only came in extra giant size that would take like a year to eat.
I was feeling sick after the McDonalds, so I said I was going to the bathroom. But Yuko and Ken didn't think I'd be able to find them if I left, so we all went together. I felt bad, especially after there was a huge line for the bathroom too. Yuko, Miya, and I used the family bathroom, but we still had to wait.
While he waited, Ken bought us all soda cups! Then we all had to wait on another super long line to fill them. I filled it with this Japanese version of orange soda (because the rest of the sodas were American ones), but it ended up being more like juice than soda. This one Japanese guy in line was saying that the soda cups were American sized because they were giant. >:(
Then Ken bought Miyabi and me each a churro! It was huge! So nice of him! Ken and Yuko helped eat Miyabi's, but I got mine all to myself!
There were also a bunch of samples around! I had a little salad, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, dark chocolate covered pomegranates (they were delicious! I explained to Yuko what dark chocolate was), and a chocolate covered biscuit thing.
Everything in Costco was imported from America so Yuko kept asking me if the prices were reasonable or if things were cheap, but I didn't really have any idea.
All I really ever buy is fruit and cereal, because those are the only things I really like to eat haha.
But we bought 12700 yen worth of food! I was happy we got two ginormous jars of strawberry jam and three honey bears (although I'm afraid it'll be the nasty American honey and not the sweet hachimitsu).
Yuko also bought a bunch of cookies (like legit American cookies - think Mrs. Field's, not Chips Ahoy)!! I'm super excited! And she almost bought the mochi donuts that Mr. Donut sells that I've been wanting to try, but then decided they were too expensive. Darn!
Before we headed out, we refilled out drink cups and then left. I put Mountain Dew in this time and immediately after the first sip, I had the hiccups. My host parents thought it was funny, but Miyabi thought it was hilarious!! I told everyone it happens every time I drink soda, haha. But since I get hiccups so much, I knew how to make them stop right away. I held my breath to stop them. Then I asked Miyabi how to say that (hold your breath) in Japanese, but she didn't know. So I looked it up. It was "katazu o nomu". I said it out loud and Yuko and Ken laughed and said it was a difficult word.
Now, finally, the next stop was Obaasan's house.
We ended up getting there at 4pm, when we'd left before 11am this morning!
Obaasan and her sister (Ken's aunt) were there. We sat and talked with them a but until Ken went out to the store. Shortly after, Yuko, Miyabi, and I went to the park. We were meeting a friend of Yuko's (Yuko had met her during the Handaa festival Ken pulls the float in one year) and her daughter there.
They were already there when we got to the park. The girl's name was Saki chan and she was 8 years old. They had a fat brown poodle too, named Toy kun. Miya and Saki played on the swings while Yuko and Saki's mom talked and I petted Toy. Then this lady who was walking black and cream colored poodles passed by the park.
She stopped so Toy kun could meet her poodles. The three dogs loved each other and played a lot. We all hung out with the dogs for a while until Toy's leash kept getting tangled, so Saki took him to go play. Miya got bored so she and I played on the swings and the slide.
She kept saying I was "too fun" because I would think of cool new things to do on the slide like make tunnels for the other to slide under or go down together in a train.
Then when the lady and her poodles had left and Miya, Saki, and I had run out of things to do, Yuko suggested we play this Daruma game. So they all taught me how to play.
It's basically like "red light, green light." One person is It and they turn around and say "Daruma san wa karan da" (the Daruma fell over) and while they are saying that the other people run towards the It person and when the It person finishes speaking and turns around, the other people have to stop in their tracks and if they move at all, they're captured!
I was It a lot, and I kept forgetting what to say! It was hard, haha.
But I found ways to twist the rules and make the game more interesting too, and that made Saki and Miya laugh.
Then Saki wanted to play a game where a persons It and they say a color and everyone has to run and touch something of that color or else they'll be caught. But I wasn't getting what she was saying.
She and Miyabi were so cute, working together using the little English they knew to try to explain it to me. They tried really hard and I got most of it, but was still confused on some of it. Finally they got Yuko to explain it fully. I felt so bad I couldn't figure out what they were trying to tell me!
And I was really jealous that they know about as much English as I know Japanese and they're over a decade younger than I am! Rawr!
This game involved a lot of running, so we were all hot and exhausted by the time it was done. But I think Saki chan really liked me!
Saki and her mom gave us a ride home in their box car.
Btw I noticed in Tokyo, everyone drove really western cars! I hardly saw any of the stereotypical Japanese box cars.
When we got home, Ken was back and the Obaasans had dinner out on the table for us!
(Obaa san cut the carrots in flowers!)
It was a delicious dinner! Ojiisan and the guy whose always in the other room (Ken's brother I think?) also came in to eat with us.
Ken's mom asked me if we eat rice in America and if I read any manga lol. I told her I've been reading some Japanese manga and I'm learning a lot of new words!
Ken ate really quickly and then left to go to matsuri practice.
After he left, Obaa san brought out ichigo for dessert! We ate some and then Miyabi started feeling bad so she and Yuko went to go lie down in the other room.
So I was left alone with the Obaasans for the next hour. I kind of wished I'd brought my textbook in from the car to study. But Ken had the car now.
The Obaasans were nice though! They let me finish the last three strawberries (which was awesome because I'd already had four)! Then Ken's aunt brought out a rubber band. I was watching her try to move the rubberband from finger to finger while only moving the finger it was currently on and the next finger. Ken's mom gave me a rubberband so I could try it too and then she got one for herself as well.
I rocked at it and the Obaasan's were super jealous! They kept asking me how I did and I helped and gave them tips. I realized the problem Ken's aunt was having was that she wasn't keeping her fingers straight, but she was having a lot of trouble doing that. I kept showing her over and over and then she finally got it!!
Yuko came back in when Miya finally fell asleep.
Then Ken came home wearing one of the matsuri happi that I think are really cool! We let Miya sleep for a while and just watched tv with the obaasans. It was a cool show about one of those 3D projection things Japanese people like so much. This one was an aquarium and you could draw a fish and then scan it in so your fish was swimming in it with all the other fish.
It was close to 10 when we finally left and I was exhausted!! We got home around 11, horrible for a school night when I had to be up at 6 the next day!
But I got to shower first, so that was nice!
I didn't get to study for my test at all, though :/
Guess I'll have to do it on the train tomorrow...
not studying is NOT good!
ReplyDeletekeep your books with you esp if you go to the trouble of bringing them bkz you never know who can help you study ... I am sure that you could have gotten some good tips from the family!!