Rilakkuma stickers and Coffee Hour part II

This morning was super taihen (I love that word so much. I use it all the time when I'm speaking and thinking in English because there are so many English equivalents: "hard", "tiring", "horrible", "rough", but in Japanese, it's just "taihen").

I woke up to this:

Which basically equals bad day.

So I really just wanted to say:

And go back to bed...

But I didn't. Some good things happened like we had toast and that yummy orange tea (which Yuko told me is actually juice. I guess she heats it up?) for breakfast and I finally tried out my new eyeliner and it was amazing for 105 yen.

But some bad things happened too, like my leggings got soaked on the bike ride to school and I was too lazy to lace up my boots this morning, so the laces kept getting all caught around my pedals. So taihen. I hate having to bike to the station. >:(

I ran into Esteban at Kanayama, so we rode the subway. Then we met up with Emma and that one girl with the Rilakkuma train pass holder. We've been running into them every morning this week, so we all walk to school together. I've been really consistent this week, catching the 7:57 train every day!

I got to class early today and sat on the window sill and studied and then Heather came in and joined me.

(It was nice sitting up there and watching the rain)

(Sup?)

Class ended at 10:50 today, so afterwards Heather walked with me through the pouring rain so I could have the people at the bank teach me how to withdraw money lol. And they did! Now I'm an okanemochi, haha!

Then we walked back and I showed Heather the 100 yen Lawson's. They were doing a 20 yen off onigiri sale, but didn't have any flavors I liked that I could read. :/

Back on campus, we sat outside of Lawson's and I ate my mikan. Then we went in Lawson's quickly because I wanted to see if they had new stickers. They did!!! And guess what???

THEY WERE RILAKKUMA STICKERS!!!!!! 

AND THE PRESENT THIS TIME IS THE RILAKKUMA BOWL I'VE BEEN WANTING!!!

Ahhhh!!! And I have until June to collect 40 of them! But Heather decided this time she wants to do it too. So I have competition! >:( She's going down! 

When we went to get the sticker sheets, there were these two Japanese guys standing by then and they asked us in Japanese if we wanted the Rilakkuma bowl! I told I did and it was cute!

I saw this Japanese girl eating bread near us, so I went over and asked for her bear sticker and she gave it to me!! Heather was jealous lol.

(Ahhhh I want the white one!! But I kinda want the brown one too... Should I try to get 80 stickers before I leave?)

(The stickaahh. So cute!!)

Then I showed the sticker sheet to all my friends so they'll give me any bear stickers they get again, haha.

And finally it was coffee hour! I walked in to this amazing spread of food! Luckily most of it was meat, or I would have eaten way too much! But look at all the free katsu just chilling there... :(

(See those balls next to the egg rolls? Those were so good!! They were mochi filled with some weird black stuff covered with sesame seeds! Mmmmm)

The Japanese girls leading it (one of them told me I'm "itsumo kawaii" (always cute) so I think I'm finally fitting in!) did a presentation about hinamatsuri. And the rest of the time we just mingled.

There were a lot of little snack things that I took to save for tomorrow.

(Cute cracker thing)

(Emma took me with the cracker, idk why haha)

(Emma and my snacks. Guess which one mine is? ;) Mine says "hinamatsuri." Inside are bean shaped treats. Emma's ended up being like chocolate covered rice krispies. I'll find out what mine are tomorrow!)

(Others)

(Other side of Emma's)

(Other side of mine)

(Final side of mine)

Kawaii, ne?

Coffee hour ended really early, but I stayed and talked to people for a while. Then I went down to the Japan Plaza to do my honework and they were really helpful. Although, one issue I had was with this sentence:

らいしゅうの月曜日にクイズはないって。

You always say "ga nai" so I didn't know why there was a "wa". There were three Japanese speakers in there working and none of them could tell me. Yeaahhh... fail. I guess I'll never know.

I left pretty quickly because I was meeting Cam and Heather at Yagoto Nisseki at 2:30.

I got to the subway station early, so I went to go put money on my card. This Japanese guy passed by and nodded at me. He looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. I turned around again and he was still looking at me and nodded again. Then I realized he was Esteban's friend we'd all gone to the onsen with. 

Now that I knew who he was it was time to make a fool out of myself.

Me: "Konnichiwa!"

*awkward silence as I try to remember how to say "how are you?" in Japanese*

Me: "Genki desu?"

*fuck I forgot the "ka"*

Him: *sorta chuckles*

Him: "uchi ni kaeru?" (Are you going home?)

Me: "uun, kyoukai ni iku. Tomodachi to. Demo, mada kiteimasen."

Him: "jaa, mata" (and he gets on the subway in the direction I usually take home)

Damn, that last part I said is such horribly broken Japanese. At least I remembered to say "kiteimasen" instead of "kimasen." I forgot that in class earlier today.

Also I couldn't for the life of me remember his name, but I just looked him up on Facebook because he friended me the other week. It's Kazuki!

So yeah then Heather and Cam showed up and we took the subway to Hisaya-Odori, the stop above Sakae. There, we walked around for a bit until we found the markers Heather had written down (Lawson's 100 yen shop, and Family Mart) and eventually found Mikokoro Center, where the mass was being held.

(Cool eagle statue and Nagoya TV tower in the background!)

We got there 13 minutes late but mass hadn't even started. At around 3:20, they started saying all these Novenas. Heather, Cam, and I were so lost, but the Japanese lady next to me gave us her book to read along with. Everything was in English, though, so at least we could understand.

Finally at 3:30, the mass started (thirty minutes late :/ ) It was weird hearing so much English being spoken continuously. But it was nice being able to understand what was going on for once!

We all got our ashes! I was surprised when everyone held hands for the Our Father (which they sang weirdly with lots of "oooo"s which didn't belong and made it sound really funny) but bowed for the sign of peace. Idk.

Then after mass, they did an adoration kind of thing. Heather and Cam agreed it was all really weird and different from home. But it was a cool experience!

(Heather and me with our ashes. You can barely see Heather's lol)

Then Heather and Cam headed back to their dorm and I took the cheaper faster way home (through Nagoya Eki).

As I was riding my bike home (it had finally stopped raining and was clearing up), I saw this lady in the distance riding toward me and waving. I realized it was Yuko! And she had Miya in the backseat of her bike. We stopped to talk and she told me she was taking Miya to the byouin. I'm pretty sure that means hospital. I guess for her foot?

Then she was like "what's on you forehead?" Knew it was coming. I explained to her and she said "wakatta" so I guess she knew?

Then I went home and made a pb&j for tomorrow on the wheat bread I bought.

After that I took a nap. When Miya got home, she opened the door to my room and I lifted up the covers to let her know I was sleeping and she didn't come in again till later to tell me it was dinner time.

We had yakisoba and soup for dinner. It was yummy! Ken came home as we were finishing up. He grinned at me and said something super fast in Japanese. I stared at him and Yuko blankly and Yuko translated that he was asking if anything new or different happened in school today. Weird. He must have been in a good mood.

I said "nani mo nai" (nothing), but I told him about going to church in English.

Then I went back to my room to do homework. I'm really tired tonight for some reason, but I can't go to bed until everyone's showered. Ughhh. Taihen.