Spring has sprung!

It's so warm here, oh my gosh. It was supposed to get up to the 70s by the end of the week until the rain showers decided to move in. But still, today was really nice weather!

And the sakura are starting to bloom at Nanzan!

(Not sakura, but still pretty!)

Minju and I had decided to bring our ramen to school today, so I had to squeeze the giant pillow thing in my backpack! Before I left this morning, I showed it to Yuko and Miya (Miya's on spring vacation now, so she was sleeping while I ate breakfast, but was up now) and they thought it was really awesome! I showed them the picture I took of the inside and Miya really wanted to eat it, ll. I told Yuko how I'd been on tv, and she said I should have asked what time it would air. Dang, I should have!

I caught the 7:47 this morning but stopped in Nagoya to withdraw money, so I rode the 7:57 after that.

When I got to school, I showed everyone my ramen and they all thought it was so so awesome!! Esteban told me the Cup Niodle Museum is featured in this movie called Ramen Girl so it's actually famous!!

In class Kondo sensei thought my ramen was totally awesome! I had it sitting on my desk so everyone kept asking me about it, haha.

So today we had to practice reading these example ads in our book. One was someone looking for a friend, one a girl looking for fellow band members, and one hilarious one, a guy looking for a girlfriend. The guy, Hiroshi, looked really creepy too. So then we had to fill out a worksheet about it and we had to pick who's ad we'd want to answer and why.

After we'd finished, I was being funny and was all like

"Hiroshi san desu. Kareshi ga hoshi desu kara."

(Hiroshi, because I want a boyfriend)

Everyone laughed and was like "ehhh??"

I wanted to say "just kidding!" in Japanese, though. I remembered back in high school I'd been obsessed with the then current fashion trend in Japan, which was "nanchatte seifuku", which were cute fake uniforms girls would buy because their real uniforms were too ugly to wear in public. "Nanchatte seifuku" means "Just kidding uniform", so I wondered if "nanchatte" could be used the same way as "just kidding" in English. Well, there was only one way to find out.

So I said it and Kondo sensei laughed, so I think I used it correctly! Yay!

So at lunch, Minju and I met up in Dagane. We sat at a table with Emma and Deanna. Then everyone watched as we opened our ramen (we pulled the tab and then all the air flowed out of the bag) and went to Lawson's to put hot water in it! It was really good! I loved the cute little fish cakes inside! I also got rice to eat because the little cup of ramen wasn't enough and Minju followed suit. But man, lunch was good!

Everyone kept coming over and asking how it tasted, haha.

(Opening my ramen!)

(About to unwrap the plastic!)

(Kawaii!!)

(I failed and poked a hole in the top of mine with my chopstick...)

(Filled with hot water!)

(Itadakimasu!)

It was fun!

Then we had hanga. I made my print of Rilakkuma and it turned out pretty well, I think!

The first time I tried it, he had too much black in his face, so I had to carve deeper. So I brought it back over, let it dry, and started carving. Then the teacher came over and told me to let it dry more. Whoops.

So I read my manga while it dried. I would turn around and tell Emma whenever I was at a funny or cute or embarrassing part. Rafa and Esteban were sitting at the next table over and snickered every time I talked about the manga. They were shaking their heads saying they couldn't believe I liked reading that stuff. *Sigh* I told them they didn't understand because they were guys.

Then Minju, who was sitting next to me, gave me the idea to draw the characters from my story. Drawing people would make it hard to carve, but a lot if other people, including Minju, were drawing anime characters, so I gave it a shot.

I felt like I was in middle school again, when I used to draw manga people all the time. I wish I'd kept it up because I used to be really good back then. Now I suck. Here's what I drew in the last few minutes of class. It's bad, but Emma thought it was cool that I managed to whip something like this out in only a couple of minutes.

After class, Minju and I went to Lawson's and I bought a melon pan because I was hungry. Minju bought a sweet potato ice cream!! Whaaaat? She said she has it all the time in Korea!

I have to try that sometime!

It was yellow sweet potato flavored ice cream enclosed in two brown wafers, so it actually looked like a sweet potato! Omg I might get that after lunch tomorrow! Might as well get this stuff now, before the tax goes up.

After class, I answered more emails. I'm pretty popular lately! ;) 

Then I headed home. When I got home, I went in to say "tadaima" and Miya was like "ramen!" Haha. So I told them it was delicious.

Then I memorized my stupid dialogue check. It's actually getting easier for me to memorize those, though! I think because my listening comprehension is better and I know how sentences work, I just remember what I want to say in English, and I can translate it no problem. So I did it pretty quickly and therefore finally had time to open my Betsucomi magazine I bought in Tokyo!

I thought the Kimi ni Todoke chapter would be the one I already read the spoilers for, but it was a new one!! I was actually able to understand about 3/4 of it!! I was surprised about what basic vocabulary it consisted of. And omg. I was sort of regretting having bought this huge magazine, but after reading that chapter I don't anymore!

It was such an amazing chapter! It had everything I'd been waiting for when I used to be obsessed with this manga in high school! Ahhh. I freaked out and texted Emma about it even though she has never read it haha. But I needed someone to share my feelings with, you know?

We finally ate dinner around 7:30 because Yuko had waited for Ken to get home. We had gyuudon again (beef over rice), which I didn't mind because I love eating rice.

Then I went back to my room to go over my dialogue again while everyone else watched tv. It took everyone forever to start up the showers last night. I guess because Miya doesn't have to get up early, she gets to go to bed later, idk. But it was after 10 when Yuko finally came in and told me I could shower. She said "gomen" at least. Ugh, I was really tired, though.

But at school, we're going on a field trip to the Toyota Factory tomorrow!! Yay!