Bento picnic with Japanese friends!

Tuesday, April 15

It was just an ordinary morning on the trains. I was super tired and hadn't finished my homework (I'd been planning on doing it at school once Esteban gave me his book because it was in the new book, but he ended up forgetting it. But the homework wasn't collected anyway.). At Kanayama, though, I ran into Chris (the guy who'd helped me get my train pass back in January) and he solved everything I've been stressing about these past few days! Because you know what he told me?

He bought a bike last semester when he lived in the dorms and wanted to go to the grocery store to get food. But now that he was in a host family, he didn't need it anymore. He'd left it at the dorms so one of his friends could use it, but it was still registered in his name and he was just planning on leaving it in Japan anyway after he left in May. So he said he'd give it to me!!!! Omg omg omg. I freaked out. He's so awesome

So yeah, now the only thing I'm stressing about is how to get it back to Ichinomiya since you can't take bikes on the subways or trains and I can't read Japanese maps well enough to ride it back (also that would probably take like five hours...).

But yeah, I don't have to buy a $150 bike!! I knew things would work out somehow :) Chris is like an angel coming in my time of need, I'm not even kidding!

When we got to school, Chris asked his friend if I could have the bike at the end of May when he was done using it, but his friend said he barely used it, so I could just take it now! Ahhh!!! Yay!!!

Chris and I talked about the bike for so long and then the lady who always helps me at the CJS office joined us when she came over to tell me Yuko had called yesterday (what?? Yuko never told me that!) to say I could take my time deciding about what to do about the bike. So yeah, I was almost late for class! But I made it in time, which was good because I had a vocab quiz I had actually really studied for and wanted to take.

After I aced the quiz, we started class. Kondo sensei had us play that game again where we grab the cards of the kanji she says in sentences. I lost but there weren't prizes so I didn't really care.

And then it was finally lunch time! I was excited because I'd invited Tomomi and Saki to eat lunch with Emma and me today after the Kyoto trip Saturday, since Emma and I had been planning to eat in the green area together today. 

Last night, Yasuko had messaged me on Facebook and said we should eat together sometime, so I invited her to eat with us today as well! I'd bought a bento at Seiyu this morning in preparation. It ended up being kind of expensive (over 500 yen) :/ Ah well, it was good! And then I drank the orange juice from the matsuri.

I met Yasuko in front of the fountain in the middle of the green area and we went to go sit in the shade, over where Emma usually sits. Then Tomomi found us! She was leading a huge crew of girls and asked if it was alright if they sat with us too. I said sure! It turned out they were all part of Tomomi's German class.

They all started eating, so Yasuko and I did too. I introduced Yasuko and Tomomi to each other and it was awkward because it took me a second to remember their names... I'm so bad at names!! But after that I'll never forget their names! I just played it off as me not knowing how to introduce people in Japanese, but I think they realized. I felt so bad!!

My delicious lunch! And I just realized, there're sakura petals on the ground!

My adorbs drink. I gave Miyabi the apple one and that one was cute too

Then Emma finally showed up. She'd been buying a bento from the bento lady. But she was jealous of my bento because it had sushi in it, haha! All the other girls had brought their own cute bentos they made at home. Ahh it was just like in manga, haha.

The girls were all really interested in Emma and me. They kept asking us questions, haha. I felt bad because I realized Yasuko is super shy, so she hardly said a word. I kept asking her questions, though, so she would feel included.

So anyway, the girls asked us our hobbies, so Emma and I both said we like reading. And I showed them the Japanese manga I was currently reading. They all freaked out, thinking that was awesome! They asked if I liked manga and which ones. I told them the only one I actually follow, Kimi ni Todoke, and they all squealed. Haha they were funny. I've gotten that reaction a lot because Kimi no Todoke is such a girly manga.

Then they asked what types of foods we like, and I said misokatsu and they squealed again, lol. They told Emma and I that we were really good at using chopsticks! I'm glad because when I got to Japan, I found out I was using chopsticks wrong my whole life, so I had to re-teach myself and it was really, really hard! Another thing I had to re-teach myself was writing the katana and hiragana character "ka". I always drew the slanty line going down first, but you're actually supposed to draw the weird boxy part first. That was really hard to re-learn, but I can do it now!

Hiragana ka: か

When it looked like everyone was pretty much finished, I decided to take a picture. When I said I wanted to take a picture, all the girls squealed again! Japanese girls really like squealing haha.

I managed to get everyone in! I used the trick Sara had taught me where you can press the volume switch on your iPhone to take a picture, and all the girls were so amazed! They were like "She didn't press anything! How did it take??"

So yeah, here it is!

Yasuko is to the left of me, and Tomomi and Emma are to the right. And all the other girls are behind me.

Later I put in on Facebook and wrote my ever half Japanese, half English status! (All the cool people studying Japanese always write in both languages, so I've been wanting to do it too!)

Yeaaaahh, and it's actually 31 likes now!

Afterwards, we had to rush to class. I told Yasuko that next time we should have a lunch with just her, Emma, and me, that way we'd get to talk with her more and she agreed! 

Then Emma and I headed to Hanga. We talked about how fun the lunch had been and Emma said she was glad I was there too since I talk a lot, and that way she didn't have to talk so much. Haha, she's just like my sister!

In Hanga, I spent the entire class period carving Totoro and only got about half way done. Argh, Hanga is so hard!

That morning, I'd seen Deanna post something on the CJS Facebook page about a free Kyary Pamyu Pamyu concert at Oasis 21 in Sakae today. It only started at 6 (too late for me), but beforehand she was supposedly doing some "handshake event" (whatever that means) and selling her CDs. So I'd decided I'd go check it out. I told Emma about it and she said she'd go too. I invited Minju, but she had a big paper for her literature class due Thursday, so she figured she should work on that instead.

I had to be home by 6 though, because Father John had told me he'd let me borrow his bike so I could ride a bike to school again, and I was meeting him at 6 to pick it up.

After Hanga, Emma went to fill her water bottle. I was thirsty too, but I hadn't brought my water bottle today, so I decided to get a drink from the vending machines. I saw an interesting-looking "white grape and aloe" drink, but I decided to get another that was bigger, but the same price. It looked like orange or apple or something, I wasn't sure. But I wanted to try it.

OMG! It was AMAZING!!!!! It turned out to be Asian pear flavored! And it had little pieces of Asian pear floating inside! Holy crap, it was amazing! I really want to drink it again sometime.

When we got to the station, Emma said something about her DS and I realized, crap, I'd left my DS charging in K building where I'd had Japanese class this morning!! Nooooo!

I told Emma, she should just go on ahead to Sakae and I'd go back to school to get my DS. So we planned to meet by the information booth in Oasis 21 half an hour after whenever Emma got there, since I'd probably be half an hour behind.

I ran back to school feeling like an idiot for forgetting it. When I got to K22, the room I'd left it in, it wasn't there anymore! I was freaking out. My friends have told me stories of leaving phones on trains and stuff, but finding them turned into the lost and found later, so I didn't think someone stole it, but I had no idea.
I ran to the CJS office and told the lady who's always helping me about what had happened. She told me to ask at the police box/information booth thing when you first walk into Nanzan. I asked her what I should say in Japanese and she referred to the 3DS as a game system, so I did the same thing when I got to the police box.
The lady working there was all like, "oh, a 3DS?"
And I was like "HAI! pinku"
And she pulled it out for me! It was in a baggie with my charger too. Yay! I had to fill out a form with my name and gakusei bango, and then she showed me that the game was still inside, and gave it back to me. Woohoo!

So I rushed back to the station, where I caught the train right away and then switched to the Higashiyama line, since that's on my pass now. That train came right away too. Nice! So I got to Sakae way quicker than we'd thought I would because Emma took the longer way.
Since I figured I had about twenty minutes to kill, I decided to look around Oasis 21. There were people buying Kyary Pamyu Pamyu CDs from a little table, but Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was nowhere to be seen. Weird...

So I went into the 300 yen store. There was a place where you could fill up bags with candy! But it was 300 yen for every 100g which was a total ripoff!

Look at those totes adorbs panda cookies!!

And these pieces of chocolate shaped like little cakes!! Ahhhhhh

Then I sat around outside the Information place until I saw Emma approaching in the distance. I went over to her and told her how Kyary Pamyu Pamyu wasn't here yet. Then I showed her the candy. She thought it was cute too.
I only had about 10 minutes before I had to go, so I suggested we get the cute bunny sundaes at Baskin Robbins that I've been wanting for a while. Emma agreed ice cream sounded really good right now, so we headed in.
I was all excited... until I saw the prices. The bunny sundae was just one scoop of ice cream (perfect for lactose intolerant people like me) with cookie ears. And it was 400 yen. Yeah, no.
Also, a cone with a scoop of ice cream was 300 yen. Like, seriously? Those are like a buck in the U.S.
Needless to say, we didn't stop at "Sahty-wan."
I had to leave, but Emma wanted to go to McDonald's (don't ask me why), so I left on my own.

At Ichinomiya Eki, I stopped at that mini drug store with the 71 yen chocolate and bought two more packs of the chocolate matcha on top of cookies. Help, guys, I'm addicted...
Then I found the pack of two taiyaki for 100 yen and bought one of those, as well as these oval shaped waffle things with cream inside because they were also 100 yen.

I ate the waffle things on the way to the church because I was starving. The cream was weird and gelatinous, but other than that, it tasted good! I probably won't buy it again, though.

I didn't realize it says waffle until just now...

 At the church, Father John came out to greet me. I told him a bit more about my accident and then he showed me his bike and how to lock it up and I was free to use it! He's so nice!!
It felt amazing to ride a bike again! It was taller than my bike, but it was a lot smoother, because it's newer.

When I got home, I had a package on my desk from a friend of mine back home! So I opened it right away. It had really cute colored tissue paper inside.
And first thing I saw??? CADBURY EGGS!!!!!!!! MY FAVORITE EASTER CANDY! Gosh, I love those things so much. I hadn't eaten the ones my mom sent yet, because I wanted to save them for Easter, but now that I have so many, I decided to eat one after dinner tonight. It was a chocolate crea one, which I'd never had before. But it was delicious!! The chocolate cream was more like chocolate syrup and so rich and sweet and nom.
She also sent me stuff for my bruises!! Thank you for reading my blog and thinking of me! ^^

And a game for Miya was in there too! I showed Miya and she was really excited. But we didn't get to play it because dinner was ready.
After dinner, I had Miya help me memorize my dialogue for my dialogue check tomorrow. We went over it a bunch of times and soon she had it memorized too!