Hinamatsuri (and mimi no hi)!

It was a beautiful day today! But it was windy so chouto (a little) chilly :/

(Ichinomiya station this morning)

(Japanese (baseball?) team practicing on the field)

We had our test first. It was super easy. The last question of the listening section was "kyou nani o kiteimasu ka."

I talked to everyone after the test and I was the only one who got it. It had tripped me up too, though, at first. I was like is it "what am I asking today?" Or "what am I coming today?" Because both those are kimasu. But they didn't sound right. Then I realized it was "kiteimasu," which meant it was asking what I was wearing today! 

At the end of the first part of class, before he left, Mutsukawa sensei turned to me and was like:

"Biseru san, konbini ni osara o moraimashita ka"

And I got all excited and was like 

"Hai!! Moraimashita!"

He asked if I got the bunny plate from the convenience store haha and I said I did. I was surprised he remembered when I'd only talked about it once, a while ago, lol.

Then Kondou sensei came to teach the second part of class. 

She was going over parts of the body with us and after she said "mimi" (ear), I was like "kyou wa mimi no hi!" (Today's mimi no hi!) and she cracked up haha. She explained to everyone about how 3/3 = "mimi" lol.

Then she had us play this really fun game where she wrote part of a kanji on the board and we had to write as many kanji as we could remember that had that part in it. We got a point for every correct kanji we wrote. I ended up with 14 points! I tied with Fu, the girl from Taiwan.

Everyone was so shocked that we tied since Fu knows a bunch of kanji already (that's also Taiwan's writing system), but I'm American and thus don't! They told me I was really good at kanji haha. I'm sooo not, though!

After class I went to lunch with Heather and Dylan. On the way, they were telling me how they hadn't been able to see Mt. Fuji on the flight over here because it had been dark for Heather, and Dylan just hadn't known he flew over it lol. I told them about how all the Japanese people on my flight freaked out when we flew over it and showed them the picture I took. Heather was obsessed with the picture and Dylan said it looked like it should be in National Geographic. Haha, maybe I'll contact National Geographic! 

(My Mt. Fuji pic in case you forgot)

I only got my iPhone like three days before I left for Japan, but I've already reached the limit of number of photos (over 3800) haha, so I've had to delete some. :(

Today I had misokatsudon because I was craving Nanzan's misokatsu after the Yabaton fail of a misokatsu. 

Ahhh it was so much better! Then I headed to calligraphy. 

Can you read what today's calligraphy says?

It's hard because we had to connect all the characters :/

(Bet you can't, haha)

Next was sadou! Everything was hinamatsuri themed today! :)

(Painted kai (sea shells))

(Wall scroll)

(My fan today)

(Today's okashi. Kai no okashi. The green marking is supposed to represent the ridges on a sea shell)

I was in the first group, like always, so I did the tea ceremony part first. There were a lot of kids missing from both my afternoon classes today. So the first group in sadou only had seven of us, and all girls!

After we finished the ceremony, we moved to the second half of the tatami room area to listen to sensei lecture. She did a little show and tell to help us understand. Ugh, it's so had because she speaks in only Japanese and I'm the only one from 300 in the class; everyone else is at a higher level. But she always does actions along with her words, and I can pick up words every so often, so I get the gist.

In the bag were four seashells. She took those out and explained that these clam shells are a symbol of hinamatsuri because they all have a perfect other half that they fit together with, just like we hope our daughters will find their perfect other half in life. So cute!

Then she showed us the three-colored mochi. She asked what the meaning of the green on the bottom was, and I was the only one who knew. I said grass. Then she asked the meanings of the pink and white and again, I was the only one who knew. She said the pink is actually just hana in general, not Sakura. Man, I have that little boy Joe to thank for making me look smart today, haha!

The little man and woman statue thing was actually a container that held three little balls of incense. She passed them around for us to smell. The host of the tea ceremony lights a fire and throws them in to make the room smell good.

When the lecture was over, we opened the sliding doors that divided the room in half, so it was one big room again. Then we joined the other group and our senseis gave us a second okashi in celebration of hinamatsuri!

We got one big flower and two little flowers. And then they ended up having extra, so we all got a third little flower. :)

(So yummy! They were basically rice crackers covered in sugar)

After class, I asked the senseis about the ritual I'd seen those ladies performing at the shrine in Osu last Friday.

(This one)

They told me this is something older ladies usually do. They rub the papers over the spots of their bodies that are hurting them (I saw them doing that!) and then put the papers on the statue and pour water over it and pray that their pain will go away. 

The senseis were so nice and patient with my horrible attempts to explain in Japanese what I had seen! It helped that I had this picture, though.

After that, I headed over to the CJS office to ask the lady who always helps me about getting the student discount for the Shinkansen. She gave me a paper to fill out and bring back tomorrow and told me she'd look up whether taking the Shinkansen there and the night bus back like I want to do is really more cost effective than booking a round trip ticket on the Shinkansen. I love her!!

Then I headed home. 

(Ichinomiya station this evening)

(The river on my bike ride home)

When I got home, I walked in as Yuko and the two girls who'd been over before and their mom were leaving. Yuko told me to clean my room and then left with them to go pick up Miyabi from piano lessons.

I'm not sure why she wanted me to clean my room, but I obeyed. Just as I finished, Yuko got home with Miyabi. Yuko got on the phone and I went to my room to watch Princess Mononoke, since that's the movie we have to watch for Folklore this week, and I'd downloaded it over the weekend to watch but hadn't had time yet. Miyabi got bored I guess and came in to talk to me about her friend who had come over. I asked her if she knew Mononoke Hime (the Japanese name of Princess Monoke) and she said she did, so I asked if she's seen it (except I asked wrong, but she corrected my grammar) and she said she had. I asked if she wanted to watch it with me, and she did, so we sat on my floor together and watched it. She kept saying "this is fun!" haha, so I think she liked it!

Then her mom called her to talk to whoever it was on the phone.

But she came back later and we watched some more until dinner.

Dinner was really good tonight! It was fried chicken, which I don't like, but at least it's not as greasy here as in America and rice, miso soup, and salad. The good part was the sides! There was cucumbers with seaweed, a bunch of Japanese vegetables that were so good, and Asian sweet potatoes (they look like Yukon gold potatoes, but are super sweet). I don't like Asian sweet potatoes as much as American potatoes, but they're good.

I realized at dinner that I lost the back of my earring. Miyabi went to my room to help me look for it. We couldn't find it, so I was about to comb the halls for it when Miyabi found it! I gave her a hug and thanked her. :)

Then Miya came back in to watch more of the movie with me. She sat with me under my kotatsu and snuggled up to me while we were watching it. She's sooo cute!!

Then Yuko came to get Miyabi so she could finish her homework. Miya realized she didn't have a notebook she needed, so she and Yuko ran across the street to Seiyu to buy it. I started on my homework for tomorrow which I have a bunch of! :(

P.S. Today's Google!

And after I clicked on it:

Kawaii!!

Misokatsu and more with Mami!

Yuko made a really good breakfast this morning with potatoes, ham, and lettuce. It tasted really good but was super greasy :S I found out Ken actually didn't come home last night. He'd stayed the night at Obaasan's house because he'd been preparing for the harumatsuri parade and then drank osake so he couldn't drive home. So it was just us girls for breakfast.

When I sat down, Yuko asked if my hair was natural. I figured she was asking about the color, but she meant the fact that it was curly. I'd not brushed it after I showered last night and hadn't brushed it yet this morning, so it was in the ringlet curls I hate, but my sister is super jealous of. I told her it was and she was super jealous! She said she always has to perm her hair and it's so expensive. And one time they messed up her perm, so she had to get it redone and ended up damaging her hair!

I told her I've always wanted straight hair haha. Everyone wants what they don't have! So yeah, I ended up not brushing out the curls today.

I decided to go to the 10 am mass, so I could see Atsuko and also Manaca and her dad (who's house I'm going to on the 30th), but none of them were there!

Manaka's friend and her friend's mom were there, however. Manaka's came right over to me and said "ohayou gozaimasu" and that I looked "kawaii" today! Then her mom invited me to sit with them.

These greedy old ladies stole handfuls of the sweets before I got to try any of the cool-looking ones, so I settled for this white roll cracker thing that was actually really good!

The mom (who's Filipino and speaks English) introduced me to her Filipino friend and Indonesian friend who can speak English. The Indonesian one was like "she's beautiful!" (referring to me) and then the first question she asked was "Do you have a boyfriend?" I was really taken aback. Then the two spoke among themselves about setting me up with some guy they know. Uhhh...

Then the mom had me talk to her daughter in English. The girl was really shy, but I asked her about school and The Hobbit, because she said she'd seen it recently.

Then I talked to this guy from Madagascar. I asked him if there were lemurs there lol and he said there are! He's been living and working in Japan for 6 years.

After that, everyone left so I did too. I walked over to the train station. It was still before noon, and I was meeting Mami at 1:30, so I had a lot of time to kill. I decided to get off at Nagoya Eki to use the Bank of Nagoya ATM there and check, just for kicks, to see if my money had come in. AND IT HAD!!!!! Omg!! It was so exciting to see that the balance wasn't 100 yen anymore haha!

Then I got on the JR wifi to text Mami that I was free now and see if she wanted to meet earlier. While I waited for her to text back, I went out to look at the spiral Mode building that I love. :)

Then I found a free wifi outside the station and connected to it and got a text from Mami saying that that was good for her! So I hopped back on the JR to Kanayama and then took the subway to Kamimaezu. There I followed the signs to the west wing and then went to a map to try to find where exactly the west exit was, because that was where we were meeting. But then Mami found me!

So the two of us walked out into Osu. She said she was hungry, so we decided to go eat. She aske me what kind of food I liked, and of course I said misokatsudon, so we decided to go to the place Minju's always raving about, Yabuton. The famous misokatsu place in Nagoya. Mami said the wait is usually really long. But we decided to go check it out anyway. When we got over there, the line wrapped around the front of the building to the side, but still wasn't as long as the line at Mizuno in Osaka had been and there, we waited out in the cold. Mami asked the dude taking orders how long the wait was and he said about 20 minutes. I told Mami I was fine with that, so we decided to wait. And I'm glad we did, because five minutes later he was taking our order and then leading us in to sit at the counter area. We'd both ordered the special famous misokatsu with the Nagoya specialty: red miso.

Everything in Yabaton featured that pig mascot (I put a picture of the pig on the outside of Yabaton on the Planetarium post when we passed by Yabaton on the way to the museum). Also, the restaurant has it's own theme song, that was playing outside as we waited haha.

(Above where we sat at the counter, in front of the guys cooking the food)

(My chopsticks. The wrapper as well as the actual chopsticks featured the pig)

(The curtains to the kitchen)

(The dishes and napkins)

One of the cooks was super nice and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of us with our food. He was all "one... two... three... Yabaton!" Hahaha.

I love how in Japan it's socially acceptable to take pictures of your food! The girl next to us was snapping a pic of her katsu and Mami did as well. ;)

I actually kinda didn't like this misokatsu. It had a ton of fat in it! Ugh. I like the cheap misokatsu in the Nanzan cafeteria waaaayyyy better! And it's only 400 yen while this one was about $17. But I lied to Mami and told her this one was better because that's what you do in Japan. She to me this was her first time coming to Yabaton as well!

When we were finished, we went over to pay, and I told the dude "betsu betsu" (separate), but then she was like "isshu ni" (together) and the dude was all ok, isshu ni! Why did he listen to her, not me?!?

So Mami paid for lunch for me! I was like nooo, it was so expensive! But she wouldn't let me argue! Ah she's so nice! Although it's also apparently a thing in Japan that older people always treat younger people and she's 25. Emma had said Mami bought dinner for her as well when they hung out last weekend. 

After we were all full from lunch, we went to go take purikura!! Whoo! I loooove purikura, and now I have more to add to my collection! 

We went to the second floor of an arcade to take them. It was a dress-up one and girls were dressing up in sailor uniforms and wigs and stuff. We decided to do the Oh My Girl one I'd done with the guys in Sakae that time. As we went over to it a dressed up girl was exiting alone. I wonder if people do that a lot, a hitori de (by yourself) photo shoot? 

Our pictures were so cute!! I insisted on paying for them since I felt so bad Mami had spent so much on me for lunch!

After that, we spent the rest of the time shopping. I'd said I wanted makeup since the eye liner pencil I'd brought had broken and I'd lost the sharpener and my liquid eyeliner had dried up. So Mami showed me a makeup store. It was actually the second floor of the store I'd been in Friday where the girl laughed at the fact that I was reading all the English on that T-shirt. I didn't even realize that was what the upstairs was!

When we walked up, this girl at the front gave us these yummy pineapple hard candies. The prices of the makeup were exhorbitant, though! All the eyeliners were $10-12!! I finally found some eyeliner pencils for 630 yen that were really cute because they were glitter eyeliner! I would never spend over $6 on makeup, but the black glitter was so cute and I've never invested in quality makeup, so I was all set to buy it when I saw the back of it. It was covered in tape, as if it had been opened before. And they were all like that. It was also Korean which made me suspect it was really cheap in Korea and they put an extra charge on it here because it was imported. So I decided not to buy it.

And good thing, too, because after looking quickly in some clothing stores, we headed over to a 100 yen shop and found eyeliner there. Now $1 for eyeliner is a good price. And this time I got one of the twisty kind you don't have to sharpen, yay!

(One of the entrances to the covered shopping streets)

After that, we walked over to Osu Kannon shrine, where I went with Rana that time when it was under construction. Today it wasn't under construction any longer! We walked up to it and Mami gave me 10 yen to throw in and shake the rope. She asked if I'd gotten a fortune before and I told her about getting one with K and Keiichiro and that I got Kichi. She told me she got Yokukichi this year!

(Osu Kannon temple!)

(Us in front ^^)

(Close up)

(Cool building next to the temple)

It was 3:30 then, so I had little over an hour because Yuko had told me to be home before 6.

So we decided to walk to Sakae. On the way Mami showed me a cheap clothing store in a department store behind the department store with Book Off.

It had some pretty good deals! Mami bought socks, but I ended up not getting anything. I had fun looking at all the Engrish though! I taught Mami what Engrish was and she thought it was funny, and pointed some out later, haha.

("Apple of eye")

("I don't know your love. Please.." 

I like that the ellipsis is only two dots haha)

(Definitely my favorite! "Bony!")

("You must go place with all people")

After that, we headed to Oasis 21. The Christmas decorations and ice skating rink were gone and had been replaced with these colorful balls and a stage for an SKE48 (the Sakae version of Akihabara's AKB48) concert that had happened last night. The concert stage was being taken down as we were there, though.

We went into the 300 yen shop where I bought my star tights, but didn't buy anything. 

(It had cute toast pillows!)

Then Mami wanted to get ice cream. I really wanted some, especially because they had special Hinamatsuri sundaes, but I had started to feel kind of bad and knew ice cream would make it worse. So Mami didn't get any because I couldn't eat any (I felt bad!)

(Cute Ohinasama icecream)

(Waaaahhhh, I want!)

Then we walked to the subway area and headed our separate ways. It was so fun hanging out with her! I spoke a lot of Japanese too, because Mami's level of English is about the same as my level of Japanese, maybe a bit higher, so a lot of times I had to explain myself in Japanese. It was good practice for both of us!

I totally would have made it home before 6 if I hadn't gotten so sick. I think I'm cursed so I can't go out and eat with friends without getting sick. Arghh. And it took forever to find good bathrooms without lines in Nagoya Eki. I had to use a squatty potty one of the times. :(

At Icinomiya Eki, I stopped into Daiso to buy chocolate chip melon pan for school tomorrow (help, I'm addicted!), and then walked home. I hadn't ridden my bike this morning in an effort to save 100 yen.

I arrived home at 6:10ish to an empty house. 

The ohinasama display looked kind of creepy all lit up in the dark! But Miyabi and Ken got home shortly after. 

Miyabi came in, shouting "Cate!"

I was like "yeah?"

And she said in perfect English "today I got my hair cut."

I was like "lemme see!" 

Aw, her hair was all cute and layered and her bangs now do the arch thing that's currently so popular in Japan.

Yuko got home a bit later, and we finally had dinner at 7, even though Yuko had told me this morning dinner would be at 6:30. Ah well. I wasn't feeling too hot anyway.

Dinner was delicious! We celebrated hinamatsuri tonight, since Ken's working late tomorrow, so we ate foods traditionally eaten for hinamatsuri. I loved having the rice with edamame and tuna! And the shishkebabs were kishkatsu! So they were basically katsu on a stick! Soooo good!

Afterwards, we had strawberries and that pink mochi stuff we had the other night. The strawberries were so sweet! I'm really excited for ichigogari (strawberry picking)!

Oyasuminasai!

Lunch at Atsuko's house!!

Whoo, it's the first day of March!! You know what that means, everyone? The penis festival is in 14 days!! I found out the Naked Man festival already happened. :( It was on February 4, a school day! So I would have had to skip class (since I have class on Tuesday until 3), and I probably would have, had I known. Oh well! The penis festival is the one I want to go to the most!!!

Today after breakfast (salad and pan Yuko baked last night) everyone left to take Miya somewhere, so I was alone. I was super bored, so I just did my homework. Then Yuko came back quickly and then left again. 

Finally it was time to meet Atsuko (the old lady from church last week who invited me over to her house for lunch today). I left the house and headed over to Seiyu, worrying that she might have forgotten about our meeting. But she was there! She spotted me and surprised me by giving me a hug! (People don't hug in Japan) I have her Texas chocolate and then she led me to her car where her husband was sitting in the driver's seat. She sat in the back to talk with me as he drove us to their house. On the way we passed a shrine, which she told me was Iwato Shrine and is a famous shrine in Ichinomiya.

When we got to their house, I saw she had a bunch of potted plants and flowers out front. They were so pretty! She took me inside and I saw she had the table all laid out with food already! Then we went into her backyard which was adorable with one of those garden arch things and lots of plants.

She took me into a little mini guest house type thing with only one room and no heat, so it was a little chilly. This was where she had her Ohinasama dolls, just like we have at home.

(She had actual mochi in her diamond shaped mochi things)

(The pretty flowers on the side)

(These were the ones her daughter bought for her granddaughter)

Atsuko also showed me the water color paintings she'd done that were hanging around the room. She was so good! She also gave me a paper that talked about Ohinasama in English. It also talked about how the third of March is also a holiday I didn't know existed, called mi no hi, "ear day"! Because the Arabic numeral "3" looks like an ear and 3/3 can be pronounced "mi mi", which means ear!

Then we went back into the main house for lunch. Atsuko's friend, Yoko came over then. Yoko teaches calligraphy and brought calligraphy gear for me to use!

Lunch was amazing! 

(In the black things was soup with seafood!)

There were also tomato slices with cheese and lettuce, but Atsuko had a bunch without cheese because she remembered me saying I couldn't eat milk products!

(My cute chopsticks!)

And she'd bought this bottle of nonalcoholic sake for us to drink. It was really cute and sooo delicious! I didn't get to take a picture of it, but luckily I found one online! This is what it looked like. 

(The girl who posted this said it was peach flavored. The ribbon on the one we had was hot pink and lime green, my favorite color combination!)

After lunch, Yoko broke out the calligraphy supplies. She had a bunch of papers with various kanji written on them, and I impressed everyone by reading all the kanji out loud.

She brought brushes, the black ink holders we use at school, and the liquid ink. I impressed her when I told her we use the ink blocks at Nanzan to make our own ink.

I practiced writing whatever kanji I wanted and then she would give me a thick board with a gold border for me to write it on. She said I could keep them as omiyage. Then she had me sign my name. She asked if I knew how to write my name in kanji. I told her I found out the correct way to write it is:

毛糸 

Which means wool, but that I'd chosen different kanji when I made my inkan. I couldn't remember how to write the kanji, so I used my dictionary app to look up "kei" and then "to" and searched through the kanji until I found the ones that I'd used. They really liked the ones I'd picked and the fact that it meant "wise road" :)

Then Yoko wrote a poem in all hiragana and had me read it. It was difficult because some of the hiragana didn't have the apostrophe things, but were still pronounced as if they did. Like は was pronounced "ba". I was like wtf. That's why poems are hard for Japanese people to read.

Then she had me practice my hiragana by writing the theme song to My Neighbor Totoro. And she wrote it too on a board for me.

(The four boards with only one kanji are the ones I wrote with my name in the corner. They say, from left to right: "yuki" (snow), "hana" (flower), "ai" (love), and "hoshi" (star). The board in the center is my name, written by Yoko with the meaning on the side (wise route). And the second to last is the Totoro song Yoko wrote)

Ahh it was so much fun!! I told Yoko over and over how much fun I had. In the middle of doing calligraphy, we broke for a snack. Atsuko brought in a children's book in Japanese for me! 

Then, because she wanted to teach me about Hinamatsuri and other aspects of Japanese culture, we had tea, mikan, and dango, which is traditionally eaten at the time of hinamatsuri. I'd had dango in America once and hated it, so I'd always thought dango was gross, but eating it today I discovered it was actually really, really good!! I loved it! It was made of three mochi dough ball things. The top was pink, the middle white, and the bottom green. 

Here's a picture of it I found online:

After we'd finished the calligraphy, we headed back outside to the Ohinasama room. Before we entered it though, we went to the front, where Atsuko has a garden and she picked some daffodils and lavender for the Ohinasama room and let me smell them. It started to rain while we were out there.

Back in the Ohinasama room, Atsuko broke into the chocolate I'd brought. Yoko really liked it and ate a lot of it haha. Then Atsuko pulled out some books about Japanese culture that she showed me. She also had the book of Spirited Away, that a friend of hers had bought for her in LA!

(Flowers, chocolate, and books)

(Spirited Away book)

(Japanese culture books)

I excused myself to go to the bathroom and Yoko showed me where it was in the main house. When I got out, Yoko was leaving. I thanked her again for the calligraphy lessons and fun and then she left.

Atsuko and I headed back to the Ohinasama room and I tried to call Yuko to tell her I was still coming home for dinner (because it was already 3, so I'd been there 3 hours already!), but no one answered at home or Yuko's cell.

Atsuko told me her daughter and granddaughter really wanted to come and speak English with me because they'd lived in Michigan for a while and knew English, but the granddaughter had ballet until 2:30. Could I wait for them to come over by train? I said I could, so we waited.

While we waited, Atsuko showed me all these picture albums she had full of pictures from all her travels. She'd been to so many countries!! The first was from her time in the US. It was back in '96. I recognized and had been to all the places she'd been to, like Yosemite, Vegas, Salt Lake City, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Santa Monica.

Then she showed me Germany, England, France, Switzerlad, and Italy!! It was so awesome! She'd gotten to go to all these places because she's an English teacher and she applied for the trips and then on the trips, she got to practice English and stay with host families. I'm so jealous!

Atsuko also brought out these cute flower shaped okashi for Hinamatsuri, in iro iro iro (various colors). They were delicious!!! I thought they tasted like Froot Loops.

Atsuko's daughter finally got there around 5, and brought her son and daughter (Joe and Miyu). Her son looked about 7, and her daughter was 11. Both told me their names in English and a few phrases like "nice to meet you."

Then when we got to talking, I realized her daughter speaks perfect English! Because she went to elementary school in America, she has no hint of a Japanese accent. Her mom was good at English too, but she was better! Over and over again, her mom would tell her something in Japanese and have her say it in English to me. 

We moved back into the main house where it was warmer and then ate mikan, apples, and the flower things and talked and talked. They asked me a bunch of questions! I was curious to know how long it had taken Miyu to learn English, and she told me 2-3 years. Her grandmother had taught her basic phrases before she left, but she had a lot of trouble reading, writing, and understanding in America. She went I English classes through, and her American friends helped her a lot. I'm so jealous she's bilingual at such a young age!! 

Also, I asked her what her favorite part of America was and she said Disney World, haha! She went twice while they lived there.

Joe said that the dango represented pink for sakura, white for snow, and green for grass! I didn't know that!!

It was so fun talking to them, I was sad to leave at 6, but I'd tried Yuko again earlier and she'd answered and I'd told her I'd be home for dinner, so I had to leave. We all took a picture outside and then Miyu, her mom, and Atsuko's husband took me in the car back to Seiyu. Then Miyu and her mom got out and hugged me goodbye and I walked home.

At home, Miya and Yuko got all excited over all the stuff I brought home. They really liked the children's book and all the calligraphy I had done. Yuko told me I was really good at calligraphy!

Oh, and a funny moment, Miya's shirt sleeve had fallen down so her shoulder was exposed, and Yuko was like "shekkishi" (sexy) and pulled it up to cover her shoulder. Haha. Then Miya kept pulling it back down and smiling and Yuko kept being like "dame!" (Bad) and pulling it back up again. Hahaha!

We had dinner shortly after. Ken didn't get home until after I went to sleep, so it was just Yuko, Miya, and me. We had oden!!! Yay!!

This time there were those pouch things in it. They were full of mochi!! They were good, but I still like the pink things the best. I asked Yuko if she made the pouches or bought them, and she said she bought them, but some people make them.

She also told me the stuff in oden varies but region. Like it's different in Osaka and Tokyo. In Tokyo it's more bland. Oh, we also put miso on our oden tonight an it made it taste soooo good! I love miso, so I'm glad I picked Nagoya to study abroad in (since it's famous for miso!) And Yuko said her mom always put octopus in the oden lol!

Sadly, this is the second and last time we'll be eating oden because it's a winter food and it's already March!

After dinner, I helped Yuko scan my Line QR and add me on Line, so I can text her if there's ever a problem and I happen to have wifi. Then she had me add her on Skype as well. We tested video calling each other using Line and Skype and the Line video call sucked, it kept freezing. Skype worked perfectly, though!

Then we watched the doubutsuen (zoo) show, with all the cute animals. There were kittens and Pomeranians, and lemurs on tonight so we all died seeing all the cuteness!

Then Miya and Yuko showered and went to bed pretty early, at 9.

I texted Mami (the girl I met when Emma and I went to Nami's English Cafe) and asked if she wanted to hang out tomorrow, and she said she did! So were going to walk around Osu and go have lunch somewhere. I'm so excited!!