A maid cafe and date night!!

Friday, May 9

 

Today was such a good day!! :) I slept in because I didn't have any finals. Then I woke up to a bunch of messages from friends here and back home, so spent some time answering them. I really, really miss my friends back home and I'm going to really miss the friends I've made here as well!!

Then I went in to have the breakfast Yuko had left out for me while she ironed and watched tv. I got onigiri this morning!

And it's pink!!

Then I got ready to meet Emma for lunch. We were going to a maid cafe! Yay!! Maid cafés are so stereotypically Japan, that I had always wanted to go to one while I was here. But the ones in Akihabara were so freaking expensive. There were a few cheap ones but the food there wasn't cute (which is the only thing I care about). So hopefully this one will be a reasonable price!

The bike ride to the station was sooo nice! It was a beautiful warm, sunny day with a nice breeze. Life is good!

Emma texted me saying she might be late, so I timed it so I'd be late instead of early (that's the way the trains work for me. I'm very rarely right on time), but Emma ended up getting there right on time!

So we headed out into Osu.

 

Super tall circus guy who kept waving at us lol

 

The first cafe we came upon was Maidreamin, which was right at the entrance. Out front there were girls dressed as maids dancing... The food there was cute, though!

 

It was pretty pricey, so we decided we'd just have dessert there and walked around to find somewhere to have lunch. We couldn't decide, so I suggested we have dessert first since the maid cafe closed at 3 and anyway, I had my date at 4:45.

So we went back to the maid cafe to look at the menu. The maids out front told us we each had to order one thing and there was also a 500 yen fee for their "service" or whatever. They said it was just dancing and talking to us and stuff.

Ehhhh... I had hoped there wasn't a service charge. But at least it wasn't 1000 yen like in Tokyo!

 

There were three other people in there, all  guys and all by themselves. The guy at the table next to us was really into it and had bought a pink glow stick from them for their show later.

 

 

 

We got a maid named Yayoi, who was dressed like a cat. She had ears and a tail... First, she gave us this pink candle for our table. She blew on it and it lit up (well, it took her a couple of tries, but then it did)! 

 

Yayoi (see her cat ears and the tail between her legs?)

 

The adorbs pink candle!

 

She told us whenever we needed her, we had to say "nyan nyan" and put our hands up on our heads like car ears and kind of wiggle them. So when we were ready to order, we needed to call her, but neither of us wanted to do the stupid nyan nyan thing! I said I'd do it but then I chickened out, haha. It was too embarrassing! Finally, Emma said she'd do it when Yayoi looked our way again. So when she looked over, Emma put her hands up on her head, and Yayoi came over and made her say "nyan nyan" haha. Then she took our orders. 

 

Lemme just show you guys real quick how freaking cute the menu was!

Designs in chocolate syrup

Ha 20 cm tall ice cream sundae

I really wanted that melon sodaaaa!!

See? So cute your eyes burn. I wanted ALL of it!

After Yayoi left, I was playing with the candle and accidentally pinched it out (if you touch the flame it goes out) so I tried blowing on it, figuring the maid must have done something else secretly to make it turn on, but it turned on!! Sugoi! I want one!

Then Yayoi came back and took the candle lol. But she brought us water on little coasters. After she set the water down, she knelt at our table and talked to us for a while. Of course she used pretty basic Japanese so we could understand, but it was really good practice!

Then she took my coaster and flipped it over and started drawing a picture on the back. Emma asked her what she was drawing and she said she was drawing herself. She was good at drawing! Then she gave it to me when she was done.

I guess she felt bad that Emma didn't get anything, because she took Emma's coaster next and drew Emma. Emma didn't get drawn anime style, lol. So she ended up looking like an old lady!

After she left, we waited a while before our food came. Mine came first and Yayoi let me take a picture of it. It's so cuuuteeee!! Then she made Emma and me do this weird thing along with her. We had to put our hands together in a heart shape and then move them to the right and say "moe", to the left and say "moe", and then put them over my ice cream and say "kyuuu!" It was strange.

 

SOOOOO FREAKING CUTE!! My bunny ice cream with the unagi pai ears haha

Back of my bunny ice cream. Its tail.

Me doing the "moe" heart

Me & my bunny ^^

Then the maids started their show. Emma and I declined their offer to sell us glow sticks, but they brought us each a pink tambourine that we had to hit along to them dancing. Yayoi did a dance and then the other two maids sang a song.

Emma's dessert finally came with 10 minutes remaining of our hour. We'd wanted to take a picture of our two desserts together, but mine had started melting, so I started eating it.

 

Emma's dessert. Apparently the kanji says "moe." Of course. And I thought they'd draw on the pancakes like on the menu, but they didn't!

Emma with her dessert.

I tasted Emma's and it was good, but kind of dry. I'm glad I got ice cream, though I was suuuuper scared I'd get sick on my date later. Especially because underneath the ice cream was pieces of fruit in this soupy mix that was basically milk and sugar.

Emma started eating hers, but then this maid came over and got all offended because Emma had forgotten to do the "moe moe kyuu" thing. So we had to all do that. Then the maid told us she'd made the desserts herself!

I kind of doubted it because I thought I'd seen her at the front counter the whole time, but maybe that was someone else...

After we finished,used their bathroom (which had this sign in there about not putting non-toilet paper things in the toilet, but ended with "nyan" and a pawprint), and paid, we headed back out into Osu to find real food.

 

Some last shots of the place:

Our tamborines

The menu on the wall

The circus was still going on when we left. A big crowd was watching this lady make balloon animals and stuff.

 

 

We stumbled upon a Mediterranean style restaurant with pitas and baklava. Emma and I each got a pita because it looked so good in the picture with lettuce, tomato, and chicken. But after out food was ready and I went up to get it, I saw they'd been covered in this creamy sauce that looked like Thousand Island. Crap. That hadn't been in the picture.

It ended up being really good, though! 

After that, we walked around Osu for a while and window shopped and talked.

 

Bridget, there's an alpaca store in Osu...

 

And we saw a dog eating at a table with these ladies...

 

And we saw funny shirts!

 

I'll start my diet from tomorrow

 

Emma told me how Shogo had been texting her this week as well. And he was being sort of flirty with her as well. Two timer. But she was a bit jealous I got asked out, because he hadn't invited her anywhere. I told her it was probably because she acted like a bro, since all the two of them ever talked about was video games, haha.

That made me kind of regret saying I'd go out with him. But I was still really interested in how dating works in Japan, so it would be cool to have the experience while I'm here.

As we were walking back to Kamimaezu, guess who we ran into on the way?

Kazuki!!

Holy crap, I've seen him every day for the past three days!

He was sitting outside a food store eating some sort of wrap thing, lol. So we stopped to talk to him for a while.

I'd been planning on leaving at 4, but we ended up taking our time and then Emma had to use the bathroom, so it was after 4:30 when I got off the Tsurumai line at Yagoto. This would have been okay if I had made the Meijo line train. But I missed it by two minutes and the next one didn't come until 4:42!! Crap! I only had to ride it one station, but then I had to walk all the way to Nanzan where we were meeting!

If only we'd met at Yagoto Nisseki station, because I got there at exactly 4:45. But it took me 10 minutes to get up to E building and I ended up being 10 minutes late... T_T

Shogo was there sitting on a bench reading this book called Trainspotter with this hot American dude on the cover, though it was all in Japanese. 

When I got there, we headed back the way I'd come, to Yagoto Nisseki. We ended up speaking in Japanese for the entire date!! It was such awesome practice for me!

Only a few times, I wouldn't understand a word he said, and he always knew the English translation of it. Which made me think maybe his English was better than he was letting on. It's pretty good when he texts, but then again I'm also awesome at texting in Japanese, but I suck at speaking it. Either way, I'm just happy we spoke in Japanese and not English.

We took the subway to Sakae. I showed him how it's faster to take the Higashiyama line. Emma had been telling me earlier how it would probably be awkward dating a Japanese guys because there would be lots of awkward pauses since our vocabulary is so limited and we could only say so much. 

But we talked literally the entire night. Whenever I didn't have anything to say, he would ask me questions about America. And whenever neither of us could think of anything to say, we'd just name American sports teams and players lol. 

The trains were pretty crowded, but not so bad that we were pressed against each other, or anything. On the way, he asked me I went out with Japanese people a lot while I was in Japan. And I said yes, but mostly just girls. So he asked if this was my first date in Japan. And I said it was. Then I asked if this was his first date with an American girl and he said it was.

When we finally got to Sakae, he led the way to the bar, which was a British pub called Hub. He said that we were kind of early, but it was okay. I was so shocked when we were able to just waltz in, no questions asked, no ID needing to be shown, nothing. I mean, we looked like high schoolers. Especially me with my kitty tights and giant bow in my hair.

 

We got a table in the back and started looking through the menu. Shogo told me it was happy hour and showed me the happy hour menu. Drinks in Japan are expensive!! Most were over 700 yen. But the drinks on the happy hour menu were half off. So I got this cute pink peach drink because it looked pretty and it was also only 230 yen since it was happy hour. 

But when I showed Shogo that one and said I was going to get it, he went up to the bar and ordered it for me, along with his, paid for both and came back! So nice. :) 

Then we did "kanpai" and drank.

I finished it so fast it was scary. But I mean it was in a super skinny glass and tasted really good, so it probably dodnt have too much alcohol. But Shogo had barely finished a quarter of his when I was setting down an empty glass. Awk sauce.

After a bit, when we came to a lull in our conversation, he asked me what I wanted to drink next. So he was going to pay for this one, too? I had gotten the cheapest drink last time, so I wasn't really sure what I should order this time. So I asked for his "osusume" (recommendation). He said something with gin. So I got something with gin that looked good. I don't even remember what it was. And he got a mojito.

Lol when he brought them over, mine was like ginormous compared to his, haha. But they'd been the same price.

 

My ginormous glass

I was happy I got the one I got because his tasted too minty.

We also looked on the last page of the menu at the high alocohol content drinks. He pointed to the highest one, which I think was like 57% or something and said I should get that one. I was like hell, no. Only if we both get it. But he wouldn't do it, haha.

He was telling me how he doesn't like tequila because it burns. I started saying I didn't like it too, but then I remembered how good tequila sunrises are, haha. Whoops. But then I wanted to tell him about how in Mexico they put a worm in the bottom of the tequila bottle. But I didn't know the word for worm! So I grabbed my phone and looked it up. It turned out it was "mushi", which is the word for insect. I guess Japanese doesn't make a distinction between worms and insects. So I was like "mushi?" And he made a suuuper grossed out face haha. I was like, I'm totally serious! It makes it taste better!

Then we talked about what type of person the other likes. It was perfect! I actually got to use the stuff we did in class that one day we had to describe what kind of people we'd want to date.

So for the final round, guess what he ordered? The highest alcohol drink for both of us. Hahaha. So he brought over these baby glasses full of yellow colored alcohol. It was called "Dynamite Kid", but the description was all in Japanese. I could only read the katakana (the rest was in kanji), and that told me nothing. I figured it was probably a bunch of different alcohols mixed together.

 

 

So yeah I was like "chichai" (tiny) and we laughed. And then we took a sip. We both made totally grossed out faces. The stuff was disgusting!! And burned like crazy going down. 

At one point I said I wasn't going to finish it and he was like "no you should it'll be interesting." Yeah. I'm not sure what he meant by that, but I definitely didn't end up being the interesting one. This kid got druuunk. 

Heh. I'm glad I can hold my alcohol. Because I was good, just a teensy bit buzzed. But he was having a bit of trouble walking straight, haha. I said we should go take purikura and he said that was fine. So I set off for the purikura place. Except I totally couldn't find it, even though I'd been there twice (with Esteban and the guys, and with Ayuko). I knew it was around the pachinko parlors, but I just couldn't find it. Shogo kept asking if I forgot where it was and I kept asking him if he was okay, because he seemed kind of not haha. But he kept saying he was fine.

I said we should ask in the Circle K, aka he should ask since he's Japanese. But I guess he didn't understand that that's what I wanted, so I had to ask. But they understood what I wanted and told me it was on the second floor of the pachinko parlor. Ohhh.

So we walked back to the pachinko parlor and then I saw the escalator with the Rilakkuma TVs. So we headed up to the purikura place. 

 

It was fun! We took purikura and then spent forever decorating them. By the time we left, Shogo had sobered up a lot and could walk better now lol. We found out we were both going to Kanayama, so we headed to the subway station. He lives in Handa actually! He usually goes to the Kamezaki matsuri that I went to with my host parents, but this year he had too much homework.

At Kanayama though, neither of us really wanted to go home yet because the night was still young! So we walked around the shops in Asunal, the outdoor mall right outside Kanayama, where I had those waffles with Keniichiro way back when.

There was a Village Vanguard here too!! That's the store Keniichiro showed me, but then we went to the one in his hometown. So I told Shogo I wanted to go there and we did. I always love laughing at the weird things they have for sale in there.

I went straight to the buttons with Japanese phrases on them that I'd noticed in the Odaiba Village Vanguard, because now I had someone to translate them for me! We found one that said "drinking rookie" with a little rookie badge on it and Shogo said he should get that for himself, haha.

We looked around more and I saw some other funny things.

I completely lost it when I saw this toilet paper roll. I understood it without Shogo's help. Even reading it now again is making me crack up.

 

It says "I poop a lot"

I also could read this sake glass. Shogo said I should buy it because it described me, haha.

 

On our way out, Shogo wanted to stop in a CD store, so we did quickly. That got us talking about music. He really does know so many American bands and singers.

Oh, and he likes Justin Bieber. Ew.

 

 

After that we went out to sit on a bench and talk. Oh, and he told me he was only nineteen and a first year lol. He'd totally lied before and said he was 20. But then again Japanese people do that a lot, say they're the age they're turning later this year. Like Miyabi always says she's 8 and Yukari always says she's 19. But yeah... HE CAN'T EVEN LEGALLY DRINK!! Wth. How was he able to go buy drinks. Does Japan not even card?? Haha, wow.

Around 9:30, I figured I'd better head home. So we parted ways and I rode my bike home. I got home at about 10:30 and everyone was asleep except Ken who was on his computer, so I quickly showered and then passed out.

So yeah, I had a really fun time! And dating in Japan isn't any different than in America, fyi! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!