Ugh I forgot how awful my commute is. I got squished like a sardine for the long ride from Ichinomiya to Nagoya and it was sooo bad. I really wanted to cough and sneeze and spread my germs, so people would back away from me, but it wouldn't have worked because there's no room for them to move away from me. It sucks. It was so bad I was daydreaming of lying on the huge expanse of the drillfield with no one around me.
And then I was like psh, who am I kidding? I know those by heart from all the times Miya and I would sing that freaking rap! I have the rap memorized and it covers all the irregular days, and the rest are easy.
Today I was really sick. I went through packs of tissues like chain smokers go through packs of cigarettes. I even seriously considered wearing a sick mask haha. But I just couldn't make myself do it.
I ran into Taylor as I was walking to school and she had gotten new kitty tights and she'd found ones where the kitties had little pink cheeks!! Ahhhh! I have to have them! She said she got them in Osu. Omg omg omg!
Then I went in to the CJS office to sit with my friends and we all talked about our breaks. Emma went to Tokyo all alone, but she had a really good time! She told us how her bus got cancelled too, so she took the Shinkansen but it was delayed because of all the snow in Tokyo, so she got back after the subways had stopped running and had to crash in a karaoke bar for the night! And the karaoke workers really wanted her out lol. Ugh, sounds miserable! She also gave me this map of Tokyo and the Tokyo subway for when I go next break! :)
In class, Natalia talked about her break. It sounded like she had an awesome time and I'm jealous! She applied for this year long program (even though she'll only be able to do about 3 months of it) where she works in various places around Japan and gets free meals and stays with host families in the area. So for this break, she went around Kyushu, including Fukuoka (ahh so jealous!). So all she had to pay for was her plane ticket!
She said out of the three days she spent there, she only had to work two hours!
She got to work on a farm (all she had to do was pick up leaves) with giant strawberries and as a hostess at a hotel! At the hotel she said "irrashaimase" to the guests (aka "welcome") and gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day! So she got to practice a bunch of Japanese and got to go shopping (she bought this adorable backpack for $5) and sightseeing as well!!
Then this guy Henry in my class who's never taken Japanese before and is the worst in our class (he's the one I told about the fruit the day I got all that fruit at Lawson's grand opening) told us all about his part time job he worked over break, here in Nagoya. Turns out he worked as a host in a cafe, where his job was, get this:
To hit on girls!!
Yeah, believe it or not, he got paid to flirt with girls in English! Hahaha.
I really wanted to ask how much he made per hour. I'd love to get paid to flirt with guys!!
In class, we had to do a bunch of those "write about what you did over the break" exercises. Ugh. Those suck in English and are even worse when you don't know how to say half the things you want to!
I bought my lunch at Lawson's today. The girl at the cashier next to me bought two sandwiches, which means four bunny stickers!! I really wanted to ask her if I could have them, but she's super quiet, I've never seen her speak. So I dont know her name or anything about her and have never talked to her before... So yeah, I didn't ask her. >_<
And then she had disappeared by the time I was done buying my lunch. I guess she went to eat somewhere else?
But I went into Dagane to sit with my friends and got a bunny sticker each from Heather and Autumn and one from my strawberry filled bread, so I'm up to 16 now!
My lunch:
Oh and you know my bread? Yeah so I ate it later and I was all excited for it because it looks like strawberry jam filled bread, right?
Well it was bread filled with cream and strawberry jam! :( That's the last time I'm getting that. The cream totally ruined it!
After lunch was calligraphyyy. I still suck. But whatevs.
Today we wrote "seiten". We had to do the weird diagonal lines in the kanji (we couldn't pick up our brush between lines). I don't like them, though. They make the kanji look ugly).
And then came my favorite class!!! Tea ceremony!
First we each got a fan.
(I chose a pink and purple one ^^ )
Then we practiced entering the room. We had to take our fans everywhere with us and alternate between sliding around our knees and walking on our feet.
We had to bow when we first entered and at the scroll. We had to admire the scroll and this flower arrangement:
And admire the pot of hot water and the tea cup and ladle.
Then we got to eat okashi! Yusss.
It was called "snow flower" because the topping was supposed to look like snow.
I think the outside was made of rice and inside was bright pink stuff that I think might have been anko even though it was pepto bismyl colored. Omg it was delicious though. I really wanted another one. I asked the older sensei where she buys these and she told me a place behind Nagoya-jo. Ahh I have to find it!
Then we were served our tea. When we got it, we had to say
"Mou ippuku ikaga desu ka"
to the person before us,
"Osake ni choudai itashimasu"
to the person after us, and
"Otemae choudai itashimasu"
to the host.
It was hard!
Gosh I love this class. And at the end she said next week and the week after we'll be wearing kimonos!!! AHHHHH!!!!
But we can't wear jeans, so I have to remember to wear tights or my leggings!
Today I managed to sneak in a lot of pictures. :)
I saw this awesome pocky on the way home I'll have to try one day:
When I got home, Miya sat in my room and helped me practice for my dialogue check tomorrow. Then Ken came home and we had dinner. We had a lot for dinner tonight, which was good because I was hungry!
We had rice, cooked pickled daikon, spinach, pasta, lettuce, fried tofu chunks, mushrooms, aaaannnddd...
...guess what??
THE FISH!!!
The ones where it's the entire fish. I wasn't going to eat one but then Yuko asked if I wanted one and said the entire thing was edible but I didn't have to eat the head if I didn't want to. So I was like what the heck and I ate the entire thing except the tail.
It's mouth was open and everything!!!
And I ate it!
Yuko and Ken were really impressed that I ate the head! :)
Then Yuko and Ken asked me about the nomihoudai with Yuri and Banana-chan on Friday and told me that because I'm staying over at Rana's house that night (so I don't have to ride my bike drunk lol), I have to get a present for her family (like a box of chocolate or something) because that's what you do in Japan, and Yuko and Ken have to get something to give them as well! Wow!
I also realized today that Friday is my half birthday!!! Omg guys. I gotta get shwasted...
After dinner, Miya and I watched cartoons (in Japanese) and some of the Olympics as well.
Then I went to bed early because it was so hard to get up this morning!
