Koukannikki

Last night I went to bed early because I had a headache. I think I was dehydrated because free, clean water is so hard to find in this country! Plus I swam a bunch and lost water then.

So I got a lot of sleep, yay! But when I woke up it was raining and that always makes it so hard to get out of bed!

We had soup and toast for breakfast, so I tried the hachimitsu today. It was really good! I don't usually like honey, but the honey here is way sweeter than in the states, so it was nom.

Then I used the other two pieces of the bread I bought yesterday to make a sandwich. I was talking about how the bread in Japan is way thicker than in America. Then Yuko laughed because the bread I had bought was a chocolate danish! I hadn't read the packaging and thought it looked like wheat bread. But she was all like, "you're putting peanut butter on chocolate??"

I was thinking girl haven't you ever tried a Reese's cup? Chocolate and peanut butter are made for each other!

But yeah, I hadn't realized I was making a pb&j on chocolate swirl bread lol. So I put the peanut butter and strawberry jam she had on and then put the breads together and it was humungo.

Yuko laughed and told me you don't use those types of breads to make sandwiches. I was like "oh well". I didn't think now would be a good time to bring up the fact that I had made a pb&j sandwich on chocolate chip melon pan, haha.

Anyway, then Yuko laughed and called me an "omoshiroi hito" (funny person).

(See how thick it is???)

It was pouring when I left which made for a fun bike ride. It was really nice waiting for the train, though, because the platform is covered by a metal roof and the rain falling on it sounded really pretty. But yeah, rain sucks unless I'm in bed trying to fall asleep.

We were squished on the JR today. I was next to this blonde, white dude listening to really loud rap music and I could hear every word of it. Smh.

So in class we were learning "to omoimasu" which means "I think" and we had to make guesses about Kondo sensei, using it and Mutsukawa sensei said we could make guesses about him too if we wanted.

So I said "六川先生は彼女がないと思います。"

Which means "I think Mutsukawa sensei doesn't have a girlfriend" and everyone cracked up!!

But yeah it turns out he was married so it was awkward. Idk why he doesn't wear a ring then...

After class, I ate lunch with all my friends and had misokatsudon, yeeaaaahhh! Everyone congratulated me on getting the bunny plate and told me how proud of me they were haha!

Then Esteban and I headed to the library to finish watching Spirited Away. He was able to finish it by 3 and left for class without me because I was at the best part of the whole movie (where they're flying up in the sky and Chihiro's crying and all that) and wanted to stay and watch it. I had to stop it literally like 5 minutes before the end, or I would have been late to class. But I checked it out to go watch at home tonight.

Then we had class. Everyone had really interesting things to contribute to the discussion about Spirited Away, some of which I'd never thought of before. I talked about the various things in the Japanese version that are missing in the English version and vice versa.

Like all the funniest lines in the English version (i.e. "not spicy enough" and "now that's an esophogus") don't exist in the Japanese version and were added in the English one for comic relief I guess.

Sensei also talked a bit about pink movies (what porn is called in Japan) haha.

Then class was owari and I walked through the rain to the train station. 

So after posting those pictures of Free! yesterday, for some reason I decided to make one my wallpaper on my phone. 

(Cute, huh?)

But then I realized that every time I slide to unlock, it looks like I'm like stroking the guys crotch, so I think I'm gonna take it off...

I'm kind of interested to know what actually happens in that anime aside from guys flaunting their stuff. But I've heard it's really weird and has a lot of guy-on-guy action and that's not really my thing... So idk.

On the train home the guy next to me was asleep and when I stood up at Ichinomiya, he woke up with a jerk. Good thing I woke him up, because it turned out to be his stop! It was still pouring when we arrived so I biked home in the rain and my legs got soaked. :(

Sad life.

When I got home, Miya was writing something really long in a notebook and I saw at the top she had written her friend's name, so I asked her if it was a letter.

She told me it was a koukanniki. I didn't know what that was, so I looked it up. It turns out it's a diary you exchange between friends. Miya and her friend Natsu write to each other in it. And they write a lot!! Miya counted out all the pages they'd written so far and there were 38!! I asked when they started and she told me in October of last year!

So cute! I told her I had one of those with my friend in middle school too! Yuko told me they're really popular in Japan among young girls.

Then we had dinner: spaghetti. At dinner Yuko exclaimed that tomorrow's the end of February already. Miya was all confused as to why there wasn't a 29th day, haha. I asked how to say "leap year" in Japanese and Yuko told me it's "urudoushi", but I found out there's no word for leap day!

I told her that my parents got married on leap day and she thought that was awesome! Then she told me her anniversary is Christmas Eve and asked me when I want to get married. I had no idea so I just made something up.

I was like "tabun 26" ha ha. Then I realized holy shit, that's in like 5 years...

Anyway, after dinner I watched the end of Spirited Away, ate way too much chocolate, and studied for my vocab quiz.

It turns out next Friday works better for a lot of people for karaoke, so it was moved to next Friday. That's when I'm drinking with Keiichiro, but Taylor was all like "you can come afterwards!"

Ha yeah, when I'm (hopefully) shitfaced, I don't think so. But I was considering it. But then Yuko told me tonight I wouldn't be able to anyway because if I only left there at 5 am, I'd get home after the time to leave for strawberry picking. And I'd rather do strawberry picking.

I do really want to experience all night karaoke (especially when I found out it's apparently a nomihoudai too and that's a deal for $20), but I think singing for 7 hours will get old after a while haha. Although Taylor did say she was going to bring movies. Ah well. I'll see how everyone likes it and then maybe we can do it again another time.

Visiting the Rainbow House

This morning everyone was really tired. When I woke up at 6:15, Yuko and Miyabi were still sleeping. So I got dressed. I debated whether I should wake Yuko when at 6:30 she was still sleeping. But I finally heard her moving around at 6:45 and then she called me to breakfast a few minutes later, saying "gomen nasai." But hey, having breakfast that late meant we had cereal! Without salad!! We had Yuko's homemade bread with marmalade and orange slices instead. So I was really happy!

Then I went and got my raisin bread, peanut butter, and jelly mom had sent me to make peanut butter and jelly. Yuko and Miya thought the bread was awesome! I said it was small, but Miya thought it was big. I had too when I was her age. Weird.

So I gave her the end piece to eat and she liked it a lot.

Then I made two sandwiches since the bread is so small! Yuko an Miya thought the peanut butter was so awesome. After I had spread it, I opened the jelly and started spreading it on the other bread slice. Yuko was like "You're using jelly and peanut butter??" Haha I explained this was a common sandwich to make in America, although it's usually more for kids.

She asked if peanut butter was sweet or salty because I was using a lot if jelly. I told her both, but I just really like jelly.

Then I put the two slices together and Yuko and Miya were like "whooaaa!"

Hahahahaha. I guess pb&j isn't a thing in Japan! It's hard to believe that people here find this thing so amazing that is so, so common in America haha.

My lunch is so American today, and I'm loving it! :)

I did my homework on the subway, because I hadn't felt like doing it last night lol. Then at school I went to get my book from my locker. I had this amazing idea one day where I take a picture of the book pages I need for homework on my phone and then I don't have to lug my book home! I'm so smart.

I love the bathroom in the building with the lockers because it's PINK!! And it has a super long mirror where you can stand and do your makeup. If only it didn't have squatty potties. :(

Japanese class felt like it took forever today! Probs cause we had Kandou sensei and she doesn't let us out early like Mutsukawa sensei does. Ugh. I was so tired too. And it was so hot in the room. And the guy next to me smelled bad.

There was one funny part though. We had to do so much writing today, so by the last paragraph thing we had to write, I was kind of sick of it, so I decided to have some fun.

We had to write about our hometown (in Japanese) by following along with this example paragraph about Moscow. At the end, it said "Moscow is a good place. Everyone, by all means, please come to Russia."

So I wrote about Houston and at the end I said "Houston is not a good place. Everyone, please never come to Houston."

Sensei came over to read my paragraph and cracked up. So much so that she put her head down on my desk and her whole body shook. Then she said it was the most interesting paragraph she had read.

Also she gave us a kanji workbook with kanji not in our textbook! Yay!!

During class, Natalia said she and her Japanese roommate were going to be making chocolate for Valentine's Day, did we want to come?

I've always wanted to do deco chocolate like Japanese people do! And it would be fun with her Japanese roommate showing us how to do it for real.

So I decided to go. Natalia told me she'd leave a map of how to get to the house she lives in (called the Rainbow House) and the phone number of the house in my mailbox.

At lunch, I ate my sandwiches with Emma, Minju, and some other people in the cafeteria next to the gym. Ah it was so amazing eating American food! 

I really like the roof area outside the cafeteria. I hope they put tables there in the spring.

(It was raining)

Then I had Hanga. Today we had to draw a picture and then trace it onto the woodblock and carve it. So hard!

I drew Sakura flower things.

(We had to draw it on the back of the woodblock we used last time and mine was covered in ink lol)

Then I went to get the map Natalia said she'd put in my mailbox, but there was nothing there. So I walked with Esteban and Rafa to my locker to put my book and Hanga stuff in. When I went back to the CJS office, my locker was still empty. So I got a map and the number of the rainbow house from the CJS staff.

I debated just heading home (and I probably should have), but at the last minute, I got off the subway and transferred to the Tsurumai line and rode to Ueda, where the rainbow house is. 

On the way, I streetpassed someone from Hokkaido!! Omg I've been wanting someone from Hokkaido! :D

When I got off the station I was distracted by the grocery store Natalia always talks about (at least I think it was the one) and stopped to look around in there a bit. This resulted in me turning the wrong way when I came back out and I got lost. 

(I saw this cool shrine though!)

I tried asking for help at a 7-11, but the lady couldn't help much, so I just walked back to the station. Then I saw I had turned the wrong way and finally figured out which way to go.

It was a walk up a big hill, but I finally made it.

(Engrish sign)

(So cute!)

I stopped at a house that looked like it was where the rainbow house was on my map and rang the bell. No one answered, so I walked all the way around and found another door and rang that bell. 

This guy came on the intercom and was all like "who are you?" And I said I was looking for the Rainbow House. Then this lady came out and walked me over to it. It turns out they were the landlords.

Only two of the six girls were home, though, and neither was Natalia. One was this girl, Autumn, I had met a couple of times, so she knew me.

Autumn took me into the kitchen and told me she had no idea where Natalia was either. She was supposed to be back by then because they were going to make chocolate together, but she hadn't shown up.

So Autumn and I made chocolate. Autumn gave me some snacks their Japanese roommate had given them for Setsubun last night before she left to go back to her hometown. They were really good!

It was really cool seeing the rainbow house. I liked it a lot. It's fairly close to school and has good wifi and is pretty big (two bathrooms and two showers!). Autumn showed me her room, which was also really big. Autumn said last semester they were all in high levels if Japanese and thus only spoke Japanese in the house! But then one girl moved out and Natalia moved in. Since Natalia's only in 300, they speak English a lot now.

The only thing I wouldn't like about living there, though, is having to cook for myself and not getting to experience how a Japanese family lives.

I had to leave at 5:30 so I could make it home in time for dinner at 7. The chocolate wasn't done by then. :( but Autumn said she'd bring me some at school tomorrow. Then another of the girls came gone. She gave me some cookies and Ferrero Rocher that she had. Natalia never showed up.

So I walked back to the station, which took me no time now that I knew the way! All today strong, icy, Blacksburg-like winds were blowing, so it was really cold walking back to the station since it was sunset!

The bike ride home was a bitch. I jept getting buffeted by freezing winds and when I got home my nose was running and my face and hands were numb and hurting! Also, there was this black cat at one of the street corners that I almost ran over because it blended into the night!

Dinner was good! We had a lot of fried things and rice and soup and salad. Yummy yummy. Ken got home after we were finished, but we sat around and talked for a bit with him. Yuko asked me about when Rana and I were doing the nomihoudai with the two Japanese girls and told me all about the Japanese expression for "drinking till the morning" and how she used to drink till morning all the time and how fun it was haha.

She asked Ken if he did this too and he said he was always too tired. She called him a grandpa lol!

She asked me if I've ever drank till morning and I said no. I didn't tell her that I'm an old fart too basically because I always end up ptfo'ing on the couch of whoever's apartment I'm in lol.

Then I practiced kanji and went to sleep.

Pix from Facebook:

From the night Miya's friends were over for dinner:

From Obaasan's house:

(Miya, Obaasan, and me with the cake)

(Obaasan teaching me how to wash my hands at the temple)

(Me catching mochi!)

Also, here's a pic of all of us at the Illuminations way back in my first weekend in Japan!

(Lawlz I'm taller than everyone)

I like this picture a lot. It's one of those rare ones where everyone looks good. Yuko has it as her cover photo in Facebook.

Also, everyone go right now and look again at yesterday's post about Setsubun, because I added all the pictures!!