Chick donuts and kitty ice cream!!

Tuesday, April 22

 

I think Yuko’s forgotten how to make breakfast. Cereal again. Not that I’m complaining though. I eat cereal every day in the U.S.! On the way out, I stopped by Seiyu to buy my favorite inarizushi and sushi combo bento and an 80 yen strawberry jam filled pan. Mmmmm! 

At Kanayama, this morning, I ran into Chris. He was having a problem with his card, so I waved to him and then continued down to the subway, figuring he’d catch up. And he did. We talked a lot on the way to school. When we reached Yagoto Nisseki, I brought up the huge crowds I’d seen yesterday.

And he was like, “You know what that was?” And he told me some Japanese word which I didn’t know. So he explained to me someone had committed suicide by jumping onto the train tracks in front of an approaching train. He said all the red writing on the signs that I hadn’t bothered to read had said that there had been an accident on the Meiko line (which is what the Meijo line turns into once it passes Kanayama), and the entire Meijo line was backed up while they cleaned it up.

Chris told me these types of accidents are super common during this time because it’s the start of a new fiscal year and the recent increase in consumption tax has left a lot of people hurting financially. Therefore, news of the accident wasn’t broadcast at all (not on tv, radio, newspaper, anything). Gosh, how horrible!

As we got to school, I saw Kondo sensei exiting R building. She came running over to tell me that class was moved from K building to R building today. Yay!!! I love having class in R! Our classroom ended up being this room on the 6^th floor where for some reason you’re not allowed to wear shoes! So we got to take our shoes off, which was cool, but since I’d worn tights today, my feet got pretty cold.

Natalia was  back today, so we played the same kanji game we’d played yesterday so she got a chance to play it as well. Again, I didn’t do too hot. Kondo sensei helped people make kanji we didn’t learn again. I asked her to help me too, but she couldn’t do anything with the sucky cards I had. I ended up making two kanji though!

Then it was lunchtime! Yay, finally!! I headed out to the green area, where I was meeting Takuya and the rest of my friends. When I got to the fountain, I saw Sara and Yukari were already there. They were sitting with some Japanese guy I didn’t recognize. When I came over, he was all like, “hisashiburi!” (long time, no see). I was like, who is this guy??? So I just said “hisashiburi” back. I was like, this isn’t Takuya, right? Like, I think I remember what he looked like.

Yukari patted the seat next to her on the bench so I sat down. We all talked for a bit and then I finally realized where I knew the guy from. I’d met him last week after tea ceremony when I’d gone with Brendan to work out who was doing what for our Folklore project. This guy was the one who’d been hanging out with the dorm kids and asked me all those questions.

Takuya came after that! He looked super cute, as always. Thankfully he and the other dude didn’t know each other, so the other guy introduced himself as Shunsuke. Ah, that’s what his name was! Takuya asked me if Emma was coming too, and I said she was, but she had to buy a bento first.

So we decided to go sit in the grass, even though it was a little damp. Then Emma came and we all started eating.

To be honest, it was a little awkward, haha. I think Takuya felt kind of out of place since he didn’t know us all that well. He was also super shy, so I kept having to ask him questions, like where he usually eats (at the curry cafeteria) and what classes he had later and stuff. He said he wanted to befriend an Indonesian (since he’s studying Indonesian), so I told him I’d introduce him to Chris, the Indonesian guy in my Japanese class, sometime. Yukari is pretty outgoing, so she talked to him a lot too, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying and when I did speak, I talked super slowly. Gosh, it was another one of those times I wished I was fluent in Japanese.

But one awesome thing that happened was when Takuya was first opening his bread he’d bought from Lawson’s, I noticed him pulling off all the bear stickers. So I asked him if he collected them too and showed him my sheet of stickers I’ve been collecting. And then he gave me the stickers!! I was like, “whoa, don’t you want the bowl?” and he said he did. So I tried to give him the stickers back, but he wouldn’t take them back. It was so nice!!

Sara took a picture of all of us! I think she just loves to catch me with my mouth full, lol.

Then Takuya left to go to class, but the rest of us stayed to finish up our lunch. Then, I saw Chris (Indonesian Chris) walk by and I was super pissed Takuya had left already! I could have introduced him to Chris! Ah well.

Then Emma and I decided we’d better leave so I could stop by my locker before hanga. So we said goodbye to everyone. Shunsuke left with Yukari and Sara, but kept looking back and smiling at us, haha.  I think he really likes us! Probably because we’re American.

In hanga, I carved more of Totoro. I’m really close to finishing, I just have to do a bit more of the background. Hopefully I can finish it this weekend, since everything’s due next Tuesday.

After hanga, Emma and I headed to Sakae to the Krispy Kreme there to finally eat the chick donuts we wanted to eat on Easter Sunday, but they’d been sold out. When we got to Sakae, though, we realized we had no idea where Krispy Kreme was, haha! So we went out the exit that connects into Oasis 21 and asked at the Information Center where Krispy Kreme was. They showed us a map and told us Krispy Kreme was at the place on the map marked “Donuts” lol. Then they asked us what country we’re from (because they always ask that).

It turned out that we had to go to the underground mall in order to get to the Krispy Kreme. But it wasn’t hard to find. On the way, we passed a place giving out free tea samples, so we decided we’d stop there on the way out. Basically all of Sakae Station always smells super strongly of ocha, and I finally figured out why! It’s because this tea store wafts the aroma of their tea into this fan that blows it out into the station. Wow.

At Krispy Kreme, we ordered two adorable chick donuts and they gave them to us in a little to-go box and bag and told us “kiotsukete” (be careful). Then we went back over to the tea place to get our free tea. It was delicious! Then the guy took back our cups, just like that. No pressure to buy anything! Japan’s awesome.   :)

We headed back to the bright, sunny Oasis 21 to eat our donuts. They were so adorable, it was hard to eat them! Well, for me at least. Emma bit it’s head off right away! D: But boy, were they delicious! They were filled with caramel too. Mmmm, scrumptious! The eyes were chocolate flavored and the beak mango flavored!

Look at the chickies peeking out of the bag!!

With the Krispy Kreme bag

 

After we finished them, we were still hungry, so we decided to go get the cat ice cream sundae we’d seen at Baskin Robbins when we were in Oasis 21 last time. So we headed over to “Sahty-wan.” (BR in Japanese). The guy there was super nice and let us try a bunch of samples because we couldn’t decide what flavor we wanted, haha. When we first walked in, he gave us ocha flavored ice cream, which was delicious! Then we tried a bunch of other flavors, including this really cool one with pop rocks in it! I kind of wanted to get something you could only get in Japan, so it was either matcha or azuki (red bean). I eventually convinced Emma to veer away from the raspberry one she wanted (it was kind of sour) and go for azuki, which we both liked. The azuki ice cream had actual red beans inside! It was so cool!!

We had decided to split a sundae because it was so expensive! I’d wanted the bunny one because it had cookie ears, but we decided to get the cat because it was cute and Limited time only. The cat was made with gummies and I don’t like gummies, but I went along with it. Emma agreed that the gummies, were gross, though.

The guy, really intently and delicately, drew on the kitty face. It was cool to watch!

Then we took a picture with our ice cream in front of the display case like weird tourists, before we went back out into Oasis 21 to eat it.

So tiny for 430 yen! What a ripoff!!

It was super yummy! After that, we headed back over to the information center to ask for the wifi password, because we wanted to look something up online. I told the guy there that the donuts had been delicious, haha. He asked where we were going for donuts next, lol.

But we got the wifi password. We were standing outside the info center when I saw I had a friend request from Shunsuke! I accepted it and then he messaged me a second later, thanking me for adding him and saying we should talk more later. Whoa, cool!

Also, the Oasis 21 dinosaurs' eyes were lit up red, so I had to get pictures!

 

Emma wanted to take a picture with this weird giant head we’d seen other times we’d been to Oasis 21, so we headed over to it. I was about to take Emma’s picture, when someone came over and Emma said hi to her. I turned around and it was Yui!! From the party Sunday night! We squealed and hugged each other.

Wow!!! There are so many people in Japan! What are the odds we’d find each other again, in as big a city as Sakae? So awesome!! So of course, we all took pictures together in front of the head. 

Then we talked with her for a bit. She told us she’d just gotten off from work and had come here to shop.

Then she went on her way and Emma and I finished taking pictures of just ourselves in front of the head. And then it was late, so we had to head home. :/

I got home a bit late. Yuko and Miya were just about to start eating. So Yuko got me a plate and gave me those clear Chinese noodles. I told them about the suicide on the train yesterday and Yuko used that same Japanese word Chris had used. And she told me that train suicides are super common in Japan.

Towards the end of the meal, Yuko was all like (in Japanese), “In America, is slurping your noodles okay?” I was like, “No, it’s bad”

And then she said, “Oh, but you’re slurping your noodles.”

I was like, “really??” I hadn’t noticed myself making any noise, but apparently I was slurping my noodles? She then proceeded to tell me that the only noodles you’re allowed to slurp in Japan are soba noodles and for everything else, slurping is bad.

After dinner, I went to my room and studied for my vocab quiz tomorrow. Then I watched an episode of Free! When it was over, and I’d just laid down to go to sleep, I heard the door to Ken, Yuko, and Miyabi’s room open. Then Yuko shuffled out with Miyabi to the bathroom. Miya started coughing and whining and stuff and I heard Ken wiping down the bed. I realized she must have thrown up. They made a pretty big racket, but I was really tired, so I ended up falling asleep anyway.

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!

HOME MADE 家族 CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 5

Yes, this post is about THE HOME MADE 家族 CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it's also about going the zoo again, as well as the horror story that is my life (more on that later)...

So, yeah, let's start with the zoo! We got up early and left around 9 to head to the zoo. I was slow getting ready and had to rush when it was time to leave. Therefore, I forgot important things like my sunglasses and house key (which I didn't realize I lost until later tonight... but that's coming later!). Thankfully I remembered sunscreen, so at least I didn't get burnt!

On the way to the zoo, I played my flower DS game. I'd started it last weekend and was surprised to find I could understand a lot of it. When customers come into the flower shop, they have all these criteria for the arrangement they want, and I was actually able to understand them all and make the perfect bouquet, haha! It made me really happy.

Then we got to the zoo! There were so many people there, so we had to drive around for a while before we found somewhere to park.
It was nice and sunny, but windy, so it stayed pretty cool all day.
We went all around to see all the animals, so Miya could do the stamp rally (it seems they have that at every zoo. And the prizes were the same as at Hanamatsu lol). Some animals I hadn't seen last weekend so that was cool!

This weekend, petals were falling from all the sakura trees, so it looked so beautiful!!

Walking to the zoo!

The entrance we came in. The ferris wheel carts are all animal shaped!

Aaahhhhh, kawaii!!!

Two penguins!

So many sakura petals in the water!

Fat seals, haha

The white one just looks like a ball

Kirin!!

Koalas again. We came in just as they were being given bamboo to eat, so there were hundreds of people in there taking pictures.

A carpet of sakura petals!

 

We ate lunch at picnic tables under the sakura. I got to choose what I wanted to eat. They had the bento I love with the sushi and inarizushi combo, so I picked that. I felt bad because it was the most expensive (700 yen), but I hadn't needed dinner last night, nor was I going to need it tonight, so I figured I could get a pricey lunch.

Everyone eating

I don't know if you can see it, but if you look closely against the tree trunk, I caught some of the petals in the air!

Petals raining down into the river

As we were leaving, we saw a show going on where this girl dressed all super cutesy was dancing around to cutesy music and making balloon animals. She made a balloon umbrella with a balloon frog on it for this little girl. But then she said she usually gives the balloons she makes to the child as a gift, but since this was a zoo, the animals might try to eat the balloon so it was too dangerous. So she didn't give the girl the balloon. I mean, really? Japan has too many rules.
Just wait till you see the rules at the concert tonight!

Then we saw these furry animal things you could ride if you paid 200 yen. So Ken gave Miya 200 yen and she rode around on it. She was scared but the thing moved really yukuri (slowly), so it was daijoubu. Miya looked so freaking adorable riding around on it. It played music as it moved too, haha!

Miya traded in her completed sticker sheet for koala origami paper and then we headed out.

Way back to the car

While we were walking back, we Yuko and Ken wanted to hop up onto a higher walkway so we could get a view of this park. Yuko couldn't lift herself up, so Ken picked her up and put her up on the walkway. Miya freaked out and was all like, "kimoi!!" (gross!), hahaha. It was funny!

Then, because none of us was really sure where the subway station was, and if I went back home with everyone, I'd leave too late to meet Yuri at Tsurumai Eki, everyone drove me to Sakae, so I could shop for the hour and a half I had to wait. It was so nice!

When they dropped me off, I waved to them and then went over to cross the street. We both were crossing the street, so they had to wait at the light too. Then when the light turned green, and we both crossed, they all waved at me again as they drove past. So cute!!

I decided to head to Book Off. On the way, I passed these three guys singing a little concert. There was a group of people around swaying to the music and taking movies. It was cool! There was even a booth selling their merchandise. I listened for a bit and then left. Later, when they were finished, I saw girls who were fans going up to talk to them.

I headed to Melsa, the mall Book Off is in. On the way up, I saw a store selling a bunch of things for 98 yen (105 yen with the new tax), so I headed in. I found a pack of 10 different colored pens (including pink) for 100 yen, which I've been wanting for taking notes in class. I grabbed them and then looked around some more. 

Seeing nothing else I wanted to buy, I headed up to Book Off. In Book Off, I realized I was still holding the pens!! I'd stolen them and hadn't even realized! Man. Japan needs to step up its security. Of course, I went back to pay for them, but it was really tempting to just walk away with free pens.

In Book Off, I looked through the 200 yen clothes and tried on a bunch, but I wasn't too happy with any of them, so I decided not to get anything. Plus I didn't want to have to carry it at the concert.

Here are some pretty awesome Engrish shirts I saw though:

So I guess if you're not straight, you're unbalanced? Actually, that literally does make some sense...

"STOIC is necessary to do doing only now" ... WTF?

 Yeah, fun times. Then it was time to leave! I hopped on the chikatetsu and made it to Tsurumai Eki just before 5:30. I waited and waited, though, and didn't see Yuri! I was starting to freak out and wished for the millionth time I had 3G. But then Yuri came over to me from behind! She was like "Keito! Ah, yokkata!" She'd been worried too. It turned out she'd come to Tsurumai by the JR and had been waiting at the JR station. I had no idea Tsurumai had a JR line too! I'm so happy she thought to come look for me at the chikatetsu station.

We walked together to Nagoya Civic Auditorium, which was in Tsurumai Koen (where I did hanami with my new friends this past Wednesday). 

OMG it's happening!!

I was sooooo excited!! When we walked in we passed the stalls selling souveneirs and CDs. Neither of us wanted to buy anything, so we headed up to our seats. There was the pit right under the stage, and then there was a balcony above that and a second balcony above that! We were in the topmost balcony. I paid Yuri back for the tickets, but I thought she had texted me 5290 yen, instead of 5920. Stupid dyslexia. I didn't realize this till later though. 

When we got up, I decided I wanted to buy a towel as a souvenir because literally every other person there (all Japanese by the way) had a towel, so I figured it was the thing to buy. And plus the shirts were $30, while the towels were only $15. I was disappointed that everything being sold had English writing on them and no Japanese. The only time I saw "Home Made Kazoku" written with the "Kazoku" in kanji was on the back of a girl's shirt from their 2010 tour. I guess once they got big in America, they started making everything in English. Darn.

Let me give you a history of me and HMKU real quick:

When I was 13, I was obsessed with the anime Naruto. This was when the second (and better) part of it, Naruto Shippuden came out in Japan. And I thought the opening theme for the first few episodes of Naruto Shippuden was the bomb.com!! So of course I looked it up. It was called Nagareboshi and written by a Japanese hip hop/rock band called Home Made Kazoku. I immediately fell in love with the song and listened to it every night as I fell asleep. Soon I had the whole refrain memorized, but had no idea what I was saying whenever I sang it, haha. But I believed it was helping me learn Japanese. 

The next year, Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds came out in Japan. The theme song for the movie was HMKU's No Rain No Rainbow. I fell in love with that as well (although Nagareboshi was still my favorite) and listened to that all the time too.

In 2010, HMKU made their debut in the United States!! AHHHH!! I remember when I found out. It was summertime and they were playing in Boston at an anime convention called Otakon. I remember seriously considering driving down for the day, since Long Island isn't too far from Boston. I was even willing to miss a perfect beach day to go. But I didn't do it. :(

Then, HMKU did another theme song for Naruto! This time, an ending theme. It was called "Freedom." Boom. Another song added to my list of favorites.

And finally, last summer HMKU returned for their second concert in the U.S. Again, they were playing at Otakon in Boston. But this time the convention fee was almost double what it had been in 2010 and I was working away from home and thus was farther from Boston. :/ Super taihen.

Last semester, while researching Nanzan one day, I happened upon the list of famous graduates of Nanzan on Nanzan's Wikipedia page, and who do I see on the list? Yup, Home Made 家族!! 

(On another note, the famous singer Ryohei, who's featured in my favorite J-Pop song "Miss You" by M-flo, is also a graduate of Nanzan! I go to an awesome school ;D )

Apparently they all met at Nanzan and formed the band while they were students there! Holy crap! I walk the same halls they walked years ago. 

And in the fall of 2012, I think it was, they came to Nanzan for Nanzan's school festival and PERFORMED AT NANZAN!! Rawr!

Anyway, I immediately looked up if they were performing here and then found out they were and the rest is in my blog! :DDD

So yeah, while we were waiting in line, Yuri told me that HMKU is coming to the U.S. again this year as part of this 10th anniversary tour! And they're going to two places this time! Georgia and California!

This tour feature the "Best of Home Made Kazoku" and is celebrating 10 years of touring.

Here's the towel I bought! I wanted a pink one with a different design, but it was sold out. But I ended up liking the design on the blue one better!

The only Japanese is on the patch in the corner :(

And then the concert started!!

And let me rant real quick about Japanese rules. So we weren't allowed to take pictures or movies during the concert! Yuri told me if they saw you with a camera, they would kick you out. And the security guards roamed the aisles the entire time! Ugh. I was so not used to not being able to take pictures. At concerts in America, it's literally a sea of cameras!

And it was weird because I watched HMKU's concert at Otakon on YouTube, because someone posted the video they took, so I knew what they were like when they came to America.

Before the concert started

I noticed a lot of elements that I wouldn't have gotten to experience had I only seen HMKU in America, so I'm happy I got to see them perform in their hometown. Also, in America they speak in English at the concerts (since DJ U-Ichi and I think Kuro maybe, can speak English). But I think for that reason, they don't talk as much because they're nervous about messing up or whatever. So I was happy I got to hear them speak in only Japanese and boy did they talk a lot in between songs. It was really cool and fun!
When they first came out, all wearing sparkly red suits haha, they shouted "Tadaima!" and we all shouted back "Okaeri!" It was cute!
They sang two songs to get us excited and then took a quick break to talk about the sakura, haha.
They told us it was their 10th anniversary and we all clapped. Then they said how excited they were to be back in Nagoya, their hometown.
I kind of wished I'd been with someone who was bilingual,who could have translated everything they said for me. Because although I understood some of it, there was a lot I didn't get.
But they also made up little raps they made us sing with them like "Aichi-ken, Mie-ken, Shizuoka-ken" and "Migi te, Hidari te" and then whatever "clap your hands" is in Japanese. It was fun!

After they finished talking, boom,third song, they sang my absolute favorite, Nagareboshi!!!! AHHHHH!!! It was so, so amazing!
All the times I'd watched the music video to Nagareboshi and thought HMKU was SO far away, all the way across the planet. But now they were live, right in front of me!! It was spectacular. And now, I know all the words to the song and sang along to the whole thing! :)
They also added in this dramatic pause after the second of the only two English lines, "I wanna shine." It was great!

They sang some more songs I didn't know and then they sang No Rain No Rainbow!
After that, they paused for a long comedy bit, haha. When it first started, DJ-Uichi was saying "suwate, suwate!" but no one was sitting and he was all, "minna suwaranai!" (everyone isn't sitting!) Haha. But we all finally sat.
I had no idea what they were saying most of the time, but the audience was howling with laughter and Yuri kept chuckling after everything they said.
They were all really energetic, dancing and shouting and jumping all around the stage.
When there were moments of silence, Japanese girls would squeal "kyaaa" and shout their names in super high pitched voices, haha.

After the comedy bit, they sang more! For the last few songs, little kids came out with HMKU shirts and danced as back up dancers, haha.
Oh, and another thing. A lot of the songs had dance moves too! Micro, Kuro, and DJ U-Ichi taught us the moves while they were singing and we followed along. It was fun.
They also added in things between the lyrics of their songs, lol. I remember when I went to the Kelly Clarkson concert in Houston, after she said the lyric "the place I belong," she added in "Texas!" because Texas is her hometown. And I thought that was totally awesome.
Well, HMKU kept shouting "Nagoya" and "Aichi" in between the lyrics of their song "Home Sweet Home"! :)

Oh, and best part? At one point, Kuro was standing on one of the little table things on the front of the stage, and as they were starting one of their songs, and DJ U-Ichi was about to drop the bass, Kuro jumped down and shouted "Drop that shit!" (in English) I laughed out loud and looked around me grinning, but everyone else was staring ahead unfazed, completely unaware he'd just sworn. Lol!

Close to the end, they sang Freedom and I totally rocked out. During it, confetti fell from the ceiling! Then they sang one I didn't know and finally ended with Home Sweet Home. During Home Sweet Home, we all waved our towels in the air and swung them around. After that, they threw their towels they had been using into the crowd and shot off some shirts with a cannon. Gosh, they sang for so long! But it was totally awesome!!

After they left, the Japanese people all started softly singing some chant. I had no idea what they were saying, but whatever it was, it meant they wanted an encore. I was laughing because everyone always does that after concerts, but it never works.
But then the concert hall lights weren't coming back on!
And I was like, are they actually going to come back out??

And they did!!!! They had changed into the shirts that the little kids dancing had worn. They all joked around with us and called out certain people they'd noticed in the audience, like a lady who held her kid the entire time, and a man and his son who'd done potty squats the whole time, haha.
Then they sang another song!
After that song, they told us we could take out our cameras and they posed in their trademark "walking" pose that's on all their album covers.

The pose!

Finally, the last song they sang was another of my favorites, "Arigatou" to thank us all for supporting them. It was really cool, during the song whenever they said "Arigatou," we would all bow! Another thing that wouldn't happen at their American concert.

And then it was over.

Gosh, it was beautiful. I really had a great time! And I'm so happy Yuri came with me.

I had spent all my money on my towel and only had 300 yen left, not enough to pay Yuri back. So we're going to find some time in the future when I can pay her back the rest of the money. I felt so terrible!

They bowed really long and deeply at the end of the show and then kept bowing over and over as they walked out! Then after they'd gone backstage, a montage of pictures of them played. I saw one where they held up a sign that said "Sakuru" (school club, in Japanese), and I think it was from when they were at Nanzan!

The concert ended at 8:45!! They'd sang for two and a half hours (they were about 15 minutes late starting)! SUGOI!!! 

Then this came up at the end:

I got in trouble for taking this picture, haha

It was raining when we left. But Yuri and I walked through the park to see the sakura at night (what I've been wanting to do!) and then she went back to the JR station. Also, while we were walking, this drunk guy waved at us and slurred"hi!" to me lol.

Me with my towel!

Sakura at night

 

I should have gone home, but I decided to look at the sakura some more. There were so many people out drinking and doing hanami with friends. I saw "Little Chicken", the sakuru from Nanzan, was back again!

I was taking this picture of one of the lanterns, when this old drunk dude approached me. He asked where I was from in English and then invited me to sit on one of the tarps and drink and do hanami with him. Haha, no.

He was fun to talk to for a bit, though.

Sakura lantern

I like how pink this looks!

I decided to go across the street to Lawson's and buy onigiri, orange juice, and a melon pan since I hadn't had dinner yet. On the overpass, that allowed you to walk across the highway, some drunk people were dropping beer bottles and they were shattering all over the stairs. Abunai, yo!

Then I walked back to the park to drunk people watch and sat on a bench that looked fairly dry and ate my onigiri and drank my OJ. But then I was too full for my pan.  

For some reason, all the lanterns turned off at 9:30. Most people left then, but a lot of people stayed to do more drinking in the dark, haha.
On my way out, I saw the students from "Little Chicken" again. This girl was shouting the Japanese equivalent of "chug, chug, chug!" while a guy chugged a Bombay Sapphire, haha. Just like America, guys.

Finally, I made my way home. Since I hadn't ridden my bike that morning, I had to walk home in the cold rain from the station. It had been warm the past week, but it was in the low forties tonight. :/
Therefore, I only got to the house around 11.
While I was walking, I realized I'd forgotten my key. I had my purse today, but my key was still in my backpack. I'd been so rushed this morning, I'd completely forgotten about it! Usually, I remember because I have to use the other key on the chain to unlock my bike, but I hadn't ridden my bike.
Shit! I figured, though, since the back door is always open, I could just hop the back fence and enter that way. Or if everyone was awake, I could just knock on the back window. So that calmed me down.

But when I got home, all the lights were off and the car was in the driveway. Everyone was home and already asleep. So I hopped the fence and went to open the back door. But it was locked...
Now I was really freaking out. I hopped back over the fence and went around the front. I couldn't get into the apartment complex, so I rang the bell for the intercom of our apartment, but no one answered. I hopped the back fence twice more, and tried different things like knocking on the doors and windows. I even crept around the front to my window and tried to open it, but I'd left it locked. Fuuuuckkkk.

So I hopped back over the fence. I was freaking out now. I debated walking back to the station and catching a train to Nagoya to use the WiFi to get a hold of my friends and maybe crash at someone's place, but it was already after 11 and trains stopped running at 12 and I definitely didn't want to be stranded somewhere else. I thought about walking to the church and sleeping there, but there was no guarantee it would be open.
So I crossed the street to Seiyu, which is open 24 hours. I saw a pay phone out front, so I used my only 10 yen coin to call Yuko. (By the way, I literally only had 66 yen on me after I bought dinner). She didn't answer. I tried to use my 50 yen coin, but the phone wouldn't take it.
I went in to Seiyu and stood in line to ask for change. But when I finally got up to the counter, the lady told me they don't make change there. Bitch.

I'd lost hope at this point. So I went outside and crouched on the ground and started crying, hoping some Japanese person would take pity on me and help me out. But no one did. One guy even walked right past me and didn't stop to ask what was wrong.

So finally, I figured I had to go up to someone myself. I saw a guy who'd just bought groceries going over to his bike. I figured he was in a rush and didn't want to bother him, but he stopped over by the bikes to take a smoke. This was my chance!

I went over and asked if I could use his phone. He said he was having problems with it right now, but he would try. But his phone seemed to be frozen. After we waited for a while and it still wasn't working, I just asked him if he could make change for a 50 yen coin, and he did! He gave me five 10 yen coins. So I went back over to the pay phone.

I called the home this time and no one answered. The guy came over then, saying his phone was working now. So he let me call Yuko again and then he tried her. She didn't answer either time. So I asked him to try the home phone, but no one answered that either.

He asked where I was trying to go and I pointed to the apartment complex and told him what had happened. It had gotten really cold now and I was shivering like crazy.
He kept saying "what can you do?" over and over in Japanese, trying to think of a way to help me. But neither of us could think of anything. Finally, he asked if I wanted to come to his house to get warm and then try Yuko again from there. I was soaked and shivering so I agreed. He only lived about a 10 minute walk away, so he walked his bike alongside me.

It turned out he lived in an apartment by himself. He seemed about 40-ish and was a typical salaryman. He spoke absolutely no English, so I had to practice my Japanese. When we got in, I took my shoes off and he hung my raincoat up for me. Then he turned on his hot carpet and let me sit down. He made me matcha and asked if I'd eaten dinner already! So nice! I said I had, no worries.
My hands were frozen solid. The tea cup was so nice and warm. He asked if my hands were "tsumetai" (cold) and then felt them, maybe because he wasn't sure I understood what "tsumetai" meant. And he was surprised by how cold they were.
I saw he had a collection of manga and video games. He put his phone in a charger and then made himself coffee and we sat and watched TV. He told me his name was "Atsushi."

I was thinking maybe he would let me crash here if I ended up not being able to get back home. And it was looking more and more like that would end up being the case. It was after midnight now and still no one had called back.

And then his phone buzzed! He picked it up and answered and then said "just a second, here's Keito," and it was Yuko!!! She sounded really tired and I felt terrible, but I told her what had happened. She asked where I was and when I told her, she was like, so what should we do? I suggested she leave the back door open and then I could hop the fence and go in and she said that sounded good. So I said I'd be home in about ten minutes.

When I hung up, I told Atsushi what she had said. But he just kept sitting there, watching tv, not moving. So I sat for a bit more and watched. Then he asked how old I was and when I said "hatachi" told me I was "wakai" (young). Yeah...
I kind of wanted to go home because I was really tired, but he had my coat in the other room. His phone beeped again, but he didn't look at it. What if it was Yuko calling back?

Then he felt the back of my hands again. The backs were still cold, so he grabbed them and put them between his hands to warm them up. I thought he'd let go of my hand, but he didn't!!
Wtf?
So I was like, I should be getting home now. And I stood up. Thankfully he stood up too. But then he put his arm around me!
I was so scared he was going to hold me there and not let me leave. But then he came in for a kiss!
WTF DUDE??? Thankfully, I saw his intentions a few seconds before he acted on them, so I used my ninja skills to duck and avoid him.
But I was like, I've gotta get the fuck outta here!!
He got the hint then and went and got my jacket for me. I grabbed my things and put my shoes on and headed out. He told me how to get back, and I got out of there. I'd been planning on taking him back and giving him a gift for helping me out, but now all thoughts of presents were gone. What a pervy old man! I looked back once I was about two blocks away and saw him still watching me.
Once I was out of sight, I ran. It warmed me up too, because I was still cold and my Sperry's were soaked through.

When I got home, the back gate was cracked, so I didn't have to hop the fence. And the back door was unlocked and the kitchen and living room lights were on. Yuko said "tadaima" when I walked in. I told her everything that had happened and thanked her SOOOO much for calling! If she hadn't, I probably could have been raped!
She was really worried and kind of freaked. I thanked her over and over again and apologized over and over and then she told me I should take a shower and get warm and she headed to bed.

I felt really bad because I heard her coughing for the next hour as I got ready for bed. I'd stolen a lot of precious sleep from her, all because I was stupid and forgot my key!
I finally got in to bed around 1:20 am. Ugh and I had to get up early the next day!
As I was lying in bed, I felt a rumble and the house shook like when we're in Handaa and the train passes by right outside Obaa san's house. In my delirious state, I was like, "ah, another train passing by," and then I came to my senses and was like, "wait, there aren't any trains near the apartment!"
And then I was like, "Holy shit, was that an earthquake? No way!!"
So I got on my phone real quick and checked the earthquake radar for Nagoya. It had no news of quakes, but then again it had only happened like two minutes ago. But I figured maybe it wasn't and just went to sleep.

It turned out IT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE!!!! I FELT MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE TODAY, GUYS!!!! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man today was an adventure. I saw Home Made Kazoku perform live, I was this close to being molested by a Japanese guy, and I felt my first earthquake! Why has my life become so eventful recently?

Also, pic from HMKU's Instagram (they liked the picture I posted of them btw). I can see myself way up on the third floor!