Coffee Hour!

At breakfast, we were having toast, and Yuko brought out my peanut butter and jelly for me. So I used my jelly. Then Miya wanted peanut butter so Yuko asked if it was okay and if she could have some too. So they put peanut butter on their bread and thought it was so awesome! They said Skippy (the peanut butter they have here that's super expensive) was really sweet, and this one tasted more like peanuts. Yuko asked me what the difference was between this peanut butter and Skippy and I told her this one was healthier because it was made with natural ingredients.

It was so cold this morning. The puddles were frozen and I saw some slush and mini piles of snow at the station. Did it snow last night?

I know it snowed a lot in Tokyo yesterday which was rare for them. My phone says it'll snow here on Saturday. I really hope so!

When I was squished on the train, I could hear the girl next to me's music because she had it so loud and she was listening to Taylor Swift! Yes. She has good taste in music.

I ran into Autumn as I left Yagoto Nisseki station. She told me the chocolate we made last night turned out pretty mushy like fudge (I'd thought it would!) and then she took the container of it out of her bag to show me, but it had all melted! It was just chocolate syrup in her container. We were so surprised that in the 20 min it took her to get here and with the really cold weather it had completely melted! Wtf. Was the subway that hot?? 

During class today, it snowed!! Tons of flurries were swirling in the sun outside. Mutsukawa sensei noticed and said (in Japanese) that it was snowing. I jumped up and ran over to the window to look haha. It was so pretty! Then two other girls followed suit and Mutsukawa sensei said "ato de", but after class it had stopped. :( I didn't get to walk through it :( So I hope it does snow this Saturday. 

(Me chillin on the window sill before class)

Mutsukawa sensei let us out early for lunch (love that!) Before we all left though, Natalia gave everyone the chocolate she had made. She apologized to me and explained that because she had gotten out of class early the week before, this week they had had a double period, so she got out really late, I think around 5:30, when I was heading home.

Her chocolate had all melted too, but not as bad as Autumn's! We all just licked our chocolates haha. She gave us then in really cute cupcake wrappers. Mine had snowmen on it and Mutsukawa sensei got bunnies haha.

(Other cute heart ones she had)

Since we got out early, I ran to the cafeteria so I could eat a big meal before the internet orientation I was going to at 11:30. After about 10 minutes, all my friends came in so I sat with them.

(Lunch. GUYS THEY HAD SWEET POTATOES TODAY!!! My first sweet potato since December ahhhh!!)

The sweet potatoes were all hard an dry and coated in sugary sauce though so they were kinda gross. But at least I got the taste of sweet potato that I've been craving!

At 11:30, the one other girl doing the internet orientation and I walked over to the computer building. It was an orientation to set up your computer or phone to connect to the Nanzan network. Hardly anyone had decided to do it because it was a tedious process of filling out an application and then waiting for the orientation to happen.

At the orientation, they went over rules and stuff and then added our devices to the network. It turns out my suspicions were true! Nanzan does have a secret wifi! I knew it!

The other girl had brought her laptop (because she lives in a dorm and therefore didn't have to carry it far) and I was using my iPhone. They had a lot of trouble adding me because the lady had told me to write the Bluetooth number instead of the wifi number. Fail. 

But then we both got added and were able to access the secret wifi! It turns out we can use it in two classrooms of the computer building but also outside of Lawson's and on the floor above Lawson's!! So convenient!

When our devices were finally working and we could go, she and I walked over to the CJS office because we were meeting our friends to book rooms in hostels for our time in Osaka and Kyoto. So our huge group went upstairs to the computers in R building to do it. 

However, it turned out that there were only a few single rooms left for Monday night, so everyone but Ben, Andrew, and I got rooms for every night. And that hostel only had single rooms. Ugh. Rana had forgotten to book the last day, so I had an idea. 

I found a nearby hostel that was more expensive for single rooms, but the same price per person for double rooms, so I asked Rana if she would cancel her reservation at the other hostel and come join me in the double room in the other hostel and she did! So we both have a room for every night, yay!

Andrew and Ben said they're just going to pull an all nighter and roam Osaka the first night lol, so they booked the hostel everyone else is in for the rest of the nights.

After everything was figured out, we all headed to Coffee Hour. I was so excited!! I've been waiting for coffee hour to start! Coffee hour is where Japanese students mingle with foreign students. It happens every month. This month's was Setsubun themed. There were tables set up with sushi rolls (slices, not the long rolls I had Monday night lol), which were sooo good, snacks (like dried beans, those chocolate things that look like artichokes, marshmallows filled with chocolate, and Aero (chocolate with holes in it)). We also got cool drinks like lemon and apple tea. So yummy!

Also, Natsumi was there! The Japanese girl who was part of my group at Nagoya Castle and she remembered me! She introduced me to her friend Shiroi who I talked to a lot. Shiroi knew Home Made 家族 which made her awesome. Her dad lived in Kentucky, which is where one of the members lived for a bit.

(See those things the characters are playig with?? That's the toy I played with in the Japan Plaza that I was trying to describe in the onsen post lol)

(Chocolate artichoke thing)

(Setsubun themed chocolate filled marshmallow)

(Aero)

Then we made oni masks! Everyone told me mine was kawaii haha. They were supposed to be scary but whatevs. This Japanese girl helped me make a yarn ribbon for my monster so it would match me!

(It looks like me, ne?)

And then we took tons of pictures!

(Me with Natalia)

( Kazuki, me, and Natsumi)

(Shiroi, me, Natsumi)

(Chris, me, Natsumi)

It was so fun! And now I have two more Japanese friends on Facebook! Also, when I was talking with Kazuki, he told me I am really good at speaking for being in the 300 level! That made me really happy! :)

After coffee hour, I went to the post office to mail in this thing that says I don't have to pay tax on my health insurance. Then I came back to Nanzan. I sat in front of Lawson's for a bit and tested my wifi capability (it worked, totes awesome!)

Then I walked back through the icy winds to R building where I forced myself to go to the Japan Plaza and speak in Japanese. I to myself I would stay until 4:30. So I did. It wasn't too bad.

There was one girl working there. So I talked to her about my commute and playing my Pokemon game and going to shrines and stuff. It's always so cool to be able to have a conversation in Japanese. Although there were a few times I couldn't remember how to say something (which resulted in an awkward pause) and so looked it up in my book, or just said it in Japanese English lol. But I really do like the Japan Plaza since you're not allowed to speak English there, so it forces me to not resort to English. I keep telling myself to go in every day, so in going to really try to now that I went in on my own and it was fine.

Another guy who worked there showed up as I was getting ready to leave. He commented on the fact that I liked pink haha. I would have liked to stay and talk to him too, but I kind if wanted to get home sooner than I did last night.

Ha although on the subway I missed my stop at Kanayama and ended up going two extra stops and having to backtrack. Which resulted in me missing the super rapid train by a minute and having to take the local. Life sucks sometimes.

All day Japanese people kept telling me how cute my bear earphone plug on my phone was and commenting that it's the bear from Line! How does everyone knooooww?? Japanese people must be seriously addicted to Line haha.

At home, Miya saw me playing me DS and said "koha", which freaked me out because that's the name of this girl I've passed a few times on StreetPass. Well turns out she's Miya's friend who lives above us haha. And she told Miya she's streetpassed me five times lol.

Then I played Pokemon and Miya helped me write down words I didn't know. So like back when I was 7 and played the Pokemon GameBoy games, I remember when I started a new game I could just save it and overwrite the old game. Apparently that's not the case with this version. A few days ago I started a new game on the subway and tried to save it but it wouldn't let me. I couldn't understand the Japanese, so I just assumed I hadn't reached the point in the game where I could save it yet. I kept restarting the game and playing further every day for four days. Finally I played really far today and still couldn't save, so I got super pissed off and looked it up online. Turns out you have to press a combination of buttons to erase the previous file first (I'd bought the game used and there was another profile on there). Ugh. So I finally could save it right away tonight.

For dinner we had really good noodles and salad with corn. Yuko told me about this 9 year old girl in Hokkaido who got kidnapped recently. She said the guy who did it was a "niko." She didn't know the English translation of that word, but explained it in English well enough for me to realize she was talking about a recluse.

After dinner, Miya and I watched tv for a bit and played with her string. One night she used a really short string so it was hard for me to get my fingers in so I said "yubi wa futote" (my fingers are too fat) and she thought that was the funniest thing! And now she says it all the time haha. The two of us have a lot of inside jokes that we say again whenever we play together and her parents are always confused haha, but he says it's a secret.

We also looked up Japanese tongue twisters and said them and she taught me more that weren't on the website. One was sooo funny, we both cracked up, and now it's a new inside joke.

It was:

"Basu gasu bakuhatsu" aka "bus gas explosion"

We also played the game where we translate words on my phone that I don't know.

One word involved the word iku (which I know means to go), but I was typing it in anyway, and omg Google Translate translated it to the other meaning of iku.

Yeaaahh, let's just say I'm happy Miya can't understand that much English haha.

Tomorrow starts my yasumi (vacation)!!! Woohoo! 10 days off everyone!

And next Monday through Friday I'll be in Osaka and Kyoto with a huge ass group!

But right now I'm just excited I get to sleep in tomorrow. :)

Here's some pix of opening mom's package from Yuko's Facebook page:

Also, when Yuko uploaded the Setsubun pix, she wrote "Cate ATE NATTO!!! That's something really really surprising and amazing! I cannot eat natto... Am I Japanese?" 

Hahaha

(Omg her face cracks me up)

(I look so Asian here haha)

Setsubun!

This morning I was texting back and forth with my parents about the Super Bowl. I'd completely forgotten about it! Unfortunately I couldn't watch it or the Doritos commercial created by a Hokie because I had school. :( Lame. Who schedules school during the Super Bowl?? Oh right, Japan.

Breakfast was really good this morning! Obaasan had bought a shit ton of fruit yesterday and gave it to us, so we had orange slices, bunny apples, and a half a banana along with toast and marmalade. I was a happy camper! :)

I decided to finally dump some of the water out of my poor drowning bonsai.

I went outside and dumped it in the grass and Yuko let me leave the bonsai outside while I went to school today! :) So it got some fresh air and sunlight (even though it was super cloudy all day).

As I was walking to school from the station, I saw Emma so I ran to catch up to her and asked about her weekend. She told me yesterday she'd gone to see a Setsubun demonstration at Osu Kannon temple and they threw beans! But she didn't catch any. I told her about the mochi catching I did and she thought that sounded way cooler lol.

Class was meh. I had a test second period that was a sinch. I finished in like five minutes lol.

This girl, Natalia (the one who was supposed to go to the onsen with me but got sick) brought us all these muffin things she made. They were really good!

Then we got out for lunch ten minutes early! So I went to Dagane and quickly downed some food.

(Mmmm so good!)

Then I went to the computer lab because I wanted to send some emails.

Next, I had calligraphy. Ugh, calligraphy turns out to be kinda boring. Like we sit there for an hour and a half and write the same freaking word over and over and over. Today we wrote "shiba inu" in katakana and mine got progressively worse and worse.

I wished I was in programming class instead. Jk, no I didn't. Not even for a second!

I took an artsy photo though! Lol.

Then was sadou! Yayyyy!! Tea ceremony is definitely my favorite class. We went around and did introductions. We had to say something we liked about Japan, so I said I liked temples and shrines and talked about visiting Atsuta Shrine. 

Then we did the same thing we did last week, but we had different wagashi.

It was really cute wagashi. I'm so mad I didn't get to take a picture because sensei was watching what we did today and was watching me closely since I was one of the first to go. :(

But I googled wagashi and found one like it! It's called namagashi. And sometimes kuri (grass) namagashi because it looks like grass. Ours looked like this one except it was white with little black dots (so it looked gray) and instead of the kuri on top, it had a little white and pink flower thing made of the namagashi. Inside was anko, just like the ones last week! It was sooo good!

After class, I went home. When I got home, I checked on my bonsai. Dumping the water out must have done it some good, because now it has ten full flowers!! Double what it had yesterday! So of course I subjected it to another photo shoot lol.

I'm such a good mother, guys. Raising plants is the first step to raising humans ya know.

I went online to see how often I have to water it and the website was all like "it's difficult to know for sure. It takes most people three years to figure it out." I was like are you fucking kidding me?

But then it said to just look when the top quarter inch of the mulch stuff is dry and that's when you need to water it. But you need to check every day because both overwatering and underwatering cause illness in the plant. Ugh, taihen desu ne!

Yuko came home and then I sent a few more emails until Miya and Ken got home a little after 7. I asked Yuko about Setsubun because I knew it was today, and it turned out we were going to celebrate it, yay!

So for dinner, we had long sushi rolls! Emma had told me that morning that on Setsubun you eat those long sushi rolls that are sold in konbini, without cutting them!

But we made our own. :)

(The table all set up)

(Fillings. I really liked the hot pink one!)

We all went around and made our rolls. I went last. Ken took lots of pictures of me making my roll and rolling it up!

(My roll)

(All rolled up!)

(Making my roll)

(All done!)

Then we all had to face a certain way and eat them in one sitting without speaking while we were eating, haha.

It was hard! Ken took lots of funny pictures of us with the rolls in our mouths. 

(Facing the direction we had to face)

When we were finished eating them, we used the extra seaweed to make mini handrolls.

So ever since I was in America, I've heard people complain about natto and how gross it is. Many Japanese people don't like it either. So of course I've been wanting to try it. So when I saw natto on the table, I made a grab for it. Yuko and Ken freaked out and made me eat just a bean first, since most foreigners hate it and they didn't want to waste it. 

Yuko went and got a tissue in case I needed to spit it out haha. Everyone was so amazed when I chewed it and swallowed it lol. And then when I decided to have a bit more. Yuko said the fact that I thought the umeboshi was too sour, but I ate the natto was "new" because usually with foreigners it's the other way around!

Yuko asked if I liked it and I said I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it lol. It definitely tasted weird and kind of rotten, but it wasn't gross. The gross part was how it looked like the beans were held together by snot!

(OMG I'm eating natto guys!)

While we were eating dinner, a postman came to the door with mail for me! I got my ATM card for the Bank of Nagoya and A PACKAGE FROM MY MOM!! My mom had written four notes on all sides of the box, one for each of us. Yuko, Ken, and Miya all read their notes and mine out loud. They were all really excited to have been included. I was surprised Ken was so good at reading English since a lot of the time Yuko has to translate what I say for him (he always gets all quiet and sulky when she does and says she's so good at English and she thinks it's funny. Lol it's cute)

Yuko and Ken also got a package today from their previous host student so they opened that first. She sent hot chocolate mix, chocolate marshmallow Santas (I love those things!), and ranch dressing and hot sauce for Ken because Ken loves Ranch. She sent a letter in both English and Japanese too. Miya read the Japanese outloud.

Then I got to open Mom's package. She sent so much!! I love her! And she included all these little sticky notes that everyone tried to read but had trouble reading her handwriting so I had to read it for them haha. Miyabi loved how my mom had written her name on things!

Mom sent all my favorite stuff like pink cake mix and pink icing and golden Mega Stuffed Oreos and pancake batter and peanut butter and jelly and raisin bread and Dove chocolate hearts and rainbow marshmallows and ughhhh I want to eat it all!!

(Miya and me with the bounty!)

And then we celebrated the next part of Setsubun! Where you throw beans! Miyabi explained to me in Japanese the reason you throw beans is because oni doesn't like beans. Oni is the monster. So Ken put on a mask that came with the peanuts Yuko bought and he was the onii. Then Miya and I each got a bag of peanuts and chased Ken around the house throwing peanuts (I guess we were using peanuts instead of beans) at him. Only in Japan, guys. 

I was literally pelting him with peanuts and it was okay because I was supposed to. Like what the heck haha.

We had to shout "Oni wa soto!" (aka "demons out!") and "Fuku wa uchi" (aka "luck come in the house"). It was fun! Yuko took pictures of us. Then Ken fought back a little, throwing peanuts back at us. When we were done the floor was covered in peanuts!

Then we had to eat our age in peanuts. Since they came in pods of two, I just had 10 peanut shells, which equaled 20 peanuts. Yuko asked me if we could buy peanuts in shells like this in America and I said yes, that's what people eat at baseball games. She didn't know that, but Ken did! Then we cleaned up all the peanuts from the floor. Maple (the dog) helped us find any that were hidden.

(My 20 peanuts that I only ate 10 of)

Afterwards, I couldn't take it any longer, I cracked open the Oreos and offered them to everyone. They really liked them! I explained about all the different flavored America has (Japan only has original and not in the package like this). Although I told them about some years back when Japan got limited edition green tea and red bean Oreos and America didn't! But they hadn't known about that.

We all had two Oreos except Yuko. She said they were choto amai (a little too sweet for her). Lawlz. Then I doubt she'll like the cupcakes I make.

Then I did my homework and wrote this post. I saw them talking about the Super Bowl on tv. They kept showing shots of my lover (Peyton Manning) and saying things in Japanese about him. Idk what though.

So yeah, exciting day! I completely forgot about Setsubun this morning and expected today to be super boring, but what with that and the package from my mom, it was far from it!