Back to school, guys...

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.

Anyway, the smartest decision I have made thus far is showing Miya that days of the month rap. Omg. I needed to know those for my test today, so when I was studying on the subway, I was like "hmm I think I have to know the days of the month. Crap, I should study those..." 

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:

(Super yummy! And they warmed it in the microwave for me at Lawson's!)

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). 

(Ugh sooo badddd)

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.

(Today's okashi)

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!

(My adorbs teacup)

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. :)

(Class. The younger sensei is the one in the kimono there)

I saw this awesome pocky on the way home I'll have to try one day:

(Matcha chocolate!)

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...

(Heather and me from my first nomihoudai (in Osaka!) that I forgot to upload. Hopefully I actually get buzzed this time...)

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!

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!

Tea Ceremony gets interesting :)

Monday, January 27:

This morning we had slices of French baguette for breakfast (the same bread my mom buys in America! :) ). We also had salad and the DELICIOUS mikan jello stuff Yuko made.

We watched tv while we ate. It's so funny how much American news Japanese news channels broadcast considering America broadcasts almost no Japanese news. But I got to see Taylor Swift at the Grammies!!!

And the they had Chris Hemsworth (squee!) as a guest on their news show because the new Thor movie is just coming out in Japan (Jess told me it came out in America in November!). Anyway they have these cute soft hammers they use on their show with the Zip (the news channel) logo on them and decorated in Zip colors. So they gave one to Chris, since he's Thor and has a hammer and all and he taught them how to throw it like Thor. Then they made him do this little dance with the hammer to that Pon Pon Pon song that's so popular here right now. OMG it was hilarious. His face was just like "wtf is this" the entire time!

On the train to school, I finally studied for the test I had today haha. I didn't have any homework this weekend because the workbook pages due were ones I'd already done in Kumazawa sensei's class at Tech.

Before class today, we all registered for classes. I officially signed up for the Japanese folklore class, so I really hope Tech approves me taking it for credit.

This girl in my Japanese class, Marino san, who is also the one other girl in my Friday project work class, decided to drop project work. I was like, are you effing kidding me? So now I'm the only one left in project work! They'd better not cancel it now.

Today in Japanese class, Marino san was telling us how her bonsai had bloomed and showed us all a picture of its flower, and I was like fuuuuuckk, my bonsai!

Guess who's forgotten to water her bonsai since the day she brought it home? Fml. But I watered it when I got home tonight!

The test was a sinch. I'm pretty positive I got a 100.

Today we finally started kanji. We had to write them over and over again. Then we learned how to say the days of the month, which I already know, but it was a nice review of the irregular ones. I have to go look up that video Lindsay and I found on YouTube last year of the kids doing a rap of the days in Japanese. That was so catchy and helped me remember them.

At the break between classes, I was eating my chocolate chip melon pan in the hallway when one of the CJS faculty found me and told me to talk to my project work sensei to tell her I still want to take the class, even though I'm the only one in it.

So at lunch I went down to the teacher's lounge, but you have to say the teacher's name into a microphone for them to come out, and I chickened out lol.

Plus, I didn't have much time before calligraphy so I just went to lunch. I got this awesome meal at Lawson's!

Ah it was soooo good! That vegetable that looks like a wheel is one we eat at home all the time. It's really good!

And I got this orange juice which was a little expensive and tasted watery. :(

I went to my locker to get my paintbrushes for calligraphy, only to find my locker key wasn't in my wallet where it usually is! I remembered finding my wallet open when I hadn't realized it when I was riding the trains this weekend, so I was freaking out, thinking my key had fallen out at the one of the stations somewhere.

I was going to be late for class, though, so I left, figuring I could borrow sensei's brushes and ink block. And I could. She had a bunch of extras set out on a table.

So I got to do calligraphy today! Even though I failed miserably again. It's so so hard!

Normally I wouldn't post such shitty artwork, but I've gotten requests, so here it is:

(I'm pretty sure this is the one I turned in as my best)

And then it was tea ceremony! Tea ceremony was SO fun today!!

I died when I saw this sign in the CJS office telling the tea ceremony class to meet in the "CJS Robby" today. Major fail!

So we all met in the lobby and one of the CJS ladies walked us over to the tea house! Yaaaay we got to have class in the tea house! It's what I'd been waiting for!!

We had to take our shoes off when we walked in because it was all tatami mats and rice paper sliding doors!

(That pot in the ground is what the tea is made in)

(Our sensei is the one in the kimono)

(That tall dude came up to me after class and talked to me because he was from Texas, so we talked about Texas stuff like Whataburger and mums lol)

We had a short lecture and demonstration first by our sensei and another lady in a kimono and then we were split into two groups to practice tea ceremony. I was in the first group!

We all had to sit in seiza (on our knees) and then we got to eat wagashi!! Yaaay! Another thing I'd been waiting for!

We had to bow when the wagashi was brought to us and then again afterwards when the tea was brought to us. And also when our dishes were cleared.

(The adorable pink ume (plum) blossom wagashi. It's hot pink with a yellow center!)

The paper the wagashi is on is wagashi kami (paper) and we use it to clean off the chopsticks and hold it under our wagashi when we eat (to catch crumbs).

Inside the wagashi was red bean paste. 

It was soooo good!!

Then tea was brought to us. It was really dark green. I suppose it was matcha. I thought the light green tea I drink at home with my host family was matcha, but I guess I was wrong? Idk help me, Nihonjin reading my blog!

After our turn, it was the next group's turn and it was my group's turn to be hosts and hostesses. I got to carry in a plate of wagashi and then serve tea. The lady who wasn't our sensei was in another little room making the tea. She put dark green powder in the bowls first and then poured hot water in. 

Then I cleared the tea bowl, always bowing with whoever I was serving.

It was so fun!

The bit of Japanese I caught at the end was that next week we're having a different type of okashi (snack), yay!

We got out of class about 15 minutes early, which was awesome! 

(Lol these Japanese girls were doing a photoshoot in the golden light from the sun outside the CJS office)

So I went to the CJS office and asked how much I would have to pay if I really did lose my key (I was hoping it maybe fell out into my purse) and they told me 850 yen. Less than I was thinking, but still a lot. :/

It was almost 5, so I headed home. 

When I got home, first thing I did was search my purse, and there it was! My key!!! Yaaay. I've had too many near losses of my keys, I really need to watch over them closely.

I went in to say "tadaima" to Yuko (she was the only one home) and ended up scaring the shit out of her lol. She told me from now on to ring some doorbell intercom thing to say I'm home... Agh idk. I have an irrational fear of talking into things when there's not a person talking back to me on the other end (as shown earlier with the microphone in the teacher's lounge) because I don't know if I sound retarded or not haha.

Anyway, I sat in my room and studied nihongo until dinner. Everyone came home for dinner tonight. I talked about the wagashi and tea ceremony. We had corn in our salad, so I asked if Japanese people love corn or something? Since I've been seeing it everywhere!

And Yuko told me that it's the only yellow vegetable, so they use it to create salads with a variety of colors (and kids like it on pizza). I was like, "what about squash?"

And they were all, "what's squash?"

And I was like ummm, are you kidding me right now? Only the best vegetable ever!

Yuko asked what we put it in, like salad? And I told her pasta and stuff. Then I told her about my favorite squash, spaghetti squash!!

And she was like, yeah, squash definitely doesn't exist in Japan.

And I was like holy crap, mind blown!

After dinner, I "did homework" aka updated my blog and Skyped my mom for the first time since being here! The wifi in my room is too slow for skype :(

So I went into the living room after everyone had gone to sleep. So if any of you guys wanna Skype me, it is possible, just hard lol. But we can make it work!

But I do have another one of those effing dialogue things tomorrow, so I memorized that.

It was funny because Mutsukawa sensei asked us in class today how long we studied Japanese each day and the kid with the bad breath who sits next to me (he's studying to become a seminarian) said 21 hours lol.

Everyone was like, yeah right.

Obviously he did the most. I did the least. I said 10 minutes haha. Which is a lie, it's more like zero.

But I learn better by experience, not by staring at a book.

Here's a picture of my bonsai!

(It has little buds! I hope it blooms soon! And I hope I didn't kill it...)

Gifu with Ayuko!! (long post)

Sunday, January 26:

WARNING: This is a SUPER long post! It's also very image heavy. So enjoy ^^

When I woke up this morning, Yuko was at work, so Ken made me breakfast.

He made stuff I didn't like, so I guess Yuko hadn't told him I don't eat sausages or eggs... :/

But I ate them anyway.

I had been in my phone while we were waiting for the toast to cook (we hadn't started eating yet) and Ken was finishing up the sausages because I was looking up which trains to take today. Then when the toast was done and he came over to the table I had placed my phone next to me and turned it off. He told me not to use my phone to get on the internet while we're eating. I mean, I know that. I don't even do that in America, it's so rude. And I wasn't planning on doing that here either. Idk, I guess he was just making sure I knew that it something...

Then I got dressed and left for the station. I left at 9, when Yuko had told me last night to leave at 8:45, so I was really, really worried I'd be late. But I pedaled super hard on my bike and made it to the station in 10 minutes! Then I got the super rapid train and it only took 8 minutes to get to Gifu, when Yuko had told me it would take 10-15 min!

I got there before Ayuko so I went down the bathroom. When I came back up, she still wasn't there so I waited by the ticket area and she showed up about a minute later. She told me she'd just walked through looking for me. I guess it must have been when I was in the bathroom. Whoops!

It was so great to see her again and weird that it was in Japan! She thought it was weird that I was with her in her hometown haha. She asked how everyone from the Japanese Conversation Group the two of us were part of were doing and I briefly caught her up with everyone's lives since she left.

I gave her Texas chocolate and then the two of us went out to get bikes. The bikes were only 100 yen to rent and I got a pink one!

Then we rode all around Gifu, heading towards Gifu castle. We rode past a bunch of shops, including Don Quixote. I told Ayuko about riding the Ferris wheel at Sakae the other day and she told me that's where her first date was!! Ahh so cute!

There was this huge mass of people at one of the many temples in Gifu and Ayuko told me they were gathering to listen to speeches by candidates for mayor because Gifu is in the midst of electing a new mayor.

Soon we could see the castle! 

(See it, all cute and tiny up on that hill?)

We parked our bikes near Gifu park and then walked through the park. It was really beautiful, with lots of trees and waterfalls.

We got one of the workers there to take a picture of us.

Then we headed up to take the ropeway up the mountain to the castle. 

Ayuko's friend designed this poster!

The souveneir shop in the building with the ropeway

It was so cool! It was a glass box thing that went up a rope along the side of the mountain. We saw this red building and got a great view of Gifu and Iciinomiya.

At the top you could definitely feel the temperature difference. It was a lot cooler! There were a bunch of cute little shrines.

We walked up a long, steep set if stone steps and then through a forest that I said looked like the hiking trails in Blacksburg. Ayuko told me that when she was in Blacksburg, she felt at home a lot because it reminded her of the Gifu mountains. :)

When we got to the castle, we took pictures in front of it. 

These middle schoolish aged boys in baseball gear started laughing among themselves and looking at us. When we passed them, they were like "hello!" so I said "hi!" It was cute. :)

Looks a lot like Nagoya-jo!

Lady doing exercises on the mountaintop. Ayuko said she was like a ninja haha.

Then we went into the castle! We walked around the bottom floor a bit. It had similar things to Nagoya-jo (pictures of Oda Nobunaga and samurai (darth vader) gear). Then we went upstairs to the wrap-around balcony. It was so high up and such a great view of Gifu, Ichinomiya, and the surrounding area.

It was super blowy though so we left after we'd gotten our fill.

My hairrr

Such a great picture!

Such a horrible picture! Thanks Ayuko lol

On the ceiling of the castle

Clock with the chinese zodiac in the place of numbers. The only one I could read was ushi (cow) at the 12, but Ayuko read the rest of them to me!

 Then we went back outside and back through the foresty part. We stopped at a shrine to pray and get lucky charms!

Ayuko helped me read the kanji I didn't know. It says "we love our mountain and wild birds," so basically you should protect them.

The holes that the castle samurai shot intruders through

At the shrine. It says all the things our lucky charms are good for (exams, good grades, preventing house fires, etc)

We also found a viewing spot lower down than the castle where we took some more pictures. I used my phone's panorama feature. :)

(Pretty sweet, huh?)

And this one has Ayuko in it!

Me taking the panoramic. Ayuko took a bunch of pictures of me taking pictures (creeper...haha)

I thought these signs about the squirrels were really funny. Ayuko liked how there were so many squirrels at Tech, but here people paid to see squirrels haha.

Then we rode the ropeway back down the mountain. On the way down, we saw a rainbow in the mountains!! Ayuko said I was lucky that I got to see one!

(See it??)

Back at that bottom, we headed to this really old traditional town where people actually live! It was really cool to see and walk through.

This is the shipyard where boats go out in the summer for comorant fishing. I've never liked the idea of comorant fishing (where cormorants' necks are tied so they can't swallow and they're let loose to catch fish and when they try to swallow them, the fisherman make them barf the fish back up. Then, the only prize the cormorant gets is one of the bunch of fish it caught). Ayuko said the fish are cooked right on the boat too!

Ayuko told me how the materials from this river are used to make paper used in fans and lanterns, so Gifu is famous for paper. In ancient times the paper was brought on foot from Gifu all the way to Edo!

Also, she was named after the fish in the river, Ayu. Ayu is really sweet and was wrapped in sushi rolls to keep it fresh for the long journey to Edo.

We stopped in the shop pictured above with all the paper lanterns and we got to sample Japanese sweets used in omiyage (souveneirs). It was really good!

Then we headed into the old village.

(A famous paper shop with examples of things it sells)

(Lantern with painting of cormorant fishing)

This fountain had a bamboo pipe on its side that water was trickling out of. Apparently if you put your ear over the big vertical bamboo pipe, you could hear the water drops amplified.

But Ayuko and I couldn't hear anything lol.

(I think this was a restaurant)

This sign showed how all the houses were moved into this village in a really traditional way (using wooden rollers) and done by kids and volunteers!

Ayuko's friend and his family are really trying to improve the city, by making it beautiful while still holding on to it's historical roots.

We walked a bit farther until we got to a little coffee shop place where Ayuko's friend worked. Her friend wasn't there, though, but I really liked going in and looking because there were a TON of really beautiful hina no hi (Girl's Day) doll sets all around.

(The entrance)

(The front room. So many dolls!!)

The ladies there were really nice and told us we could go inside and upstairs to look around. So we took our shoes off and went in.

There was a super steep, slippery staircase like the one in Spirited Away (I was super excited about that!)

Ayuko on the stairs...

...and me on the stairs!

The upstairs area (like an attic) was full of doll displays!! It reminded me so much of my favorite Pokemon episode when I was little, haha. The one where it's Girl's Day and Misty's sisters get all those Pokemon hinamatsuri dolls and she's jealous.

(Even the table was pretty with pictures of women!)

Cute little corner area. In the flower arranging class I took at Tech, I learned Japanese homes have these raised areas to display the ikebana designs.

(Cool lamp)

Then it was back down the steep staircase.

(Scary!)

As we were leaving I saw they also had a pretty cormorant painting lantern.

When we reached the last few buildings of the old village, we saw a couple getting married at a shrine! They were both really really cute and all dressed up in kimonos! We told them "omedatou gozaimasu" as we passed. (It means congratulations).

More awesome drain covers! Gifu's feature cormorants. And some say osui, which means dirty water lol.

(Cute!!)

We went back to the park to get our bikes.

On the way back to the station, we stopped to see the Daibutsu (idk the spelling...), which is the giant Buddha! 

(The shrine where the Daibutsu was.)

(Giant Buddha lives in here)

And there he was!!

Ayuko told me he's made of metal and on the inside, bamboo. This is the largest Buddha made using bamboo!

Ayuko told me that no one knows what all these paintings mean lol. But they were still cool to look at!

(This is a painting of jukasho (the Buddhist hell) )

Then we stopped to see another one of Ayuko's friends. She's so popular! He was working with his family at the shop they own, which was a shop that sells items that celebrate Buddha. They had these cute snowman paper lanterns that I was in love with!

He and his family were really nice! They talked to me and of course I thoroughly embarrassed myself! Ready to hear how?

They asked me how the Daibutsu was and I said "oishikatta." They started laughing and were like, "oishikatta?"

Then I realized, oh fuck I just said that the Giant Buddha was delicious.

I meant "omoshirokatta"!!! That it was interesting! I'm cracking up now but then, I felt retarded.

Then we biked through a roofed in mall like in Osu.

Before we got to the station, we stopped quickly at a wagashi shop Ayuko knows to look at all the cute wagashi (it's the flower shaped sweets served on hinamatsuri and at tea ceremonies). Ayuko wanted to buy me some, but I wouldn't let her! 

At the station, we returned our bikes. I really wanted to stay in Gifu longer but both Ayuko and I had things to do. Ayuko was meeting a friend for pizza and I was going to the Cathedral!

So we both got on the JR then I got off at Nagoya because that way would be faster for me and Ayuko continued on to Kanayama.

At Nagoya Station, I switched to the Higashiyama subway line (my first time on it!) and rode to Chikusa. 

(Girl's Engrish bag. It says: "I wish for add spark to your life. Still all the time." Lawlz)

There I got off and walked to the cathedral. 

(Cute street decorations)

It was sooo pretty!!!

Mass was fun because I got to sing a lot of Japanese songs and they were mostly in hiragana and kanji that I knew so I could follow along! And then the kanji I didn't know, I listened to what everyone else sang, so I learned some new kanji!

There were like 20 altar servers and like 10 priests and then the bishop. It was wild!

Also, in the middle there was a little ceremony thing for the girls and guys who turned 20 in the last year and they got gifts. Two girls were in kimonos.

(All dem 20 year olds, minus me. And the bishop of the area giving them gifts.)

Afterwards was a party for the 20 year olds that everyone was welcome to. But I understood enough Japanese to hear that it cost $10 so I was like, no. I mean, the food looked good (there were mikan!) but I didn't want to have to stay and listen to all the speeches and whatnot.

So I left. It was super windy out now. It had started getting blowy in Gifu on the way back to the station and Ayuko fell off her bike at one point because the wind wa so strong! 

Anyway, on the way back to the station, I saw a grocery store so of course I had to stop!

(Cute sign I saw while walking)

(The grocery store!! I liked the overhang thing because it said "the quality of life" lol)

(Man, I got a deal at Lawson's Grand Opening that day)

And then it happened. I found THE MOST AMAZING FOOD IN ALL OF JAPAN!!! You guys know how melon pan is my favorite bread? Well melon pan just got seriously one-upped!

Because I found......

..........

.......... CHOCOLATE CHIP MELON PAN!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

And ya know how the melon pan at Lawson's is 105 yen and I thought that was a steal?

THIS WAS ONLY 88 YEN!!!!

I was kind of freaking out. There were only 2 left, so I snatched it up.

(So beautifuuulllll)

They also had all these really cute breads!

(Awww look at da wittle snowmen!)

(Scary monster bread)

Then I went searching for a drink. All the sodas and juices were room temperature. :( 

The only cooled thing was the alcohol. But I'm took young to... waaaiittt no I'm not!! 

Hahaha! So I bought this fucking amazing peach beer. Only in Japan guys...

And I went to the self check out to pay. I was expecting it to do what the ones in America to do and tell me to give my ID to an attendant, but it never did! I mean what if I was a little middle schooler? Whatevs. I got my 4% alcohol momo osake. ;) BTW it was only 105 yen.

(Woo! First legal alcohol purchase (and I'm not even 21 yet haha!!))

So then I sat in this little corner eating area in the grocery store and ate my pan and drank my osake.

(Foodgasm right there)

(In case you didn't realize when you bought it, the top of the can says "osake desu" aka "it's alcohol" and has it in Braille too lol)

Then because the bread was so effing good, I went in and bought the last one to have at school tomorrow.

(Cute self check out)

So when I finished my pan I went out and drank the rest of my drink as I walked back to the station because you can so that in Japan.

Then I got back on the Higashiyama line and rode back to Nagoya station. 

(Cute mosaic in Chikusa station)

I found out different stations play different subway music. I really like the music at Chikusa and Nagoya station.

(Illuminations at Nagoya station)

I had an hour to kill there, so I walked around the underground mall in the station called the Unimall. I saw signs pointing to The Nagoya International Center, where the New Year's event I was going to was being held, but the flyer I had only had directions from the next station, Kokusai Center.

I had a feeling I could walk from Nagoya but I was afraid if getting lost, so I put another $10 on my train card and rode the Sakura Dori line (another first) to Kokusai Center. It was there I realized that was just at the other end of the unimall, so I could have walked it and I essentially just wasted $2. Fml. Well, now I knew!

I still had about 40 min, so I went outside to see the JR twin towers! They're the tallest towers at a station.

I also stopped in a SoftBank briefly to talk with them. Still trying to get a phone, guys.

Then I walked back to the International Center. I went up to the floor it's on, but I didn't see any signs for the party or anything. There was just an office and a room that Japanese people my age kept walking into with this sign out front:

Um yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the New Year's Party, unless I unknowingly signed up for some dating event. Apparently it was tryouts for some new tv show lol.

Anyway, I decided to ask those two dudes pictured above for help. They were super nice and rode all the way back down the elevator with me and took me outside to a connecting hall where the party check in was.

(The awesome elevator. You could just touch the number and it lit up, aka they weren't buttons)

So when I checked in I got a name tag that said アメリカ (America). We all got nametags with our corresponding country. Also, it was 2000 yen for Japanese people, 1000 yen for foreigners, and only 800 yen for foreigners studying Japanese! So I got a huge discount! :)

Then we each got a cup that we wrote out name on. We mingled until the toast.

This old guy started taking to me and told me he was 43 and asked my age and then my email...

Creeeeperrrr. Thankfully Minju and Deanna showed up then, so I joined them and got to meet their Japanese friend they'd known from their university back home. She was really nice!

Then we all got either tea or water and we did a toast (kanpai!). 

Then they brought out finger food (tempura shrimp, chicken, fries, chips, chocolate chip bread, and little dumplings). In the middle of the plate with the finger food was a little section with corn.

Japanese people love corn. Apparently they eat sushi with corn too!

We also got these corn flavored snacks, and later there was pizza with corn as the only topping! Waaahhh, corn overload!!

(Corn flavored rice cake thing. There was a chocolate one too I wish I'd taken a picture of that was a regular rice cake covered in chocolate!)

Then we all played this game where we had to move beads and marbles into a bowl using chopsticks. The Japanese people were really good at it and the foreigners sucked lol.

I moved about 4 beads. The team that moved the most won bags of chips lol. And that wasn't my team, sadly.

Then we mingled some more. I talked to some more people, again all way older than I was. 

Then it was the mochitsuki demonstration. The guy hit the mochi with the kine like I'd seen yesterday and some people got to try too. This guy came over to talk to me during the demonstration. He was a Japanese student and was 21! He spoke English with a British accent and wanted me to teach him some English slang lol. He was all like "I know that when you take a picture of yourself, it's called a selfie!" He was cute! 

He told me he liked Justin Beiber and was going to watch Gossip Girl to improve his English and my gaydar started beeping. When he pulled out his phone, which was in a hot pink case, to get my number, that sealed the deal.

Then I ate some red bean mochi. I talked to this older guy (30s or 40s?) who was Japanese who later tried to add me on Line (my Line wasn't working though) because he wanted to invite me to a barbeque he and his friends were going to have haha.

Then I talked to these two Koreans with Minju, who was really excited to have met fellow Koreans. One of them was a super hot guy I'd noticed earlier. Of course he was Korean. Damn, Korean guys are fine...

And then the party was over! It was fun, but not really what I'd been expecting haha. It was more like a chance for Japanese guys to pick up foreign chicks lol. Deanna got a lot of guys' names to add on Facebook or Line as well, but she was super hesitant to because most of them were older and creepy.

We all walked to the station together and this time we walked through the unimall back to Nagoya station. From there, I took the JR back to Ichinomiya.

The bike ride home was a bitch. It was SO windy, I kept getting buffeted and had to work extra hard to pedal. I finally got home at 9:45 pm. Miyabi and Ken were already asleep, but Yuko had waited up for me. I took a nice hot shower and then went straight to bed.

I have a test tomorrow morning I didn't study at all for. Sheeeet...