Playing with clay

I was too tired and sick to go to 8 am church today, so I waited till 10. We had these sausage things in bread (like hot dogs but they were gray with spices mixed in) with ketchup and cabbage. It was actually really good!

Then I left for church and everyone else went shopping. It was nice and sunny out. After church, I went down to have tea and a donut and I was swarmed by all these Japanese people wanting to talk to me and practice their English, haha! The 10 am mass was a LOT more crowded than the 8.

This old lady talked to me a lot. Then she was like "I want to be your friend." Awww!!! She was so cute! 

Then the priest came over and told me a family wanted to invite me over to their home? He introduced me to them, but they never said anything more about inviting me over. It was a lady who used to live in the Phillipines, who was good at English  and her daughter and her daughter's friend. They were all from Gifu. The two girls wanted to practice English with me but were really shy.

I asked the one who was better at English and less shy why she wanted to learn Englsih, and she told me so she could watch English movies, haha. The other told me she didn't like studying lol.

Then I got on my bike to leave when the two girls came over again and asked how old I was. I told them hatchi and they were like whoooaaaa haha. I asked how old they were and they said thirteen and fourteen and they're in the second year of middle school!

They lingered there not saying much, so I spoke in Japanese a bit more and said "hajime mashite" and "ganbatte" and "yoroshiku onegaishimasu". I realized after I left I should have added them on Line. Oh well. They said they wanted to see me again, so I'll try to go back to the 10 am next Sunday.

When I got home, everyone was still gone, so I talked to a friend from Tech and Skyped my parents.

When everyone got back, Yuko asked if I'd eaten lunch and then made spaghetti. We all put shredded seaweed and sauces on our spaghetti that came in little silver packets. Yuko and Ken got orange sauce and Miya and I got pink sauce. The sauce tasted fishy, but when I mixed it in the spaghetti, it made it all taste really good. We had toasted bread with it too that was really sweet.

After lunch, I decided to get out the clay I brought from the US and showed it to Miyabi. Miya had never seen of heard of clay before, so I taught her how to use it!

And look at all that we made!

We also watched this Japanese game show like Jeaopardy.

Except if say the white person picked the square under the green in the third column, the two green squares between the two white squares would turn white too, so people could steal points from other people!!

So you have to be a good strategist as well as problem solver!

Ken went to go take a nap after that because he's sick too. We were supposed to do "Ohina sama" today, where we put out all the Girls' Day dolls (because if we don't Miya won't get married lol), but Yuko said to wait till after Ken woke up. So I did my homework.

For a snack, Yuko made pancakes! They weren't as sweet as American pancakes. I plan on using the pancake mix and syrup my mom sent next weekend to show everyone American-style pancakes. But these were still good! We put anko on them. I also had one with orange marmalade and Yuko and Miya had one each with peanut butter. They call it "peanuts butter" haha!

After that, I studied for my test tomorrow. We also watched Disney channel in Japanese for a while.

(Lilo & Stitch in Japanese)

One cartoon we watched had these guys who were talking about peanut butter, and they said "peanuts butter" too!!

When I was done studying, Miya and I wrote in English and Japanese on her chalk board. She corrected my Japanese and I corrected her English.

Oh and Miya has the coolest thing ever, that I have to go buy! It's an eraser that comes with a wheel thing that you roll along the table or your paper or whatever and it picks up all your eraser shavings!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?

Then Miya and I drew a picture and wrote more and then played Speed.

Ken woke up and then it was dinner time. We had nabe again with noodles, meat, tofu, and egg! So warm and yummy.

I've been sneezing a ton tonight! Either people are talking about me or I'm seriously sick haha.

We never put out the hina dolls, which sucks because we were going to put them out last weekend but then it snowed (you're supposed to wait for good weather so it's all dry and the dolls stay nice and stuff), and today was such a nice, sunny day!

So yeah I'm gonna go look through the 32 snapchats I have waiting for me haha. Peace out, guys!

Here's the movie of the Japanese toilet in Osaka greeting me:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=V4QPHulho8k

And two movies of snow in Osaka!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWSaGbJ_WE&feature=c4-feed-u

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=O-kDvUf8TtM

Watch them, guys they're interesting and short! I promise.

If the links don't work, just look under my account on YouTube (Cate Bissell)

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)