Ken no tanjoubi!

The first part of today completely sucked balls!

It was so warm today so I wore my kitty tights and skirt and didn't wear a jacket. But my hands froze on my bike on the way to the station without my gloves. T_T

I caught the 7:57 today so I saw Esteban at Kanayama and met everyone else at Yagoto Nisseki.

On the way to Kanayama, I was reading the manga I bought a while back that's all pink with the girl on the cover. And omg, in typical shoujo manga fashion, there was a page that makes you feel super awkward/embarrassed while reading it because something awkward/embarrassing is happening to the heroine. And to make it worse, I could actually understand all the Japanese on those few pages so I knew exactly what was going on!

I was hiding my face in my scarf and trying not to squeal haha.

In class today, we got our midterm grades! I have a 96 in communication and a 98 in reading & writing. Woot woot!

Class let out at 10:50, so I went to swim. I swam for about 50 minutes (and did a 500 again, yay!) and then had to get out at 12 so I could make it to the train station by 12:30, which is when we were all meeting.

Natalia asked this hot Japanese guy in her class out, but didn't want it to be a date so she invited a bunch of us along. We were going to an Indian restaurant (ew!), but I'd decided to go to meet the Japanese guy she says is so cute.

But while I was changing I lost one of my earrings. I think it fell between the floorboards. So I have no hope of ever getting it back. I'm really sad about it. :(

After looking for it everywhere and not finding it, it was too late for me to make it to Yagoto Nisseki in time. So I headed over to Lawson's to Facebook message Natalia. She asked how long it would take me to get there, and I said actually I could just take the subway from Nagoya Daigaku Eki, which was closer. So she said they'd wait for me at Motoyama.

But when I got to Motoyama, I couldn't find anyone! There were six different exits, and I went to them all to look multiple times. I made the mistake of leaving the exit and paying, because I thought they may be outside, but they weren't. Then I waited at the area between all the exits for 15 minutes. No one showed up. I was pretty pissed off. It seems every time I plan to do something with Natalia, I never find her...

So since I'd already paid, I headed outside. I found a 100 yen store where I bought something and then I just decided I'd go back, since they'd obviously left without me.

I didn't want to pay 200 yen again to travel one subway stop, so I just walked back. It only took about 15 minutes, but my face got sunburnt because it was a warm 60 degrees out and the sun was shining super brightly.

I went to the 100 yen Lawson's and bought a cheap lunch for 210 yen.

(It also had a little piece of carrot. Not too filling, but good!)

After I ate it back at school, I went to the library to watch the movie we have to watch for Folklore this week. I had it all in and everything when I found it didn't have English subtitles. F that. So I decided to try to download it at home. 

I stopped by the CJS office to inquire about this letter about pension I got in the mail yesterday. They looked at it and showed me the form I have to fill out to be exempt and told me that I should go home and fill it out with Yuko.

So I headed home. When I got to Kanayama, the train closed its doors right as I got to the platform. Then it idled there a few seconds and took off. Rawr. So I went up to buy my Shinkansen ticket for the way back from Tokyo.

I first told the guy 8:30 at night, but then I changed it to 6:30, so I could eat dinner and then leave and get home early enough for a good night's sleep.

The guy was nice and asked if I wanted a window or aisle seat, so I said window!

It ended up costing more than my ticket for the way there, so I asked the guy why. 

And guess what guys?

The cherry on top of my shitty day:

I've known for a while that Japanese tax is increasing in April, but everyone's always said April, not March 21.

So yeah starting March 21, literally the exact day I freaking leave Tokyo, Shinkansen tickets are 200 yen more. So even though I payed in advance, I have to pay more because that's the day I'm traveling. Fml.

The bike ride home was really nice because it was such beautiful weather today! I got home super early, at 4:30. Yuko and Miya were already home. I found a package from a friend on my desk! Yayyy!!!! It made me so happy to get it!

(It was full of so many noms!! And a bunch of Texas food haha!)

Ahh it had peach cobbler (my fave!) mix, and guacamole mix, and tacos, and taco spices, and hot chocolate, and even stomach medicine because I get so sick all the time, haha! Omg, Thank you!!

Then Miya and I prepared for Ken's birthday. She had me sign a card she made for him and then we made a paper chain hanging for the door.

(The card)

(Miya's rendition of me)

(The door)

(After we finished the chain!)

While we were doing that, Yuko baked a cake for Ken.

A package came from my mom! It was huge! But I waited till after dinner to open it.

Ken finally came home around 6:45. Miya gave him another card she made.

(The drawing of me in that one. Those are actually the clothes I was wearing!)

Then she brought him into the living room to show him the door. I said "otanjoubi omedetou!" (Happy Birthday)

(Look how cute they are!)

I gave Ken a little bottle of peach schnapps I'd brought from America. He didn't drink it, but he was happy!

A little while later we had dinner. Yuko had made potato and salmon nabe. It was good! She also had salad and bread she had made. Everyone's bread but mine had cheese baked inside!

For dessert, we had the cake Yuko had made. It was delicious!! It was actually more of a tart. It was a pie crust with chocolate mousse, banana slices, and strawberries. And it had a hunk of chocolate with pictures of Mickey on it that said "happy birthday" and Miya had written "Kenji" in chocolate sauce.

It's funny because in America on birthdays we never eat just one slice of cake! It's always either two or the one is a giant hunk! But here, we all had a small slice of the tart and even though over half the tart was left, it was put away.

I asked Yuko if I should take a pic of the three of them and she said yes, so I took a normal one, and then they both kissed Ken. I was proud of myself for capturing his face at the perfect moment!!

(So cute!!)

After dinner, with everyone in the living room, I opened the package from my mom. I found the note she'd written first which told me the presents for Yuko, Miya, and Ken in there.

She'd sent Ranch for Ken! It was perfect that it came on his birthday! He was ecstatic!! Everyone was so enamored with the "to go" Ranch, because that doesn't exist in Japan.

And my mom sent a magnetic note pad for Yuko and a computer game for Miyabi and gummy letters that spelled "Miya". Miya and Yuko loved those! Yuko really wants to go to America now, haha.

(Everyone's presents)

And sooo much stuff for me!! ;)

All my favorite American foodsssss (notice: they're all sweets haha)

There's the new limited edition Rice Krispie Oreos!!! I was drooling right when I first saw them. So of course I couldn't sleep tonight not knowing what they tasted like, so I ate one and you know had a foodgasm, duh. They had Rice Krispies mixed in with the cream!! Like, I'm not even kidding, these babies will be lucky if they last until this weekend...

Aaaaand she sent my favorite Easter foods: jelly beans, Cadbury eggs, and white Reese's cups!! Yuko said you can get white Reese's cups at Seiyu, but whatevs. They're probs super expensive anyway. 

Damn good thing I swam today with all these sweets I know have!

(Tears of joy are streaming down my face right now)

So yeah, I have yet to have an entirely sucky day here! I always go to bed happy! :)

Thanks mom and my friends!

I love and miss you all!!

Obaasan

Sunday, February 2:

It was cold and drizzling this morning as I rode to church. The streets were really quiet. Well, except for the cat. In one of the apartments on the second story of the complex across the street from us, there's a cat. If I knew the number of animal control here, I would call it and report the people who live in that apartment, because every day they leave their cat outside on the balcony in the freezing cold and it meows super loudly over and over and over again. And the balcony is so tiny, it has nowhere to run around or play, so it just sits on this raised portion and meows.

I really hope one day it takes the leap from the balcony to the ground below and escapes.

Anyway, church was nice and I got snacks afterwards. I would have stayed to have some tea because it was so cold out, but I knew I should get home because we were leaving for Ken's mom's house at 10.

At home, we had a yummy breakfast of Yuko's homemade bread, orange marmalade, mikan, and jelly cups (I tried grape this time and I liked it a lot better than the apple I had last night!) 

We watched tv while we ate. They showed this awesome house in Shinjuku that overlooked the famous street crossing. The house had this table in it with little stone pool full of warm water in it that you out your feet in while you sat. It was awesome! But I think it would be a pain to always be drying your feet off.

They played some of Mine by Taylor Swift between the segments, which made me happy.

Oh, and at the barbeque restaurant last night, they were playing Taylor Swift too! I really wanted to jam out to it like I would do at home, but yeah... Couldn't really do that. So I had to settle for jamming out to it in my head.

Anyway, when we were done with breakfast we loaded up the car and headed out. Maple was brought along in his dog carrier and put between Miya and me.

It took about an hour to get there. Miya and I entertained ourselves by singing the days of the month rap over and over (she loves it so much), so know I'll definitely remember the days of the month! I also studied the number counters. Yuko had asked before we'd left if I finished all my homework and I said yes even though I hadn't done any lol. All I have due is workbook pages I did at Tech and a test over the same chapters as last week, except it's in the reading and writing portion of the class, so I don't know how to study any differently...

On the way, we stopped at this cute cake shop in Ichinomiya to buy Obaasan a cake. Yuko had asked me what cake to get the other night because she wanted to get one I could eat. That was so sweet! I just told her to get whatever Ken's mom liked and I would have a small piece.

Miya and I looked at all the cakes while Yuko and Ken bought the cakes. There was a cool fake cake on display too that you could touch and play with (it was one like the one the ant is eating).

(Ahh it's eating the cake!)

(Omg I want them all)

When we got to Obaasan's house (that means grandmother), Yuko told me before we went in that greetings are really important to elderly people and told me to say "konnichiwa. Ojama shimsasu" when I enter the house, because that's what you say when you enter another person's house. I'm not sure why we didn't say that at Rana's host family's house. And she reminded me to use "itadakimasu" and "gochisousama deshita."

Ken's mom was really nice! She bowed to me and said "yoroshiku" and when I said "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" back, she turned to Yuko and was like "Oh! She can speak Japanese?" But Yuko and I both said I could speak very little.

After we got settled, we all went back out again to go to a shrine. Ken's parent's house was in a really nice location. It was a short walk from just about anything you would need, including the train station! Also, the train tracks run right behind their backyard fence (which is a low stone wall), so you can see the train go by and it looks and sounds like it's going right through the backyard. It's so close that you can see all the passengers inside lol. It also kind of shakes the house. I really liked it, though, because I like trains!

So we all walked to the shrine. Thankfully the rain had stopped, but I wore my rain jacket anyway because it looked misty. Miya's been having problems with her foot and been putting medicine on it and stuff, so her parents carried her.

(Entrance to the shrine)

(It was next to a lake)

When we got in, Obaasan showed me how to wash my hands with the big ladle things. 

Then we went over to the actual shrine area to pray. Ken gave me a 5 yen coin to throw in. Obaasan showed me how to ring the bell and then bow twice, clap twice, bow, even though I'd already done it yesterday.

(The shrine area)

Then Ken saw people he knew so he talked to them for a bit. Yuko told me everyone on this big stage thing that was in the middle of the shrine was getting ready to throw mochi and we could try to catch it!

(Guys with cool shirts that looked like they had mazes on them)

(The stage)

Then these little girls all dressed up (the ones in white and red) got to go up to help throw the mochi.

These buckets overflowing with mochi were brought out. There was a little area where all the kids went (Miya wanted to stay with us though) and they threw kids' snacks like the corn things I had at the New Year's party and bags of chips.

Then they hit this huge ass drum and began throwing the mochi! Ahhh it rained mochi! The first one I caught hit my face first (it hurt!) and then fell on the ground, but I quickly snatched it up!

This happened four times! The first time I caught three bags of mochi, the second five bags, the third one, and the fourth one, giving me a total of ten, more than anyone else!!

I mostly caught them with one hand, too. Yuko and Obaasan told me I was jouzu (good at it). Well, even if I come home and my Japanese hasn't improved at all, at least I can say I'm good at catching flying mochi!

(The bag of mochi)

For the second time, they brought out heart shaped mochi! The bags of heart shaped mochi had golden stickers on them. Miya and I really wanted those, but I couldn't catch any.

Miya say on her dad's shoulders the whole time and they caught a few.

For the last time, a bunch of official people came out to help throw, like these two ladies in kimonos and a guy in a wheelchair.

Damn, though, the Japanese people really wanted their mochi. A ton of times the mochi hit my hand and fell to the ground where it was snatched up by an Obaasan or a kid or a man. One guy fell over trying to get one of the little bags if mochi. Gosh, they also threw out one giant mochi each time and people pushed and shoved each other to try to catch that one!

This super greedy lady and her husband walked away with a bunch of the kids' snacks, tons of bags of mochi, including a heart shaped one, and a giant mochi. She pissed me off.

Anyway, Obaasan had a bag we put our mochi in. We collected around 26 total!! And 10 were caught by me. :)

It was so fun and such an interesting traditional Japanese experience!

After that, we carried our bag of mochi back home. When we got back, the hose was nice and warm. Yuko had told me that it would be cold, but Obaasan had turned the heat on! We all sat in the living room and had lunch.

We had the sandwiches sold at Lawson's. Most of them had egg or mayonnaise, so that sucked. I had a lettuce, cucumber, and egg one because the egg was in the brown inarizushi stuff, which is the way I like it. Then I had a tempura shrimp one even though it had some mayo because I like tempura shrimp.

Obaasan cooked some of the mochi we had caught, so it turned brownish and greasy... I didn't really like it, so I just had one pink one. We each got a square of seaweed to grab the mochi with and then we ate the mochi wrapped in the seaweed.

Also, obaasan poured me tea. I drank it and didn't like the taste at all. When I looked at the label, I saw why. It was Lipton. American tea. Yuck. But I drank it anyway.

Yuko knocked on one of the sliding doors and called someone's name. Then this guy who looked a bit older than Ken came out. I had no idea he'd been in there sleeping! He ate lunch with us and then left right after.

After lunch was over, we watched tv for a bit. I talked to Obaasan about the temples and shrines I went to yesterday and showed her pictures on my phone.

Miya played Othello with her mom and won. Then she brought out Uno!! I freaked out and told her how much I love Uno. So we played eight games of Uno, haha! Miya had this Sesame Street scoreboard and we each moved up a space when we won a game and whoever got to the end first (I think there were like 10 spaces) won.

So while we were playing the first game, they were doing different things than I do when I play Uno at home, like they when they drew, they stopped after one card whereas when I play, we draw until we get a card that we can play. Also, they said you could play more than one card if the cards are the same (like if you can out down a 3, but you have two threes, you can play both and the color you put on top is the new color). It was weird, so I taught them the American way and we played that way for three games.

The third game took so long, though, that they went back to the Japanese way.

Anyway when we broke for cake, I was winning with three points (I won three of the games :) ). Ken and Miya had two each and Yuko had one.

Ojiisan (grandpa, aka Ken's dad) came home then, so he had cake with us. 

I hadn't seen what cake Yuko and Ken ended up buying, so it was a surprise when I saw it was a chestnut (kuri) cake!

I've never seen a chestnut cake in my life haha. But it was really sweet and good!

It says "ginkobaba otanjoubi omedatou." Ginkobaba is what Miya calls Obaasan. Yuko calls her Okaasan (mother), even though she's her mother-in-law. I'm just calling her obaasan on this blog so I don't have to keep saying Ken's mom all the time.

We all sang happy birthday in English, which I found weird because only Yuko and I know English, but everyone knew happy birthday. The Obaasan blew out all her candles.

The cake had a lot of cream in it. Yuko asked if that was ok and I was all like, "well, we'll see!" But I didn't end up getting sick.

Obaasan got the thing with her name, Yuko, Ken, and Miya got the chocolate decorations and I got a giant chestnut! The cake also had chestnut pieces in the cream. And the outside was Mont Blanc.

After we had cut the cake, the guy who had been sleeping came in and had a piece. Then he left to go swimming at a pool in a nearby gym. And Ojiisan went into the other room to watch tv.

We watched tv and drank tea in the room we were in. I was super bored watching tv, so when Yuko and Obaasan asked me if I wanted to go to the supermarket later, I jumped at the opportunity.

The supermarket was so interesting! It was small and Obaasan wanted to know if we had small supermarkets like that in America, and at first I said no, because I was thinking of Kroger and supermarkets in Texas, but then I realized there are some smaller ones in Blacksburg, so I said it depends on the size of the town.

The supermarket was super cool. There were some pretty weird things on sale and a bunch of yummy samples (orange slices, apples, this sugary bread, and truffles!). 

(OMG MAMESHIBAAAA!! I freaked out and Yuko laughed because we'd talked about how much I like mameshiba before)

(This huge bag of mushrooms for only 38 yen!)

I thought these were cool. They were bags full if water that had oysters floating inside. Because I was so amazed, Yuko asked me how oysters were sold in America. I wasn't sure because I've never cooked them because I don't like them. And I've only ever known them to be eaten at restaurants or as take out from a restaurant. Or you know, caught in the ocean and then cooked. Like I've never heard of anyone I know buying oysters from the grocery store, but I don't really know. When I go to grocery stores at home, I tend to just stick to the areas I like.

And here's the weirdest thing of all. I almost screamed when I saw them.

See those little crawly things, guys? Well get this, they were alive. I'm not even kidding right now. They were like squirming and their little legs were moving and I was hyperventilating.

Yuko was kinda freaked out too. She told me they're not sold alive in Icjinomiya, but Handa prefecture (where we were) is close to the sea, and thus has this type if thing. Gag.

Obaasan bought a whole bunch if stuff and then we walked home.

(Handa prefecture's drain cover)

When we got home, we immediately left again, this time with Ken, Miya, and Ojiisan too, to walk to dinner. 

And guess where we went??? To a kaitenzushi place!! I'd been wanting to go to a kaitenzushi place since before I came here because it's super cheap (105 yen a plate). I knew of two near Nanzan, Sushiro  and Kappazushi, but hadn't yet had time to check them out. I can't believe I've been in Japan almost a month and haven't yet had sushi! Ahhh!

But we went tonight! The place was really cute, with everything kappa themed. There was a long line, but Miya and I played with her string to keep ourselves entertained. They finally called our number and we all went to sit down.

Miya got to control the little tv touch screen that you used to order.

At kaitenzushi places, sushi goes around on a conveyer belt, so you can see what there is to order.

I got tuna and salmon sushi. It came with wasabi on it that burned my nose and made my eyes water. So next time, Yuko found a "no wasabi" option and I got another order of tuna without wasabi. I also got ikura (fish egg) rolls, kappa (cucumber, not the creature lol) rolls, and tempura shrimp rolls. I was so stuffed, that I declined when Obaasan asked if I wanted dessert.

The sushi was really good! I don't like tuna sushi in America because the tuna is all thick and fatty, but it wasn't at all here and was really good!

Also, the tv screen thing lit up and beeped to let you know when your sushi was coming. And then the sushi zoomed in on a Shinkansen (driven by kappa)!! Ahhh kawaii!

(This time we got two Shinkansen at once! The pot things contain the egg soup I had yesterday that may have been what made me so sick. Obviously I wasn't the one who ordered them.

After you took your sushi off, you pressed OK and the Shinkansen zoomed off again.

(Cute plate with kappa)

(Also cute)

(Cute spoon Miya got)

(Miya got corn sushi! Why is everything made with corn here??)

(Ate six plate's worth like a champ!)

After dinner, I had a major food baby. We all walked back. On the way, I asked Ken in Japanese if he lived in that house as a child and he said he did.

Back at the house, we watched more tv for a bit and then got ready to leave. I spotted a picture of the Grand Canyon and asked Obaasan if she went there. She told me she did, in November 2001!

Then we all left and drove back home.

(Cool castle-hotel I saw)

(A Japanese McDonald's!)

At home, we all showered and then went to bed. I ended up not going to sleep until midnight. Ugh. Schools gonna suck tomorrow.

Also, pix of my bonsai from it's photo shoot this morning:

(It has 5 full flowers now!!)

Kirei, ne?