Suiyoubi!!

Last night I had my first nightmare since coming here. It was one of the super scary ones where I die. :S

But when I woke up from it, I had a bunch of messages from my friends to cheer me up! 

Esteban said he was going to swim with me today (he'd been thinking of playing badminton instead) and Minju said she'd seen that the Sen to Chihiro world we were going to go to after the Ghibli museum, closed at 4:30 so she decided she'd get the 2pm ticket too and we'd go there before the museum. Yayyy!!!

I just hope she can find someone to buy the 12pm ticket off of her.

Last night I ended up finding an awesome hostel!! It has free breakfast (the only hostel with free breakfast in Tokyo) and free luggage storage and is really close to all the major stations in Tokyo. It was also really cheap! The only problem is I have to share a room with 9 other girls! Ah well. Maybe they'll be nice. And I think the hostel has parties sometimes too, so I'll be able to make friends! :)

Also, I learned a new word at breakfast! Hachimitsu, which is honey! I asked what Yuko and Miya were pouring on their toast because they'd never used it before and they showed me the honey. It was less viscous than it is in America (so it was more runny and Miyabi kept spilling it off of her toast). That's why I didn't recognize it was honey.

And I was like "oh, hachi means bee!" Haha that makes sense.

I had anko on my toast today, because I wanted to try something other than jam and it was really good! But not as sweet. And I like sweet breakfasts!

For some reason I got ready super fast today (when I left, yuko was like, "whoa, hayai!") and ended up catching the 7:37 train to school today. Whaaaat?!? I haven't done that since the first day of orientation! Hahaha.

So I went to school and derped around online and looked up fun stuff to do in Tokyo. 

Class seemed so short today. Suddenly it was 10:50 and it was owari, whoo!

Today is Wednesday, which in Japanese, is Suiyoubi. The kanji for "sui" is the kanji for water, and the word "swimming" in Japanese is "suiei" so Esteban declared the day we go swimming to be Suiyoubi! It works out because we have such short classes.

When I got out, I waited around a bit because I wasn't sure if 400 had gotten let out yet, but when I didn't see anyone from 400 coming downstairs, I headed to the pool. I saw Esteban had gotten out of class early and already signed in. So I signed in and they were all like "hajimete janai, ne?" 

(It's not your first time, right?)

And I was like uhh actually it is. So after I removed my shoes and put these rubber croc things on, this cute old lady led me upstairs to the locker room. She only spoke Japanese, by I managed to talk with her. She asked where I was from  and I told her Texas and that Texas was really hot and at my house I have a pool I swim in and she thought that was awesome! 

When we first walked in, we had to take our rubber shoes off. Fortunately the wooden board things we walked on weren't wet yet because I was wearing socks. Then she told me to go up more stairs to get to the showers and toilets and go straight from there to get to the pool! So after I changed, I walked up to the pool. I saw a Japanese girl who said "konnichiwa" to me. Esteban's always taking about the Japanese friends he makes at the pool who talk to him in the locker room, so I want to make some too! But there was only one other girl in there.

The pool was beautiful! Next time I'll take pictures. It was on the second story so you saw the rooftops of the neighboring buildings out the window. The walls were all windows so it was nice and bright, unlike either of the pools at Tech.

And it had a spiral staircase up to a balcony where there were benches to watch people swimming, but the staircase was blocked off. So I guess it's only open during meets.

And then there was the Japanese swim team. Holy crap! It was mostly guys and they were all lined up along the side of the pool stretching. If anyone knows this anime called Free! that came out last summer (I've never seen it, but I've see pictures of it everywhere and it's basically five guys who are shirtless all the time because they're on the swim team and they're hot)... Yeah, imagine all those posters of Free!...

Actually, here I'll post a picture of one of them:

Yeah, it was that times ten. I was like ooooooohhhh my gosh. Damn they were fine.

Esteban kept teasing me about how there was all that eye candy and I was totally enjoying it haha. He told me they have a meet coming up so we might go watch it! Yeaaahhh!!

So anyway, Esteban and his friend Matt were in the first two lanes, which are the only two open while the Japanese team is practicing. But just as I hopped in Esteban's lane, they finished practicing, so I got my own lane.

After I warmed up, I decided to try a 500 to see if I could really still do it. And I did! I made it all 20 laps without stopping and it didn't take me quite as long as I thought it would. I kind of wish I had timed myself though. Oh well.

Then I noticed the 60 second clocks like we have in America, so I decided to see if  my sprints were still as fast as they used to be. I wanted to do a 50 in 31 seconds like I did in high school, but I could only do it in 36. :( I decided it was probably because I didn't dive in, so I got up on the starting block and waited for the top of the clock, but when it came Esteban shouted something to me from the other end of the pool and I missed it. I should have just dove in anyway, but I wanted to wait for the next top. While I was waiting, the pool attendant lady came over and apologized, telling me I wasn't allowed to dive off the blocks.

That's what Esteban had been trying to tell me. Because it was only 4 ft deep and they didn't trust us to only do surface dives.

That's so gay. Like, why are there even starting blocks in the first place, then? So I have no idea what my real time for a 50 sprint is. But I just swam more stuff like 100s and 200s until Esteban said Matt was leaving, but he was going to meet Rafa for lunch, did I want to come?

After the Japanese team had left, only guys came in to swim, so I went in to an empty locker room. Maybe if I come regularly I'll be able to meet more Japanese students!

Man, the swim felt amazing though! It was nice to get back in there after so long. I'm happy I still fit into the suit I wore when I was fourteen (I was legitimately worried I wouldn't). And swimming with my nice pink swimmer's goggles was so, so great!

Afterwards I had that tired, but happy after a swim workout feeling. 

(Selfieeee)

And I felt like I could eat anything and everything haha. So while we were waiting in line, I saw this Japanese guy eating this huge dish of meat on top of rice that looked really good, so I asked him what it was and he told me pork ginger. So I got that! It was only 360 yen, but I got the smaller version because I wasn't sure I'd like it.

It ended up being really, really good! I've definitely had it with at home before (like my Japan home, not America). Rafa got this humungo chicken meal for 500 yen, so he was good, but Esteban and I were still hungry after we'd eaten, so Esteban got a hot dog and I got the small rice bowl. I looooove rice!

There was this creepy guy, holding two cute breads, looking in the windows today. I'd seen him another day too when I was walking past outside and just figured he was making faces at someone inside, but today he just stood there looking in for forever. It was really scary. The Japanese girls sitting right under him didn't seem phased at all!

(There he is, such a creeper! After I took this picture, he moved a little farther down the windows to creep some more).

After we finished eating, the guys were still hungry haha, so we went to Lawson's. Esteban got a pack of dark chocolate (called black chocolate here) and gave us some. It was good! It tasted sweeter than American dark chocolate.

Also, look at these prices!!

We walked to the lockers afterwards and I dumped my stuff then parted ways with the guys. They were going home to take naps, but I was going to the bank.

Ugh so when I got there, I discovered my money still hadn't come in. I got the girl who was good at English, so I asked her to call and find out what the hold up was. She called the head bank and they said these things usually take a month!! So the earliest I'll get my money is Friday, but more likely it'll be next Thursday. Arghhh, I'm running out of money!

I'm so happy I have the traveler's checks, or I'd be up shit creek without a paddle. So I cashed another one of those today, but this is really stressing me out!

(Cute tree I saw on the way to the bank)

On the way back from the bank, I saw a cop car out in front of the 100 yen Lawson's. Then I saw two police officers talking to these three Indian guys and checking their ID and stuff. Ooohhh I wanna know what was going on!

(The back of the guy says "POLICE")

When I got back to campus, I got on the computer to send some emails and then went home.

On the way to the train station, I stopped at Lawson's to TURN IN MY COMPLETED STICKER SHEET!!!! 

I bought a thing of bread today and stole the other 5 stickers off other breads because very few had stickers left. The new wave of breads are sticker-less.

The guy took it AND GAVE ME A BUNNY PLATE!!!!! Ahhh! I was so sure he was going to tell me to mail the sheet in or give him an address to send the plate to or whatever, but he just gave it to me right then and there!

(Cute box it came in!!)

(It says Miffy Curry Plate :D )

(Me with the plate!!)

(Argh so cute!!)

When I got home, I made a half a pecan butter sandwich with the bread I bought. It was gooooood! The bread in Japan is so thick, though!

Then I took a shower. Miya and Yuko didn't get home until 6:30. Miya had this awesome thing she made today with paper, a bag, and a straw, where she would blow into the straw and the bag would fill up!! Sugoi!

When they got home I did my homework and then Ken came home and we all had dinner.

Dinner was soooo good! I told Yuko it was "mecha oishii" haha. It was a tofu burger with mushrooms in it that tasted exactly like the veggie burgers I eat and love in America! Yuko made it herself!

And we had miso soup with pumpkins in it!

Miya poured her tea in her rice bowl and I was like wtf? And her parents didn't say anything. They even encouraged her! Yuko must have seen my wtf face, because she explained that's a thing in Japan. She said you don't do it in a restaurant, only in your home, but people do it all the time lol! She said it's really good. Maybe I'll try it too some time.

After dinner, I studied for my dialogue check and did some of my worksheet due next week.

Ahhh today was such a good day!!

Friday should be fun too. Rafa and I are going to go shopping in Osu and then Taylor's organizing an all-night karaoke slumber party! I was telling everyone about it at dinner and I knew how to say all night! 

I learned it from Miss You, this song by M-flo I'm obsessed with and listen to every day. In it they say "asa made" which means "until morning". So I said the karaoke was "asa made" and everyone understood what I saying! Yayyy!

Also, here are pix of me and Minju from the science museum from the CJS Facebook page:

(Burning calories on the bike)

Matta ashita!

Tea ceremony in a kimono!

So I completely forgot I had a test today lol.

At the start of class Heather was all like "we have a test today"

And Iaughed and was like, "no we don't"

Yeah, we did. In the reading & writing portion. Which meant it was super easy.

Lol this weekend Yuko had even asked me if I had a test Monday and I had said no. Whoops.

I was still super sore from running Saturday and it took enormous effort to walk up and down the stairs and sit down. Ugh.

I ate lunch with Emma at Dagane and had... Guess what?

Misokatsudon! Yeeeaaaahhh! With a side of daikon and potato jelly. :P

Emma told me her host mom has shortened my nickname of "pinku ga suki no hito" to just "pinku" haha.

Then we had calligraphy. Here's my masterpiece:

(Woot!)

And theeeeennnn tea ceremony!! 

GUESS WHAT I GOT TO DO?!?

I GOT TO WEAR A KIMONO!!!!!!!!

Like no one wanted to do it when she asked for volunteers this week, idk why... But I jumped up right away and said I'd do it. She had two girls and one guy dress up and one other girl wore her own kimono.

The cute older sensei helped me into my kimono. I chose the one I'm wearing because all the wrappings were pink! The other girl got the other kimono, which once she had it on, I actually liked better. It was black with pink flowers. Oh well.

We each got a scrunchie as well to tie up our hair. Mine was black lined with gold.

The other girl's light blue and white striped to match her light blue obi.

Sensei put the kimono part on me first. Then she tied a pink tie really tight around me and asked if I was okay. lol. I said I was even though it was a bit tight.

Then she put a pink belt on. Then a big pink belt with a piece of what felt like cardboard inside. And finally my obi! And she tied it so nicely!!

Then she let me go to the bathroom to use the bowl cabinet as a mirror to admire myself. Then we went into the tatami room with the rest of our classmates and everyone oohed and ahed at how pretty I looked haha.

Then we did the actual tea ceremony. The other girl in the kimono and I acted as the hostesses, bringing in the snacks.

(Today's okashi! They had leaves on the top and bottom. And the middle was sticky white stuff filled with anko. The leaves were stuck on with clear gel stuff that was really sweet and good!)

The leaves we folded up in our okashi paper and those of us in kimonos tucked them in this secret pocket in our kimono sleeves, haha!

We had to say the stuff we had to last time again and of course I made a fool out of myself because I could t remember any of it. But neither could most everyone else. Then we drank matcha.

And then it was the other group's turn. Sensei told us we could take pictures, so I had Pearl take pictures of me. :)

While we were waiting for the next part, the older sensei came over to me to fix my obi's bow and then had a guy take my phone and snap a picture of me from behind haha. I'm glad she did, though, because I hadn't even thought to get a behind picture because I didn't realize how pretty the obi looks!

Because the belt part was so stiff, it made me sit up straight, so I didn't mind wearing the kimono, because it fixed my posture and it was actually pretty comfortable!

After tea ceremony was over and sensei helped me take off the kimono, I headed to Lawson's to buy a melon pan for the way home.

33 bunny stickers. So close! :(

Oh well, I'll try again next month!

Then I went to the CJS office and the nice lady who helped me last week helped me get everything together to pay my for my health insurance and then I stopped by the Lawson's next to the station to pay it.

When I got home, Miya and I bonded over the fact that we both had a bunch of homework (I actually don't, I just said I did to make her feel better haha). And we had an entire conversation about it in Japanese!

When she went to go do hers, I said "ganbatte!" (You can do it!) and she said "you too!"

:D :D :D

We had nave for dinner. 

And let me tell you all about our dinner conversation, haha! (It's all in Japanese btw)

So it started with Ken asking me what Japanese cooking I like. And I told him oden and everyone was really shocked lol. They were like "we only made that one time!" And Ken asked if I had eaten it elsewhere and I said no. Yuko asked what about oden I liked, and Miya shouted:

"IT'S PINK!!"

And I was like "well yeah, there's that." 

And Ken cracked up haha.

But I said it was also really delicious.

Then I told them I also liked misokatsudon. When I said I have it at school every day, they all burst out laughing lol.

Then Ken asked what I didn't like. And when I couldn't think of anything, he was like "nothing?"

And I said "nothing yet"

And they all chuckled.

Guys, I think I'm starting to make jokes in Japanese! 

Anyway, now comes the good part. Yuko was all like, "So I saw your pictures from Friday night in Facebook. You drank a lot!"

Ken started laughing and I got all awkward and embarrassed haha.

She asked me if I got drunk and I said no. I told them the drinks here aren't as strong as they are in America. Ken was like even Japanese sake?? I was like "yup".

Then Ken asked what I drank in America, so I told them rum, vodka, and whiskey. (Oh wait, jk, guys it's illegal to drink in America, so I mean I don't actually drink, ya know?)

Anyway Ken was all like "ahh whiskey" and he put his hand up "Japanese sake" and he put his other hand lower "and beer" and he moved his hand even lower. I was like "yup".

Then Yuko was like "ahh the pictures looked so fun!" And I think Ken wanted to see them too haha. No doubt she'll show him. Whatevs.

And then I told everyone about wearing a kimono today! And Yuko asked about the colors of everyone's kimonos and they were surprised when I told them a guy wore a kimono too! When I said mine was red, Ken was like "oh, not pink" but I was like "the obi was pink!" And they all laughed haha.

Bunny stickers

This morning I had a conversation with one of the bike parking area workers!! It wasn't much but it still made me happy. :D

Him: おはようございます。

Me: おはようございます。

Him: 寒いね。

Me: はい、寒い。

Him: Good morning.

Me: Good morning.

Him: It's cold, huh?

Me: Yes, it's cold.

Like usually they just say good morning, but he kept talking to me even though I'm a foreigner and might not have understood! I guess he figured since I'm there every day I'm obviously doing something here for a while that involves me needing to know some Japanese.

This morning Heather told me Mitch got suuuuper drunk last night. Fuuuuck I'm so mad I missed it!!! She said he was hilarious and when they left around 10 (yeah, no there's no way I could have left that late), he walked them to the station and everyone got on the subway expecting him to follow, but he said goodbye and told them he was heading to another bar and stumbled out!!! Hahahahaha. I saw him working in the CJS office this morning before I knew all this so I wish I'd taken a closer look, but he seemed fine, a little tired maybe.

In class today, we had to write about our favorite restaurant, so of course I immediately though of Sweet Tomatoes (my love back in H-town) but then Mutsukawa sensei was like "either in Nihon or America", so I was like waaaittt, I'm gonna do Sweets Paradise! (Why do all my favorite restaurants have "sweet" in the name, haha?)

Mutsukawa sensei asked me what sweets I like (I said all of them, duh!) and asked me if I eat sweets often. I told him every day (lol) and he asked what kinds of Japanese sweets I like and I told him anko. He said he likes taiyaki, which promoted me to get out my photo of the taiyaki parfait I ate in Kyoto and showed it to him and the rest of the class. Everyone was drooling, hahaha.

At lunch, I was gonna just eat the onigiri from breakfast (Yuko gave me a lot of breakfast this morning and I wasn't really hungry so I could only eat one of the onigiri and took the other for later) and some sides for lunch, but I was craving misokatsudon again (I told you I crave it 24/7), so I got that instead. I sat with Minju again and some of her friends who I didn't know yet. We all talked about how hot Korean guys are. :D

When I was bussing my tray, I dropped one of my chopsticks and was about to bend down and pick it up, when this nerdy Japanese student swiftly picked it up for me!! Ahh so nice! I thanked him. :)

It must be a Japanese thing to have awesome picking-up-strangers'-dropped-items reflexes, because at Kanayama on the way home tonight, my water bottle fell out of my backpack and I turned around to pick it up and this Japanese man had already picked it up and was holding it out to me! Sugoi, Japan!

Then Heather and I went to Lawson's because she'd promised me she'd buy a bread and give me the sticker. She had me help her pick out a bread. I told her melon pan was my favorite and she ended up getting that. While she was deciding, I saw a Japanese guy buying sandwiches with his friends. And the sandwich has two bunny stickers! 

So when Heather had finished choosing a bread, she came with me as I walked over to the guys. I was like "sumimasen, usagi sticker o tsukuru?"

Are you going to use the bunny sticker?

And the guy was all like "ageru?" Like asking if I wanted him to give it to me and then he said he would! Then he said in English, "wait a moment."

So Heather bought her bread and gave me the sticker and then the guy bought his sandwiches and came over and stuck the sticker on my bunny sticker sheet! :) His friends all laughed at him giving them to me, but it made me so happy!!

Rana gave me two more this morning and Rafa and Esteban gave me three yesterday, so I was going to give up, but now I only need 12 more! Ahhh idk... I guess I'll try to go for it!

After lunch, I went to the computer building to research matsuri for project work. And then it was time for Japanese Folklore.

In folklore we talked about Onmiyoji II and a bit about Setsubun as well. It was way more interesting this week since I'd actually watched the movie like I was supposed to lol.

When I got home today, Miyabi finished eating and then it was my turn to eat. Yuko gave me a heaping bowl of spaghetti and toast and salad. It was all so good and reminded me of home! Except the bread wasn't garlic bread :( and the spaghetti had octopus and other seafood. It also had clams in the shells! So I had to pick out the butterfly clam shells the whole time and at the end, I didn't realize I got one on my fork because it was buried under the sauce and spaghetti and I bit into it and broke it with my teeth! Ouch I was not expecting that!

But it was still good! Yuko was making anpan (bread filled with red beans) while I ate. 

When I was finished eating, Miya heard me say "gochisou sama deshita" (she was in the room next door) and so she opened the door separating us a crack and passed me a note! I opened it and died because it was so so so cute!!!

She folded it up all cutely too! Yuko told me kids in Japan always fold notes to each other in cute ways!

Here's the note:

(Holy crap isn't it adorable??? I love her!)

Then I went to my room to do homework and write my blog. Yuko came in after a bit and was like 

"Keito, ii?" Asking if I was good.

I said I was and she came in and gave me half of one of the anpan buns she made! She had me try it and it was hot, but soooo delicious!!

I looooove anko!

She told me she made them to give to Keiko (Rana's host mom) as omiyage for letting me spend the night, since she hadn't been able to buy Rana's host family a present because she's been taking care of Miya.

(Nom nom nom!)

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!

Hanga is hard...

Read the post from yesterday first!!

Lol so this morning at breakfast, we were watching the news again. We had the same chocolate chip bread I'd had at the New Year's party ;P

Anyway, they were doing this whole segment about freaking Orlando Bloom and showing him in the new Lord of the Rings movie, so of course I was dying. I told Miyabi I loved him and she told her mom haha.

Yuko asked if he was American and I said no, and she asked if he was British and I said yes (I think so anyway because he was talking with a British accent).

Yuko asked my plans for this weekend and when I said I didn't have any yet, she invited me to come with everyone to Ken's uncle's house, which is about an hour away! Yaaay!! 

She told me to make sure I did my homework beforehand because we'll be gone all day. Ha we'll see how that goes.

My bike seat was frozen again today. It was a cold ride to the station. :((( Why won't it get warm??

When I was at Rana's house last weekend, I asked those two Japanese girls when it starts to get warm here and they said March. Waaahhhh too far away D:

All the Japanese students started break today so the campus was like a ghost town and there were no food trucks and the bread shop was closed and the lady selling bread in R building wasn't there. So sad. There were some Japanese students around for club activities, though, like those on sports teams.

In Japanese class, this girl was talking about something she ate yesterday but forgot what it was called. Everyone, including our sensei was trying to figure out what it was. She said it was like a pancake and I was like "Oh! Okinomiyaki!" 

And she was like "Yeah!!"

My sensei wanted to know what I had said, so I told everyone and explained what it was. Then sensei asked the girl where she'd eaten it and she was like "Aeon Mall at some place... Uhh it started with an A" and sensei and everyone else was baffled but I was like, "oh, Aratama Bashi?"

And she was like "yeah!"

And everyone was like "whooaa, sugoi, you know so much, Cate!"

Haha I mean I just know all that by talking to people and exploring. Taylor told me about the Aeon mall when we were in Aratama Bashi for karaoke.

But a lot of the dorm kids just sit in their rooms and play video games and go to konbinis for dinner. 

Also everyone freaked out over my kitty tights haha. I got so many compliments. So now I have to go back and get the bunny and bear ones as well. 

I aced my dialogue check and the katakana test was really easy so I'm pretty sure I got a 100 on that as well.

Oh and this one girl who's from China broke her leg when she fell down four flights of stairs at the subway station!! She came in today with a broken leg and in a wheelchair. I've been scared of falling down the subway stairs a few times because they're very steep. Ugh if I did break my leg I wouldn't be able to ride my bike to the station in the morning and my commute would take so much longer. Poor girl, that must be such an inconvenience for her time in Japan.

After class, I ate lunch at Dagane with Esteban and Rafael. We're three of the five people from Texas!

I had misokatsu again. :) 

(Sooo good!)

After lunch we had Hanga. We got to make actual prints using our woodblocks! First we spread glue on the block, then ink using a Japanese round brush, and then we put a piece of Japanese paper over the woodblock and pressed this circular wooden thing with a handle over it. I wasn't strong enough to apply enough pressure, so mine was never completely black in the part that said Keito. Sensei did one for me and of course his looked really good.

(Sensei's is on top. Mine on bottom. My wood block is the black thing at the very top.)

I didn't like how it's hard to see the apostrophe thing on the ビ so I decided to carve out more on top. But I had to wait for the ink to dry first.

Once it was dry, I carved more out and then reprinted it. I was still sucking so sensei did mine again haha. And he made an awesome one!

The best yet! So I kept this as the one to turn in on the last day of class. My hands were covered in ink when class was over lol.

After class, I walked to the post office to exchange one of my traveler's checks. I had to leave through the North Gate, which I'd never been through before. I usually come through the South Gate.

On the way, I passed Nagoya Daigaku, where Ayuko went to school.

(Such colorful flags!)

The exchange rate was really good! I got 10,056 yen for 100 dollars! But ugh I'm burning through all the money I made working last year.

Then I walked back to Nanzan.

(Cool building)

(Sign for Nanzan)

I stopped in the Lawson's on campus to get a giant melon pan as a snack for the way home.

So all the breads have these bunny stickers on them that are super cute. The first time I ever got one, I saved it and stuck it on my wallet. Then, all the ones after that I just threw out. This weekend, Ayuko saw the one on my wallet and told me if you collect enough you can get a prize!! Whaaaaattt??? I was so mad! I've thrown out probably around 8 of them because I didn't know. Rawr.

So today at lunch I asked Rafael for the one on his bread and he gave it to me. This guy Matt also gave me the one from his bread!

Then when I bought my melon pan, I asked the Lawson's people about the stickers. The girl told me if I collected enough I would receive an "osara" but I couldn't for the life of me remember what an osara was. 

Then the guy brought over the sheet you stick them on and I remembered osara was plate and you got this freaking adorable bunny plate.

So yeah, my goal is to collect 40 of these babies and I'm gonna get all my friends to help out!

Also, I saw the Weekly Jump magazine and it had Naruto on the cover and Naruto is the one manga I read (though I haven't read it since, like, October), so I bought it. More Japanese practice, gaiz!

Then I stopped in R building real quick to use the bathroom. I always go there because all the other buildings have squatty potties, but R has legit toilets with heated seats. ;)

And then I walked to the subway station to begin my long commute home. While I was sitting, waiting for the train, this foreign dude (older man, maybe 40s, 50s) started talking to me and asking if I was an exchange student and where I was from blah, blah. When he heard I study computer science, he started telling me all about this article he read recently about Paul something-or-other, the co-founder of Microsoft.

It was weird because every time I asked him about himself, he'd give me a short answer and then keep taking about the article or whatever. So all I know is he taught English at a school nearby.

He got off at Aratama Bashi and then I could finally eat my melon pan haha.

 

On my bike ride home, this guy in an 18 wheeler honked at me and did some hand motion. But I was doing nothing wrong! Ha maybe it's because he thought I was cute --- jk.

No one was home yet when I got home. So I read Naruto to catch up to where the magazine I bought is. 

And guys, reading it I learned the CUTEST thing! 

So you know the kanji for love, ai 愛

Well it's a combination of the kanji for heart, kokoro 心 and the kanji for "to accept/receive", ukeru 受.

So it's like, you get love when you receive someone's heart!!

Japanese is so cute, I can't even.

Oh and this was in the Jump magazine, which I thought was a magazine for kids lol

I could only read the first line which says "seeing this penis" (yeah I knew the word for penis haha) so of course I wanted to know what the rest said. So I typed it into Google translate and burst out laughing. This is what it said:

"Can not possibly be called a kid anymore when you see this dick"

Hahaha wtf Japan. And it's an ad I think for raisin bread in Nagoya because that's what the stuff on the side says. Wakarimaseeennnnn.

For dinner we had carrots and asparagus wrapped in meat, potatoes, cooked daikon, mushrooms, chicken, rice with furikake, salad, and this soup with clear noodles, seaweed and lettuce.

I asked Yuko what the clear noodles were. She didn't know, but she looked it up for me! It turns out they're originally a Chinese dish and are made with potato starch. They were really good!

They were called harusame. I thought they were made of shark because same means shark, I think, but Yuko said no.

And they're made of tenpun, which is starch.

We also all had a laugh because Yuko asked me how many fingers I had and I said 8 (thinking about that joke where the punch line is that your thumb isn't a finger) and we all talked about how funny it is that Americans don't count the thumb as a finger, but Japanese do. Yuko said I can say I had 10 fingers while I was in Japan lol.

She also taught me the names of all the fingers in Japanese and they all had yubi on the end (Japanese for finger), while in America all but the thumb do.

Also the Japanese names were all the same as American names except the ring finger is kusuriyubi (I knew that meant medicine finger wtf) and the thumb is parent finger. And the pinky is koyubi, aka baby finger, but that's like little finger.

So interesting!

Also, here are the charms Ayuko and I got:

(You put the big one in your room and you carry the little one around with you)

And here's my Gifu castle ticket and the postcard they gave me because I was a foreigner haha.

And the ropeway ticket! 

(It's so pretty!!)