Hinamatsuri (and mimi no hi)!

It was a beautiful day today! But it was windy so chouto (a little) chilly :/

(Ichinomiya station this morning)

(Japanese (baseball?) team practicing on the field)

We had our test first. It was super easy. The last question of the listening section was "kyou nani o kiteimasu ka."

I talked to everyone after the test and I was the only one who got it. It had tripped me up too, though, at first. I was like is it "what am I asking today?" Or "what am I coming today?" Because both those are kimasu. But they didn't sound right. Then I realized it was "kiteimasu," which meant it was asking what I was wearing today! 

At the end of the first part of class, before he left, Mutsukawa sensei turned to me and was like:

"Biseru san, konbini ni osara o moraimashita ka"

And I got all excited and was like 

"Hai!! Moraimashita!"

He asked if I got the bunny plate from the convenience store haha and I said I did. I was surprised he remembered when I'd only talked about it once, a while ago, lol.

Then Kondou sensei came to teach the second part of class. 

She was going over parts of the body with us and after she said "mimi" (ear), I was like "kyou wa mimi no hi!" (Today's mimi no hi!) and she cracked up haha. She explained to everyone about how 3/3 = "mimi" lol.

Then she had us play this really fun game where she wrote part of a kanji on the board and we had to write as many kanji as we could remember that had that part in it. We got a point for every correct kanji we wrote. I ended up with 14 points! I tied with Fu, the girl from Taiwan.

Everyone was so shocked that we tied since Fu knows a bunch of kanji already (that's also Taiwan's writing system), but I'm American and thus don't! They told me I was really good at kanji haha. I'm sooo not, though!

After class I went to lunch with Heather and Dylan. On the way, they were telling me how they hadn't been able to see Mt. Fuji on the flight over here because it had been dark for Heather, and Dylan just hadn't known he flew over it lol. I told them about how all the Japanese people on my flight freaked out when we flew over it and showed them the picture I took. Heather was obsessed with the picture and Dylan said it looked like it should be in National Geographic. Haha, maybe I'll contact National Geographic! 

(My Mt. Fuji pic in case you forgot)

I only got my iPhone like three days before I left for Japan, but I've already reached the limit of number of photos (over 3800) haha, so I've had to delete some. :(

Today I had misokatsudon because I was craving Nanzan's misokatsu after the Yabaton fail of a misokatsu. 

Ahhh it was so much better! Then I headed to calligraphy. 

Can you read what today's calligraphy says?

It's hard because we had to connect all the characters :/

(Bet you can't, haha)

Next was sadou! Everything was hinamatsuri themed today! :)

(Painted kai (sea shells))

(Wall scroll)

(My fan today)

(Today's okashi. Kai no okashi. The green marking is supposed to represent the ridges on a sea shell)

I was in the first group, like always, so I did the tea ceremony part first. There were a lot of kids missing from both my afternoon classes today. So the first group in sadou only had seven of us, and all girls!

After we finished the ceremony, we moved to the second half of the tatami room area to listen to sensei lecture. She did a little show and tell to help us understand. Ugh, it's so had because she speaks in only Japanese and I'm the only one from 300 in the class; everyone else is at a higher level. But she always does actions along with her words, and I can pick up words every so often, so I get the gist.

In the bag were four seashells. She took those out and explained that these clam shells are a symbol of hinamatsuri because they all have a perfect other half that they fit together with, just like we hope our daughters will find their perfect other half in life. So cute!

Then she showed us the three-colored mochi. She asked what the meaning of the green on the bottom was, and I was the only one who knew. I said grass. Then she asked the meanings of the pink and white and again, I was the only one who knew. She said the pink is actually just hana in general, not Sakura. Man, I have that little boy Joe to thank for making me look smart today, haha!

The little man and woman statue thing was actually a container that held three little balls of incense. She passed them around for us to smell. The host of the tea ceremony lights a fire and throws them in to make the room smell good.

When the lecture was over, we opened the sliding doors that divided the room in half, so it was one big room again. Then we joined the other group and our senseis gave us a second okashi in celebration of hinamatsuri!

We got one big flower and two little flowers. And then they ended up having extra, so we all got a third little flower. :)

(So yummy! They were basically rice crackers covered in sugar)

After class, I asked the senseis about the ritual I'd seen those ladies performing at the shrine in Osu last Friday.

(This one)

They told me this is something older ladies usually do. They rub the papers over the spots of their bodies that are hurting them (I saw them doing that!) and then put the papers on the statue and pour water over it and pray that their pain will go away. 

The senseis were so nice and patient with my horrible attempts to explain in Japanese what I had seen! It helped that I had this picture, though.

After that, I headed over to the CJS office to ask the lady who always helps me about getting the student discount for the Shinkansen. She gave me a paper to fill out and bring back tomorrow and told me she'd look up whether taking the Shinkansen there and the night bus back like I want to do is really more cost effective than booking a round trip ticket on the Shinkansen. I love her!!

Then I headed home. 

(Ichinomiya station this evening)

(The river on my bike ride home)

When I got home, I walked in as Yuko and the two girls who'd been over before and their mom were leaving. Yuko told me to clean my room and then left with them to go pick up Miyabi from piano lessons.

I'm not sure why she wanted me to clean my room, but I obeyed. Just as I finished, Yuko got home with Miyabi. Yuko got on the phone and I went to my room to watch Princess Mononoke, since that's the movie we have to watch for Folklore this week, and I'd downloaded it over the weekend to watch but hadn't had time yet. Miyabi got bored I guess and came in to talk to me about her friend who had come over. I asked her if she knew Mononoke Hime (the Japanese name of Princess Monoke) and she said she did, so I asked if she's seen it (except I asked wrong, but she corrected my grammar) and she said she had. I asked if she wanted to watch it with me, and she did, so we sat on my floor together and watched it. She kept saying "this is fun!" haha, so I think she liked it!

Then her mom called her to talk to whoever it was on the phone.

But she came back later and we watched some more until dinner.

Dinner was really good tonight! It was fried chicken, which I don't like, but at least it's not as greasy here as in America and rice, miso soup, and salad. The good part was the sides! There was cucumbers with seaweed, a bunch of Japanese vegetables that were so good, and Asian sweet potatoes (they look like Yukon gold potatoes, but are super sweet). I don't like Asian sweet potatoes as much as American potatoes, but they're good.

I realized at dinner that I lost the back of my earring. Miyabi went to my room to help me look for it. We couldn't find it, so I was about to comb the halls for it when Miyabi found it! I gave her a hug and thanked her. :)

Then Miya came back in to watch more of the movie with me. She sat with me under my kotatsu and snuggled up to me while we were watching it. She's sooo cute!!

Then Yuko came to get Miyabi so she could finish her homework. Miya realized she didn't have a notebook she needed, so she and Yuko ran across the street to Seiyu to buy it. I started on my homework for tomorrow which I have a bunch of! :(

P.S. Today's Google!

And after I clicked on it:

Kawaii!!

Misokatsu and more with Mami!

Yuko made a really good breakfast this morning with potatoes, ham, and lettuce. It tasted really good but was super greasy :S I found out Ken actually didn't come home last night. He'd stayed the night at Obaasan's house because he'd been preparing for the harumatsuri parade and then drank osake so he couldn't drive home. So it was just us girls for breakfast.

When I sat down, Yuko asked if my hair was natural. I figured she was asking about the color, but she meant the fact that it was curly. I'd not brushed it after I showered last night and hadn't brushed it yet this morning, so it was in the ringlet curls I hate, but my sister is super jealous of. I told her it was and she was super jealous! She said she always has to perm her hair and it's so expensive. And one time they messed up her perm, so she had to get it redone and ended up damaging her hair!

I told her I've always wanted straight hair haha. Everyone wants what they don't have! So yeah, I ended up not brushing out the curls today.

I decided to go to the 10 am mass, so I could see Atsuko and also Manaca and her dad (who's house I'm going to on the 30th), but none of them were there!

Manaka's friend and her friend's mom were there, however. Manaka's came right over to me and said "ohayou gozaimasu" and that I looked "kawaii" today! Then her mom invited me to sit with them.

These greedy old ladies stole handfuls of the sweets before I got to try any of the cool-looking ones, so I settled for this white roll cracker thing that was actually really good!

The mom (who's Filipino and speaks English) introduced me to her Filipino friend and Indonesian friend who can speak English. The Indonesian one was like "she's beautiful!" (referring to me) and then the first question she asked was "Do you have a boyfriend?" I was really taken aback. Then the two spoke among themselves about setting me up with some guy they know. Uhhh...

Then the mom had me talk to her daughter in English. The girl was really shy, but I asked her about school and The Hobbit, because she said she'd seen it recently.

Then I talked to this guy from Madagascar. I asked him if there were lemurs there lol and he said there are! He's been living and working in Japan for 6 years.

After that, everyone left so I did too. I walked over to the train station. It was still before noon, and I was meeting Mami at 1:30, so I had a lot of time to kill. I decided to get off at Nagoya Eki to use the Bank of Nagoya ATM there and check, just for kicks, to see if my money had come in. AND IT HAD!!!!! Omg!! It was so exciting to see that the balance wasn't 100 yen anymore haha!

Then I got on the JR wifi to text Mami that I was free now and see if she wanted to meet earlier. While I waited for her to text back, I went out to look at the spiral Mode building that I love. :)

Then I found a free wifi outside the station and connected to it and got a text from Mami saying that that was good for her! So I hopped back on the JR to Kanayama and then took the subway to Kamimaezu. There I followed the signs to the west wing and then went to a map to try to find where exactly the west exit was, because that was where we were meeting. But then Mami found me!

So the two of us walked out into Osu. She said she was hungry, so we decided to go eat. She aske me what kind of food I liked, and of course I said misokatsudon, so we decided to go to the place Minju's always raving about, Yabuton. The famous misokatsu place in Nagoya. Mami said the wait is usually really long. But we decided to go check it out anyway. When we got over there, the line wrapped around the front of the building to the side, but still wasn't as long as the line at Mizuno in Osaka had been and there, we waited out in the cold. Mami asked the dude taking orders how long the wait was and he said about 20 minutes. I told Mami I was fine with that, so we decided to wait. And I'm glad we did, because five minutes later he was taking our order and then leading us in to sit at the counter area. We'd both ordered the special famous misokatsu with the Nagoya specialty: red miso.

Everything in Yabaton featured that pig mascot (I put a picture of the pig on the outside of Yabaton on the Planetarium post when we passed by Yabaton on the way to the museum). Also, the restaurant has it's own theme song, that was playing outside as we waited haha.

(Above where we sat at the counter, in front of the guys cooking the food)

(My chopsticks. The wrapper as well as the actual chopsticks featured the pig)

(The curtains to the kitchen)

(The dishes and napkins)

One of the cooks was super nice and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of us with our food. He was all "one... two... three... Yabaton!" Hahaha.

I love how in Japan it's socially acceptable to take pictures of your food! The girl next to us was snapping a pic of her katsu and Mami did as well. ;)

I actually kinda didn't like this misokatsu. It had a ton of fat in it! Ugh. I like the cheap misokatsu in the Nanzan cafeteria waaaayyyy better! And it's only 400 yen while this one was about $17. But I lied to Mami and told her this one was better because that's what you do in Japan. She to me this was her first time coming to Yabaton as well!

When we were finished, we went over to pay, and I told the dude "betsu betsu" (separate), but then she was like "isshu ni" (together) and the dude was all ok, isshu ni! Why did he listen to her, not me?!?

So Mami paid for lunch for me! I was like nooo, it was so expensive! But she wouldn't let me argue! Ah she's so nice! Although it's also apparently a thing in Japan that older people always treat younger people and she's 25. Emma had said Mami bought dinner for her as well when they hung out last weekend. 

After we were all full from lunch, we went to go take purikura!! Whoo! I loooove purikura, and now I have more to add to my collection! 

We went to the second floor of an arcade to take them. It was a dress-up one and girls were dressing up in sailor uniforms and wigs and stuff. We decided to do the Oh My Girl one I'd done with the guys in Sakae that time. As we went over to it a dressed up girl was exiting alone. I wonder if people do that a lot, a hitori de (by yourself) photo shoot? 

Our pictures were so cute!! I insisted on paying for them since I felt so bad Mami had spent so much on me for lunch!

After that, we spent the rest of the time shopping. I'd said I wanted makeup since the eye liner pencil I'd brought had broken and I'd lost the sharpener and my liquid eyeliner had dried up. So Mami showed me a makeup store. It was actually the second floor of the store I'd been in Friday where the girl laughed at the fact that I was reading all the English on that T-shirt. I didn't even realize that was what the upstairs was!

When we walked up, this girl at the front gave us these yummy pineapple hard candies. The prices of the makeup were exhorbitant, though! All the eyeliners were $10-12!! I finally found some eyeliner pencils for 630 yen that were really cute because they were glitter eyeliner! I would never spend over $6 on makeup, but the black glitter was so cute and I've never invested in quality makeup, so I was all set to buy it when I saw the back of it. It was covered in tape, as if it had been opened before. And they were all like that. It was also Korean which made me suspect it was really cheap in Korea and they put an extra charge on it here because it was imported. So I decided not to buy it.

And good thing, too, because after looking quickly in some clothing stores, we headed over to a 100 yen shop and found eyeliner there. Now $1 for eyeliner is a good price. And this time I got one of the twisty kind you don't have to sharpen, yay!

(One of the entrances to the covered shopping streets)

After that, we walked over to Osu Kannon shrine, where I went with Rana that time when it was under construction. Today it wasn't under construction any longer! We walked up to it and Mami gave me 10 yen to throw in and shake the rope. She asked if I'd gotten a fortune before and I told her about getting one with K and Keiichiro and that I got Kichi. She told me she got Yokukichi this year!

(Osu Kannon temple!)

(Us in front ^^)

(Close up)

(Cool building next to the temple)

It was 3:30 then, so I had little over an hour because Yuko had told me to be home before 6.

So we decided to walk to Sakae. On the way Mami showed me a cheap clothing store in a department store behind the department store with Book Off.

It had some pretty good deals! Mami bought socks, but I ended up not getting anything. I had fun looking at all the Engrish though! I taught Mami what Engrish was and she thought it was funny, and pointed some out later, haha.

("Apple of eye")

("I don't know your love. Please.." 

I like that the ellipsis is only two dots haha)

(Definitely my favorite! "Bony!")

("You must go place with all people")

After that, we headed to Oasis 21. The Christmas decorations and ice skating rink were gone and had been replaced with these colorful balls and a stage for an SKE48 (the Sakae version of Akihabara's AKB48) concert that had happened last night. The concert stage was being taken down as we were there, though.

We went into the 300 yen shop where I bought my star tights, but didn't buy anything. 

(It had cute toast pillows!)

Then Mami wanted to get ice cream. I really wanted some, especially because they had special Hinamatsuri sundaes, but I had started to feel kind of bad and knew ice cream would make it worse. So Mami didn't get any because I couldn't eat any (I felt bad!)

(Cute Ohinasama icecream)

(Waaaahhhh, I want!)

Then we walked to the subway area and headed our separate ways. It was so fun hanging out with her! I spoke a lot of Japanese too, because Mami's level of English is about the same as my level of Japanese, maybe a bit higher, so a lot of times I had to explain myself in Japanese. It was good practice for both of us!

I totally would have made it home before 6 if I hadn't gotten so sick. I think I'm cursed so I can't go out and eat with friends without getting sick. Arghh. And it took forever to find good bathrooms without lines in Nagoya Eki. I had to use a squatty potty one of the times. :(

At Icinomiya Eki, I stopped into Daiso to buy chocolate chip melon pan for school tomorrow (help, I'm addicted!), and then walked home. I hadn't ridden my bike this morning in an effort to save 100 yen.

I arrived home at 6:10ish to an empty house. 

The ohinasama display looked kind of creepy all lit up in the dark! But Miyabi and Ken got home shortly after. 

Miyabi came in, shouting "Cate!"

I was like "yeah?"

And she said in perfect English "today I got my hair cut."

I was like "lemme see!" 

Aw, her hair was all cute and layered and her bangs now do the arch thing that's currently so popular in Japan.

Yuko got home a bit later, and we finally had dinner at 7, even though Yuko had told me this morning dinner would be at 6:30. Ah well. I wasn't feeling too hot anyway.

Dinner was delicious! We celebrated hinamatsuri tonight, since Ken's working late tomorrow, so we ate foods traditionally eaten for hinamatsuri. I loved having the rice with edamame and tuna! And the shishkebabs were kishkatsu! So they were basically katsu on a stick! Soooo good!

Afterwards, we had strawberries and that pink mochi stuff we had the other night. The strawberries were so sweet! I'm really excited for ichigogari (strawberry picking)!

Oyasuminasai!

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...