Finals approacheth...

Wednesday, May 7

Today I had no exams, but I decided I'd go in to school at regular time anyway because I wanted to see if I could get the Korillakuma bowl at the Lawson's on campus. 

So I got up at 6 to have breakfast with Miyabi and then left and got to school at 9. I checked both Lawson's on the way to school and neither had the bowl I wanted. 

My last hope was the Lawson's on campus, but it wasn't there either!! T^T

I found out later from Heather that she'd been too lazy to wake up yesterday to get it. And I hadn't been able to, because I'd been away. 

But Deanna did get it! She was in Tokyo, so she woke up at 6:30 to get to Lawson's before it opened and waited for the bowl. Darn. Everyone must have done that, since there were no bowls left yesterday afternoon!

Dejected, I went to 100 Lawson's to get a second breakfast because I was still hungry after my measly piece of toast, orange slice, and little cup of jello. I bought orange juice, an apple for later, and the pack of two delicious melon pan for 100 yen. That melon pan tastes just as good as the one at the regular Lawson's and is half the price!

Then I went back to campus to the kopan to eat a melon pan and drink my OJ. But I ended up eating both because they're sooooo good!! T_T

Then I headed to J building to use the computers to write my part of the essay my group has to write for Folklore tomorrow. I was writing about Goku's golden cloud thing he rides in Dragon Ball and the fact that only people pure of heart could write it. Then I tied in all this stuff about how purity is important in Shinto beliefs and stuff. I think my part rocked, haha!

(I liked this guy's shirt!)

After I finished, I took a break to eat lunch. I ate my apple as I walked back to 100 Lawson's. On the way, I ran into Kazuki! I asked him how his Golden Week was, and he said he just spent it studying. We talked for a bit and he said we should get lunch together sometime. But now he had to go to R and do some presentation for international students (probably graduate students).

At Lawson's, I found a box of four eclairs on sale for only 88 yen! Heck yes. So I bought it, lol. I wished I had someone to share it with. But most people didn't have exams today...

So I got inarizushi to eat too. While I was eating back at the kopan, Jose saw me and came over to say hi. He had had to listen to some presentation for his Japanese class (the 500 class), and they'd all gotten Nanzan coffee mugs. No fair!

He didn't want any eclairs when I offered some so I ended up eating two, haha. I paid for it later, but they were so good, it was totally worth it!!

Jose told me he was going to the travel agency upstairs to get a taxi to the airport the last day. Wait, there's a travel agency upstairs?? So I went with him to ask if there was some week long train pass I could buy to go around Japan with my mom and sister and also about hotels  near the airport. They were super unhelpful and told me there weren't any hotels they could find and, as I thought, no week long train passes.

So then Jose and I went to the CJS office, where the lady there was super helpful and gave me the cheapest hotel near the airport. Mutsukawa sensei walked by and saw me, so he came over and told me to "ganbatte"! He's so nice!! Then I checked my mailbox and found a plethora of graded papers! I'd gotten a 96 on my kanji final and... I couldn't believe my eyes!!! Fukutomi sensei had given me a 100 on my presentation!! Even though I was nervous and messed up a bunch! I got a 10/10 on every part of it, including like flow and voice and all that. Holy crap, miracles happen people! Jk, she probably just took pity on me.

Aaaanndd, best of all, I got a "Great Job!" on my sadou paper!! Even though I was in the lowest level of Japanese out of the entire sadou class! Yay! :)

Then I headed home. I played with Miyabi a bit until she had to go do her homework. Then around 6:30, Miya came in to tell me she was going to the dentist and they left to go to the dentist, so I was home alone for a bit.

They came back a little after 7 and I was starving! Yuko told me I could go ahead and eat while she and Miya took a bath, because Miya had to wait before she could eat. 

(My din din. It was greasy, but really yummy!)

After Miyabi ate dinner, she started making teru teru bozu. I knew about these in America, but I thought it was just kind of a tale, like kids didn't actually make them. Also, I knew they're supposedly hung up when you don't want it to rain, because they bring good weather. But I was wondering why Miya didn't want rain tomorrow. And then I remembered! She'd told me earlier she was going on a field trip to a park tomorrow. So she didn't want it to rain on her field trip! So cute!!!

Thursday, May 8

So it ended up not raining for Miya's field trip. The forecast for today said rain around 5, so I brought my rain jacket to school, but none fell!

I ate breakfast at 6:30 with Miya and she was all excited for her field trip!

Today I decided I didn't want to deal with the horrible trains of yesterday, so I went in to school an hour later. My group was meeting to put everything together at 1, so until then I sat in the computer room and wrote my blog. Then, at 12, I went and bought inarizushi and sushi, chocolate covered, chocolate filled mochi, and melon pan from 100 Lawson's and headed to meet everyone at R. As I was walking over, I passed Kazuki again! He asked if I had a final and I told him I did. :( And he said to ganbatte!

In R, no one was there yet, so I sat on the bench outside the CJS office to eat my lunch. Rashaa came after me and sat next to me too. Then Shunsuke came in! I hadn't talked to him in forever!

But he was like, "Keito!" and then came over and asked if he could sit next to me. We talked about out golden weeks (he hadn't done anything) and then I told him how I'm thinking about going to Club ID next Thursday and invited him. A few weeks ago (when I was sick) he'd tried to get a bunch of people together to go, but no one responded and so he ended up calling it off. But someone had told me that he goes a lot, so I figured I'd invite him. He said he wanted to, and he'd let me know if he had time.

Then Esteban and Scout showed up, so the four of us went up to the third floor to practice our presentation. We all divided up the parts we wanted to say and Scout left to finish putting together our parts of the paper. And Rashaa left as well. Esteban and I sat and talked until he had to go meet a friend of his and then I went to the CJS office to turn in some papers.

At classtime, we all presented our presentations. It was fun, but also kind of boring at times. But two groups did anime I'd never heard of, so that was interesting. Then we had to vote on the two best presentations and the group that displayed the best teamwork. And finally, we were able to go home!

When I got home, we had dinner. Ken came home before dinner, and Miyabi and I hid from him and shouted "boo" when he came home haha. I asked Miyabi about her field trip and she said it was fun! Then, because she didn't have any homework, we played some more after dinner until she had to take her bath.

The mochi things I got were good, but weird. I probably won't get them again, haha.

So I've been texting a lot recently with Shogo, the guy who wanted to take me to a baseball game and he asked me out to a bar tomorrow! So I'm gonna go! :D

Meeting dem Japanese boys at lunch!

Monday, April 28

Ken had the day off today for some reason. So we all ate breakfast together. We ate at 6:15, so I had a lot of time afterwards. My tea was so hot I burned my tongue on it, so I left it and decided to come back for it. Then I went to my room, got dressed and then lay in bed for forty more minutes, because I decided I'd rather lie in bed than sit at the station waiting for the late train.

Yuko came to tell me I'd left my tea and I told her I was coming back for it, so I went back and drank it. Then Miya left and Yuko told me it was 7:40 already, so I headed out after her. 

In class, we had our kanji test first thing. It was easy. I messed up and got one wrong, though. Then we played my favorite kanji game that we hadn't played in forever! The one where Kondo sensei writes down a kanji radical and we write as many kanji as we can think of with that radical. 

Heather was in the lead. Tina wasn't doing as hot as she normally does, because she kept writing Chinese kanji that don't exist in Japanese. So when I saw that Heater was winning, I stepped up my game and soon Heather and I were tied! We were tied for the last three rounds with 24 points. When it was over, Kondo sensei was like, "ohh, yay! Heather and Cate won!" But everyone wanted a tie breaker, haha.

So sensei picked Natalia to be the radical writer. Then I decided Heather and I should write the kanji on paper instead of the board, so we wouldn't be tempted to look at what kanji the other was writing. So sensei sat us on different sides of the room, haha. 

Then Natalia wrote the radical. It was a weird one, just a line with a hook. Like the middle line of 小. I only knew a few kanji with that. But then Dylan said "we wanted you guys to be able to write as many kanji as possible." 

And that's when I realized that "radical" (I'm pretty sure it wasn't really a radical) they drew is in almost all kanji! Like 月 for example. So I drew a whole bunch of kanji with that. When time was up, Heather had only been able to think of one! I had drawn 7, but sensei only counted 6 of them because she said 刂wasn't a kanji. I was like, um, that's one of the first I learned! It's on the first page of the book, Kanji Look and Learn and it means knife. She didn't believe me, so I got out my kanji app and looked it up and showed her it really existed. She was surprised and said it's probably old and not used anymore. Psh. 

But I still won!! I was declared the champion of kanji!! :)

Then Kondo sensei let us practice the play Dylan had written while she went to the Logos Center to set up for the party. So Dylan told me to come in like I'm searching for a boyfriend and then I say I'm searching for a boyfriend and he told me to add in that I'm lonely haha. Then later I say I want a hot Japanese guy. Then, when we meet the princess (Heather) and she asks what we wish for, I say a boyfriend. But then I say melon pan too, haha. And Natalia says I want too much stuff, and I say "but I love melon pan." So the princess grants both my wishes.

Gosh, Dylan knows me too well, haha.

After one run through, I ran to the cafeteria to get a knife to ice the cupcakes. Kondo sensei had told me how to ask and I forgot, but I remembered when I got there once I realized it was the grammar we had just learned! The cafeteria ladies were all cool and gave me a knife, no questions asked. But just to be say I told them it was for a party and one of the ladies was like "for a party??" And I was like "yeah, to cut the cake." And then they understood, haha.

I felt super suspicious walking back to my building carrying a knife in one hand and nothing else. I felt like people were giving me weird stares, especially when I passed a police lady. But no one questioned me!

When I got back, I ran through the play with everyone again. Heather was practicing the song she was going to sing so Dylan was saying her lines in a super high pitched voice. It was funny!

Then class was over, so I decided we'd better head over. I went ahead so I could stop by my locker and get the cupcakes and heart cake. But I still ended up being the first one there. Mutsukawa and Kondo sensei were there setting up, so I started icing the cupcakes. Mutsukawa sensei talked to me about how I felt now after my fever, what I'd done over the weekend, and how long it had taken to make the cupcakes. He thanked me for my hard work when I said three hours, haha.

Then everyone else came. But Ryan wasn't there. They said he'd run off to his dorm to get his guitar, but they'd showed him where the Logos Center was.

We waited over 15 minutes for him to get back and when he hadn't, we decided to go ahead and start. It was a running joke among the rest of us how Ryan always seems like he's stoned and never knows what he's doing. We figured he was probably sleeping.

First, we played the kanji game with the cards. Kondo sensei said I don't get any hints because I had won the other kanji game, and I was the kanji champion. I mean, do I ever get any hints? 

But I ended up getting rid of my cards the fastest anyway! When we counted up our cards, Natalia had used one more kanji card than I did, but I figured I won anyway.

Next, we all sat in a half circle to watch those of us who were talented, show off their talents. Chris went first to read his poem. It was actually really good! I was surprised! He's so terrible at Japanese in class and gets really bad grades, but he wrote a really nice poem. And he read it really nicely too. I only understood a bit and I noticed he said "utsukushii" a lot (beautiful).

Right before Chris started, Dylan stood up and shouted that he saw Ryan. We saw Ryan outside walking over, carrying his guitar, haha. We went out to meet him and see what had taken him so long. He said he hadn't realized the party was today and his guitar hadn't had strings so he'd had to restring it. Oh, Ryan. Smh.

But holy crap. We were all blown away when he started playing. He was actually really good! And he said he'd made the song up as he was playing because he'd forgotten about the party today. Well, damn.

Then we performed the play! It was fun. I completely forgot to come in searching for boys. I kinda just walked in and stood there, lol. But Mutsukawa sensei laughed at my lines! Kondo sensei filmed it for YouTube. Ugh. 

When it was over, Heather sang her song. She sang the Japanese version of "Let It Go!" from Frozen (or in Japan, Ana to Yuki no Jo). She said she'd memorized it all yesterday!! Sugoi! And her voice was so pretty! 

I wish I had a talent. :( but I'm just average at everything. I always hate when people ask me my hobbies, because I literally have none. When I have free time, I usually just talk to people/hang out with friends, haha.

Anyway, after Heather sang it was finally time to eat!! We were all starving!

Tina made takoyaki. Two were regular, with tako, and one was kimchi. I stayed away from the kimchi one. Kondo sensei had brought chips, drinks, and snacks. I made the cupcakes and Natalia made rice pudding. Everything was so delicious!!

Everyone raved about my cupcakes and all the non-Americans thought the icing was the bomb dot com. In Japan, cakes just have cream on them, so Kondo sensei kept saying this was different from cream. Yeah, I know. It's better. Way better. I told her it's what's always on cakes in America, so she'll have to buy some in New York this summer.

After we finished eating, it was time for lunch, so we cleaned up and then headed out. I wasn't hungry after that, so I didn't want to buy lunch like Heather and Dylan were.

I reminded Natalia we had photography club, so we were going to head to that. But I didn't really want to go, so I suggested skipping and Natalia agreed, haha.

So she and I went to a bench to sit down. A Japanese guy sitting there looked up and smiled when he saw us coming over. I smiled back and said "konnichiwa." Then I saw Emma at the hamburger truck so I went over to tell her I had a cupcake for her. I saw Chris there too and wanted to give him a cupcake as thanks for the bike, so I went back to where Natalia and I were sitting to get one.

When I got back, Natalia was talking with the guy I'd said hi to. She was using crutches, so I be the used that as a way to start talking to her. I heard him say something to her that I understood and she didn't, so I translated for her and them she introduced me. But the guy seemed to only want to speak to Natalia.

So I grabbed Chris' cupcake and went to give it to him. He loved it! He was sitting with Taylor so I talked with her for a bit. Then I told Emma where we were and went back over to Natalia. Now there were more guys around her! What?? Was it her hurt leg that was attracting these guys or what?

When I got there, one of them who was over by my seat started talking to me. His name was Shogo. He was pretty good at English, so we used that. He was really into baseball, and asked if I liked it. I told him I played baseball a lot when I was younger, in two different states, and both times I was the only girl on my team! We talked about American teams and players. He liked the Red Sox and the Mets, so he wasn't too happy when I said I liked the Yankees. Whatever. Then he said he if he saved up enough money, he wanted to take me to a Japanese baseball game!! Whoa!

He also invited me to play baseball with him sometime. But he was a little disappointed when I said I didn't have a glove.

Then Emma came finally and they talked a bit too. Emma ate half the cupcake and didn't really like it, so offered the other half to Shogo. He tried it, but didn't like it either. It was too sweet for him, haha. He had icing all over his lips after he ate it. Also he took a picture of it! So I took a picture too, with him holding it.

(Yummay! Natalia the gimp in the background)

So I have the rest to the guy Natalia was talking to and he liked it! Yay!

Then Shogo added me on Line and later Emma too.

Unfortunately, Emma and I had calligraphy, or I would've stayed and talked all day. Heather and Dylan came from lunch to help Natalia walk to sadou, the class they all had next. So all of us ryuugakusei headed off to class with Shogo and Natalia's guy a little bit behind. Dylan was all like, "Did you get a boyfriend, Cate?"

And I was like, "actually, I got invited to a baseball game!" 

Heather was shocked, haha. But Dylan was just like "you know a baseball game's code for 'testicle play'?"

Smh.

Calligraphy was fun today! Sensei had made prints for us of the word in kanji we'd picked in each of the three different ways to write it!

Here's mine, "sakura blossom":

(I don't like this one. The kanji for "hana" looks like the hiragana, fu ふ)

Then we practiced drawing whichever one we wanted the whole period and then finally drew it on the special board! We got two boards and we turned in the better one. I completely messed up on my first one, haha. The word was totally off center. I didn't like how the second looked either, but I stamped it with the stamp I made and then turned it in.

Then sensei gave us all our calligraphy creations from each week, as well as a rolled up scroll with our extra long one from last week! And we got to take home our stone inkan!

Also, at the beginning of class, while we were filling out the end of year evaluations, I saw an inch worm on my backpack and so I took a picture of it.

Sensei saw me, so I said "mushi" and showed her the worm. She took pity on it and took it out to the fourth four balcony. It was cute!

At the end of class, I took a picture with sensei because I saw Pearl doing it and decided I wanted to too!

(Me holding my mess up of my kanji board. We got to keep that one)

I went downstairs after class to give Kano my last cupcake, since she helped me out so much this semester! She was really excited and told me she was going to bring it home to show her family, haha.

Then it was sadou time! 

(Today's set up. For children's day)

After we did our evaluations, it was time for tea and okashi. We all did the drinking and eating at the same time today.

Because it was the last class, we got special okashi! It was wrapped in leaves!

You unwound the string-like leaf and then peeled off the thick green leaves. Inside was this white sticky stuff. Then you ate the whole thing like a banana. The guys were all cracking up because the thing stood straight up and then wiggled like jello, so they were wiggling it around and laughing. Boys...

(All wrapped up!)

(Unwrapped! Mochi-like stuff inside!)

It tasted really good! Just like mochi. But I asked sensei if it was mochi, but she said it was called something else, but I forgot what she said. She said it's like mochi, though.

And we had matcha and made matcha. It was fun! And really sad at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and I'm going to miss this aspect of Japan. That's the whole reason I came to Japan in the first place. I was and still am, so in love with traditional Japanese culture!

After class, I headed back to the CJS office because Takada had wanted to talk to me. She and Mitch asked me if things were alright with my host family and that I could tell them anything in confidentiality, so I talked with them for a bit and then left for home.

At home, I studied more until dinner. For dinner we had curry rice. I'd been planning on sharing the heart cake with my host family after dinner. But throughout the entire dinner, they didn't talk to me once. Then I was full when we were finished and Miyabi was eating super slowly. So I decided I'd just bring it to school tomorrow and went back to studying for my kanji test tomorrow.

The Vagina Festival!!

The previous page has Part 2 of Shizuoka!

Today's the day!! I WENT TO THE VAGINA FESTIVAL!!!!!

Btw, guys, this is my 69th post.. The irony... I can't even...

I got up at 8 am and then we had breakfast at 8:30. Then I left the house at 9 because I was meeting my friends at Heian-dori (which is on the top of the Meijo Line (the subway line I take to school each day)). On the way, I stopped at the JR office in Nagoya Eki to buy my Shinkansen ticket. Yay!

It was more expensive than Esteban had told me it would be, so that kind of freaked me out. But still, I did get a pretty big discount with the student discount I'd gotten at school!

 Then I rushed off to Heian-dori. Because I had to switch lines since I was leaving from Nagoya, not Kanayama (since that was faster), I ended up getting there almost ten minutes late. 

Both Minju and Emma were already there waiting. I felt so bad! We all put money on our train cards and then headed over to the Kamiida Line. The Kamiida Line is pink!!

It had pink and purple seats!

While we waited for the train to leave (it had come over ten minutes early!), Minju showed us the features of the camera she'd just bought in Japan a couple of weeks ago.

Lawl, a "small face" feature

And of course, Japan has to have a "big eyes" feature

 The train ride was kind of long because we missed the stop and went all the way to the end of the line, to Inuyama Eki. Whoops. Luckily the train just turned back around once it reached the end, so we just rode back three more stops until we got to Gakuden, the stop we were supposed to get off on. 

From Gakudon, we walked to Oogata Shrine.

Drain covers in Inuyama!!

A smaller shrine, not Oogata, that we passed on the way

Rice paddy fields! Like in Japanese movies :)

Then we got to the path leading up to Oogata Shrine, which was lined with food stalls! It was like Heaven!
We'd meant to get to the shrine by 11 to catch the kid's parade, but we only got there at noon. Ah well. We did see a bunch of kids with the makeup on coming back from it, so that was cool!

Cute character cotton candy!

Cute character shrine (Kitty-chan, Anpanman, and Doraemon)

So many yatai! (food stalls)

yatai, yatai, yatai!

Chocolate covered waffle sticks. It was called "Magic Stick" haha.

Takoyaki! With a cute octopus hanging from the lantern.

Strawberry daifuku! Emma bought one on the way out. They looked really good, but were kind of overpriced imo.

Tornado potatoes! It was an entire potato cut in a spiral and stuck on a stick.

I thought this stall looked cool with the writing sticking out!

The balls in water game stall

SQUIDS ON A STICK! They looked too gross for me, though.

Holy crap, these crepes looked good. Especially since the one in the middle had an entire pudding and a pocky stick inside!! But I'm still waiting for Harajuku. Saraishuu!

It says "tornado potato" haha. More spiral potatoes on a stick.

Hawaiian drinks made with sparkling water and colored flavoring. It says "tropical juice".

Taiyaki stand and another chocolate banana stand.

Candy apple stall!

Then we finally reached the shrine!

Entrance

We were all pretty hungry, so we decided to eat first. But first we entered the shrine quickly to use the bathroom.

Hand washy thing with a dragon!

Japanese caution tape!

Such a cool view from the top of the street.

Me with the yatai :D

Me with the shrine!

Then we got some food and sat on a wall above a rice paddy field to eat.
We all got okonomiyaki. Emma got her own and Minju and I split one.

All these Japanese people passing by on that street with the yatai kept stopping to take pictures of us! I guess they thought three foreigners eating okonomiyaki at a festival was a rare sight? Idk. We mostly ignored them, but the ones we looked at would smile and sometimes thank us lol.

Our okonomiyaki. Mmmm. This one was better than the one I had in Osaka because it had noodles cooked into it!

Minju and me with our okonomiyaki

 One brave Japanese guy came up behind us to snap our picture. That gave me the idea to take a pic from behind. So I set up my camera on a timer and took this lovely shot:

 

After we finished eating, Minju and I were still a bit hungry since we'd split an okonomiyaki. So Minju got a tornado potato! She eats them in Korea all the time and really likes them.

Kawaii, ne?

And then I got what I've been wanting to try forever! A PINK CHOCOLATE COVERED BANANA!!

I really wanted the My Melody banana (pink one with the face), but these cute ones were 300 yen. :(

LOOK AT THE MAMESHIBA ONE! AHHHH

The 200 yen ones

Yusss, got one! The stand says "Fruit choco".

 

Mmmmmm

Ahhh so good! And it had a Koala March cookie on it too!

  

Banana ni haiteru!

Then the parade started, so we stood and watched it! This guy and his wife next to us tried to explain the parade to us.

The parade's starting!

 

 

This dude right here was the one talking to us. He knew all the guys in the parade, haha.

 

 

 

Giant mochi statue on one of the trucks!

 

  

Big important dude on a horse!

Dudes dressed like the noblemen in Onmiyoji. I guess it's Heaian period wear?

GIrls dressed as princessses.

 

The wife that had been talking to us before turned to me to tell me how this was the Ohinasama, but all I could think was vagina, vagina, vagina! We finally saw our first vagina! Emma didn't even see it until I showed her, haha. See it? In the girl's mouth? Behind the torii.

 

 

 

The ema at this shrine had naked women on them, lol

Osake barrels!

Me with the osake barrels. Doing the Japanese girl pose with peace signs up by your face.

One of the floats! So pretty.

Me with da float!

And then we found what I'd been looking for! The torii that you crawl through and it's like your crawling through a womb!! Yayyy. I had to do it.
No one was doing it, so I went over to this Japanese guy standing in front of it and made a motion like I was crawling and was like "daijoubu?" and the guy nodded and said it was, haha. So I did it!

 

It was actually a pretty tight squeeze. >.<

Coming outta da womb!

Pretty plum blossom area behind this shrine

AND THEN WE FOUND THE BEST PART!!! Another thing I'd been wanting to visit.
THE SACRED VAGINA ROCK!!!!!

See it? See its resemblance??

Omg, a vagina, guys...!

This guy came over while we were taking pictures and was all like "kore wa onna no hito no..." ("This is a woman's...") and we were all like, "yep! We know!" haha. He told us lots of times guys come here to "touchy-touch" the vagina. Uhhhh... hahaha....

I touched the vagina!

And climbed on the shrine. Pretty sure this was bad, but all the Japanese people who saw me were laughing.

Then we went to the ume (plum) blossom garden. It was so pretty! And full of both pink and white trees.

Preeeetyyyyy

Heaven

This Japanese guy passing by as this picture was being taken looked at me and was all like "kirei" (pretty) and I was like "arigatou", but then I realized he could have been talking about the flowers, haha.

kirei hana

Then there was a second parade, this time with people carrying floats!

The guys were all super tired

Big lobster thing!

Statue of the two mochi and orange commonly used as an offering

Putting the first float in one of the shrines

Putting the second float in another of the shrines. They had a bit of trouble fitting it in, haha.

Then we went over to the area with all the bags of mochi, because there was supposed to be mochi throwing and we were hoping it was now. But it ended up being a drum and dancing concert instead. But we got front row seats!

 

This guy came around with sake and gave Minju, Emma, and me some!

Free sake is always a plus!

Me with my sakeeeee

All the performers

Taking a bow

Here are some movies I took of the dancing. I figured out when I write the blog on my computer, I can upload movies!

In the beginning of the last one, you'll see how one of the guys with the cymbals saw me recording and got really close to the camera, haha!

We found out the mochi throwing wasn't until 4:15, which was in an hour. And we'd been planning to leave at 4 in order to get home by 7 for dinner. :( So we decided to look around a bit more and then leave.

Guys carrying in a golden float

I saw everyone carrying these rainbow things made of tissue paper. I asked one guy where he got it and he told me a place about 30 minutes away. But a girl ended up giving me one of hers because she had a bunch! I really like it. It rustled in the wind really beautifully.

Me with the golden float as they started taking it apart.

Me, Emma, Minju

Where they were going to put the float.

Then we went to go see the pond at the middle of the shrine.

The paper things mean it's a sacred area

You could take these papers, write a wish on them, and then set them in the pond with a 100 yen coin on top to sink it.

So we decided to try them out!

It says "musuhi" backwards

But when you folded it, it was written the right way!

Me putting in my paper with a 1 yen coin because I'm cheap, haha

The 1 yen coin didn't sink, but I cheated and prodded my paper a bit and it finally sunk!

Then we headed out.

People were praying to the float inside the shrine

Lady singing

All the mochi we didn't get to catch :(

Back through all the yatai!

Emma bought her ichigo daifuku

There was a stand with candied persimmons that we could sample. They were good! Minju bought a bunch and let us try them. Hers tasted better because they were fresher than the samples sitting out. Gosh they were good! They were hard on the outside and soft on the inside and tasted like a mix of apricot and plum.

Minju bought a bunch of these sweet breads shaped like kitty-chan and Doraemon and shared them with us

Then Emma and I got taiyaki to eat on the way out. It had gotten cool and the taiyaki were nice and warm! ;)

At the taiyaki stand!

Kitty-chan bread

Doraemon bread

Then we got back on the train and headed home.

It only took about 1 hr and 15 min as opposed to the 3 hours it had taken to get there that morning. So we could have stayed for a bit of the mochi throwing. Ah well.

Minju and Emma took the subway towards school and I went the other way. My way was SUPERRR crowded! It sucked. I was totally squished like I am on the way to school in the morning. The JR wasn't as bad, but I still had to stand.

I got home at 5:30 and no one was home. Everyone didn't get home until about 10 after 7. But Ken started making dinner right away. He made a really good meal of Chinese-style food. It was fried rice and cabbage and meat and soup with this donut shaped thing in it called "fu" that I learned is made of flour. It was all SOOOO good!

At dinner Ken asked which festival I went to. Crap! I said I forgot the name, which is true! I have no idea what it was called. He asked what shrine it was at and I said Oogata, but they still didn't know of it, which was good, haha. I told them about the food stalls, the floats, the drums, and the dancing though! As well as what I ate. And they seemed like they thought it was interesting!

Ugh, I don't want to go to school tomorrowwwwww :(((