Denny's with Hotaru!!

Read the previous post too!!

Sunday, May 11

Today I got to hang out with Hotaru!!

First I ate breakfast with everyone before church. They were heading out to visit Obaasan for Mother's Day. But they let me stay home since I had a final tomorrow. Yuko told me they probably wouldn't be back until late, so she gave me $6 to spend on dinner. 

So I went to church and then had planned to leave right after that, but I'd forgotten my train pass, so I had to run back home to get it. I threw my laundry in the wash too so it could run while I was out.

I met Hotaru at Kamimaezu at 12:30 because we were going to have lunch in Osu. Ah, I went to Osu twice this weekend! 

We walked around a while looking for this restaurant Hotaru wanted to eat at that had hamburgers, pasta, and sweets she said. I don't like hamburgers, but the pasta and sweets sounded like Sweets Paradise, so I figured it would be good! 

On the way, I stopped in that super pink 300 yen store where I got my kitty tights that time and bought a pair of each the kitty, bunny, and bear for my sister and me (since my kitties are starting to tear), and then I bought extra kitties with pink cheeks for myself. ^^

Then Hotaru told me the restaurant was up on the second floor of this arcade, so we headed up to it.

Well guess what it was folks? A good old American Denny's! I was like "this is an American restaurant!" It turned out Hotaru had had no idea haha! She said we could go somewhere else, but I could tell she'd been really wanting to go here, so I said it was fine! Plus I was really craving pancakes.

So yeahhh, Denny's in Japan really is like a five star restaurant! The best deal was to buy an entire meal that came with main dish, salad, drink and a dessert, so that's what we got! Also, there was free wifi in the Denny's that my phone automatically connected to. :)

I was like, man I hope they have melon soda, but they probably don't. But guess what y'all? They totes did! 

Man I'm gonna miss melon pan and melon soda. 

After we got our drinks, they brought us our salad! It had this mushy orange stuff on too that was actually really good!

Hotaru told me she got me a goodbye present. Aww she's so nice!! Today was originally supposed to be a going away party for me, but them Yukari and Sara couldn't make it because it was Mother's Day. :( Aw well! 

It was wrapped in wrapping from "Kiddy Land", so I was all excited. And guess what it was?? A Rilakkuma pencil pouch!!! Ahhh!! She remembered how much I like Rilakkuma! She's the best!!

(Me with my new Rilakkuma pencil pouch!)

(Hotaru and moi)

We both got the chicken don dish because I looove chicken over rice!

It was awesome! It came with tomato, kabocha (pumpkin), avocado, and sweet potato!

And then the best part!! Dessert!!!!! I got these fucking amazing caramel pancakes!! And Hotaru got a humungo matcha, azuki, mochi parfait!!

(My noms)

(Hotaru's noms)

(Me with my noms)

(Hotaru with her noms)

Gosh it was so, so good!! 

Then after lunch we went into the arcade to take purikura. Turns out it was the same arcade I went to way back in the first week of school with Taylor, Megan, and Emma where I played the UFO catcher!

We ended up doing two different sets of purikura and I paid for the second since I felt bad that Hotaru had given me a gift and I had nothing for her in return!

Man, I'm gonna miss her so much! She says she's going to try to go to school in Kyoto in a year or two to continue her Asian literature studies there.

(I decorated this one and I really like it!)

(I decorated this one too :D )

Aw we're so cute!!

After putikura, we went to Seria, the 100 yen store to look around. But Hotaru was in a shopping mood and I really needed to get back home to study, so I told her I needed to go study and she understood. :( 

At home, I finished my laundry and did another load, and studied a bit. Then I went to Seiyu to buy dinner. And guess what was there on sale???

(Suika!!!)

It was 30% off of 285, which made it hella cheap compared to the one I saw yesterday! So I bought it. I also got the inarizushi and sushi combo I'm obsessed with and a chocolate chip melon pan. And it all totaled to 608 yen, so I only paid 8 yen for dinner! Woohoo!

Then I went home to eat and Skype my mom while I ate.

And you know, take watermelon-eating selfies...

(Omg I can't believe I ate the entire thing!!)

After I finished eating and cleaned up my mess from the watermelon, I headed to my room to study some more. Then everyone got home from Handa. Yuko came to my room and asked me how dinner was. I said it was delicious and she was all like "what did you buy?"

So I told her a sushi bento and suika. And she was like "whooaaa, suika!" Then she asked if she could talk to me for a bit after Miyabi takes her bath. But I said I was about to go to bed now (you know, since I have a final tomorrow and everything...), so she asked if we could talk now. I said sure, wondering what the heck this was about.

So we went into the kitchen where Ken was sitting at the table waiting. Then Yuko told Miyabi to do her homework and closed the doors dividing the kitchen from the living room. She'd done that with the bike talk too, so this must be serious. But then she brought over her iPad so I figured she was just going to help me find hotels some more.

But then she was all like "do you like living here?"

Well that was out of nowhere.

I was like "yeah..." (Haha yeah right)

And she was like "really? You've never lied to us before? Not even about the bike?" 

What? What would I have lied about with the bike?

At this point, I was thinking Mitch had broken his promise and told her everything I'd told him at school. But then she was like "I read your blog."

Hahahahaha ohhhhh fuckkkkkk.

I was like "my blog?" (Huh? What blog?)

And she was like "yeah" and shoved her iPad towards me which had my Obara post up on it.

She was like "a dear friend told me about your blog." 

Fuuuuck, so Rana's host mom had finally squealed. I thought it would be safe with her knowing about it because she can't really read English and has known about it since January and so far hasn't said anything. But apparently not...

So yeah. I got seriously scolded. She said a whole bunch of mean shit to me, including, I kid you not:

"I'm sorry, but out of all our host students, you rank the worst."

And 

"We only liked you because you were nice to Miyabi and played with her."

At one point I was nice and said "I'm sorry" and she was all like

"Oh, you will be sorry." 

She told me I've caused them so many problems like the fact that I was almost raped and then that I got hit by a car. Okay, no. Neither of those were my fault! Yes, it was my fault that I forgot my key, but that's another thing I wish we'd gone over. What to do if I ever forgot my key. One of my friends told me that in their host family's house, there's always a door secretly left open in case that happens.

She also said that the reason she hadn't helped me with the train pass and the bike and other stuff (I'd told her that was the main issue, that I wished they'd helped me more, since living in a new country whose language you're not fluent in is scary enough even when things go well) was because she wanted me to learn from my hardships by doing everything on my own, because was the way she was raised. What a load of bs! Like, if that was really her reasoning, then at least she should have helped me the first month while I got settled in and then if I seemed capable enough, leave me be for the next four months.

But even that is pretty rude. Because part of living with a host family is having someone there to turn to when you need help.

I sat there shaking with anger, but hey, I didn't cry!! My friends all said later, they would have started crying. But I didn't want her to think she'd gotten to me.

And then she told me that my mom and sister can't stay there anymore and that they're not going to my closing ceremony anymore. Big whoop.

Oh and she was all like "do your parents know about this blog?"

And I was like "yeah, they read it every day"

And she couldn't believe it. She was speechless after that.

Ken just sat there nodding along with everything she said. So when they were done talking, I was like "so should I go to school tomorrow and ask to be moved to a dorm?"

And they said yes. And Yuko said she'd call the school as well.

So guess what guyzz, I got kicked out of my host parents house even though I only have one effing week left!

I left without saying anything else and went to my room after to call my parents. My dad answered and cracked up when I told him she read it, haha. Then I texted Emma and she told me her host mom said that she's heard a bunch of bad things from students about my host family. Like that Yuko only wants students so she can practice English, that they live so effing far from the school, and then one time this girl moved to another host family halfway through the year, but still invited my host family to her end of year party. But when my host family came, they were super awkward and didn't say anything to her the entire time...

So I told Yuko I'd take down my blog, but I just changed the URL for a bit because I didn't want all you lovely readers to not be able to read my blog anymore! So yeah, I changed it to heckofanadventure.blogspot.com.

Also, I looked at the views for each post and it looked like she'd only read the Obara post. Wth? I wrote like nothing bad about them on that post. Just that I preferred Kuya's parents. Nothing to kick me out of the house for!

Gosh, imagine if she'd read the other posts, particularly around the time I got hit by a car, hahaha. I'm pretty sure I called her a bitch on one of those...

Yeah... Then I went to sleep, dreading the super awkwardness of breakfast tomorrow morning.

Sadou, and Kiyosu jo with Ayuko!!

~*~ Right now the wifi at home is broken, and it only works on my phone... Therefore, pictures for this post will be uploaded when I go to school tomorrow, so please be patient!! Sorry! ~*~


Saturday, April 26

It was kind of freaking me out that Yuko still hadn't said anything about the bike or scolded me... So I ended up bringing it up at breakfast.

And btw guess what we had for breakfast?? Not cereal!! We had salad and toast! Whoaaaa. 

Hisashiburi, toast!

 

Yuko asked me what time I was leaving for the sadou party and then made other small talk. Why wasn't she bringing up the bike? So I told her about how I'd brought the bike home yesterday and what a great bike it was and how well it worked and stuff.

And she said she knew, Kanno had told her. And then she said "nande oshiete" or something like that, so I thought she was saying "what did she tell you?" Because "nani" or "nan" is "what", so I hesitated, thinking of how to say what Kanno had told me, but then Yuko said, kind of angrily, in English:

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Oh, that's what it meant...

 

So I told her about how I'd thought they'd wanted me to take care of it on my own, so that's what I'd done and hadn't wanted to involve them (since they'd made it clear they weren't helping me). And she just kept telling me I should have told them, that's what they'd wanted, and on and on. And then she was like "that was my favorite bike", which I knew was a load of bs because her first suggestion after I got run over was for me to dump that bike and buy them a new bike. 

So Chris was right. I was going to get scolded. It's weird she held all her anger in until I brought it up, though. I wonder if I never had...

So I apologized and she stopped scolding me after that. Miyabi had just been sitting there awkwardly the whole time, I felt bad. Even though she couldn't understand the English parts, she could still tell what was going on.

 

Yuko came into my room as I was getting ready and said now I had to go pay to have the other bike, "her favorite", thrown away. I was like, "don't you want to keep it? I mean, it works fine"

And she said she did, but she thought it was dangerous to ride.

I told her I've been riding it every day! I mean, I even speed biked on it one day when I was late and it worked perfectly.

So she said she'd talk to her husband and then she said I was going to have to "make up Japanese words" to tell him what I'd done with the bike, because "that would make him happy".

Okaaayyy. 

So great, something else to look forward to when I get home today. I said I'd probably be home around 5 and then I headed out.

 

It was cool going to Nanzan on a Saturday. It made it feel more like a college campus. Usually, it feels like a high school because everyone has the same class times and same breaks, but now there were older people, probably alumni, strolling around and a young couple with a kid playing in the green area. It was nice.

The sadou party was in the tatami room, where I have my sadou class. I was worried because I'd gotten there about 20 minutes late, but I walked in and there were these girls dressed in suits at a table at the entrance. They were really nice and spoke in broken English when I didn't understand what they said. It turned out that because I didn't have a ticket, I had to buy one. Then they showed me in to half of the the tatami room. The doors to the second half were closed and the entryway, which is normally all open, had a traditional Japanese screen divider thing closing off half of it.

So I sat in there in seiza position, waiting. There were two older ladies in there too, admiring a wall scroll. Then they opened the second half of the room and I saw a whole bunch of people (some men too!) sitting around in tea ceremony position. Then they got up and filed out. That's when I realized it was set up so we could arrive at any time we wanted from 10 to 3 and then you went in to do the tea ceremony in groups. They let the two ladies and me go in next. I was the only foreigner there, so I was happy my group was small in case I messed up! Also, everyone in the last group had been dressed up, as were the ladies in my group, so I was happy I wore a skirt and nice shirt today!

There was a girl in a suit already sitting in the first position, I guess to show us what to do. Then two other girls came in, wearing kimonos. They must all be part of the sadou club. One girl in a kimono was the first host, who talked to us and brought in the sweets, and the other girl in the kimono was the second host, who made the tea.

 

The girl in the kimono talked to us a lot, very little of which I understood, and the we had to bow. Then she brought in the okashi. They were beautiful!! They looked just like iris flowers. Obviously I couldn't take a picture because this was a legitimate tea ceremony, but I found this image online that looks exactly the same, although they didn't have the green leafy parts.

The first girl said the stuff we'd learned in class. I was happy she was in front of me just to give me a refresher as to what that was. So then I said it perfectly. And yeah, the old ladies had no idea what they were doing, haha. I'd been sure they knew tea ceremony like the backs of their hands, but they really didn't! They just kind of mumbled something close to what the girl had said and then ate their sweets lol.

The iris okashi had anko inside! Mmmmm! It was really good, but I was still getting over my sickness I guess because I wasn't too hungry, so it was a little hard to finish.

 

Then we got tea! My feet were burning at this point! I'd assumed sitting in seiza for a long time would hurt my knees most, but my feet were prickling so much, they felt like they were on fire! All my body weight on top of them for the past 20 minutes had not been okay. So I sort of sneakily pushed them to the side while I drank my tea, but I'm pretty sure everyone noticed. Ah well, playing the gaijin card.

But hey, I knew how to say all the stuff! The girl in front is only supposed to say two things, to the person to the left and to the host, because she doesn't have anyone on her right. But everyone else, if they aren't the last person, is supposed to say three things, to the left, the right, and the host.

So I said "mo ippuku ikaga desu ka," to the first girl, because she was to my right, but she didn't respond!! Whaaat? Do they not teach that in tea ceremony club? So then I just continued, saying the stuff to the lady to my left and to the host and then drank my tea. 

The lady next to me sort of said it. And the last lady, who was older, just didn't say anything haha.

 

After we'd all finished tea and they cleared our cups, we watched while the girl in the kimono finished cleaning up. She was moving so slowly I wanted to scream! My legs hurrrtttt. T-T 

But she finally finished and after they thanked us and she told us to be careful as we left, we all bowed and we were free to leave. They opened up the sliding doors between rooms and I saw the waiting room area was full. Wow! I really got there at the right time. I could only imagine how much pain my legs would be in if I had a full room and had to wait for all those people to finish receiving their tea and then drinking it!

Kondo sensei was part of the next group! She saw me and was like, "oh! Keito!" And asked me if it was "oishikatta" (delicious) lol. I told her it was.

 

Then the girl in the kimono who had been our main host, the one who talked to us, walked us out. We thanked her and then the old ladies said I was really "jouzu." Awww!! I thanked them and then explained to them and the girl that I was taking a tea ceremony class right now, actually in this very room. They thought that was awesome.

So yeah, it wasn't a party like I thought, but it was still cool! It was fun getting the opportunity to do an actual tea ceremony after I've been practicing for one for so long!

 

Because it was barely 11, and now I had a ton of free time, I headed to J building to write my blog until 1:20 when I left to meet Ayuko at Oasis 21.

 

Ayuko was waiting for me at Starbucks. We caught up while she finished up her lunch. She had done sadou this morning as well! She's taking sadou lessons and learning to make okashi! I'm super jealous! But she told me she has to sit in seiza for 2-3 hours!!! Ahhh, I could never do that, haha.

 

I got on the Oasis 21 wifi to look up a place in Sakae to do purikura, because that was something we wanted to do together before I head back to America! We ended up finding the same place where I went with Rafa, Esteban, and Dylan way back in February, where if you're in your school uniform and it's after dark, you're not allowed in. And I ended up choosing the same machine, haha!

 

It was so much fun, as always!! Purikura is one of the things I will miss the most! Ayuko said you get way longer to decorate now than when she was in middle school and high school. There were even improvements since I'd come last in February! There was a new machine now (the one Minju, Emma, and I had used at Sushiro actually), and on this machine, there was a new "sepia" setting. Gosh, purikura is constantly getting better and better.

 

Although, there's still some bugs. Like if you wear green.

I learned that today...

Never wear green when you do purikura!!!

 

Because it's a green screen. Duh!! I should have realized haha. Yeah...

 

Damn, my green skirt looks so cute now, huh?

 

 

My favorite!! I decorated it :D

 

 

 

Yay, I love purikura!! 

 

Next, we went back to the station to take the subway to Nagoya and the JR to Kiyosu, since it was getting late and Kiyosu jo closed at 4:30.

 

At Kiyosu, I showed Ayuko the way I'd walked to get to Kiyosu jo last time. On the way, we talked a lot about Tech and our mutual friends, which was nice because I've been starting to really miss home and my friends lately! So it's nice hanging out with Ayuko who reminds me of home. ^^

 

Pretty daisies we saw on the way

This was Ayuko's first time in Kiyosu!! Whoa! We went up the overpass to cross the busy street before the castle, and marveled great view you can get of the castle up there. 

 

 

It wasn't as pretty as when it was surrounded by all the pink sakura, but it's still gorgeous!

 

We entered in and Ayuko bought me a ticket. She's so sweet!! We took off out shoes and put on these slippers that kept falling off my feet! First we looked at an exhibit that told about the history of the castle. We learned it was rebuilt in 1989, which is why it looked so new inside! Ayuko translated all the important stuff for me. I'm so jealous of the fact that she's bilingual!

Then we went upstairs where there were more exhibits, like replicas of the samurai armor! There was a floor above that playing a movie. That floor had a bunch of fun quiz questions you could answer with fun facts about Kiyosu and what Obu Nobunaga introduced to Japan. I learned he introduced buttons and konpeito (the cute little candies I like!) Ayuko told me about this historical comedy movie she likes, part of which is filmed at Kiyosu jo! There was a little section about that movie, too.

 

And then the best part for last, the balcony!! There were huge golden dragon fish things that Nagoya is known for up there and you could touch them! There was a also a drum you could hit and it showed you how to stand and hit it like they did back then. And then we walked around the balcony.

 

 

The view was amazing!! I could see Nagoya station in the distance. We also saw the Asahi factory, which looks like a bunch of beer cans. I told Ayuko about how on the way yesterday with Father, we had driven past the Kirin beer factory and it reeked of beer! Ayuko told me that the people of Kiyosu jo really pushed to have the castle rebuilt because they wanted to keep up the traditional parts of their city.

 

See the Asahi factory? That smudge is something on my camera...

Ayuko playing the drum

Me playing the drum

Entrance and the rock garden (those pebbles were hard to walk in!)

Cool carp streamers over the river

 

When we got back to the main floor, they had already closed up the castle, so we grabbed our shoes and headed out another exit.

Ayuko and I took a picture on the bridge and then I wanted to go look at the carp streamers. A yuki told me they're called "koinobori." They were so pretty!! We took a bunch of pictures of them!

 

All over the ground were brown crunchy things that Ayuko told me were dead sakura petals. I've been seeing those all over, it all makes sense now! Wow, they look so ugly when they're dead! 

 

This is such a gorgeous picture!

Sakura flower with dead sakura petals

Koinobori over Kiyosu jo!

Oote Bridge

Ayuko and me in the face holes! I'm the woman, haha

Then we headed back to the station. We passed by so many factories and kept commenting on how ugly they look in such a nice city! Although one smelled really good, like Spearmint. Maybe a gum factory? We also passed a shrine near the castle that was a shrine for help with studies. Just like the one we saw in Inuyama!

 

At the station, we took a JR home. I got off at Ichinomiya while Ayuko continued on to Gifu. I invited her to my closing ceremony, so hopefully we will see each other again there!

 

No one was home when I got home. So I went to my room to do my Hanga. I'd gotten it out of my locker after the sadou thing today, so I could finish it up this weekend. Miya and Yuko came home then, so Miya came to my room to play.

She thought my Hanga was awesome!! I taught her how you do Hanga and how it's used to make pictures. I showed her my Rilakkuma print as well as my ink covered Rilakkuma block. Then she sat there and held all the wood shavings I made as I finished carving my block. Even when I messed up, she kept saying "sugoi!" It was cute!!

 

Then we played this game on top of my Hanga knife box called "osumou" where we each had a little folded piece of origami that we stood up on the box. Then we both hit the box over and over and whoever's paper fell first, lost. It was fun!

 

While we were doing this, Ken got home and it was time for dinner, so we went into the kitchen.

And guess what was at our places when we arrived??

MISOKATSU!!!!! I was so excited! I really wish Yuko had said she was making it and then I could have watched her. 

But it looked just like it does at school, so I was really excited and touched they had made it since I'd mentioned a while back that it was my favorite food. And they had miso sauce too!! So I dug in.

 

The miso sauce was great! It tasted just like the one at school. The katsu, not so much... Actually, it was really bad. Like the misokatsu at Yabaton, it was filled with huge chunks of fat I couldn't eat. I had to surreptitiously spit them out into my napkin when I was wiping my face. I noticed Miya doing the same thing.

Yuko and Ken just ate the fat I guess?

But yeah, it made me want to gag because there was less meat than fat, so it wasn't edible.

 

After that disaster, I went back to my room. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but I had to wait for everyone to shower. So I worked on homework.

Then Yuko came in and asked me to come talk with Ken now. Miya was on the couch in the living room watching tv and Ken was sitting at the kitchen table. So I went in to sit at the table with him.

Then Yuko said she'd come and be the translator, so she closed the door between the living room and kitchen and sat with Ken on his side. So it was the two of them facing the one of me. Talk about intimidating.

So I told Ken in Japanese how I'd gotten the bike from Chris, gotten a friend to help me being it here, and now it was outside for them to go look at. And I told him it was a really nice bike. And I said I'd brought the old bike inside, so it was right outside the door, like Yuko had asked. 

He was still sitting there staring at me, so I turned to Yuko and asked it I was supposed to say anything else and she told me to apologize. 

So I did.

Then Ken launched into this explanation about how I should have told them, blah blah blah, everything Yuko already said, but at least he was nice and acknowledged the fact that I wasn't hurt and now they had a new bike so everything was good.

Neither of them thanked me for going and getting them a new $140 bike.

 

So I was about to get up and leave when Yuko said "that bike was given to me by my father" (oh gosh, I knew it was old! That means I've been riding around a probs around 20 year old bike!) and they were like "but we've decided it's too dangerous to ride, so we don't want to keep it. Now you have to go to the konbini and buy an 800 yen sticker to throw it out as well as pay to have the new bike registered"

Just, just, just, I can't...

I'm so happy it's only three more weeks with these people and then I never have to see them again!!!

 

So yeah, I'm going to stop complaining about them now because I don't want to fill my blog with crap about how much I hate them and they're ruining my experience. No, this supposed to be a fun, positive blog and I'd like to keep it that way! ^^ ne?

 

Sushiro, purikura, and karaoke!

Since class only started at 1:30 today, I got to sleep in!!

When I woke up, Yuko had just left to go do her duty as the flag holder (today was her day to do it), telling the kids when to cross the street.

So I went into the kitchen where she had left me salad and two bread rolls for breakfast. I put jam and honey together on the bread, which actually turned out to be good! (I can't do weird stuff like this when I eat with everyone else because I freak them out, haha).

Then I did my laundry. After I'd hung it to dry, I still had an hour before I met my friends so I finished getting ready and went out to look at the bike.

Now that I was looking at it closely, I noticed one of the spokes was broken. That's why the wheel was tilting to the side. Man, I was going to have to get that fixed now!

When I went back inside, Yuko had come home. So I told her what I'd found, and she came out to look at the bike too. Then she said she could take it to the bike shop with me Friday, but we'd have to walk there since Ken would have the car. But she said she'd call first and ask about it, because it might be cheaper to get a new bike. Ahhh... I doubted it!

So then I headed out because I needed to leave now if I was going to have to walk to the station.

Well, I ended up getting to Nishi Takakura half an hour early! So I sat down on the platform and read my manga for twenty minutes. Then I decided to head up and see if Emma or Minju was there yet.

And Emma was! Yay!

Minju got there a few minutes after 11:30, and then we headed out. It was a pretty walk to Sushiro. There was a large sakura tree in front of a shrine and all its petals were falling beautifully. We also saw little elementary school kids in their yellow hats!

Minju had been right about getting to Sushiro early. There was no one waiting when we got in, but after we were seated, a line grew! 

We chowed down right away. I was so excited by all the cheap sushi, I forgot to take a picture of the first thing I grabbed off the kaiten! (It was a tenpura shrimp-like thing and so so yummy!).

They also had matcha powder and a hot water thing, so you could make matcha! Awesome!!

And when you ordered fresh sushi, it didn't come in a Shinkansen like at Kappa Zushi. Ah well!

Round 1. Love the ikura (salmon roe)!

Round 2. Emma and I both got the inarizushi because we were enticed by the fact that it was called "Brown sugar inari." Yeah, it tasted just like regular inarizushi...

And then I saw this weird blue fish on the kaiten. And I was like, oh man, I have no idea what this is, but I gotta try it! Because it was such a weird color, ya know??

My reaction when I bit into it: "what the fuck did I just eat??"

I still have no idea what the blue stuff was and I don't think I want to. Emma and Minju thought maybe it was umeboshi. But when I ate it, it had a weird hard, plasticy-rubbery texture, not as squishy as umeboshi. And it was sour, but it was also a little spicy. It was freaking weird. I swear that stuff is going to haunt my nightmares.

But I ate all of it!

After that, Emma and Minju were getting dessert, so I decided to get something too to wash down that disaster.

I got another set of rolls, tuna rolls. And then a matcha parfait!!!

I loooooooveeeee matcha and anko and am going to miss them like crazy when I get back to America. So might as well eat a bunch of it while I can (that's how I justify buying matcha chocolate all the time). And this parfait was perfect because it combined both of them!

I just wish it hadn't had as many of those weird fat rice krispie things as it did. The pink (raspberry?) parfait had cake at the bottom, and I wished this one did too. Ah well! It was still amazing!!

Oh yeah, come to mama!

It arrived!! Matcha ice cream, anko, and matcha jelly things! And then whipped cream, rice krispies, and vanilla pudding underneath!

In Heaven...

Emma got the matcha jelly things too!

In case you were wondering, here's the damage I did:

Awww yeah!!

After we finished, we went to take purikura!! 

We figured we'd have enough time, but we spent way too long doing it and ended up being late to school! Minju called ahead to the CJS office to let them know and we rushed onto the subway to get back.

We only ended up being 15 minutes late, so that was good!

When I got into the classroom, each of my classmates was surrounded by four Japanese people and talking to them. The CJS Festa was apparently something for Japanese people to get to talk to foreigners.

I actually went into the wrong classroom at first and saw Yukari in that room!

But in my room, the girl Haruka, I had also met at coffee hour last week was there! I felt terrible because she'd given me her email and asked me to email her and I'd completely forgotten.

After I got there and Dylan arrived (he was even later than I was), Mutsukawa sensei split the Japanese people up so we each got two. It was so fun talking to them! They moved around in pairs, so I got to talk to a lot of them. Most were ichinensei, but one girl was a yonensei (senior). Most were studying English, as well. I talked a lot about movies and books and food and things, haha. 

Haruka told me she had looked up Chris Pine and agreed he was totally smexy! Yes, I'm converting all the Japanese to Chris Pine lovers! Hahaha.

Some of the people I had a little trouble communicating with, but most I was able to keep at a conversational speed, so that was really great!

When class was over, some of the girls exchanged Facebooks with me. 

Then one girl, who I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to, but I recognized from coffee hour, gave me a paper crane! She had made one for all of us, even those of us she didn't talk to. It was so, so nice! And she wrote her name, Serena, on it too, so we would remember her!! Awww!

Mutsukawa sensei came over and was all like (well, this is my translation of what he said, haha) "Biseru san, are you okay? I heard you got hit by a car yesterday!" Lololol. I told him I was okay, but my bike was not.

Then I left with the girl who was a yonensei. She told me we'd talked at coffee hour. I felt bad because I'd completely forgotten! I invited her to come to karaoke with me, Yukari, Sara, and Hotaru, but she told me she was busy. Ah well.

While I waited for everyone downstairs, I looked at the kanji the Japanese students had written to summarize the past school year. They were so cute!! They wrote things that had happened last year on the right in English and it was adorable, omg.

The guy with the "study" kanji wrote about getting a girlfriend and celebrating her birthday!!

The girl on the bottom in the middle wrote about losing 8kg! (How?!?)

Then Yukari and Hotaru showed up. A few minutes later, Sara came over with her friend Yuka. But Sara and Yuka left quickly to go turn in money for something or other.
While I waited, I decided I'd start interviewing Japanese people for my project work project. I saw these two cute Japanese guys (well one was really cute, the other was maa maa). But I was too shy to go over, so I made Yukari come with me.
And I asked them my questions (in Japanese)! I'll put what they said. Well, Yutaro, the cute one, was the main one answering. Takashi just kind of repeated Yutaro's answers, haha.
1. When you hear "America," what's the first thing that comes to mind?
"Big"!
Takashi asked me if I wanted long or short answers here, but I didn't know what he said, so I just kind of laughed and said "hai," but Yukari told me later what he was saying. Aghh, I felt so bad!
2. What do you like about America?
"Nature"
3. Who's the current president of America?
"Obama"
4. Do you know of any American singers, songs, or movies?
Yutaro - "Monsters Inc."
Takashi - "Back to the Future"
5. How many states are in America?
Yutaro was like, "50... no, 40!" lol.

It was adorable. Then Yutaro started talking really good English to me! He told me how he's been to California and stuff. He was wearing a Hollywood shirt too. And he told me the two of them are graduate students at Nagoya University, but they were over here for some seminar. They told me they wanted to practice English with me, so Yukari was all like "Do you want to exchange numbers with her?" haha. So they gave me their emails and I emailed them later tonight along with Haruka, finally!

After that, Sara and Yuka came back, so we all headed to karaoke. At the entrance to the subway station, we ran into another friend of Sara and Yukari's. Her name was also Yukari and she was also half Brazilian, half Japanese! We talked to her for a while and then headed off to karaoke.
I was planning on taking everyone to Joy Joy in Aratama Bashi, where I'd gone with Taylor that time. So when we got to Aratama Bashi, we said goodbye to Yuka and then headed out. But then everyone decided they wanted to go to the place across the street instead. So we went there.

I hadn't said I wouldn't be eating dinner tonight, so I knew I had to be back home by 7. Therefore I had to leave at 5:30 and since everyone had taken so long leaving school, that only left us with one hour of karaoke.
But I was able to drink a glass of melon soda, a glass of hot chocolate and sing "The Beginning" and "Forever & Always" by T-Swift. But I queued up "Nagareboshi" and "Miss You," but didn't get a chance to sing them. :(
Ah well, it was probably for the best because everyone else was SO good at singing and I suck so hard at singing haha. There was such an awkward difference when I sang from when they sang...

The parfaits you could order. Salivating... I totally would have gotten the pink one had I not already had the matcha parfait earlier. I didn't want my stomach to explode!

But Hotaru got this waffle! She only ate it after I left, though.

Me, Hotaru, Yukari

After the hour was up, Yukari and I left. I really didn't want to leave, but I had to go home. :( Yukari came too because she wanted to see her mom. Her mom works at night, so she usually doesn't see her when she gets home. We talked a lot on the way home. I learned that Yukari is actually really good at English! I always thought she was bad because she would act like she didn't understand Sara and me whenever we talked in English and would never speak to me in English, but we had a whole conversation in English!

She rode with me to Kanayama, where we both took JR trains going opposite directions.
When I got home, a few minutes after 7, the house was empty.
No one got home until 7:40!! I was pissed. I easily could have stayed the extra half hour that Hotaru and Sara decided to stay! Man, oh man.
And then to make things worse, when Yuko and Miya got home, they told me they'd already eaten. So Yuko whipped up some curry rice for me and I ate alone. I should have just stayed at karaoke!