Hotel Ichinobo Matsushima

... serious business greeting of the superintendent, the recieving of our proof-of-employment by the Tome BOE, and then a sit down coffee "chat" at his meeting table.

I'll be honest, I was scarred shitless. Perhaps knowing Japanese just made things worse, because then I was expected to at least say a few things, but as nervous as I was, I was pretty shakey. I mean, this is the big-boss-man, and the official formality of it all (in the traditional Japanese ...

... of Amelie and Lola after taking cosplay photos. I totally forgot to fill out the enquette and didn't realize it until the people shooed us out of the hall. Oh well, I'll just email the guys. ^_~

Glossary
gaijin - foreigners
furi - short for "furitsuke", choreographed movements done by audience members at a visual kei concert
gyutan - grilled cow tongue (Last time Nao said he ate 7 servings so we were surprised to hear that he didn't eat any.)

... On my way back, I came across a singer/keyboardist named You-ki Kitamura performing on Ichibancho. She was really good, and I figured that my mother would like her music so I bought her CD. The people around me were all businessmen. ^^;; When I told her my name, one of the businessmen said, "Oh a foreigner." She seemed a bit surprised.

Glossary
takyubin - delivery service
omiyage - gifts

... to cry. T_T

My supervisor came by later to give me a parting omiyage and to check things. I think she’s a bit worried that I won’t get the packing and cleaning done in time. Speaking of which, time to go back to work.

Glossary
kouchou-sensei - principal
gyutan - grilled cow tonuge
hayashi rice - a rice dish with beef, onions, and mushrooms covered in demi-glace sauce (I got this from Wikipedia)
omiyage - gift

Today was another long exhaustingly fun day. Mika and I went to Sendai Comiket, which was a little out of the way. We couldn't take the rapid train so we had to wait about half an hour at the station. We probably should’ve grabbed a quicker lunch. Anyway, since I packed up my Zero cosplay, I dressed up as Tora from Alice Nine’s "Shunkashuutou" PV and Mika as the green-haired android from To Heart (I forgot her name ...

... Kavita’s curry night. Spicy foods aren’t my thing, but I still ate a lot. I came back home really late, which was bad considering I had another early morning. There were more tears because I read people’s goodbye notes. I don’t have time to make any, which makes me feel bad. I’ll send something from home.

Glossary
Natsu Matsuri - Summer Festival

... however, was food. For our last real meal in Japan we chose a somewhat classy restaurant right by the ocean. I had fried river eel. And it was wonderful. Beyond wonderful. Unfortunately it was also expensive and I am coasting into the finish line on fumes, moneywise.
We left the restaurant and went to the last temple of our trip ...

... we didn't go to Vagabond. Instead we made our way to the tall 'Gotham City' style skyscrapers on the west side to see them at night. We also made the scarily quick trip up to the 75th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building for their observation deck. The view was absolutely stunning looking out over the whole of Tokyo. It really is a beautiful city lit up at night. The gift shop also gave us a chance to do ...

... that came to Southlake followed the band. After them were several performances by school kids. One elementary school band played "Phantom of the Opera" and another group (which also had a drill team) did "YMCA." The drum major girl was kawaii. Tsuku-chan was part of a traditional fishing dance. There was also a choir and taiko drummers (those were older kids). I always love taiko performances. It was already 3 PM when we got around to eating lunch at a ...

... and half and shows us the entrance to the store is in the basement of this building we walked past 3 or 4 times. The Japanese are so friendly and helpful! We are amazed. We spend some time here before we need to catch a train to Matsushima. This will be a local train so we have a couple times to choose from. After looking through the store we check the schedule and see one leaves in 10 minutes. Can we make it back to the station which is 5 blocks away and then ...