99 Yen Shop, Kendo, Daiso, Karaoke

  Okazaki, Chubu, Japan
Monday, October 20, 2008

Let's see how was Thursday, I went to school early to finish reading
the excerpt from the "Chrysantheum and the Sword" it was
interesting...but difficult to follow at some points. Aoyama's class
was first, I was so bored...review is good and all but I only learned
one new thing within the entire class. For lunch I had tempura udon and
then we had Nishio's class which ended up just being a lot of small
talk for the first half, Nishio told me that if I name the Japanese
dish I want to make, he'll teach me how. So I guess that's going to be
my alternative to cooking class. After class I went home, dropped my
stuff off and rode my bike exploring. Hit a couple more convenience
stores to see if they had any pre-paid phones but no, none at all...it
seems I may have to settle for the ugly black one, bleh.... anyways I
found more souvenirs to buy for my friends back home so I bought those,
I hit the drug store and found the rose flavored gum that I think Katie
talked about...maybe? Hopefully? lol. In any case I came home again and
hen it was only 4:30 so I went back out again and went to the 99 yen
shop again. OMG they had that super tasty egg pudding and yes it's
cheaper than buying it at school, so I bought a few...I also had a
chocolate craving and got mini strawberry kit kats...man it's
frustrating how everything comes in tiny bite sizes, I never feel
satisfied with just one or two haha...

The micro kit kats!

I also bought lunch on a whim, if
this works then I will only have to spend $1 on lunch hehe. Also bought
chopsticks because well they were pretty ^_^. Dinner was some donburi
thing, it was good, just weird to eat because it was so slippery haha,
oh and I tried BURDOCK for the first time...totally reminded me of that
Dandelion and Burdock drink I know someone likes to drink...haha.



Friday was good, finished the Face of Jizo. It was very interesting.
Had my $1 lunch which was mediocre, but seriously at this point I need
to start saving my money again haha. Spending it wisely and what-not.
Nishio's class was AWESOME! We even ended up doing a bit of kendo
practice at the end, makes me miss karate though. I went out with Em to
an Izakaya right by Higashi-Okazaki, the food was fine, Emily had an
okonomiyaki and I had some salmon thing and the drinks were good

Emily and the first drink!

Me and my first alchoholic drink in Japan

but the service was lousy...
and it ended up being a lot more expensive than I'd planned. It's
because we were foreigners. Em was the one that realized that all the
other tables got served before us. It was a bit upsetting, we still had
fun wandering though and even had ice cream! hehe. So it wasn't a total
waste. I went to sleep still worried about a certain someone...



Saturday I woke up and all was well, my worrying was just me
overthinking things so that was quite a relief. I didn't really do much
until mid-day. My host mom took me to a Daiso! I bought ichigo
marshmallows there and some gems to decorate my cel/ camera haha as
well as a double ended highlighter. We then went for ice cream at
Baskin Robbins with Minako and Raiki. Yummy! Dinner that night was this
really good spaghetti type sauce with rice as well as octopus and salad
^_^. After dinner me, Tomomi, my host mom and Raiki took Moko and
Chibi-chan for a walk.



So I was so excited for Sunday because we were going to Nagoya! Well
actually we didn't end up getting that far. We went to Kanayama station
to meet Roxy's host mom's niece. It turns out it was her birthday and
we were invited to a KARAOKE PARTY!

The karaoke place

It was lots of fun, although I
really need to practice the Japanese songs I do know, I was only able
to sing "First Love" again. It was lots of fun but then we started not
knowing any more songs so Roxy, Emily and I left. BTW, karaoke is super
cheap in Japan, it cost us $13 for 3 hours? lol in any case we went
exploring and saw at least four pachinko buildings, they look so cool,
almost like a store, haha sadly no shopping was accomplished today. We
had crepes though! I had a strawberry, chocolate and whipped cream one
:P.

mmm..crepes!

We also briefly listened to
some band performers on the stage by the train station. We parted ways
at Higashi-Okazaki and I pretty much just went home after that. There
was still some dinner left, udon and apples. Oh btw the apples here are
HUGE! Bigger than my hand at least...haha. I'm finally getting sleepy
now though so yes I will post pictures in a few days. I have been
taking more. I swear!