Sunday, August 12, 2007

   People only live by their own strength. People only grow by their own strength. - Ikari Gendo, Evangelion

Hmmm.....I hope I'm not posting too often since there weren't any comments on the last one....I guess I should take comfort in the fact that I know a lot of the readers are non-members so they can't comment. Anyway, I'm justifying my being here and not out at a DJ dance party on the beach today by the fact that the other girl from Gainesville who came to Shizuoka a few years ago said it's really important to keep a journal so you can look back and laugh at all the crazy stuff you did. Also, I really shouldn't be getting that much sun. So let's see....I've spent most of this weekend exploring around the city on my own. I have to find my way places without someone showing me or else I'll never remember! It has been a lot of fun though b/c I've seen and done a lot that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Saturday I got up and washed my clothes and then hung them on the balcony just like all the cute little Japanese people do. It was so funny to look down the building and see everyone else's stuff out too! After that I walked to Yamada Denki to buy a hair dryer and wander around all the different floors. They have a pretty big anime section, but I think it's a bit pricey. Anyway, I have to wait till I get a DVD player to buy any so that's at least after my first paycheck. I did get a model kit though b/c it was only Y1600, which is pretty cheap considering we'd pay about twice that to get them in the US. It's the Deathscythe Hell Custom from Gundam Wing. I'll try to put up pics when it's built. I know at least Darke-oniichan will be interested. Anyway, after that I kept walking straight down the road I live on and found this cute little shop called "a-too" that has all kinds of old/new/used anime, manga, magazines, doujinshi, toys, cards and other cool stuff. It was really tiny and packed full of stuff and really cheap too. Outside there are like 12 capsule machines and 5 or 6 card machines too! I know somewhere in town there is a Bandai hobby shop that I'm going to have to visit after I get paid too, but I'm not quite sure how to get there yet. We passed it on the train to work on Thursday but I hadn't figured out where things were at that point soo....it can wait. When I got home Lauren came to pick me up and we biked to her apartment to meet all the other girls and go shopping. That didn't exactly turn out as planned though b/c after one store (Spopia - the sports store) Jasmine and Holly were hungry and Shirley was thinking of meeting up with some AJET people. Then Mark called and Stacey remembered the biggest firworks display in the entire prefecture was that night about 40min away by train! She and I decided we absolutely had to go to that so we said bye to everyone else (but not before getting one of Emron's homemade chocolate truffles!) and set off on our adventure. I really wish I had installed my camera software now b/c those fireworks....wow....all I can say is ...just...wow. We were sooooo glad we went there instead of out to yet another expensive izakaya and then drinking/singing with people we hardly know. It was great right from the beginning. We weren't sure about which tickets to buy and the nice little station attendant told us that even though the display is in Fukanoi it's better to get off at Aino (1 stop before that and Y100 cheaper) and to go ahead and get round trip train tickets so we wouldn't have to get return tickets later that night (also Y100 off!). We were a little late for the start of the festival but it was ok b/c the fireworks went on for 2 hours! I've never seen anything like it at home. We took so many videos and pictures! When we got off the train we just followed all the people in yukata for a couple of blocks and then there were food stalls and games and people with little kids everywhere! We got some takoyaki and andagi to share and they were sooo good. People were sitting on the sidewalks, but we walked all the way down the street and through the rice paddies where more people were sitting on the paths and right up to the top of the levy with the most adventurous Japanese people so we had a great view. Even with all that walking we still stood there for at least an hour. Then when it was over everyone walked back down to the station all neat and orderly like. It was amazing! (Actually there was this one girl behind us who kept saying "sugoi! sugoi!" over and over, it was really cute!) We got a shaved ice on the way back up and you could put three different flavors on it. It was the perfect thing to end a hot night. I think some people were worried that we went off on our own like that, but it was fine. We only had to call Lauren when we got back to ask how to get from the big train station to the little one for Stacey to get home and I pretty much knew the way back on my bike since I live really close to the stations. I did stop once at a Lawson (convenie) to ask "Sumimasen, Minami Kansen wa, doko desu ka?" Minami Kansen is the big street that I live on so I was asking where it was, and the counter attendant pointed the way I had been going and said it was "hyaku metre" (100 meters more) so I had been right all along. Today I explored all the shops in the JR station and the local train station and went to the drug store and grocery store. I got an apron, food, and some other important stuff. I also went to the foreign food store in the station to get oranges and tea to give as gifts to the important people we're going to meet tomorrow. I found the "hyaku-en" (Y100) store which is waaaayy better than our dollar store and got a cute Stitch lunchbag and some Hello Kitty ziploc boxes. Also, in the JR station there's this giant mall with lots of clothes stores that I expect are ridiculously expensive, but it was nice to look at them. The very bottom floor is all food places like a belgian waffle shop, chocolate places, and even a Cold Stone! The line at that place was insane! All these Japanese people wanting to eat American ice cream! There was a very good Japanese bakery down there as well though so that's where I had lunch. Now I've got to iron my clothes (bleh...) and take a shower and wrap up those presnts so I can get up an be on time to work tomorrow! Ja ne! [EDIT] One more thing I forgot...this weekend it was a mini festival in Shizuoka and while I was downtown this afternoon I saw a place where there were some street performances. The coolest thing I saw was these 4 guys doing a choreographed set of tricks with basketballs. They were all dressed the same, but with different thuggish basketball accessories. It was so funny! They were really good at what they did though. It was kind of like dancing to Japanese rap and spinning the basketballs and rolling them around on their bodies at the same time. Totally crazy!

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