On Saturday I went to Hirakata station with two friends. I’d been there once before, but only briefly to fill out my alien registration paperwork. This time I was actually able to explore the area and walk around in all the shops. I was able to browse a bookstore for a little while – even though everything was in a foreign language, I still could have spent a good hour or two in there. (Bookstores, as a rule, are a major time suck for me. Apparently that rule applies no matter what country I’m in.) It was a used bookstore, so everything was really cheap, and I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Reading it in Japanese will be a major undertaking. I’ve skimmed some of it and I’ve been able to get the gist of most of the sentences (or at least be able to place the scene), but it’ll take a long time to actually read it. I also bought a manga from a series I read way back in middle school. It’s a heck of a lot easier to read than Harry Potter – I can actually understand the majority of it without even having to paw through my dictionary. Besides shopping around, we also let ourselves wander into the nearby area around the station and came across a church. It was the first church I’ve seen in Japan – as far as I know, the Christian population in Japan is pretty slim. We checked it out and went inside – it was actually a Catholic church and there were a lot of texts in Portuguese and Spanish. Japan promoted bringing Brazilian peoples of Japanese descent over to Japan to work and then later promoted sending them back to Brazil. I think a decent number of them must still be here (and are Catholic), so they organized a church. (That’s the only reason I can come up with for all the Portuguese.) Saturday night I went out to a sushi place that’s right behind my house with a friend. I’d tried sushi earlier at my homestay, but this was my first time going out to eat it. This sushi place was one of those restaurants with the counters and conveyor belts, which I found I really liked. It was nice seeing *exactly* what you were getting. I still haven’t decided if I like sushi, so I’ll probably keep trying it. I know I don’t dislike it, but I’m not sure if I’m crazy about it either.
On Sunday I went to Osaka with the same two friends I went to Hirakata station with. I’ll go right ahead and admit, we wanted to go to Osaka because we wanted to visit the Pokemon Center there. I’m not into Pokemon anymore, but it was a childhood staple of mine, so I thought it’d be fun to check it out. Well, when we got to Osaka we realized… we have no idea where the Pokemon Center was! So we gave up on finding it and decided to play Left/Right, that is, just randomly choose a direction whenever we came to an intersection. We wound up walking through Namco City, which was what basically felt like a bunch of narrow streets but indoors. It was strange, but the streets were lined with tons of shops , restaurants, and arcades. We found some Purikura (which are elaborate photo booths) and took some photos, which was really fun. We wound our way outside of Namco City and pretty much stumbled into the Osaka mall. We didn’t stay in the mall long because it was jam-packed with people. So after stumbling into and out of the mall what do we find, but the Pokemon Center and across from it a Mos Burger which is a Japanese burger chain that makes *awesome* burgers. They’re McDonald’s biggest competitor here in Japan. So I ate my first (but hopefully not last) Mos Burger and then we walked across the plaza to the Pokemon Center. It was like trying to move around in a can of sardines and so, was a little overwhelming at first. They had the new Pokemon game there for sale and I thought of my brother, but decided not to buy it for him because a) it would have been in Japanese and b) I don’t have much money. (Sorry Nicholas!) I ended up buying a phone charm for my phone. In Japan, *everyone* has phone charms and I felt like my phone was naked without one. After the madness that was the Pokemon Center, we took the train back to Hirakata. On the bus from Hirakata station to our part of Hirakata City, an old guy sitting behind us gave us two huge bags of Japanese snacks. We’d previously given up our seats at the bus stop for the guy, so I think he was trying to figure out a way to thank us in some way. It was a really wonderful, random act of generosity. Whenever those things happen, I always feel a renewed sense of optimism towards humanity. When I got home that night I told my host mom about the old guy and she responded *exactly* the way my own mom would: she told me not to talk or go anywhere with strangers! I tried telling her we hardly talked to him, but I didn’t really mind the mini-lecture. It’s nice having a mom figure here. Then she made me fried chicken for dinner because she knows it’s a favorite of mine. (Have I mentioned I have the best host mom in all of Japan?)
On Monday night I went out to a karaoke bar with my friend’s, Kristin, entire flat and two random international guys we saw in the park on our walk there. I’ve never really done karaoke before, but it was a good introduction. Some of the international students go to karaoke every weekend – somehow I don’t think my wallet could handle that! While at karaoke, I couldn’t help thinking it was one of those situations that could only happen while studying abroad: two Brits, three Americans, a Polish gal, a Norwegian, and a Japanese girl all singing YMCA and Barbie Girl together. When I got home (around 11:30 or so), my host mom was still up (she’d been out at a concert – she’s hip like that) and as soon as I plopped down she asked me if I’d had anything to eat. I know I sound like a broken record by now, but I really can’t believe how lucky I got in the host family department. Anyway, I told her I hadn’t, so she immediately heated up some onigiri (rice balls) for me. Most of the international students who chose living in a dorm said they did so because they wanted to be independent, not have a curfew, etc. but honestly… I like having a host mom and dad to ask me about my day and to worry about whether or not I’ve eaten anything and what time I’m coming home. It’s a real comfort in this foreign place.
Tuesday my host sister, Mao, had a race at her school so I went to watch her do that. She wasn’t the fastest kid on the track, but it was still fun cheering her on and watching all the other little Japanese kids run around the track. (Something I definitely couldn’t do – and they were seven and eight!). After the race, my host mom took us out to eat okonomiyaki, which has become one of my new favorite foods. They’re basically a thick patty made out of egg, cabbage, and whatever else you might want (the okonomiyaki I ate that day had pork in it) and grilled on a stove top. (At okonomiyaki restaurants the stove tops are set right into the table to keep your food nice and hot.) The okonomiyaki is then topped with scallions, an egg, and mayo and okonomiyaki sauce (sort of tastes like Worcestershire sauce). If there’s one thing I bring back from Japan, it’s going to be how to make okonomiyaki.
Wednesday (yesterday) was a lot less exciting than the rest of Silver Week, but just as good. I went to Kristin’s flat and spent the day there watching Pushing Daisies and A Very Potter Musical. We also walked down the street to Sanko (a grocery store) where Kristin did some much needed grocery shopping and I found some Skippy peanut butter (450 yen for a small jar of it which is incredibly expensive for peanut butter but I couldn’t deny my peanut butter craving any longer). We went back to her apartment and made cinnamon French toast. Kristin didn’t have any maple syrup, so we substituted with honey (which we’d done the week previously when she made chocolate chip pancakes). I think I’m actually growing to prefer honey over maple syrup. After hanging out at Kristin’s I biked back home, had dinner with the fam, did some Japanese homework (which my host mom corrected for me – another plus for living with a host family), hopped in the ofuro (bath), and then fell asleep as soon as my head hit the futon.
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