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First off, my mom is so cute. In her latest e-mail to me (she can e-mail now! I'm so proud of her!), she randomly opened the e-mail with: It's so... Engrish! What's with the ellipses?! I mean, they're used often in manga and such, but my Korean mother?? And then later, she told me not to be T_T; and instead, to be ^_^. In those emoticons. So! Cute! ToT Hirakata, Osaka: September 18, Thursday Didn't do anything too particularly special. Had classes and went to Manga Union-- a circle I'm tentatively joining to draw manga. But we'll see how that goes. Plans with Huey changed. We were going to go to Nara on Saturday, I had a classical concert to attend on Sunday, and I was going to a shrine with my host mom on Tuesday. But because of a hurricane warning, we opted for switching Nara to Tuesday. (Fine by me-- it's closer to Shikamaru's birthday!) Huey's host brother's friend lives in Nara, so he was going to show us around. Instead, on Saturday, I would go to Uji with my host mom, and on Sunday, I would go to Kaiyuukan (海遊館), an aquarium in Osaka. And then next Saturday is Kiyomizerudera, and the Sunday after that was going to be going to Kyoto for an antiques flea market. Hirakata, Osaka: September 19, Friday Japanese class seriously sucked. I'm used to getting A's in Japanese class, but on the first exam, I scored a 70%. And that's supposed to be the easiest test of the term. T_T; So I talked to my teacher, then talked to the teacher for level five, then talked again to my teacher. And on Monday, I'll try out level five. After all of this, I was so happy to see Huey. We went to downtown Hirakata City and did some shopping. We went to a 100yen shop-- that's ACTUALLY 100yen, not 105 because most 99shops/100shops don't add tax prior to the cost. So that was awesome. Afterwards, we went to a store called Sally's and I bought a shirt because I'm ridiculously sick of wearing the same few outfits all of the time, and needed something new. The styles and costs weren't enough to my liking to splurge, but there was one deal that was three articles of clothing for $20. Huey got two dresses and I got a shirt. Then we got knitting supplies (or rather, I helped Huey get knitting supplies), and taught her how to knit. She caught on very well, and she was really excited nya~ so that was fun. ^_^ Then we went home. Uji + Osaka: September 20, Saturday Uji was loooovely. After a few transfers, we arrived and I took some photos of our walk. Then, by a tea house, there were three employees in the shade, beckoning people to come and have a complimentary cup of tea. So we went and had some native Uji tea with little candies. It was quiet tasty. Then, a woman there said that she taught tea ceremonies inside for 500 yen, so Okaasan (my host mother) and I went in. It wasn't the kind of chadou that's on a tatami floor in kimono with taking three-and-a-half-sips or any of that other stuff that I learned, though. It was quite different, and just on a table, but we had tea leaves and poured water into the little ceramic teapot-- just enough for one tiny helping-- and then we'd let it soak. Then we'd pour the tea and have it, and add more water to the teapot. The taste would change subtly, since the leaves had already been soaking. We did this a few times, then had some of the sweet doughy candy. Then had more tea. Then ate the tea leaves. O_o That was a new experience. After all of this, we went on our way to Byodoin. (Which was *awesome*!) There were a few statues from Genji Monogatari along the way, so I took some pictures. We crossed a nice bridge over a pretty river, and got to Byodoin. Byoudoin is an old, old temple out on a makeshift island in a pond/mini-lake thing. It's featured on the back of the ten yen coin. It's a lovely building renowned for the national treasures inside: statues of Buddha and 52 wooden bodhisattvas on clouds. There are tall, painted doors, and the statues have been preserved. The original Buddha is still in the... what was it called, hall of lights? I can't remember. Some room inside the Byodoin itself, which we didn't enter because the next boat ride to actually enter was an hour away. (I would have loved to go, but Okaasan was visiting a friend in the hospital in the afternoon. I went with her.) Anyway. That was absolutely fascinating, and gorgeous, and lovely, and various other positive adjectives. On the way back, we had a transfer at Chuushojima. Before transferring, however, we ate at a soba-ya that was actually right on the platform, between two tracks. O_o It was interesting. You insert coins into a machine to buy a ticket for your order, then give that ticket to the cook. (It was CHEAP, too! 325 yen-- so just over three dollars for a large, tasty bowl of soba!) They make it and put it out on the counter, and you take it to your seat and eat it. Much luffly fun. Then we went to the hospital to visit Okaasan's friend, who has cancer. Afterwards, we headed home. Kaiyuukan in Osaka: September 21, Sunday I met up with Yui, Ann, Valerja and Diana-- my former roommates from the Seminar House-- to go to the aquarium. After some confusion, I came to understand that aquarium=水族館 (suizokukan), and the NAME of the aquarium was 海遊館 (Kaiyuukan). That name is made up of the characters for ocean, play, and building. XD What a cute name. There were lots of animals! Well, duh. Um... penguins and river otters and rays (which I'm used to seeing in the States), and DOLPHINS, and A WHALE SHARK, and other such that I completely WASN'T used to seeing! So that was awesome. Unsurprisingly, though, Ann kept hurrying us along because there were too many people and she wanted food. The aquarium was right next to a large shopping center. The first floor was food, and then the floors above were various shops. I had a tiny bacon burger and then found some melon kakigoori (shaved ice) so I devoured that. In one of the shops above, there was a hobby shop. When I first saw hobby shops, I thought, "Good! Arts and crafts!" Uh, no. It's more like a veritable otaku haven. But that was okay. XD Ignoring the inevitable figurines of half-naked Rei and Asuka, or characters from various dating sims or H-games, there were loads of more shounen stuff. I got two cell phone straps because I couldn't resist-- one of Neji and one of Shikamaru. <3 Then, Huey contacted me-- to announce that our plans had changed again. This time, it was not a good thing. Her host mom had taken it upon herself to change the plans of Huey, me, her host brother, and her host brother's friend in Nara. Instead, she went and bought tickets for a play in Kobe. >_> WHAT THE HECK?! I can't STAND it when one person goes and changes the plans of everybody else!! That made me furious! The only consolation was that she's taking me, too. (Uh? News to me? I found this out from Huey later.) And we're still going to Nara: this coming Sunday. The antiques flea market is the Sunday AFTER, but Huey had mixed up the dates. Kiyomizudera is still on, plans untouched. As an aside, I'm sure most of you won't care, but... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NARA SHIKAMARU! 誕生日おめでとう、奈良鹿丸！
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