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Hirakata, Osaka: October 20, Monday Nothing much. Went to class. Class ended. Went home. Ate dinner, did homework, went to sleep. Hirakata, Osaka: October 21, Tuesday No Japanese class today, as it was the first day of Japanese midterm exams. T.T Psychology class was nondescript. Went to club, went home. Jidai Matsuri in Kyoto: October 22, Wednesday Oh, geez, can I remember back this far? Memory of a goldfish. Well... I had my Japanese koutou shiken (oral examination). The topic ended up being the one I was most comfortable talking about (discrimination, and prejudice-supportive language), but my conversation partner and I had the same problem: we both knew the topic fine, but during discussion, we couldn't conjure up the new grammar we'd learned. -.- Which, you know... is the point of an oral exam. After that, I hopped online very briefly, then went off toward Heian Jingu. The Jidai Matsuri (Festival of Eras... although it was more like a parade of period clothing) began at the Kyoto Imperial Palace and ended at Heian Jingu. Because I didn't know the way to Heian Jingu, Huey came to fetch me. T.T; I'm sorryyyyy, Hueyyyyy! Not that you'd be reeeeading this. Anyway. It started raining. I'd been closer to the sidewalk to see the parade, but then a woman standing behind me kept smacking the back of my head with her stupid umbrella. It was ridiculously obnoxious. So after she beat me up a bit and then walked away, a couple came along. And same thing-- their umbrella kept stabbing me. Finally fed up with this, and disinclined to get wet, I went under the cover of the Keihan exit. I was standing against a pillar, and then this Caucasian guy (American, by his accent) came along and leaned against it. No problem. His Japanese girlfriend or fiancée or wife or something showed up. Still okay. They were cuddling a bit behind me. Still okay. But then, as they kept cuddling, it would make them shift their position against the pillar until little by little-- so gradually I didn't even freaking notice what was happening until it was too late-- they pushed me out into the rain. -.-; And used up the entire side of the broad pillar with their stupid cuddling. 人前でいちゃいちゃするな！そんなこと見たくない！まったく。。。恥がない Afterward, Huey and I headed off for the Kurama no Hi Matsuri, a fire festival in Kurama. When we got there, predictably, it was wet, crowded, and full of irritable people. I got smacked in the head by a few more umbrellas, dripped on by umbrellas held above me until I was quite drenched, and jostled around. -.- I hate crowds. So then we began the procession. When Huey and I got up there, though, they said that it was too crowded, so please go around a side path that veered off to the right. Apparently, it was going to take us to the same place, but was just a more roundabout route. Well, by the time we reached the end of the path... we were back at the beginning. At the very base of the freaking crowd. -.- And the attendants there were ushering us back out to the stupid train station. What a waste of money and time. But, eh. Not every trip can be fun. Hirakata, Osaka: October 23, Thursday The Japanese written midterm was today. It was okay-- a far cry better than that damn spoken exam. In psychology class, I ended up partnered up with a Japanese girl for our discussions, named Keiko. Her mother's situation is apparently a lot like mine-- tired, lonely and overworked, with a retired husband who sits at home, does nothing, and expects her to do all the housework on top of making money because she's the woman. Went to club, played a little Go (I sux0rz at it. Badly. XD Strategy games are not my forte -.-), then went home. Momodani, Osaka: October 24, Friday Had the usual coffee break with Huey, Robbie, Ashley and Amy. (I don't remember if Becca was there. O_o) Well, Huey's and my intention was to go to Koreatown today. However, we ended up spending so much time browsing through Momodani that we ended up getting there after dark, when most things were closed. ^^; But! They had 떡뽁키! So Huey got to try it. And I bought some... um... I don't have the slightest idea how it's spelled, or how to translate it into English, but they're spiced leaves of some sort. Mom always says they're spinach leaves, but not the kind of Spinach we'd see in the U.S. Anyway. Not much to say about Momodani, except that I got two haori and a yukata (used, of course) for 500 yen each. O_o;;; That's RIDICULOUS! Holy wow. But I found out when I got home that while the yukata and the better haori are perfect, the other haori has stains against one seam that I didn't see. -.- So I need to try and see if dry-cleaning will fix that up before I return to the U.S., or find out if it's just ruined. -.- I checked it over before buying it, even, but somehow I completely missed the stain. Bleh. It's not a big stain, and it's really only along one sleeve seam, but it's still unsightly. So, Jen-- once I buy another half-width obi, we can run around the flat in yukatas. =D Flea Market in Kyoto: October 25, Saturday Huey, Yui, Huey's conversation partner and I went to a flea market toay. I believe it happens every month on the 25th-- there's another flea market that's the 21st of every month, too, but that was a school day. The only things I bought there were a few souvenir trinkets and a few snacks. I almost bought a SUPER pretty kimono that the others said suited me really well, but at first the vendor wanted (converted to U.S. dollars, approximately) $60. So... uh, no. While it's beautiful, I didn't even have that kind of money on hand. Besides, all of the other kimono and yukata at the festival, unless it was something unique and fancy, was around $5 or $10! So he asked what price we wanted, and then said he'd give it to us for $30. Cutting the price in half like that automatically says something, though, about how much they'd jacked up the price. >_> If it were $20, I probably would have bought it, but when we said that $30 was still too much and tried to leave, he kept holding us there and nagging at us to tell him what price we wanted. We told him several times that it wasn't a price that he'd be willing to sell for, but because he kept nagging, it pissed me off so I didn't even offer the $20-- I just told him, "Well, all of the other vendors are selling for $5 to $10, so that seems ridiculous. And then he sneered at us and said, "I can't sell something like this for a price like that!" And I told him that's fine, thats why I said it was a price he wouldn't sell for anyway. And then we left. He was so annoying. -.- Yui had to leave early to meet a friend at Umeda (she left prior to the whole kimono incident), so then the three of us-- Huey, her conversation partner Mio, and I-- headed for the train station. We ate at Kappa Sushi and chatted and laughed quite a bit. Mio in particular is really giggly, so that would set me off, and we'd both end up having to stop whatever we were doing to get our laughing fits under control. Huey kept saying we were crazy. XD Eventually, we went our separate ways and made it home. ^^; Osaka Bay Area: October 26, Sunday Comic City day! Comic City is a doujinshi convention in Osaka. I tagged along on Hester's class field trip (again) to go to the chibi-con with them. ^_^ The variety was actually disappointingly limited-- as in, there were many series that I expected to have more doujinshi, but only had a couple. I hung out with Robbie the whole time, and bought one doujinshi (a cute H/D one XD) and some accessories. The problem with doujinshi cons is that they're 90% gay porn. -.- So it's a good thing the artists have them out to flip through before buying, because I could really, REALLY do without seeing Vegeta and Goku doing obscene things. *shudder* The one I bought is just a cute, fluffy little amnesia story with sweet art and pretty Draco. *_* Hirakata, Osaka: October 27, Monday Today was the Popular Media and Culture midterm exam, which was easier than expected. Aside from that, I had lunch with Keiko, a girl from my Cross-Cultural Psychology class. ^_^ Her mom and my mom are in similar situations-- tired and overworked at their jobs, but then still expected to do the housework at home because our fathers consider housework woman's job. -.- It's such BS. But anyway. It was a very nice lunch. :D We went to Nature Doughnuts, which opened the week classes began. Yayz. ^_^ Hirakata, Osaka: October 28, Tuesday Nothing much. Went to class. Class ended. Went to club. Club ended. Went home. Ate dinner, did homework, went to sleep. Hirakata, Osaka: October 29, Wednesday Classes were whatever. My Visual Anthropology exam was today. ~_~ It was... laughably easy for the most part, but then the last question was way too open-ended, and one section seems to have confused a lot of people. ~_~; I found out I got a 92% on my Japanese midterm, too, after combining the scores for the written exam (which I did well on) and the oral exam (which I did mediocre on). After classes, I met up with Ashley and Amy, and we went to Ring-- the entertainment place that had karaoke and manga and billiards and such. We met up with two of their Japanese guy friends there. Things were fine, for the most part, but I started to feel the strain about halfway through karaoke-- those "I want to go home" urges, the "I can't handle all these people..." Even though it was only four other people. x_x But both of the guys are very assertive and outgoing, and Ashley can laugh and joke right along with the best of them. Usually, I'm with Huey as well when I'm with them, so it was the first time I've hung out with them on my own. (They were my roommates during orientation week.) It's not like anything was bad-- not at all. Karaoke was fun, dinner was tasty AND cheap. It's just that it's more socializing than I can comfortably handle. ^_^; In any case, I managed to catch the very last train of the day, and got home around 12:20. Got changed and went to bed.
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