06/02/2019
This past week has been a busy one. I finished my second analysis method at work, so I had to prepare a presentation for my results. I have my second midterm presentation on June 7th, so I am pretty nervous for that. During that presentation, I am to give my results from the second analysis method, along with explaining the method itself, and what my future work will be for the remaining two months of my internship. It has to be 30 minutes long, with 15 minutes for questions, so pray that I am successful in delivering this presentation! Due to my busy week, I wanted to just chill on Friday night. I came home and went for a run, and took a nap. Around 9:30, I left to meet up with Yassi at ______ for dinner. She was just leaving work and didn't want to go straight home so I agreed to meet up with her. It was actually the same restaurant that we met at during my first night in Japan, although we didn't really hang out for the first three months of my internship. I think she ordered tofu, potato salad, edamame, french fries, and something else I can't remember. I ordered some fried cheese ball thing and potato salad. Both were really good! I think the potato salad is better here than in America, but I don't know why. Maybe the mayo is more balanced with other flavors (I'm not a huge fan of mayo), but that would honestly surprise me because the Japanese LOVE mayo. We talked and ate for around 2 hours, and headed home around 11:40 pm. Once I arrived back home, I talked to Alex for an hour or two and went to bed.
On Saturday morning, I woke up initially at 7:30 because I was invited to an ATR company baseball game and BBQ by Yassi...but then I fell back asleep and she woke me up at 9, which was when I was supposed to be there. It ended up working out, because our team played in the second game so I didn't miss out on anything, with the exception of group stretches. It was already almost 75 or 80 degrees, such a warm morning! I applied sunscreen, but apparently not enough because my face got burnt AGAIN. I cannot catch a break with the sunburn this year, which is not even fair because it doesn't turn into tan. Anyway, the game was a ton of fun! It was a 3 game tournament, but we lost the first two games so we didn't make it into the finals. I was the first person to score a run, which was a ton of fun! I felt really bad because I took out a middle aged Japanese man who was playing second base. He was picking up the ball as I was coming near so I kinda tried to slide around him and we both fell. I was safe and he was okay so it wasn't such a huge deal! During my second time at bat, I hit a double. However, I was unable to score another point because there were 3 outs before I could even make it to third base. Once the game was over, I listened to Yassi play piano, she is really good! I also helped her clean up her purse because she spilled vegan butter all over it.
Afterwards, they had a company BBQ! It is much different than American BBQs because there are no hamburgers or hotdogs. They have many grills where they grill pieces of pork, whole fish, vegetables, and even make grilled noodles mixed with veggies and meat! I mostly ate grilled vegetables (corn, peppers, onions, tofu). It was really delicious! I met a few new people as well and was complimented on how fast I ran the bases. Around 1:45 pm, I ran from ATR to the dormitory to meet Terry because we were meeting Denny and Diego in Osaka to see a rose garden and fireflies. I was a couple minutes late, but was exhausted from running so much. Terry didn't mind though. It took us almost TWO HOURS to get to the place where the rose garden was. I was trying not to fall asleep the whole way there, so I tried to introduce Terry to some American music he wasn't familiar with. I think he liked some of it, but it's probably not as meaningful as Chinese music. We arrived to the rose garden around 4:15 and were able to walk around it for 45 minutes before it closed. It was so beautiful!! I love Japanese gardens. They are always so gorgeous.
I met another American there from LA so it was SO NICE to talk to him for while. He is studying Japanese here for 1 year and has been here since January. When the garden closed, we headed to a nearby shopping mall to eat dinner. We ate in an Okonomiyaki restaurant and OMG. It is officially my favorite Japanese food, like it is absolutely delicious. I am going to have to figure out how to make it when I get back to the US because I don't think I can live without it. Around 7:30 we headed back to the garden area to walk through to see the fireflies. There were probably 20 of Denny's friends that joined us to see the fireflies. I talked to a few of them and they were all so kind! Apparently, Terry thought we were seeing fireworks the whole time so I think he was pretty disappointed haha. Overall, it was super cute. Japanese people love the little things. They were so excited about the like 20 fireflies that we saw. I didn't want to say anything, but you can typically see more in my backyard in Cleveland. We left at 9:30 so that we could make the last bus. It again took like 2 hours with 5 transfers. Poor Diego had to carry his bike for all the transfers because he biked to Osaka earlier that morning and it was too late to bike all the way back to Kizugawa. We arrived back at Shin-Hosono at 11:17, just in time for the last bus, which was around 11:35. Diego biked home and beat us by sprinting the last portion and passing us as we were walking. I literally was so tired I barely had enough motivation to shower for church in the morning. Luckily, I mustered all my strength and successfully showered and got ready for bed.Â
On Sunday morning, I slept in until 9 am. I went to church and got little wet because I forgot my umbrella, again. Church was great! We discussed the importance of both Faith and Works in James. I stayed for lunch and the celebration of June birthdays! It was super cute. I ate Chinese food and talked with Ivy, a young mother from the Philippines. She is so sweet and gorgeous, I always enjoy talking to her. She told me a little about her family in Japan and the Philippines, and taught me about the origins of her language! She is also really great at speaking English. I ate some chocolate cake and decided to head home! It was raining so Mari and Miki and Miki's parents gave me a ride to the train station. They also gave me an orange, which was so nice. When I arrived home, I biked to the supermarket (I didn't fall this time, don't worry). I bought some bleach spray and gloves. I wanted to clean out my trash can because it almost made me puke from opening it because it smelled so bad. I am not overreacting. When I made dinner for Alex, he could smell it and he agreed that it was AWFUL. I managed to wash it and get it smelling better. Whoever lived in my apartment before me left some white nasty stuff on the bottom that was just fermenting over time. I think I also need to invest in a trash can scent combatant. They sell them in Japan, I just can't freaking read anything to find them. ONE day I will. I just may have to ask someone. After cleaning my trash can, I decided to clean the bathroom and the rest of my apartment because I don't know what my problem is. I spent like 1 hour cleaning everything and taking out the trash, so everything looks great now!! When I was finished, I made dinner (Japanese noodles), showered, and sat down to relax for the rest of the evening. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
