06/16/2019
This week was really busy!! We had a farewell party for Diego and Terry in our English Cafe Club on Tuesday. It was so much fun! Chie taught us how to make Takoyaki and even brought ingredients to make a vegetarian version. It had corn, green onion, and cheese. The traditional ones have an octopus tentacle in it, so I definitely preferred mine.
She also brought various fried foods like potato croquet and falafel, along with some sandwiches. I really wanted to try Takoyaki, and was really glad that I was able to. They don't sell vegetarian takoyaki on the street, so I was so excited! Literally so delicious. I have been going to Japanese class once a week. Last week we made sushi and it was just about the cutest thing ever. They made vegetarian sushi for me and Yassi, which was so yummy. I even was able to learn how to cook an egg the Japanese way... which was really difficult. I think I also messed up rolling the sushi because they kinda cringed when I tried, but it ended up okay! I just love the people who teach us Japanese. They are all older but they are the nicest people I have ever met. My Japanese sensei is literally the cutest. This week, we reviewed present and past verbs. I even learned how to say I love you!
On Friday after work, I came home and did a strength workout. I really did hurt my Achilles, which is unfortunate because that means I can't run for a week or two. I am going to take off one week and try an easy jog and see if that helps. After the workout, I showered and backed my bag and headed to the train station. I met Yassi there, and we went to Takanohara, which is one station over from mine. We met up with some ATR people to eat dinner and see Aladdin in the AEON Cinema (basically a giant chain shopping mall in Japan). I ordered some vegetables in a black sweet sauce, which was SO good. I definitely want to go back there and try it again.
We finished dinner just in time to buy our movie tickets and get there about a minute before the movie started. I would definitely recommend going to see it! I loved it and I think Disney did a really good job. I learned a lot from Yassi because she is Persian and was telling me which things were actually person and which things Disney made more Indian. It was really cute movie though! I slept over at Yassi's apartment because it was much closer to the theater and she has a queen size mattress. She actually had to buy it when she got to Japan because her apartment came with like the equivalent of a paper sheet to sleep on the tatami floor with. Her apartment is really cute though, and we did facials which was fun!Â
We were up until around 2 am, so we slept in. She made me a banana smoothie, hash brown, and toast with butter, honey, and walnuts for breakfast. It was actually SO good.
Around 2, we headed to Osaka because we wanted to see the Winnie-the-Pooh exhibit that was there for another week or so. It was so cute! I think we were about the youngest ones there, ironically. It was a really nice exhibit. They had several of the first sketches of the Winnie-the-Pooh story, and I learned that the whole story is based off of the author's (A.A. Milne) son, whose name is Christopher Robin Milne. Christopher Robin had a teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh who he named after a bear at the zoo. The sketches were really cute, but Rabbit and Tigger looked so different from the Disney animation that was created in 1966. They also had a model of the bridge in the 100 Aker Wood, and some of the toys that were similar to the ones that Christopher Robin had. Winnie-the-Pooh is almost 100 years old, which is crazy. I really enjoyed the exhibit, and we got some cute pictures!
We walked around the art building for a few minutes and looked at the view of Osaka off of a rooftop garden. We stopped at a tempura place for dinner and had vegetable tempura, tofu, and rice. It was really good! It was around 7 and a little rainy, so we went to the shopping area and looked around. We both ended up buying some super cute clothes! Yassi bought a green dress, cherry print shirt, and green work pants. They all looked really cute on her! I bought a daisy printed shirt, a jean skirt, and a cropped windbreaker jacket. We also stopped buy this ferris wheel shop, where a ton of tourists shop. I only bought raspberry kit kats, but the couple in front of me spent like $500. After we finished shopping, we started to head home around 9:30. I think I got home around 11. I talked to Alex for an hour or so before going to bed.
Sunday was pretty chill. I got up and got ready for church. I met a nice lady from Minnesota who lives in Japan. She came here in her 20's and never left, which is crazy to me. I am super excited to come home, but I still have two months to go. I stopped at the supermarket on the way home. I was really excited because I thought I found strawberry cheesecake, but it ended up being just cake with a strawberry on top. I came home and tidied up and did my laundry for the week and read two chapters in Mere Christianity. I am working through it with Alex so we discuss every couple of chapters. When Alex woke up, we watched Full Metal Jacket, which is a movie about the Vietnam war. It honestly made me so sad because one of the guys committed suicide and killed his Lt at the end of boot camp. There also was a scene where there was a sniper that killed two American men. The Americans were able to track the sniper down, who ended up being a teenage Vietnamese girl. War is just awful. I ended the day with a phone call to my dad because it was Father's day. It was super nice to talk to dad. He has the week off and is going to the Smokey Mountains and Mammoth Cave, so I hope that he enjoys it!
