Surprise trip to Osaka!

I'll be staying with a friend in Osaka, then with a group from Bridgewater State University who happen to be taking a study tour there! I'll actually be with my professor who has never actually been my professor, Dr. To!

We will pet deer and eat food and feed the deer cookies. Be on the look out for more Purikura (the fun photo booth).

I take an overnight ferry from Beppu, then I will arrive with friends. I will be safe, dad. I'll bring my American phone which still has wifi so I'll check in when I can.

Look forward to pictures next Thursday!

Adios Americanos! (And all you other charming folk who read this~)

Here is a labeled list of things I bought and eat on a regular basis. My lazy college student self eats more ramen than I should. It tastes like liquid dorito nachos but fills me up. In addition to that, I always get Blendy Stick, which is single coffee sticks and miso soup (32 pack).

Cheese is so expensive I want to cry. It comes in pathetic little packages and it makes me sad.

The box of cereal is horizontal. Why.

I bought french fries for the hell of it.

I also found honey BBQ sauce (for too much money) in the international section. I bought like, 20 chicken legs for 300 yen (about 3 dollars) so I'll make that eventually. I also bought gyoza and ground beef which were put right in my freezer.

I would rather buy cheap instant food and go out to a nice restaurant once in a while or save up for a day trip. Either way, I am not fond of food shopping. It's very frustrating not knowing what to buy.

If you don't like fish and come to Japan, I'm sorry.

Foreigners and tourists = Toureigners. 

Today we went to a Cat Cafe in Oita-shi (Oita City). The name of the cafe was Nuko Mahi Cats Cafe.

It's a cafe and there are kitties that you can pet. 

Nuko-Mahi Cats Cafe

"LOVE ME."

There were maybe a dozen cats, all different kinds. They were all chill and just sat around. You couldn't pick them up and couldn't be mean. Only be nice to kitties. 

There were books and magazines you could read as well while enjoying the kitties around you.

It's a relaxing little cafe and the staff is really nice! I stayed for two hours enjoying the cats. It went by too quick. I want to go back!

Like most places, you take your shoes off and they provide slippers. I am used to this now.

 

"Will I get fed? I want food."

Deep in thought about food.

Kitty Feeding Time!

After that Jenny and I walked to a mall near Oita Station since it was getting late. We went to a restaurant and got Omurice (Omelet Rice) and Curry. Since we had time still, we went to an arcade and did Purikura, which is a very fancy photo booth. It's four dollars and they made you beautiful. Gets rid of blemishes, makes your eyes bigger and thus cuter, you can add stickers and make funny/cute poses. They are very popular and very fun!

All Globalinks students EXCEPT Raena
Left: Joseph (Connecticut), Raena (Hawaii).
End: Jennifer (Colorado)
Right: Heather (Utah), Carlos (North Carolina)

Studying. Look at those poor Americans. The boys don't actually study that much, they are lying. By the way the table is floor level and under the table is sunken in. Pretty rad. We don't typically study here because it is loud. All that studying is just for Japanese. JUST FOR JAPANESE CLASS.

We had two make up classes on this past Saturday. The second class was a calligraphy class which turned out to be fun. It's always funny to see a serious professor (my Japanese professor) start laughing and having fun with students. This is a mix of two classes, mine is actually only 20 people or so.

That's me, and that's the kanji for love. I just had to pick a hard kanji. It's hanging on my door now. Japanese class isn't always this fun. No. It's usually never fun. Japanese class is like a cat. I want to pet it and love it and make it my friend but it claws and scratches me and hisses and hates me.


What else have I been doing... 

I joined a club. We do community service events and basically are a bunch of silly people who mess around. Oh, and they only speak Japanese. A friend I met while going to Yufuin (see a few posts back) invited me to come and everyone is very nice. Maybe my Japanese will improve.

Here is proof that I don't just hang around with Americans. I'll be visiting his home prefecture of Nagasaki over summer break!

Selfie with Tsuguhiro (Tsuguuuuuuuu)

As a God I send the clouds to Beppu.
I did not have my actual camera so these are taken with my phone.

Sorry Beppu. Those clouds are not even moving, just sitting there.

This is not abnormal either. I just never got a picture of it before. Those clouds sat on campus almost all day. The fog was so thick I walked into people and missed my classroom building. Everyone had their umbrellas for the torrential down pour, but it didn't help.

Not only that, but it was really hot out and I felt sticky and gross when I got to class. YAY!

Either the weather here is gorgeous and sunny and warm, or it's rainy and foggy and super windy. Not just a light breeze, but knock-you-over wind.

If a week goes by and we don't get a fog/thunder/wind warning then it's weird.

This has been the BEST Saturday since coming to school! The Student Activity Group took us to Yufuin. It's a small town, very traditional Japanese. It has a beautiful strip of stores and cafes, then a beautiful shallow lake at the end.

It's hard to describe in words how beautiful this town was, so I will do it with pictures!

Here is the main strip. There are many stores, restaurants and cafes on it. Most have handmade goods such as pottery, clothing, wood and glass. There were many art stores as well. Everything was traditional and cute! There were also touristy stores of course, as well as specialty stores.

We even saw a Studio Ghibli store! From here I bought a jigsaw puzzle that I will later make and frame. I also bought a key chain and a pin for my dad! (That I will send when I am not lazy. <3 )

There was a beautiful garden area with the cutest stores ever, including Kiki's Bakery! The bakery smelled amazing! There were other cute stores such as an Alice in Wonderland themed store, a British store, eco store and even a small petting zoo.

Tempura Soba: Deep fried
lotus root/eggplant/shrimp in
soba noodles! So good!

Next we had lunch at a traditional style restaurant. Meaning, you sit on cushions on the ground. I got tempura soba! That little flower thing is actually a fish cake.

Little Fishes

BIG FISHES

We then got eaten by fish! These little fish eat the dead skin off of your feet and legs and leave them soft and smooth. I think people just go because it's ticklish and fun!!

Lake Kirinko

Click To Enlarge

Click To Enlarge

After the fish, we visited a 神社（じんじゃ）[Jinjya] which is a shrine! Jinjya means shrine. It was at a beautiful shallow lake named Lake Kirinko. We all tried it and took pictures and played a name game to get to know each other better.

Classy

Then, we had free time to walk around before having to go home. There were many themed stores. There were many CAT themed stores that played music of cats meowing and it was just purrfect.

Here are some more photos:

When these umbrellas get wet, they reveal
little sakura blossoms!

Two of my favorite things. Cats and Burgers.
Not mixed.

We got honey soft serve ice cream here! So good!

These cats are cooler than me.

Are quite possibly the best families other than your own.

They help you adjust into a culture. They WANT to help you adjust to a culture. They are NOT teacher, nor are they professionals. They might not speak your language, they don't even know who you are until you arrive. Despite all of that, they WANT to spend time with you and show you their culture.

In a previous post I mentioned how I went to pottery with my host mother! Well, I got a package this morning with the finished product! (The mug and rice bowl had to be fired, which takes a little while.)

They also sent me cookies. (Which I was in dire need of), some pictures of the lots of sake we had and a letter (written in Japanese.)

Japanese class has been hard. But as soon as I opened up that letter, I realized again why I wanted to learn Japanese.

Not only this loving host family, but my host family from Sendai. I want to talk to them in Japanese, I want to write them letters, I want to communicate, to have fun, to cook with them and to enjoy my stay in Japan.

While you are still young, go somewhere, anywhere, and stay with a host family. This is the second time I've stayed with a host family and the experience was the best in the world.
I mean, look at how cute my host mother is!

Stay with a host family!

Do it!

This past Friday I decided to walk down the mountain again. Since I wasn't taking pictures much I could just enjoy the walk. It didn't take as long either. Of course by the time I got down my feet hurt, but not as much as last time. It's a nice walk, but now that it's really warm out, the bugs are starting to come back.
The bugs here are huge. No I will not take pictures because I will not get close enough to take a picture.

Camera on super vivid. Looking down from a bridge.

We stopped at a sushi restaurant when we got to Beppu-shi (Beppu City). Sushi here is fairly cheap and much better than in the US. I still don't have a taste for it. The sushi comes by on a conveyer belt and you pick which one you want. Different colored plates mean different prices, but rarely is sushi over 2 dollars each. There are also cakes and desserts that come around that I eat. I love tamagoyaki which is a sweet scrambled egg, served cold or at room temperature and it is squished into a rectangle. I also love Inarizushi which is a fried tofu pouch (also sweet) with rice inside. Sometimes there are other things inside too.

Pudding! Best Pudding.

I took a video! Please enjoy! I put it to fun music too. Sorry I don't know all the names of the sushi! I'll learn in time.