We Embark Upon an Epic Adventure!

 

11/20/11

We have 2 days off before training starts, so we were free to wander around the city, and today I had one of the best days of my entire life!

After staying up until 2-3am talking with Chelsea (my awesome roomie), I woke up at 8am and couldn’t go back to sleep. It was my first day in a brand new country and I was WIRED to go exploring. A small group of us (5 total) gathered in the common room and we decided to go wander around the area around the school. There’s a vending machine with hot and cold drinks right outside of the dorm building next to a tabako (tobacco) shop. We got hot coffee in a can, which is the best drink in the whole world on a cool autumn morning, and just started off on the main sidewalk leading away from the school.

We went really far, just on that same street , and read funny store names, bought kare-pan (curry buns), and almost got run over by sidewalk bikers. Then, we came upon a purse lying in the middle of the sidewalk.  We kinda stood there looking at it and trying to figure out if we should pick it up and where to take it. No one else really stopped to look at it, so Rose finally grabbed it and we went into a small bakery nearby to ask if someone had lost it. The manager only spoke Japanese, and for a few minutes Rose and I (the others waited outside) were at a loss for how to explain the situation. Finally, Rose was able to get across what had happened, her Japanese is much better than mine, and the guy told us to take it to the kouban (police box) nearby. He was really helpful and even drew us a map, which was awesome!

I didn't take this photo, but it's just to show you.

So, we left the bakery and went off in search of the kouban, but got a little lost on the way and had to stop random passers-by for directions. We found a huge park with both a baseball and a soccer stadium. There were games going on in both, and also some kind of event going on outside with food and tents for something called “The Dream to  Children.” I think it was a charity event going on during the soccer game. We didn’t stop right away since we still hadn’t found the police box yet, but after maybe 10 more minutes we finally arrived.

Rose, Chelsea, and I went inside with the purse and encountered 5 police officers who did not speak any English (I see this becoming a pattern in the future-more reason to brush up on my Japanese). Thank goodness Rose was able to communicate a bit more fluidly, and we were able to tell them where we had found it and what had happened. My contributions were random outbursts of “keiki no mise!” (“cake store” grammatically, but it made them all laugh), and “koko, koko,naka!” (“here, here, middle,” trying to explain that it was laying in the middle of the road). The best one though was, when trying to locate the Amity dorms on a map for our contact address, I pointed to the map and said “TABAKO!!!” (because of the shop right across the street), but unfortunately said it rather loud and intensely. I definitely need to work on my Japanese… Everyone got a good laugh out of it, and we did eventually locate the building. :) The police people were super nice and took their time to help us out. There were tons of credit cards and almost ¥70,000  (over $700 cash) in there, so it’s a good thing we found it. If it was my purse I would have been freaking out! They found the girl’s id card and called her on the phone, but we left before she got there.

Afterward we went to the “Dream to the Children” and ate chicken on a stick (sorry, I forget what it’s called) and blueberry cheesecake ice cream. :)Then we wandered away down the road and turned right over a looong bridge. We found a book store, and then a department/grocery store called “Happy Town” which was HUGE! We bought food for dinner and I bought a bag to use in place of my purse which I unfortunately packed in my big suitcase that was forwarded to my school. My bag is super awesome because it is ENGRISH! 

The transcript reads:

Dear My Friend, Hello. How are you? I m very very fine! About five years pass since you return to the hometown. I am glad to be gone of you. [Something] it s very lonely if it happily spends it. I looks forward to meeting you some time. I [something] your nappiness. Thank. TO JAPAN

My favorite part is that this is supposed to be a letter to a friend, but apparently the writer is happy to be away from them. I don’t think their friendship is very strong, probably because of the reciever's "nappiness." Taking care of your hair is important in Japan I guess. :P 

At the top of the store (it had 3 stories)  we did puri-kura which is like a photo booth where you can edit the photos afterward with sparkles, stamps, and doodles and it prints you tiny, tiny photo stickers that you can put on things! :) I will see if I can take a good photo of our photo so you guys can see it!

Afterward it was getting late (like 4-5 hours since we had left the dorms), and we decided to head back. It took FOREVER to walk back and it got really cold and started to rain too. Most of us didn’t have jackets or umbrellas, so by the time we got back we were super happy to be inside where it was warm and dry. We ate our food, played uno and Egyptian rat screw, and then made Popin’ Cookin’ sushi-candy! It’s basically a kit where you use powdered gels and water to make realistic looking food items… but out of candy! There will be photos as soon as the girls upload it to Facebook for me. The reviews were correct about it, though. It doesn’t really taste bad, but it has a weird texture. Kind of wet and mealy. But making it was FUN!

I finally got to talk to my family for like 5 minutes over skype, but our internet connection was so bad (we officially don’t have any in the dorm, so we’re sneaking an unprotected one) that we all had trouble hearing one another and eventually it just cut off. This was the first time since leaving Columbus that I really broke down. I felt super homesick and I just missed my family so much. I know that this is a natural part of “growing up,” but it doesn’t have to hurt so much, does it? I wanted to tell them that I was fine and all about what had happened today, but mostly we said “I can’t hear you.” I did get to tell them that I love and miss them, and the best part was hearing them tell me that they loved me too. <3

Overall, we had an amazing day today. I didn’t expect to have this much to write on the first day, but hopefully the adventures will continue!

Oyasumi nasai! (goodnight)

Shawna

P.S. I promise to take more photos... I forgot... :/ In an epic rpg adventure party, you never have "knight, wizard, rogue, photographer." :P