23:13pm セミナーハウス
天気：曇り
Today was a so much fun… I woke up at about 9:30, showered, washed my hair, and shaved. At about 10:30, my first new roommate arrived; Jamie Lee Sykes (not Skyes – spelt it wrong). He’s from Leeds, from the same uni as Peter and Rachel; Peter’s going into home stay, and Rachel’s staying here. We chatted for a while, and then I went out to wait in the lounge for Jacinthe. So many people were arriving this morning; and throughout the rest of the day no doubt. Jacinthe came down to let me know she’d be ready soon, and then Jo turned up; back from her epic trip. I immediately took her to my room so she could pick up her luggage, before going back down to the lounge.
When Jacinthe came, she asked if I’d borrowed a bike, and I said I hadn’t, but then I thought, “I’ll go and borrow Jo’s”. So I went back up and got her key off her, no problem. It felt weird riding, but it wasn’t as scary as I thought. It certainly made the trip feel a lot shorter; it would have taken at least and hours walk. We stopped at a 7/11 on the way, so I could get some money out, and then we continued on down the highway. Eventually we got there; Jacinthe recognized the building. It’s next to “Round One”, which has a bowling alley, karaoke, and the like. Apart from the theatres, this building had a number of clothes shops, restaurants, a bookshop and pet shop.
We went to the cinemas first to check the times; jump of excitement when I saw that it was there. There was either a 4:10 in 2-D, or 5:20 in 3-D. Of course we went with the 3-D version. It was a little more expensive, but had to do it. So, tickets bought, we had 5 hours to kill. First off, we had to eat, so Jacinthe took me to a ramen place nearby; it was great. Then we went back and hit the clothes shops. I managed to find a great pair of pants. At about 3, we went to the coffee shop, and got soft cream; chatted there for a while. Then we went upstairs and played the taiko game, before going to the pet shop; so many cute, and exotic animals. Still with over an hour to go, we went to the bookshop, and spent a while there, looking at the sheet music books, and language textbooks; Jacinthe is teaching French to Japanese students.
Finally, after watching some school-aged guys playing the taiko game (they were damn good), and going back to a clothes shop so Jacinthe should buy a dress, we got to the cinema right on time. Bought caramel popcorn (as always), and drinks, and got seated; the theatre was absolutely packed. 3-D glasses on, and we were straight into it. The sound quality was absolutely shocking and I was so worried the whole movie was going to be like that (it would have totally ruined it), but they fixed it up after a few minutes; so relieved… three hours later and we were out. I thought it was epic; the 3-D was really cool, and I felt so absorbed into the movie. The story was great, and the graphics were incredible; it was so organic and realistic.
It was 8:30, dark, and the ride back was cold. When we did get back, we found a bunch of people in the lounge, listening to Otousan play guitar; I was really surprised! He was very modest about it (of course), but Okaasan was there spurring him on. After he’d finished, Okaasan brought her koto out!!! I piped up that I was in the koto club, so she insisted that I played; practically dragged me to the ground. But first, I had to go get my tsume from my room. As soon as I got in, I realised someone was in bed. Unfortunately, I had to turn the light on, which revealed two people in bed; one in mine! I quickly got the tsume, and then got back to the lounge.
The koto was old and dusty, and way out of tune. I was able to tune it with relative ease, which made me really proud of myself. And what did I play; Sakura sakura of course. I was a little nervous, but got it out pretty well; it’s easy. Everyone applauded, and then I played Hanagoromo; it was good practice. Soon after, the woman I know for CIE came in, and Okaasan insisted an encore of Sakura sakura. Then, it was her turn. My tsume actually fit her pretty well; she explained that hers had broken. She also told me that she hasn’t played in 10 years, so is out of practice; she got through Sakura sakura pretty good though. So now, she wants me to be her teacher, and says I can play her koto anytime I want. This is great for me; I’ll be able to get plenty of practice in before the concert.
Since I was a bit hungry, I went up with Jacinthe to borrow her knife (which turned out to be a carving knife), and went to the kitchen with her to make avocado on toast. Since they’d taken the toasters away, and even the toaster oven, we had to use the microwaves; one of my pieces of bread got a bit burnt. Jacinthe borrowed my Jam, so she was happy. After that, I snuck into my room again, and got the Jo’s bike key and my flash drive; so I could do my blog on the computers. I first went to sit with Jo and Sarita in the lounge, and Jo told us about her adventures in Thailand; so cool. Then I came in here (the computer room), and started on my blog, getting pleasantly distracted by Rachel and Peter.
Now it’s just me and Peter in here; Sarita’s in the lounge on Skype. I really don’t want to go back to my room, especially since my bed has been taken; by Hugo. I mean, when you come see three beds and two are unmade and the other is made, why would you take the made one? I guess I should have made it more obvious, and I’ve only used it once, but still. Oh well, I’ll be off soon. I’m really glad I finally got to see Avatar; it was definitely worth it. The movie was in English, with subtitles (which really popped out) but, as I’d expected, when they spoke in the Na’vi language, there were only Japanese subtitles. Still, it was easy enough to get the gist of it (I could read bits of the Japanese), though it will be nice to see what they’re actually saying. Anyway, it’s time for sleep...
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