天気：曇り
So, what did I spend the last day of the month doing? Well, not much at all really… I got up at around 8:30, and had a frugal breakfast, and decided to just stay in my pyjamas all day; strangely, Hugo wasn’t back yet. I skyped with Carly, and Alex, before talking with my family for over two hours; got to see my Nanny and Poppy! Then it was time for lunch. The TV was on in the kitchen, and in the right hand corner of the screen there was a map of Japan, with colours flashing around it’s coast; a 津波警報 (tsunami keihou – tsunami warning). There were three colours, red orange and yellow, red being the areas in the most danger, and yellow just having a general warning. Since we’re so far inland, we really have nothing to worry about. I find it quite amazing that an earthquake on the other side of the ocean (in Chile), could potentially have repercussions all the way over here in Japan. Flicking through all the channels, there was a warning on every one of them, the colours being slightly different from station to station; I wonder if a tsunami will hit?
After lunch, I spent the next couple of hours trying to get my blog up to speed; speed unfortunately, is not the word I would use for what the internet possesses here. Hugo eventually came back, and had fun ironing his clothes on the tiny little ironing standing; reminded me of Diego when he used to do it. It almost 3:30 by the time I was satisfied, and then I made my way out to fetch Simon. He had informed me of a fundraiser near Hirakata station for Haiti, and wanted to donate. We had already planned to go out this afternoon to find clothes for the gym, so at least we could look around while we were down there. Riding there was, for the most part, okay. That was until we got to the hill into downtown Hirakata, which provides no room for bikes. It was a less than enjoyable experience, as we sped down the slope, liberally applying the brakes and trying not to hit the side walk on our left (crowed with people), or the cars inches away from us on our right. Well, we both made it unscathed, and continued on to the station.
Here, there was a new dilemma; finding somewhere to park. We really didn’t want to have to pay to park our bikes, so searched for empty areas down side alleys; the problem was that there were “no parking for bikes” signs everywhere. Simon had got a warning ticket down here before, and didn’t want another. We finally found a space over by the park that I only just realised is under major renovation, if that’s the right word; we had walked past it when Simon was going to get his alien registration sorted, and I didn’t even notice. Anyway, we made our way back over there, as it was supposedly where the fundraiser was taking place. Well, when we got there we found nothing, no hint of any activity of the sort. After a little bit a searching, we decided to abandon the cause and go on our second mission; information gathered from facebook obviously doesn’t always have merit. We walked over to Saty, and went to the men’s floor, in search of some gym pants. We’ve been talking about going to the gym for a while now, and since there’s one less than a minute down the road from us that we can use for free (it belongs to the university), we don’t really have an excuse not to go.
In Saty we couldn’t find anything, that wasn’t stupidly priced, and Simon resigned himself to using some pants he already had; so now we were just looking for some for me. We tried in Kintetsu, but were out of luck; all brand name stuff. We even tried in Uniqlo, but all they had were track suits, and I wasn’t about to one of them. So, going all the way down to Hirakata station was a big waste of time; however as I was about to find out, the ride back served as excellent exercise. Yes, it was the hill again, though this time it wasn’t scary at all, just extremely exhausting; I really felt like I was going to die when I got to the top. This made me feel really out of shape, and only made my resolve to go to the gym stronger. Simon wanted to pick some stuff up for dinner, so we made our way to Fresco, Simon having a bit of a stack along the way, resulting in a broken reflector. I was well behind him, and got to witness the whole thing; it was pretty funny. In Fresco we bought a few things, and then, as a last resort we decided to go to Avail to see if they had anything. Well, we didn’t find any shorts, and the track suits were definitely a no. However, I did find a pack of two t-shirts for 300円, which is incredibly cheap. The rest of the time in there was dedicated to trying on other clothes, which proved unsuccessful, and having fun with this little Japanese boy, who was really good at speaking English. He was very excitable, and wasn’t shy at all, as he came up to us, and played hide-and-seek; I was really surprised.
We finally got back after 6. We didn’t achieve very much, but at least we had a little bit of fun, and got some exercise. Since Simon was going up to eat his 枝豆 (edamame – green soybeans) for dinner, I thought I might as well eat too. I heated up some stew, and was soon enjoying it with bread. We stayed up there for a little while, and then parted, intent on study. I tried on my new shirts, and they fit perfectly. Hugo was a little worried that they weren’t going to fit; the M size singlet he has is really tight. In Avail, when I saw the pants I had bought a while back, I thought, why not wear them; they’re pretty much sweat pants. Simon agreed when I showed him; they’re black, so they match my shirts too. Now I feel ready to go to the gym; and I spent way less than I had expected to for it. I studied until 9, and then went up to the kitchen for a snack, inevitably staying up there to sit and talk with Ash; she had just gotten back from her day with Peter at USJ. The tsunami warning was still on TV, though the threat had greatly lessened, with the most dangerous colour gone from the map. Just after 10, I went back downstairs, and did another hour of studying, before getting ready for bed; lesson test tomorrow…
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