he first one we had (even the listening was easier to understand), and was finished just after the half an hour point. I went over to the convenience store, and picked up a snack, before going back to the lounge, and hanging out with Katie, Sarah, and Cate, getting some more kanji practice in. Reading and Writing came round, and we made a start on the story in the book, and covered some more grammar patterns; all one’s we’ve come across before thankfully. After that, I was free. I did some grocery shopping, and then I went home, had a quick lunch, and talked with Rachael for a while in the computer room, before making my way out again. I was going to meet Ash in the CIE lounge, since she was going to Joshin to buy a new MP3 player. Since I had never been, I was interested in joining her; on my way back to uni, I took some photos of this beautiful tree in full bloom now (I don’t think it’s a plum blossom), in front of Komatsu. 
Unfortunately, it was a bit past our meeting time (2:30) when I got there, and not finding her, I immediately went back to my bike, to see if I could be clever and catch up with her on it. Well, I didn’t see her the whole way there; I must have been too far in front. When I got to Joshin, which is basically just across from Midori, I waited there for a little while. There wasn’t much to look at in all honesty; it mirrored Midori in many respects. Still no sign of Ash, I contemplated just going home, before deciding that I might as well look around some more shops since I was out there. So, I continued up the highway (in the direction of Kappazushi and the Lake), and went in a few of the places Ash had told me about. The first was called FAN 倶楽部 (Fan kurabu – Fan club ~ this is an example of "ateji" - kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words. The kanji may or may not have anything to do with the original meaning of the word, and be chosen solely for phonetic value. In this case though, the kanji roughly translate as "together, fun, place", so you could argue whether that was a meaningful interpretation or not), and I had a field day inside. It sells second-hand clothes, books, guitars, CD’s, DVD’s, records, comics, games, and trading cards. The sheer amount of stuff they had was incredible.
I slowly made my way through the maze, looking for anything of interest to me. They had a corner filled with old poker machines, and a huge section with games from the Fami-Con (a.k.a the NES). There were thousands upon thousands, of Yugioh trading cards, some baseball cards, and I even spotted some Magic cards; that brought back memories. There were rows and rows of figures from every anime imaginable, all hanging up in little plastic bags, or displayed behind glass. In a cardboard box on the floor, I spotted some Final Fantasy books (my internal homing device doing its job), and found Final Fantasy VII: Official Establishment File, in relatively good condition. I contained images and information of the characters, and I thought it was a really good find; a collector’s item. Looking on the shelf above, I found some more Final Fantasy related books (mostly walkthroughs), and decided to pick up the one for FFX-2, since it was really cheap and compact. I browsed the rest of the store for a while, having a quick look at the CDs, and bypassing the rows and rows of manga, before making my purchases; I was very satisfied. The guy even gave me a discount on the FFVII book; score.
The next place I went to looked, from the outside, looked like a regular shop, but the inside was of… devious intent. The front quarter of the store was just like any other typical DVD/comic book store, but behind the big black curtains with the 18+ logo in red was a world of naughty pleasures. Ash had told me this, so I decided to check it out just for curiosities sake, and it was indeed very enlightening. I just thought the whole concept was bizarre; why have a tiny portion of your store dedicated to non-adult goods (there was no one in that section), when clearly the whole purpose of it is to go to the adult section. It seemed almost like a façade to me; you really wouldn’t know what they were actually selling from just looking at the exterior. Anyway, I came out empty-hand, but full-minded (well…) and made my way back home. I decided to stop by Top World to see if I could find the Old El Paso Taco Kit, I’d seen some girls using at the dorm; they told me they’d found it there. And sure enough, it was there; along with all the other hot sauces. I was over the moon actually; they had Nachos sauce too. However, it was wickedly expensive, so I held out on that, and just bought one of the kits; tacos this week!
Getting back, I had a good look at my purchases, before it was time for dinner; chicken parmigiana. I noticed that Yuji had left his cookies out, and let him know as soon as I saw him. He was making them around lunch time, and let me try one; they were… interesting. I stayed up in the kitchen until just before 8, and then went down to the lounge for Hugo’s movie night. Since he has so many movies on his portable hard drive, he has decided to have a viewing night once a week; he rigged up his laptop to connect with the TV. This week we watched Leon: The Professional, a French directed movie starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and a very young Natalie Portman; this was her debut film. I found it really enjoyable, and moving. It finished just after 10, and had attracted a number of viewers including Simon, Yuji, and Alvaro; a success. After an orange in the kitchen, I came back down, and got my blog as up-to-date as possible, until it was time for sleep.
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