Today was so much fun, though very exhausting… I woke up at about 9:30, and got ready for the day. Since it was such a nice, sunny day, I put o
n some laundry, trying to be as quiet as possible; Hugo was still asleep. At around 11, I heard the reception desk bell ring, and I knew straight away that it was Ash, trying to sign her parents in; by the sounds of things, Otousan wasn’t coming. Soon after, Ash came to my room, and asked if I wanted to go to the park for a picnic; of course I did. I went out to meet her parents, and then let them know I’d catch up in a bit, since I had some washing on. Like Katie, Hugo was going to the graduation at Kansai Gaidai today. I had wanted to go, but at the same time, I wanted to go to the lake with Ash and her parents. After putting my washing out, I left on my bike, and in no time at all, caught up with them; Rachel had also joined. The walk to the park was surprisingly hot, and I found myself stripping down to just my shirt. Getting to the park and some relief from the sun, we made our way around to the northern side of the lake; I abandoned the group to take photos of flowers at one point.I met up with them at an undercover area, and we sat down to enjoy our “picnic”, which consisted of grapes, Ritz, chips, bread sticks, and chocolate. We sat for a while and just talked about various things; Ash’s parents are very well travelled. At around 1, we continued our walk around the park, and came across a grove of what might have been sakura; not entirely sure. Indeed, there were many people taking advantage of the warm weather, lounging
under the beautiful blossoms. It was quite windy by this point, and it was an amazing sight to see all the petals flying about; many other flowers were out too. We circumnavigated the lake, wandering through the bamboo grove, and watching the carp, before making our way out. Ash had decided that we go straight to karaoke; we would meet a few others there. So, we made our way back along the river, a route I had never taken, on to Makino; it was very pleasant, with lots to see along the way. Getting to Sanko, we stocked up on a few supplies, before continuing on to Karaoke. Rachael and Katie met us along the way, and when we got there I went around to the back to park my bike; by this point it was more of a burden than anything else.
Getting inside, I signed us in, and then we had to wait for about 30 minutes to get a room. Peter arrived just as we were about to go in; perfect timing. Since it was almost 4, we decided to get daytime free time, which goes till 7. We soon found Peter to be an amazing singer; I was equally as impressed as I was jealous. Seriously though, his singing voice sounded completely different to his normal voice, and he really knew how to get into it; he was doing funny things with the mic chord. Rachael didn’t feel comfortable singing much, but we made her sing a few, as we did Ash’s parents, finding out that Ash and her Mum have the exact same singing voice. All in all, we had a wonderful time, although I was a bit disappointed we didn’t stay that long. Peter had to leave a little early, so he missed out on doing purikura with us when we got out; we had to do it with Ash’s parents. After that, we walked back, intending to go to Sandoru in Makino for dinner. When we got to Sanko, both Rach(a)els decided to go straight home, Rachel because she was going to Tokyo tomorrow and had to eat the rest of the food in her fridge, and Rachael because she isn’t too keen on Japanese food; Rachel was kind enough to take my bike back with her.When we got to Sandoru, we soon realised it was closed; Friday and Saturday are regular holidays! So that idea went out the window. We walked back down the street, and ended up coming to a place called Zenya; the menu looked good so we thought why not. After a short while, we were seated; the interior was really nice, and traditional. After ordering, the conversation began to flow. For a Japanese restaurant, it actually took an uncharacteristically long time for our meals to arrive. And, there was a bit of a mistake. Ash had ordered two of the same set for both her parents, and they only ended up bringing out one. When we realised this, we promptly informed the waiter, and eventually Ash’s Dad got a meal. That sorted, we all had an enjoyable dinner, and I even got to finish off Ash’s rice and her mum’s meal; so lots of variation for me! After hearing Ash being referred to as Chirstina (or Chris or Chrissie) by her parents all day (it is her name after all), I had to bring up the, “Why is your name Ash,” question; and tonight, I finally got the answer, and not from Ash. Her mum proceeded to tell as that Ash was short for Ashley, a boy’s name Christina liked and would use as part of her pen name if ever she were to publish a book. Ash herself had completely forgotten this, so it was really awesome to have the mystery behind the name finally revealed.
At around 9:30, we made our way back out into the windy night, and Ash escorted her parents back to the uni, so they could find their way back to the hotel, and Katie and I went home. I was quite tired by this time, and was very grateful to Hugo for bringing my laundry in. I spent the rest of the night chatting with Carly and Alex. Much to my surprise, I found out that Alex would in fact be in Kyoto tomorrow; the time just stuck up on me. So, after going to Nipponbashi for the parade tomorrow, I’m going to go meet up with Alex, and her Aunt and Nan, and we’re going to go to karaoke; can’t wait…
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