Day 223 - 10th of April

8:37am　普通

天気：晴れ

I’m on the local train to Amagasaki, to change over for 姫路 (Himeji – lit. “Princess Road”); I’m with Rachel, Rachael and Sarah. I got up at 6:30 this morning, showered and had porridge for breakfast; and a very hasty breakfast that was. The four of us left for the Hirakata station at 7 by bus, and then took the train to Kyobashi. There, we went to the JR ticket office and picked up an all day rail pass to Himeji, which was really convenient and saved a bit of money too. We’re at Amagasaki now…

8:58am　新快速

Now we’re on the “special rapid” (never been on one of these before) to Himeji; just got to sit down. It’s a beautiful sunny, warm day today, and it may actually end up being too hot; especially since the line to get into the castle is going to be very long. Oh well, it’s definitely going to be worth it. I’m going to do a bit of study now; well, try too…

5:00pm　新快速

We’re back on the special express now, home bound! My feet are very sore, but it was definitely worth it; I knew it would be. The only problem is I’m too tired to write about it now; I’m going to doze for a bit…

10:51pm　セミナーハウス

Feeling a bit better now that I’ve had a nice hot shower and I’m lying down. Today was… gosh I can’t even describe it, but I know I have to. I just have to say right now that I’m so, so glad that I decided to go; it really was an amazing experience…We arrived in Himeji at about 10, and after I picked up the second volume of Reborn from a book store in the station, we made our way through an underground shopping arcade, and up onto the main street. Already, we could see the castle, standing proudly at the end of the busy main street; I already had both cameras out. Walking there, we past many interesting statues, an information centre with a cool model of the castle, and also got some food from the convenience store to eat when we got into the grounds, since there aren’t any food stalls within; I just got some onigiri, anpan, and a bottle of orange juice. Getting closer, we noticed the remains of the outer walls of the original castle town, now not much more than grassy mounds topped with ancient trees, with stone skirting their bases. Soon enough, we had reached the end of the street, the castle looking increasing grand; a huge moat, and stone walls surrounding the bailey; the “White Heron” proudly standing atop a cloud of pinks and greens ~ it is sometimes referred to as 白鷺城 (shirasakijo – “White Heron Castle”) because of it brilliant white exterior.

We crossed the white arching bridge, and entered the gate to the bailey, and were soon surrounded by 100s of sakura trees. We really had come at the perfect time! Just about all of them were in full bloom, or just past, which meant that we not only got to appreciate them at the height of their glory but also, when the wind blew, the petals would be caught in a flurry, before landing silently on the ground; it was truly a magical sight. And believe me when I say, I got my cherry blossom fill today; there must have been at least a thousand trees on the grounds if not more. Since it was still relatively early in the day, we decided to tour the castle first, before eating lunch. Already, a patchwork of blue tarps skirted the sakura, families and business colleagues enjoying their meals and the shade; it was actually getting quite hot. Waiting in the line-up to purchase tickets proved to be relatively short. Upon entry, Rachel bumped into one of her classmates, and they chatted for a bit with we planned our next move. After passing though another gate, we decided to check out the gardens first, before entering the main keep; cherry blossom heaven. I noticed that the palace was nearby (like the one at Nijo castle, this one was also called Nishi no Maru), and asked if the girls wanted to walk through it. It was free to go in, but when we got to the entrance, we had to take off our shoes and carry them with us in plastic bags; this was understandable, but odd. The interior was all wooden, and at some points very low or narrow; the stairs, which were almost ladders, were especially scary. “Stone throwing holes” were one of the cool features of the castle, which was a long curving structure of interconnecting rooms, almost all of them offering a view of the main keep.

Exiting at the other end, we put our shoes back on, disposed the plastic bags in the designated bins, and then made our way back through the garden; I found some pin dispensers on the way, so now I have two more. Even though they were doing a lot of construction work already, for the most part it didn’t obstruct the beautiful scenery. There was a giant crane set up next to the main keep, but even then you could easily take photos that didn’t include it; they had positioned it at an ideal angle and distance away. Unlike the line to the admission booths, the line to get into the main keep for far from short; our “siege” didn’t seem very dramatic at such a sluggish pace. When we finally found the end of the line, we were in a small courtyard with a well that someone had apparently been thrown into for being “naughty". By this point, it was very hot in the sun, and my bag was feeling heavy, but I endured; we were soon in the shade of the trees and the wall. In the same way that I couldn’t get much study done on the train this morning (because I was too distracted by the scenery), I didn’t have much luck reading Reborn. Even going at that pace, there was so much to see so in the end, while it took about an hour to get into the keep, it was far from boring; incidentally, I noticed Natalie in the exiting lane about halfway up.

I would have been very difficult for besiegers to even get to the main keep; the castle is such an intricate complex of paths and walls. The walls themselves have holes of alternating shapes in them, and each one could potentially have a rifleman on the other side, poised to fire. When we did finally get to the entrance, we went through the same procedure as the palace. Carrying my bagged shoes in one hand and my video camera in the other proved to be a little unruly especially when climbing the stairs. The central tower was six storeys high, and there were a few historical artefacts displayed throughout, including samurai armour, scrolls and rifles and spears; it had a very different feel to the museum-like set ups of Nagoya and Osaka castles. It was lit only by natural light, which meant that it was actually quite dark in many places. Like the palace, it was relatively unfurnished. It was quite crowded and near the beginning, Rachael and I got separated from Rachel and Sarah. We ended up getting to the top first, because the other two got stuck in the crowd at the bottom of the stairs on one of the lower floors, in order to limit the number of people in the top. At the top, we took in the amazing view of the grounds and the city beyond; it was very impressive. Interestingly there was a shrine, 刑部 (Osakabe), on the top floor, which was actually originally situated on the hill that they built the castle. They ended up moving the shrine during construction, and then relocating in inside the tower when they were finished; I think that’s really cool.

Going up the stairs was a bit worrying, but coming down was even worse. Like the palace too, these stairs were precariously steep, and I had to bend over to get under the crossbeam near the top. Going back down though, I had to basically climb under it, which was no easy task, especially when the stairs were slippery and I was in socks; Rachel, tall like me, had a similar struggle. We met up again on the 4^th floor, and then made our way back down, past more interesting artefacts; including a model of the original castle town. Again exiting from a different side, we made our way back out of the main keep, our descent much faster than our climb. Feeling very hungry, after a few more photos we exited out into a park and sat down on a rock for lunch, watching playful pigeons. After a bit of a rest, we continued exploring the grounds coming across 姫路神社 (Himeji Shrine), which was absolutely beautiful; I could understand why I would be a popular location for weddings. We walked through more gardens, and climbed to the top of the wall surrounded by the moat, finding a fiery ginger cat sleeping in the top of a water feature; it wasn’t running. We were now on the east side of the castle, were the construction work was much more obvious. It had gotten cloudy, and subsequently cooled down, so walking back around to the front of the complex was much more comfortable. To the left of us was another park filled with people enjoying the sakura, and to the right, a zoo. Once we got to the south east corner, we took our last few photos of the castle, with two shachi (tiger-headed fish) in the foreground. It was about 3:30 by this point, so we decided to call it a day, and headed back towards the train station; the castle would be closing at 4 anyway. On the way back, we past a market, and went over to a convenience store so Rachel could pick up some food; she hadn’t eaten yet.

Finally, we went to a ダイソー (Daiso), a100 yen store. It was basically three floors of cheap goods, most of them 105円; cause of the tax. Sarah was looking for gyoza press (which she found), and ended up buying a whole heap of other things; reminded me of Mum a discount shop. I found a big teddy bear to cuddle and some children’s books, one of which was kobutorijisan (the story we read in Reading and writing); I didn’t end up buying anything though. Before leaving for the station, both Rachael and I bought bread from the grocery store on the first floor. We made our way back to station, and were soon riding the special rapid back to Amagasaki. I was so sleepy and dozed off a couple of times. Rachel on the other hand, was too intent on seeing the sea to sleep; understandable since she lives in the middle of America. Once we got to Amagasaki, we hoped platforms and took the limited express back to Kyobashi; not that it made much difference since it stops just as frequently as the local. I read a little bit more of Reborn and now I’ve only got about 10 pages left; glad I bought the second volume today. Once we got to Kyobashi we went over to the Keihan side and Rachael suggested that we try to use the all-day passes that we got today on the Keihan line. So, I went up to ask one of the station attendants if we could use the ticket, and he said no. But he directed us around to an office, and said we could exchange the all-day JR ticket for an all-day Keihan ticket; very cool. So we relinquished our JR tickets, which were stamped twice, and then we received the Keihan tickets; so we ended up saving 320円.

After getting back to Hirakatashi, Rachael, Sarah, and I took the bus home, while Rachel decided to walk; she does like to walk. Getting back, I dumped my stuff in my room (Hugo-less) and then went up to make dinner. Ash was there, and I talked with her about her day; she had gone to Shinsaibashi and bought some magazines and a costume of one of her favourite anime characters. Sarah soon joined us, but just as soon left; I hadn’t even started eating dinner. I mixed the leftovers from last night with the rest of my pasta, and it turned out very nicely. It was very quiet in the kitchen (everyone was out), and apart from Ash and I, there were only about 4 other people in there, including Sam. He had wanted to come today, but hadn’t woken up; I wonder if he’ll go tomorrow with Jazz? Katie was next to join us, and she recalled her wonderful day in Kyoto, seeing the Philosopher’s Path and 平安神宮 (Heian Shrine, which I still want to go to), all transformed by the sakura. I think that seeing Himeji castle during sakura season tramps almost everything else, so I’m extremely glad I went; can’t say that enough. Katie soon left, and Rachel replaced her and we continued to chat for a while going our separate ways. To end this post on a rather dramatic note, I found out something from Ash tonight that I couldn’t believe; this was later confirmed in an email from the CIE. One of the students from Kansai Gaidai was arrested for the possession of marijuana!!! Who in their right mind would be stupid enough to think they could get away with something like that, especially in a country like Japan that has zero tolerance of drugs; obviously someone who isn’t in their right mind. Ash and I were speculating who it might be, but it might be someone we don’t even know; so many questions left unanswered. Needless to say, there will be severe repercussions for whoever did it, including detention without bail for up to six months, and deportation from Japan for up to 10 years. Absolutely crazy…

Day 205 - 23rd of March

9:40am　休息所

天気：雨天

In the lobby, waiting for Sandy and Nan to eat their breakfast on the 13 floor; the buffet breakfast wasn’t included as part of Alex’s and my stay. I’ll just pick up something small later; Alex and I are thinking of going to sweets paradise for lunch, so I should save my appetite. Despite expectations, I slept really well; I guess I really needed it. After going to nakau for dinner again, we got back to the hotel and after talking for a while, fell asleep from exhaustion. Anyway, don’t know what we’re doing today; just have to wait and see…

11:15pm　セミナーハウス

Alex + Japan = one of the best days ever. Seriously, whenever we’re together on holiday in Japan, we have at least one day that is absolutely amazing, and today was that day; everything was perfect. My feet are killing me, and I’m really tired, physically and mentally, but it was so worth it… After checking out, we went into the adjoining department store, and Sandy and Nan did some last minute shopping; not that they didn’t already have enough clothes. Actually, Sandy found an absolutely amazing deal on boots; I wish there were some for men. We went down to the basement floor, to find an ATM, and came across an outlet store; lots of really cool imported miscellany. Of course, I had to by some badges for my bag. After that, more clothes shopping ensued, and Alex got a really great looking hat. I thought it would be a good idea to take them to the new department store across from the station; the massive one. So we made our way over there, walking through the station, past all the restaurants. We found a bakery, and Alex and I decided to pick up something to eat; I just got a sandwich. Then we continued on, past more restaurants, and the really cool water feature; which Sandy and Nan really appreciated.

Going outside, we made our way over to the department store, only to find that it actually hadn’t opened yet; I had misinterpreted the sign. On it, it said in English, “Spring Open”; so I assumed since it was indeed spring, it should be open. So we made our way back to the awesome flan store (called Berry Café), in the station. Sandy just had to try one of the flans; I had a feeling they would be very expensive. Nevertheless, we went in and sat down, and everyone ordered expect me; Nan was shouting, but I didn’t feel right letting her pay for me. Since I was thinking at that point we’d be going to sweets paradise anyway, I wasn’t really fussed. I have to say though, the flans looked incredible; it’s a shame I didn’t take a photo. The slices were also a pretty decent size; though still not worth as much money as they were. I ended up trying a bit of Alex’s, which was a custard tart topped with banana and mango; it was very tasty. Sandy got the same one, and Nan ordered some sort of chocolate filled flan with strawberries, raspberries, and dark chocolate on top; equally as tasty. Also, I ended up drinking Sandy’s hot chocolate since it was “too strong” for her; it was indeed very chocolaty.

After leaving the café, we went in search of another ATM (this time for Nan), and after asking at the information desk, we were directed upstairs to one close to the shinkansen section of the station; the old man who told us the way was so nice. Since we were right there, Alex suggested Sandy and Nan buy their shinkansen tickets, and with our help, they did; just used the machines. We had thought of going to Kyoto tower, but seeing how Sandy and Nan wanted to get to Tokyo at a decent time (it was about 1 o’clock at the time), they decided they would go now. So after, hugs and kisses, they went back to the hotel to pick up their luggage, before they would be spirited off to Tokyo on the shinkansen. As soon as we parted, Alex was feeling all protective of them; she had been with them in Japan since they got off the plane. I assured her they would be fine, and she knew they would be; with hand gestures and pointing, they’d get the message. And besides, in Tokyo there would be many more people who can speak English; they’re going to have a great time.

So, now Alex and I had to decide what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. After a little bit of thinking, we decided that we wanted to do some shopping, because we really hadn’t done enough; we’d mostly just been watching Sandy and Nan. We thought about taking a bus at first, but then I suggested we just take the subway, since it would be cheaper; well actually it was 10円 dearer, which really isn’t that big a deal anyway. We went two stops away to 烏丸 (karasuma – lit. “crow circle”), and soon emerged out into a rain-filled sky. This time, it was my turn to find an ATM, and as luck would have it, there was a Sumitomo Mitsui bank just across the street; it was a massive building. After going to the toilet (which had automated everything – flusher, soap dispenser, water, hand drier), we found the ATM room over in the other corner of the room. After that, we went back out onto the street, and started walking up the street; not entirely sure where we were going.

Of course, we were exactly where wanted to be (all thanks to me needing an ATM), and after a bit of walking, we found the entrance to 寺町 (teramachi – lit. “temple town), which is the huge long shopping street I can never remember the name of; hopefully now I will. The next three hours consisted of some of the most enjoyable and satisfying shopping I’ve ever done; it was great…first we come across ABC Mart, and each bought an amazing pair of converse shoes. Alex got a black pair with a blue tongue, and I got an orange, green and blue plaid design pair. We also bought some bright coloured laces to go with them; Alex glittery purple, and me green. Well, they aren’t boots (which I’m still looking for), they are an awesome pair of converse; and so cheap too. Next, we came across a t-shirt print store, where you could get kanji, hiragana, or katakana printed on a shirt colour and size of your choice. The kanji was limited to a few pages of words and expressions, and a set that represented the phonetic alphabet so you could get your name in kanji; which wasn’t too appealing. Alex and I both wanted something meaningful to us, and after a lot of deliberating, we both came up with some great ideas.

I poured through my iPod to find some expressions that I liked, and shoed the shopkeeper the “go bash your head on a block of tofu and die” expression. He had a little laugh, and then explained that they didn’t have the kanji, and doing it in hiragana might take up a bit too much space. So I continued looking, and the expression, “don’t worry, be happy” caught my attention. I shoed this one to him, and asked him if it made sense. He told me that the expression was actually in an Okinawan dialect (I was really surprised), so I asked him what the Kansai dialect equivalent would be. He came up with どうにかなんでー (dou ni ka nan de), which roughly translates to something like, “it’ll get done one way or another”. I was really happy with this, so decided to get it. I choose a dark red shirt (A small fit me – so I guessed they were Western sizes; it is a shop catering for tourists after all), and got the hiragana in white. 5 minutes later, it was all done; basically just a matter of arranging the characters, and putting the shirt in an iron press. I got the expression on the front of the shirt, and on the back I got 京都 (Kyoto); this was a complementary service.

Alex decided to get two shirts – a light blue one with ゆきまつだ (Yuki Matsuda – her “Japanese” name) on the front, and 夢 (yume – dream) on the back; and a dark blue one with 濠太剌利 (oosutoraria – Australia) on the front, and 日本 (Nihon – Japan) on the back. I’ll have to go back there again and get some more shirts done; I still want to try to get the tofu expression. It was a good price for what it was too, especially since you could get practically anything you wanted on the shirt, and choose from a huge range of colours. While we were in there, a group of Germans and Japanese came in. I was really impressed with the German woman, who was constantly switching back and forth from Japanese to German; I could understand a lot of the Japanese too. Basically the whole thing was about them wanting to get their family, ‘Deiter’ on a t-shirt, and they were trying to figure out the best way to write that in Japanese; ディター, or ジター. I was also really happy with myself for being able to talk with the shopkeeper to get exactly what I wanted. I know I can speak it, I just need to not be so shy; I’m going to try harder from now on! During the time we were there, we also went into the adjoining shop called 人参倶楽部 (ninjin kurabu – “carrot club”), which had a plethora of anime goods; Alex found some very “interesting” designs on coffee cups.

We were on such a high from buying those shirts that we forgot about our aching feet for a time, and pressed on down the street, looking at a few more shops. In a bag and t-shirt shop, Alex got a really cool looking white rucksack (really cheap too), and I bought a maroon coloured shirt with an awesome design of a phoenix on front and back with the word for phoenix (不死鳥 – fushicho) printed in gold; such a great find. We came to the end of the street, and made a right onto an adjacent one, continuing to browse the shops. I noticed there was a Shakey’s on the street, and since we were feeling hungry, we decided to check it out; Shakey’s is an all you can eat pizza and pasta place. Getting inside we realised that we had come at the end of the lunch time period; it was about 4:15. We asked about dinner time, and found out that it started at 5 and went till 10; unlike sweets paradise, there is no time limit!!! We decided to come back then; it wasn’t too long to wait. In the mean time we did a bit more shopping. I found some caramel latte flavoured yatsuhashi; which in retrospect tastes really amazing although the coffee smell is a little overbearing. Alex wanted to go back to ninjin kurabu, to pick up a watch she had seen for one of her friends. So we walked back there and got the watch; that killed a heap of time.

We got back to Shakey’s a few minutes before 5, and the girl who we had talked with before was nice enough to let us in a bit early. We were seated, and then got stuck into it. I have to tell you now Shakey’s was one of the best eating experiences I’ve ever had!!! First of all, for what it is, it’s amazingly cheap; all you can eat for up to 5 hours! The pizza tasted amazing, and there were so many different toppings; there were even dessert pizzas. I only end up having a little bit of pasta, since I wanted to fit in more pizza; they were all thin-based. Apart from pizza and pasta, there was curry, salad, and even potato wedges. If you want to pay extra, Shakey’s is also a nomihodai (all you can drink) restaurant, which extends to alcoholic drinks. Since we knew that drinking would just fill us up, we decided to just buy one drink (orange juice for Alex, and grape fruit juice for me), which lasted a surprisingly long time; we would just take small sips every now and then. We ended up staying for almost 2 and a half hours, after a lot of eating, we just sat there talking and letting our food digest; although I had to go back one more time to try the new batch of dessert pizzas they had brought out.

While sitting there, Alex laced up her new shoes, using the black ones, and purples one to create a really cool pattern; she’d found an app for the iPod that shoes you about 50 different ways to do laces. We also finally divided the purikura photos up; I got scissors from the lady at the front counter. Alex also had to sort out all the stuff she had bought, trying to minimise the number of bags she had to haul back to Nagoya; she got it down to two, and her backpack. Finally, it was time to leave the wondrous Shakey’s, to whence I will hopefully return to soon. Alex wanted to go back to ninjin kurabu one last time, to by a Rei outfit, so we trudged back there again; luckily it was still open. We had decided to split at the store, so after buying the outfit, we had a big long hug. Then I read a sign saying that the Keihan line and the subway were in the same direction, so we ended up continuing on together. Coming out onto the street, we couldn’t find the subway, so Alex decided she would just take the bus; much easier. So we crossed the road, and waited at the bus stop for it to come; it didn’t take too long. With a final hug, she got on the bus, which soon sped off into the rainy night; now it was time for me to get home. I walked over to 三条駅 (Sanjo station), which is just over the bridge, and caught the rapid express back to Hirakatashi; walking back from Makino wouldn’t have been very pleasant at all. I was so tired that I fell asleep for a little while. When I woke up I felt a little disorientated, and was worried that we had already gone past Hirakatashi. Soon enough though, we came up to Kuzuha, and then went onto Hirakata. I was on the first bus back to the seminar houses, and then used up my last bit of energy to walk home; so exhausted. What a wonderful way to start spring break…

Day 193 - 11th of March

10:57pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Just finished watching the Star Trek movie with Rachel and Sarah, on Rachel’s laptop; it was pretty good, though a little corny in parts. Today was cold, but at least it was, for the most part, sunny… I got up at about 10, and made pancakes for breakfast; for some reason, they didn’t come out very well at all. I got to uni a bit after 11:30, and sat down as a side dish to the Rach(a)el sandwich; Katie was the sandwich filling. We continued with keigo in speaking, and also heard our last speech; we’ll be having our oral exams next week, which I’m not looking forward to. After class, I went downstairs to find Katie and Sarah, and Katie was in the process of getting her new laptop; her former one was blue screening constantly. So, I accompanied her to the CIE office, where she found out that she needed to pay the tax in order to get the post office to send it to the uni. Since she didn’t have the exact change, she decided to just go pick it up from the post office directly, later in the afternoon. That sorted, we went upstairs to our respective classes; I talked with Peter in the hall for a while before getting seated.

We continued with Soka Gakkai in Religion, and learnt more about Nichiren Buddhism, Soka Gakkai’s associated political party (Komeito), and what Soka Gakkai members believe in; the power of their chant apparently. It was all very interesting, and again, the sense of foreboding lurked in the background. The professor also told us some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the possible connection between Soka Gakkai and our Kansai Gaidai; the dean of the CIE is in fact a Soka Gakkai member. It seems very much a cult of personality, where Ikeda (current president and founder of Soka Gakkai International) is an idol, placing himself among the ranks of Martin Luther King, and Ghandi. And yet, for all his awards, all his dialogues with people in power, none of us foreign students had ever heard of him before; his presence really isn’t felt outside Japan. Well, except for in China… oh and guess who else is a member of Soka Gakkai; Orlando Bloom!!! I found this quite interesting. And yeah, it is definitely a religion; they do a lot of praying and chanting as frequently as possible.

After class, Peter, Jeremy, and a guy from Denmark whose name escapes me, met with Katie, and we went to Makkas to get fries; this month, all sizes (S, M, L) are 150円!!! We got there just before it closed at 3 (since the Gaidai students are on spring break they have shorter opening hours), and all enjoyed our fries, sitting with the professor; I’m sure she appreciated us disturbing her quiet time. Everyone had stories to share (especially Peter), and we had quite a good long chat. During that time, I couldn’t help but to notice the Japanese girls, hip-hop dancing right out front of Makkas. Jeremy had devised a cunning plan for just this scenario. Just as Katie came back from getting the information about her laptops whereabouts, we all went over to the window the girls were in front of, and Jeremy passed as all a piece of paper with a single number typed on it, ranging from 1 to 10; and what did we do? As the girls danced, we held up the numbers in unison to mock judge their performance. As soon as they spotted us, they all burst out laughing; and so did we. They even took a few photos; it was hilarious.

Happy with our fun, we split up, Katie, Peter, and I going to Fresco for supplies. Although, when we got there, Katie was the only one who actually bought anything; I realised I had no money left, and Peter technically didn’t need anything since he’s in a home stay. From there, we rode back to the Seminar House, and Peter got reacquainted with Otousan and Okaasan; they didn’t recognise him without his long hair and beard. Bumping into Simon out front, we decided we’d go get shoes today, since we were both free. So I said goodbye to Peter and Katie, and I was off again; I guess I was feeling industrious. When we were coming up to Sanko, Simon insisted that we bike along the road as opposed to the path, thinking it would be faster, and I flat out rejected it; so we had a race. In the end, I technically won, since he had to go around and under the train track to get back around to the main road, closer to where we were headed. Actually, when Simon went under the tracks, I lost him for a while; we eventually met back up. Then we were off again, following the tracks east for a while, and then crossing under, and heading south. I had never been to this area of Hirakata before, and it was really interesting to see; it was almost like the outskirts. There were so many restaurants along the way, and heaps of community vegetable gardens. Finally we reached 靴 (Kutsu – shoes), which turned out to be a branch of the same store in Midori. But whatever; it was much bigger, and had some great discounts.

After a quick browse, we settled on buying the 990円 shoes out front. Yes, they were cheap rip-offs, with “triple win” as their logo (which I think is actually really cool), but they would serve their purpose as gym shoes; we were most satisfied. After paying for them, we were on our way back home; as soon as Simon found his bike key (well, actually I found it for him in his bag). We decided to chance a different way home, which turned out surprisingly well; we came back to the street that Sanko’s on. This way was also much quicker and much less roundabout. I decided to go to Sanko, since it was right there, and Simon joined me. I picked up the necessary ingredients for tacos tomorrow night, and also got some great, cheap meat. We decided to also take a look at the gym (actually go inside this time) but it was already closed; closes at 5. Getting home, I unpacked, and then rested until dinner time; about 7 o’clock. I had the leftover yakisoba, and added some of the meat I bought today; I also got to try some more of Julie’s vegetable pancakes. After dinner, Rachael and I went down to the lounge to set up for the movie, and Sarah soon followed. We also watched the bloopers and deleted scenes afterwards, which are always enjoyable. Well, time for bed; I had a wonderful day today. Starting gym tomorrow…