8/26/01: Sunday
8/27/01: Monday
8/28/01: Tuesday
8/29/01: Wednesday
8/30/01: Thursday
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Everything is pretty much shut down here today. It's some holiday, so says the KG guard. But the IFC (International Friend Club, a club here at Kansai Gaidai run by Japanese students) is going to be taking those of us who have arrived out to Hirakata City today, and for fireworks. :) At 2:00, we took the train from Makino station (about 2 miles away by foot) to Hirakatashi (downtown Hirakata). Hirakata City is a fair-sized city, about half a million people. And every single one of them was there for the fireworks festival... I have NEVER seen that many people in my life!!!!!!! But first we went to the department store right by the station, Nagasakiya. It had a Sanrio (hello kitty) shop, but we found out that the characters like chococat and badtz maru are not available in japan. We're not sure why.
After the department store, we were desperately hungry and Lauren and I decided to be bad tourists and eat at McDonald's. Now, neither of us likes McD's back in the states, but we both agreed that the Japanese McD's makes one tasty burger. :) And it's not really that expensive either. Nothing has really been THAT expensive, just a little bit more than the states.
The fireworks festival was AMAZING. Absolutely AMAZING!!!!! 2 hours of nonstop fireworks, that were really really cool. They also had these cool silver and gold fireworks that were gorgeous and are now my favorite. Everyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for fireworks. :)
Anyone curious, remind me to explain Ian and Alex trying to explain a clerks quote to Tamako. It's funny, but too risque to post on this site.
Checked email, updated site. Monday we ran over to Makino station. We found three shrines within a fifteen minute walk of the school. In the evening we played an informal but really fun game of soccer. There were three Japanese students, two boys and a girl named Emi, playing catch (baseball) near the field. I invited them to play, and they took us up on the offer. My team lost. :( but that's okay!!
Walked around the city (Makino, Hirakata) today, looking primarily for this bookstore on our maps called Sophia, that was supposed to sell used books and cd's. We found all the landmarks leading up to it, but only found an empty floor where it was supposed to be. We then rode the train to Hirakatashi again, and window-shopped at the dept. stores there. Also found a pretty extensive new bookstore, fairly nice. After the train ride back, we were accosted by Greg, who said he found the used bookstore, and it had moved to a different location. Found it, it was cool.
Today was Adora's birthday (one of our friends), so after orientation and banking stuff (we have to open an account at the Sumitomo bank here, so we did the paperwork today), we boarded the train bound for Osaka (we: Richard, Lauren, Alison, Adora, Rob, Me, Dominique, Ursula). We wanted to find this really awesome bookstore called Mandarake's, which sells doujinshi and manga (Japanese comics), which Rob had been to before and could find. But since we were hungry, we stopped at a restaurant first, I think it was called the Fujiya (a common name). I told the waiter it was Adora's birthday, and they brought out two tall dancing and singing dolls dressed in velvet tuxedos and a ceramic cake with candles. The dolls sung Happy Birthday (in english, but not to the "happy birthday" tune) while the waitstaff clapped along. Then we all took group photos, which I'll load to the photos page sooner or later. ;)
After that, we walked around Osasa, looking for Mandarakes. We found it in Doyama (which is actually the gay district of Osaka, but it is a REALLY cool place), in this area of the city that was inside and outside at the same time. They were streets proper, but they were covered about five stories up so you couldn't see the sky and these HUGE fans circulated the air to make it cooler. Amazing. Mandarakes was there, but it wasn't open since it was pretty late. So we went to an arcade where we played Tekken 4 (nyah to all you in the states who can't!) and various other games. Alison won two hello kitty keychains and Lauren snabbed an AfroKen plushie (a little lion with various afros, this one had a green afro with apples, he was supposed to be an apple tree). Kawaii!!
Today was registration. We got up at 6am to go ensure our place in line, and already there were about 70 students ahead of us (limited class sizes and only one class of each type except the language classes). I was number 80. Ursula and Richard, who really needed their classes, had gotten to the line at 530-ish, and were a few of the very first. I was worried that since I was taking popular classes, that they might be full, but all was well and I got my classes (Spoken Japanese 2, Reading and Writing Japanese 2, Anthropological Perspectives on Japanese Culture, and Religion in Japan). Everyone else in my group got what they needed too. :) Yay!!
We went back to Hirakata to hang out in the afternoon. At night, we went to a Karaoke bar near Mikino station, that was supercool. :) We all sung various songs, but I sung Madonna's La Isla Bonita, Namie Amuro's Love 2000 (with James from OSU), Madonna's Secret (with Lauren), and the mama's and the papa's California Dreamin' (with Alison). It was so much fun!!
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