I slept all the way until morning, made my bed, and did my morning routine shower. And for breakfast I had another hash brown with a bread croissant thing. Yuki's mom drove us to school again where we had to sit through chapel time and then I headed to the entrance of the school where we loaded on a bus to the Kita Ward Office where we thanked the important man who helped with out trip. He gave us a souvenir with a harmonica necklace. Close to the Kita Ward Office was the Kiga Sekisho or Hosoe Park which was a prison back in the Edo period, form 17 to 19th century in Japan. I got a paper on its history called Illustration of the Kiga Checking Station.
After that we got back on the bus and went on the Okuyama Field Trip which I went photo crazy on! <3 It was so much fun... the buildings I saw were dated back to the 1400's! And I put a 100 yen coin at the top of the tower wishing machine and got a miniature scroll that I can't read because it's written in ancient Japanese Kanji. But it was a long hot walk to these buildings but definitely worth it! smile Oh! And before this walk we had lunch and for lunch I had spaghetti, 2 onigiri, meat, and mini sausages. I ended up buying some drinks from a vending machine, which my mom would love the one I tried that looked like watered down mild but tasted like orange sherbert ice cream. But Aquarius and Pocari Sweat is my favorite. And then we spent the rest of the time waiting for the bus.
I got to the school and Yuki was there with some friends who she wanted to introduce me to. One had the same b-day as me, her name was Mari. And then we went to the cafeteria to wait for her mom whee I met more of her friends who took pictures with me. Finally, her mom showed up and we went home. I picked up the River Knows and read about 3 pages until her mom came in and told Yuki that she was too lazy to cook so we went and got burgers and fries from McDonalds and Moss Burger. After dinner I went to bed.
4th Day in Japan - July 11, 2009
I woke up, did my morning routine shower, and I wore my brown plaid capri's with my brown Washougal Japanese Class shirt. For breakfast I had meat and bread. Yuki had to study for school so I got to go shopping at LocTown which is pretty much a cheap shopping center. I first went to the 100 yen store and bought most of my souvenirs. And then I went to UniQlo where me and Matt pitched in for Si and Nick's souvenir shirts and I bought a yukata for 3900 yen (about $40). Next I went to the book and movie store where I found out anime was more expensive here than at home. But I did come across a good yaoi magazine that I ended up buying for about 800 yen ($ cool . After that it was about time to go back to the school and once I got there I waited for about an hour (12pm to 1pm) for Yuki to come pick me up and then we went home.
I showed Yuki and her mom my yukata and they said it was cute. And then they helped me put part of it on, pinning it so it wasn't so long on me and then her mom said she'd 'fix it'. And then I read through half my yaoi magazine when Yuki said we were going shopping... which I wasn't looking forward to since I only had 10,000 yen left ($100) not including the 5000 ($50) I put away for food in Kyoto. But I went along and had fun. I found out that everything in Japan is more expensive than in America. Shirts are 3000 yen ($30) at the least and a summer dress is around 5000 yen ($50). But anyway, I found a really cute summer dress on sale for 3000 yen ($30) instead, but I was iffy on buying it because I still had Randy, Richelle, Dad, and Chelle's whole family to get souvenirs for. So Yuki's mom bought me that, 3 pairs of socks, 1 par for Richelle as her souvenir, a hairpiece for my yukata, shoes for my yukata, bag for my yukata, and a bow for my yukata as well! It came to around 15,000 yen ($150)! I felt so bad but her mom said it was for my b-day.
Me and My Host Sister, Yuki (her mom bought us tiny hats!)
After shopping they bought dinner and it consisted of... octopus! I actually ate and enjoyed a ball that had a piece of cooked octopus in it (with suctions on the legs and everything!) called takoyaki. I was so afraid of it at first, too. Oh, and for lunch I had some sort of cold ramen that is usually eaten on hot days. And then I went to bed.
