I was so impressed! A fried egg on top of a hidden round of thinly sliced ham, daikon tsukemono, and chirimen tsunomono, along with some leftover sukiyaki from dinner, and a hot bowl of gohan with...
More natto! I felt so Japanese...it was great.
After being spoiled by this homemade breakfast, I was thrown out into the real world to try to get to school on time! Luckily, all horror stories were avoided and I got to the Rifare building quite easily!
To get to the Rifare building, I first walk to the Kitamachi Nishi bus stop (about a 7 minute walk...the sign is above), then a 10 minute bus ride to the Rokumaemachi stop, then about another 10 minute walk to the Rifare building. Overall, it's about a half hour commute, so it's not too bad! It's also nice to stretch my legs in the morning before I get shuttled into class for three hours :/
Thankfully, the Rifare building is a surprisingly pleasant and open space! I had pictured an intimidatingly tall building with small windows and linoleum floors, with those tiny college-sized paddles they call desks to maximize the intense scary study atmosphere potential...if you know what I mean.
To begin, we had a short orientation/ welcoming meeting at 9. As you can see, the famed Makino sensee gave a little welcoming talk. He is basically celeb-status around these parts.
I also signed this pledge...that was kind of scary. It basically says that I can't speak English. Ever. Inside the building, on the day trips...or they will poke our eyes out with おはし。Just kidding...but we will get deducted a point every time we use English (if our sensees can hear us...muahahah).
After taking a short writing and speaking placement test, we all broke for lunch at Family Mart right next store! Conbini FTW! いつも.
Back to front: Marina Kaneko, Emmy Williams, and me! We all took Japanese 101 and 102 together this year at Princeton. チイズ！
Here is my bento! There were so many おいしいそう 食べ物、but this was just too pretty to pass up. I'm a sucker for nicely packaged things. Also, it was about $8, which is not bad for the quality and quantity! I'll take it over 8 items from the MacDonald's dollar menu any day!
We all had a great time at lunch...but we kind of double failed. First, we weren't supposed to eat outside of the store. だめ number 1. We were also being quite rambunctious and loud. だめ number 2. oops.
After lunch, we took a bus to the Kenrokuen Gardens! I thought that the tiny seats in the middle were a nice touch...punishment for the last ones on the bus, I guess.
Warning: Lots of photos ahead. I went a little snapshot crazy. But what can I say? It was beautiful!
Soon after we arrived, we participated in a tea ceremony in the tea house.
Inside the tea house
Beautiful (and おいしい) wagashi with matcha green tea
The weather is still comfortable here, so I enjoyed being outside all afternoon! It was also pretty cool to return to Kenrokuen during the daytime to see how different everything looked in the sunlight!
Princeton 友達！
There was a photo shoot going on, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and take some pictures of the model myself!
I think the sun may have started to get to us. I was feeling pretty giddy towards the end. Or maybe it was the simple magic of さざえさん。
It was a great afternoon outing! We returned to Rifare, then hung out in the TV lounge for a while before I returned home. As I approached the house, Kaho ran out the door shouting "お姉さん!" in her brother's large sneakers. It was so adorable! What a great welcome back.
For dinner, we went to the best sushi restaurant in Kanazawa!
Below, miso soup made with a broth of large local clams, a variety of sushi to the left, and a special type of ama ebi to the right. その おすし は 私の 一番すきなすしだよ！
Here is a better picture of the ebi: up close and personal.
Haruki got the kid's meal...or shall I say boat? I thought it was so neat!
I'll take one of those to-go please!
Here is nasu (eggplant) sushi! I've never seen this before! We also got a version with marinated cucumber. Both were really good! They were actually one of my favorite parts of the whole meal!
Kanazawa is known for having great seafood, and these small ama ebi were no exception! Throughout the dinner, I tried three different types of shrimp, and all of them were とても おいしかったよ！
After dinner, the restaurant gave us these sushi lollipops. Sushi in different forms. love it.
Loved the day too! Tomorrow we start actual classes, so I hope I feel the same way!
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