This week passed by FAST. A little too fast. Only one more week until the "semester" is over! I can't believe we have basically covered what I would have learned from September through December during the fall semester!
To start off the day as always: a great breakfast!
Three hours of class happened. To be honest, I can't remember what we learned. All the days go by so fast, and the three hours are just crammed each day that all the information is starting to become a little bit like tofu in my brain! I officially now have less than one week to pull it together before the final!
After class, a group of us students went to the Eki to buy bus tickets for our little jaunt to Kyoto during the break between semesters. Then, lunch time!
Switching it up from my normal P-ton crew, I went with Adrian (Swarthmore), Grace, Hugh, Lucas (all Yale) to a ramen-ya just below the eki!
My Shio Ramen...
Hugh's noodles in his face.
The bowl of rice with my ramen:
katsuobushi, a soft boiled egg, and green onions.
I also bought this drink at the market, again because I had never heard of anything like it and it seemed strange. It's red shiso leaf juice! The red shiso leaf is a member of the mint family, kind of similar to basil, and is used to pickle umeboshi (those sour pickled plums). This juice was kind of weird, but I liked it! It kind of reminded me of hibiscus flower juice.
After lunch, a group of us PII folk then took the bus to Kristin Wilson's neck of the woods for her birthday!
For reasons I am not quite sure, we ended up making a spontaneous visit to the elementary school near by to play with some kids!
I made some friends.
We were drawing, and one of them gave me her picture! so cute.
For some reason, one of the first things that they asked me was,
"Do they have a lot of drinks in America?"
At first I thought I just didn't understand, but they indeed meant drinks. So we had a conversation about drinks that was surprisingly interesting!
They said that their favorite drinks are white peach juice and coffee milk, to which I responded that those are really rare to find in America! They also said that they like tea and drink it all the time (which Haruki and Kaho also do since they take a thermos of tea around everywhere). It's such a difference that kids don't really drink tea in America. I told them that American kids drink a lot of milk, water, and juice. These kids don't drink any of these things very often. Interesting.
Speaking of interesting, this was probably the most interesting, random snack time ever! It was great.
See the little plastic melon? There is melon ice cream inside!
We also had chikuwa fish cake, soft blueberry meringue, and candied natto beans.
After playing with the kids, we became little kids again and played on the play structures!
This pink cube thing was so cool. It reminded me of "Boy Meets World" aka my favorite tv show of my childhood.
Double plane-ed, perpendicular planking. Impressive.
Also, impressive, Chloe chillin in the background. Casual.
Friend time, play time! yay!
Oh Aidan. The lone wolf.
After our brief blast from the past, we returned to Kristin's house for some dinner and hang out time.
We also learned to participate in a traditional Sado tea ceremony.
We got to mix the matcha tea ourselves! I love the color.
Dinner time!
It was cool to think that a group of us students from different colleges of all ages were having a dinner party together in a small area at a home in Japan. Who woulda thunk?
Lot's of little nommers to share!
Cheers to a great day!
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