Abby Goes to Japan

Ok, I am going to try to upload my pictures again today, as it failed last time. Meanwhile, I suppose I could tell you a bit about my week. On Friday I went to Lexi's birthday party. It was at a pizza place in Odori, and it was all you can eat and drink in two hours for 2,168 Yen. That would have been great if the waiter hadn't disappeared an hour in. We buzzed for him 5 times and he never came back, so I only got one drink and a couple slices of pizza(which are tiny!). Oh well, it was still fun. My host father's mom is pretty sick(she's 92), so they went to see her. For the entire weekend I stayed at Kirari, the college's international housing. It was OK. I really missed homemade meals, as I had to buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the Tokou store, which mostly consisted of cheap sandwiches and melon bread. I felt like the staff at Hokusei doesn't really trust us Gaijin. We can't use the building's lobby and we can't have guests. On Saturday, I was invited to a takoyaki party by my conversation partner, Minami. Takoyaki is kinda like Japanese squid pancake balls. It's good, trust me. Anyways, the event took place in Kirari kitchen. When I entered the lobby(just below where I was living) the security guard was treating me very suspiciously. He wanted to know exactly why I was using the lobby, He escorted me to the kitchen(in the next room) and asked the Japanese girls if I was supposed to be there. I felt as if he were treating me like I was up to no good and about to steal something. I can't imagine the outrage at Manchester if we treated the international students like that. I was really happy when I was able to go back to my host family's house. On Sunday me and my friends went to a flower arranging exhibit and the Pokemon center! The flower arrangements were beautiful, and looked like real works of art. I will show you some pictures if my stupid account lets me. Afterwards, the ladies working there had us write on a paper flower how we liked the show and put it on the wall. I felt mine was very simplistic, I said "きれいなはなです！" which means "these are pretty flowers!" I feel like I sound like a two year old sometimes, I wish my Japanese could be more articulate. The ladies also gave us an origami flower top, which was pretty nice. Overall, a great experience. After that, we attempted to find the pokemon center in Sapporo station. That place is huge and interconnected with all of these different areas, so it took us a while to find the store. We finally made it and it was pretty cute, I bought a fish pokemon phone strap, although I wish they hadn't been sold out of Ponyta and Rapidash, the fiery horse pokemon. Alyssa, you would like that one! Next time I am there, I will look for that one and I might buy a little something for Levi, as his other gift was a bit small. They cute stuffed animals and chopsticks for little kids with pokemon on them. So that was pretty fun. Not much else has happened this week so far. I bought an Obi for my Yukata(cotton kimono), so all I need to buy now are the shoes. I had to take a big exam on Tuesday and I have a Kanji test tomorrow, which should be fun. And this week is the Yosakoi Soran Festival and the Hokusei Sports festival, so we have Friday off! Yosakoi Soran is a dance festival, and one of our group members is dancing in it! Her group previewed some of their dance moves on Tuesday, and it looked pretty awesome, so I will probably go see them in the parade. That is pretty much my week thus far, and I will see if I can upload these pictures. Yay Success!

Tarot readings in Photography club