Oh yeah so I forgot to update, but I'm back now.  ^^; Merry Christmas.

Osu (Again and forevermore)

Today I went to Osu (yes again) with E san.  We started off with the usual routine and went to the Nova building to check out the lolita stores.  Once we had assessed the stores wares, it was off in search of our main goal: a cat cafe.

Needless to say, it was hard to find but in the end we did find it.  Honestly this was a bit disappointing.  It was 700 yen for 3o minutes (and you get a drink) and you go into this small room off to the side of an even smaller reception area.

There were 5 or 6 cats and it was awkward because you had to share the room with other people.  Ugh.  Anyway have some pics.

Most of the cats here were unfriendly (no surprise there)

This guy was very handsome indeed.

After 30 minutes of this nonsense it was time to eat, and since E san and I both like udon (noodles) we decided to eat some.  This udon made up for the cat cafe.  (tempura udon *Q*)

It was in the noodle shop were this woman started a conversation with us and you know we were talking about being exchange students and I think she said her daughter had done it too or something like that.  But anyway, what really made this epic was when she gave us 1,000 yen to pay for our food.  Of course we refused but she insisted and said to "study hard." lol

Then we just kind of walked around for a bit longer, I showed her this other store and then stopped by for a snack.  It's a fruit crepe. OMNOMNOM

And for the last part of the trip I introduced her to this store called Loft.  Loft has about 5 or 6 floors each containing various things.  For example, the basement has books, the 3rd has interior, etc., etc.,  Personally I had only been on the 4th floor with all the stationary and I was all for exploring the other floors.  

The 5th floor was amazing. So many cute things.

Their selection of Studio Ghibli merchandise was really cool.  I'll have to come back for the mug with the cat (his name is Jiji) on it. :D

Next up is Sentimental circus, which is a series of characters created by a company called San-X

And last but not least Rilakkuma <3

Rilakkuma and Lawson!

As of right now Lawson (a convenience store) and Rilakkuma (relaxbear) are doing a campaign with the theme of chocolate and coffee.  There are some items related to this theme that you can buy but there are some items you have to win in a raffle.

So what you do is bring the raffle ticket to the register and for every raffle ticket you pay 500 yen.  Then they bring out this little box with more raffle tickets and you pick one or more depending on how much you payed for.

When you receive the ticket you peel the back side of it and depending on how lucky you are you get different prizes.

(They look like this)

Sorry to say I did this raffle three times today ^^;

I got a cell phone strap, a hand towel, and a gift bag set.  Not a bad haul if I do say so myself.

Reading out loud.

I remember when I was younger my teachers would constantly tell us to read lots of books.  Back then I didn't understand why but I found them to be enjoyable and read all the time anyway.  Now that I'm older I understand the significance of it.  When you are constantly reading books you are introducing yourself to new vocabulary and strengthening other reading skills (grammer, sentence structure, etc.)

Now let's take what those teachers said and apply it 10 years later with a foreign language.

That being said, today I went to the local bookstore and bought a children's book.  It's called　にんぎょひめ (Ningyo Hime) or loosely translated as mermaid princess.  There are 44 pages in all but every other page has an illustration on it.

Reading this story out loud was frustrating because I would read in a slow and hesitant manner and I'm not used to that.  But I guess you have to start somewhere.

While reading the story I was learning new vocabulary, kanji, practicing my pronunciation, and learning a certain tempo that comes from speaking/reading a foreign language.

So is reading a children's book worth the effort when learning a new language? I think so.

Osu Part 2

So on this day it was decided that me and E san should hang out and show each other the parts of Sakae and Osu that we didn't know about.  E san would show me the Lolita floor in Sakae and I would show her were Osu was.

The day started off quite nicely as we boarded the bus to Hongo station.   (On the way to the station there were quite a few middle schoolers going to baseball practice (important for later)).

Once we boarded the train it got progressively more and more crowded.  At one point I felt like I would freak out from the claustrophobia, but then it passed as we got closer to Sakae.

Then once off the train E san showed me the holiest of holies.  This one floor of a department store that had like almost all the brands of lolita fashion.  Floor 5.   Awwwww yeah

Here I'm taking a photo on the escalator.  The AP store is on the right and the AATP is on the left.  (check out that old man giving us the "gaijin" look LOL)

 Tried to take an inside pic of the store :P Fail.

 And here's the BTSSB store. <3

And I know your not supposed to take pics but hey...



After the coolness of looking at the lolita store, E san and I went and ate some parfaits. YESSS!  I got the mango one and she got a matcha (green tea) and mochi (glutenous rice) one.

So now that we had had a little something to eat, it was time to try and find Osu.  I had been only once before so I had hoped I could find again.  We left the station and luckily when we picked a direction to start walking everything looked familiar so in the end there were no problems.

Once we found Osu we checked out the Hobby store and the Toy store.  Sorry no pics. :(  Then I showed her the arcade, took purikura pics, and found Violet Blue (A second hand store for brand fashion)!

After shopping here we decided it was time to head on back before the train became unbearable with the return home rush.  

So when we get on the train, we notice some kids in baseball uniforms but thought nothing of it.  But then when they got off at the same station as us, I was all like in my head "WAAAAAAIT, these kids looks familiar."  And they even got on the same bus as us.  They kept glancing at us and we're all like trying not to make eye contact.  "awkwaaaaaaaaaard" LOL  Thankfully though they got off before us.  

All in all a pretty good day

Cellphone!!

Finally! After all this time I am now the proud owner of a Japanese cell phone.

Today after the placement test I met up with C and she said that she would help me get my cell phone.  We went with the company called Softbank and I got myself a little prepaid phone.  It should last me the entire length of my stay, and I also got unlimited e-mail (it's like the same as texting) for about 300円.  Altogether with the phone, charger, unlimited e-mail, and the pre-paid phone card it was about 9,000円.  So definitely worth it.

I have to say, even though this phone is a pre-paid one I think it's way more cooler than the one I had from Verizon.

Sakae

Today we had our entrance orientation, which consisted of dressing up nicely, having a chill buffet thingy afterwards, and learning about the clubs they had on campus.

The entrance ceremony was fairly quick and we got to see the staff that would teach the Language students and the Culture students.

Then it was the buffet.  It was okay as was the club. eh Don't really want to explain that.

What happened after the entrance ceremony was waay more fun.  So me, Nana, and Jess decided to hit up Sakae and check out the shopping scene.  Rode the subway for the first time and it was cool.

Eh more later. I'm exhausted.