I am so so sleepy. I think it’s the weather. It’s now officially summer and it’s very very warm, makes you want to switch on the aircon and snuggle in bed.

Japanese newspapers don’t have a lot of adverts inside. They are printed on another sheet of paper and folded with the newspaper. Here’s how big an advert (for an electronic store) usually is:

I was looking for the price of an electronic dictionary, mp3 and rechargeable batts.

In the morning, I went to nearby Jusco with okaasan. Felt a bit awkward shopping with her because I look at the weirdest stuff and don’t like buying clothes. I bought rechargable batteries at 1,980 yen. Perhaps I should buy extra batteries because I can use that charger when I’m back home too.

Simple design and the wrapper for the batts is white, instead of the normal shiny silver colour.

It wasn’t really Jusco where we went. It’s a big mall and their bread shop is lovely. The bread here all suit my taste. Yum Yum.

Oh, while we were at the mall and passing a phone shop. Okaasan told me that when they first bought K-kun a phone, he used around 700,000yen. That is F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G a lot. Now they took his phone away. AHH! How can you tell her that you would like her to help register a phone for you when she had such bad experience?

free tissue from phone shop

After shopping, we came home and tool K-kun to lunch. We had the famous Hakata ramen. It’s called tonkutsu ramen, which means pig’s bones ramen. The soup is a milky colour and those who don’t like it says it’s smelly.

We ate at Asahi ramen.

My bowl of tonkotsu ramen:

I liked it a lot, the soup reminds me of something I’ve had before. I was a bit disappointed that ramen’s noodles is just normal noodles. I like udon more than yellow thin noodles. But the ramen was good.

After lunch, we went to buy dog food at a supermarket. I love supermarkets, and this one has a whole HUGE row of skin care products.

Then we came back, everyone went for a nap while I watced the small TV at the dining table. Maybe I will put up the photo of the TV one day.

Then we went to the tea ceremony teacher’s place. While we were walking to the car, a little girl ran towards us teary face and said, “Mommy’s mad! The car’s gone!” Poor dear! Okaasan asked the little girl where she lived and they walked to her place.

Turns out, the little girl woke from her nap and found no one in the house so she ran out. She even said, “It’ll be dark soon.” It’s only 3pm and it gets dark only around 8. But she’s too cute!!

Oh before talking abuot how the tea ceremony class went, I want to tell you what I had imagined it would be like. I’ve read too many manga and watched too many dramas that I imagined we would be going to an old house and the teacher’s a young man (who’s good looking, by the way) who will inherit his father’s tea ceremony school. Ah, eye candy.

But in reality, the teacher is an old lady who has travelled to Indonesia, China and Mexico before. Oh, and she lives in a modern house with a room specially prepared for tea ceremony classes.what a disappointment.

I declined the teacher’s offer for a chair and sat kneeling. It was bad but not so bad that I screamed. So it was ok but I kept thinking, “are we done yet?? are we done yet??”

Oh, K-kun has been going to the classes for eight years. I must say, impressive! I don’t have to the patience for that long!

We came back tired, because of the weather and all that kneeling. Then I was in charge of Yume (you-meh, meaning dream) during the walk.

The cat sitting at the windows, watching us leave.

Then we went to dinner at Joy Fun, it was a western restaurant which also serves Japanese set meals. Interesting… I had some italian food. It was nice, but I don’t have much appetite for anything more.

 

Nearby, there was a temple-like building.

Then we came home and nothing much happened. Too lazy to study. :(

 

A few Qs answered:

–Why the cat comes in.
My door is a Japanese type sliding door and there’s no lock. sigh. The cat sleeps with the others so my room is probably one of the few places it has not been sleeping in.

–I do not pick dog poop. I may walk the dog but NO WAY I will pick up their poop. It’s just waaay too gross.

 

It has been a rainy and cloudy day. The weather was very cool, we’ll need to wear our cardigans. Isn’t this supposed to be summer? Where’s the sun??

In the morning, one of the cats came into my room and took half my sleeping place. Oi!

I had trouble waking up at 7.00am when the sun was already shining on me. I kept saying to myself, “It’s only 6 back home.” In the end, I got up at 8am because it seemed like a good time to wake up.

Breakfast was pastry, salad, sausage and corn soup. The mom is on a diet. She’s so thin already in my opinion.

Later we went to Miyajidake shrine that is an hour away. I snapped a lot of photos during the ride. Hope I will be able to share it all with everyone.

The houses here are pretty. The shrine is some where in the “country” so there were a lots of paddy fields along the way. The hills here are cute too.

On the way to the shrine, we saw a plague and there was a picture of Pei Yong Jun on it. That’s the last thing I expect seeing in a Japanese shrine. Turns out, if you donate a really large sum of money, you can get your face on a it and they’ll put the thing at the shrine. Strange things happen.

The shrine is a magnificent wooden building. There was a HUGE coil of rope that reminded me of intestines.

This is a fortune telling machine. It was out of order when we were there. But I believe you put in money and they’ll drop you a random note with your fortune told on it.

There was some ceremony going on in the main shrine — a guy was wearing old costume, chanting and banging on his large drum. It seemed impolite to snap photos of him like a tourist so I didn’t take any.

There were other smaller shrines for different deities. I snapped a pic of the red tori. The gates leading to a shrine.

It was now the season of Japanese iris and another flowering plant. They had the most lovely bush of flowers and a field of iris.

After the temple, we had rice cake at one of the shops at the entrance of the shrine. It was my first time drinking konbucha. Seaweed tea, it looks innocent enough but when you drink it, it tastes like soup — not tea-ish at all. The rice cake was filled with red bean paste and it was yummy.

On our way home, we visited an air-conditioned farmers’ market. It looked more like Fairprice than a real market. The veg there were all sold out and we bought fish cake and some large orange.

I saw a Chinese bell flower there. kikyo!!

We returned home and rested. At 2pm we had cold somen and the soy sauce was very lovely!

At 4pm, K-kun’s tutor came and I hurriedly sent an email to my parents. I wanted to send mails to friends but I accidentally activated the Japanese typing stuff and couldn’t even type email addresses. >o<

Before dinner, we walked the dogs. I was in charged of the aged, cancer survivor Meri-chan. Meri is an old dog who (yes, “who” not “which”) wears a doggie diaper. Enough said.

It was raining slightly during the walk but I quite enjoyed it.

I saw the train I will be taking to school.

A fantastic garden

And lots of really Japanese stuff.

DAISO! A whole shop!!!

For dinner, we went to a sushi restaurant where they have food on belts turning round and round. I’ve found out that they drink miso soup right from the bowl (cool), that they have hot water at the table and you pour in your tea powder to make your own tea, and that sushi is damn nice!

See you in the next entry!