21st Birthday

Hey all, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. :)

Sooo... on Monday (6/7) I got to celebrate with the host family. The kids came over and Britt (secretly) baked a brownie cake and topped it with homemade chocolate sauce! Although the pieces were the cut the same, the kids ended up fighting over who got the bigger sized bowl.

But before I came home, I went (by myself.. haha) to Akihabara to scope out the restaurant I wanted to eat at the next day. And, since I was there, I had to check out the UFO catchers. At the Taito arcade, I stalked watched a couple clear out a machine of its prizes so I observed their tactics and waited to attack. After they left I asked a worker to move the plushies I wanted to try and win and put in 500 yen for 6 (!!) tries. I got another Love-chan in 2 tries and then a French (Ko)Rilakkuma in 1 try! After that I didn't manage to get anything else but I was pretty darn satisfied with 2 animals for 500 yen!

The new members of the family! Capybara-san is from Jillian. This Rilakkuma is going to one of the kids in the host family.

ラブ兄弟 - They can hang out with each other.

On Tuesday first up was the Pokemon Center. If you visit within 3 days (before or after) of your birthday you get a special birthday service. First from the Tokyo shop you get a birthday Charmander for the DS games. It has the moves Quick Attack, Return, Hidden Power, and Howl (for you few who appreciate it). I also got a giant shiny Pikachu card and happened to win a free folder from the Pokewalker scratch card promotion which is running until the middle of July. There was also the opportunity to have a birthday battle (against an employee on Pokemon Revolution for Wii) but I opted out because all my good Pokes are in my English version (are they compatible?) and we had to get back for class.

After class I went out to ゴーゴーカレー　(Go Go Curry - and they have a gorilla logo) for dinner with Britt, Elizabeth, Anna, Jillian, and Gary (Keung-san! who happened to be visiting Japan). This place serves Ishikawa-ken style curry which I saw on TV one night and wanted to try it out. The curry sauce is thicker than usual and although the whole pile of rice is completely covered the sauce doesn't soak through. They also put shredded cabbage on top with whatever other toppings you choose.

来た！ Looks soooo good!

Katsu curry!

And for the very reasonable price of 1000 yen, Jillian got the jumbo sized Major Curry.

Oh my goodness!!!

She did a good job and whittled it down to about 1/8 left. Toppings: 2 sausages, 1 hardboiled egg, 2 chicken katsu-s, 2 ebi fry (fried shrimp) - all piled on an extra large rice. Apparently there's a Go Go Curry in New York so all you East Coast people go find it and eat!

Afterward we went to look at the UFO catchers (again... but they change them a little each day!). Gary wanted to get some plushes as gifts so I showed him the easy machine from the other night. However, today it was 500 yen for 3 tries instead of 6. He was trying for a Rilakkuma but a Snuggle bear (detergent mascot) was getting in the way of one of the arms. Somehow the Snuggle bear ended up getting knocked down into the prize chute and Rilakkuma shortly followed. With a few tries left, he asked to try for a black dog holding a picture frame and ended up getting it in 1 shot. A salaryman was hanging back waiting for us to finish (kind of how I was the day before) and we inadvertently made him wait for quite while. He played after us and tried for (and eventually got) a... Snuggle bear. I wonder why they're so popular.

Finally, my parents sent me a gift basket from a shop in Japan. It came with a few fruit, muffins, and other snacks. I got a good number of people trying to peek into the box (it had a clear top) when I was carrying it home.

Thanks parents!

Wednesday after baseball practice and lunch meeting, my team sang Happy Birthday and gave me gifts. The 四年生 (fourth years) gave me a baseball charm with a message inside:

Kate - Wherever you are we are teammates! Until August have fun with baseball! From: 4th year(s)

Thank you everyone who got me things, wrote on my facebook wall, or though of me!

Elizabeth - the socks you gave me are in the wash.

Moar Reunions, New Shoes!

Saturday we had a four hour practice (!!) for baseball. And it was pretty hot even when it was cloudy. All of the other sports teams were in Nagoya for the Sophia-Nanzan sports festival so it was a rare occurrence where we were the only team on the entire sports grounds.

After practice I got to meet up with Angela Sun (!!!) and Elizabeth. We first went to Ikebukuro to look at play the UFO catchers. We had a few sad reality checks and coins down the drain, but we managed to get Angela a fluffy Toy Story alien!

It was one of the machines where the plush is hanging off the edge and you have to push it down. Well push it down we did but eventually it refused to go down any further. We ended up asking an employee how to win from there but he ended up opening the case and giving it to us! Not as exciting as the feeling you get when the plush falls down the prize chute but it was still a satisfying experience.

 Yatta! 95% of the work: Edeng

Somewhere in-between looking at the various UFO catcher arcades, we went to Tokyu Hands where we wandered around until reaching the "home security" department area. Among other things there were the personal alarm devices that make loud noises that supposedly thwart away attackers. Well, I was curious to see (hear) exactly how loud it would go so I ended up activating one which ended up blaring a really obnoxious alarm that resounded throughout the floor. I'm sure I scared some customers away from our section because it was really really loud. The employees came over to try and stop it but they too had some trouble. (why do you put these things out on display if you know people like me are going to try to play with them?) I tried my best to profusely apologize for my dumbness but it seemed like they didn't care too much.

 Lesson of the day: don't do it.

Big news: I also managed to finally get new shoes! We passed by a huge shoe store and we stopped to look at their "sale" items. Besides Uniqlo Shoes, shoes are usually expensive (5000 - 10000 yen!!) but there were some amazing shoes for 4000 yen. I figured that if I use them for a long time (and it looks like they're sturdy with thick pads) it would pay itself out.

The new!

I really like them! They're watermelon colored, sparkly, and big! Elizabeth also got a pair but with a different color scheme. :D

When coming to Japan I only brought one pair of shoes. Besides regular walking around I also use them for baseball (warm-ups) so they have gotten dirty and worn out really quickly. My other shoes at home are also in a battered state. I did get pastel green shoes from Uniqlo a while ago but I wanted something more substantial. I'm not going to wear these new ones to practice so look out for them when I get home!

The raggedy taggedy old. The shoe lace even frayed!

After touring around Ikebukuro (池袋 - the pond bag) and eating dinner, Angela and I went to Asakusabashi where there was the Torigoe Shrine Matsuri. There were really huge mikoshi (portable Shinto shrines) with a ton of people holding them up and swaying them while other people played drums and flutes. There were also a lot of guys (males) that were part of the mikoshi support group that were not wearing anything on their legs (no shorts or pants, but at least a loin cloth) so sometimes a little butt was visible if you looked down. D:

Cute Japanese ladies and a float with drum people.

Lots of people shaking the mikoshi. They were all really genki!

And, of course, there were a lot of food stalls. Points of interest: ramen burger and giant tako tentacle takoyaki. Seriously when they stuck the tako in the batter filled pan they stood up like a tree of sucker goodness. It was amazing how they managed to turn the batter into a ball with that much filling but the end result looked amazing.

The ramen burger was a "patty" of fried ramen noodles that was placed in a bun (?) with regular ramen fixtures (bamboo, green onion, egg, ect) as toppings. It smelled really good and I had never seen anything quite like it before.

Ramen burger tabetai!!

Angela got baby castellas (caste iron cooked cake bites) and I got kakigori (shaved ice) with ramune flavored syrup. I wish I could have eaten more but I was already full from dinner. :P

Festival foods.

Thanks for the fun time Angela and Elizabeth! Let's do it again sometime. :)

Golden Week Trip Day 3: Osaka

On Monday we started off with a trip to the Osaka Pokemon Center! It was madness with all these little kids (and grown ups) running around. I could only settle on a Togekiss plushie and could not find the will (or energy!) to browse other merchandise. But I will be going to the Tokyo Pokemon Center next week with my friend Shannon to reserve tickets for the new Pokemon movie (5th gen! so fast!) and shop while all the kids are stuck in school.

Togekiss and new Tako friend. :)

Afterward I got to meet up with the girl that I met at my summer camp job two years ago. She is now 11 and so much taller! We met up with her, her mom, and her English teacher (and mom's friend). They were very very nice and treated us to an amazing afternoon of food!

First we went to a restaurant where you make your own takoyaki. It was really fun and super delicious. After they ordered okonomiyaki - one regular and one topped with a bunch of cheese! Really good!

Before

They look like mush now but were soon converted into edible fried octopus balls!

They then asked us if we wanted to go get cake. I was already stuffed, but I figured cake is cake. We went into a department store and walked by this crazy looking restaurant with the most beautiful cakes I had ever seen.

And then we went in.

Oh my goodness! And those are mango roses! :O

We didn't try the above mango madness but we did have a selection of other really nice (looking and tasting) cake slices.

After saying goodbye, we headed over to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, home of the Whale Sharks (or ジンベエザメ). We had to wait for about an hour before getting to line up to go into the aquarium, and the aquarium itself was super crowded. But it was exciting to see all of the exhibits and animals - especially the giant whale sharks.

Stud penguin posing for pictures.

美味しそう！

Me and Elizabeth thought the giant crabs would make tasty crab legs. Some Japanese person behind us thought the same thing (and said it out loud) - we weren't alone!