Making Noms and Pools

 Well I'm still rather behind on this blog..But with this I should be just about done with April's happenings! My host sister and I went to a friend's house, where we made たこ焼き and...something else (yes I forgot..)    

Anyway, I know you guys can't all read Japanese, so I'll help you out. Takoyaki are dumplings with pieces of octopus inside, served hot. It's really quite delicious, but making it is really difficult! You have to use two chopsticks and turn them about just right...and I was pretty much useless to the takoyaki-making cause...

That said, it was still great fun! The friends that I hung out with in these pictures actually don't go to my school. They're friends of my host sister from her middle school and neighborhood. 

Before meeting these girls, I didn't really tell anyone that I am into (or ever was into) anime and manga. The reason for that is, if it's anything other than One Piece or Sazae-san, it's embarrassing..and I realized that. But these girls were really, really, really into the manga/anime scene and we had plenty to talk about!! It turns out they're all artists too...exceptionally good ones, at that! One of the girls was also into Bakuman, which was a surprise. They were also into Hatsune Miku, and they showed me some of her music. It was the first time I actually listened to her music in Japan (she's not popular with your everyday Japanese high school students. For popular music look into Arashi, AKB48, Mr. Children, KyaryPyamuPyamu, Greeeeen (spelling?), and the such-like)

It actually wasn't too bad. I'm never ever ever been a fan of vocaloid, for several reasons. (By the way, vocaloid is computerized Japanese music. Basically, people use music software, a voice mode, and put in the words they want said and the way they want into be sung. If that sounds vague it's because I really don't know much about it and have never used the program myself.)

Anyway, Hatsune Miku is starting to grow on me a bit. It's not bad. You have to realize that I have never really been into Japanese music. In the past I may have been into a song or two if it was from an anime I knew, but other than that, nada. But a classmate made a CD for me of all the most recent popular songs in Japan. And I gotta admit, it's really quite catchy. Especially Arashi and AKB48. Also during lunch (usually my friends and I eat outside) they play popular music inside the classrooms. During lunch people just rotate classroom desks around and eat inside. American artists such as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Taio Cruz also play just about everyday.

Anywayyyy. Today was especially fun. It was Sports Day at school....it was super exhausting! Plenty of running, stretching, sweating, and drinking tea. Oh yeah, fun fact, no one packs water bottles here. We all drink tea from thermos we brought from home. In fact, I don't think I've had just plain water in a really long time. Anyway, thought you'd like to know. 

After we were done with all the required sports tests we took fun class photos. We took jumping shots, but since there were so many of us we divided into groups. I was the only person that got to be in every group, so by the end I was pretty tired from all the jumping!!

We also had one shot of everyone pointing at me and me making a cute face xD After that, we had the inevitable 変顔 (funny face) shot, where I used a funny face I learned from a childhood friend that always delivers a chuckle or two.

Well that's enough words for now!! On to the photos~

 Setting up prep for the cooking ☆

 Wore make-up this day. Immediately regretted it the following morning when I was greeted with acne :( Luckily my face has cleared up in the meantime

 Here's a pic of the octopus balls. See the ones that look like someone unskillfully smashed them? YUP. THAT WAS MAH DOING.

 AMAZING shirt reference is amazing. Anyone catch it? Josh?

 Puffer fish face. It's popular here, although I certainly suck at it!

 And that includes the nom-making session and manga nerdery chapter of my stay here!

Next, we went to a inside pool place called Yumingus. I feel like I already covered this pool place earlier in the blog...Basically it costed about USD$5.00 to have access to showers, a warm pool with an awesome slide, a cold pool with lanes, a "walking pool" for exercise, a steam room, jacuzzi, and a jacuzzi that had walls the gradually went deep, so you could lie down realllll comfortably. One important thing of note is the necessity of a swimcap. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. There was a break every hour, where everyone did radio exercises. You know, like in Anime Crossing where everyone gets up at 6am and dances/exercises to a radio...and if you do so for every day for three weeks you win that delightful virtual radio..but of course we all just abused the gamecube clock, got that radio, and then had weeds in our village...right?...right?..

 The pool was right next to a huge, beautiful river.

 A picture of the building. Cameras weren't allowed inside for obvious reasons...:(

 After shots! 

 There was a small park next to the pool place too! Super cute.

 Went home ride as the sun started to set.

Well this was certainly a wordy post!! Sorry about that. Miss you guys, miss the cats, but still having a blast! See you in about a month, yeah?

xoxoxo

P.S. coming up next is a trip to the local waterfall. PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE NATURE SHOTS!