Busy weekend!

Hisashiburi! (Long time no see)

Well only one person sent me a quote so picking a quote today was easy, here it goes, courtesy of my father:

There are three sorts of people in this world: Those that can count, and those that can’t. (Homer Simpson)

So like I said, long time no see! I was planning on updating my blog over the weekend, but I’ve been too busy. How cool is that! Friday first of all I had class of course, and after class I went to the station shopping mall with some friends. We shopped around ( I bought some cd’s; Semisonic and 2 xmas cds because they were all in the sale box) and walked over to another shopping mall called Yume Saito where there is a Starbucks! Chilled there, wandered over to the big 100yen shop and there I bought myself a little Christmas tree! It looks as cheap as it was, but hey, I’ve now got a Christmas tree! I’ve put it in the living room for everyone to enjoy ;). I bought some other Christmassy things as well, lots of fun.

We met up with Masa, the high school student who wants to practice his English (I told you about him right? …), had some dinner and then decided to head home. By the time we got home it was 9 o’clock, only to find out we were meeting people at 10, which gave me half an hour to rest! I managed to get myself going however and we ended up at this student izakaya called Shirotoppo. We decided to do what they call a ‘nomi-hourai’. This means that for 2 hours you can drink whatever, and however much you want. Well you do understand the implications… It wasn’t long before the self-introductions began, which is just an excuse to chug your drink after you’re done :P I was too busy chatting with a Japanese guy to do that though, and on top of that I really didn’t feel like it, it’s a guys’ thing! It was a really fun night I must say, met a lot of new people, including an American and a Japanese wannabe American (sorry Tomo!), both really really nice. They told Mariko about a potential barbeque the next day …

… and yes Saturday Mariko got a call from Tomo, asking her if she would like to come to a bbq at their dorm (and bring all her cool friends like me gna gna gna)! This is a dorm like where I live, but then for students of Gaidai, the university for foreign studies. It turns out it’s right across from Biado’s, Sachi’s izakaya! That was funny. Even funnier was that Sachi turned out to be at the bbq too! We got there around 3:30, and I think we stayed there until 8. By that time we were all sort of freezing, it is slightly chilly, a bbq on the first of December. It isn’t as cold as in Europe I think, but at night it does get cold of course. The bbq itself wasn’t that impressive, unlike the home-made umeshuu (plum wine) brought over from Sachi’s place. Now that was something (despite the dead ants floating in mine, yugh). So at around 8 or so we decided to head over to Biado to warm up.

Most of the Americans and the Japanese people who were there came over as well, and Biado’s went from empty to crowded! It was seriously soo much fun! It was nice to just chat away in English with people you don’t know so well. Normally it was either the Dutch people I see almost every day, or Japanese people, and sometimes Japanese is just really tiring. You have to really pay attention the whole time, and it requires a lot of thinking to keep a conversation going. Of course this is what I’m here for, but every now and then, it’s nice to take a break :). That’s why Saturday really was so much fun! I didn’t take any pictures though, too busy having fun, sorry.

To make up for it all I went off with Sachi, Yoriko and Nono on Sunday, together with Mariko, Claudia and Gerrie. We went to Hasami, Sachi’s hometown famous for its pottery (it’s close to Arita, well know for its pottery.). Anyway, he was supposed to pick us up at 10, he arrived at 10:40 picking up 4 frozen Dutch students, but anyway, off we went in this amazingly huge luxurious car. It belongs to this guy called ‘Sensei’, called so because he’s a high school gym teacher (sensei means teacher). I don’t know how to describe this car… the doors are automatic, there’s a very nice navi, tv, roof can open, there’s a camera on the back of the car so you can see where you are going when reversing. Leather clad seats, very cool. Anyway, we had all the comfort of the world while driving over to Hasami, we made some stops, including this place where there were supposed to be whirlpools and stuff, we drove passed ‘Huis ten Bosch’, the Dutch theme park, a lot of the time the view was gorgeous, and then we got to Hasami where we stopped off at this shop where you can buy ‘drop’ glasses. Anyone who has been to Biado’s knows what they are, and how cool they are! So bought one for myself, and I managed to do some Christmas shopping there too. After that we visited his parents, where we had a “Chou Cream”, ohhh so yummy! Seriously! After our “afternoon tea” we walked over to a really big pottery shop where I did even more Christmas shopping, haha. So handy. After that it was time to go home already, it was 5 o’clock and technically Sachi was supposed to work at 6. The beauty of owning your own place is of course you can always decide not to go to work, which is exactly what Sachi did! It was a Sunday anyway, not really a busy day. Instead he called up Sensei and we ended up all going over to Sensei’s house for dinner! Perfect ending to a really lovely day!

At sensei’s we had ‘Nabe’. This is a really big pot full of a sort of soup, where you boil vegetables and meat and fish and stuff in. There was a spicy version for the grown-ups, and a rather flavour-less one for the kids. Sensei has 3 kids, of which one is only 2 months old, soo sweet! And Nonoka and Momoko were there, and Sensei’s dad, so it was just one big family thing, seriously fun. And the spicy nabe was spicy! But very very yummy, though a little too spicy for Sachi haha. They ordered this HUGE dish of sushi as well, that just gets delivered like pizza or something, so cool! I also tried a Japanese Guiness when I was there, called Yebisu beer. It sort of looks like Guiness as in it’s very dark, but it isn’t as ‘heavy’ as Guiness. It was quite interesting! After dinner I had a chat with the grandfather, which was difficult, but fun! Yes everything was fun that day, sorry, I just had a great time! So that was my busy weekend, sorry for the lack of funny happenings, it’s just that so much happened, can’t pin point what exactly was so fun. It was just a really nice weekend, it was exactly what I (we) needed, a big dose of fun!

Unfortunately we are not celebrating Sinterklaas here. We were going to but it just didn’t happen, so I will just eat my pepernoten and chocoladeletter all by myself tonight ;) Well not all of it of course. And it’s more Christmassy here anyway, with the Christmas tree and decorations, and I will be celebrating Sinterklaas with some people in Holland on Sunday, so it’s not a total loss! Don’t really have plans for the rest of the week… The guys and Mariko are going to Fukuoka next weekend so next weekend will be quiet I think. Not to worry, I’ll think of something. For now though, I’m going to… get myself a drink, I’m thirsty. Good night!

X Jennifer

PS:
-Making my advent calendar
-Shirotoppo
-Hasami!

+ movies online!
- dutchstreet (we passed a Dutch street on our way to Hasami,
- passingHuisTenBosch (we passed Huis Ten Bosch!),
- and Drivinginthedark! (slightly scary, not!?)

enjoy!