A new-found sense of Pride

This weekend ROCKED!!!

Friday, I got off of work, came home to shower and change, then headed off to Noda, Chiba (where Manami lives). We met up in Kashiwa and walked around a little bit. Very very unfortunately, the Jethro Tull shirt I found but didn't want to buy cuz I hadn't been paid yet has been sold. Sucks, it was an amazing shirt, and it was yellow. Still, I got over it fast and we headed to Manami's house for dinner. Her mom cooked a delicious kind of white creamy soup with potatoes and carrots and the like, and also sticky rice with oysters, shrimp, and squid in it. It was really good. I brought them a bottle of shochu as an omiyage (gift), so we drank it with dinner and I got a nice little buzz before bedtime. Her parents are cool, even if I BARELY understand them.

Saturday, we visited a shrine because Manami needed to pray for a job. Fairly amusing. It was fun though, and it's 3-5-7 season, so there were a lot of people there and adorable little kids in kimonos. 3-5-7 is a time of the year when kids aged 3, 5, and 7 celebrate and go to shrines and stuff like that. They get presents from their family and go out to eat and stuff. These three numbers are considered lucky numbers in Japan. They also had yatai set up (food stands), which I absolutely love. I ate a obonyaki, which is a cream-filled kinda pancake thing. So good. Here's a picture of the shrine.



After that, we went hunting for work clothes for Manami. I found a kick ass reversible sweater-jacket thing that was really cheap. I left it at Manami's house though, so you all will have to wait for a picture of it. It's SO BADASS though.

Went back to Manami's house, chilled for a while, and headed to Tsuchiura. There was a Halloween party at my part-time, so we went. I was Ryan Hime (Princess Ryan), because I was too lazy to look for a costume and Manami had a crown at her house. It was fun, here's some pictures.


L to R- Richie, one of the ALTs. I think he's from California, nice dude. Me, I hear he's cool. Tomoyuki, the manager at my part-time and the bass player in the band I saw a few weeks back. Cool dude, amazing English skills. Mei, one of the students at TIA. She's cute.


Manami, myself, and some random guy. No idea who he is or who he's supposed to be.


General shot of the party scene with Manami doing an interesting pose in the foreground.


Awww cute.

Manami, some of the other English teachers, and myself topped the night off by hitting up a club in Tsuchiura called Pride. There was a reggae show, so we went. It was pretty sweet, and kinda made me respect Tsuchiura a little more for having such a sweet show in town. I danced, got way too drunk, had fun. Some Japanese girl tried picking me up, which I think made Manami angry, but it wasn't my fault goddamit. I'm just too cute, I guess.

Anyways, I guess I had a little too much fun because I woke up with an absolutely brutal hangover. Puking and everything. Sorry mom and dad, it happens sometimes though. Actually, this is the first time I've had a puking hangover in a long time. Oh god, it sucked. But i'm better now, if not a little tired. For dinner, I had a tonkatsu and soba set. It was delicious.

I had an idea for a book. Basically, I would take pictures of everything I eat in Japan for maybe a year or so, and have a little write-up on each thing. Like what's in it and stuff. It would be like a coffee-table book. Anyone think publishers would go for that? Easy money would be my main intention here, of course.

Staying on the subject, let's finish this blog with a picture of a meal I had last week. It's from a fast-food joint called Hokka Hokka Tei. It's ridiculously cheap and ridiculously delicious. I think I will revisit it this week. Here you are folks.