Japan Day Two

'All right lets see if we can do this in one toke, TAKE!' - Dandy Warhols

Its hard to concentrate as i cant help but sing along with the new Dandy Warhols album im listening to on my iPod, but lets give it a try. So day two i wake up at 830am, and Ash was getting up at 10. i sat there for an hour and a half just thinking about things and then right at 10 i fell back asleep and didnt get up until 1pm. I felt bad, but i needed the sleep and the jet lag was hitting me just a tad, but not bad. Last night I went to sleep at 11 and got up at 630am. Not bad. Anyway we made breakfast and chatted and blah blah blah and didnt leave the house til 3pm! It was drizzling all morning and afternoon anyway and already put a damper on the day, so whatever, laying low this day. We walked back towards the train station (Nabari-eki) and the little village looking area and then under a train track to the other side of the tracks and started walking towards this place Ash likes to go to eat alot. I noticed on the ground something i thought was so cool. On all the sidewalks here, right in the middle, there is this plastic track that runs along the entire sidewalk, and the tracks have straight lines in them all the way to the end of at the street, where the lines become dots. These tracks are for blind people to help them get around. The straight lines mean you can keep walking and the dots mean you have to stop. In a society that concentrates so much on helping other people and being courteous it certainly doesnt surprise me in the least and find it so comforting for some reason.

CLICK BELOW TO CONTINUE READING! When we got to the place Ash likes to eat, no idea what the name is, it had started pouring rain like crazy. This place was so simple and delicious. I got these two litle patty like things, one was a sweet potato type food. There was something else in it definitely but had no idea what it was, but it was good. The other one was a pork/meatloaf kinda filling. They were basically hashbrowns, but with differnt fillings and they were cold. I also got this little meat on a stick, as well as a small rice and green tea and water. At first you kind of get thrown off by the small portions of everything but then its quite refreshing that you are not eating so much and you walk out of there not feeling like a bloated mess. The rice was really really good, different from home, but maybe thats the rice cooker talking. At least it sticks together more, cause if it didnt i think it would be impossible to eat with the chopsticks. Everything really is smaller in Japan. There are a few doorways where I needed to duck my head just a bit, the ceilings are just a bit lower. Its not a big deal but you definitely notice it. Food in smaller portions is very obvious. Cups are so much smaller. Everything is in smaller sizes. For instance cereal isnt that big here. So at the supermarket they have corn flakes, but picture the smallest box at an American supermarket, but cut that box into thirds. One third of that is the size of a box here, and its costs $5-6!! But its ok cause you dont eat as much here. However their bread here is so good, just the normal white bread you get at a supermarket. You can get thin sliced or you can get the thick slices which I bet is like 'Texas Toast' at home. Anyhow Charly met us at this restaurant and then we went to the mall called Park City. Today was a holiday by the way, its called 'Sports Day' but not sure what it involves. Maybe it was for the NASCAR like event that happened when I arrived. Anyway at Park City and at alot of places in Japan when you walk into a building when its raining there are these contraptions that you put your umbrella in and pull back out, within a second, and when you take it out there is a plastic bag over your umbrella so you dont get water over everything in the place youre in. My first thought was that its a waste of plastic over something as simple as water, but they recycle here, and they take it seriously, so all is well. Great idea i think. Anyway we walked through the mall to get to the other side of the building and back outside so we could get to this store called 'Uni Qlo' which is like a Gap or H&M back at home, or more appropriately a mix of the two. Ash shops here alot and wanted to show me something I was gonna freak out about. There were two sections, one for sweatshirts and 'hoodies' (i hate that word) and then regular t-shirts, that had airline logos on them. Most of you know how obsessed I am with airlines so i was freaking out. The best part is they had an Air Greenland hoodie. It was bright red, very soft, the new funky logo huge on the front, and yeah i wanted it so bad. they had Icelandair sweatshirts but sadly the Icelandair one was ugly cause it was on an ash gray meterial. All the other ones were so nice. Nice quality and definitely commissioned by the airlines cause they had their logos and professional advertising going on with these. They had Swiss, Virgin Atlantic, Egypt Air, Air Mauritius, Air New Zealand, you name it, they had it. Heres where the small factor comes in! I tried on the Icelandair shirt, which was ok, different than the sweatshirt, but the XL didnt fit at all. The Air Greenland hoodie they only had in L, and that didnt fit either. DAMN IT! Japanese people why are you so damn SMALL??? But luckily they had an XL Finnair hoodie, that was in my fave blue color and it fit if i stretched it just a bit. And it was only $19!!!! This would hav cost me $40-50 at home for sure. Anyway I was happy. The sweetest part was when we walked into this store, one of Ashleys students recognized her. Now my friend Yung Mei had told me to warn Ash that she would be treated like a celebrity when she was there, and she does get recognized alot by her kids who get so excited yet shy when they see her. They just stare and giggle but in a sweet way, and I saw it before we went into that restaurant. But when we went into Uni Qlo right when we walked in we walked past this aisle and this girl came out of the aisle and all you heard was this gasp of astonishment. She was in total awe that she saw Ashley. She backed up a bit and covered her mouth and made this 'ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' sound and Ash just said 'Hi' and the girl just said 'Ash-uh-ray, Ash-uh-ray' and kept staring like she was Madonna as she walked away. Very cute. Then when I bought my shirt the girl at the counter asked me who Charly was (she spoke English a bit so i guess Charly and Ash are doing a good job!) and said 'oh thats Ashley' (as i thought she was pointing at Ashley). The girl kept saying 'Ash-uh-ray' and i asked if she was her teacher and she just replied 'high school, high school'. So yeah i feel like im walking around with celebrities. Oh yeah parking lots? Yeah no one pulls into parking lots. You back into them. When we were walking through the one at Uni Qlo EVERY car was facing the same way, as they all backed into them. Very weird, I wonder why its a big deal but for some reason it is! We went back into the mall and went to a 100 store (a dollar store) and i bought these two little signs that were in Japanese. (again, obviously! why do i keep clarifying that?) and the woman who rang me up and bowed (i love the bowing SOOOO much i cant even tell you). Then we walked past this store that sold those dresses or whatever they are called that you see geishas wear alot. why cant i remember the name of them? anyway one of Ash's students worked there and he as well was so excited to see all of us. he tried to say my name and kept calling me Andrea. i punched him out. HA! he was a nice guy and spoke just a BIT of english, but he said 'expensive' really well when he showed us this one KAMONA, thats it, not sure if spelling is right but you know what i mean. it costs 700000 YEN. ok im getting tired of typing. lastly we went to one of those machines where you get your picture taken in a booth and then make crazy drawings over them and then stickers come out. Japanese girls are obsessed with them and Ash has students who has NOTEBOOKS FULL of these things, and they are all trying to drag her to the mall cause they want pictures with her so bad! SO now im not sure what to do. Ash works til 430 then has a class tonight so this is the day i have all to myself so now that the rain has stopped for a bit im gonna walk around her town and take pictures. Im a bit worried about the time i have during the week. For the trains i can figure out how to buy a ticket, and i could count between stations, but everything is in KANJI or however you spell it so it will be impossible to figure out how to switch and which platform to use etc etc. At least i have one 3 day weekend im Hiroshima and Miyajima Island, and my last weekend in Osaka! I could sit in one place on this town and just observe people for hours on end and be happy so ill be ok. BYE!