So Many Stickers

Oh hai! Yesterday was the weekend and luckily I didn't have any classes. There's still classes held on Saturdays at the university. I started my day off with a workout and then when I came back I was like...well I could go to Harajuku. But the weather wasn't that great.

Then, Shibata san posted on Facebook that there was going to be a BBQ party for the exchange students at his mansion. The Shibata Mansion is where all of the other exchange students live. Luckily, Tom and Evan got their phones and text messages here work like emails. I'm really not sure how that works...but if I send them an email, they see it as a text message. So it's really helpful since I don't have a phone yet and can still contact them.

Tom came to the station in Ikuta to pick me up and take me to the mansion. It was a much different atmosphere.
Old Hello Kitty train mobile thinger outside O__O

 I'm not sure if people live in that 2FUp Motor, but this is one section of the mansion. There are, I think, 3 sections of buildings in a square shape with tons of dorm rooms for students. Their rooms are a bit smaller and the kitchens are much smaller (only 1 stove-top burner).

They have a small park by their place, which seemed like a nice place to do homework, picnic (is this even a verb?!), and tell ghost stories at night. Maybe. The mosquitos love Tom and were biting him a lot, so we decided to go to their local supermarket.
Here's some beer, scotch, etc. pics for Grant. Sometimes...I can't tell the difference with Japanese alcohol.

The alcohol was extremely cheap. Tom said it was probably cheaper to be drunk than sober when living in Japan XD.
That's a 2.5 Liter for like...3,000 something yen. So, ridiculously cheap.

 The supermarket was awesome. I really wish there was one here. The prices were way more reasonable and they had a huge selection (2-stories). So jealous. I really want to go back to stock up on stuff, but wonder if it'd be worth the 380 round-trip train ride in the end.

Cocoa and Vanilla Ice Cream Koala March

Halloween Strawberries and Cream Koala March

 Ugh, I wOuLD leave my wallet at their place....

They had a ton of Rement, Lauren!

Bethhhh, Hello Kitty Macaroni Shapes!

 And another Liquor Shop for Grant. This one probably has more reasonable prices too than the one I live by.

 Cutest Nintendo gift card ever.

BREAD HANDS! This is as close as I could get without really really creeping by the window.

After Kirsty joined us, we went back to the mansion for the BBQ.

 Lots of Onigiri.

 We went on top of one of the building's roofs to eat and talk and meet other exchange students who are going to different schools around Japan.

 They had tacos! And marinated meat, sausages, a noodle dish, apple slices, and little cheesecakes.

 Meat is pretty pricey here so it was like

while you can. I ate. so much.

Shibata san was taking pictures of us so I was retaliating.

 

Evan, Photo-bomber: Level 10.

This is Daan with his perfect skin and my not-so-great ipod camera. But it does have this crazy function called a "Calculator" where you can add and subtract numbers without having to do them in your head. pffft, iphone5. Who needs it...

 We got to meet Mitchell! He's another student from the university, but has been here a semester already. He's also from Australia and talked about a lot by the students at Seijo (all good things). So, it was kind of like meeting a famous person.

Here is a great series of shots. Everyone got their phones so they were all really excited to use the cameras and such. In the first photo is my finger. How exciting!

 lolwut.

 This was a sweet potato alcoholic beverage. lolwut.

 

Wendy (from Belgium, like Daan) and Kirsty. Wendy's phone had a Purikura function that could make your eyes bigger and skin perfect in a photo. This ipod does not. lolol.

 More camera war photos

 I asked Wendy what the best Belgium chocolate brand was and she said this one was. I didn't try it, but I'll have to order some one day and see O__O. Anyone ever tried it before?

Then, this little girl came up to me with her sticker book and started to talk to me and show me all the stickers. It was difficult to understand what she was saying, but she did her best to explain what she meant by things. I kept having to ask Sabrina (in the picture) what the little girl meant.
I was asking her what things were or what they meant. For example, I pointed to a dog and asked her what it was, which she said "Inu," which is dog in Japanese. Then, I asked what it was in English and she also knew it was "dog."
Then, I pointed to a sticker that said "Love" and she said, from what I got from her Japanese, when a girl and a boy come together and kiss and then later get married. I asked her if she loved anyone and apparently there's a boy from her school she's sweet with. XD

She knew I wasn't fluent in Japanese, so she said she'd teach me. Oh, that's a sticker on my chest, by the way. It puffed out and when you pressed it, it squeaked like a squeaky toy.

Then two other girls came up and started talking to us and giving us stickers and grapes and candy. They kind of reminded me of Lauren, Beth, and me. Beth was like the one not looking at the camera. lolol.

 And then they were like "You weren't looking at the camera!"

 So now my ipod case is decorated...

 And they gave me all of these too. lololol.

So yeah! We pretty much stayed at the BBQ all afternoon and night. I got to meet a few more people, mainly students who didn't go to Seijo but still lived at the mansion. It was really nice meeting the Shibatas as well, because I hear so much about them. They don't speak any English at all. They were both extremely nice though and I can't believe they made a meal for all of us.
They usually make breakfast and dinner during the weekdays for the students who pay for the meal plan. Apparently, the dishes can be really foreign. One breakfast recently was a fish with its head still on and a belly full of eggs.
I think I'll stick with my non-Indiana Jones breakfasts.

On the way back home, I stopped at the market since I was out of chicken and found a peach for 150 yen! Usually they're like 500-600+ each!
It may have been older and not as pretty, but I had it for breakfast today and it was darn good. =]

Today is another free day. I'll probably start studying the Kanji they gave us to learn. It's been raining all night and morning, so it's the kind of stay-in weather anyways. I changed my computer's CD drive to this region, so I'll be able to watch Japanese DVDs on it now. Hopefully I won't need to change it back again while I'm here, since you're only allowed to change it 4 times, but you never know when I'll be able to do a Jillian workout. One of these days...