I'm Alive! I Swear!

Toats haven't been posting lately. Well, you know that. Unless you just stumbled upon this blog. Gah! Hi!

These past few days have been mainly filled with school work, track, Alice in Wonderland Tea Sets, and of course, seeing Grant .^_____^.

OH AND I FOUND OUT I REALLY LIKE COFFEE! HAHAHA. But like...the cheap kind. Like, we're talking Folder's Instant Coffee Sticks. Yeah, I was sent those in the care package (yay!) and thought I'd give them a go. Without Beth's plastic spoon from Panera. Sorry. Kinda. O:-

And it was leik, omgzogood. Since I only have 1 stick left, I picked some other brand up at Kaldi Coffee Farms (the amazing and only place [so far] with ~nAtuRal~ peanut butter).

AwWwWw YeaAAhHHh, imported from Germany. It's not too bad. I think I prefer Folder's. Ugh, their jingle. It's so true! I woke up this morning and yesterday morning thinking I CAN'T WAIT FOR COFFEE! Oh gosh. I'm turning more and more like MoMo everyday =].

Anyways, backtrack! You might be thinking "KAT. Grant just came to Japan and all you can talk about is coffee?!" Well, I just took this picture and am drinking coffee and it was something I just needed to rant about for a bit.

Yes! Sunday was the hardest day to endure. I studied pretty much the entire day, taking breaks to go walk around town and visit the same shops. Did I ever tell you how awesome the dollar (100 yen) store is here? They have so much great stuff. Well, a lot of the stuff Lauren would love.

"My favorite things are music and sunshine and love. And pain."

I can hear the insults already from these guys. (Fable III reference for all you non-believers. I mean non-gaming folk.

I should really take more pictures of stuff from there though. That's just a few of the cute stuff. They have a ton of kitchen supplies and spices and school supplies and lock 'n lock containers. I guess a lot of dollar stores probably have this stuff. So if there's one thing I learn from Japan, it's to go and check what you can buy at dollar stores first before finding the same thing somewhere else for lots more.

Omg, I'm so off track again. Well, not really. But yeah, I went there mainly to pick up stuff to make a care/welcome/survival-package for Grant. Or was that the night before? Well, it happened one of those days.

But yeah, waiting for him to arrive to Japan was incredibly nagging. I tracked his flight here and there until he landed safely. Creepy? Pffft. Yeah, one time when I refreshed the map, the little plane icon disappeared and only its path was displayed. That was uncool, airport. Uncool. XD

He finally got in and was able to contact me, but apparently they messed up with his luggage so he had to sort things out there for awhile. A great welcome from Japan! Well, I guess that was Canada's doing. The one time they should say "sorry." Nah, I'm not bashing Canada. I love Scott Pilgrim.

He still had a train ride to go and then walking to his apartment and walking to the 7 Eleven for us to meet. It was about 8:30 when we could finally meet up. The landlord was late to pick him up too. I felt so bad that he had all of this stuff to deal with >___<.

 I tried to capture a picture of the train next to us. It's always awkward and funny when there's a train that is riding next to you because you just stare at the person in the other train.

On the way to meeting him. I had to dodge these cars first. Frogger Expert Level 4. Shinjuku usually requires level 6, but I was really excited and had a booster.

It was amazing seeing him again. I guess it really was one of those moments where all you see is that one person in a huge crowd. Okay, I'll stop being all gooshy.

But yeah. It was great. We walked to his apartment, but first stopped at a convenience store to get foodies. It was the first obento box for both of us in Japan. And on sale! -since it was later in the night and they wanted to get rid of the foodies.

 Grant's first experience with a Japanese vending machine.

Our foodies! It was pretty good. Honestly, the sushi from this market was about the same as in the US ones.

After we ate and had a person sit down near us with a whimpering puppy that sounded like a child, we walked to his place. It's quite the maze to get there. This may take awhile to get. I don't know how he does it. I got lost from the station to my house for a week or so before even though it's almost a straight shot. lolol. Oh gosh.

We got to meet 2 of the people that live in the same apartment. They both seem pretty nice. ^___^

The next day, I had class, so we were able to hang out after and go around town near my apartment. It was really lucky that I had Friday classes on Monday. That way I had one less class to go to. The school did that to even out class days or else there would have been an uneven amount of Friday classes throughout the semester. w00f. Japan thinks of everything.
First, he met up with me at school and got to meet some of the other exchange students and we had lunch together. He got me "the finest chocolate in the world."

It was like a Crunch bar without the rice krispies, laid out in the sun too long and then solidified again and left sitting for a few more days and just taken out of a freezer but not cold. But it was exactly the chocolate I needed after a meal XD. For realziez, it totally tackled my craving for chocolate after lunch.

We also wanted to check if he could get a sim card for his phone or at least a prepaid phone for his time here. Sadly, the options he was given were way too overpriced so he might be phoneless his time in Japan. But we did get to talk to this lady on an ipad! The future, man. So crazy.

 I had track practice to go to, so Grant hung out at my place while I went. Yuuki, me, and another member ran to Kyoudo Station and back, which was about a 40 minute run. Then, we did a couple of uphill sprints. It's always awesome talking with them. They taught me more vocabulary, like るっさい (russai), which is noisy. I asked how to say "noisy" because we passed a Pachinko, which is like the Potowatami of Japan, except louder and smokey and there's no blackjack.

After, Grant and I went to the 100 yen store so he could pick up school supplies since his suitcase wouldn't be delivered until today. Here's two amazing things we found:

 I really don't understand...

 But really, what?

We went to a few grocery stores because that's what we do. lololol. It's so fun, I'm so serious. But yeah! He got to check out different beers and scotches you can't find back home. Very exciting. Oh, and this was in one of the groceries:

There's a ton of Alice in Wonderland stuff in Japan. I found this earlier in the week:

 One day, I really want a fancy tea set.

Today, I just had class and then went to the gym. I got to teach Sabrina and Yuliya a few warm-up moves. They just came in when I was about finished, so I only showed them a warm-up. But they said they wanted to get trained by me! I think I might ask Asato-san if I can reserve the gym sometime to hold a class for people who want to be trained.

Grant and I are going to hang out later today and I think I've pretty much caught you up with how things are. Oh yeah! On campus, there's this really pretty area that's been in construction since before I arrived. They finally took down the "Danger"/Construction signs and it's open to walk by ^___^.
I want to take better pictures later. There's a tiny bridge to cross over too and a sitting area. Ohh, it looks so pretty. I wanted to walk by all of the workers still there and just shake their hand and say "By, gum! You've done it!"

 And then this fellow was by it:

Do you see him? Well, I made the picture X-Large so I really would hope that you do.

Mother of God, "I Want My Hat Back" has a sequel. Every bookstore I go to here, I look for the Japanese version. I told Timmy that I don't want to look up if it really exists because then I'd just lose hope. I am. Hopeful. Pandora's Box, people. "This is Not My Hat" is going to either be my second favorite book ever or tied for first. Or it may take the #1 spot. Please, grab your carpet squares. It's story time. Voices varying for characters included.

lolol. Oi, byebye! COFFEECOFFEECOFFEE.