Regatta Race and Eye Candy

Finally! Time to write about the Regatta race.

We all met at the Seijo station at 8 on Sunday to go to Toda-kouen, where the Regatta race was held. On the train, we were standing right by the conductor's booth and could see outside his windshield. I was bouncing on my feet, scrunched up and looking out, pretending I was a Donkey Kong character.

There were no bananas to collect along the way =[.

It was pretty cold outside, even with 3 shirts and a jacket on.
This was on one of the buildings near the lake. I thought it looked like the Super Smash Bros. logo.

"MELEE"

 Here's the team brackets:

Now, it was official. Our team was called the "Hot Rutters." Tom and Evan were discussing what the name should be and they were thinking "Hot Rodders" at first and tried to look it up in their Japanese electronic dictionary. Somehow, it spit out "Hot Rutters" instead, making it the perfect name for our team.
WE. ARE. almost. READY.

 We mingled for a bit until it was our time to go.
This is an epic photo of us being taught how to get in the boat.

I thought Tom was saluting at first and realized he wasn't but then continued to salute. We're on a boat, man.

 This is me terrified and crying to Kirsty to save me.

We had a few complications while learning how to row. For instance, I was rowing backwards, which apparently was a problem. Tom was explaining nicely at first and then ended up getting really frustrated with my backwards rowing abilities and began cursing. I couldn't stop laughing. He was probably also frustrated because he has rowing experience from back home in England, teamed with people who knew what they were doing. The worst part for him though, was that the boat was too small for his legs. So, when you come to Japan, know that they have small boats that don't accommodate all Gaijins.

Every heat had 3 teams racing at once. We ended up getting 2nd place in our first heat. We had a few problems along the way. The scariest one was when Evan's seat came off the wheel track and then his oar got stuck, being dragged in the water. Apparently, from the audience, it looked like the boat was going to tip and he was going to fall out. >___< My oar got stuck in the water once too, and it felt like you were going to tip over, which is terrifying enough. It must have been really scary for Evan with his seat issue on top of that.

But anyways, we had to win the next one in order to qualify for the finals. Our next race wasn't until about two hours later, so we were given lunch.

NoOOoOOo, I wasn't supposed to see you, Mr. Obento, in front of me until never again. Haha, but it was really awesome that they gave us all free lunch when we didn't even have to pay to participate in this event.

After lunch, they were holding a rowing machine contest to see who could row the farthest.

They had a girls and guys division. I said, "hey, why not?" and had a go.

When I was done, Asato told me that I was the lead in the girls so far. Tom was also in the lead for the boys. After a few more people, they announced the results.

AwwWWw YeaAahHhh, "キャット" is me. Tom and I won in our divisions! =^.^= I GO TO THE GYM.
We mingled for a bit more after.
Sabrina, Asato, and Yuka =^.^=

Evan and Tom's best angles:

After about another hour, it was the Hot Rutters turn to compete again. One of the teams we were racing against consisted of some of our teachers from school. We had to win.

We didn't. Evan's oar got stuck again, twice. Haha, that was okay though. XD

It was pretty darn awesome to be able to try rowing. ^____^

Some people were selling hot soup and they gave all of the exchange students free bowls. I said it was the perfect thing to have after competing in the cold. Then, Tom and Evan kept on coming up with better things to have, like a blanket, a house, a house with a heater, etc. Thanks, guys. XD

Team Titanic (Daan, Kirsty, Wendy, and the captain of the Regatta team) made it to the finals. So, we all were on the sidelines cheering for them.

I'll never let go, Shota.
Don't worry, the day was filled with Titanic references along with a few renditions of "My Heart Will Go On."

GoOOOooO!

Sadly, Team Titanic got 3rd in their heat. Still, they made it to the finals, which is pretty awesome. After the all-boys heat finished their competition, an awards ceremony was held.

Here's Team Titanic accepting 3rd prize:

Okay, so that is Evan's thumb blocking me from taking a picture of Team Titanic accepting 3rd prize.
Here is the second attempt:

And then Tom and I accepting our awards:

 I can't believe Kirsty caught me in action.

Here's a few more pictures from the day:
Me and Yuka!

XD  Let's try that again...

 A lot of the group:

 Mitchell, Yuka, Hanaka, and Me:

 Me, Shota, and Tom:

 And Evan, lolol.

 Oooo, and then I opened prize from winning the "erugo"/rowing machine contest:

 A 5000 yen (about $60) gift card that works at nearly every convenience store and a few book stores!

I felt really lucky 'cause the rowing teams that placed won the same prize, but had to split it x___X. Ooofa!

After the event, we all went to a Chinese restaurant to eat. It was nomihodai, which means all-you-can-drink. I ordered 2 glasses of water like a BAMF.

They kept bringing out plates and plates of food for us to share. The glass table in the middle could spin around, which I found fascinating and kept on spinning.
This wasn't even the beginning of it. There were about 8 more dishes after this.

 Apparently, what I thought was noodles, was jellyfish. I took revenge on the one that stung me.

I like how this picture looks like we're at a Filipino party:

 These are the stains by me and Evan. The Americans would be the messy ones.

 This guy was just awesome. I think he might be the head of Seijo...

 Cat ears!
And then Evan's cat ears:

One more Team Hot Rutters picture, with Laurent, who helped manage and organize the event:

And Tom and I showing our rowing strength XD:

It was funny about the race, because Asato said that our team had the most potential, since we had 3 athletic people on our team and we ended up doing horribly XD.
After about two hours of talking and eating, we headed home.
Sometimes you have to take your shoes off in restaurants too. Here's some our group's pile:

Some of us were walking a bit faster than others and ended up making the Express train home. Then, the doors closed and we waved goodbye to the others that didn't make it and had to wait a bit longer for the next train XD. I felt kind of bad, but mostly thought it was funny.

Sunday was probably one of the best days I've ever had here. I loved how happy and free-spirited everyone was.

I came home to find that my Mum's care package had arrived that I missed, which was awesome because I could go pick it up the next day without worrying about missing it again.

I asked Lauren and she'd be available to chat while I opened it the next day and she said that Beth and Shawn could join us too!
Jeremy and his baby also surprised me:

The package was amazing, as always. Sriacha, Mustard, Mrs. Dash, Hair Dying supplies, Chocolate, Dish Gloves, PEANUT BUTTER (which I was eating spoonfuls of while chatting), Shawn's money-saving card, Candy cane pens from Lauren (which I gave one each to Yuuki and Sou from track), real candy canes, a troll from Beth (as pictured), ALMONDS, and...
MoMo even sent me a St. Nick's present! It was wrapped and I thought it was a box of See's Candies at first. It ended up being way better candy than that:

EYE CANDY. I love it. I've already used it and can't wait to use it again today. The brush is fantastic. Thank you, MoMo! ^_____^

After opening the package, I had another class and track practice. I also was going to help Yuuki again after meeting with him at lunch and finish up trying to explain the difference between "dead" and "died" in English to him. There were more sentences, but man, it's hard to teach English.
This time I doodled a bit on his paper...

After finishing the masterpiece, he told me he was still going to use the paper for class.
WUT. lol, oh gosh.

Yesterday after class, Evan and I went to the gym to go swimming. Evan's been swimming for 18 years and it's been 6 months since he's last swam, which is the longest break he's had from the sport. Apparently, he hadn't taken a break at all in those 18 years. w00f.
It's awesome to see people in their element. He's a crazy swimmer. He even taught me how to improve my front crawl stroke and even how to do a spin in the water, which terrified me at first. I feel like I got better already, so I'm really grateful that he helped me. It was a great workout and I'm think it should be a weekly thing from now on. We even had the entire pool to ourselves. Craziness!

Grant came over later on in the day and we made "grilled" peanut butter, jelly, and banana sammies. They were divine.

Today, I'm going to Training class and then to Sagami-ko for an illumination show, which I think is like the light show in Wisconsin where there are a bunch of houses decorated insanely in Christmas lights.

Peace out, homeslices.

I am Disappoint, Ginza

About 5 days ago, Seijo held a party for all of the exchange students and pretty much anyone who wanted to come, with permission, was welcome. So, I invited Grant to join ^___^.

The part was only about two hours and half of the time was taken up by the different groups of students introducing themselves in front of everyone. I think I had the best speech. "I'm Kat. Like a Cat. I'm from Wisconsin and go to UWM. Nice to meet you." After about 3 times of saying the same little introductory speech this year, I think I'm starting to master it. And yes, in my "ordering at a restaurant" voice. Ugh.

So here's some pictures from that night.
This is me being really awkward with one of the head people from Seijo and Grant:

My arm looks okay in that one. I'm still working on how to pose my head.

Here's all of the exchange students lined up to give their introductory speeches and make me sound like a first grader:

 Here's Tom with a drink 5 minutes in:

 This guy had some mad skills:

They had some pretty dece food there, too. Stuff like pork cutlet, chinese pot sticker-like things that were different pastel colors, tiny square pieces of cake, FRUIT. I always stock my tummy up on any fruit when it's at parties because they usually have the more expensive fruit that I'm too cheap to buy, like grapes and strawberries. I forgot to take a picture of it all >___<.

Anyways, I got to meet some new people, which is always awesome.
Here is Tom introducing our Regatta team:

We had to say what the meaning of "頑張って”or "ganbatte" was from our own country. Literally, it means "do your best," but it's kind of hard to translate.
Some people said it meant, "Good luck" from their country. I said, "Don't screw up." Go America!

Yuka didn't know what to say, so this is me telling her to say "Break a leg," and she said "Break leg."
Close Enough.

The party went by really fast. Everyone loves Grant. They come up to me and tell me how cool he is. Pfft, like I don't know. XD

The next day, Grant and I decided to go to somewhere new for both of us, so we went to Ginza.Yeah. It wasn't exactly the greatest place on earth. It was cold, rainy, and dementors were near. Ginza was pretty much just a bunch of huge, expensive brand name stores, like Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Diane and Johnny would have had a field day. Grant and I are not Diane and Johnny.
Here are some pity pictures:

 GLOOMY.

 GLOOMY.

GLOOMY.

This tree clock is okay.

US BEING GLOOMY.

BYE, GLOOMY CITY.

It didn't take us long to figure out that Ginza wasn't the place for us. We were starving by this point and started to get a little loopy, I think. We tried hunting down a Subway because we had seen that they had turkey available, but we couldn't find one in this joint. After walking around for a bit more, we hopped on a train back to Shinjuku, since we knew one was there. Somehow, we decided to get  off the train early and go to Shibuya instead to get some random food (or Subway if we could find it) and fro yo. Fro yo makes everything better.

There was a place located in the station called The Food Show, which is basically a huge food court where you can buy food from a bunch of different booth-like restaurants, with no place to sit down to actually eat what you buy. Grant and I ended up buying obentos that looked delicious.

They were not delicious. Well, they were decent. Most obentos look delicious, but they all end up tasting the same in the end. Honestly, it's not worth it. We were sad from our sad obentos. FRO YO TIME.

Because of our sad day so far, we decided to go a little bit more crazy on our Fro yos and pile on as much as we wanted.

 They were, by far, the greatest fro yos we've had here yet. They were, by far, the most expensive fro yos we've had here yet.
This is what it looks like inside the Partyland:

After sugaring ourselves up (I can't believe "sugaring" is a word), we went around Shibuya for a bit.
Grant was here for a few hours:

I guess you can't really tell that it's going the wrong way. Or he is. I can't decide.
Have you ever seen one of these crazy laser keyboards before?!

ME NEITHER. UNLESS YOU SAID "YES," THEN FORGET YOU.
Grant and I then got some Tim Tams and hot chocolate. It was that kind of day.

Omg, so much sugar that day. My mind was happy. My body was not.
Luke asked if we wanted to meet up in Shimokitazawa to hang out for a bit. Grant and I went a bit early and he picked up this hat to replace the one that went missing:

I diggity digg it.
It was freezing outside and I decided to go home earlier since the Regatta race was the next day and we were all meeting early in the morning. Even with my heater on at apparently 29°C, which is 84.5 °F, I was still shaking for half the night. I even went and put my feet in really hot water, but they turned icy cold a few minutes later. Woof! At least I wasn't sick at all the next day. Go immune system! =^.^=

Bah, I'm going to start writing the post about the Regatta race and then post it tomorrow =^.^=.