Long Time No See

WOW!!! ごめんね！！
Sorry!

Well obviously everyone can tell its been along time since I've updated. I didn't even realize how long. Well a lot has happened since then, but me being me, I don't remember everything. I can give you a recap though.

Well classes are going fine. A little boring but thats fine haha. Japanese class has a lot of home work every day and also a quiz everyday. I have a paper due on monday for my economics class but i haven't even started it yet... so like me.

Last weekend, I think it was, Michelle, Josh and I went to Fukuoka. It's a city about 2 hours away from here. We took a but from near APU after climbing a ridiculous amount of stairs to get to it.

 We left APU on friday after first period since Michelle and I didn't have any others and Josh skipped his. We got to Fukuoka around 2ish and checked into the hotel. Mine and Michelle's room was small and so was Josh's. The hotels here are meant usually for guys who are traveling on business trips and stuff like that.

The first day we went to Canal City which is a mall. But not any mall, it's like 5 stories tall and about 4 buildings connected together. If you know lakeside mall its about 3 times as big.

This is inside the mall, between the buildings.

 It also has a movie theater in it, the basement is restaurants, arcade, ramen history room and soooooo much more!!! Connected to it also a hotel. we shopped there until late and we ate dinner there at a omurice restaurant. Omurice is an omelet filled with rice and different ingredients. Mine was an Italian version and had pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese on it.

The next day, Saturday, we walked all around town. we went to two temples, an art museum and shopping district. Every thing was amazing.

 On our way back from the second temple to the hotel for a short nap we saw a pastry shop so we stopped and each bought a dessert.... soooo goooodddd.

Then we went back and ate it and took a short nap haha. That night we went back to the mall, again, after we ate ramen in a Yatai (ramen stand that sets up on the side of road). It was delicious!!!

Yatai stands

 Then we were searching the mall for the movie theater and came across an arcade. we played Silent hill then mario cart. It was so fun!!!!!! We also had cold stone ice cream which was also delicious!! That night we played some cards in the room.

Me playing silent hill.

On sunday we got up and came home, after waiting at the bus stop for an hour because we weren't sure how to read the bus schedule. Then we ate lunch at the bus station before climbing down the stairs.

This past Wednesday I went on a tour of Beppu with APU graduate who wants to improve his english before going to the States in July. It was setup by the exchange coordinator. I went went Josh, Jacob, John and the guide Yuki-san.  He drove us in his car so there was only room for 4 people.

First he took us to lunch, we had pay our own way though, at a very popular traditional Japanese restaurant. we had to take our shoes off before entering and we had to sit on pillow on the ground, on tatami mats. We had chicken tempura, which is like battered chicken. It came with Miso soup, some salad, rice, and some sort of egg/pudding concoction. It was delicious though.

What they served the rice in.

The restaurant.

Afterwards we went to the aquarium called Umitamago, which means Sea Egg. We got to see a walrus show.

Walrus painting with his whiskers. 

 We were going to watch the dolphin show but apparently the dolphins fought that morning and wouldn't  work together. We saw all sorts of fish and got to hold a starfish.

Jellyfish that had lights of different colors on them. Very cool.

After the aquarium we had coffee, canned coffee, which is very tasty and popular here. They sell them in vending machines, hot and cold.  Then we went to Monkey Mountain, which is just across the street from the Aquarium. The monkeys roam freely around you. They walk right by u and fight and its amazing. We got to see feeding time. They knew it was feeding time and were howling and then swarmed the feeding cart. It was a little scary. haha

Here are also two links to videos I took at Monkey Mountain. Monkey Mountain, Feeding Time.

After wards he took as to the beach and we walked around the beach and park. It was very pretty there and he told us that when it opens in June it is very popular place to go and swim.

Josh decided to climb the pirate play ship.

Then we went to dinner at a buffet. But it was BBQ buffet. There are grills in every table and you cook your meat right on it. For 90min all you can eat meat, sushi, veggies, beverage, soup, rice and dessert cost about $20.  I tried sushi here, and it was kind good!!! I had the salmon sushi, but nothing else haha. Taking it slow.

 My two plates and bowl on the bottom. 

Josh's stack. At least he got his moneys worth. 

After dinner he took us to Marushoku, which is a grocery store, but it also sells clothes and shoes, so we could get some groceries. He also showed us which alcohol was the best haha. Then he took us back to campus. He said he would love to take us out again to somewhere else, just to let him know where. It was fun to get to see the city differently and the aquarium and monkey mountain.

I don't know if I already told you guys or not but I think 2 weeks ago Michelle and I had dinner with our Korean friends. They made korean food for us and it was delicious. We need to make dinner for them but its hard because we don't have ovens here and most things i cook use an over. If any one has any idea what Michelle and I can make for them in return let me know!

Tonight I went over to my friend Elyse and Angelinas floor. We cooked and ate together then just hung out and talked. I made chicken veggie pasta with an alfredo sauce. Angelina brought these curry packages from Korea(she's Korean, Angelina is her english name, her korean name is Hyun Min) so we had that. Mao, Angelinas Japanese roommate, brought rice, and Elyse made miso soup. It was very delicious. We also watched a japanese guy bleach his hair and a girl dye her hair  a brown pinkish color.

Yesterday Michelle and I went shopping downtown and I bought a pair of heels, because everyone here wears them. They are not big heels though or I would kill myself. I also bought some clothes here. JUst a couple shirts. Oh yesterday I also got a Japanese phone. The phone only cost about $70 and the prepaid card cost $30 for 2 months. I have unlimited e-mail and texting on it then call cost about .90$ a min. So i just tell everyone to SMS me. Not a bad price for a phone.

The phones and plans here are very different. What they do is spend a couple hundred dollars on a phone, like up to $1000 for some. Then the plans only cost about $15 a month for minutes, internet, SMS, and TV. But the phone are awesome. They have bluetooth and infrared on every phone and you use that to "zap" your contact information to other people. No need to manually input it. They also can use some phones as a credit card kinda.  Some places (I think more so in Korea than Japan) you can scan your phone on a pad and it charges your phone the cost of what you want to buy.

Also when you shop and use a credit card they ask how many times you want your card swiped. Not really sure why they do this, I'll have to ask. But Michelle and I always just tell them to do it once... hope thats right.

AHHH!! I almost forgot to tell everyone!! We have something called world festival  here on campus in June. every floor has to participate and you can do one of three things. Performance, cook, or free category. Free category is like a nail salon or cafe with a theme and is obviously free. Well my floor picked performance, so I will be dancing. It's a korean song called Gee by SNSD or Girls Generation, either name works.
Here is a link to the music video dance version, which I believe is what we will be doing.   Gee- SNSD

I don't really know what else has happened. Obviously it wasn't important or i would have remembered.... hopefully.

Well I think thats it for today. I will try to keep up better. At least once a week.

Stephi