Part 3 - It Never Ends

So, today was really busy. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much. Ever.

As soon as I came down I walked out of the elevator and saw everyone standing around waiting and ready to leave. So I ran back up for my camera and money and then we followed Saki off to a little restaurant where I had… a mystery. It had noodles, bean sprouts or something, cabbage, a pink flower thing, a spongy yellow thing… I tried it all and most was really good.



So then we parted ways. Half of the group went to a café, half went with Saki to shop. I got a 100 yen shower basket, which is about $1. I also got a little handle towel, sunscreen, and a beach towel. It’s kind of dumb to bring a swimsuit and not a towel. I realized this yesterday when we went to the beach and I had nothing to dry off with. So, now I do. It has Chip and Dale on it. Um… that’s all I bought today. I tried to keep myself limited.

Next we went back to the dorm, changed, and met up again for the beach. The water’s really warm, but we had a ball and we did the whole “try to keep it in the air” thing. A group of three Japanese joined in briefly and then moved on, probably because we were terrible at it. We continued for a while, until Mitchel freaked out about being bitten by something and we all dashed out of the water. I think it was a crab, but he said he felt scale. The only certain thing is that he was bleeding from a tiny cut on his foot. Then we decided to walk toward the baseball dome, and I was wearing sandals in my swimsuit with a towel, and I walked through a mall like that feeling very awkward, but no one said to leave or get dressed or anything so we went on. We walked forever, and I have three blisters on each foot, at least. Four of them required bandages because they began bleeding. My sandals are NOT walking shoes.

Thennn… we met up with Josh, who said he knew of this awesome place to eat. So we washed up and went. It felt like we walked forever, and then he realized that our group was too big to eat. So they went to a like… $8 ramen place and we started to go into the original place, until we realized it was around $7-8 too. So we moved on and found a cheaper little place where we got this bowl of beef, rice, and onions for 350 yen, around $3.50 in US. It was amazing. It kind of reminded me of my mom’s pepper steak. We sat at the bar. Most places seem to have a bar, with some seats on the side. Usually people avoid us, but an older woman sat next to me, and after I retrieved the water pitcher that Brian stole and set it down with the handle pointed toward her, she complimented his and my chopstick abilities. Oh, by the way. You tend to get free water with whatever you order. There are little cups on the tables and a pitcher of water there to serve yourself. Chopsticks are in a box on the table/counter to retrieve too.

After that, we went to Tenjin again, then realized things were closed because it was Sunday and headed right back. But we did walk through a massive underground mall that had a fountain decorated with playing kappa, which are little water sprites.



We decided to get sodas and head to the beach, where we sat in a group on the sand just talking about stuff. Then this Japanese guy just kind of plops down in the middle, declares he’s learning English, and starts chatting with us. It was actually really awesome. A short while later, he invited us to this little on the beach grilling out thing his friends were having, so we joined in and they asked us where we were from and what we were doing here. I got dragged off a little apart because Yuuichiro told me to sit and I was immediately surrounded. But when the guy realized I couldn’t speak Japanese, he switched to choppy but understandable English. They went to a college nearby and I told them that all of us went to Seinan and were students too. A lot of us also seemed to be 21. Random arm wrestling broke out and I got sucked into one round against a little Japanese girl. I won~ xD

Abdul vs. Yuuichiro:



But they took our picture, with all of us, Japanese and English, and then another with just us foreigners, and Yuichiro kept shouting that we were all best friends. They probably wanted to brag that they’d met and interacted with us, I think… We gave them an email address to send pictures they took to, so we’ll see if that really happens. Regardless, it was a ton of fun and the first time we’d really been sucked in by natives. In case I never get the proper picture, here's a smaller group one:



After that, we went to Christian’s room because no one wanted to sleep, and we chatted and played a card game and at M&Ms. But it’s now almost 2am and I have to shower. Orientation starts tomorrow and we have to be ready by 8:50am.

Goodnight!