Golden Weeku

Last week was Golden Week in Japan, meaning we got Wed. thru Friday off...so did the rest of Japan. It's the biggest holiday week of the year, I think. Anyway, many people went to different places, ie) Mexico, Taiwan, Phillipines, etc. Guess where I went? You guessed it; I stayed in good ol' Gunma. Sad. Anyway, it's not as bad as it sounds. I had a good time!

On Wednesday, a group of us biked to Taka's house, or should I say Japanese temple/castle/palace, for a BBQ. Seriously, the place was freakin' HUGE. When we were outside the wall looking over, Tim told me that we had arrived at Taka's and I was like, "Yeah, right. That's a big temple, not a house!" Haha. Seriously. All it needed was a moat. There's also a nice big Japanese garden out front and that's where we had our BBQ with 7,000 lbs of meat. Yums. After the BBQ, Sean, Jenny and I biked over to Sean's place, then biked to get some yummy kaiten sushi. I justified my non-stop eating that day by the fact that we must've biked for over two hours all together.

On Thursday, Lynnette trained all the way from Saitama to come visit me!! Yaay, visitor! Our first stop? AEON, of course. AEON is literally my second home and I get "AEON withdrawal" if I don't go after a couple of weeks. Sad, and it's just a mall! Trust me, I live next to rice paddies. If you lived in Ota, you'd understand. Lynnette was amazed that AEON was an actual mall, and not just a big dept. store with multiple stories...as are most shopping places are in Japan. She fell in love with Kaldi, the international food store at AEON. Ahh, Kaldi. She wanted to buy everything there but also knew she'd have to carry everything back with her on her 3-hour train ride home. Sad.

We were supposed to go to Nikko (famous temple area a few hours away) on Friday, but decided that because it was Golden Week, it'd be SUPER crowded and we weren't up for that. Instead, I took her to Korona for some good ol' onsen-ing and sauna-ing. (Being in Japan is great, b/c I can make any word into a verb by just adding -ing! Yaay for Japanese Engrish! Or, ALT English in Japan. =)) We were so tired from relaxing the whole day that we ended up taking a nap there. Their futons are amazingly comfortable! After our strenuous afternoon, we thought we'd treat ourselves to Indian food, thus cabbing it to Moti. We ate soo much, as we always do when in each other's company (or in my case...all the frickin' time). We walked down Ota's hostess bar street to get to the station and Lynnette said it seemed scary. I agree. Ota is one scary place, especially with all the hoodlums that are outside the eki these days!! Wtf! Anyway, Lynnette trained home on Friday night. =( I'm so glad she came to see ghetto-as Ota though. Haha.

On Saturday, Jenny, Sean and I forced ourselves to be more active, thus picnic-ing at a park...well, we had to bike there first. We met up with Tim and Doris at the grocery store and bought our picnic food, then biked to our destination. I must say, it is only in Japan where it felt totally normal for all of us to buy sushi/sashimi as our picnic food! I love Japan. After the picnic, Sean, Jenny and I biked to Sean's place, watched a movie, then biked to Ota station at night to meet up with Tim and Doris again for dinner. We went to this new izakaya called Eru, and I must say, it is the nicest place I've been to in Ota!! The whole exterior is just black, but once you step in, it felt like we were entering some posh club setting or something. Also, it helps that the workers were HOT! Well, from afar anyway. We ordered endless amounts of food and drinks yet the bill at the end wasn't bad at all! Yaay, new izakaya to frequent! After the izakaya, we all stopped by the kebob stand and got a kebob. Um, we were such pigs. I felt soo gross after that. Anyhoo, we biked all the way back from Ota to our places so I guess that makes up for 1/1,000,000th of the calories I consumed that day.

Baah. What else. Hmm. Lalalalallaa.

Well, Golden Week is now over and I'm back at school. I haven't done much the past couple of days...just pretty much watched TV till my eyes almost fell out. Tonight, Sean, Jenny, Jeff, Ann and I met up at Typhoon for dinner. Everything was well until Jeff brought out his Mexican candies from his trip. We had finished dinner and were just having some of his candies when one of the workers there told us we couldn't eat that at the restaurant...like no outside stuff brought in or some stupid rule like that. Anyway, so we put it away. Then, he proceeded to scold our server, telling him how he needs to watch out for things like this next time! Um, we were having candy!! Anyway, we don't like that guy. Bleh. After Typhoon, Jenny and I needed (yes, needed b/c we are ADDICTED) to go to Uni to buy the cigars that Tim let us try the other night. Mmmm...so good! Shit, I don't want to be addicted. I am contributing to the smoke-filled places in which I hate. Nooo!! Well, maybe just on special occasions. ;-) Jenny and I had biked to Ota again tonight, taking a chance on the rain forecast. Well, it did rain and it came early!! We had to bike 45 minutes home in the rain. Oh yeah, I talked about this already. Anyway, it SUCKED, but like Jenny said, at least it wasn't cold or windy. That would've sucked more. Yaay, let's biking every chance we get before the weather prevents us from doing so!!

Thought of the hour:

I need to sleep earlier. I am a zombie at work in the mornings now. Baah.