Much Ado About Bunkasai: Day 2

Hello, again. I have come upon a stroke of luck as everyone is in the Gym for Health which means I get the run of the classroom for one free period and have decided to use it to try and catch up on my blogs despite my efforts. Today I've got Sadou bu which means I won't be able to write tonight so I will try and get as much done in the next 35 minutes as I can.

I spent the other time googling a show called Liar Game which is shaping up to be a very interesting drama. Although right now they are on Season 2 and I kind of wanted to see if I could download season one. I've found links but they are mega upload which I can't use at school which means I'll have to do it at Koto's house. By the way mother, what happened to Quiz Show?

So, the second day of Bunkasai. Let me get my thoughts together. Okay, I've now shoved in all my pictures both to help me remember what to write about and so that everything doesn't delete all over again.

At the beginning of the second day, like the day before we all seated ourselves in the gym. I was right towards the back being number 40 in the class, we are seated by number. Vertically. Which means that I had to use my zoom to the fullest to get any idea of what was going on. Probably to the annoyance of the people behind me but this is my one and only Bunkasai so I don't really care.

The first item of the day was the school's band which is really quite impressive considering you can here the members practicing almost every day after school. Their performance had a variety of songs, two of which I knew I think, I'd heard them on the radio and was able to hum along and then for their final piece they did a Walt Disney medley and everyone put on Mickey and Minney Mouse ears, even the conductor which gave everyone a good laugh. Straight after the performance Ikeda left Bunkasai claiming Influenza which was the first signs of it in our class and left us worried about her and what Kiyo would do without his partner in Mamma Mia today.

After that, Baton Bu featuring Minori and Sayaka, they were pretty good although you would hear the occasional thump of a baton dropping to the floor and the footsteps scrambling after it whilst trying to look like nothing had happened. The second years did their performance to Aqua's Cartoon Heroes, a song which I haven't heard in quite a while so that was nice. They also did a cheerleading performance with Pom Poms.

With that over and done with, it came time for one of the biggest anticipatory events in Bunkasai: The Fashion Show. Class 7, I believe is kind of like the Home Economics class which means instead of doing ridiculous amounts of English they get to sow and cook. I have seen the class working in my spares but I didn't realise how amazing some of their skills were. It wasn't until the fashion show when we got to see their best works from the year that I understood how hard they worked. The dresses were really impressive, they made Yukata's, Kimono's, Fashionable dresses, Bridesmaid's and Wedding Dresses all of which seemed to be of a high quality.

It was a scramble to take photos, every one was clicking and flashing away, standing or kneeling on their seats, absolute chaos and being selfish, I promptly did the same in order to get some decent shots.

Most of them were blurred as the person was moving or on the stage too far away that even a Digital Zoon of 16.9x couldn't reach clearly. But I did get some decent ones although they turned out more arty than the kind of straight forward shots that I wanted but nonetheless, it was good.

Especially when the girls in the Wedding Dresses came out and everybody squealed when the teachers came out one by one in suits to be their partners, the best of which was the last when he actually lifted her up and carried her up the stairs. The students nearly died. Lolz.

Then they got this massive cake and fed it to each other like a real wedding. How hilarious. I actually got to eat some of the left over cake which was sponge with pieces of mandarin in it. After the hype of fashion show was over everyone departed to their various places and Coccomi got together in order to get changed for our performance at 12.00. I went over and got my stuff, being deprived of a watch I didn't realise that we were an hour early but everyone wanted to curl their hair to look pretty for their 10 minutes of fame. I was like, do mine!, but they were like, 'It's already curly...n00b...' It may be curly but it isn't pretty curly not after it has been put in and without hair stuff. >_<

So we changed and I hyped myself up, warmed up my voice, tried to calm down the people that were nenrvous and soon enough we were hauling ourselves upstairs for the big show that we'd been practising so long and hard for. Well, the performance itself was fine. The nerves in my voice showed a little on the first bit of my solo but I soon got into the groove of things. You could clearly see the audiences faces, not that many people came...maybe 50 or so. You could see Go-chan (our teacher) filming us on his video camera, I'd ask for the footage but he doesn't know how to do it and he wouldn't trust me with his precious video camera and Matt wearing a bright (!) orange shirt. Right... Chris also came which was nice, first time I'd seen him in quite a while, didn't get around to talking just a wave and a smile.

Once the performance we posed for some photos before I got changed and shot out the door hoping to be able to squeeze into the Haunted House between now and the 3rd year Coccomi class' performance one hour later. Yuki-chan kind of hoped along with me but I bumped into Mie-san (Hikari's mum) along the way and had to stop for a chat.

Once we got to the Haunted House I realised it was quite impossible as we only had half an hour left and the line was considerably long. I didn't even bothered to get in the line, instead I directly changed course for food considering I had to buy my own lunch today. Once I got to the bread, there wasn't much left and the line for everything else was long so I bought some sugary thing and ate it while walking towards the Gym, something you're not supposed to do but meh. Yuki-chan ditched me saying she wanted to get back the Gym although to be honest I didn't mind that much. Yuki is like the shyest person you'll ever meet, nice but socially very awkward which makes it a bit hard for her to pick up on some social clues. Very smart though but おとなしい to the max.

I got back to Gym with 10 minutes to spare, found Mie-san again then she ditched me and I sat minding things for Arina and Hikari just because I was sitting there. Mie-san's seat was stolen by Matt who I poked fun at. I think we've become friends, at least I've told him that the student-teacher relationship does not exist within the Communication Lounge where I spend half of my time. The dynamics between Japanese students and teachers and the Australian version differs greatly. You can muck around with teachers but still respect them but if you played around with a Japanese teachers they'd get mad. Except for Yamasaki sensei, he gravitates on the friendlier level, at least to me.

Anyway, sorry about that. I watched the third years performance of 'Oh Happy Day' and another Jebus song which I don't remember the name of right now. They weren't too bad, had a lot of energy.

After that, I had a quick wander around but not enough time to really do anything having to beat feet over to Sadou to do my stupid Kouken. (Kouken is when you help the person making the tea and greet the customers and stuff) I was second to go and luckily, only two actual customers were in the room, the others being an assortment of teachers and students. Yay.

I also got to leave early.

After that I ran to the haunted house, didn't care whether or not I had to go in by myself or not as it was my last chance and I had to get in. The line was shortish but I was still worried about getting cut off but luckily I saw some Coccomi people ahead of me, waved and discreetly sidled along beside them both moving up the line and finding company to scream with. In the line was Miyuki, Anna and possibly Akane (Don't remember) and Nami was also in the line. Nami was all like: 'I'm gonna die!' so I said, 'let's die together.' and then An-chan pointed out that she was with her boyfriend so I was like, well, 'I'll just die over here then...'

We got in pretty quickly and I wasn't scared at first,though the darkness in the classroom exceeded my imaginings. We were confronted with a rolling heads, spider webs, rounded a corner and there was a 'The Ring' style girl with the white dress and long hair reaching out to us. I promptly told her she was cute and asked her if she'd come home with me. Then there was a tunnell....my precious...., through the tunnel a person emerged from nowhere with a flashlight shadowing her face but around the corner laid horrors beyond my imagining.

You know the creepy chick from the Grudge? She was rolling around in the narrow corridor in front of us, we all sidled past and then she tried to grab my ankle which propelled me several feet into the air with a loud squeal and we all kind of just ran out of there like a bat out of hell while people chased us with a water squirty bottle. >_<

With the Haunted House over and done with, I had no more time but to return to the Gym for the closing ceremony which had a pretty slideshow with lots of pictures (I got in it again) and they announced the winner for the pictures made of paper. Of course, being awesome, our class won and Arina went up to accept the award as she had done the most work on it by far.

We had to end the day on a slightly more domestic note, cleaning, replacing desks and you remember that giant shoe in the planetarium? I helped take that apart. There was a hell of a lot of bottle lids glued to cardboard and everyone had trouble getting them off but I was like, 'Let me at them!' and I was by far the fastest, ripping and tearing like I was a dog without concern for my fingers (I even started bleeding) everyone was speechless and my unabashed enthusiasm. All I thought was, damn, this is a great stress reliever. Sometimes it feels good to be able to rip and tear things without getting in trouble.

With that, the day ended. We had some speeches and we thanked everyone. I was asked to do one, just like a thank you or our thoughts on how it went. Mine went a bit like this: 'This is my first and last bunkasai ever'...and every one went Awwwww... and then I kind of got teary as I'd had a lot of fun over the past few days and realised how sad I would be when I wouldn't be able to create anymore fabulous memories with these people. Then I just said I'd had a really good time and was happy I could share it with them.

Gah! I'm missing vs. Arashi so I'm going to wrap this up. I also was given a mini tea set by my Sadou teacher so I can make you n00bs tea the proper way when I get back.

Okay, I think that is all. I will get around to Sunday's numerous activities when I can. Possible Sunday or sometime next week, I'm going to a wedding on Saturday.

<3

Ashley-chan


Lolz.

Much Ado About Bunkasai

Yes, I know I'm horrible. I haven't posted AGAIN. It seems to me that I start a lot of my posts these days with apologies about not posting but to make up for it I am going to tell you all about my week in detail with lots and lots of pictures.

But first, Moving: Abridged.

I moved. Hikari baked me an impromptu cake and Arisa gave me a letter. 以上です。


The first thing I was shocked about when moving into Koto's room is that it has been invaded by an army of Winnie the Pooh, plushies, carpet, curtains, photo frames, everything you can think of. It scares me a little.
We being Koto and her sister Mai went to have a Parfait after Bunkasai rehearsal on Wednesday. Mai works at a Patisserie close to school which means she occasionally brings home cakes and things. Puts me in a good position for my birthday. ^_～

Last sunday, not the one just past, the 1st of November we went out and saw fireworks in the cold and ate out for dinner.
For those who have read my recent blogs I had been kind of depressed and fed up with Japan. Don't worry, I'm okay now. I just wanted a break and to see all my friends again. I wasn't going out much and it was kind of just home, school, Bunkasai practice, home, watch television, sleep. We didn't talk much which made me bit meh...

But, this is how I got out of my slump.

The best friend: Gives me a good, well-needed kick up the bum for being such a party pooper in such an awesome country.

The mother: Abuses my email information and makes me a Facebook account without my knowledge.

The school: 2 day holiday and Bunkasai.

The new home: Internet access, Wii and fun siblings.

The person in question, a.k.a, me: Buys herself a Domo-kun plushie and thinks about how much everyone else is going to be jealous of her once she gets back to the motherland.
So, in summary, I'm back in the groove and there will be no more whining until I get back home and whine about how much I want to go back to Japan.

Okay, I'll concentrate now. Youtube is distracting me again. So, last week was a good week. Monday was school which was school like always but during lunch time and after school was practice for our performance of Mamma Mia and Take A Chance On Me which would be on Saturday. We even came to school both days of the weekend to practice. >_<
The first thing that I saw was Yuakoko which was the name Cocomi's band comprising of Koto: vocals, Yuri: Drums, Akane (Ikeda): Guitar, Morishita: Bass. They did 3 songs, the person who I was most surprised by was Yuri. Totally didn't know she could play the drums, she is kind of a shy-ish demure person so I was like Wow...I also found out that she has been Morishita's girlfriend for the past month. So didn't know that either.

The band was pretty good, they were the first band of the day so Koto was a little worried that everyone would be nyeh but the third year guys really got into it and danced and sung along, the were really great at kicking the atmosphere and the fun up a notch. From there, I wasn't quite sure what to do.

It was still to early to eat, although I forgot to buy coupons anyway, so I walked around for a bit, eager to see some of the attractions. The thing I wanted to do the most was go in the haunted house, I just always have the image of them mostly from anime, in particular Azumanga Daioh which I have found so useful in pointless customs. Lucky Star is of the same breed.

I went up to the haunted house, (おばけやしき, I made an effort to learn that word) there was no line which was good but unfortunately I was also by myself at that point having lost people somewhere along the way. A girl waved me over and was like, 'come on in', and I was like 'I want to but I don't want to do it by myself...' and she was like, 'Awwww....come on!' and I'm like, 'I really do want to do it, I promise I'll come back later once I find people.'

From there I went into the 'Planitarium' which was being hosted in our classrom, no one else was in there. It was kind of meh, it was walls covered with paint, cardboard stars, a full moon with Sirius Black's silhouette and the most baffling of all...a giant shoe...in a Planitarium...right...



I also had a look at the artwork which was of a pretty high standard of people doing melancholy/reflective poses.

So, I went to find people, Arina and Hikari ran past me once in a stairwell but apart from that mostly every one was outside listening to the bands or in the Gym watching the performances. Near the band area I found Kana, Jin, Natsuki and Oba already lining up for their hotdogs. Jin gave me a bite of hers~^^.

I bought a melon pan as although I brought an obentou, I knew I wouldn't eat until a lot later, it was around 11 at that stage. We watched the Kansho Dancerz which my cute darling little Sayaka is in. She is 100%energy that girl, you can't help but frothe over her.
The person in the center on the left is a male wearing a skirt and with implanted boobs dancing Gwen Stefani's Crash Zone(?). Welcome to a typical Japanese high school.

After that we went down to the Gym to see one of the Unmissable events, a whole bunch of Year 12 guys dressing up as girls. Something that would happen only in Japan and dress up the did, and well. Half of them were more girly than I am. >_< Haruna Ai for winning Miss International Queen 2009, a transsexual beauty paegeant.


This one came second, it's so cute too.



The person pictured above was the winner and the person I voted for as the teacher sitting taking pictures behind me gave me her little voting ping pong ball. I later found out that this dashing young lady is Sayaka's boyfriend. Every one has secret boyfriends here...>_<>

The rest were like longest river, highest mountain, American president, hollywood and things like that but half stealing the answers I managed to get them all right and receive my bounty anyhow whether or not it was ill-gained you can decide. The classroom was Halloween themed.

Me and Chihiro, yes, she is wearing a mask. As of today, 4 people in my class have swine flu if it gets to 6 we all have a week off. After that I was running out of time so I rushed over to Sadou bu, there were 2 people inside but they were talking and I didn't want to interrupt so I just stood outside. Then the teacher came by and was like, 'What are you doing? You can wait inside.' Turned out that it was just my two classmates, damn my fallible courage.

For the next hour we didn't do much. I fought off the hordes of invisible customers breaking down our rice paper walls. We mostly talked, oddly enough, about the differences between Aus and Japan and what I wanted to do in the future and such. Something I haven't really talked about before at Sadou bu. We always just seem too busy. It is a shame that Sadou doesn't draw in all that many customers because the room did look rather lovely in it's traditional Japanese style.

Isn't it pretty? Despite the Japanese atmosphere I gave up on seiza about 10 minutes in as it wasn't practice although sitting with your legs crossed is a definite no-no so I just sat on my side and waited while my right leg slowly went numb by degrees.

With not much time left before we all had to make our way back to the Gym for notes and things, I rushed over o the Haunted House but they had already cut off the line saying that they didn't have time. I was even prepared to go in by myself! But no sweat, I just figured I'd make sure that I got to go in the following day.

Went over to the gym passing a whole bunch of pictures made with paper mache, ours was of Audrey Hepburn and the best by far although some of the Michael Jackson ones weren't bad. The theme was famous people. Straight after school ended we had our first tech rehearsal which I filmed as I kew I probably wouldn't get another chance. A tech rehearsal being what a tech rehearsal is, my poor camera just sits there filming curtain and people shouting for the first 10 minutes. But at least I got some footage, although at the end my camera suddenly tilts unexpectedly which leaves you with only half of the stage for the last minute or so. No big loss but a bit of a pain.

I kind of hyped up at rehearsal, just thinking about how fun the day had been and how great it would be to do it all again tomorrow, not to mention our real performance. So, I left the day on a high, mucking around with dance steps and singing which was fun. After that Koto and I finally made it home and I dumped my photo and watched a Niel Cicierga video I think called The Sleepover which I don't recommend for cowards like me how even get sqeamish at a Zac Efron cardboard cut-out villain. >_<>

So, instead I found some Japanese adds which I like for your entertainment.

Lotte Fits Gum Commercial, (You can stop halfway through, it repeats)

And, a very strange commercial. Chip Chop!

That's all for today most likely, especially as I'm having a fight wth Blogspot right now. I finished this post yesterday, I go to put in pictures and Wallah! half of my bloody post is deleted. Not happy Jan. I'll start day 2's blog now if I feel up to it as tomorrow is Sadou bu and Saturday, I'm going to a Wedding Ceremony, in my school uniform. >_< That's the thing to do in Japan.

<3

Ashley-chan

Nothing much...

Sooooo....

Sorry I haven't written much lately but we have been busy with our rehearsals and preparation for Bunkasai which leaves me with not all that time to write. For Bunkasai (Cultural Festival) we are singing two songs from Mamma Mia, Take a Chance on Me and Mamma Mia. I have a solo in Mamma Mia which is good because it means I get out of dancing. xP

Not to mention that I've recently become interested in webcomics, more of just a way to waste time...aside from Cyanide and Happiness which most of you should know, I'm perusing Ctrl+Alt+Del which is a whole lot of nerdiness.

Today Miyuki pulled a funny face but she's very cute. >_< (Miyuki is a friend from my class) She told me to write that.

Nyahh...nothing that interesting has happened to me lately. Here is one weird thing: I had like a spare period and I'm sitting in the communication lounge studying and I suddenly start humming to a song playing somewhere when it hits me, it's 'Still Alive' from Portal. I'm like...what?

Because recently our school is undergoing renovations and there are builders every where so I stuck my head out the window thinking that some crazy labourers are playing this song that nobody knows. But nope, wasn't the builders, I go next door and there is Matt, our new ALT from America sitting there being a nerd and singing along. I thought that was hilarious, I mean honestly, not that many people know that song.

After that we talked nerdiness for a while and I taught him some Japanese which kind of perked me up, I'd been kind of myehh...I don't know. It's gotten cold and I was depressed-ish. But I am feeling better now, I don't know I just was kind of like school...meh. I was a bit over Japan and I was getting a cold but I took medicine and I am keeping warm so I'm getting better now and happier. Not to mention, every day coming home on the 6 o'clock train, getting home just before seven and on Saturday and Sunday we had to come to school again for practice. >_<

I just have seen this amazing picture of my cousin, it is fanatastically weird but I can't help but feel sorry for poor Toto. Who needs a Wicked Witch to get her little dog too when her master is so vicious...>_<

Anyways, the people below are a comedy duo called Audrey, left is Wakabayashi and Right is Kasuga. I brought this up because I'm raising one hand, looking masculine and saying, 'Bai'. Even though the picture below is of his 'Tous' gag, the meaning of which I don't fully understand.

<3

Ashley-chan.

Trip to the City

I went to Fukuoka as some of you may already know. The main reason I wanted to go is for anime stuffs as Fukuoka is way cooler than Nagasaki is.

Okay, I'll concentrate now. I was googling juggling moves as I've regained my interest in juggling an determined to back to where I was before I left before I come home. I don't think the same can be said for contact juggling, unfortunately.

Yes, concentrating. On the weekend we had an extra day of bliss as the monday was a publc holiday called, 'Taiku no Hi' a.k.a Sports Day. I found that a suitable name considering how much I walked that day. I got up at six, left the house at seven and was on the bus from 7.30. Most of the bus trip I was in that in-between state of sleep and listenng to music where you are still aware of what is going on around you but your body is asleep.

We arrived at Tenjin station at around 9.45 which was a little earlier than expected. Not knowing what to do we kind of just jumped out into the street and walked around, quickly realizing we were hungry we went and had 朝　マック. (McDonalds breakfast)　I just had two Hash Browns which are called Hashed Potatoes here and Hikari had a weird burger which was like a McMuffin but the bread had a syrup taste to it and on it was bacon, meat and cheese. No egg.

Sorry, I got distracted again. After we ate it was around 10 o'clock and we figured we had better get the day started. First off,we just had a bit of a look around. Mostly drawn to the big shopping center due to the cute little chicken standing outside announcing the re-opening of a store called Suzy's Zoo. Here's a photo, if you look carefully, you can see he's actually giving me a peace sign which I found quite remarkable in a chicken suit. I didn't think chicken's had fingers.

Inside we had a walk around, on the bottom floor was a variety of animals made out of cardboard which were quite impressive. I figured I had to take the elephant for mum: In one of the shops we found a whole bunch of snacks and things from overseas. They had cadbury but as mum had recently sent me some I figured I'd be fine although now I kind of wish I'd bought some. But I'm back in 86 days and I can eat all the chocolate I want then. Hikari bought some mentos which she seems fond of. They have weird flavours here but not the normal orange, strawberry and the yellow one... (>_<)

After that we had a look around the shops but there was nothing really special and we soon left for Animate although we had to go back and consult the map at the station. It was a surprisingly short walk to AniMate, which Nagasaki also has although the Fukuoka one was a bit larger. I spent money on things I don't remember, mostly requests from Ross, Jack, Katherine and some stuff for myself. I only spent 60/70 dollars which was surprising but the merchandise was basically the same as Nagasaki so I wasn't going to go overboard. Also I expected mandarake to have more stuff anyway. There were some cosplays there but none I was particularly tempted to buy. I think the quality and sizing would probably be better ordering them off the internet. Although I was hoping to find an Ouran Jacket regardless of size because I want one but alas, it was not to be.

After that we searched for a toilet and found one in Subway, the first subway I've seen in Japan. Of course, I was afraid of the sandwhich people, being subwaphobic. Although they had Spiders, as in soft drink with icecream in it. So, we both ordered one of those, mine being melon of course. I really like melon soda even though I don't like melon. The melon fanta is hard to find these days but most of the restaurants have it on post mix and I pretty much always get that except at McDonalds when I get Grape Fanta. After that, what did we do...? We went so many places it is quite difficult to remember in what order we did it.

I am pretty sure that after that, Hikari talked texted a friend who lives in Fukuoka for some good places to go. Her friend, Ai-chan, at my request recommended a cosplay place nearby. I was super excited, it was at the very top floor (the 8th floor) of a department store and when I got there I was happy and sad at the same time. No, it wasn't anime cosplay. Yes, it was gothic lolita style cosplay. It was seriously amazing, I would have taken photos if I was allowed, the staff were in gothic cosplay and Lauren would have died and gone to her hellish looking heaven.

I so would have bought something except that I was conscious of two things: how much weight I've put on and how high the prices were. I'm talking seriously high, there was a scarf which I thought was cute, had a gander at the price tag. 80000円 which is about $80 plus exchange rate. I mean seriously, for a scarf?!?!?! And hence the reason that I didn't buy anything as much as I wanted to. If I had more time I could have looked around properly and found something I loved but only having one day and having to split the day between Hikari and I, I didn't have all that much time to spare. So, I came away with one thing: a badge of a creepy person wearing a top hat in Alice in Wonderland style.

After cringing and leaving such an amazing place with only a badge, we slowly worked our way down the floors looking at clothes for Hikari's sake although she didn't seem interested in purchasing all that much until we got to a hat store about half way down. Hikari kind of has a ghetto style and was looking for a dark brown beanie.

Looking around I soon found myself picking up a black and red checkered hat that matched my bag with a big, black felt bow on the side. It was $50 but I thought that today was a day for shopping and that I might as well do what I set out to do. My one worry was that it looked too big, but after confirmation from Hikari that it was okay, it grew on me so much that I was prompted to buy it and wore it for the rest of the day to save having to lug it around. Hikari didn't buy a beanie, I think the brown was dark enough. There was also a cute cheshire cat beanie with pink and purple stripes and a cheshire cat grin pined on. I don't know, I'm really fond of the cheshire cat and on the way out of the store, I stumbled upon a cheshire cat coffee mug thingy for only like five dollars so I bought it and as it was the last one it didn't have a box which meant I wrapped it up in my jumper as the weather had turned fine but it was too cold in the morning to not take one.

After that...hmmm... I do believe we went to look for the clothing store Hikari wanted to visit called A Bathing Ape or shortened to BAPE. We started walking to where Hikari thought it was and were soon met by a shop called Loft which is kind of like a housewares store with lots of cool stuff. I didn't buy too much in there, just some onigiri holders with Snoopy on them. I also saw this super awesome clock that was in the shape of a director's cut board, it was so totally cool and so totally expensive. But so damn cool. xD

Okay, I'm writing this on another day now so sorry if I seem disjointed. Although on second thoughts if I didn't tell you that you probably wouldn't have noticed, would you? So, after LOFT, I was busting for a drink, the weight in my bag was starting to get to me. I bought a Coke as I do when going to store it for a long time. I usually buy Fanta or something but I find that especially Grape Fanta kind of goes weird when it gets warm but coke is always coke.

And thus... Walking and drinking, we walked for about fifteen minutes looking for BAPE, when Hikari had a second look at her camera and decided we were going the wrong way. I found this kind of annoying, I mean I don't mind walking but with a purpose but I do mind walking for no reason. So, we returned back to loft, another 15 minutes, and continued walking a different way for about 20 which again yielded no results although this time Hikari said she was sure she knew where she was going. We stopped just in front of Book Off which I was going to ask to go in when Hikari said that we should go to Mandarake.

Normally, I probably would have said something but I was tired and felt a little bad that Hikari hadn't bought anything of yet. So, we returned and went to Mandarake which was pretty close by. Now, Mandarake which is very impressive by size I found to be a bit of a disappointment. If I had a long time to browse it, I probably would have found it more interesting but being scant of time and trying to hurry myself along as much as possible due to Hikari's impartiality to anime. The first thing I picked up was Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuustu DS for $30 and then Kuroshitsuji for $20 which I was real happy about as usually they are around $50 each. So, saved $50. Yay. After that, we had a quick look around, there was all the manga you could ever read but having already bought most of my manga I was kind of like nyeh.

I looked for figurine's, in particular for L or Zero or Ouran for Katherine but seriously, nothing. They did have one L but it was a Christmas one and I was kind of mmmm.... So, at Mandarake I didn't buy all that much. They did also have cosplay but it wasn't great. I think I'd be better getting it custom made off the internet to be honest. Not to mention it was crowded which made looking difficult. >_<

I think all I ended up buying there was the games so I was a little bummed about that. After mandarake, about 4 o'clock, we decided we would get something to eat as we had skipped lunch, neither of us being particularly hungry. I'd seen a crepe shop earlier on so I suggested that, I think that was my first crepe in Japan. I had chocolate strawberry which was refreshing. After that...hmmm...Hikari called her friend who lived in Fukuoka to come and meet us. She took a while in getting there but it was nice to have a break from walking.

She was very nice, it is hilarious to watch people's reactions when they first meet me as they are enver quite sure whether or not I can speak Japanese and how much Japanese I can speak. So, first they usually try and say something in English and then they ask whoever I am with whether I speak Japanese to which I reply that I can. Then I say something, to break the tension. I told Ai, Hikari's friend, that I liked her iPod cover which was Minnie Mouse.

We talked for a while, and Hikari asked whether Ai knew were BAPE was which she replied in the affirmative which caused us to go on another walk to infinity and beyond. Although, the place was vastly different to where we had been looking. Getting there we had a look around. It was very stylish but the merchandise was surprisingly scant, not to mention that one normal t-shirt cost around $60. Seriously. So, again, Hikari bought nothing although we did take a snapshot for free.

After that it was all shopping, I pretty much should outside shops for an hour, waiting for the two of them. I don't know, I don't like clothes shopping to begin with so I had a look but there was nothing there that grabbed my fancy. After that we were on our way home on the bus, I bought macaroons, which are soooooo delicious, for everyone...all three of us...because I'm nice...like that... And then we were on the bus home where I slept/listened to my iPod and was happy to be home although it isn't my home.

And that is pretty much my day to Fukuoka, if I had more time I would have appreciated it more but it was still a fun day and I am definitely glad I got to go at least once.

<3>

Ashley-chan

This is a photo of some of the things I've bought recently, games, onigiri holders, my hat, a random pill case which I only bought because the picture was so cute, it currently is storing earrings, and Rilakkuma headphones for mother, if she wants them. >_<

82!

Dragons

Katherine, these are our speaker pals:

So, okay. I'm going to have to try and get this over and done with quick as I can as everyone is in Health and I am stealing the classroom's computer while they are all away even though I am meant to be studying. (>_<)

I had a weekend which was kind of busy and kind of not. During the last week a famous festival called, 'OKunchi' was on. It is always held in Nagasaki and I believe is one of the biggest festivals in Japan, it originated around 300 years ago and as Nagasaki was one of the only places in Japan accessible from other countries being a sea port, OKunchi has many different flavours. Each year I think they decide on what style of dragon they are going to use. This year was Chinese-ish and it was pretty damn cool.

Hikari and I went on Wednesday after school, I even skipped club to go and see it. Being a test day we only had an hour of it so it wasn't a huge thing although I still kind of got a lecture, geez, it is only the second time I've skipped. The first being so I could make a crepe for only 200円. So, Hikari and went up to Nagasaki, wait have I already talked about this? I have, haven't I. Okay, I jsut checked and yes, I have talked about Wednesday.

But this time, I have pictures:

EPIC FAIL, right?

On Friday we took another shot at seeing the dragons, I don't think Hikari really wanted to go but her mum made her take me and Ami from class went with us which helped. We got to the station, ate some Taiyaki. The awesome soft rice fish shaped things with various foods inside. I got a chocolate one and one with potato and bacon in it, they would have been better if they were warm but still oh-so good. I wish I could bring some back but it probably is illegal. Maybe I can learn how to make them, but they won't be fish shaped. Maybe you'll all just have to come over to Japan so you can try them. ^^

We spent the first part of the afternoon at Amyu Plaza walking around and chasing around a bunch of foreigners that looked like they were on a school trip as they were all in uniforms. I was just curious about where they came from but there were five girls we caught up with that looked too scary to ask. I thought it would be weird to for me to ask them. I don't know, I couldn't figure out what their emblem was either and couldn't get close enough to hear their accents. But their blazer was light blue, like Ouran. <3.

After that, we made our way down to where everyone was slowly gathering to wait for the dragons who were appointed to perform at around 7 o'clock. So, we got pretty decent seats and the people behind us were eating KFC which made me really want to just steal some of their chips. So, 7 o'clock rolls around, everyone is waiting, the camera people are there and in the distance we can hear the booming of the drums and the piping of flutes.

Then the announcer tells us that the dragons are going to be a little late...say maybe closer to 8 o'clock. The collective groan of the audience was kind of funny, the announcer was like, 'Hey,it's not my fault. It's not that long anyway...'. Well, maybe not for him who is sitting in a chair and can walk around for an hour and come back knowing his seat will be safe where everyone else is sitting on a tarpoline on the ground. (You even have to take your shoes off, go figure.) Mostly in seiza, the really uncomfortable sitting on your knees position. But I was amazed that no one moved, every one just sat\stood there and endured while they played clips of last years performance.

I played solitaire on my iPod which I've gotten addicted to and listened to Evil Dead which I don't ever seem to tire of. 8 o'clock came faster than expected and soon the dragons came and they were well worth the wait, three came: two green and one white. They all did individual dances and then danced in couples and all three. On the way home, Hikari told me the actual story of it. Dragons chasing the moon basically sums it up. But, as I see it, it was well worth the wait. You hardly even noticed the dancers in black with the poles, all you could see were dragons flying around Nagasaki in unison, especially when all three danced.

My favourite dragon was the white one, it was pretty damn cool to be honest. There were other dancers during the festival but the were during school so obviously I couldn't have gone to them but I was pleased with what I saw and glad I was lucky enough to see it. Mie-san met us at Nagasaki and we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner as none of us had eaten. Hikari was for KFC and then Mie-san came up with Moss Burger which I have been whining to try. We went, the place was small and I'd gone kind of crazy. I ordered a chicken burger with chicken, lettuce and mayonaise. I kind of wished I'd ordered the hamburger which I had a bite of. But it was really nice but surprisingly small. Unlike other burger places they are made to order which gives it that fresh taste if not a slightly long wait. Most of which I entertained myself by balancing our number on my hand. >_<

<3

Ashley-chan.