Entrance Ceremony!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): koshou (コショウ) - black pepper

This word was brought to you by my need for spicy things today at lunch!

Breakfast was an interesting affair this morning. I woke up at six and realized that I had forgotten to write my blog! I hope this doesn't happen again. I'm determined to keep up with it every day, since I want this blog for my own future memory records as well. So nevertheless, I wrote the blog post this morning in a rush (thus, sorry for its shortness and lack of detail), and then ran down for breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of bread, ham, yogurt, condiments, salad, and best of all, kaki. Kaki is the fruit picture above, which is a Japanese persimmon. I don't think I've ever had American persimmons to compare it with, and thus I don't know how to describe it to you. The best I can say it that it tasted like a pear. But a Vietnamese pear. Which I guess doesn't help some of you either. It's a certain type of watery sweetness.

Anyways, the rest of breakfast was a bit weird. I had toast and ham like a regular person, but how Ryosuke eats it is that he puts his ham and lettuce on buttered bread, covers it in mayo, and then adds some jam. I tried it that way, and it actually tastes pretty good! I'd definitely have that again (and as I'm writing this, I'm reminded of breakfast, because Yoshiko-san is currently baking bread, which makes the whole house smell like a bakery. YUM!).

Another thing I found interesting was the peanut butter, which can be seen in further detail below. It looks shiny, and kind of tastes like what I imagine peanut butter might taste like if it was a Nutella-like item. It has that texture and vaguely hazelnut taste, despite being peanuts. And it tastes a lot sweeter, and has a consistency a bit more like jam as well. It tastes better to me than American peanut butter though.

After breakfast, I left the house at 7:40 and went to school, not wanting to be late for the ceremony (it started at 10:00). I just wanted ample time just in case I got lost, though I ended up not needing it when I got to school at 8:40. Luckily, I had my kindle and my latest installment of Horatio Hornblower to hold me over (I'm rereading Midshipman Hornblower, the first in the series; it's so different from the show!). 

On the way, however, I got squished on the train! I got pushed in! Yatta! IT HAPPENED! And as much as I think it's cool that I finally experienced this on the Asakusa line (since I'm at the end of the line, and going into the city is uber crowded), it was really difficult to breathe. I've worn a tight corset before, and I totally would pick that over this any day. I was leaning against a handrail near the door, and thus was bent backwards over it a little, making my lower back hurt quite a bit. You have to breathe short breaths, since there's no space to expand much further. I am not exaggerating. If you ask someone else who's been on a pushed in train, they will tell you the same. It's a bit freaky.

View from Gotanda station. 

The conductor guy who pushes people onto trains! 

The train after it clears out. 

A little peace of daytime Akihabara 

Can you tell how crowded it is? 

Opening ceremony was fun. We played some trivia, discovered that we could see Tokyo Sky Tree from the school building, and introduced ourselves to each other. We got a tour of the classrooms and then took a group picture. That's about it. I met a few new people, and am very excited to start class on Thursday!

We went to lunch at an Italian/Japanese place, and I ate tonkatsu while others ate pasta. On our way back to the station, I saw a couple maids advertising maid cafes, and I managed to get a shot of this one. They are very out there when it comes to advertising. I also saw the Gundam Cafe, which I didn't enter, but sounds very interesting. Luckily, it's near school, so I'm sure to go there sometime soon.

I then made my way back to Nishi-Magome, which is my stop for home, and took a nice picture of the sunset on my main road. On the way back, I also noticed that crossing signs are very well dressed men. The have suits and hats and everything! They're so much more posh and polite than those naked American crossing signs...

For dinner, we just had leftovers, which is some porridge, fried pork, salad, sweet potatoes (which look like regular American purple potatoes), and a radishes. We also had freshly baked bread infused with sweet cream, so it was absolutely delicious!

I want to leave a parting image of a new umbrella I bought, which is so utterly adorable. It's got dark and light blue hues, with light green circles and highlights, and then it has white kitties all over! It's very, very cute, and it was pretty cheap.

I LOVE JAPAN! Tomorrow, I think I'll head to Harajuku, since I have the day off. I'll probably go with Julien (and maybe Ian) to get some kara-age for lunch (if you don't know what it is, hopefully you'll get pictures tomorrow; it's really good fried chicken with rice). I just learned how to say this in Japanese, so here goes nothing! Watashi ha mokuyoubi ni gakkou ni ikukoto wo tanoshimi ni shiteimasu! 私は木曜日に学校に行くことを楽しみにしています!  I'm looking forward to school on Thursday!

XOXO,

Maggie