Weekend Adventure

On Friday (the start of another long weekend) I left the house at 11am. I was going to meet up with my friend Kolla at the Seminar House and hang out for the afternoon. We figured how to order night bus tickets (for our trip to Tokyo the next weekend), listened to Big Bang music, watched a few parody videos, and generally had fun!

Her roommate Erin showed up around 3 and asked us if we wanted to go to dinner with her and her speaking parnter. After checking in with my host family, I agreed, thankful for the extra time out of the house.

We walked to the bus stop around 5, and met up with some other people she invited. I got to learn how the bus system works, which is sure to be useful. There are two doors, one at the front of the bus and one in the middle. You get on in the middle, and sit as far back as possible in narrow seats or stand in the even narrower aisle. Then you get off at the front of the bus, and that's where you pay. For this particular bus line, there's a flat fee, no matter how which stop you get on or get off, of 220 yen. We got off at the Hirakata-shi station stop, where we met up with the speaking partner and her friend. All together, there were 7 of us, quite a group.

We wandered through Kiddyland, which is a large store full of everything cute! (and more!) Then we went to a department store across the street, rode escalator after escalator up to the top floor and took purikura (photo booth photos, プリクラ).

Then we walked back to the station and took a train to Goten-yama station. We walked aways from the station to a Shabashaba resturant. (しゃばしゃば）Shabushabu is a form of food where there's a pot of water on a heater in the middle of the table. You boil the water, and then put strips of meat and vegetables into the pot, and they cook very quickly. Yummy!

The rest of the weekend was pretty boring, but next weekend will be much better! Next weekend, Kolla and I are going to Tokyo to see a 2ne1 concert! For those who don't know, 2ne1 is a Korean pop girl band. We will also get to explore Tokyo before the concert with a friend from home: Victoria!! I can't wait!!!!