October Weekend

Last week, AKP put on a Thank You lunch for the Doshisha students who showed us the commute to our houses way back during AKP orientation. The lunch was the best because we had sushi AND pizza (which I had a craving for..). It was also cool to chat with some of the Doshisha students, and we even made plans with some of them to go out to dinner.

They're kinda accidentally dressed like twins.. haha.

Our group that went out to dinner. It was stellar fun. Kind of like Tapas.

Later in the night we walked by this Pachinko parlour called 'Fiber'

The next day, Okaasan asked me to go to a concert with her at the crotch of the river. I agreed, thinking it would be neat to listen to some music, but it was totally not what I expected. It was this hippie affair put on by some old American dude who was fluent in Japanese. There were about ten or twelve us us there, total, sitting around on a blanket, shaking marakas (sp!?) and plucking at those little harp-like things (like the thing that grandma has in her house). We were supposed to play how we FEEL, or something. It was interesting.

After the concert, I went and got Crepes with Kate, Katie and Katie's guide from orientation. I think it was the first dessert crepe that I had ever eaten and it was really tasty.

The three of us took a walk to the imperial palace grounds across the street. The actual palace itself is only open to the public about four days a year or something. The next time its open is sometime in November. Since it's right across the street from Doshisha, I think it'll be easy to go take a look.

On Sunday, i met up with Kate and her host sister, Naho, and went to the flea market at Shimogamo Shrine, right next to my house. It was the first one they ever put on and it was more of a craft fair then a flea market. We didn't buy anything but just walked around. The weather was pretty lousy.

Because it started to rain, we decided to go shopping at Loft, San-jo and Teramachi. While at Loft, Kate and I were looking at the men's wear section and thinking about how men in the US would never wear anything like this unless they were possibly flamboyantly gay. It's kind of a bummer because men's fashion in Japan is so neat. It's nice seeing everybody look trendy (even though it makes me feel kind of dumpy and underdressed). Men in Japan aren't afraid to wear pink and purple. In fact, my host dad wears a pink shirt every day.