Man, was I ever spoiled!

Man. I've been BUSY~ I was trying to get into the habit of updating on the weekend when I have time, but I was sooo busy this past weekend that I had no time! It's so crazy having a social life all of a sudden!

So, last week was Open Class week at work. Basically, it meant the parents could come in and watch their kids at school. They all brought video cameras and were filming their little ball of sunshine, even when they threw things and hit the other kids. Gah. I hate open class. I felt the pressure of being judged very heavily, for lack of a better explanation. Thank god that's over. But, one this that was fun~ In my kinder class last week we were talking about having pets and we asked the kids to decorate their own pet pig. I couldn't help doing one, too. Let's play Spot the Boy Meets World reference!

Last Wednesday, I went for my traditional Starbucks breaky before work. The baristas in the Izumi Chuo Starbucks are really sweet~ There's a couple that speak English with me and one lady looks a lot like Margaret, my stepmum! True story~ I had to do a double take the first time I saw her! I really like the ham and cheese sammiches, so I usually get that and a drink. Wednesdays model was a caramel frappuccino.

After work on Wednesday, I went to meet David. He was working in Izumi Osawa, which is about 15 minutes away from my work by bus. I finished first, though, so it was better for me to meet him~ It's a nice mall. I grabbed a drink and wandered up to meet him~ And why yes, that IS a Star Wars decorated coffee jelly drink!

After David finished, we wandered around for a little bit. I'd never been to that mall, so I wanted to explore. We found a really strange UFO catcher~ It was for cakes! Like, REAL cakes! They looked tasty, but a little on the difficult side to win, so we just passed.

The mall was all decorated for Tanabata, too~ It was really nice! And can I just add, that Japan has the cutest vending machines?

We decided to grab dinner there. we ended up going to Italian Tomato Cafe~ They have a selection of pastas and other stuff. I got the tomato cream sauce pasta and David got a burger. He decided to be all fancy and eat it with a knife and fork. Hahaha. David's set came with dessert, so he got a cute mini parfait.

On Thursday, we met up after work and did some shopping. we popped to the Disney Store and bought our tickets for next month! Can't wait~ And then we went and blew some money at Game Station. I finally won the Hatsune Miku snackbox! Wooo! And David won about 5 million plush thingies. Lucky!

Which brings up to Saturday, which was AWESOME! Mika and Kazue had invited me out for cake with some mutual friends. They told me to look for the girl in pink lolita, because she was the organizer.I wasn't expecting to be part of a lolita parade! They were all super sweet~ I didn't have any lolita, so I just wore some nice Axes Femme and everyone complimented my outfit and especially my floral crown. It was a nice afternoon! The cake was delicious~~~ Mika, Kazue and I are gonna go back sometime!

After cake, we walked around for a little while window shopping. Mika brought me to all her favourite recycle shops and to her lolita shopper's store, Glass Forest. The store owner was really sweet and invited me to the tea party in September, so I'm all excited to go. It'll be nice to have people to dress up with~ Don't really intend to get back into the sweet part of the fashion. Probably just gonna do classic styled outfits, since they are easier to use in casual clothing situations. Not crazy, over the top, sugary pink frosting dresses for me!

For dinner we ended up going to Casa de Sol~ It's a Mexican restaurant by the station. I had never even noticed it before! It was literally a little hole in the wall on the 5th floor of a random building. The food was amazing, though! I discovered that I like guacamole and I never knew how much I missed Mexican food until then. OMG yummmmm~

We went out to MafuMafu after dinner. MafuMafu is an English language school in Sendai. They have a cafe that's affiliated with the school for people to practice their English or Japanese in. It's a good way to make new connections. However, it's really small and the noise tends to be quite loud. I couldn't hear Melissa even when she was standing right beside me! But, I met some interesting people~ It was fun! And I was voted one of the best dressed, so they gave me a free drink! Orange juice~ Ahhh yeah!

PS. Kazue is freaking bonkers when she gets drunk. Hahaha. She was using the hangers as bows for a short while. It was pretty funny~

On Sunday I had a dinner date with my friend Beckie~ Before we went out, I popped into 7/11 to grab a drink and decided to give the current promotion lottery a bash. I actually won something! I got a Pikachu phone charm! Woo!

Beckie and I ended up going to an Italian place for dinner. It was reeeeally nice! They provided us with free bread and even a little display of their fresh pastas so we could make an informed decision for which type we wanted used for the meal. I got the baked meat spaghetti~ It was freaking amazing! And I got an orange grapefruit type drink thing. It was ok~

Monday was fun. Mika and I met up with Kazue after work and we all went shopping. Mika wanted to get a new dress for a wedding she was attending and I just wanted to look around. I ended up buying an Alice and the Pirates dress for 10,800yen. Holy crap is that ever cheap! I had to ask if the price was correct, because it seemed wrong. But, it's really pretty. Good investment~ There was a cool little shrine thing on display, too!

After that we ended up going off to this Mediterranean type bar place for dinner. The food was pretty good, but they had a required 1 drink per person and a seating fee to boot! Expensive! Won't be going back there!

Yesterday I got macarons as a snack while on break~ They had strawberry ones at Family Mart, so I pounced. Yum yum~ The coffee was quite tasty, too!

I met David at Aeon after work~ We decided to try Pepper Lunch for dinner. They specialize in hamburger and steak. It was ok~ A little too peppery, but not bad. Might try it again some time!

It was raining, so we both had out umbrellas. However, David had forgotten his umbrella at the school a few days earlier, and since he remembered to bring it home finally, he had two. He didn't let that go to waste!

We took a detour on the way home to Sega World. I ended up winning a Vaporeon plushie on my first try! Lucky! It's sooo soft, too! And I saw something pretty funny~ Sadako plushies that pop out of fabric boxes. Lol. They're kinda cute!

One of our students today brought us in omiyage from Tokyo Disney! Chiga gave the cookies to the kids, but there was 1 big cookie in the tin that could obviously not be divided up, so she wrapped it up in a napkin and gave it to me! I was sooo happy~ Can't lie. And then, she offered me the tin as well, since they usually just throw them out. Score~ And she snuck a Minnie magnet clip thing into the goodie bag for me, too. Man, was I ever spoiled! PS. The coffee was also a gift~ From Satomi-sensei!

Today after work, I popped over to the local mall in Izumi Chuo to check out their Daiso. It wasn't anything special, but the building had several hydrangea bushes outside! The rainy season is hydrangea season in Japan, so it's a very common sight to see. They're so pretty!

I ended up meeting David this evening in Sendai Station. I chilled in Starbucks while I wait and played around with my new iPod app~ Line Play! If you play it, leave me your username and I'll add you! It's really cute!

I'm not a Trekkie, but if it's got Benedict Cumberbatch on it, of course I'm interested.

Last Saturday David and I went on a date to the Mitsui Outlet Park! It's a massive outlet mall just outside of Sendai. It was a lot of fun! We took the Senseki line to get there and as we were walking from the station to the mall, we passed a very unusually named restaurant.

Um... yeah. Hahahaha. Right across from the station! It was pretty funny! We got the outlet mall and kinda walked about for a bit. I was looking for some red and white clothing for Canada Day, but for the first little while we just sauntered about. There's a LOT of stores in there! They even had an Axes Femme outlet! Scooore!

After a while, we decided to go on the ferris wheel. Now, last time we did that we were in Taipei and it was super big, with a glass bottom, so we were freaking terrified. (It didn't help that David was spouting horror stories about the damn thing.) This time, we agreed not to talk about horror stories and just enjoy it. It was rather nice! The day was kinda dull, but the view would be nice in the spring time or on a bright sunny day!

After that, we grabbed some soft serve ice cream and chilled for a bit. David had bought some Lego blind bag, so he opened them. He didn't get the one he wanted, though~ Awww, muffin! The ice cream was good, though! Yum yum~~

We wandered around for a while after that. There's an import store in the mall. They had some really nice cookies and whatnots. While we were examining the Disney Danish cookies, we ran into one of my students! Ichirou came over and said 'Hello! How are you?' which was sweet. He's a nice kid~ I ended up picking up some cookies as a gift for work and some Peter Rabbit chocolates for us. And then, I saw them. JONES SODA CANDY. I have been jonesing for a Jones for aaaaages! And considering Canada Day was the Monday following, of course I had to buy a pack! Yay!

So, after all that we took off home. I had found a shirt at the Nike store for Canada Day and we popped into Book Off on the way home to look for a pair of shorts. I found a pair and they are super comfy. Will probably use them again. Awesome~ We grabbed a can each of A&W from Jupiter as a treat before hopping on the train back home. It was a pretty awesome day.

So, on Monday it was CANADA DAY~~~ Yay! And we celebrated at school! Chiga had asked me to wear red and white, so I came in all decked out, then Ai-sensei popped a Canada sticker on my cheek. They had strung up Canada flags all over the place, and it made me sooooo happy. Our craft for the day was making Canada headbands, so I wore mine all day. Hahaha. It was a reeeeally good day. I felt so Canadian and happy and I was humming Oh Canada all day. Awesome!

The rest of the week went ok. On Wednesday I went out for my traditional Starbucks breakfast before work. There's a really nice Bux near where I work and the baristas there are really sweet. I tend to get the same thing, so they almost always know what I want. I reeeally like the ham and cheese sammich they have. Yum yum~

After class, I ended up helping to wrap boxes for summer school. We were wrapping up milk cartons in white paper for the kids to decorate. They're gonna look like jet packs or something. Anywho, I'm a horrible wrapper. Like, truly bad. People can always tell which Christmas presents are from me, because they're sooo bad. Hahaha. But, I actually did a really nice job! I thought of my friend Rob the entire time, because he always has such beautifully wrapped gifts at the holidays and I wanted to make him proud.

I had forgotten my lunch that day, so I had to conbini it up. Hahaha. I ended up with a massive spaghetti lunch and then I noticed the Star Wars snacks! Glico is doing a Star Wars promo right now, so a bunch of their products have Star Wars packaging. Coool~ Also, I was given a bottle of Sparkling Peach as a gift from a new student. I thought that was rather sweet.

On my way home from work on Thursday, I stayed at Aeon to wait for David. As I was walking to the food court, I stumbled upon another Star Trek advertisment. I'm not a Trekkie, but if it's got Benedict Cumberbatch on it, of course I'm interested. Hahaha. I picked it up and popped into Axes Femme. They were having a MASSIVE sale. 50%-70% off almost everything, so I picked up a few new things. I got a super deal on it all, too. Woo!

When we were on our way home, we passed through the bakery and picked up some Tanabata themed baked goods. They were star shaped and tasted like banana. They actually weren't very good, but oh well. Now we know! I ended up snacking on my Alice tea cookies instead. Yum~

So, yesterday was AWESOME. I went to a Tanabata party. Mike, my co-worker, invited me to go so I could meet some new people. I dithered about it all week. I wanted to go, but I was worried it would be everyone hanging in their cliques and me just kinda standing alone in the corner. Man, am I ever glad I went! I met some really cool people! It was a yukata party~ So, everyone was encouraged to wear yukata or jinbei to the party. There were some really goofy games that were played and it was basically a big mingle party. I stood awkwardly by myself for a little while, until I started to feel a bit more comfortable and started to chat with people. I made some really nice new friends~ Even met someone who also lives where I do! She's a few streets over, I think, but man! It's crazy to know another foreigner lives in this small little town! She introduced me to her friend who's a big Doctor Who fangirl, which is awesome! And she likes cosplay and lolita. WHY didn't I meet these girls sooner?!

I got a lot of compliments on my yukata and I impressed a few people by telling them that I had dressed myself! Halfway though the night my obi untied itself, so I had to rush into the bathroom. One of the Japanese ladies who was manning the entrance table came in and asked if I needed help, but I was already halfway through retying. I thanked her and told her I was ok, and then she watched as I retied my obi and she said she was impressed. Woo! A bunch of random passersby complimented me as well. I felt so elegant~~~

After the party, the girls and I decided to go do some purikura. It was hilarious trying to get all 8 of us to fit in the booth! At one point I was squished out, so all I could do was through my hand into the shot. Hence, the goofy peace sign in one. Hahaha.

It was an AWESOME night! And after that, I ended up toddling home. My feet were really sore from wearing the wooden geta all evening. The girls were talking about karaoke, but I just wanted to duck home. I grabbed a snack at the station and decided that a certain bottled water brand has some really good advertising. It certainly worked on me!

David came and met me at our home station, since it was after 10pm. As we hobbled home we decided that karaoke was a good idea~ So, I ducked home to change shoes, then off we went. We ended up singing mostly Disney songs. Hahaha. It was great!