Beaches, Bikes, and Bars

Hizashiburi! Long time no see! Well, it's only been a few days. So these past few days have been busy. 

Two days ago, I had the best quesedilla I have ever eaten, right there at Cocos, the restaurant attached to JCMU's acedemic building. As students, we get discounted meals- well really, at the end of the meal, you get a card stamped and then at the end of the month you get 300 yen back for every stamp. But I think if I can get that quesedilla again for essentially $2 every time, I think you know where you will often find me for lunch!

That evening, a small group of us donned our bathing suits, and went to the swimmable section of Biwako as the sun was setting. Although Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, it is very small to me, as someone who frequents Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Lake Biwa is not much bigger than Lake St. Clair, but because it takes up a large large portion of the prefecture, which is why Shiga is sister states with Michigan. In the past, Lake Biwa was notoriously dirty. In certain places you can see trash in the water, and depending on where you swim, you may run into a sunken bicycle or a car door. But since we were at the appropriate swimming area, it was just fine. The water was quite warm still, and there wasn't much seaweed or rocks around in the water, so we were able to quite happily play in the waves. :)

Lake Biwa

Yesterday was a crazy day. We had a shortened day of class since it was a Friday, and we stopped off at Beisia to get some food and drinks for the party that Kaitlin and Alex were throwing in their room that night. After, the kids who are doing homestay who need to take a train all rode our bikes to the train station and parked them in the temporary parking lot. We took the free hotel shuttle back to school, and from there prepared for the party.

At the station with Alex, Ivan, and Alisa

Although it was supposed to be an invite only party, Kaitlin left the facebook group for the party open, meaning that anyone could see it and invite more people and join the group. So our small 15 person party grew to a party with over 40 expected guests. All in Kaitlin and Alex's dorm. O_O. I heard people talking about it in the halls, casually mentioning it to other people, and we were getting worried that it would be too huge. Even Imai-san, the student services coordinator, eventually heard of the party, and she called Alex and told her if the party got too out of control or the trash was incorrectly sorted she would come after her.

I arrived fashionably late to the party with my food contribution of somen noodles and somen sauce. Japanese noodles all seem very similar, but they have slight differences so they have different names, just like pastas do and such. I think somen noodles are rice noodles...they are rather sticky. But some people really went all out for this thing- us Americans were bringing things like Pepsi, gyoza, rice, and noodles, but someone (who wasn't even invited) made a lasagna from scratch and cooked it in the microwave since we don't have ovens. The Japanese were bringing things like sake, pork, chicken, and cheese cake, and Kaitlin made homemade Okinawan doughnuts, which are purple doughnuts :D. The party didn't have as many attendees as expected, but it was still pretty jam packed. And fun.

*Some* people were getting really drunk during this party, but since I was mostly drinking things like peach beer (only 3% alcohol XD), I was mostly just second hand drunk- as in giddy and loud and obnoxious just because everyone around me was). Although the guests were technically supposed to leave at 10 pm, the Japanese kids stayed much longer, and despite how loud we were, no one scolded us. In fact, one of the sensei's walked through our group and said "konban wa". Everyone stopped what they were doing. "Konban wa", I said. The sensei smiled, and walked to her apartment XD. I wasn't originally planning to go, but much of the group was going to a bar called Yab's, which is supposed to be the best in town. I realized that because of my homestay, this would probably be the only chance to do this, so I decided my share of $12 for the taxi would be worth it.

The prices at the bar were super expensive. I only got one drink based on the recommendation of one of the Japanese kids, but it wasn't even that great. Instead, a bunch of Japanese kids headed over to Lawson's, the local convenience store, and bought some $2 beers and we sat out in the warm rain and drank those. I will admit, it's hard to be the sober one among a group of drunk people, because no matter what you say, they just refuse to go home! It was 3 oclock by the time the taxi got there, and the bar was getting mad at us for not getting in the taxi since it was in front of the door, and yet everyone was too drunk to listen to me when I tried to get them to go. We got it all situated eventually, but since drunk people can't count money, I had to pay the whole thing (of course they paid me back later though).

So yeah, that's how that went down. I was too tired to clean or pack, so I just set my alarm for 10 to 9 so I could wake up and do everything I needed to do to get ready to leave. Tomorrow though, will be that entry, so be prepared for a lot! Ja mata! ^_^

Mary

Location: My bed at my host family's house ^_^

Current Mood: Happy(*^▽^*) (and eating green tea flavored Kit-Kats! Yum!!)

Listening to: Alex skyping her mom

Japanese for the day: 酔っぱらい　よっぱらい yopparai - drunk