Flooded

Monday was the first day of classes for Japanese students.  The campus was completely flooded at lunchtime--there was a literal flood of people to the cafeteria for lunch.  There were lines everywhere.  It was ridiculous.

Tuesday was Daniel's birthday.  We finished classes early and did some wandering around.  We stopped at Baskin Robbins for ice cream and hopped on my bus to a cake place I'd seen.  It turned out to be a formal bakery, not a cafe, so we wandered further down the route to Cafe Sally.  He got a lemon soda and two slices of banana cake; I got an iced hazelnut latte and a slice of apple cake.  Everything was wonderful.  Back on the bus, we got off at my stop because I needed to wander around my neighborhood for Visual Anthropology.  There were people trimming the bushes so we had to cross the street and cross back over on the pedestrian bridge...

...as the elementary school was letting out.

We got trapped on the bridge for upwards of an hour while the kids asked us questions.  Most of them only spoke Japanese and it was simple enough that I could make out most of it.  Some of them spoke English that they'd been learning in class.  It was cute, except when they kept demanding that Daniel and I must be a couple.  The teachers looked out the windows at us and just smiled and nodded, more or less, not worried that the foreigners were a threat to the kids at all.

When we finally escaped, we wandered around, stopped by the hot spring Okaasan had mentioned (but didn't go in), through the rich neighborhood (serious mansions, even by American standards) and stopped at a bakery on the way back to the bus stop for delicious cream puffs.  I need to go back to that place.

Wednesday was eh, one of those days that you can tell hates you but don't know why.  It was just blah and ended with a note in my mailbox saying I need to write an appeal to attempt to get into Shinto by that night or else I don't get in.  Of course I had classes straight from 1 to 6 because it was Wednesday and they put the message in during classes and the guy I needed to give the appeal to was already gone for the day by time I was able to check my mail.

This made me miss my 6:30 bus home, where Okaasan was waiting because she was having her English teacher and two classmates over for dinner (to show me off, more or less).  I still got home before they arrived, but it was annoying.  Dinner was nice and Okaasan's teacher was able to confirm that when I do piece together Okaasan's English, I really am understanding what she's saying, even if no one else does.

Good to know we're communicating well.

For Daniel.

Giant truck in the driveway!