Meatloaf Burgers and Gyoza

After much debate and grief, I decided to postpone my trip to Ise a week.

The deciding factor was that I was exhausted after midterms and decided to opt for sleep.  This was none of my own fault, mind, it was the fault of the road construction going on outside my window from 11p until 6a every night of midterms week.  Only for midterms week.

Daniel and I agreed to have a lounge around the lounge day.  We said we'd meet around 10 but more whenever we showed up.  I arrived first, with Laptop and TinyLaptop in tow and settled in.  Arianna showed up a bit before ten and we lounged.  I started on a literary for my Friday night game character.  Daniel arrived late but he brought waffles.

We lounged.  I finished my lit.  We lounged more.  A handful Japanese students attacked us to do their interview homework.  We lounged more.  A couple Japanese students invited us to make okonomiyaki with them but we declined.  We lounged more.  I played Pokemon.

Around 4:30, they kicked us out because they were closing for the day.  Arianna headed home.  Daniel and I got crepes from PECO's by the bus stop.  I had a banana and chocolate creme one and it was quite tasty.  On the bus on the way home, we decided I should go to his place Sunday.  He asked when he got home and got the okay.

I slept until 10:30 or so and took my time getting ready before heading out.  They'd upped my bus from 2 an hour to 3, so the times were a bit off, but I arrived at the stop as a bus was pulling up so it wasn't an issue.  Daniel misunderstood and didn't head for the station when he should have, so I waited a bit and got nommed by mosquitoes.

Today's blog brought
to you by the letter D!

We stopped at Freshness Burger in the station for lunch.  It really reminded me of an old-fashioned diner, but it was totally Japanese.  I got a cheeseburger and onion rings; Daniel got a hamburger and steak fries.  The fries and onion rings were pretty good.  The burgers, for Japanese burgers, were good, but Japan decided that straight-up hamburger wasn't good enough and most of what they call hamburger is actually meatloaf (mixed with at least egg and onion).  It's tasty, but sometimes you just want a real burger.

The walk to his house was about 15-20 minutes from the station if you walk slow.  It looks like an interesting part of town I wouldn't mind exploring.  We bummed around the Internet and watched a handful of videos, looked into turning Lupin (from the anime of the same name) into a vampire for my Friday night game, had some chicken nuggets his host mother made for us, played a game of Magic (I lost finally, though only -5 to 1--we were tied in the last round at 1 life) and poked at the Internets more.

His host father gave us a ride back to the station because it was raining pretty heavily by that point and I hadn't brought a jacket or umbrella because it was nice when I left.

I ran from the bus stop to my house in heels because of the rain.  Otousan and Okaasan were stripping and replacing more wallpaper so I helped with that.  Okaasan asked me to remove a 2-3-foot-wide panel that ran from floor to ceiling and I did it in two pieces after cutting across with the boxknife to give me something to work with.  They had cleared the other section in many, many pieces and were amazed again at how quickly I did it.

While they put up the new wallpaper, I helped Misa and Maki make gyoza (potstickers).  I shredded the garlic and ginger and then stuffed a whole plate of the little things.  Maki wasn't very good at cooking them and often passed the spatula to Misa, but they turned out really good.

Okaasan told me that on the 7th of November, we'll take a trip as a family to Nara.  Hopefully we'll go to Todaiji to see the Daibutsu so I don't have to take another trip on my own.  I discovered I'm running out of weekends to take trips on.

I discovered that there's a new facility opening in the last week of November for the Osaka Pokemon Center.  It's supposed to be the largest one and looks really awesome.

 Also, I finished a hat!  I told Daniel I'd make him one if he bought the yarn.  Technically, even if I didn't make any money off of it, it's my first commission piece!  I really like how it turned out.