Days 36-41

Day 36

The Festival came early. We arrived at 9am and it started an hour later. Good thing to; it took about that amount of time to set up. We got the signs hanging, ingredients cut and set up and plugged in our portable cookers to await the coming customers. But as luck would have it, shortly after 10 am, it begins to rain. In the words of Charlie Brown, “UGGHH!”. It was a cold long day.

At first business was slow, so me, Jesse and some of the tutors walked around with signs and samples of food and tried to peak some interest. This had very limited success and after two twenty minute walk around, we gave up and handed off the advertisements and sample to Tomoka and the other tutors. Surely they won’t do any worse right? Well they kicked ass, and brought in a lot of business. Were not sure how, but some of us speculate its Tomoka’s small stature and big eyes that drew all the people to us. Between her and then Rie, Ryoko and Mari yelling non stop to come try American food, we actually made a little profit off of the day.

During the festival I tried a number of foods like, a BBQ meat Onigiri ( it was Amazing!), Some Gyouza from the Chinese, Some Hot Thai soup from the Thai booth, Some German potato salad and meatballs from the Germans and some Hungarian meat and noodle soup ( cant remember the name). It was all very good, but I was unable to try out the Korean food which I had planned to do earlier.

Through the festival we all had jobs to perform; I sat at the front and sold and talked to customers, Eva controlled the grilling of sandwiches with help from whoever was able, John cut all the veggies, Zack made the PB&J’s and Nozomi did a little bit of everything. Everyone else was performing random jobs as matt surveyed us all and made sure things ran smoothly. At the end, of the festival at 4pm, the rain had stopped ( oh the friggin’ irony), and we ended up making a 40$ profit. We did ok, but still had some left over materials. The Chinese and Hungarian booths sold out and made over 80$, but the Germans barely broke even. We did ok , and were happy to not have lost money.

By 4:30 we disassembled our stand and began to take all the random food leftovers back home. We were all very tired and ended up separating and napping for awhile before dinner. We ended up spending some of our profit on Pizza and we all piled into Jon’s room to eat pizza and watch Kitchen Nightmares. By 11pm or so we were exhausted and separated to sleep off the long day.

Day 37

I woke up past 1 am and studied till the afternoon. It was nice catching up on chores and homework and taking a break from the hustle and bust;le of living abroad. In the late Afternoon I went with Eva to MaruKyou and picked up some groceries. On the way back from the store, the wind and rain started and for the rest of the night it was cold, windy and rainy. Not exactly a pleasant night. It was ok however, Eva and I watched Robot Chicken and made good food. So a pretty relaxed day in all.

Day 38

Another mostly quiet day. I slept in late and continued to study. It was Culture Day in Japan, which means we have this Tuesday off, Woot!

At 4pm Matt, myself, John, Eva and Nora went off to Oita station to find Wasada Town so we could pick up much needed things at Nitori, a big store that’s kind of like the Japanese IKEA.

When we found the right bus and got there, the first thing we headed for was food. We stumbled upon a KFC and decided to try the Japanese version of and American classic. It was definitely different, but good all the same. There was even a Colonel Sanders statue outside, fully adorned with a Santa outfit. As Zack likes to say, “This country both Amuses and terrifies me”.

Having finished KFC we went off to Nitori, but got sidetracked along the way and wandered into a pet store. Inside were a wide variety of very cute puppies and kitties along with fish, rodents, birds and my favorite, a hedgehog. I really want that damn hedgehog >_<. We stood around and looked at the animals for a half hour or so and then eventually made it to Nitori.

We all walked around and got a number of essential items. I got a large pan with a lid, a carpet roller to clean my carpet, 2 big bowls and some random stuff. John got a giant stuffed dog and rug warmer, and Nora got a carpet, chair, and a whole bunch of stuff. Eva got a dish drying rack and chair, and Matt got a carpet that he really wanted.

When we finished, we called a cab and took our things back home, happy with our purchases. Later that night after separating we checked out Johns carpet warmer and agreed it was nice ( although not as warm as you would expect). We had to go to sleep though because school begins again Wednesday.

Day 39

School again, and it was long. I had Japanese 3B, Discover Oita and Japanese Cyber Culture. It was 4 and a half hours of class, but thankfully little homework.

When we finished class some of us went over to Lotteria to pick up some warm food. I got two burgers and some fries ( the burgers here are good deal smaller than American sizes). As we walked home, Eva got a call from Chiemi and Papa. Chiemi told her that she had come to the Kaikan to drop us off some food. We were a bit surprised and I felt silly too, holding fast food with the promise of homemade food waiting only minutes away. So we told her we’d get there soon and headed off for home.

When we got back, Chiemi was in her car and she handed us homemade Karage and Kontatsu. We were excited and felt just a little guilty that the Ando’s helped us so much yet it felt like we had not gave back in kind nearly enough. So we took our food with interest and headed for my room. On the way, Eva found a package from home and we opened it while eating. The package was very strange and we both giggled a bit at some of the things inside.

John came by after we realized we couldn’t eat all the food and helped us eat some. We went to his room when we were done and studied Kanji while watching more Kitchen Nightmares. Its a strange end to a long day.

Day 40

Long day again. Once more AmPm was the light at the end of the tunnel, which is our Kanji class. By the time I got home I was exhausted and took a nap. I slept for an hour and a half, and when I woke, I felt so much better about life in general.

I managed to get my homework and stuff done before 9pm and hung out with Eva for some time. Around 11:30 we ran into matt in the entrance hall and he offered to take us to Donkey, and show us how to get their by foot. We obliged and soon after we headed off to Donkey. It is open till 3am , so we were prepared for some late night shopping.

After 30 mins or so we arrived and went around its floors exploring. I got some interesting snacks and drinks, along with a kanji practice book and a pasta strainer. Matt got an iron and Eva got some water and a random bath smelly thing, the type girls seem to like.

We finished around 1:50 am and decided we were lazy and wanted to take a taxi, so matt called one up and we went home to sleep. I got to bed around 3am, but that’s ok; class doesn’t start till 1:10pm on Friday.

Day 41

Before class at 12:30 was a mandatory meeting for the foreign students. We met and discussed a few things like a University T-shirt design and the upcoming culture fair we were expected to participate at in December. The Americans got slected to make food for the event, again. I hope it goes well.

We went to class and had a test, nothing special. After class though, a large group of us got together and went to Karaoke in downtown Oita. We sung for 4 hours and had a lot of fun, Charlotte and Ashley were great again, and Jesse and Surugi were both great too, it was their first time with us and they were really impressive! We even got Lulu to do a few Chinese songs and it was a great time. For the four hours plus all we could drink ( non-alcoholic) was only 5$! How cheap right?

After Karaoke we got really hungry so we headed over to ethnic brothers and had some great food. It was Lulu, Surugi , Tomoka, Nozomi and Mina (Japanese Mina)’s first time eating Mexican food. It was exciting to watch them eat it the first time, and they all loved it.

We stayed there eating and drinking for awhile and left around 9:30 or so. We walked back to the kaikan, playing around and laughing. When we got back, Nora, Zack and Matt headed to my room with Eva and we watched some Robot Chicken. Eva fell asleep during the 2nd episode so we decided to call the night early and headed off to sleep.