(Day 19) Fight Metabo!

Breakfast was minimal this morning – I’m pretending I’m on the banana diet (not really) and that’s all I ate – because we are going for lunch with Tanya and Kathryn’s sensei (and sometimes X-Files and film star!) Yasuo Sakurai-sensei. I met him briefly when he picked me up from the Fujieda station on the 14th, but this was a more formal meeting. He picked us up and headed to the best ramen in Fujieda, Tonson.




Ah…oishii.

It was very interesting taking lunch with such a respected person – there were others in the restaurant who knew him and greeted him accordingly. He ordered us gyoza and ramen with a load of noodles. Because I had heard so much about him, I was shy to yap on too incessantly since I didn’t want to say anything wrong…and before I knew it, lunch was over. I didn’t even get a picture! But we are seeing him later at karate practice, so I’ll get one then.

After lunch, he dropped us off and I presented him with some whole-bean Starbucks coffee as I heard he loved coffee. I mumbled, “Tsumaranai mono desu ga…” Ha ha! Everyone always seems so impressed with sentence. My host mother said it’s very high-level Japanese. It means, “It’s only a small gift.” He liked it very much and offered to buy me more ramen.

Tanya and I headed out for another afternoon of adventure but she wanted coffee first, so we headed to McDonalds. It was here that I experienced some severe nostalgia.


Do you remember when they used to cover up the trays with saran wrap? They still do it in Japan!

We headed to the mall ‘Apita’ in Shimada and inspected the goods therein. Passing their food court, I spotted a creperie and persuaded Tanya that she must try one of these delectable treats.


She liked it, naturally!

We went to look at housewares on the bottom floor and I test-drove this chair-like contraption:


The sides pushed your hips together and then wiggled it all around. Maybe this is to push together ladies’ hips after they’ve had children? I can’t guess how this is useful otherwise.

Passing through the cosmetics isle, I was taken breathless again…


Here is NEWS (kyaaaaaaa!) advertising their “Happy Bath Day” Precious Rose line for Kose. Men advertise bath products for women here. I kept thinking I should buy some because I love NEWS, but the stuff was stanky. (Ryo-chan, chuuu!)

We then headed to Seiyu for more shopping – Seiyu is like an old K-Mart store but in Japanese. I used the washroom here and found another interesting sign:


Milk → toilet paper. HOW??

Tanya bought a George brand coat – yes! They sell Wal-Mart brand clothes in Japan at Seiyu.

We went for a walk to the train station so I could reserve my seat for the bullet train back to Tokyo tomorrow.




Seiyu against a lovely backdrop.

Since we had karate class tonight, we stopped at Lawsons before heading to the dojo to pick up something to tide me over until dinner later. Here, I found another reason to go “kyaaaa!”


NEWS, advertising for karaage. (Ryo-chan, chuuu x2!!) I’m suddenly in the mood for karaage.

We were the first ones at the dojo, followed by a mother and her two boys. Tanya and one of the boys got to work on preparing the floor for practice.



One of the boys that came was so little and cute I had many, many thoughts of grabbing him and running off the airport to export him back to Canada for my own. That’s illegal though, so I won’t actually do it. Here he is on the far right, stretching for practice.


AWWWW!

More warmups:




Everyone standing for announcements.

Hajime!


You see those kids with black belts? Yeah…colour me impressed.




Ahhh! Sugokukawaii!!!


Can you tell he’s my favorite? He was just so cute.


This is good enough for a Hallmark card.


Leading the troops, here is Sakurai-sensei.




So tough. Osu.

After a sweaty practice (by them, not me – there was a comfy couch for yours truly), we headed to the only place we really could go for dinner – Kappa Sushi. Ha ha! It’s like tradition already and I am going to miss it.



The place was a bit fuller tonight and I actually got photographic proof that Japanese girls can pack away more food than the average person:


You can’t even count them all since only half of them are visible…there must be at least 50 plates on that table.

After staring at the same desserts for the last three days, Tanya became adventurous and grabbed this gelatinous creation:


I kept poking the plate to jiggle it.

Sayonara Kappa Sushi and it’s little sea turtles!



Next up was another round of karaoke! We tried a new place and the tunes they had available were awesome – and the boy at the counter was cute! His English was another story. Here’s Tanya rippin’ it up to ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.



Another late night in the can, I was ready to go to sleep when a TV special caught my attention for the next 40 minutes. Tanya retired and I was glued to the screen for a preview of the new drama that was to begin airing tomorrow (October 17th), Ryuusei no Kizuna, featuring my Japanese boyfriend, Ryo-chan (of NEWS)! Eeeeeeeeek!



It also features another actor I like, Kaname Jun:




Chuu!


These three play siblings.


Can’t wait for tomorrow.

Tomorrow I say goodbye to this part of Japan again (seems I’m always saying goodbye) and go back to Tokyo. Another fun day awaits - I will meet friends and watch the highly-anticipated drama, Ryuusei no Kizuna! Ja, matashita.