(Day 20) Meteor Bond

Now I’m done here in Fujieda too…I won’t even begin to describe how unfairly time passes, but I’m feeling the push. After my late night of TV watching, I was a bit zonked when morning arrived, but really, I figure its par for the course.

Tanya dropped me off at the train station for the 9:48 AM Tokaido line to Shizuoka train – where I ran into my Mormon friends. Funny story! So yesterday when we were driving around after our ramen lunch, we happened to stop at Family Mart since I wanted junk food (naturally). While I was deciding between two different kinds of chocolate puffs, Tanya and got approached by this white guy in a shirt and a tie carrying a backpack who was obviously a total nerd. He said he mistook me for Japanese since I was wearing sunglasses and I had dark hair (that’s kind of great, actually). He asked the normal white person questions of why we were in Japan and that kind of stuff, then he busted out with the Mormon spiel, to which I said, “OHHHHHHH...” And he said that I sounded like I was familiar with his spiel and I said yes. From that point on, I ignored him and continued looking at chocolate puffs, but Tanya was courteous and still participated in conversation with him. What can I say? I’m a B. He (and his buddy who seemed to appear from thin air) proceeded to give her his card if she needed any help with anything and then we busted out of there. How random. Not a funny story? I guess you had to be there.

So yeah, the next morning at the train station, I actually saw them heading down to the platform to take the same train as me so I bolted by them at warp speed and they didn’t notice me. Seriously! What are the chances to run into them? This gives me hope that I will run into Ryo-chan randomly somewhere too! :)

THANK YOU TANYA! I had an awesome time with you and exploring your corner of Japan. Thanks for your hospitality and letting me (an almost complete stranger) into your world and apartment for a few days. I will always remember my visit to Fujieda.

From Shizuoka, I took the Hikari Superexpress back to Tokyo and onwards to home in Urawa.




Home!

After lunch and unpacking and then repacking to stay the night at Mayuko’s, Maya and I headed to Tachikawa for some shopping and hanging out before meeting up later with friends.




Maya


Hooray for friends! Here we are, debating where to eat for dinner inside Granduo. We ended up choosing Italian. Do you want to see some food pictures? I know you do.


The appetizer course.


The pizza (main) course.


And dessert! It was all delicious.


Clockwise from the Canadian: Mayuko, Maya, Chinami, and Yukimi. Very nice and friendly girls…also, excellent translators from the waiter to Erin.


This was our stylish dining establishment for the evening.

After dinner, Mayuko and I headed to one stop over from Tachikawa to her home in Hino.





Hino is most certainly one of the quieter stops in Tokyo, but still a far cry from a small community in Canada. Mayuko’s apartment wasn’t far from the station; I was thankful since the backpack was heavy yet again with all my clothing possibilities for my weekend stay.

Mayuko’s apartment was small, but cozy. It was also quite pink.






These are plastic shower-cleaning boots. And they are pink. I think its fantastic.


This is Mayuko’s boyfriend (or she hopes he will be soon, at least). If you’ve seen these face uchiwas (fans) or you know what they are, then you’ll follow what I’m saying. His name is Takizawa Hideaki from the group Tackey & Tsubasa.

Besides being in Japan and being with friends and laughing and having a good time, the highlight of my night came when the show I have been eagerly anticipating debuted – Ryuusei no Kizuna, featuring my boyfriend, Ryo-chan!


Chuu! Chuu!


You tell ‘em.




”Hayashi raisu!! Hayashi raisu!”


I like suits on boys.


I don’t like mullets on boys. He’s still cute though.








Mayuko said this picture looks like I’m in the car with him.


Bad, bad mullet.

So the premise of this show isn’t even anything too weird like in the countless other shows I watched. There are three siblings whose parents were murdered when they were young and now they are grown up and are trying to find the killer on their own and then they will kill him. Actually, that doesn’t really sound like Canadian TV, now that I think about it. But anyways, they start off swindling swindlers for fun or light revenge and then they realize that they are quite clever and the show ends up being quite humorous amidst all the death and whatnot. I will continue to watch.

Tomorrow I meet up with an old, old friend who I met back in 1997 when she arrived in poor little Altona, Manitoba for a year of high school. Mix that with lots of curry, sukiyaki and cheesecake and that’s tomorrow in a nutshell…or is it? There’s always more.