Laura's Pensieve: Rain, rain, go away!

[Front to back, Left - Shinobu, Tamoko, Miyuki, Yasu & Right- Matsuda Manager, Mateo and Izumi]

On Saturday night some of my staff went out for dinner! This is the first time a group of us have gone out since the welcome/farewell party in July. We actually went back to the same restaurant, as we had received a coupon for throwing the party and it had to be used by the end of the month. We ate great food and drank some awesome cocktails (I was loving this orange/fruit concoction) and in the end, we only had to pay 1000yen. Shinobu dropped some of us off at the train station (in her BMW-baby) and we headed home on the local train, where Yasu was attacked by a huge moth (think Silence of the Lambs people). I got home, couldn't sleep and ended up watching movies into the wee hours of the morn.

[Almost the same picture but this time, I'm in it]

Sunday morning I got up bright and early to meet Elspeth at the train station at 9:30. Then I got a text from her that she had slept in, which turned out to be a blessing as I was not ready (I can waste time really well...I have no idea where it goes). Instead we met at 10:45 and hopped on a train to Hamamatsu. When I left my apartment it had just looked cloudy but by the time we were on the train, it was pouring rain. I was convinced that it would stop by the time we arrived because we had to go save the turtles!!

The rain didn't stop when we arrived and of course, I had not brought my umbrella (STUPID - I mean, did the European Extravaganza teach me nothing!). Elsepth's umbrella promptly broke after about 2 minutes (and a sharp piece of metal was threatening to poke her eye out) so the first thing we did when we met Becky was purchase new umbrellas. We found an Indian restaurant, where we ate butter chicken and naan and talked. We emerged to find it STILL raining so we moved our chatting to Starbucks (Becky's fav hangout - they know what she likes to drink) and watched a gyoza festival (dumplings) that was trying to go on in spite of the rain, from the window. It appeared to stop raining at one point so I convinced the others to jump on the bus and try to go turtle saving (there is no turtle saving if it rains). By the time we got to the meeting beach, it was pouring again. We put on our 100yen raincoats, rolled up our pants, tried to avoid the absolutelly massive spiders in the trees along the beach road and ventured out onto the beach. I have yet to see the beach in the sunlight...and I guess I have become a little bit obsessed with it. Next time I am determined that it will be sunny and I will be able to actually see the water!

[Did someone step on a baby turtle?!?! OH NO...oh wait...it's just a stone]

After waiting forever for the bus (we had been talking and the first bus drove right by us) we decided that we would head back to Becky's apartment, eat some warm food and watch dvds for the rest of the night. We picked up groceries and movies (only 100yen for a week!) and then made bread pudding in a toaster oven (so good) and watch Desperado. After hot chocolate with Kaluha we tried to read our palms (palm reading had come up in a recent lesson) and discovered that all three of us have rather dismal futures. Elspeth is going to be married multiple times and have many relationships and Becky is going to be injured or in an accident. Mine was nothing to look forward to, either...I just can't remember the details.

Monday morning we slept in, watched War of the Worlds (SO BAD!) and then walked (in the rain of course) to a local shrine and then to Hamamatsu castle. The castle was actually build by Tokugawa Ieyasu and played an important role in some battle. We climbed up to the top and looked out at the views of Hamamatsu.

Because it was raining, we decided to try to find Becky's Aeon mall. We headed back to the city center and took a bus out into the middle of a residential/countryside area. There we found the largest Aeon mall. We ate a fabulous dinner (only $11), looked around and then Elspeth and I caught the train back to Nagoya. On the train we read Elspeth's kanji book, looking for names for my future weiner dog and to see which were the hardest to write.