Cat Cafes and More!

Yesterday morning our Japanese class session was cancelled due to rain (although I don't think it actually rained that much). It was nice to have a morning off, although I didn't see the email until after I took a shower. Even so, I had time to register for classes and take a quick nap. I won't bother writing what classes I registered for (since I might not be able to take them due to it being lottery) but I'm hoping to get the classes I want. After registering, Becky and I headed over to Waseda to eat lunch with the JS associate from Earlham. We left a bit early to make sure we got there on time and good thing we did. For the most part I've been able to get from the hotel to Ikebukuro station pretty well. But we usually walk around with a bigger group of people, or at night, so we got a bit lost. Thankfully after that we were able to easily find our way.
It's weird riding the trains every day here. I've gotten used to it, but the stations can be a bit intimidating, especially when it's rush hour.

At Waseda we have Japanese language class orientation. We were all half asleep for it. There was also a short orientation session after that just for JS people. Once we were done with orientation we had the rest of the afternoon free. So a couple of Team members and I decided to try and find a cat cafe called Nekobukuro in east Ikebukuro. We saw the building once at night, so we thought it would be easy to find again. Somehow, however, we got lost. We ended up asking this old man for directions, but still weren't able to find it. After some walking we just decided to go to a different cafe. It was 200 yen per 10 minutes, which is somewhat expensive, maybe, but we wanted to check it out anyway. They asked us if we understood Japanese, and we do, so we were able to enter. We took off our shoes before we entered and put on slippers they had for us. And then we entered the land of cats.

Actually it wasn't as amazing/exciting as I thought it would be. Most of the cats were asleep, and they were so used to being pet that they weren't excited by people at all. They were still super cute though! And one of them actually licked my fingers! It was interesting to watch the other customers too. Some people were sleeping, some were reading manga, and only a few people other than us (mainly couples) were actually petting/looking at the cats. Soft music was in the background, and it was pretty quiet there. We only stayed 20 minutes. I can't wait to check out more cat cafes in the future!

For dinner a couple of us went to kaiten zushi. My first sushi in Japan! We went with a Waseda assistant and another club member. I've meet so many Niji no Kai members here it's hard to remember them all haha. Anyway, the kaiten zushi place was pretty reasonable and quick. For those who don't know what kaiten zushi is, basically there is a conveyor belt that plates of sushi go around on. Most plates were 120 yen. I don't remember the names of anything I ate, but it was all delicious! I sat next to the new member I meet and she explained how to get tea, and that I could ask for something specific if I wanted. I ended up eat 7 plates (14 pieces)! I was really hungry. It was interesting to note that once the sushi goes around a certain amount of times, the workers throw it away!

After dinner a couple of us went to a department store like place called Don Quixote (Donki for short). We wanted to buy alcohol to have a small nomikai (drinking party), so our guides took us there. It was really interesting! There were about 7 or 8 floors of the most random stuff. For example, boob pillow. I bought umeshu (which is Japanese plum wine) and a popular drinking snack which is basically dried squid. I got to talk a lot with our guides which was really nice.
When we returned to our hotel we had a small nomikai with Team members and one of our guides in one of the hotel rooms. It was a lot of fun! We mainly just talked, drank a bit, and ate some food. And I still went to bed at a reasonable time!

Today we had more orientation. For most of it we were supposed to go around to different stores around Waseda and look at prices, kanji, etc. For lunch we ate at a place called Nan and Curry where we got nan and curry. It was so good! But I got so full so fast.

Today I finally got my host family information! I'll be living with a dad (who is a company president!) and mom (who is a company worker) and I'll have a 5 year old little brother! I'm only 40 minutes away from school, so I'm still pretty much in the downtown area. I wanted to live further out in the country, but oh well. I'm a bit nervous to meet them on Sunday! I hope everything goes well. And I need to buy a gift for my 5 year old brother. Crazy.

Instead of going out with the JS group tonight I met one of the Waseda students who studied abroad at Earlham last year. Me and another girl here who goes to Earlham got gyudon (meet on rice) with him for dinner. It was my cheapest meal here yet, 280 yen! It was a lot of fun talking to him (in Japanese!) and catching up with him. He told us that our Japanese was really good, but we still have a long way to go. He's building is on the same Waseda campus that our is, so we will be able to meet with him often throughout the year! After dinner he took us to a game center since we wanted to do purikura (photo booth). The part of Ikebukuro we were in was pretty busy for a Thursday night. It's crazy how many people are here! Purikura was fun, but all of the options you have are timed so we didn't get to decorate all of them, but still the pictures are pretty great.

We told him about how we tried to find Nekobukuro the other day but couldn't, so he showed us where it was since we were close which was really nice. We didn't go in to play with the cats, but there was a pet store outside so we saw some cute pets. Even though we didn't hang out for very long (we all had to get up early in the morning) it was really great to see him and I'm glad he showed us around. Hopefully I'll be able to hang out with him and some of the other Waseda students who studied abroad at Earlham!

And I tried to skype with my mom tonight, but since she can't use technology very well at all, we weren't able too. It would be nice to talk to family members, but I don't really have the time. I need to pack still to send a bag off to my host family, so until next time!