Mochimochimochimochimochimochi.

Japan. STOP IT. You're making time go by too fast. 

So last time I wrote, I left off when my host family's prior semester exchange student arrived for her almost-week-long visit on Sunday. Good stuff. She's going to be 20 a few days after I turn 18 which only made me realize how old I'm getting. And I know there's people reading this that are saying that I'm super young and whatnot, but I'm about to be a legal ADULT, (in America, anyways) and frankly I don't like the fact that I can be sued at any given time in about 30 days. 

Getting off track... getting back on track. She turned out to be really nice. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but we got along really well (thank GOD, since we had to share a room), and I was actually sad when she had to leave. It also helped that she's from America, therefore speaks English, and I was able to communicate with someone fluently. That feeling is so indescribable. PLUS, she had my exact same host family two years ago so it was really cool to see how everyone has and hasn't changed since she was here, and her perspective on the whole exchange. The first day she was here we didn't do much. She brought s'mores as お土産 (souvenir), and although she brought galletas Marias (Mexicans holla) instead of graham crackers, they were still as nostalgic as ever. Plus, since we don't have a gas stove, my host mom popped the chocolate and marshmallows into the oven for a few minutes, so the chocolate got so. gooey. I don't know about you, but when I make s'mores, that's what I'm always going for, yet can never make happen. I was a happy 外人 (gai jin). 

Christmas Eve ended up being more of a celebration than Christmas Day was. 

My friends from school were having a party for Christmas/an old classmate coming to visit, so I biked to the restaurant we were going to eat at. I don't even have to post pictures of it because it's the exact same restaurant I had gone to the night before with my host family! After lunch, a small group of us went to the mall, took Purikura, and then I had to leave. :( 

I came home from lunch to find a box titled "cookies" from the US. ZOMG I got so excited when I read that because I instantly knew exactly what it was. My mom sent me two types of cookies that my family eats every year at Christmas. I ended up crying a bit of course. >___> I found M&M cookies and Meringues (which, as per Hanes/Jimenez tradition, have always been called White Kisses) in this box. The bag of M&M cookies was a giant gallon-sized Ziploc that was eaten in two days. Quite popular. The Meringues went a bit slower, but everyone liked them too.  

On Christmas Eve my host mom made (be prepared, because none of it is Christmas-y) chicken wings, pasta salad, pizza, and some fried potato bites. As odd of a combination that all sounds, it ended up being the perfect Christmas dinner. For desert, we all had cake. I seem to have a lot of that here. Now I will tease you with pictures of said cake.

What can I say? The Japanese know how to do cake. 

My host family is so wonderful. I can't even. Everyone gave me presents that I totally didn't need, and honestly wasn't expecting at all. My favorite one, however, was probably a set of cards with Kumamoto-ben on them, which is basically local words that are only used in Kumamoto. Kumamoto Dialect, if you will. So yeah, that won major points for my host uncle. 

My host siblings still believe in Santa, so my host parents got them a Wii game (Super Smash Bros.) and blew up a Santa balloon for them to find in the morning. That balloon was a struggle. My host dad ended up using 4 cans of helium to blow it up, and it wasn't even that big. In fact, I think he ended up filling the remainder of it up himself when the helium ran completely out. 

The next few days were pretty uneventful for me. I spent them on my computer, and playing Super Smash Bros. with my host siblings.

Friday was the day Naomi (my host family's previous exchange student), unfortunately, had to leave. My host family actually packed the kids into the car and we all drove her to Fukuoka where she was going to catch a bus back to her University in Nagoya. Again, this trip to Fukuoka wasn't too interesting. We ate ramen, dropped her off at her bus, and headed home. Exciting stuff, I know.

On Saturday, Andres and I went to the mall a few hours before we had to catch a train out to another town about 30 minutes away because it was really close to the train station, and we had some shopping to do... kind of. 

I'm mad I didn't take pictures of the JR (Japan Railway) train I rode, because it was so clean. And believe it or not, it was my first time riding JR. If anyone else in Japan is reading this, they're probably gaping at the screen wondering how I've gone so long without riding it yet. My town's local train is different, so the one I take downtown all the time isn't JR. In any case, it definitely lived up to it's reputation: clean, quiet, and on time. After the first train we took, we had to transfer to another train which finally got us to our final destination. When I called my host mom to tell her we had arrived, she kept telling me that we had to walk to the right and keep going until we got to a convenience store. The way she was saying it was not entirely understood by me, because Andres and I ended up walking down a road almost back into Kumamoto-shi. Oh fun times. After about a kilometer of walking and no convenience store, we figured we should head back. It turns out my host mom meant turn right when you come down these stairs leading to outside. -____- Struggle. 

The whole reason we came to this town was for an exchange student gathering at this woman's house. Sounds shady, but I swear it wasn't. We stayed overnight for some reason, which ended up being very fun. We made gyouza! I ate close to 13 if I remember correctly... They were ridiculously good, what can I say? This woman has two girls around my age, and one of them invited her friends over for the whole thing too, so we spent most of the night doing karaoke on their TV. Until 1:30 in the morning. Yup, Japanese teenagers are the same as American ones in regards to that for sure. Needless to say, I was dead by the time we went to bed.

The next day everyone spent the day making mochi and this thing that I don't know the name of but is really tasty.

Here's a picture of the bowl you put the rice in to pound (the picture of me doesn't show it)

 And here's me pounding away...

 And here's the delicious thing I was talking about  earlier. It's got a bread-y consistency, is sweet, and is made using bamboo over a fire.

This is what I'm talking about. They poured the batter in that pot over the bamboo, and it would cook around it. It looks weird, but it ends up tasting really good.

 On the way home (after SO MUCH FREAKING MOCHI WAS MADE), my host parents bought the kids taiyaki, which reminded me a lot of a waffle with filling. The traditional kind have anko, but since I'm not a fan, I got one with custard in it. Felt less authentic, but tasted good nonetheless. 

Apparently you're supposed to start from the fish's head and finish with the tail, however mine ended up looking funny because I took a huge bite out of the tail and... yeah. 

I think this post lacked zeal. That might be because I'm tired and want to watch How I Met Your Mother. I'll go do that. Hopefully my pictures make up for the lack of enthusiasm.

And before I end with my random lettering, I'd like to clear up exactly what that is, because it was brought to my attention during a skype session with my family back home that most people don't know what it is. Now that I think of it, it is a little obscure. I'm not really sure how to explain it other than I don't know what else to say, so I put random letters as a way to imitate spazzing out and ending the post. If that makes any sense whatsoever. It's honestly just my way of ending posts. That explanation probably made it even more obscure... If you still don't get it, it's okay. You're not missing out. Promise.

JFO;ERGNKJBOTJILKNMBFDK
-Ellie