Coolish, Koi, and a Crazy Rainstorm!

Katie and I took a walk to the Tsukuba Centre to go shopping today. We stopped and bought some coolish first :) It has been super hot and humid!

Coolish is soft-serve ice cream in a pouch! I think it's a brilliant idea, and tasty.

On the way there we passed a big pond with lots of koi fish! 

They must have thought I had food, because a bunch of them came together right in front of me while I was taking pictures.

The Tsukuba Centre has such cool stores! I decided that right before I leave for home, I'm going to go there with what money I have and just go nuts. But not today. 

We decided it was time to leave when we saw the lightning and heard the thunder outside. Luckily, Katie decided to buy an umbrella that day. It wasn't raining when we left, but not long after it started to POUR! It was insane! The rain was falling so much I couldn't see very far ahead of me at times. I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard! It was fun, but also scary. At one point, the lighting was right over us! It was quite an adventure. 

Even with an umbrella, we got soaked!

Everything is Cuter in Japan

Everything is cuter in Japan!

We went to one store in the shopping center with office/home/kitchen things and everything there was colorful and cute! Even little things like kitchen sponges or spoons or paperclips. 

This is an aisle with dishcloths, sponges, some slippers (they had a lot of those) and a few other cleaning things. Look how colorful it all is!!

Interesting... 
















The shopping here is most excellent! They have all kinds of really great stuff and it's not crazy expensive, usually. Almost everything in Japan costs more, but not everything is expensive. 

 
Really awesome vintage dress, and really big scrunchie (that coin is roughly the size of a nickel. It's 5 yen). 


Some Japanese money. 

I love those pink flowers! Plus I bought that umbrella. It has rained a ton!

First Things First!

First meal in Japan:

Udon noodles with some white paste stuff and soy sauce. Not bad, but still upset my tummy because Japanese food has really strong flavors, and I'd been flying all day. :/

First peach from Japan: 

The most flavorful peach I've ever tasted! Like I said, Japanese food has a lot of flavor. And it was super juicy!

My room!

Yeah, it is pretty small. But at least it's a private room.
This room was almost completely bare when I first walked in. Just the room, the mattress, the metal desk and the sink. It sort of looked like a cell to me except for this random, old cord phone that doesn't even have a plug. But the program director and the Japanese students helping us are super nice and they gave me a fan, some dishes, a modem, and these awesome pink curtains!!

The curtains make my room look much more livable, and without the fan I wouldn't be able to breathe because the room is even more humid than outside!

The bathroom is shared with the whole floor, so I think 19 people. Same with the shower room. It's not a public shower (though I hear they have a public bath somewhere here) but it's one shower the whole floor uses.

What my dormitory looks like from the outside:

The Hallway

The Building

Kind of an old building and it seemed kind of scary at first, but I like it! It's got character. :)