Birthday :D

As some of you may know, it was my birthday 2 days ago - turned 21!

I was kind of intending to do something, but since it was that time of year- everyone seemed to be coming back from their trips overseas and to other parts of Japan exactly on the 4th, so it made things a bit too hard to plan. So I kind of gave up planning anything, and I thought I'd just ad lib it. On top of that, I had Younu's room keys (because he was coming back from a trip back to his home in Korea), so I couldn't leave the house until he came back - otherwise he'd be locked out of his own place.

So the morning went by pretty fast... very uneventful, just a normal day at home. Had breakfast, had lunch etc...

Then I decided to send out a text to everyone, just to let them know that they were free to come over and hang anytime. However the only replies I got were from a select few who had work etc., and one reply saying that she'll come over in the evening. lol

I expected SOMEONE to come, however noone really did :( Oh! Ingmar and Rui (who just came back from Shikoku) rang the doorbell and gave me birthday wishes, but they were 'busy' apparently, so they couldn't come in and chat. But they said that they'd come back later, and have some drinks.

After that I was waitin' and waiting'....

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Get a message from Ingmar: "DUDE I SHOP STH, THEN I COME UP TO U, N LETS GET TO DRINK"
So I tell him to buy some food too- :P

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It was 7pm, noone had come, and I was feeling pretty hungry. But I was thinking, somethings gonna happen, I bet they're all gonna come as a group or something so I better not eat yet. lol

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7:15pm, the doorbell rings
I go to answer it, and there stood a pizza delivery guy with 2 large pizzas and some hash browns!
I was like... right, what do they want me to do with this pizza haha...
Then he revealed a piece of paper on the pizza box which had writing on it. And that told me to open the box. Inside the box, was another piece of paper, which said come down to the Parry Room (Saya's t looks like an r) with me (the pizza). So for a moment I was thinking, what and where is the Parry room... then it came to me, OHH PARTY room! xD

So I headed down, bumped into Yuji on the way down- who seemed to be oblivious of what was happening lol.

When I arrived, I entered the room- it was dark, but the lights came on, and everyone was there lol
It was nice =) Thank you guys a lot! ^^

We had the pizza; lots of alcohol; donuts fresh from korea; and Saya brought her Takoyaki machine/utensils (what do you call it :S) so, we had Takoyaki. But, the thing is, we didn't have any octopus, so it really shouldn't be called takoyaki :P There was all sorts of things put inside the balls tho.
It was great !

Apparently everyone who got the text (and everyone there were recipients of my text [luckily:P]) were asked not to reply to me -_- so they didn't reply on purpose!! Bitches :X haha

Anyway, Rina and Nana were missing in action- and they came around 11, after ignoring my attempts to contact them by phone >.< But they brought cake :D

Got some funky pressies as well from everybody! ^^ Thank you all!!

Afterwards we went to 'Yu-yake', the karaoke place about 1 minute away. At first there were 8, and by the end (6am) there were 4 of us left, everyone was tired, the floor was sticky, and the room was a mess (probably Rui and Ayumu's doing). lol

Aurelie went home by train, and one Misaki wasn't allowed home so early because her parents would get angry. So both Misaki's stayed for another 3 hrs, chatting etc. before they left. I.e. finally could go to sleep at 9am-ish. But strangely enough, I wasn't that tired.

It was a super night everyone! Awesome fun ^^ Thank you guys for everything =]

Btw. Someone left a pink beanie with bears on each ear in my possession... who does it belong to???

New Years @ Fukui!

This new years was spent at Nana's hometown (Fukui　福井） which is about 3hrs North-East of Nagoya. Although I say it is 3 hours, because of heavy snow etc. it took me about 6 hrs to get there >

Anyway when I got to Fukui, I met her dad, and we drove another 30mins or so to get to their house.
When I got there, I met the family and they gave me dinner - sushi and yakitori (in actual fact, it was the first time I've had sushi since coming here because of the $) lol! Soo good-★! Also had beer and snacks whilst in the kotatsu in front of the TV..... just kept eating > <

And that was where we did the countdown- which was an EXILE countdown -_-; (A Japanese band, where there are 2 singers and a ridiculous number of dancers) But good nevertheless :)


 The next day everyone woke past midday, and we had お節料理(new years food) for breakfast (brunch), and there was lots of Mochi in the soup- which I couldn't finish :S But it was so tasty :D Also I receive an　お年玉 too! !  :O thankyou thankyou thankyou  ^  ^

 Then we drove to the temple for 初詣 which is what the Japanese people do on New Years. It was freezing > < And when we were there, I wasn't exactly sure what was going on... There was a monk and he was in front of a fire, hitting a bell with a little stick. lol There was also a guy drumming on the Taiko and guys chanting into a mic I assume, because the sound was coming out from a speaker above us. I think they were blessing some wooden planks with names of families who donated to the temple by waving them over the fire - but yeah, really not too sure what was going on. . .  When we left that place, Nana and I did an おみくじ and I got a 大吉 (very lucky fortune) :D Let's hope it's true !

We also went to see the sea, because Fukui is on the western shore of Japan. + The place we went to apparently is a famous cliff where people commit suicide o.O! (1 person/month average). It was freezing even more so there, the wind was fierce, and there was a bit of rain. Pretty brutal waves too... Nana used to work in a shop over there, so she said hi to her former boss, and borrowed some umbrellas temporarily- because we didn't have enough :P

Kouki (nana's bro) stayed at home 'cause he was tired and he went to the temple the night before. So afterwards we went to pick him up from home, and then we headed to their grandparent's place for dinner. There we had a feast, drank a lot, and talked for a good while-! I'm so sure I put on a few kilos during that short stay >< Gotta work it off when we get back to school. lol

Yupz- and then headed back home the next morning :( Was such a short stay~

But, it was super fun, and I am so glad that I was invited :D
Well that was my Japanese family experience for this exchange I guess :P Thank you so much Nana! (and the Takayama family) ^^　

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本当にお世話になりました！！ありがとう！

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