Picnic in the Park

This week was pretty quiet. I laid low during the weekday, but Friday I went out with Lisa. I don't get to see Lisa too often, so it was really nice to see her! We went out for dinner first and sat and talked for hours. Then we ran to the arcade down the street for プリクラ (purikura). It's really popular in Japan, but I don't do it often. It's like a full-body photo booth and you can personalize your pictures with stickers and writings. It can also do different things like make you look taller, make your skin look smother, make your eyes look bigger, and retroactively give you makeup. It's pretty fun to play around with! After the arcade we spent an hour at karaoke before heading home. It was a great night!

The next day I was up early for spring cleaning. I cleaned everything in my apartment and went through my drawers and shelves to make sure I'm ready when it's time to start packing for home. Patrick came over in the middle of cleaning for a break. We both have a packet of forms to fill out before leaving (pension, bank stuff, change of address, etc.) and of course they're all in Japanese. We figured it'd be easier to figure it out if we worked together, so we went through it all and filled it out as best we could. It was nice to have someone else to help with it. After Patrick left I continued cleaning and finished in the later afternoon. I grabbed some stuff for dinner and Megan came over for dinner and to watch some movies. She didn't stay too late, but we had a good time and I was able to get to bed a bit early.

Sunday was beautiful, so I made some food and headed to the park for a picnic. I met up with Kyoko, Caol, Bec, Chris, and Leah and we enjoyed the weather and some lunch. The May-time Oktoberfest was back up, but we stayed on the other side of the park. Kyoko and Caol both had to head home, but I stayed out with everyone else well until dinner time. When the sun started to go down we decided to walk over to a restaurant for dinner and had a nice meal before we each headed home.

This week will probably be quiet as well. I'm saving money for coming home and my last month here will be filled with goodbye parties, so I'm saving money for that as well. I'm starting at my new base school this week and so far everyone has been incredibly nice! June should be just as quiet, but July things will get exciting again! I'll also post updates on my move back home since June is the month where I have to pick flights and really start getting ready for the move!