This week started off with a care package from home. I got some goodies and everything I needed to make caramel apples! My week was pretty slow because my school has started getting ready for their culture festival in a few weeks, so there were only four classes a day instead of six. I didn't do much during the week, I got dinner with some friend on Wednesday at a Turkish restaurant and Patrick came over on Thursday. Although my week was uneventful, it was a great week.
Things picked up on Friday when I had both a small English party with some students and a girls night in at my place. At school I made caramel apples from the supplies my parents sent. In Japan people don't eat caramel apples, the closest I've seen is りんご飴 (ringo ame, candied apples), which is a hard candy shell around an apple like you find at carnivals. It's usually found during festivals, but I've never seen one with caramel. I made the caramel apples in the home economics room during the day and after school met with the students who had participated in English speech contest. We had a little English party with one of the English teachers at the school. I cut up the apples and let all the students try some. They really enjoyed the caramel apples! We talked a bit in English and listened to English music before heading home.
I ran to the grocery store on the way home to get some sushi grade fish. Because Leah and I had picked up some nice sake in Kobe, we wanted to have a little dinner party and pair it with some sushi! Leah came over a little early to help me prepare and we made a nice plate of fish and vegetables. Megan came over a little later and we had 日本酒 (nihonshu, sake) and 手巻き寿司 (temaki zushi, hand-rolled sushi) for dinner. I've had 手巻き寿司 before and love it, but I'd never been the one to host it before. It was a lot of fun and it was really nice to have a bit of a girls night!
On Saturday I met Leah for lunch before going shopping. We're both working on our Halloween costumes, so we went out looking for costume pieces and craft stuff to make any parts we couldn't find. It was a beautiful day, so we walked from my house to the restaurant for lunch, then across the street to Don Quixote (a variety store), then to Kokura station to check out Aru Aru city, then back to my apartment, stopping in stores along the way. Leah found some good stuff at Don Quixote and Aru Aru city, and although I found stuff at other stores, the ￥100 store turned out to be the store I found most of the stuff I need!
Saturday was also Juha's birthday, so I met him for a night of pub quiz! Our team was Juha, Kyoko, Leah, Megan, and me. Later on more of our friends came to join us. We bought Juha is favorite beer and did our best to answer all the questions. We didn't place, but still had a lot of fun! Afterwards we went for hamburgers and then over to karaoke. Despite it being Saturday night we got a room right away and sang our hearts out until it was time for everyone to catch the last train or bus home. Megan ended up coming home with me to watch some movies before we finally went to sleep.
Sunday was pretty quiet. I made breakfast for Megan and I in the morning and we watched one final movie before she had to go home. I spent the afternoon cleaning and relaxing until I went over to Kikumi's around four thirty. She'd gone to Costco with some friends who were craving tacos. They bought taco meat, soft tortillas, jalapenos, and even real cheese. A bunch of people came over and we all helped prepare everything. It was Kikumi's first time having tacos and she really liked them. It was nice to sit around the table and talk with everyone.
This week I'm hoping with go by quickly because I have a Halloween party on Saturday in Fukuoka! The party is called Night Walker and I went with Patrick and Emily last year. More of my friends will be coming this year and I will have a costume, so I'm really excited! So far I only have one part of my costume done (I made it from the things I found in the ￥100 store). Can you guess who I'll be?
