this weekend was very satisfying. we went to ko's grandmother's house down by wakayama city, about 3 hours south from kyoto by train. we went down on friday right after school and just got back now, around 2pm on sunday.

friday we got there around 5. it felt just like PR, walking to her house from the train station - sand on the side of the narrow unkempt roads, people carrying surfboards, etc, the weather was also very similar. after meeting ko's grandmother, etc, we went down to this mall nearby. lots of the stores were closed but there was still lots of interesting stuff. found the biggest containers of beer ever - 2 liter cans, one of which even came with a CO2 cartridge so you could pressurize it and use it as a mini tap. ridiculous :) if only i liked beer, hehe. that night we just hung out at ko's grandmother's place, played card games, etc.

saturday morning shannon's futon was soaked. it was wet from the bottom up though and didn't smell bad so we figured it was just dew or whatever. shrug, that didn't stop us from making fun of her for wetting the bed :) this group was really fun cuz everyone is nice and gets along well. anyway then we went to the beach for a few hours, and when we got back we showered and then headed back to the mall to check out all the stores that had been closed the previous night. i found way too much cool stuff i wanted (they had a toys r us, aka toizarasu). then we went to a used book/dvd/cd store and i found a bunch of new kids on the block videos, including several of the animated series they apparently did. i bought the hangin tough live video. they didnt have the step by step video, unfortunately. i also bought a used copy of step by step that comes with a little book with bios etc, for $7. oh and jenn came across some sort of "making of" book or something about Leon: The Professional. she was nice enough to let me buy it, that was awesome of her. the book is awesome. it's got pictures from the production of the movie, and a series of like 250 screenshots showing the whole movie, and what appears to be the entire script translated into japanese. theres lots of writing too, presumably about the process of casting, making the movie, etc, but it's all in japanese and i didn't sit down to try to figure it all out. either way, the book is awesome. so anyway, saturday night we went out to a nearby karaoke place and did an hour and a half there (fun but i'm starting to get karaoke'd out), and then rented Goonies and brought it home to watch it on my laptop. i promptly fell asleep as this was already 11 or 12.

sunday morning (this morning) we got up and had breakfast and got on the train to come back. the food she made was awesome - we had tempura last night, and lots of great sushi the night before. this was also the first time ive actually eated a japanese-style breakfast - some sort of mix featuring bacon and spinach and asparagus, some peas with fried eggs, etc. interesting but pretty good. the weekend was a good opportunity to finally relax and enjoy ourselves without the constant burden of homework and kyoto adventures looming over our heads. of course, now we have to do our take-home culture class midterm all in one night, but it was worth the tradeoff. if only the whole trip could be like that. and now i must go caption the pictures and work on my midterm.

Originally posted on LiveJournal. Original post