"A sad day has been bestowed upon thee..." - Not really, lol

Sorry for the major late post. =(

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29 (JAPAN TIME)

I completely skipped over saturday. Damn, lol. I went to an Ainu cultural dance/arts thing today with Dinara. =) Ainu = The natives who lived in Hokkaido before the mainland people took over their land. Sort of like what happened in Canada when the European's came and took over the land. ;o I bought my camera but the batteries ran out. =( I should have checked it before I left the house. -sigh- I tried to take pictures with my phone so I'll see if there's a way to upload that this blog. I'll try later today, lol. But anyhow, we sat down at around 1PM and listened to a short story. The program consists of a skit, a few cultural dances and musical performances. =) We were taught how to play a traditional Ainu musical instrument. Everyone was given one to practice. =) Yay! The program ended at 5PM. Dinara and I went home afterward to cook and study. Yay! =)

SUNDAY OCTOBER 31 (JAPAN TIME)

Aside from studying (Surprise, surprise) I decided to go to Sapporo station to shop around for a rice cooker! And also some other random articles of clothing. But anyhow, I scavenged through the entire department store close to Sapporo Station and found a relatively cheap rice cooker for 4500yen, so roughly 47CAD. It was very, very small... I would not have enough rice to eat... =( I decided to check the local home appliance store because I heard they sell a bigger rice cooker for almost the same price. But before that, I somehow figured it would be a good idea to walk back to my dormitory from Sapporo station. At first I thought I knew where I was going but after 2 hours of walking... I realized I was a bit lost, lol!! I ended up asking someone where the closest train station is and it turns out I was really close to where I needed to go! Hoorah. I was not hopelessly lost. However... The maps in Japan completely screws up my mind. Why? Because there's no north arrow... Lol. But anyhow, I ended up wandering through and around the giant park for a good 30 minutes until finally I had a vague idea of where I was. I arrived at my dorm at around 5PM. I was tired and hungry, lol. I guess that was my exercise for the day! On a sidenote: I bought an undershirt, a pair of socks and a white sweater which is a bit too short but still wearable. =) I ate my little lunch box I bought from the convenient store then ventured off to the appliance store~ And voila, I found the cheap and big rice cooker! I bought it for 60CAD? I can cook a lot of rice in it though... =) and I can cook congee! Yay! Hooray for rice cooker! =) Anyhow, I made some yam rice, cooked up some side dishes and ate dinner. I studied the rest the of the night and that officially ends today~

My mini baby. =)

MONDAY NOVEMBER 1 (JAPAN TIME)

Random person waved at me because she thought I was waving at her, lol. I was walking through the hallways and explaining something to a friend and I guess I was overusing hand gestures so some random person standing in front of some random classroom thought I was waving at her, lol. She was waving at me and I thought it was a bit strange until I realized that my hand was flapping in the wind so I smiled and waved back, lol. I had no idea who she was.
I got my "short" test back today. I did not do as well, but better than what I expected. It was predictable but I did not have enough time to study for it... Unfortunately. =( I had another Kanji test and it's following the same general trend I proposed in the last update~ I bought my running gear with me today but it was raining so that was canceled once again. I decided to leave my running gear in my locker because I was getting tired of lugging that thing everywhere I go. I did not really do much after class ended. I paid my Japanese health insurance at the local post office, researched vocabulary for my new Kanji test and studied... =( -sigh- Oh right, I forgot to mention this: I think I finally hit a climax of overall disgust towards the Russian girl. She just does not know when to stop. In the second half of class, the Russian girl bursted in laughter for no apparent reason. I thought it was just something funny between the two Russians but I realize that was not the case when I looked at them and they were looking directly at me laughing. The teacher asked them what was so funny but instead of replying, they just continued on laughing. I asked my friend beside me if I had something on my face and he said no... I don't know. They're driving me up the wall. She's now officially on the hate list. Grow up.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2 (JAPAN TIME)

A random person said "good morning" to me today while I was walking to my first class in the morning. I have no idea who she was but she said hello so I said hello back. =)... Another day, another Kanji test, another set of grammar. --- As quoted from a colleague of mine who says that everyday when we leave our dormitory. Again, I handed in our daily homework assignment. We were supposed to write a mini made-belief news article and mine was about flying pigs. =) The Russian girl today thought that flying pigs was a form of lying? It's not, really. But anyhow, I wrote about a flying pig in Sapporo. =) I had fun. It was a nice way to end the last night.
I asked Dinara about this little monthly train pass earlier last week and she said she'd help me get it today! So yes, I went to Odori station and got my little train pass for 11500yen. So roughly 120CAD. If I go every day (7 days a week) I get to save roughly 130CAD, lol. That's my plan =) I'm going to use it every day since it costs so much... I was supposed to meet up with a friend today at 5PM at another train station but I was worried I'd be late since we got to Odori station at around 4:45PM. Dinara and I rushed to the ticket booth then rushed  to the train platform where we parted ways. She went home and I went to Sapporo Station. =) I arrived at the station at around 5PM. I got a message from my friend at around 5:03 and I had no idea where Gap was, lol. I ran through the subway system looking for Gap and ended up asking someone for directions. I met up with my friend, Megumi, at around 5:15PM. I felt bad making her wait. We decided to browse through the underground supermarket in one of the big malls attached to Sapporo station. She recommended various goodies and popular dishes. =) I ended up buying these little cracker-sandwich like cookie. They're called, "Butter Sandwiches" lol... It was damn good but guess what the main ingredient was? ;D Butter... With bits of raisins sandwiched between two pieces of shortbread.
We were both hungry so we decided to go eat at a Kaiten Zushi restaurant! 回転寿司 It's pretty much sushi served on different colored plates that get passed along a belt. You grab what you want to eat. =) The price of the dish is marked by the color of the plate. For an example, blue was the cheapest, brown flowery one was the most expensive. Omg, the sushi in Hokkaido is amazing... It tastes different than the sushi you eat in Calgary. It's like heaven, lol. The Uni, omg... -drools- Ena, my Uni loving buddy, if you're reading this, you should visit Hokkaido and eat Uni. Strongly recommended. They're beyond amazing. I remembered to take a few pictures! =) Everything was so damn good. definitely going back there another day.

The sushi makers! Look at the rotation belt line. =)

Evidence that I was not studying. =)

Look at the stack of plates! =)

General photo of the store

A picture of the rotating cups and soy sauce trays

I paid roughly 20CAD for Sushi I could never get in Calgary. I ate more than what you would normal get for 20CAD in Calgary too. (Hooray~) We ventured to the bookstore and there I found the ADVANCED version of my grammar book! I thumbed through the book and damn, the grammar is definitely difficult... Unfortunately, they do not have the intermediate book in stock... =( We stayed in the bookstore for a good hour. I bought a grade 6 science book! Lol. I figured it'd be good source of science vocabulary words, lol. It's like Elementary all over again. ;D But not really... Anyhow, I was getting mighty thirsty so we left the bookstore and went straight for the convenient store. I inhaled the lemon tea and from there, we went to Jupiter, a store which sells foreign ingredients. =) They sell fish sauce! I can eat Gỏi cuốn~ =) a bit expensive but hey, it's damn good. =( I miss Vietnamese food. Pho, especially. We gravitated towards a store which sold sweets and other trinkets from all over the world and after that, we parted ways. =) I left the station at around 9PM~ I had a lot of fun and was grateful we stayed indoors because it was pouring rain outside. Thanks Megumi~ Today was awesome!