comfort zone.

august 12th



i was back in my comfort zone. after yeas of training in the u.s., and a 5 week stint in hokkaido, the shops of hiroshima feel like home...ish. today i woke up before my alarm, as i have everyday, after started reading 'breakfast of champions'. why no one told me of this book before confuses me. much like 'one hundred years of solitude' i feel at peace with this novel. its totally the kind of reading that i've always wanted to do. mind you i've only read the intro and first chapter, but i'm definitely falling for kurt vonnegut jr. if only for his drawing of an ass hole. ( * <--something like that, but more childish). i then took the bus downtown, got some looks from the locals, and successfully got unlost (once downtown) in 5 min. i called home, told the parentals i'm still alive. and then met up with sandi (from illinois). we--the two with cell phones--of course were the only ones there. eventually kate (from chicago), rebecca (from australia) and kate (from portland) met up at gaijin corner. the 5 of us white girls began to stand out quite a bit with our loud talking and clueless wondering. it was very fun. our first stop was lunch. most of us went to the pan-ya (bread shop) in sogo department store and got really fun stuff. i got what i thought to be potato salad, really cheese salad, curry bread, flat bread and a delicious apple sweat potato treat. besides exploring the city we had a couple goals: walets, indoor slippers for school, and hello kitty strapus (cell phone decorations). we found some really cool shops, kate (chicago), sandi and i all bought engrish shirts. i want to steal kate's soo freakin' cute. we found lots of expensive american clothing in used/vintage shops. and soo awesome: we found birkenstocks! sandi plans to buy some after pay day; owning already 2 pairs, i am less tempted. but surprisingly the prices are very comparable. the pains of today were really involving having no money and japanese clothing being too cute. after much frustration we finally returned to sogo looking for wallets, ending up getting crepes and snacks. i found some slippers (dr. schools birkie rip-offs) for 2991yen and in the end it was at the bus station that i found the rest of all i needed. although now it seems my wallet won't close, but its still very nice for $10 (1000yen). finally feeling toatlly exhausted i bought the most gaijin dinner possible, not even knowing it: salad on top of italian noodles with marinara sauce. very yummy after the hour bus ride home. i'm looking forward to tomorrow, a day of just me and getting organized with a trip to buy dinner, since i still can't cook (probably won't be able to till i move in 2 weeks).