Minasan wa Hirugohan wo Matteimasu

my bones is hurt. went ice skating all day yesterday with some cannucks and two japanese girls somewhere out in akita city. we were out there all day wobbling over the chopped up rink (well, i wobbled and everyone else mostly had it down). i talked in japanese with a group of kids about japanese bugs vs american bugs and got lapped by some four year olds a few times. japanese kids are usually really fascinated with foreigners. i must've talked to 6 or 7 kids who had all sorts of questions about america, and they all wanted to skate with us and tell us about their families. fun, but my feets got straight jacked by ill-fitting skates. included in the happenings were some bus and train rides fore and aft, to and from, japanese fast food takoyaki (breaded and fried octopus balls), and pink hockey helmet wearing. we flipped eachother around, knocked eachother over, raced, and sometimes us boys was very gentlemanly, offering a hand and whatnot.

the night before, went to a traditional style restaurant near the local train station with some mongolians, an australian, and an american. it was called "kyuu" which either means 'ball' or 'nine' or neither, maybe. we drank beer and hot sake, ate sashimi, a few different types of yakitori, snails, and a local specialty called "hatahata", a small fish grilled to a crisp that you just clamp onto with your chopsticks and eat whole. afterward, went to the local family mart for more beer and miscellanea, ran into some students who had a car with just enough room to transport the ladies of our party, leaving the dudes, me and max, to walk the 2 or 3 miles back to school, on account a cause it was the middle of the night and weren't no buses going there.

working again in reverse chronology, as i am wont, from time to time, to do, the night before that, a small group went out to hunt down a cheap karaoke place and belt out some junk for a few hours. shook maraccas, stood on couches, gave it our all. i'm starting to piece together a little idea of the layout of akita city, maybe. i've mainly seen the city at night, and it looks totally different then, so it's still disorienting, but i think i have a general picture. es-siting.

today, classes are done for me. only had my two hours of japanese, which knocked the wind outta me, but i recovered with som ramen, and now i'm ready for all the walking and lounging i have on tap for the day. got some more sloppy snow to trounce about in, maybe i'll do that...