I am so very, very tired.

Monday 8/1
On Monday I go to to return to Nishi Kawaguchi for the first time in over a year. As soon as I got there I felt as if I had never left. My feet were on auto pilot as i lead asuka down the path I used to always walk to get home. It was great to see the place, but I couldn't go in... too bad. After a few pictures, the two of us walked to the mall I used to frequent for sushi for lunch. We also went to the international market, and I bought american brownie mix to share with the family! We also took some puri kura, because neither of us had done that in a while. A little window shopping, and then we were off.

After that we met up with Daichi in Ikebukuro and did some karaoke! I cant sing in Japanese, and they cant sing in English, so we never got to sing together... But it was fun! After Karaoke Daichi left us and Asuka and I did more window shopping before returning home.

Tuesday 8/2
Tuesday morning we woke up around 6am to go do Rajio Taiso (Radio Aerobics) at the local elementary school. Its a Japanese thing... it was pretty refreshing! Then we got dressed and headed to the Tokyo fish market in Sukiji. WOW. That's all I can say. So many people, so much FRESH fish. I don't even like fish... Which actually made it really hard for Asuka and I to find a place to eat, of course she wanted sashimi, and I wanted tempura. But every place sold one or the other, not both. Asuka eventually asked a group of random old men, and one of them was nice enough to walk us all the way to what I suspect is the only place that sells both. Talk about delicious! But Since I didn't sleep well the night before, I was kind of a zombie all morning... We then went to a mall to kill time for a few hours. I fell asleep sitting on a chair, haha.

After a little window shopping we met up with Noel and the three of us went to Oedo Onsen. It straight up looked like the bath house from Spirited Away! It was so cool! You go in and choose a yukata to wear around, then you go into the first changing room and put that on. Then you get to go into the recreation area. There were resteraunts, sleeping rooms, TV rooms, massage chairs and more. After a little ice cream, the three of us headed into the 2nd changing room where you disrobe and go into the actual onsen. There were like... 10 different types of baths! It was amazing. And 3 of them were outside. Of course we tried them all. I have never felt more relaxed and comfortable. We then went inside and took a short nap in the TV room. After that we headed for this foot path thing... It was a shallow onsen lined with various types of river rocks in various formations. You were supposed to slowly walk from one end to the other to stretch and massage your feet. Holy crap, that mess hurt! But afterwards our feet did feel a lot better, haha.

All and all we were in the Onsen for about 5 hours. By the time we left, Noel had to go meet friends for dinner. Asuka had heard that there was a matsuri (festival) is Ueno, so we went there. The matsuri was pretty pathetic... so we left really quickly and wandered around Ueno for a while... Eventually we just had some gyudon for dinner and went home. Back home I made american brownies for everyone with the mix i had bought before. It was a little difficult using metric measurements and cooking in Celsius.... but they came out amazing!

Wednesday 8/3
Wake up early and fight through morning rush hour train traffic to go to DISNEYLAND!!!! Tokyo Disney and Disneyland are very similar. Big Thunder mountain in Tokyo is like 3 times longer. There is no matter horn... and all the Disney songs are in Japanese (weird). But it was a really fun day. We got to ride everything! The electrical lights parade at the end of the night was amazing. Oh, and cinderella's castle in Tokyo? Sooooo much bigger and prettier! All three of us were dead tired by the end of the day, but it was so worth it! No matter the 2 hours or so of rain and the ridiculous amount of humidity, Disneyland is always fun!


Because Asuka and her family are going on vacation this weekend, I have made arrangements to stay with a friend from SAfro FAmily. That means I only have two more days with the Sunouchi's. Gotta make the best of it!