::namba::

yay~~ one kanji test down D: so now i'm going to bludge a bit before i do my readings ;D

Melissa (from Canberra), Evelyn (from Holland) and me went to Namba last friday night and this was one of the things that we ended up doing - ride a ferris wheel hahaha. as you can see, the view from this particular ferris wheel is pretty shit. we were disappointed T_T it was 600 yen too for a ride! but we did end up having crepes when we got off and it was YUM. i had a chocolate, nuts and cookies crepe and it was just divine haha. it was worth the 430 yen ;D

that drummer mannequin thing behind us is like a famous mascot in osaka. that restaurant is apparently closing down in august so there were a flood of ppl taking like last shots of them and mr. drummer haha so we did the same too. i ended up buying a keychain of it as a momento <3 style="font-size:85%;">

good ol' billboards. i took this especially for you karen!! hahaha. isn't pi hot <3

that athletic dude in the background is another mascot of osaka hahah so we took a photo. the river below it though is absolutely filthy ~~ just thought i'd share that hahah.

this was an izakaya (japanese bar) in ishibashi, which is an area that's pretty close to the uni. all of the dishes there are small but they all cost 315 yen. in the end, the total per person was about 1200 yen, which wasn't too bad^^ most of the stuff here were quite delicious, but the ones that stood out for me was the yakitori and yakionigiri <3

so i decided to participate in one of the sado meetings (tea ceremony). the dorm here has like cultural classes every month - tea ceremony and ikebana twice a month. the tea ceremony is 200 yen per class and so i went and gave it a go. i had absolutely no idea what they were talking about and it was a little bit hard to stay awake hahah but it was interesting in its own way. but i guess the highlight here is the food haha. the teacher provides like sweets and stuff. the picture above was the sweets i had last week..i had a pink one XD

shiso making tea haha. she was pretty good. i wouldn't be able to remember all the steps! it's like so rigid haha..your right hand must do this in a certain way while ur left hand does this -_-

shiso again~~ this was at pot luck. i'll explain that later haha. but yeh shiso is from china and she started last autumn. she's gorgeous and most of all - she likes boys love manga too HAHAHA. though she says she's more into shounen type manga now over BL *sniffles*

on the left is julia (US) and evelyn in the middle. these girls are so nice <3~~>

on the furthest left is mengmeng or "mia" hahah. anyways, she's from china and she's a regular exchange student. but like shiso and me, she too likes boys love manga HEHEHE *bond*

so this is pot luck haha. all that really happens is that everyone brings in one dish each, we gather then we eat. since my cooking is horrible, i made a fruit salad. so i only had to chop hahah. julia brought fruit salad too ~~ we both had apples and strawberries but she had pineapple and i had kiwi XD. but fruit here is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e! one bag of apples (5 apples) is like 400 yen T_T - almost 1 dollar for one apple~!

pot luck. pity i didn't take a photo when everyone dug in haha. seriously - we were like savages! there were a range of stuff though - mash potatoes, spaghetti, pumpkin pancake, evelyn's potato pancake (really yum!), stir fry, fried rice, soup, a couple of chinese-styled cooking dishes, chicken...and that's all i can remember haha. dessert was fruit and ice cream. there's this one type of ice cream that's really nice. i bought it yesterday at family mart XD i'll take a photo later, if i remember ;D

i met ayako again after a year and a half! she came down to osaka cos her mum comes down here all the way from kyoto to get a 5 minute massage thing hahaha. it's not really a massage but it's something for her back. so anyways, it's expensive haha like 6000 yen for 5 mins LOL. anyways, we ended up going to eat and karaoke <3

my rice cooker!! hahaha. yes i had to take a photo of it. a 5 cup rice cooker for about 8000 yen <3>

and just in case if anyone is wondering what kind of food i'm cooking - well this is it LOL. i really don't know what the hell i'm doing half the time haha. i just throw everything into the pot and stir fry with salt and soya sauce haha. well "japanese" type soya sauce hahah. there were different types and i didn't know what to buy so i asked a lady at the supermarket and she like explained it to me hahaha so kind <3.>