My weekend!

So this weekend was definitely pretty fun. Friday night I went to an Indian restaurant close to my apartment and had some curry and nan. Below is a picture of it. And that was only about 3/4 of the nan (the bread) because I had already eaten some before I took the picture! I drank some mango juice with it and it was so delicious!

Saturday I got to hang out with some people from church. I met Aki at the train station in Matsudo and we rode the train to Takahama station where Hosana and her family lives. It was about an hour away from Matsudo. It was kind of crazy getting there and this is why. The fastest way to get to Takahama station is taking an express train. In Japan there is a "local train" and an "express/rapid train". The local train stops at every station and an express or rapid train only stops at the major ones. In order to get all the way out to Takahama we had to take a particular express train. Aki hopped onto it in Tokyo where he lives and rode it to Matsudo. The plan was for me to go to the last train car, find Aki, and hop in, all in about 30 seconds, which is how long the train stops at the station. I was so nervous I wouldn't find him, but thankfully I did and we got on the train and we were off! It was about an hour ride to Hosana's. I don't know if I have ever written about Aki before, so I should probably tell you about him. He is 26 and one of the guys that I first met at church. He plays the drums during the worship at church and wants to be a pastor, so sometimes he preaches on Sunday mornings. Anyways, he's super nice and we had a good chat on the train. Takahama is way out in the country and Hosana lives about 10 minutes away from the station, so when we got there we had to wait for Hosana to come pick us up. While we were waiting Aki bought me a drink from the vending machine. It was so good. It was like grape Jello in a can. You had to shake it up really good and it turns into partial liquid and you drink it. It was one of my favorite drinks I've had here. Below are two pictures I took at the station and the yummy jello drink.

An old Barber shop!

Aki at the station.

This was SOOO good!

Finally Hosana came and she drove us to her house. All the houses I've seen so far in Matsudo and in Tokyo have been tiny, but because Hosana lives in a small town out in the country most of the houses there were larger. Also at the party was Yuki, who is 19, and two 13 year old girls from the church that came to hang out for a while. Hosana's dad was at work, but her mom came home and we had a BBQ outside! We had a variety of different meats and grilled some vegetables. BBQ in America means we have hamburgers or hot dogs. Here it just means we are cooking outside on a grill. It was some really good food! After we got stuffed her mom brought out some yakisoba (noodles) and some sausages to cook. They had some really good sauce to put over it that just made it delicious. Also, at some point that night I tried tongue, although nobody could tell me from what animal the tongue was from. It had a very interesting feel in my mouth when I ate it!...

This is the group photo minus Leo. The two 13 year olds are on the outside, Aki is in the middle with his mouth wide open, and in the back from left to right is Hosana, Yuki, and Me.

After dinner another guy, Leo, came over. Then the boys-Aki, Leo, and Hosana's dad-went to the onsen (public bath). Us girls took the two 13 year olds home and then Hosana, Yuki, and I went to sing some karaoke! Here are some pictures of us at the karaoke place.

Apparently the sign above these creatures said to take a picture with them...So we did! This is me and Hosana.

Me and Yuki before we sang some karaoke.

We got back to the house around 11:30 I think. Shortly after that the boys returned from the onsen. Then we pretty much just sat around and talked for the next few hours. I was so tired though. I kept thinking we were going to go to bed because we had church in the morning, but everyone was still talking, so I went along with it. I got a good Japanese lesson from Leo at about 2am (I don't really remember much of it though! haha). Finally about 3:00 everyone decided to go to bed. Hosana's mom laid out some bedding for the boys in the dining room and us girls headed to Hosana's room. However, as the Japanese tradition goes, Yuki and Hosana wanted to shower before they went to bed. I said I was fine with showering in the morning, so I went to sleep. Yuki and Hosana finally came in around 4:30am!! It wasn't very fun to get up at 7:30 the next morning. I showered and got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. On the table was a salad (which I didn't eat because that just doesn't sound appealing to me in the morning), some different kinds of bread from a bakery, oranges, bananas, fruits, and yogurt. It was really good! Around 8:30 we headed to church. It was an hour long drive. Hosana's mom shared her testimony with us on the way, so that was definitely interesting to hear.

After church I was so tired, so I went home and slept from 4:30 in the afternoon til 8:30 at night. I got up for a few hours and then went back to sleep at midnight.