It's All Purple 'n Stuff!

As I relayed earlier, I was going to see my speaking partner today. It was also the day that my roommate, Mitch, moved out. I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Mitch, who was calling to ask if the balcony was clean of any restricted cigarettes that he had been smoking out there. Apparently, his late night venture left him too far away to get back for the 10:00 check-out session that he had. As it turned out, he got back before the caretaker came up and he began packing like the police were after him. Once the check-out session began, Okaa san began to thoroughly inspect everything. It was absolutely hilarious watching the two of them (who obviously hated each other) act so polite while talking. Okaa san basically made Mitch into a slave by making him clean everything by vacuuming, dusting, and putting his bed away. After what was probably and hour and a half, the procedure was complete and Okaa san retired back to her office. At that point, Mitch collapsed on the couch to fix his exhaustion.

Prior to the 2:00 meeting, I made a light lunch of pasta in order to keep me going. When it was time to go, I went downstairs to discover that today was a lovely and rainy day. I borrowed an umbrella from the community stash and began making my 20 minute way in the rain. After finally reaching my destination, I entered the cafeteria to wait for Saki.

Once she arrived, we sat down and she produced a box from her bag. Within this box was contained the foretold takoyaki, which I hastily prepared to receive as best I could. The octopus pieces contained in the breading were small and purple. The taste itself was similar to the squid I had earlier, but it was a little difficult to think about what I was eating. The part I didn't like was whatever the rest of the filling was. It was some gooey stuff that just felt weird. Despite this, I ate my fair share of the box, which left the four that I took the picture of before leaving.

After the food, Saki began to show me some of her pictures. She had a lot of them! While we were looking at them, one of her friends called her and asked if she could join us. This friend, Aki (not Chiaki), was in several of the pictures, so I got to see who it was before she got there. Once she joined us, I thought that I'd start collecting more pictures, so I took out my camera. This is Saki and Aki, respectively.

After we finished with the pictures, we made our way to the library where students can apparently watch movies that are available. As we made our way to the book/video section of the library, I discovered that they had a gate system that required people to swipe their school ID card in order to enter. I thought that was quite interesting. We made our way to the video section where we discovered that it was closing! From there, we went to the student lounge. As we entered, we put our umbellas in the umbrella holders at the door. From there, we sat in the lounge where I proceeded to empty my pockets for show and tell since there wasn't much else to do on a freezing and rainy day. After finishing the show, someone came in the lounge and announced that it too was closing. Figuring that it was about time to go home, we made our way back outside. It was to our misfortune that we discovered that other people saw the umbrella holders as a community stash as well! Only Saki's umbrella remained, which was most unfortunate for me since I had to walk back home. Fortunately, Japanese schools are prepared for this kind of thing and they had an umbrella loaning system that Saki knew about. And so, I borrowed an umbrella from the school so that I could go home relatively dry. From there, Saki, Aki, and I parted ways.

On the way back, I seemed intent to visit the ¥99 shop so I could get the one thing that I shouldn't eat on such a cold day - ice cream. I was quite pleased to be able to purchase such a large cone of ice cream for ¥104 (tax included) while at McDonalds, I got a smaller one for ¥200. Not being suicidal, I didn't eat the ice cream yet, instead, I stocked up on some to take back to the dorm and eat when I was not frozen.

After walking back to the dorm, my hands felt colder than the ice cream, so I quickly went upstairs where it was warm. I went into my room, happy that there would be no one in it anymore, but I was surprised to find that Aaron had made his way onto my computer to chat with friends. I don't particularly mind that he was on my computer, but I didn't like finding and uninvited guest in my room, hence, I shall lock the door whenever I leave.

Next, I had dinner along with one of my frozen treats. After eating, I decided that it was time to make the room mine. After a quick rearrangement, I took a picture to compare the before and after. After that, I hung out with some of my roommates watching TV and talking before going to bed.