Musings on a Rainy Thursday

Well, we spent the afternoon prepping for bunkasai, and I think we're ready. My friend Brianne suggested that we have the kids elect a Prom King & Queen, which I think is a pretty good idea, but we're out of time. We'll see how many kids stop by tomorrow, though!

After school, I met Jess in Sannomiya. Her friend Javi had Japanese class, so the two of us went to dinner again. This time, we had a little more luck with the Russian place. Excellent Borsch and tea... it had been far too long since my last cup of Russian tea. It reminded me of the place my mom used to take me to in St. Paul as a kid - best tea in the world. And tonight, they used strawberry jam to sweaten it, which was better than I expected....I am going to try it at my place.
Dinner was fun, but I think Jess and I dominated the noise level in the restaraunt and provided more entertainment than intended. We overheard some businessmen talking about our "talking" (the two 'o-shaberi' chicas), and when we were quiet, it seemed like everyone in the whole place (which was pretty small) would suddenly stop their conversations, as well. We caught up on a lot, though, and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It's also fun that Jess and I now have (limited?) Japanese in common - used the normal mixed-speech I have become accustomed to using with my friends here, and there wasn't a moment's hesitation from Jess or pause in the conversation. Jess actually taught me a few words. We ran a quick errand to HMV and I came back a little earlier tonight... I need to finish my Hyogo Times article (Love and Relationship column) before heading to bed. I wasn't too proud of or satisfied with my work on last months article (which was emailed out AND in print...crap), so I'm hoping the next one is a little better.

Off to Tokyo from school tomorrow. We're staying with Molly Woods, so I'm pretty excited to see her, too. There's a boat cruise/Birthday Party on Tokyo Bay on Saturday and Gyoza (Chinese dumpling)-making party at another friend's place on Sunday, so I'll have a few pictures and stories to report back with next week. Have a lovely weekend! -Bren:)