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Monday, March 3, 2014

An Afternoon in Hamamatsu

This past Wednesday Jonathan and I went to Hamamatsu to get our visas renewed and new residence cards. You have to go twice. The first time you turn in an application and some documents. Then they send a postcard to your residence. You take that postcard back to the office to get your stuff updated.

It was really boring, but everything went smoothly.

The first time we went, we bought payment stamps at the post office. I don't know why you don't just pay at the immigration office, but whatever. It was weird to buy a 4000 yen stamp. This has to be the most expensive stamp I've ever bought.



This past weekend I headed to Hamamatsu after I got off work (I only work half days on Wednesdays, but Jonathan had to take time off of work). I ate at a bakery in the basement of the Entetsu department store near the station. While I was eating, Jonathan arrived and we shared this really yummy dessert.


Then we walked to the immigration office, took care of our stuff, and then went to Hamamatsu Castle Park. Jonathan just wanted to walk around so we didn't use the GPS on Jonathan's phone and walked a bit more than we needed to to get there, but it was a nice day.


I was excited to see several squirrels! I've never seen them anywhere else around here. I saw a squirrel there last March during training and someone was feeding it from their hand!



There were also a lot of ducks there!


Several plum trees were blooming. The pink ones are such a bright, pretty color.



I'm looking forward to the cherry blossoms. This tree is always so pretty then!




We spent some time sitting by a pond with a waterfall. There was a pretty golden koi. Most of the koi there are just gray.



There was construction going on around the castle. They're building a new gate.


Jonathan commented that it smelled like Lowe's. Haha, it did!



Then we went to Toys R Us in ZaZa City. I have no idea why Geoffrey is punching himself in the head.


I always get a weird feeling (in a good way) when in this Toys R Us because it just reminds me so much of when I worked at one in Owensboro in late high school and early college. For some reason this one actually reminds me of the Owensboro store (now closed) more than ones I've been to more recently in the US.


I wanted to take a picture in a cuter aisle, but there were always employees or customers around in the other ares.


I quickly took a picture of this carpet because I remember vacuuming the same carpet in Owensboro pretty often.


I bought a couple of cute drinks at Toys R Us. The Pokemon drink was apple flavored and not great, but I just wanted the can really anways haha. I haven't drunk the Hello Kitty soda yet, but it's probably just like Sprite or something.

I also got a couple of Sailor Moon Gachapon toys from the capsule machines outside of the store. I got Sailor Uranus and Chibi Moon. Chibi Moon is cute because she's holding Luna P. :)

There's also a Starbucks in ZaZa City. I got the Sakura Chocolate Strawberry Latte, which was delicious. 


Strawberry flavored whipped cream is awesome. It was just all around wonderful. And pretty!


I wasn't very hungry since I had just had a latte, but Jonathan wanted to eat dinner right then. So we ate at Freshness Burger in the station where I got a teriyaki burger and onion rings. Then Jonathan and I went to Loft in the station to stock up on some stickers for our students.


I don't like Kumamon (the black bear) but he's popular and many students like him, so I bought those stickers. The other stickers I bought are cute and cool and pretty though.

It was a really fun day and I'll miss half day Wednesdays next year. They really break up the week because Wednesdays kind of feel like a day off.

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