On Tuesday the 25th Lauren and I went to downtown Hamamatsu. I had eaten a late breakfast or something so I wasn't very hungry, but Lauren got potato butter corn ramen for lunch. I just had some gyoza.
Lauren got a picture by the giant manekineko. The first photo of me in Japan was in front of this same cat back in 2010. Here's that photo.
Then we went to the castle park. I wasn't sure if we would see any sakura or not, but we saw some as soon as we got to the park.
It wasn't much, but at least it was something! Luckily we did see some trees that were blooming more.
We went inside the castle. It's not very big but it's worth the 150 yen admission price.
When we got to the main area of the garden we saw that the weeping cherry tree was in bloom! So pretty! :)
I was happy to see it because we had been a bit worried that Lauren wouldn't see any sakura in full bloom. The forecast was for most of the trees to be in full bloom a few days after Lauren was leaving.
Lauren was excited to get a hot drink from a vending machine. Japanese vending machines are awesome.
We ate at Kappa Sushi again for dinner. We went to the one in Iwata because we had to go Tsutaya there to return some DVDs anyways.
It was pretty late so there wasn't as much going around on the conveyor belt. That meant that I got to use the screen and have the sushi delivered on a cute little train! :) The picture above is egg sushi and cucumber and pickled plum sushi. Yum! Lauren had creamed corn sushi and Japanese gourd (I'm not sure what that is, but that's what it was called in English).
As we were driving we passed by a fake church, called St. Glorious. It's for weddings. Christianity isn't very common in Japan, but they like the look of western Christian weddings. I wasn't sure if were supposed to go in there, but the gate was open so we did.
There's also a restaurant in there. It was closed, but it hadn't been closed long so there were still some workers there and that's probably why the gate was still open.
Tsutaya has a really awesome DVD selection. That is just one aisle of several! And the shelves are super packed!
The drive back to my apartment took us through an area with a lot of ridiculous love hotels, including a really tacky boat shaped one.
We had passed through the area several times on other nights and hadn't gotten a good picture, so this time we actually drove to it.
The dolphins at the entrance were hilariously tacky and even changed colors! We drove away and then Lauren said I should have let her out of the car to touch the dolphins. I was in a random mood so I turned around and we went back.
Unfortunately the dolphins were too far away to reach, but it was still sooooo hilarious! We were both cracking up about it!
We had decided to celebrate our birthdays that day so we gave each other gifts that night.
Such a super cute bag! :)
So much cuteness! Lauren gave me a My Little Pony t-shirt with Princess Celestia, Hello Kitty madlibs, a My Little Pony drawing book, and Lisa Frank folders. The dolphin folder ended up being super hilarious because of the color changing dolphins at the boat hotel. They're even different colors!
These gifts totally look like they were meant for an elementary school kid, which means I love them. Lauren knows me well! Haha! Cute and colorful is totally my style!
I gave Lauren a Luna (from Sailor Moon) tissue box cover. It's so cute! A new Sailor Moon anime is coming out this summer so there is quite a bit of merchandise out right now.
We got to do some fun things in Iwata and Hamamatsu, but I was excited to return to Tokyo the next day! :)
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