Kawaii!!! Cute Stuff I've Bought in Japan

 

 I like shopping and in Japan it's even more fun. There's so much cute stuff everywhere! And the clothing fits me better here! The picture above is the result of a morning shopping in Hamamatsu. The shirt in the bottom left corner is just a boring work shirt (at least it is pink though!), but the other is a super cute top from Cecil McBee. I couldn't resist! The magazine came with a really cute Liz Lisa case (I thought I had taken a picture, but I can't find it). Many magazines here come with "free" things like that. The bowl, fork (Rilakkuma design!), and cup (Little Twin Stars!) all came from Kiddyland. The book is the first volume of the Yotsubato manga. I found a study guide for it online so I can use it to study Japanese. I would have bought a newer one that's not available in the US yet, but I think I'll start with the first one so I can use a study guide.

Hamamatsu Flower Park

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went to Hamamatsu Flower Park. Before heading out, we ate lunch at McDonald's. I had Chicken McNuggets with Ume Sauce, which is plum sauce. It was nice and tangy! I still prefer barbeque, but it was a good change.

My Apartment!

Almost two weeks ago I moved into my apartment (in the photo above). So far I really love it! It's really small, but it's enough space for just me. It's a Leopalace apartment, which is a company that has a bunch of apartments all around Japan.

It's very different from my last apartment, which was big but old. I like this one better even though it has a lot less space. It's newer, cleaner, and feels less empty. Here's a video of my old apartment: http://jennajapan.blogspot.jp/2011/03/my-apartment.html

Now here are some pics of my new apartment!

Sakura at Night

Friday was the last day of training and all we had on Saturday was a quick health check, so it was mostly a free day.

This was a typical breakfast at the hotel, though most days there was something involving hot dogs. On Saturday I had a croissant, potato salad, chicken with vegetables, cabbage with other vegetables, mixed fruit, Japanese pickles, and orange juice.

Training Week

Tuesday through Friday was training. We were there until about 8 or 9 every night except for the last day. It was very long and tiring! Training wasn't that long when I went through it before. I think we got more practice pretending to be teaching a class this time though, which is good I think. Though I think it would have been better spread over five days because long days are tough especially when getting over jet lag. But overall I think it was good. Most of the information was not new to me, but I did get some ideas for new games and activities.

 

Besides lunch breaks and grabbing dinner after training I didn't do too much, but here are a few pictures that I took.



 

Hamamatsu Castle Park - Sakura!

Konnichiwa! I have been in Japan for a little over a week now. I'm in my apartment now, but I have a few posts to do to catch up.

Last Saturday my boyfriend and I left at 8:20 a.m. eastern time, had about a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and then flew to Narita and arrived a little before 4 p.m. Sunday Japan time (3 a.m. Sunday eastern time). I kind of dozed off for a couple minutes here and there on the plane, but never really completely fell asleep. Once we landed we had to go through immigration, send our bags to the hotel, and exchange money. Then we had to take a 45 minute train to Tokyo, and then take the shinkansen for an hour and a half to Hamamatsu. It was about 9:30 when we arrived in Hamamatsu, which was 8:30 a.m. back home so we had been traveling over 24 hours. We were super tired!

Training started on Tuesday, so we had a free day on Monday. I'm glad we arrived a day early because I was pretty jet lagged! I felt it more this time than last time for some reason.

I went to bed pretty soon after arriving at the hotel, but I did take the time to take a couple pictures. This was the view from my room: