Tremendously overdue and just tremendous in general update

Hi kids, how've you been? We miss you all! We miss that we missed Ange's Bday, Beno's farewell, Baccae's Toga Party, Nick and Georgia's burrito love and pizza. We also miss West Lakes food court's fish and chips.

So you're wondering what we've been up to?

J&F Farewells
Our friend Linda left on tuesday, which naturally required a lot of drinking and some eating. We missed her farewell BBQ but we made it into the kitchen in time for the fun to really start. And by fun, I mean lots of alcohol (not so much on mine and Sarah's part) and seemingly endless repetition of a Japanese song that goes "Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda! Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda!" and so on. (With such lyrical diversity, I'm sure you can't imagine how I found it annoying...) The day after that, Oche left, but no one knew he was leaving and to be honest, we didn't see him before he left. Weird. Then our good friend Sebastien, one of the nicest guys I know, left back to France. We're going to see if we can catch up with a few J&F people when we hit Europe!

From top, left to right: 1) Linda is the one pointing, 2) Nicolas, Ayumi and Sarah bewildered by the drunken goings-on, 3) Sarah and I get exited, 4) Fumio decides to breakdance, hilarity ensues, 5) Kira... I don't know what Kira is doing, 6) Sarah does the ALIEN DANCE! (aka "We no speak Americano")


Spaghetti Party!
The reason we missed Linda's BBQ was because of Chizuko's Spaghetti Party! Miho was finally better and Chizuko invited us to lunch. We took our Malibu, pineapple juice and garlic bread with us, and Chizuko made us two different types of spaghetti to try, one with eggplant, ham and ... I have no idea what else, the other a kind of herby tomato with feta cheese. They were both quite nice, though I admit, I ate just the pasta and tomato sauce, none of the extras!

DenDen Town
On tuesday we went with Miho and Mai to DenDen town. DenDen Town is like Tokyo's Akihabara district, only it's in Osaka, obviously. Sarah bought a tripod stand for her camera, while we looked at the newest iPod gear, over expensive "jewel" headphones (seriously, they look nothing like jewels, how dare you try to charge that much??!?!?) and Sarah's favourite gaming shiz! It was REALLY hot. We toiled on, looking through game shops, wasting our money on machines that gave us awful keyrings, buying figurines we really didn't need (Okay, that was me, but they had Meyrin and Lacus cheap! Now of course I have to get Kira and Yzak.)and had a look at cosplay shops. Wigs here are pretty expensive, but way cool. I want Aqua hair! We stopped for a snack break at Maccas (what, it was so hot! Maccas is air conditioned, has ice cold coke and is delicious! And cheap. so many reasons just to stay there forever!) Then we (reluctantly) walked into the heat and continued down the road... to get icecream! It was delicious, by the way. Soft serve is called "Soft cream" and comes in many different flavours, including "Corn Pottage"... wtf is that?

1) Carly under a nice looking arch, 2) Sarah finds a sword, 3)Akatsuki BLING Gundam with Cagalli and Mwu La Flaga sparkling on the box, 4) A giant Gundam punches a hole in the no-photo rule, 5) Den-Den Town, 6) Statue from Fall Out 3 game.


Hard Rock Cafe
After DenDen town, we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Sarah was excited about the food, me about the cocktails and I didn't think Miho or Mai knew quite what to expect. The cocktails were arse. You paid $10 and they didn't even put them in a cocktail glass, just like, a normal coke glass! Not impressed! Also, despite ordering three different cocktails, they all looked identical. Boring! Unfortunately, with the exception of Sarah's blackened chicken pasta, the food was pretty lame too. Sarah loved her pasta, Mai's caesar salad was okay, but Miho's fish and chips were absolutely awful. The chips were gross- tomato sauce couldn't save them, and the fish was... It was about 5 small fish, not one piece, which wasn't so bad. The fish was 70% tasteless batter and grease, and 30% warm sandy tasteless fishmush. Lemon did not assist in any way, and I felt sorry for Miho. My garlic bread was quite average, and I was not impressed. The only area in which I rate it is music, cause it had awesome music, and at the perfect volume; you wanted to dance but you could still talk easily.

1)Mai, Sarah, Miho & I at Hard Rock Cafe Osaka, 2) Mai and Sarah, 3) Miho and I

Shoppping
After sternly deciding on a budget, we then proceeded to go shopping. Hyakuen stores are quite dangerous- deceptively cheap they are, yet buy $15 worth I do. Understand this mystery, Yoda does not. We found a Daiso right near us- just a 10m walk away. We literally spent an hour scouring its depths, and i spent $13 on $1 products. I bought "shiny powder". We also hit UniQlo. We'd found a great bargain there before, many great bargains actually, but this time, we wanted to buy another and it was GONE. Oh we didn't know how well we had it- if only... but it was not to be, as I even tried ringing the Umeda UniQlo and they too were sold out. Of course, I didn't know this until Miho rang for me, after asking my carefully translated question and then announcing I did not speak Japanese, the guy launched into quickfire Japanese which seemed much more elaborate than the simple "hai" or "ie" I was looking for.
Nonetheless, we still triumphed, returning with more clothes than were previously had. We love UniQlo.

Kelly’s Party
Kelly’s party was on the 40th floor of a building in Miyakojima. It was pot luck so we bought Pesto Pasta (courtesy of Sarah) which went down well. When we came in we were the centre of attention which was unnerving; we felt like hobos attending an expensive dinner (maybe not too far from the truth). Most of the people were Chizuko’s colleagues, including Kelly and his brother Corey who are Canadian. The Japanese people were very nice and keen to talk to us; I think I scared them talking about sharks, snakes, poisonous spiders, octopus and jellyfish, drop bears and killer kangaroos.
There was more Takoyaki, which we declined, slightly alarmed. The view was killer, as you’d expect from 40 floors, and we took some nice photos including “you’ve run a marathon and now you’re puffed out”, “you're that suave Japanese guy who thinks he's Italian”, “ and more. Also, we had fun train watching and saw some fireworks from far off.
When we left, we looked down from the 40th floor (the building had a hollowed out square in the middle... a straight, 40 floor death drop) and if that wasn't facing my fear of heights, I'm not sure what was. I also kind of felt like I should have a light saber, and that Luke Skywalker was coming to toss my boss into the abyss.
At 11:30 we decided we’d better catch the train home, alas, the last train was at 11:34 from a stop 10 mins away. This was slightly awkward but Chizuko and Miho came to the rescue, refusing to leave us on the streets. We walked back to Chizuko’s, buying a delicious “soft cream” (soft serve) cone in choc-vanilla. It was cheap but ridiculously delicious.
Then we got to sleep on a real Japanese Futon! It was pretty comfortable actually, though I did have a weird dream about trying to convince a plastic bag to turn back into a boy. The boy was also pregnant. Weird stuff, I know.

1)The view from the balcony, 2) same view, diff pic, 3) "You're a walnut, hanging from a tree", 4) "You're a plane, coming into land, tilting a little to the side", 5) "You're a samurai", 6) 40th floor of the Death Star, 7) Fireworks in the distance, 8) Carly and Sarah, 9) Miho and Carly, 10) Sarah and Miho, 11) view from the balcony with a blue light, 12) futon party, 13) "dead" on the futon, 14) a mighty sly monobrow sneaks its way across Saros' forehead.



The day after
After a nice sleep in, we watched SYTYCD America (and got the COOLEST idea) then we departed for Maccas- futatsu cheeseburger, ooonion to muuuustard to pickulshu nookie de! I also created beauty with our leftover wrappers.We then headed back to J&F and had a lovely shower, wasted our time (Onion, NO! Mustard, NO! Pickles, NO!) and made Miho Tacos for tea! And watched Gundam Seed ;)
















^^ I created a TANK! ^^


"Planning" with Miho
Today we decided to visit Miho and plan more activities for September. What actually happened was we watched America's next top model, then headed to Daiso and UniQlo. Upon comparing my budget and my money, I was alarmed and vowed not to spend much money. I then bought two dresses, a skirt and a scarf and some presents. And a new handbag. Oops? So we're trying to plan again on thursday. Also, on the train on the way to Miyakojima (Miho's station), a kid got his hand stuck in the train doors... they didn't close on his hand, his hand got dragged into the space where the doors slide into when open. He screamed and screamed, and it was really freaky. In the end about 6-10 Japanese men were trying to pull his arm out while holding the half closed train door open. His hand, when pulled out, was fine... Sarah and I half expected it to come out bloody and like raw meat. It was both relieving and slightly disappointing, after the feeling of horror! Also, I'm not allowed to eat Maccudo (Maccas), chips, or ice cream until next sat. If I do, I have to eat lots of octopus. I am a sad panda.

















^^ Never thought I'd be grateful Adelaide train doors are so weak...^^

Shoutouts:
To my family- Sorry about Skype, I didn't blow you off, talk to you Thursday for sure!
To Kim Simpson, your malteser and Mars bar goodness is unbelieveable!
To Kim Bowden, I'll try to catch you on skype this weekend or friday?
To Ange, you should really check your email more often.
To Ben, we really should have bought those hats.
To Laura Turner, get on those pantsu cards!
To Laura Simpson, I didn't even know you had a cat. Looking forward to Skype date!
To Kirilly, yes, when we get back, we will make punch!
To Beno, your pizza makes me jealous.
To Georgia, you haven't commented us! WHY?!
To John, wow, grounded? Sucks to be you!


Hugs, Kisses and ... (you can fill this one in Ange),


Ichinose Maki
A.K.A.
Darth Vader
A.K.A.
Carlos Jorgen
A.K.A.
Carly



P.S.

Dear Diary,
Nose a little itchy today...
xx Ichinose

P.P.S

Secret Video coming soon here ;)