Week 35 & 36 in Japan: anime trains, class presentation, water festival

       First of all I want to talk about anime trains in Japan. You can sometimes see trains with cool designs of anime characters which is awesome. I saw one on my way to Yurihonjo for my English class. I haven't heard about the anime but it was interesting to see. I think it's cool that in Japan things that easily and usually so simple have something surprising like an anime drawn on it. Just a very small percentage of trains are blessed with something like this but I think it is fun. Something way more common is anime stuff on buses. A decent portion of the buses in Akita city have big paintings from the anime "One Piece" on them. Even the interior of the buses are decorated.
       Next I want to mention that I had a presentation in my multicultural communication class on May 29th. I was in a group with two Koreans Chansu, and Eri, and also a Japanese named Saki. It was a little bit like a science fair where people can move around freely and look at different presentations at their own pace and look at different presentations. The class is all in Japanese so it has been quite a challenge. Each week we usually make groups about a given topic and later that week we have to submit a report on it. This time was a little different because we had to make a poster as a group and do it. The presentation was about whether or not we agreed with using tax money for cell phone reception by building cell phone towers even in remote locations. The topic was kinda lame but it was overall pretty fun. I'll post a little video that somebody in the group made at the end of the blog.
      Lastly there was a water festival in Akita City on June 1st. The festival was all about water and how it is cleaned and different types of water. I took a taste test of four different types of water. One was un-softened tap water, one was softened tap water, one was bottled water, one was some new technology of cleaning water that uses less energy than the others... I think but I can't remember exactly. I got two of them mixed up when I did it but it was fun. I didn't stay at the festival long because I was there by myself and I just happened to be in the area so I checked it out. I just think it is cool how often events go on in the city. Also as usual with this type of thing there were tons of things to do especially if you were a kid around 5 years old.
      You've finished the wordy party of the blog and now you can see the pictures.
      Thanks a lot (^-^)/

 On the 30th I biked to the sea with my friend Shukutei from China. She wanted me to show her the route there so I glady obliged. I'm sort of an explorer so I know the city better than most students (even a lot of Japanese) so people somtimes come to me for this sorta thing.
 From left to right, Saki, Eri, Chansu, and lastly me. This was taken when we were making the poster and eating snacks.

Eri made this short video. I got a little air time at the end :) (Also I see the quality is really bad after I uploaded it to Youtube) meh oh well.

 Water festival

Week 34 in Japan: the best curry shop, baseball game, and free ice cream

For week 34 the first super cool thing was on Wednesday when after work I went with some friends to an awesome curry restaurant. It was my second time there and it didn't disappoint. One great thing about the place other than the obvious which is that the curry is great is that they have the most spicy curry that I know of in existence. There is I'm sure more spicy curry at various places in the universe but this is the most mouth/throat/stomach burning experience that I know of. The second thing that is awesome is that you get to have as much 'Nan' as you want which is the super tasty Indian bread/toast stuff you get with it. The restaurant is called Loc Sumey and it is and Indian curry shop. Also they didn't even pay me to write this.
       On Friday I started teaching again in Yurihonjo city at a kindergarten. Lots of fun and I love the train ride going there and back because it goes right along the ocean for a lot of the trip. After work there before going back to Akita I went with one of the teachers at the school Junko to a coffee place. Again it was my second time at this place and again I want to say that it is the best coffee place... That I know of at least. The place is a super fancy and the coffee is fantastic. The decorations and the cool vibes in the place are partially what make it great. Also the toast and fresh jam or honey is great too. It's a hard place for me to describe but it is awesome and maybe I'll get some pictures. On the way back from Yurihonjo the train was slowed way down because of the strong winds. The train tracks are right along the ocean so it's a great view as you ride but if the wind is strong a lot of times they have to slow the train down. I heard that a couple years ago because of the wind there was a big train crash in the same area because of strong winds so since then they have been very cautious.

       Saturday was actually for me one of my top ten days in Japan so far. Nothing too crazy but it ended up just being really simple and enjoyable. I spent the day with two friends from my part time job Kana, and Hikaru who are both Japanese. Anyways first we took a bus to the baseball stadium in Akita City and saw the Rakuten Eagles against the Seibu Lions. I was rooting for the Eagles because they are Akita's team (along with the rest of Touhoku Japan like Sendai). The Seibu Lions are a team from Saitama which is a city just south of Tokyo. The Lions ended up beating the Eagles 7-0 so that was definitely a dissapointment but still the experience was really fantastic. Being at a baseball game again was truly nostalgic and just an all round good time. One cool thing was that we got free Rakuten Eagles Jereseys when we got there so we were repping our team. Also the crowds in Japan for baseball are so energetic. There are special cheers for each player when they get up to bat. So for example the guy who played shortstop was Fujita, and when he batted people said something like "Fight, Fight, Fujji--ta!". And every single player had there own chant that is created by the fans. Also there were a lot of Seibu Lions fans there and they were the craziest. Runnining around and dancing with big flags and somebody had a trumpet. Soo much team spirit. If you follow baseball you may know Masahiro Tanaka who started playing for the Yankees this year. Tanaka actually came fromt the Eagles so I saw a lot of people with Tanaka jerseys on. Anyways after the game we went to go have dinner at an Italian restaurant my friend had told me about, supposedly it was real Italian food (the friend who told me about it was Italian and she works there). We got there and it was a super nice restaurant where somebody in a suit greets you at the door. Picture us going into the restaurant wearing Rakuten Eagles Jerseys haha. I didn't mind so much but the girls I was with were so embarresed. Turns out we could not eat there because everything was reserved but before we left they gave us free ice cream. Also it wasn't any ordinary ice cream, it was Italian ice cream and was some of the best stuff I've ever had. We each got to pick three flavors, I had Pistachio, Blueberry, and the third kind I can't remember the name of but it was my favorite. It was a really fun thing to have happen to us.. Free ice cream for the win. From there we went to a different Italian restaurant that had a place for us to sit. We had really great food and some good wine too. The girls actually changed out of their jereseys before going to the second place but I was repping the shirt the whole time :). Together we bought a bottle of wine and it was like 2800 yen if I remember right. So just under 30 dollars. It was the most expensive wine I had ever had. Can't say it was delicious but it was certainly noticeably better than some cheap wine I've had before.

I'm behind on blogs but I'm going to try and get more done soon~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I met a dog named Genta outside of the curry restaurant. Golden Retrievers are not so common here so I had to say hi :). If I remember right genta is 12 years old but still full of energy.

 This was a photo sphere I took at the game. I didn't realize photo spheres were so awesome~~

 Another shot of the field.

 People trying to get a look at the players as they head for the bus.

 Hikaru on the left, Kana in the middle and me on the right. I was crying cause the Eagles were losing so badly.