Ice Cream: My Best Friend

Today I as I was walking home from the local 7/11, I received the strangest 'What-The-Hell!?' stare since I have been in Japan from a father walking along infront of me with his son. I have had the mouth wide open gapes from people riding past me on bikes while I walk to school, but this was on a whole new level. It doesn't surprise me. I haven't showered for 24 hours, it's disgustingly humid and here I was waddling down the road with my skinny leg jeans, thongs and an obscenely brightly coloured yellow Astro Boy shirt on. Fashion faux pas, my bad.

The stare was worth it though. I arrived home with a tub of Häagen-Dazs Green Tea ice cream. Kind of expensive, but worth every cent. This is the nicest tasting ice cream ever. Well maybe not. It's not as sweet as chocolate or vanilla, but it's damn nice and very refreshing on a day like today.

The past week or so has been a bit hit and miss. On Sunday my friend Ayano visited me from Hyogo and we went shopping in Shijo-Kawaramachi and Teramachi. It was kind of fruitless. I saw heaps of stuff that I wanted but didn't want to part with money. I did end up buying a new (And rather gangster) short sleeved hoodie. It's for Summer so the material is really thin and nice. Ayano randomly bought a watch from one of the Department Stores we visited. After shopping and trying the limited Azuki Bean Frapuccino at Starbucks (So good, this is one we won't be seeing in Australia anytime soon), we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 at the cinema.

Our seats were so close to the screen, since all the other tickets had been bought. One of the downsides of reserved seating in theatres. The movie itself was mediocre. The series has become progressively worse as it goes along, and a fourth one is already being planned! Quit while you're ahead, I say. It was overly long too. By the end of the credits I just wanted to sleep. I'm being pretty negative though, it wasn't THAT bad. Entertaining at least, and funny at times.

On Thursday in PE we had track and field. Running 50 metre sprints for an hour first up. Japanese kids are good at everything. I guess because they are so active in club activities and do PE as a compulsory subject. I was outrun by most of the people there haha. But my times weren't too awful. After running we went to the gym to do Muscle Training on the equipment. It was tiring, but worth it. I reckon going to a gym at least once every week would make such a difference.

Tomorrow I'm attending a seminar-ish thing being held at a nearby University. It's being held for students in Kyoto and is about international exchange and the like. Should be interesting. Part of the deal is that I have to make a 7 minute speech about school life in my country and my experiences in Japan thus far. I am still in the process of making myself get down to writing said speech. It will be done eventually.

This week I started planning a trip to Tokyo with my friend Craig. The idea is for me to stay there with his host family for a week or so and at some point go to climb Mt Fuji with Samantha. Hopefully it all goes ahead! I coudln't pass up a chance to explore Tokyo properly, and climbing Fuji is a once in a lifetime kind of thing which poses so many photo ops.

Next week I have every day but Monday off school! Reason being that Tuesday-Friday is exam period for the other students. I don't take any exams, so it was either study in the school library or stay at home. Obviously I chose the latter. I'll use the time to do some more exploring around town and waste money on some more Summer-friendly clothes for my wardrobe.