library and my host mom's generosity

2/6/10 room, post shower- We ate lunch (udon!! :d) at lightning speed and left for what I found out was actually a library where the class was to be held. It was for adults who don’t know how to use computers. I sat in the library section and did homework for three hours and for the last 10 minutes or so I looked at children’s books. I picked a Winnie the Pooh (Pooh san) book and a book about a cat. I figured they wouldn’t have much kanji so maybe I can read them right?

LIES!!!! Oh sure, they didn’t have much kanji but I just didn’t know the vocabulary they were using! I didn’t have a dictionary with me but I would have had to look up almost every other word on every page!! It is times like these that I feel really discouraged. :(

After the class was over my host mom and I went shopping. Before we went into the grocery section of the shopping center my host mom took us to a bakery shop. She said I could pick out one thing and one drink. She always buys me food!!!!! :D :D :D :D That was enough to cheer me up and I painstakingly looked at all of the options and selected the second largest yummy looking bread. (I wanted the biggest one but I was trying to control myself a little.) I was really hungry of course and of course I got milk to go with my yummy bread. :d

My host mom got coffee and a raisin bun. We each had a little of the other’s bread. It was scrumptious!! On the way out of the bread shop we passed a stand selling TAKOYAKI!!!!! :D :D :D Without me even saying anything my host mom said she’d buy us some!! In a previous entry I talked about wanted to try octopus balls. I said how my host mom had thus far served me many of the foods I have been wanting to eat. And once again she came through!! She’s spooky. She handed the bag of takoyaki to me and we went to the grocery section.

BUT she wasn’t done yet. On the way into the grocery store there was a stand selling mochi sweets. My host mom stopped at the stand and pointed out the strawberry ones. “Don't they look delicious??” I gurgled some half intelligible response because I was too preoccupied looking at the dozens of AMAZING looking mochi cakes. Mochi is made of rice paste and I LOVE IT!! They ALL looked delicious and I definitely wanted to buy one of each (I had left my wallet in the car for good reason. I can’t go into a food place without taking precautions you know.)

One particular cake was catching my eye. It was clearly a green tea flavored mochi. I love green tea flavored anything, and I love mochi. The clerk gave my host mom and I a free sample of the peanut powdered one. It was delicious but I wanted her to offer the green tea one next. I think there was some kind of filling inside the green tea one. I wanted it to be azuki (red bean paste). If you put matcha (green tea powder), mochi, and red beans together I lose my mind. Xd XD X3 It’s like the triple threat of taste bud euphoria for me.

My host mom bought us the strawberry kind, which hey looked delicious too. I still think if we had stood there looking indecisive a little longer the lady would have offered another sample… ah well. We put the mochi in the bag with the takoyaki and finally did the grocery shopping.

Once home we ate the takoyaki. It was so good! On the inside of each ball was a section of tentacle with the suction cups on it and everything!! That’s one more dream come true for me. I remember seeing takoyaki in an episode of an anime (Medabots) when I was little and ever since that day I have wanted to try it. YES! Scratch it off the list!

I brought in the laundry and poked around until 6 when I helped my host mom with dinner. After dinner we made plans for tomorrow, which is going to be a busy day. Gotta do homework! Gotta read my book! Good thing it’s a break all next week from classes. (21:51)