In Which The Heat Began to Increase

On Friday, They had their first mid-term exam….and it went well? Anyway, afterwards they lounged around in the lobby of the dormitory in the first bit of real free time they’d had in while. And despite mild frustrations due to a certain computer’s lack of cooperation *types furiously* the rest of their morning and early afternoon went by quite relaxingly.

Then it was time for Katie, Jenny, and herself to set off on their bikes to the other side of Hikone to Bell Road: a place she and Katie had heard much about but hadn’t actually gone to visit because it always seemed like it was huge groups of people who were going (and lots of people on bikes is not her favorite way to explore. She much prefers being able to wonder about by herself~). So off they went to their destination that was about 30-35minutes away on bike. At midday. With the sun blazing down >.<  Not the best of their decisions…

After stopping off at Jenny’s home-stay so she could drop off her bag, the melting students limped down Bell Road on their bikes in search of sustenance (it was around 3pm by this point, and she and Katie, at least, hadn’t had anything since breakfast at 6:30am…). And lo and behold, they came upon a ramen shop!

Afterwards, even though they were stuffed, they couldn’t resist running across the road to a delightful looking cake shop with each delicious serving practically yelling “EAT ME”. If there was only one thing she ever took away from Japan (which isn’t true considering the state of her luggage..) it would be that Japanese cake shops mean serious business. And what you see when you look at a delectable little morsel with bright and beaming strawberries and pure white whipped cream on top of soft and golden cake, tastes even better.

After that, they decided to call it a day because it was just so hot (over 85 degrees at least, which might not sound very hot, but she considers 75 degrees to be getting to hot and doesn’t care for the sun…) and since she and Katie planned to go back to JCMU to watch the Friday night movie (this week was Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo!) the began to head back… and saw Josh!

Heh heh heh… just Joshin’ you….

So the dragged themselves back to JCMU, wrung themselves out in the bathroom and settled down in the lobby again to enjoy the movie that evidently only they were in attendance of.

The Student Coordinator, Iga-san, is a very sweet woman who is always willing to listen to any concerns people may have and to help them work out a solution. She organizes events for the students to take part in like setting up the projector every Friday for a movie on the big screen in the dorm lobby. But unfortunately, there seem to be very few students who actually have any interests at JCMU (maybe even in Japan as a whole…) other than being obnoxious and disrespectful. Whether that manifests itself in copious amounts of alcohol consumption whenever they aren’t required to be somewhere, being loud and inconsiderate in residential areas where even some faculty and staff live, or just having an attitude about every little nuance that isn’t going their way. And poor Iga-san tries so hard to make sure every one is having a good time, and they can’t even stop by one little event. This isn’t entirely a fair statement, because there are many students who attend the after school Cultural Activities on Tuesdays (this past weeks was sadou, or Tea Ceremony), but they can’t be bothered to do much else…

At any rate, after the movie they packed their things and hiked it back home (meaning= biked to Hikone station+made just in time for a really packed train+rode their bikes back to the Mabuchi residence) and were back in around a quarter past eight. They immediately showered and then didn’t stay up too much longer with Okaasan before they trudge up to their stifling room to relax and get some much needed sleep.