Chi went to a setsumeikai and then went to hang out with her friends Natsumi and Kiyomi today.

I went to play Go again in Kawagoe.

今日　kyou - today
友達　tomodachi - friend / friends

Yesterday Chi and I hung out with Natsumi. We went to the Denny's that Chi and I first met at at about this time last year.

At first I tried to go to a Go salon near there (Ikebukuro), but they said that if my Japanese is not fluent, I can't play. :(

I had a good time with Chi and Natsumi nonetheless. :)

日本語 nihongo - Japanese
ぺらぺら perapera - Fluent
しゃべれる　shabereru - Able to speak

Today Chi and her mom went to see Chi's grandpa. He seems to be getting better, slowly :). Today he was moved to a different hospital.

I went to Kawagoe to play Go. It was all old men and one old lady. It was hard to talk to them, but I had a great time.

After I got back home Chi's mom took us out to eat ramen. Yummy :)

It's Thursday morning here now.

The day before yesterday I gave Chi a ring for our sixth mensiversary, then left to hang out with my friend Yutaka. We went to a famous park, ate some ramen, played some pachinko, then went to his house to talk to his girlfriend and play some ps2. It was a lot of fun.

Pachinko is a kind of legal gambling here in Japan. There are pachinko parlors everywhere. You can't walk far without finding one. I've been wanting to try it for a long time now. Yutaka taught me how to play it.

It's kind of a mix between pinball and slots. First you buy a bunch of pinballs. Then you fire balls into the machine at whatever speed you desire. Those balls then trickle down through a bunch of nails. Your objective is to get a ball into a little hole near the bottom. If you get a ball into the hole, then you're able to try your luck at the slots. If you win the slots (any three numbers in a row), then for a few minutes afterwards, for every pinball you get into the hole at the bottom, you win more pinballs. It's kind of fun, but pure luck. You really have no control whatsoever of the outcome. It also seems like it's very unlikely that you'll win any money.

Lots of people lose lots of money on Pachinko. I think it's one of the main reasons why Japanese people commit suicide all the time.

Yesterday Chi went to tutor Ami. I went shopping with Chi's mom.

Today I'm going to go to a Go salon in Kawagoe to play Go. Chi and Chi's mom went to the hospital to see Chi's grandpa.

Today Katsuo (Chi's step-dad-figure) was fired from the company he's been working for for 30 years.

The other day when he treated us to yakiniku he drank a lot of beer. Then later that night after we went home he hit someone with his car on his way home. The person he hit was ok. One of his car's headlights was broken.

He works for Honda. I guess at Honda, because it's a car company, if you get drunk, drive, and get into an accident you will be immediately fired.

Poor Katsuo. I wish I could do something to help him.

I didn't do anything too special today. Chi's mom bought me some food from McDonald's

Today Chi went to take an English test called the eiken. I went to hang out with Sawa and U-. We went to a large game center called Round1 to go bowling.

To get our shoes we had to pull them out of locker-type machines lined up along the wall. My shoe size (28cm) was not an option. The sizes only went up to 27.5. I guess my feet are bigger than the average Japanese's :(. So we had to ask a staff member for a larger size.

I was up first. Before I could bowl my first ball, the whole room went dark and red lights started flashing alongside the lane. At Round1 they have a game where, during this period, everyone bowling finishes their frame and if the next person is able to get a strike, you win a picture and frame. I hadn't yet bowled, so it was up to me to score the strike.

I got a strike! Yay! :)

I got a strike again my 2nd frame, and then a turkey later on. So a total of 5 strikes. Even though 5/10 frames were strikes, my score only hit 130. U- got 100 and Sawa got 120. During the 2nd game, U- taught me how to spin the ball like he does. He's very good at getting his ball to spin and go where he wants it to. I tried it a lot, but mostly got gutters. I need to practice it a lot more. I don't remember the scores of the 2nd game very well, but I think U- got 120 or so and Sawa got 140. I got 80.

On the 3rd game I scored a 92. Sawa got 80 and U- got 160. My scores were low, but I got lots of strikes. 10/30 frames were strikes. I guess I was getting gutters right after my strikes. Haha.

As far as differences go between America and Japan, it seems mostly the same. One thing I did notice is that the floors (or shoes) here are much slipperier than the ones in America. I was slipping quite a bit. I saw other people slipping a lot too. It also seemed like the pins here are lighter than the ones in America (easier to knock over), but that could just be my imagination. Oh, also, it's more expensive than bowling in the states (Like everything else). It costs about $12 per game per person.

Everything here seems to cost about 3-4x as much as in the states. Food, Clothes, Entertainment, etc.

After we finished bowling and payed for our games, the cashier gave us some coins to use in the arcade. So we played some arcade games before leaving.

Then we went to the shabushabu restaurant where Chi was working. I went there last year too. We ordered the all-you-can-eat option (About $35 per person). At shabushabu restaurants you order vegetables and meats and then cook them on the table in a pot of broth. Similar to fondue. We picked on Chi a lot and I talked to Takuto (someone who works there who I met last year) for a bit. It was fun and delicious.

Sawa and U- went home. Chi is going to an izakaya and is going to stay up all night drinking with her friends Kenji and Nozomi. I came home to sleep.

Yesterday Chi and I went to hang out with her friends from her university. Natsumi, Kiyomi, and Rikako. We went to an izakaya to eat and talk. Fun fun fun!

Today me, Chi, and Chi's mom went to see a professional handball game. I've never seen a handball game before today. It looks like fun. I want to try it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_handball

After that we went out to eat yakiniku again with Chi's step-dad-figure. Delicious, as usual :). He treated again. This time ~$275.

After that we went to the same karaoke bar that we went to last week. It was even more fun this time. Even shokora (Chi's dog) sang a song. I recorded a few videos which I'll upload to my YouTube later :)