Steps to a little shrine, I think it was just a normal Shinto shrine.
At the top of the stairs and at the entrance to the shrine. There's something burning in that thing, probably some kind of incense which is apparently good for your body or something, so a lot of people were trying to wave it onto themselves, even in their hair.
Right in front of the entrance (you can see these in the previous picture) are these slips of paper tied onto rope. When I asked what they were I was told they were fortunes, and I saw people writing stuff in them and tying it on.
Inside the shrine; I'm not sure if I was allowed to take a picture or not, but I did anyway, no disrespect to the gods. It was pretty :)
Outside the shrine (down the steps) was this family feeding tons of pigeons. A lot of them flew away by the time I took this picture. Later on they swooped right over my head as one flock, freaking me out.
The entrance to the actual shopping area. That's a Sri Lankan I met today and her Japanese is pretty darn good, I'm so jealous :)
Although it doesn't look it, it can get pretty crowded. There are just rows and rows of shops, kind of like an outlet mall but not really. There were also lots of international shops selling stuff from Peru, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Turkey, etc.
I was starving, so I got some okonomiyaki; it's best described as Japanese pancakes filled with cabbage and different sauces, so it's not sweet. It was very cheap too :)
Enjoying my okonomiyaki:
This guy was making green tea with this machine, it smelled so fresh and good.
Here's a closer look:
Right next to it was an ice-cream place. All my friends got vanilla to be safe, but this place also served green tea flavored ice-cream:
This is kind of like a green tea ice cream float; a very interesting taste to an American like me. I liked it :)
In the middle of a courtyard, this dude was doing tricks for a gathered audience. I came at the end of his performance so I didn't feel a need to toss him any money, although I felt sorry for him when he didn't get much :(
Japanese girls can get a littttttle carried away when it comes to nails....
After around 4 hours, we were all exhausted:
Around 6pm we decided to call it a day. It was also my dorm-mate's birthday today so I wanted to hurry back and celebrate with her. I even got her a gift from Osu (a nice top). When we got home, she was just leaving to get dinner and drink at a bar in celebration, so while we waited for her to come back, we entertained the other Japanese people at our dorm. These two showed them the American cha-cha slide lol.
Finally Rii-chan returned and we surprised her with cake, albeit a small and ordinary shortcake.
Feeding her Indian style :)
I passed out plastic spoons to everyone, and soon we were all digging in.
Here's all of us with the remnants of the cake. Afterwards I gave her my present, and she liked it (yay!)
After all the excitement, we sat down to play video games (this is seriously becoming a daily event in our dorm). I was crushed in Super Smash Brothers as usual, but dominated Mario kart, and I was playing with all guys! A great accomplishment I say.
I apologize if my posts are becoming increasingly boring, I'm getting lazier day by day and have started to simply caption all the pictures I take now. Gomennasai! (sorry!)
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