Anways, so my Japanese dorm-mates invited me to eat with them during the lunch break between classes. It was my first time eating in the so called Green Area, kind of similar to the Oval at OSU (although the grass hurts to sit on here). One of them made a 'bento' for me of spaghetti. I can't remember if I explained or not what a bento is, but it's basically like a packed lunch that was originally made at home and brought, but in recent years you can also buy one at the convenience store or supermarket. Japanese food is all about appearance, so 'bento's are often quite pretty, colorful and cute, containing a variety of different foods.
The spaghetti she made was really good, and reminded me of the spaghetti my dad makes once a month for the homeless shelter back in the States. It was like a picnic so I took some pictures:
All the sauce and meat was on top so I had to mix it with the spaghetti:
The three of us:
Later that day I ran into my Korean dorm-mate, who had just bought this. Haagen-Dazs is popular here as well and just as expensive; the only difference is that as expected, they have unique flavors that you would only find in Japan. This is sweet potato flavor, actually quite popular here. My first impression was 'ew' I would never waste my money buying that, but when she offered me a taste, I was so curious I tried it. It was surprisingly good:
Here's us both enjoying the sweet potato ice-cream =P
Later that night I met some new Japanese people and we all decided to have dinner together. It ended up being the same Izakaya (the only Izakaya) I have been to yet, the one in Irinaka close to our dorm. We met up at Nanzan and took this picture on the second floor balcony of the R building (remember buildings at this university are named using the alphabet). The sky was beautiful and there was a lovely breeze :D
Us at the Izakaya; I was enjoying a nice lychee sparkling juice:
Torinosuke! Chicken over rice, with other greens and what not, plus a raw egg that I cracked into it. I think I've finally got used to that whole consumption of raw egg deal:
Enjoying my torinosuke:
These were potato wedges in cheese and something else Japanese I can't remember, but it was not too bad:
Here's the link to a video I took:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151080938751733
My friends ordered something (I forget the name) but it's like Russian Roulette except with food. There were like 7-8 takoyaki balls (octopus), but 2 of them are filled with wasabi and no one knows which ones. Hope you enjoy the video!
The next day I ate with my Japanese classmates during lunch break. Usually I, and all the other foreign exchange students eat at the main cafeteria closer to the classroom buildings, so this was my first time eating at the other cafeteria. I was the only non-Japanese person there, so I was getting a lot of stares haha. I had packed that Nabe that my friend cooked for me earlier. We sat on the balcony because it was nice out:
Later that night, Joe made us all a nice American dinner: Cheeseburgers! With lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and everything!
After dinner we all were going to the movie theatre for the first time, so we were all excited, especially because we were going to see the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie! For those of you that don't know, Rurouni Kenshin (also known as Samurai X) is an extremely popular 'manga/anime' [In brief, Japanese comics and cartoons, which are also extraordinarily popular not only in Japan but all over the world], and since I (and all my friends) found out it was being made into a live action movie way prior to coming to Japan, we had decided to watch it when we got here whatever the cost. Fortunately we discovered that later shows were cheaper, only 1200 yen compared to like 2000 yen. Also when we went it was literally the last day last show, so it wasn't crowded at all either, which meant we were able to get good seats (It's like in India where you have to book the seats when you're buying the tickets).
We were in Japan so obviously there were no English subtitles. But for me it was like watching a Bollywood movie in India with no subtitles--I could understand at least half of the dialogues, and the rest could be understood just from watching what was going on. (Since I had watched only a part of the anime almost 8 years ago, I didn't remember the story and some of the characters). Overall though it was excellent. I thought I had seen some pretty great sword fight scenes in my life before, but they were nothing compared to the fight choreography in this movie. It was incredible, way better than Star Wars and on a whole different level from Jackie Chan (and I still LOVE Jackie Chan). I think it's because they were role-playing as samurai, real Japanese feudal-era warriors who fought brutally and seriously, whereas most of Jackie Chan's movies involve epic comedy fighting. The acting was also pretty good; not only did all the main actors look just like the characters, they got their characters' personalities down really well. Also the guy who plays Rurouni Kenshin (below) is considered a total 'ikemen'=hottie, damn good looking guy, pretty boy, sexy, etc. So I could hear the girls I went with, squealing during the movie at how perfect he looked haha ("His lips! Omg!".....).
Got this off of Google images ;)
Us after the movie =D
My movie ticket stub, to commemorate that magnificent night:
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