Oh, the Randomness

Hey y'all!
This post is about to be extremely random, as a forewarning, for the following reasons: I gave up coffee (aka my life source) for the next month, we have had all-day practices for the past two weeks, and I've had a solo dance/sing-along session going on in my room for the past 2 hours. The aforementioned reasons have left me a little crazy and delirious. If you pictured me dancing around my room and had some sort of movie reel type-scene going on, bless your heart. That's exactly what's happening. Actually it's still happening; I'm just randomly typing sentences in between chorus breaks. So....let the randomness commence.
This last week was "Golden Week" in Japan. That would be a week long, nationwide holiday. EVERYBODY gets vacation all at the same time. Hectic. I loved Golden Week, though, because there were sales everywhere. Everything was on sale. Ice cream, bananas, napkins, books, clothes, candles, wine. You name it, it was on sale. This made going into the city for shopping complete Heaven. Fortunately for my summer wardrobe, but unfortunate for my bank account, an H&M opened up in the city. American sizes! We went for a second time because our translator didn't get to go with us the first time. Obviously, we had to support her and her shopping trip by going again....
It was really funny when we walked in, though. She was drinking tea when we walked in. She turned to both of us and said, "Can one of you hold my tea? I need to focus on the clothes." We gladly took her tea and let her go into shopping mode. When we met back up an hour later, however, she only had 2 items and we combined had about 20. Clearly she needed some hypnotizing or something to get fully focused.
I'm swearing off shopping from now on, too. At least in Japan. I think I've close to doubled my wardrobe since being here. Major problem.
After shopping, we were hungry and since it was Cinco de Mayo in the States still (we're a day ahead), we decided to find a place with some Hispanic drinks....then we found Outback Steakhouse. AMAAAAAZING. We got ourselves a Bloomin' Onion and some Alice Springs Chicken, and of course a margarita (or two). Our translator proved to be a bit of a lightweight, though. She struggled her way out of the restaurant, with us two absolutely dying of laughter beside her. Fortunately we knew the way back on the trains. Otherwise, we may have been a bit lost until we got some bread or fluids. Definitely one of the more hilarious moments while here in Japan.

The day before, we decided to go to the beach. The beach is my all-time favorite place in the world. Give me crashing waves and sand, and I'm the happiest girl in the world. I could literally sit there all day (and I probably would if it wasn't so damn unproductive). It was super pretty, but SUPER windy. Made tanning a little painful and ultimately pointless. We walked around the beach for a bit. We were, obviously, the only Americans. We were also the only ones in bathing suits. Everyone else: covered, head to toe. Upon questioning our translator about it, most Japanese people do not like getting tan. In fact, they think being as white as possible is the epitome of beauty. Seriously, they have bleach in some of their facial products. Makes buying any face wash an extremely frightening experience. So, all the people at the beach simply went to enjoy the atmosphere. This atmosphere was a mix between a wind storm and an obstacle course. Along the shoreline was the most concentrated washed up jellyfish collection I've ever seen. They were all just chillin out of the water, with their bubbly orbs threatening unsuspecting people's feet. But then I remembered, Finding Nemo. When they bounce off the tops of the jellyfish, but then Dori fails and gets stung. I wanted to test the Finding Nemo theory that the tops don't sting you, but didn't feel like having to get peed on for my gullibility.

Literally there were 100s of them along the shoreline!

There he is! Bottom right corner....Squirt!!!

Speaking of Finding Nemo......we got to see a giant turtle! I don't know the real name for them. Tortoise? Or is that the land one? Whatever. I saw him. And Squirt. He's by far my favorite character in that movie. But we didn't see them in the ocean. We went to the Aquarium. Would've been so much cooler to lie to you and say I saw a wild huge swimming turtle and his little Squirt look-a-like, but I'll just tell you the truth and let you down a little bit. Anyways, we got to see dolphins and seals. We watched one of the shows and one of the seals was hilarious. He straight up refused to do any of the tricks. Even with the person speaking in Japanese, I knew he was frustrated with his porpoise friend. He would throw something into the water and the seal would jump in and just swim right past it. Rebel. I wanted to give him a little high five, since that was the only trick that he actually accomplished on the night. All the dolphins did their tricks, though. Boring. Except one of them did flipper kick a ball out of the entire stadium. Not sure where it was really supposed to go, but I know it wasn't supposed to fly 50 yards up and above the stage. After the show, we went to the Penguin House. By far, the WORST smelling place I've ever been in. Dear Jesus, it was awful. Cute as a button but those little guys are disgusting.

We were "those tourists"
Took pictures with everything

At the Aquarium, they had all sorts of carnival type food. I resisted all the delicious fried bits of amazing. But I discovered an amazing healthy treat. Frozen pineapple. If you're a fan of pineapple, pop some of those guys in the freezer. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. Game changer, for sure.

Prior to our water fun day, we went to Pottery Row. Apparently the area that we're in is known for it's pottery. Who knew?! They literally have a street of shops that sells all kinds of handmade pottery and in each of these stores, you can make your own. They have spinning wheels and a teacher helps you throughout the entire process. I've already used these wheels before in one of my art classes, so I wasn't as reliant on the "sensei." I did forget, though, just how messy it can get. Hours later, I was still finding bits of clay in random parts of my body. It was a lot of fun, though. Just needed Patrick Swayze to come in for a Ghost reenactment.













Okay, if you've made it this far through all this randomness, congratulations.....and sorry.

Maybe next time, I'll be detoxed off of coffee and not so spastic in my thoughts (let's hope).
xoxo Jordan