Okonomiyakii!! mmmmmmm

On the 23rd Majo's host parents invited us to an okonomiyaki party (traditional Osaka dish) and all the Mexicans except one, Diana, went. It was soo much fun! Their house is so nice and quite big for a Japanese home. I was a little bit envious of Majo because her family is really cool and she has a lot of fun with them. They speak English and are learning Spanish, they've traveled a lot. I don't know I just liked them so much. It was really cool to because they let us call them otosan and okasan and they said that they felt like they had many children now and they liked it a lot.

Otosan is really cool! He's in his early 60s but he is very healthy, he bikes and exercises everyday. Okasan and otosan do taichi everyday and otosan also does kyudo (archery). We ate like there was no tomorrow and ended up with gigantic bellies. I had no regrets at the time except I ate too much for the next two days so I felt guilty haha. I've started to workout and jog almost everyday. We'll see what happens.

I really loved this day. I think it was the happiest day of my stay in Japan so far. It felt like a family and it made me hopeful to have this much fun with my own host family. I have more pictures from other things I've done so far but I'll post those later because I'm about to watch a movie with my okasan. Later.

Left: okasan, Marce, Jose Luis, Emmanuel (back), Christel, me, and otosan

mmmmm, looks tasty!

Okonomiyaki. They are made with a mix similar to pancake mix, except not sweet. They have beef, pork, or fish inside. On top you put mayo and this "Osaka sauce" plus this green condiment (i dont know what it was), and shredded dry fish.

After the okonomiyaki, okasan grilled some beef even though we told her we'd had enough. As good Mexicans, we ate what was given to us. She probably thinks we're pigs!

Mmmmm cake and grapes!!

Otosan giving us his kyudo demonstration.


Tomorrow I'm biking with my otosan and okasan to Osaka. I'm really excited but afraid at the same time because i think it'll be at least a 2 hour bike ride. We'll see how tired I get. Wish me luck!

Dia de la Independencia

So yesterday we went to Osaka because the Mexican consulate held an Independence Day festival. When I first got there I was a bit disappointed because it was pretty small and the people selling tacos, beer, and souvenirs were Japanese, some Mexicans were selling beer and tequila shots, but still. Also, when we got there there were some women dancing and yeah, they were Japanese. Anyway, at the end I REALLY enjoyed myself and I felt very happy.

I was actually surprised at the amount of Mexicans there, I mean, it wasn't really a lot, but it just made me happy to know they were there. Moreover, there were several Mexicans who married Japanese (usually Mexican women with Japanese men but I saw this Mexican guy with his Japanese wife and their children were beautiful, it just made me happy). They had a band fly from Mexico, they were student from a University in Cuernavaca, I think. They also had a mariachi and it was a lot of fun. The grito de independencia also made me very happy. It was nice to feel at home all the way over here.

The festival ended at 9pm so we went to dinner and the to Pure. I drank a lot and was happy. We didn't sleep, we stayed in Osaka till 8:30AM or so. We came back after breakfast. Yuji was with us the whole time and he helped and took care of us, he's such a nice man. But yeah, I got home around 9:30AM or so, showered and slept until 4:30PM. It was fun but I doubt I'll drink that much again. What messed me up was the last three tequila shots I drank. I drank them with friends and the bar tender (who was very attractive) but I think I'll pass on the shots next time. Maybe I've become a party girl?...NAH!! Anyway, here are the pictures and the videos.

Skybuilding (the big one) in downtown Osaka, that's where the festival was held.

At Skybuilding

Corona, it's the best, it's also in Japanese!!

uuuuuuhhh!

They weren't that good, disappointment! AND they were $4 each WHAT?!!

The band from La Salle

From left: Aruki (Yuji's friend, he was in Spain for a year. His neighbor now is a Mexican woman who married a Japanese man ^_^), me, Yuji, Sena, Maricela, Christell, and Diana

Beautiful flag

So true!

My taka-taka (it's what my friend Majo calls Japanese, hehe), Yuji

At Skybuilding they held an anime exhibition. Most of the art was a sexy and provocative and/or gay. I didn't mind it, the art is really cool. But I found these among all the art and I got very excited because I like Full Metal Panic. Mostly though because I know my brother loves it so I took the pics for him, I wasn't supposed to but I did it anyway, oops! The art ranged from $1,000-$7,000 freaking crazy!

Mariachi!!

Ay que linda! haha. Takako gave me that fan when we met : )

The fountain was really cool, the lights changed colors so it looked really pretty.

After the festival getting some food. The group was actually bigger but Majo wanted us to go to this fancy restaurant where her friend works. We weren't about to spend $50 on something that will come out of our bodies in a few days.

On our way home, it was really bright! But the weather is becoming beautiful it's not as hot anymore.

El grito de independencia. VIVA MEXICO!

this fountain was really pretty!

the soup was so hot! i had to take a picture of it!

Some pics

Just thought I'd post some pics of events in which I didn't have my camera. I took these pics from people's facebook. Enjoy. They're all mixed up because I haven't figured out the uploading very well. They're from the time we went to Kyoto, to the club (Pure) in Osaka, and to the fireworks.

This is when we went to Osaka, it was a very big group so we took a lot of space and were very loud.

Osaka

Kyoto. Women wearing Yukata

That's Andrea, he's Italian and he has a really cool accent. He's a very nice guy, he's the one who introduced me to Yuji

This is Paul, he's a nice guy and speaks really good Spanish

This is when we went to the fireworks, it was fun

Again, our trip to the club