so today we woke up with the full intention of shopping hard in osaka, and shop we did. another communal shower in the morning, and i'm totally a pro now. the capsule kind of feels like home! we went to maman terrace for "breakfast" (it was 11 am and japanese people don't really eat breakfast anyway so this was an in between kind of thing) and it was sooo delicious. a 'one week plate' for 1300 yen with some kind of potato croquettes, veggies in peanut sauce, brown rice, pickled things, daikon, little salad & tea. seriously, so much food, so yummy. we ate up and headed out for a long day ahead.

we started out at LOFT which is like... well ikea kinda, but think -- knick knacks. really, really cool ones. six floors, and we spent more than two hours just going crazy over everything. i spent well over $50 on stationery, pens, pencils, pencil cases, stamps, lip gloss, nail polish and it was so worth it. for some reason, its just a lot of regular stuff but its so much cooler because its japanese. very minimalistic, nice colors, better in every possible way. i am going back for housewares before i leave!

then we met up with john & mika for a bit and walked through shinsaibashi covered streets. its like a mall indoors, but its also kind of outdoors? i suppose sunday is a major shopping day and it was totally packed out. good people watching! we looked into a lot of stores, but didn't actually browse because they're kind of weird. expensive, tiny and lots of clothes i would never actually wear but just like looking at because, well... its japanese. hit up uniqlo (even though its in nyc, total snooze) and got a shirt. john peaced out and then we went to choco cro for a snack. chocolate croissants to die for, delicious. talked about pirated tv from china and mika headed to the animal collective show (we thought about going, but $50? no thanks!) tesni and i went to muji and just freaked out over everything. it is also a bit like LOFT, but with all clothes and more home goods. incredible design in japan, i can't stop taking pictures of displays that i like here.

by this time, my 'dogs was barking'... i thought my feet were going to fall off. vans authentics don't necessarily make the best walking shoes, fyi. oh yeah, and i guess after browsing in a couple stores for several hours, it was dark out. we went to the big 100 yen store (japanese version of the dollar store but waaayyy cooler, again i think its because its japanese, therefore everything is cool) picked up some nice traditional fabrics and a fanta orange soda (i am addicted). after complaining and commiserating about our poor feet we headed back to the shin station to head to tesni's town. good thing we had each other and caught a fit of giggles, because we both wanted to end it all in front of the train when it finally came! several trains a car (tesni's car is insane, pictures to follow) and three hours later, we got to obama. (yeah she lives in a town called obama, its gotten major int'l press from the whole, you know, guy named obama) so now i'm here, its 1am and i have to wake up in six hours to go to her middle school tomorrow. she made a dvd of pictures i sent her so i can do a presentation of what's up with kelsey. should be interesting! but seriously, SO MUCH FUN. i can't wait to party with kids because i guess that has been one of my favorite things about japan so far... cute kids, cute outfits on girls, really nice design and well, i guess hanging out with tesni is ok too.

BUT -- i can't wait to see nicole on tuesday!!! and jordan on saturday!!!

overall, it is just a really nice feeling to see japan and understand what my friends are doing over here. to hang out with tesni and to meet her incredible friends and see what her day-to-day life is like is just so wonderful. japan is seriously super cool and i love it. that sounds so corny, but its true dude. i am super tired, even though jetlag hasn't really hit me yet (here's hoping my grandpa's magic NO JETLAG pills worked!) i guess it is 1 am here and i think i walked 500 miles today.

oh yeah, and i added about 300 pictures to flickr. check it out, stay busy and i will def report back tomorrow on my first day at a japanese school, its gonna be insane.