ok so now i have been in japan for over 24 hours and i think i've got it together now... in fact, some of the streets in osaka look familiar! we are staying our second night in capsule hotel-asahiplaza in shinsaibashi. i told tesni i think i could live in a capsule and she thinks i'm crazy, but seriously... very nice. all the amenities you could ever need before/after sleep. a little tv, am/fm radio, air conditioning, a mirror, etc. very nice. (i said 'very nice' twice in one sentence, which basically explains my whole method of communication here so far... all smiling, nodding and mmm) so capsule life is what's up, love it.

this morning we woke up super early and i got to experience my first japanese communal shower. it was 6 am, but i was half asleep and didn't have my glasses on so it was nothing special. i figured, if i can't really see anyone else, maybe they can't see me either. then we took the subway to meet mika (tesni's wonderful friend who is a JET in osaka) and head to nagoya for this uhh, spring fertility festival. basically, a penis festival. phalli everywhere. and tons of american tourists giggling while the japanese people throw rice and money at the shrines to pray for a healthy baby to come fast. we ate our share of festival food, super delicious, and look around. we had a couple groups of young girls come up to us and just start saying HI HI HI... and we would be like, oh hi and they would say like, its nice! and we would ask how old they were... 10. 11. it was really sweet. and one just came up to me and it like, cute. i was stoked. it seemed like every JET from tesni's prefecture was there so i met a lot of people and took tons of pictures of cute little kids. i had little to no interest in participating in the ha-ha-ohmygod-its-a-penis thing, but it was still good to experience one of japan's festivals. tesni said her neighbors say there is a festival in japan every day of the year!

after we'd had enough of the miscellaneous penis and vagina candies, we decided to head back into nagoya center to see an art show of a friend of tesni's from RISD. after we looked at the art and couldn't figure out which was shinya's, she called him and he said he would be at the museum in 30 mins. he showed up in no time and we got to see his art which was very nice. he said we should go get some coffee, food or something... and so we walked and walked for a long time, but somehow walking is perfect. i get to see a lot of people and new sights. well, everything is new! but it makes for good sightseeing and people watching. we went into a couple of stores and finally found a spot that would have to do since we were all super hungry. we sat traditional japanese style on an elevated platform and had shinya order us something w/out meat or egg or... whatever ended up coming. and who knows what it was... some soba noodles in some broth with some machi (pounded rice) which is like... sticky and like the inside of a mozzarella cheese stick. tesni said old people in japan often go to the emergency room for getting too much machi stuck in their throat! ahh! the meal was so-so, but the company was so good. shinya made the three of us laugh for hours... liana, he sends mad love your way!! after dinner we wanted to do ピｃツレ or, picture booth things. we did it last night, but we wanted ones with shinya, so funny. i think i could spend an entire day just taking picture booths! after that, we decided we should probs head home since the shinkasen takes an hour back to osaka... tesni and i just got off the subway a bit ago and went to the convenience store for some green tea ice cream and to check out the skater dudes. its times like this when i really wish i had freeze frame so i could check out the teenage girls outfits w/out looking like a creep, but its cool because they stare back.

ok, well there is more. i wish i could upload these pictures to blogger, but its not working for some reason. i'm going to try and upload them to flickr? more tomorrow maybe... tesni and i are gonna shop like crazee... i haven't even stepped into a store where i would (or should i say COULD) actually buy anything, so it should be interesting to see how much money i can blow on stationery and pens. i guess i have already blown through some cash just buying random drinks, candy, rice balls and what not. i told tesni i want to spend an hour just looking through everything at the convenience stores because it all looks so weird! and probably delicious!

oops its almost midnight on saturday, time for bed SEE YA!