May 3rd, Golden Week Begins・５月３日、ゴールデンウィークの始まり

Not much happened yesterday, essentially spent the day trying to find things to do. Spent the morning in the library on the internet taking care of things I missed since leaving the US. Made plans the night before to eat lunch at Kiwami with other exchange students and messaged Kaname about going as well, but all the exchange students other than Tristan and I couldn't go and Kaname wasn't responding so just the two of us went. The owner there remembered me from yesterday and gave me a really hard time about eating the spicy miso ramen ("Did it hurt going to the toilet?" etc haha), which was hilarious. While waiting for our food I got a call from Kaname; turns out he's in Kyushu and won't be back to Sapporo until early July, so there goes potential Golden Week plans to hang with his family and good times running around with him. Still, will get to see him for a few weeks at the end of my study abroad at least.

Post-Kiwami, Tristan and I sat around in his room for a while watching TV then went with Suzanne (another BSU exchange student) to introduce ourselves to one of the other exchange students in our apartment complex named Vanessa. Exchanged contact info, found out about a Golden Week tour thing today that we'll be leaving for in a few hours. It's led by one of the SU teachers and some Japanese students will be coming along, so that should be fun.

After introducing ourselves, Tristan and I went to Book-Off and this book/CD/anime stuff store, which are right next to each other and maybe a 10-minute walk from the apartment complex at most (if I was still into collecting stuff…oh boy). Tristan wanted some Doraemon manga for reading practice and I was looking for a book called "Modern Japanese History Told Through Souvenirs and Region-Specific Railroad Specialty Goods" (my rough translation of the title). Ended up just asking the store clerk, and they had what Tristan was looking for but not mine, which isn't surprising since the book I want was released not too long ago and Book-Off specializes in used goods (think Half-Price Books).

Next, we popped over to the book/anime/etc store and I spent maybe two minutes looking around the books section with no idea where to even begin, then eventually just asked a store clerk where it was. First one employee looked, then two, then they both came back and asked if it was alright if I had to wait a while, then three employees were looking, then four, then the store manager…turns out their computer said they had one copy so they had at least half of the staff digging around to find it. I spent maybe 10 minutes waiting and watching this flurry of uniformed Japanese people frantically digging through shelves, before finally one of the original two told me that even though the computer said they had one they couldn't find it, so I asked her if it could be ordered. It could, although she warned me it would be a while since it's Golden Week. Went ahead and put in an order, should be here in 7-10 days. So yeah, that was an adventure haha

After fun shopping we got some groceries, went back to our own rooms at the apartment complex and I just watched TV and fought with my insides because the spicy miso ramen finally got the best of me >.>

Woke up at 5:30 this morning - internal clock is still a bit off - and ran to 7-11 to buy breakfast and try to withdraw from their ATM, which didn't work (Golden Week…). Heading to eat lunch at Kiwami in a couple hours, will NOT be getting the spicy stuff this time. Save that for tomorrow :P

昨日は本当に何もなくて、結局一日中やる事を探してた（笑
朝は図書館でネットのいつもやる事をキャッチアップした。前の夜、他の留学生ときわみで昼食を食べる予定を作って、かなめも誘ったんだけどトリスタン以外の留学生が行けなくてかなめからも返事が来なくて、結局トリスタンと僕だけが行った。着いたらオーナーさんが僕の事を覚えてくれて、辛味噌の話で結構盛り上がって僕を突っ込んだりしてすごく面白かった。（トイレ痛くなかった？、腹大丈夫？とか笑）　食事を待ってた途中にかなめから電話が来て、今九州にいるらしくて７月の最初頃ぐらいまで札幌に戻らないっていう話。ゴールデンウィークの作りたかった予定もかなめとの楽しみにしてた時間も急になくなって、ちょっとがっかりした。でも留学の最後の３週間ぐらいはかなめと遊べる。

その後、トリスタンのアパートでちょっとテレビ見てからスザーンと会って３人でバネッサという他の留学生と挨拶しに行った。連絡先を交換して、今日ゴールデンウィークツアーみたいなのも分かった。後３時間でそのツアーに行くんだけど、札大の先生がガイドで４人ぐらいの日本人の生徒も行くらしくて楽しそう。

それから、トリスタンとブックオフ、本やCDやアニメグッズの店に行った。トリスタンはドラえもんの漫画が欲しくて、僕は「おみやげと鉄道名物で語る日本近代史」という本が欲しいからだった。ブックオフで店員さんに聞いて、トリスタンの欲しい漫画があったが僕の本は結構最近発売になったので中古の店ならなさそうでその結果は予想してた。それから、アニメなどの店に行ってちょっとだけ探し方分からなく本を見たりしてから結局店員さんに聞いてみて、まず二人が探してくれて、時間がちょっとたってから「時間は大丈夫ですか」って聞かれて、それから３人になって４人も、店長さんもすごく必死に探しまわって、結局最初の二人の女子店員さんに１こがあるはずだけど見つけられなくて申し訳ないっていう。注文の方を聞いてみたら出来るっていう事だったので、ゴールデンウィークで時間がかかると注意されて結局注文した。後７日間か１０日間ぐらいで届くらしい。

それからちょっと食べ物や食材を買ってからアパートに戻って、テレビ見ながら辛味噌で腹の様子がヒドくてトイレに結構いたりw、それから就眠。

今日はまた時差ぼけのせいか早起き、セブンイレブンで朝ご飯を買ってお金を下ろして見て（ゴールデンウィークでやっぱり出来なかった）から今図書館でまたネットで遊んでる。後一時間できわみ（辛味噌じゃなくて普通の味噌ラーメンで笑）、それからゴールデンウィークツアー。では。