Originally published on 26 June 2006. This post os part of a series of “e-mails to home” from my first ever trip abroad to teach English in Japan!

Today we went yukata shopping! Mine’s very pretty, but you’ll have to wait till I wear it for the festival to see it! We didn’t try on the whole thing, just the robe part, so I didn’t get a picture. There are a lot of parts to a yukata or kimono! After shopping, we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. It was buffet, which is a blessing because you can see exactly what you’re getting (since the menu would be in Japanese!), but it’s a curse because it IS a buffet. The food was good and did taste Italian for the most part. The noodles still tasted Japanese, though (which I actually prefer).

They dropped us off back at our apartment, and we had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we wanted. It was raining, so I watched a movie on my computer and organized some things around the apartment. About 4:00 or so it had stopped raining, so I went to the closest train station and checked times for trains to Nara on Thursday, which is what I’ll be doing on this week’s day off!

It was still overcast, but I had my rain gear with me, so I rode around a while to look for a place to eat supper. I’d seen a nice sushi place earlier, and I wanted to find it and possibly eat there. When I found it and looked over a menu (in English!), but it was only 5, so I rode around for a while longer and went back about 5:45.

I was one of the only people there, and the only one at the sushi bar, so that was neat–personal service! I got lobster, cuttlefish, king crab, scallop, and black abalone. All but the scallop were new experiences, and they were VERY good! I oh-so-gracefully spilled my water all over everything mid-scallop (I’ll confess, I had just picked it up and was putting it back down so I could take a picture before I ate it. I knocked the water over with my chopsticks–clumsy foreigner), but I helped clean it up and kept eating. Nothing comes between me and my (very expensive) sushi!

So after that I went to Circle K for a riceball (the sushi was good, but definitely not enough to fill me up). I think the riceball had oysters in it. Interesting. When I got back to the apartment I put some pictures on my computer, e-mailed my family, and went to bed. Rainy days are exhausting! It’s rainy again today, but now I have some tea and oatmeal to enjoy from my family, so I can’t complain too much.

I was just thinking today, God knows just what you need, just when you need it. He makes sure you grow when you can handle it, and comforts you when you can’t. I miss y’all, and I appreciate all the prayers and e-mails more than I can say. Please pray for a sunny day on Thursday, if you don’t mind! I know rain is necessary and it IS rainy season, but I’m really wanting a pretty day to go to Nara! I’ll be looking for the Big Budda, tallest wooden building in the world, gardens–all outside.

Love y’all! Whit