My bestest weekend ever (II)

My pon du chocolat, you tombi!!

So yeah, after the tasty dinner that Aya’s mom prepared for us (Thank you so much Aya’s mommy~!!!), the 3 of us girls stayed up late again doing silly things and random chats like we always do. On Saturday morning, Yui was the first one to wake up, punctual and early bird person as she’s always been. For the record, I did hear the alarm, just didn’t pay too much attention to it, since I knew Yui will eventually wake us when she feels that we’ve slept too much. Then it was time to wake Aya up. Oh gosh~~ that did remind me of the good old UW times. “Aya, time to wake up~”, “Ayaa, okinasaiiii”, “AYA! Wake up~!”. Alright, we didn’t do that this time, but I always find it quite entertaining to wake Aya up. Our breakfast was another feast, with coffee, juice, variety of bread and salad ready on the table. In a way it’s good that I’m not living in Japan, else within 1 week, I’ll blow up like a popup-fish. We finished breakfast and got ready around 1030 am (or later?), and Yui was right, we ALWAYS take more time that we originally intend to. Oh well…

The outing of the day started from Kamakura station, which is really close to the main street of the city. I’ve also started the city tour with local city “sabire” butter cookie, in shapes of a dove. Needless to say, too yummy I regret now that I didn’t buy more.

Again, it was another pleasantly cool and sunny day, and there were already quite a few people in the streets enjoying the day like we did, in hopes to take advantage and contemplate the cherry blossoms widely spread around the city. In the middle of the main avenue there was a pedestrian walk that had 2 rows of cherry trees alongside the path, where everyone was walking, including us. At the end of the walk, there was the famous local temple (that I don’t know the name!! >__<), which was the place that we were heading.

Apparently, that Saturday was a good day for weddings, because there were 3 couples getting married that day in the old Japanese traditional way wearing kimonos. Being religious or not, I think it’s always nice to have God’s blessings on your special day, that’s why Yui and I kept on trying to persuade/brainwash Aya to have a Japanese wedding with Laurent as well. Since we’re joining 2 different cultures from 2 different countries, it’s the best occasion to have 2 weddings in different styles! I mean, this opportunity is really rare~! Aya, please have ceremonies to wear a white wedding dress AND a kimono, please~ because Yui and I want to wear the black sexy kimono as well! Hahahaha~

I liked this temple a lot. The place was huge, tons of greens, lakes, small bridges, and a huge plaza with FOOD VENDORS! We could smell the food from afar, before we even reached the temple: takoyakis, jagabatas, toriyakis, sweets… To be respectful to the Gods, we headed to the temple before we gave in to our cravings, yet we still stopped by each vendor to first check what was good for later.

The temple was up a hill, with a thousand-year old sacred tree resting at the bottom of the long stairways. After offering the proper regards to the Gods, we stopped by the souvenir stand where I got a small gift for a friend, in hopes to bring him luck since he’s starting a new life in a new place. I guess should have prayed for myself as well because we saw the fortune stand on the next window counter right after, and we all asked for our fortune. Both Aya and Yui got pretty nice fortunes; me, however, got the worst fortune. Ouchi. We immediately tied those papers onto the bamboos so I can get rid of that bad karma. Please God, don’t give me any bad luck!!! Take it away~~~

The bad luck fortune didn’t bother me for long tho, because we hit straight to the food stands, and that basically got us really distracted. For lunch: takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and jagabata (butter sautéed potatoes), found us a tranquil place to sit down and pigged out. I never knew that jagabatas were so good!! I wonder if that’s something feasible in a house kitchen… More touring and sightseeing around the temple and its garden before we hit the main street and continued out food feast again. Second part of lunch: taro-croque and honey ice cream. They were SO GOOD! And I regret for being so gluttonous, kept my eyes solely on the food, and forgot to take any picture of them!!! Sorry folks, cannot share my happiness with you this time.

Jagabata & Takoyaki~~

What’s good about Kamakura is that not only it has mountains and hillsides, but it is also close to the beach! And since the weather was so nice, it would be a waste if we didn’t stop by, and oh no, we cannot go to the beach empty handed. We picked up a donut each from Mr. Donuts (they were at 100yen each! Yui got a matcha fashioned, Aya got a pon du chocolat, and I got a churro), some drinks, and an exquisite small berry cake called “Nana” from a chic pastry store.

As we walk close to the beach, we could fee the breeze getting stronger, carrying the subtle salty scent of the sea, and we could also see a few birds flying on the air, crows, pigeons, other giant birds, maybe enjoying the day as much as we did. Too bad the water was still too cold to get in, so we sat down at a ramp, proceeded our fun. It was then, when the most hilarious thing happened.

Yui was busy cleaning her shoes from all the sand that she’d stepped in, I was chilling with apple/peach tea and contemplating the view, while Aya was very anxious to start with the dessert. She picked up the bag of donuts, took out her pon du chocolat, and suddenly, Yui and I heard a horrific cry from her. We turned our heads to where Aya was, and saw her jumping up from her seat, staring at her empty shaking hand while screaming: “My pon du chocolat!!!”. There it was. Better say, there it wasn’t. Aya’s pon du chocolat. It was gone, within split seconds. We rose our heads up where we saw a bunch of birds flying above us, cackling like mad. It wasn’t hard to figure out that one of the birds had stolen Aya’s donut at the speed of light. We looked around trying to find the little thief but it was pointless. That freaking bird must have flown far far away to finish that choco donut of Aya’s. Then again, Yui and I couldn’t seriously help Aya track her donut either way because we were cracking up from the whole incident. It was too hysterical to see Aya’s face in panic, hands shaking, and knowing that somewhere out there, some bird (or birds) is secretly celebrating by themselves because they successfully stole one entire donut out from a human’s hands.

Man, those birds are VILE! They honestly are! We have no doubt that they were watching us from the start, from the moment we stepped onto the beach with a bag of donuts, and they hid behind us, trying to catch the perfect timing to execute the burglary. But the most interesting thing is that it happened to Aya. For some reason, these are the things that would only happen to Aya. It was a LOL plus ROFL, literally. Not only for us (Yui was already tearing from all that laughter), but for other people that were next to us too. No wonder no one else had food with them! The girl sitting next to us had only a 6-pack but no food… Smart move. Someone should have warned us!! Poor Aya… We’ll get more donuts next time, ok?

To avoid the same thing happen to our precious cake Nana, we left the beach and went to a small park instead. Free from scary bird thieves. Needless to say, the cake was great. Although we did feel a bit funny and miserable having 3 girls with 3 spoons sharing a tiny cake. Hahahaha~~ We walked back to the station again to move my belongings to my next host of my Japan trip—Aya’s ojiichan’s place in Tokyo.

Aya’s grandpa is one of the coolest grandpa that I’ve ever seen. He’s 83 (??) years old, but still very healthy and super cheerful, it’s something in their family! Haha~ He bikes and does 300 sit ups EVERY day… How amazing is that for a person that age?! Ojiichan was really sweet in letting me stay at his place for the night and he even greeted us with more Japanese snacks! We had dangos (mochi balls) and sakura mochis (mochis with red bean paste) as our afternoon tea before we headed off to Shibuya, where we were meeting the old UW gang.

Shibuya was as crazy as it has always been portrayed, either in movies or tvs. There. Were. So. Many. People!! The intersections were extremely large, yet somehow, when the streetlights turn green, people can fill that empty space out like little ants charging towards sugar. Very scary. I never feared of getting lost except in Shibuya, when I felt the need of holding Aya and Yui’s hands. Junjun and Nobu were already waiting for us in Shibuya. We toured around the place really quickly and went to a game store to kill some time while waiting for the others to arrive. The game store was pretty cool, and we saw experts at the DJ machine and on the DDR. I want to call them nerds but they’re so good and so cool at it that I can only bow to them (~~ bow~~). We played Mario Carts (was so much fun!!!) and took pictures with the machines together~ YAY!! That makes me feel like high school again~~

Dinner was at an izakaya, and I was so happy that Hiroki, Asako, Yuka and Taro all joined us for the night! Too bad Dai was busy… Didn’t get a chance to meet with him this time =(

I had a blast over there~! And it was one of the best things that I can ask for now, being able to meet, hang out and relax with some good old friends. Years can pass, lives are different, maybe even people have changed, yet regardless of all these variables, once we all met, we could feel like the old times. Share our thoughts, share our dreams and lives, and share lots and lots of our silliness. Gatherings like such help me appreciate my own life so much more than I’ve ever thought of. It reminded me that I got friends out there who I can trust, share laughter and sadness, it reminded me of my past wonderful life at UW, and it also reminded me how lucky I am for being able to know them.

But like every other good old hang outs, it eventually came to an end. It felt GREAT to meet with them, after 4 years. Thank you all so much for meeting up with me!

Hontoni arigatou gozaimashita.

PS. Those who haven’t met up with old friends, I strongly recommend you do so. ^__^