Okazaki

I woke up before 7 this morning and couldn't sleep any longer. I don't feel too jetlagged though -- I guess it'll be worse coming home. It probably also helps that it's hot and sunny today and I walked around a lot this morning.

tenki wa (as for the weather), it's hot and humid, but doesn't actually feel any worse than NYC. I think it may be slightly more humid and not quite as hot, but really, at some point hot and sticky is just hot and sticky.

I walked to the school today and located a couple of other useful places, like the 24-hour convenience store, the Denny's (:P), and the 100 Yen store. Then I got lost for awhile in the aforementioned store, but did manage to buy an assortment of cute and useful items (sometimes both).

Okay, some pictures, then I gotta venture out again and attempt to find (and comprehend) the grocery store.

Some Yen. Why is everyone's money prettier than ours?



The view from my balcony.



The building I'm living in. It's pretty ugly. :D



A real live Japanese schoolgirl.



There are lots of people on bikes. I think I've seen almost as many cyclists as cars. I keep having to remind myself to walk on the LEFT. Even so, it's always startling to get passed on the right.



I found a little shrine just down the street.



It has two statues... of foxes, I think. They are wearing what looks like little aprons that someone made for them.



There are cute anime-looking characters on a lot of signs. Like this fax machine.



And the strange signage is not just English... here's some French.



The 24-hour convenience store. And more tiny, tiny cars.



Right next door is the Laundream.



A busy Okazaki street. Okazaki is a decent-sized city, around 350,000 people apparently. (Sorry for the over-exposed photo. I will remember to check my shutter speed next time no really.)



Hermitcrab! Why? Why not?



Bunch of good stuff from the 100 Yen store. Spicy love girl. Aww yeah.



More interesting socks.



So. Cute. I refrained from buying it though, too big to bring home in my luggage.



We produce for your enjoyable amenity life. (To be fair, I bet most of the stuff we get in the US with kanji printed on it is equally nonsensical.)



A lucky item. Just what I need!



I thank them too.



My new glass.



After extricating myself from the 100 Yen store, I hit up the Mini Stop for some lunch. Figuring out to eat was a gamble, since I couldn't read the packaging for anything. I ended up with a rice ball with some kind of sweet/spicy sauce in it. It was tasty.

SMAP!



Hentai in the convenience store? :D



Okay, time for grocery store adventure. Jaa mata!