Day 15: Surprise Takoyaki Party!

If you have read my last blog you know intended to rest this day but it turned into an adventure day of its own. It started out with me sleeping in after the exhausting day yesterday, and then I started doing laundry with my new air drying system (just a laundry line and some clips nothing fancy). It was a bit stressful because technically I had my first fire drill in Japan at 12:00 and I could only use one washer to get five separate loads done. It was also a little awakes broadcasting my laundry on the balcony for the world to see but you do what you can to save money. I had to improvise  a little but though but I managed to finish it all after the drill (which the sounds is almost as worse as the American one but a lot more chill as far as actually doing it) and just in time for the party! The welcome party was for all the students staying at MISH so it was a mix of ISP, UC, and Japanese students. They had a lot of food for us including fried chicken (I did say KFC was popular here), pizza, and sushi. I had everything but the pizza and honestly the friend chicken was very different but delicious at the same time. After some speeches from the staff we started a giant bingo game for tons so prizes they had. Now I will admit I am pretty lucky but I usually suck at Bingo (especially when they read the numbers in Japanese). To my surprise this time I actually won Bingo third when there was a hundred or so people in the room. I decided to get a Takoyaki maker! (I almost got this soft throw pillow but I decided to just buy it on my own later). After everyone had won prizes with Bingo we started a giant game of the Japanese version of Rock Paper Scissors to win prizes specifically from the staff. It was so much fun and I even got to use my Psychology to win a couple rounds (never winning the prizes though that’d be rude since I got such a good prize). After the prizes finished we were left to mingle. Talking with some friends and new people was great and I even managed to convince a small group people to work with me to try and make some Takoyaki tonight! I went with a ISP student named Zach who had already been in Japan for one semester to the store together to buy supplies and buy some stuff I needed in my room. My room continues to get homier as time goes by. Meanwhile shopping and trying to read the recipe and buy everything was so much more fun than I would have expected.  Once we got back to my room we started getting everything ready and the next thing you know there’s a small group of us in my room enjoying some of the best Takoyaki I’ve had so far!  Besides enjoying the food we also worked on our schedules for the week (I didn’t I had it done already but I loved helping). The Takoyaki was honestly so easy to make and I can’t wait to try and make it in the US when I get back, as well as a few more times here! Even though I ended up doing more than I though I still had a great day before I officially start classes the next day!