７月３日（金）

After some study in the morning I met my old friend Rinko to hang out in Umeda. She and I ate お好み焼き (okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake-like food made from flour and cabbage). The fun thing about okonomiyaki is that you can mix in a variety of ingredients. For example vegetables, bacon, shrimp, octopus, whatever you want. On top you generally put mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce, which is kind of sweet and savory. My favorite style of okonomiyaki is Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. In Hiroshima-style, you also put in soba or udon noodles and an egg. Soba is best because it gets pleasantly crispy. Okonomiyaki might just be my favorite food, it's not really similar to other Japanese dishes, but it's super delicious!

 (pictures: me and Rinko with our okonomiyaki)

There's a huge mall at Osaka Station called Osaka Station City with a north tower and a south tower, plus there's another huge entertainment/shopping area Grand Front not far away. It's crazy. Rinko and I went shopping in the two towers a bit because I am trying to find 座布団 (zabuton, flat floor cushions for sitting at low tables). At home I have a short Korean tea table my uncle gave me as a gift, and I want to have cushions so that it is more comfortable to sit at. I also want a 枕 (makura, pillow) with sand or beads inside to make the lower part of the pillow firmer. These kind of pillows are meant for use with futons and somehow my back and neck always feel better sleeping on them. Found some zabuton but haven't decided whether or not to buy them, and no luck on the pillow yet.

 (picture: Vending machine drink I decided to try, Salt and Fruit?! It smells pretty strongly, quite sweet. Lychee flavor overwhelmed other flavors. Apparently a Thai recipe, according to the bottle.)

In the evening I came back and met one of my former English students at Masao's workplace. He's just a freshman in college now at Kansai Gaidai where I studied abroad, but I only come up to his shoulder! His English has gotten a lot better and we got to talk about his part time job at Uniqlo, a budget fashion Japanese clothing shop. This student of mine always liked fashion, so I think he is enjoying it.

Once I caught up with my student, Masao took me to kickboxing practice with him. Masao used to be a professional kickboxer, but due to a training injury in his lower back years ago he had to give up competing. I only practiced kickboxing over the summer two years ago in Japan with him, so I absolutely stink at it! Still, it was fun to practice with some of my old acquaintances from the training facility. They were patient reacquainting me with the training in Japanese and even sparred with me despite my lack of training.

Masao put me on the spot at the end of practice when everyone stood in a circle and the organizer talked about training next week, he told everyone it was my first time back in two years and they asked me to give the "final comment." Of course in Japan this is お疲れ様でした (otsukaresamadeshita, basically "good work today"), but being put on the spot with everyone looking at me I had no idea what I was supposed to say. My acquaintance who had been teaching me prompted me, but it was pretty embarrassing. That sort of cultural thing comes naturally to someone who has been living in Japan, but living in the United States for the last two years definitely fuzzied some things that would likely have come naturally before.

After practice I ate dinner at and bummed around Masao's workplace and used him and his employees to study for my test. They were also going over some English material so I got to reciprocate with English assistance. It's always nice to encourage a mutual exchange of knowledge. We also ate わらび餅 (warabimochi, small mochi balls with soybean powder poured on top) while we worked as dessert.

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)