The morning was lazy”ish” on my behalf… I did not want ot get out of bed at all.. Too warm and nice. But “shoganai”. I showered and Sara has taken me to the station so that I can get to the soap bubble event that I promised bee to attend. Sara had to leave later in the day so I wanted us to go together and save her some extra trip , especially considering that it was raining, but she said that she needed some time to herself to get ready fro the day, so it made more sense for her to bring me to the station , go all the way back and then after her alone time go again to where she needed to go… She is just that kind of airy person)
Anyways I got to kitasenju after sometime.. it was raining, so I did not expect much from the event. But it turned out to be very nice!!! Very family like and nice.. truly bringing the community together) Lena didn’t come at all, and I guess was glad that I came… I was late for the concert but at least I showed up… I enjoyed seeing all the kids playing with the soap bubbles. And it made my mood much better.

various events

In the afternoon I got an email from Chris. He was asking me to come to nabe party. I agreed to hang out with CM so asked whether I could bring her along and he said it was ok. I met CM in harajuku and teo came a bit late on and we went shopping. This time I was spending too much money in Tokyo even though I was thinking that I should probably go into economy mode.. but somehow I ended up buying myself a watch-ring. I saw such rings in the US for the first time. But that time it seemed really pricy to me so I never got one. I could not find such watches in ua, but I knew that u can get one in jp, cause miyashiro –san had one) So this time I went and after some thinking I did buy it. It costs 1390jpy (about 150 uah) but as I rarely buy myself anything as a "momento", I thought it can be a present to myself with my first Bosch salary)))

In harajuku there were many black guys and I felt myself a center of attention XD My big butt is trully popular with black guys. Basically each one started talking to me and one guy was extremely persistent and even gave me his business card so that I can call him XD idrisu haruna, a manager at Hip Hop Shop (whatever kind of shop that is XD), so ladies, if you want to chat with a guy I can provide more details)))) then we separated from Teo, who did not seem pleased that she was not invited to the nabe party, cause she is used to being the center of attention I guess)

Anyways chris gave us direction how to get to his station (where I actually forgot my 100JPY umbrella in the restroom XD, but as it was too bothersome to go back for it and I do not like going around with umbrella I just gave up on it)When we got there Chris and Max were already waiting for us, SY was the only one missing and he was the one bringing all the food and stuff) When he came to the station it was obvious that he was surprised to see me, but oh well he would have to deal with it. And I came there not for him) we stopped by some stores to get more ingredients and went to Chris apartment. There we met his roommate of a kind – Christina, she gave up her work in Serbia, sold her apartment and car and came to Japan with no knowledge of language and no work! Oh and she is 34 years old, but feels herself as 22. I guess I am the other way around – I am 22 but feel myself as at least 35 XD… It was nice to see guys preparing food. And the girls sat around and watched) afterall the guy should know how to cook (and “Sorata” is my ideal type). Nabe was good an we had some fun) They were mostly speaking german so it was hard on me, cause I believe that currently my Japanese might be much better than my German XD, but Chris was very nice and supportive. We talked some more about the people we know, this time including SY. (oh.. if before I was addressing SY by his last name, now we are using first names XD and they actually call me Katya, which is nice to hear after all that Katanova-san) we had some drinks saying kanpai and they tought me that if when saying “cheers” you do not look into the eyes of the cheers-partner you will have seven years of bad sex XD So Chris made me do kanpai again looking into his eyes cause he is concerned about me XD

We also played some card games. It was basicly game of trust. There are 64 cards with 8 cards with one kind of animal on each – frog, rat, scorpion, fly, stinkbug, spider, cockroach and a bat. Players get cards and they start offering their cards to other player with face down stating the animal. The other player has two options:
1) to accept the card trusting it or not. If the guess was correct the first player has to take card back and lay it out in front of him with face up. If the second player guessed wrong, he gets the card. And now it is his turn to offer somebody a card.
2) Second option is to pass. You can look at the offered card and offer it to the third player confirming the animal or stating a new one. And than it’s up to the third palyer to guess or pass. Of corset ha last person who has not seen the card can only accept and make a guess.
The game is over when a person has collected 4 animals of one kind in front of him or he has no more cards to play with.
The game is pretty much the same as “believe u or not” that we play, but the animals make it more fun. As I was the youngest I started the round)
Max lost 3 times in a row! And I learnt some new German “ Max wird gefickt”… which roughly means that "Max was fucked"… SY also lost one time. But it was really interesting to see him outside office and his usual serious self XD. Also the game itself is interesting, to see how people are playing. Chris style is very fast and straightforward but with hidden attacks. SY risks a lot and goes all the way. Max just sucked at game in general XD CM was not really active, I guess cause all the attacks were concentrated against Max, SY and me) As for me – I am a logical type. I count) I counted cards on the table and the ones that I had in my hand to make my moves and judgments. One time I was close to losing but was able to survive due to such tactics and I think onlyChristina noticed that I do actually count cards, when others were playing based on instincts.

We were playing till late and after another round we heard some light knock on the door. Guess who can come to your house in the middle of the night – police) neighbors didn’t like us being noisy, so they called police XD I know when party is loud and trust me that was not the case, but as walls in japan are very thin I guess jap neighbors were not happy about us. Policeman was so confused to see the room full of foreigners and his first question was whether anyone speaks Japanese. SY went to handle the situation. Remember the fact that he doesn’t look like Japanese much so in the end policeman was the one to apologize for bothering us XD. How hilarious can that be. And during this time we realized that we are kind of running late for the last train. We had to run all the way to the station with SY who led the way. We were able to jump in the train the moment the door were closing… that was fun) Cm and I transferred at Shibuya, but the last train from shibuya to the station we needed has left some time ago and the very last train was going to the stop that is before our stop. Well, it was better than nothing. And CM seemed to know how to get from that station to work on foot and from work to dormitory as well. So at the end stop we asked for direction to our station. The lady told us it was 15 minutes walk... Actually it was more like 35-45 minutes walk. But the weather was nice so it didn’t trouble me much to walk)

When we got back I had a short chat with Axel (French intern in hr Yh office) about “little prince”. Yes… it’s about a children’s book, which I do not find to be all that childish! I’ve read it in Russian as I was a child and one famous part has made quite an impression on me. Conversation between fox and little prince. But I had no idea how it was translated into English, so when I had a chance I decided to reread the book. The quote goes like this “people have forgotten this truth. But you must not forget! We are responsible forever for what we’ve tamed!” So it is this “tamed” part was troubling me a lot…

Anyways I might have been selfish but I made CM stay up with me till 4am before we went to bed. Therefore I am sorry towards her for that.