Nakano and Family - Oct 7th

Today I got a message asking if I wanted to go check out the shopping district around Nakano station. I headed out around noon, figuring I would walk through Tetsugakudou park to the other main street that leads to Nakano, since it's only about twice as far as Araiyakushi. I stopped by the same spot as the night before, and was amazed by the scene; it was as if there had been no storm. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Even the water level hadn't risen at all. Amazed but unfazed, I crossed the street and started my way through the park I turned at what I thought was the appropriate spot, but ended up getting lost in a maze of suburbia, and had to ask a fruit stand for directions. After wrestling with the map for a while, I finally found my bearings and made my way to the station, where I met up with Hans and Hilary.

We ducked into the Nakano Broadway mall and puttered around there for a while, stopping at a delicious bread store for some sweets. We moved up to the second, then third floor, which seems to be mainly reserved for toys of all sorts. Nestled amongst the toy stores was a fancy watch store selling rolexes and similarly expensive wrist-candy. Until today, I had never seen a watch that costs as much as a house.

As we climbed to the last inhabited level of the mall, I spotted a shirt that made me laugh out loud. I took a photo thinking that would be sufficient, but after walking around for a while, I found the shirt calling to me, summoning me to buy it. I knew that I would regret it if I didn't buy it, so I caved into the pressure and picked it up. All hail the colonel! My new assignment to myself is to find one of the thousands of KFCs with a statue of the late founder outside, beckoning to passers-by to come in for some dead fried bird. I must have a photo of myself in this shirt, with my arm around the "kenta-no-ojisan."

I headed home and met some of my extended host-family. Several cousins had gathered for the family dinner, and we all had a good time chatting about various subjects. Staying with a host family is like having non-stop listening and speaking practice; it's extremely good practice, but is terribly exhausting! It was Yumi (Haruto's mom) and one of my cousin's birthday, so we surprised them with some cake before the group dissolved for the night. Stuffed and very tired, I retired to my room.