Day 16 | Book market, Shopping Center & Purikura machines

On the 16th day and the last before the camp (they said) we decided to go out for the lunch to one of the big shopping centre and later spent the rest of the day together at home. It was also the day and the night when it was expected the typhoon would hit the island of Shikoku and we were on the edge of the circle on its path to the island.

Going to the Book market alone

After having breakfast I decided to use the nice weather (while it still existed) and the opportunity to take a ride on the bike again. There was this Book store I wanted to visit in peace and quiet to find some material, some children picture books in order to learn Japanese later. I went to the office and ask some of the colleagues there for the key because parents-architects were not at home until a bit later.

It took me about 10 minutes to find the place as I enjoyed the slow ride and turning my head left and right all the time so I could not miss anything. This time there might have been a bit more people on the streets and I did not feel as lonely as the day before. I entered the parking lot (as you can see above) and left the bike next to the doors. Took the key from the locker and went in.

I greeted the working staff, two or three persons who helped the customers and were going around all the time. The first thing you see are the action figures of Dragon Ball Z characters. I was tempted to buy one but decided to save money and space in the suitcase for something else. At first I did not ask for the help and I guessed the guys here spoke no English (though I already got used to it and tried my best in Japanese). I went to the same book shelves as I did the first time with my second host family and started searching for the good looking and affordable children book. There was a part with the recycled books which was way cheaper than the rest. I have to mention as well that I found the recycled books (and books in general maybe) a lot cheaper than in Croatia. At first it was a shock for me and I tried to use the calculator as I did not believe my eyes.

I found a few illustrated alphabets and a few nice stories but still wanted to know if there were more parts about learning material, ideally anything that would have a bit of English in it or any other language. I also asked for the dictionary. At first we did not understand each other and I had to type fast the words in the mobile dictionary until the guy understood me. This was also one of my favourite parts there - putting myself into a situation of having to ask and survive on my own.

I bought 2-3 illustrated children books for a very affordable prices and let the shop. I decided to wait with intensive reading and learning until I get back home. Though I could not help myself not to read them at home when we had nothing else to do. It was still difficult for me (now I can read in Hiragana with minor problems). I went back home through the big valley in the centre (with the huge shopping centre) and followed the street until reached the familiar spot - the traditional Japanese house, and within several minutes came back home.

I am not sure whether my host sister was in music school that day, spent the whole day with us or came somewhat earlier home but when whole family was together we decided to go to another city to visit one shopping centre. My host family wanted to buy some presents for my family in Croatia and also to have a lunch there. What happened there turned to be pretty unexpected and I had lots of fun. Read further to find out!

Shopping centre, lunch and the "purikura"

It was now the afternoon and the weather started to change rapidly. The relatively sunny morning with its rays through the holes between the clouds and the sky had been now turning a bit darker and gray. Do not remember the typhoon was expected to land on Shikoku island tonight! We got into the car and left Gobo.

I have no idea where we had actually gone to, it was not some city as we visited non. The centre was outside some place (maybe we went to Wakayama, that first comes to my mind and it is not that far away) and it took us maybe less than an hour to get there by using the highway. As all shopping malls this one was also huge with a big parking lot and garages. I noticed some familiar names such as Zara, Bershka, etc. on the building which felt very strange at first and unreal but then again they are all international companies and are everywhere.

As soon as we left the car tiny rain started... and did not stop until the next day. We went down the escalator and I was looking at the big size advertisement posters on the walls. All of the faces wearing some well-known brands were from the West. I expected to see in Japan some Japanese people (or models) representing them but apparently when talking about fashion it is not the case.

Shopping, lunch again and music in the restroom

And voila! Inside the shopping centre. I usually hate going to them and along with my dad try to find something as soon as possible, without much complications, and leave it. Here, however, I had lots of fun because I entered it in Japan.

We went around randomly and were trying to find some shops that were not ultra expensive but rather offered a diverse range of products. We went upstairs to the second floor. Again I saw a long row of the popular international brands which made me feel like walking around Arena Centre in Zagreb. But surrounded with the Japanese.

There are a few things that also made me so much fun and I wanted to check it out while still being there. Firstly, I had again the luxury of having my eyes above the others' heads. Every time I went to a shopping centre or any market in Gobo or here I felt like Gulliver. The second thing was the size of the clothing. I wanted to see what are the biggest sizes and how do they correspond to those in Europe (in Croatia respectively, since even in Europe there can be lots of differences). In reality I found both sizes that do not mean the same as the same number in Croatia (or the letters M, L, S, XL... ). There were the others t-shirts that perfectly matched the sizes at home, maybe a bit smaller but okay. While going around one shop with t-shirts I found a t-shirt with Son-Goku and they even had a discount to buy 2+1 for the cheaper price so we made a combination. My sister was not fond of the idea of not buying one more Goku shirt for her. I was not sure how much money I was going to be left with and more problematic - the space in the bag. Though later during the camp visit to Miyajima Sanctuary I bought a shirt for everyone from the family so no one had any reason to complain. I can always ask my friends there now to buy and send me a shirt if needed. Right now I am wearing the same shirt while writing this.

There were some kitschy places with a totally weird offers such as coloured plastic heads of the rabbit on the wall. I could not help myself but think "what the duck? ".

Second lunch break and the problematic restroom

We decided to have a break from discovering stores and sit down at one restaurant. The place looked more or less the same like in the West. There were several cafes and restaurants and between them in the middle lots of places to sit, often divided by mini walls.

Mom Sachiyo and Sumire suggest going to one bar that was selling pancakes and cakes made with tons of fruit and cream. The name of it is Hawaiian Pancake Factory. It looked heavenly delicious and I did not refuse the offer. We waited about 5 minutes as there were lots of people waiting in the line for it. And it was really worth waiting! They ordered for me a big pile of pancakes and strawberries with a large amount of cream. Man, that totally "killed" me and made you feel like falling asleep instantly. Makes me make one right now, if I had the ingredients. But wait, once we ordered the food we had to wait up to 7-10 minutes. It seemed to be very long but they took lots of orders. Now here comes the new part for me!

We were given a small device which seemed to be like a walkie-talkie but instead of speaking there was a little light bulb that changed its color once they prepared our food and gave us a signal to pick it up. I do not remember seeing this kind of ordering and waiting for the food anywhere earlier in my life. Sumire´s dessert was done first and then finally the signal for mom Sachiyo and me appeared. I went to pick up the food and "arigatou gozaimasu"-ed the cooks. For the next 15 minutes I tried to eat and enjoy slowly the food. I also had to eat slowly as we had something for lunch at home and this was a bonus. I felt so satisfied that would not matter sleeping on the floor.

During the conversations we talked about random stuff and one thing that always made me laugh (nothing bad of course! ) was trying to explain something in English, especially if it was a complicated thing and had to be simplified, I would ask them in English "So..do you understand me? " and they would reply with "Yes. " but I doubted it after following their reactions on the face. Then I would switch to the same Japanese "Wakaru? " - "Iie. " (You get me? - No. ).

When the higher force forced me to look for the restroom I had unexpected problems I was feared of since the first day of arriving to Japan. The possibility that I would not know how to use the toilet. Precisely, that there was going to be everything in Japanese only and putting me then into a situation of "let´s see what this button does... ". A friend of mine who went to Japan few years earlier said she had accidentally pressed the fire alarm button and the firemen broke in. I did not want to do the same. Eventually I found the "flush" hidden a bit behind but prior to that had huge problems and was pressing random buttons I thought should work. I also played the music and everyone heard it was coming from my cabin. The worrying part was that it did not want to stop, regardless of the buttons. I just ran out and hoped it would stop soon (and it did).

Time for fun with "purikura"

After lunch and finding some shop where we bought the presents (thank you once again if you are reading this! ) for my family mom Sachiyo said she was going to go a bit around to look for her own things and meanwhile Sumire and I can go around.

Now, I had no idea where we were going to but Sumire said we can go to those game centres within the mall and spend time playing there. I usually avoided this places as you can become addicted easily but now was the special occasion.

We came to the place that could be called Fun Factory and it had probably a hundred of gaming machines, consoles, slots and similar where you could play alone or with friends. Next to this centre was the cinema. I was curious what it looked liked and went there. Maybe at first I was surprised to see lots of anime posters but then remembered that Shrek, Madagascar, Minions and the others are Western anime. The cinemas look pretty much as same as ours.

Back to our "Fun factory" place. Sumire led me to one machine and before I entered it I did not notice the sign in front of it. I just saw lots of pictures of the girls on the exterior and was a bit confused. But Yolo! We left our bags on the floor and she told me to get prepared for about 5-6 photographs in the row.

After making silly faces and getting our photos visible on the screen I realised what we were about to do. Oh, I never thought I was going to do this strange thing with turning your face into something else during my life, the Japanese style! There were tons of options to edit the photographs, the screen was sensitive to touch so I was just experimenting by pressing every button I saw. If I did not understand what to do or what was written Sumire jumped in to help me. After being done with everything we got two papers printed with the edited pictures. My own purikura! It was pretty much fun. And I was not able to recognise myself... though there were two of us.

After being done with purikura we went to search for mom Sachiyo at the other side of the centre. As soon as we found each other and had all the things we needed bought we headed to the exit and our car. It had been still raining a little bit but nothing strong. We were on the road back home again and I felt a bit sleepy.

Packing for the camp and activities in the evening

The day 16th of July was supposed to be my last day with a host family and on the other day we should have been gone to Osaka and leave me there for more than 10 days in the youth camp before I would return 2-3 days before the flight to Gobo. But as you can see I used "supposed" there...because of the typhoon the roads were closed and under the water, including both the highway and the railway.

I still did not know whether we were able to go tomorrow or not, I just listened to the news on the TV and potential problems that might happen as told by my host parents. After packing more or less everything I decided to continue on finishing my presentation of Croatia. To be honest, I finished it during the night before my turn in the morning. But it paid off and was better than expected.

I continued playing piano with Sumire and shared more of the tips had (and yet never follow them myself). She showed me some Japanese piano sheet and it sounded good.

After having dinner and everything else prepared we heard that on the next day there was no school! It was 16th (and 17th of July) and the school was till going on in Japan. Unlike Croatia where the holidays start at the middle or the end of June making us have about 2 months holidays. Besides working on the presentation together and showing her more of videos and photographs online we decided to play Medal of Honour - Allied assault... multiplayer online. And we succeeded! Luckily she had no school the other day.

Glimpse of the typhoon

Well, I went to sleep not knowing what was going to happen tomorrow. But before closing my eyes I remembered what our parents told us - to close down all the roller blinds on the windows and put the curtains. This was in order to protect the glass and the rooms from the strong wind during the night.

I remembered that this dangerous typhoon was about 150-200 kilometres from us but was not going to go our way nor do some damage here. Still, when I was finally in pyjamas and turned off the light I could remember hearing the strong wind outside and that our roller blinds were shaking. I hoped the roof was not going to fall on me as that would be... pretty bad. I closed my eyes and waited to fall asleep rolled in my warm blanket.

What happened on the other day in Gobo and were there any consequences of the typhoon find out son in the next episode of Day 17!

Thanks for reading!

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