Last day in Hamamatsu

Oops!  I forgot to write yesterday.  I was very busy being bored, then I went to sleep.   Today I get to move to my apartment in Washizu (which is either part of or just outside of Kosai... don't quite get it yet).  I'm excitedddd.


Yesterday:
I bumbled down to breakfast at bit late - somewhere around 8:30.  I was surprised to see a table full of Interac people.  The flu and housing changes have really messed up everyone's departure dates.  I was supposed to be the last one to leave, but now some people are staying until the 31st.  


It's really a hassle that places here don't open until 10.  I went back to my room and killed time until I could go out and get my picture done.  For my alien registration card (gaijin card XD ) I have to have two pictures... I wish they would have just said up front how many pictures I would need for the whole Interac process!!  >.<# With me application, visa application, international driver's license, and now this, I've gone though about 10 pictures!


I went to Loft and eyeballed some kitchen stuff and bought a few postcards for Postcrossing, then went to Bic Camera to use their photobooth.  The picture is okay... but I didn't think I should smile, so I look a bit confused. <_<  I'm sure it'll be fine.


Outside the train station there was a small farmers market type thing going on.  People selling veggies, fruit, LOTS and LOTS of tea (Shizuoka prefecture is known for it's tea and apparently this area is also known for its oranges) and other things.  

 As I was wandering around, I spied more yaki mochi!  Scoreee!  I asked the ladies there how late the market was going to be open, and I got one.  This time, instead of being covered in soy sauce, it was covered in red miso (which is most commonly made in the area I was in last time I was in Japan) which is rather sweet.

They warmed the mochi (on sticks) over hot-but-not-flaming wood, then dipped them in a bucket of miso and let them warm a bit longer.

Mine.  :>  It was very yummy.

I tried to tourist office for something to do, but everything that they recommended was museums.  I don't like museums.  They're boring.  So I went back to my room and chilled until 1:30 when I was supposed to meet some people for lunch.  I took them to the farmer's market, but was sad that the yaki mochi was sold out.  I think the others enjoyed it, though.  Reid and Brittany bought some hankies and Brittany won some oranges.  I bought some oranges and some yuzu jelly as a gift for my IC (the oranges are for me).  People were so sweet!  The lady they bought the hankies from was chatting us up in English.  The lady where I got the oranges was fussing because she wanted to give me the best ones (without spots on the skin).  I told her I'd go with what she recommended.  Then when I went to get the jelly, there were smaller containers which had been marked down to 100yen each, and they were a better deal than the jar I was buying, but the jar looked nicer, so that's what I asked for.  The lady kept trying to tell me that the other one was a better value until I told her it was for a present.  So nice!  TT^TT


We ended up eating at Freshmess Burger for lunch, and I had my camera this time!  I have to say, although it tastes just fine, it's not AT ALL filling, and I don't think I'll be going to Freshness Burger again for a long time.  (Did I say that last time? <_<  I mean it this time!!)

My beans burger and fried potatoes.

Since it was my last day in Hamamatsu, I took some pictures around the station, because it's pretty nifty.

Tokugawa Ieyasu is the mascot of Hamamatsu, as decided in a character contest.  His kimono features a keyboard representing how big the musical instrument industry is in Hamamtsu and oranges as his family crest, and his topknot is an eel - like I said, those are local produce as well.  It looks like it's the 100th anniversary of Hamamatsu becoming a proper city of its own.  (Can you see the eel and orange in that logo too?)

Flowers outside the station.  There are flowers everywhere in Hamamatsu - along the road in planters and in the middle of sidewalks.  They're all diligently kept and are very pretty.

I know it's hard to see, but tall along that dark place on the wall - those are flowers!  They're planted in boxes on the wall and grow sideways out to cover it.

I did nothing for most of the afternoon until I saw Nicola pop up on Skype and we met up for dinner.  I splurged a bit since it's my last night here. <_<  We went for Okonomiyaki at the place some of us went the first night, but she was too sick.

Mine's the better-looking one.

And Baskin Robbins (They refer to it as '31' here because it's '31 flavors' and '31' is easier to say than 'Baskin Robbins').  Nicola and I were lamenting the lack of Easter candy here so we got the Easter Egg Hunt flavor.  It's melon flavor with egg-shaped bits of colored white chocolate.

Easter Egg Hunt.  King size (sounds bigger than it is because this is Japan)

We got chased out of ZaZa City by Auld Lang Syne as we were looking at the visual-kei store and admiring the cute shoes and playing 'guess the outrageous price.'


Okay, that's to get you caught up on yesterday.  Time to eat breakfast and pack up my bags!  I've got a big, exciting, expensive day ahead!  Things I'm doing today: Moving into my new apartment (the keys are really weird - I saw Nicola's!), getting the gas turned on ($100), registering at the town hall or ward office, getting my alien registration card (so I can stop carrying around my passport!), and hopefully I'm also doing a bit of shopping for my apartment (rice cooker, etc.) and getting my cell phone (I'll probably go with AU even though I like Soft Bank's phones better.  :I  AU is the same company as Verizon, and I have Verizon at home and trust them...)