Pork chops

For dinner I made pork chops the way my dad makes them.
It was my first try but I think I came really close to the real thing, around 90% I would say.
I'm just so proud of myself I called my mom and my dad to brag.
Hehe.

Takoyaki, Mario Bros., and Yakiniku

The other day we went to Marie's (again) for takoyaki

It's evident that we're amateurs :P

Here's Marie's mom to the rescue

That day's dessert was banana cake

...and pumpkin flan

Yum! as usual...

After lunch sweets

Some after lunch piano

Some after lunch Mario Bros.

Went to Aeon after and had coffee at Starbucks

I had Java Chip Frappuccino as usual

After Aeon, we went to a yakiniku place for dinner

Yet another full day of fun :)

January highlights: January 17 - Mini sendoff at Shiori's (the food)

Shiori wasn't able to make it to Faiz's farewell party so she hosted a mini sendoff at her place.
As usual, we enjoyed her awesome cooking and Faiz also contributed his creation (the beef dish in the first picture)

Christmas party at Shiori's: Part 2 (the cake)

This blog chronicles our individual shots with the cake that Shiori, Kazu and Rino made from scratch :D
We were all so impressed!

Here's Faiz stuffing himself

me :P

Lookit at the strawberry Santa :D
Cute, isn't it?

Yum!

Trisha about to devour Santa!

Tienchi is "allergic" to strawberries :D

Mafia Mike...

Evil-eye Zhao

Donican!

Kinpouzan Trip Part 4: Week 2 Udon Soba Shop

Yay! I love big crowds these days!
This crowd in particular is different from the others I hang out with
First of all, I met this guys not because they wanted to learn a foreign language (most other acquaintances I make start out from that intention)
So basically I get to listen to and speak a lot of Japanese
and we just hang out, the bunch of us!

Free oranges!

Maple leaves! They're really pretty, aren't they?

Same path from the week before, but with more people :D

This time I tried another type of dango

These guys are really tight cuz they've been having classes together for quite some time now. If I'm not mistaken, the 13 of them hang out quite a lot. They're graduating in April, so they're all busy looking for jobs (in Japan, they start looking for jobs during their junior year and pretty much have a job by the time they graduate) and studying for their certificate test (January 25 and 26... you go, guys!) After that, they might go out together on a trip or something and I hope I can tag along, LOL

Kinpouzan Trip Part 3: Kinrori Odango

This store is called Kinrori Odango
See last picture to learn what a dango is, the picture is self-explanatory :P
This building is shaped like a dango, too!

The cute little entrance to the shop

I got myself an assortment of dangos
They were all pretty good
pretty chewy too LOL

Kinpouzan Trip Part 1: Udon Soba Shop!

Here's the sign that announces the Udon Soba (names of noodles) shop
Lookit the clouds!

The scenery on the way to the shop
This is in Minami-Satsuma City
...very breathtaking

The path that leads to the shop
pretty neat, huh?

Voila! The shop itself
very homey and very charming

A cicada! ...or something

I ordered Tonkotsu Ramen
yum!

This is what it looks like just outside the shop
it's very very serene and very very pretty :D

That, my friend, is the bathroom LOL

Posing for pictures after a very satisfying meal

That's Ryosuke, me, and Hiromitsu
they're both from the department of social welfare

oranges!

So we drove (actually, they did -- Ayumi, Ryosuke, and Hiromitsu each took turns at the wheel) for 30 minutes to get to this shop. And it was well worth it! I'll post more pictures on the shop. We went there for two straight Wednesdays, with more people on the second trip. I'll also post pictures on the sights that we passed through to and from this destination!