I understand "potato"... What does that have to do with pizza?

My own words, translated.

Taste-O-Meter!

Potato Pizza: 4
Doesn't rate five, 'cause I don't generally go for pizza. It's good pizza, though.

Kuri: 5
It's a type of cake. It had a little bit of chocolate, but it put me most in mind of spice cake.

Youkan in general: 5
I've tried several types of youkan now at various sadou things, and I've liked every one of them. Youkan no longer gets its own Taste-O-Meter! slot unless there's something in it that makes it worth less than 5.

These Nifty Anko-Filled Sweets that Looked Like Cranes (and Whose Name I Have Forgotten): 5
They were quite pretty. It was kind of a shame to take them apart and eat them, but they were really good. I'm quickly coming to like wagashi (Japanese candy).

So I spent the late morning going with Riyoko and Mika to various shops, though I didn't buy anything... I'm down to a little over 2000 yen at the moment. ^^ Good thing my scholarship comes in soon. The afternoon was spent in various sadou events.

We first went to the same event I went to on Thursday. Things were arranged a bit differently, and I noticed that some of the pieces that were there before were gone -- most likely sold, since the ones that were missing were some of the prettiest pieces. I'm glad I got to go to it earlier. We went to that one because Mika and Riyoko hadn't yet seen it.

After that, we went to another building. This building seemed to be a building devoted to holding events. It was ten floors tall, and from the upper floors you could see all the way to the ocean. We first went to the fourth floor, where we participated in an ultra-traditional tea ceremony; we went from one tatami room into another going in on our knees in traditional old-style. My poor ankles hated me; I spent quite a bit of time sitting in seiza style.

The second was on the 7th floor, and was a more modern style. Everyone sat at tables, including the person making the tea. That wasn't a tatami room; since the department store show and this place both had a traditional-looking umbrella with a scroll and a flower hanging from it, I figured out that that must be the non-tatami-room concession allowing for the presence of traditional scrolls and flowers.

I said earlier that there were at least three sadou setups; I am thinking now that there are six or seven. One where the kama (hot water kettle) is set into the floor, one where it's on the floor, one where it's on the floor and there's a shelf next to it, one where it's on a long table, one where it's on an L-shaped table, and one where you have a tea kettle instead of a kama (and it's on the floor). More than that I have not seen.

Also, at the seventh floor ceremony, I saw the first guy I've seen involved with all this (besides one of the russian exchange students). I don't know if it's 'cause he's a guy, but he performed the ceremony very differently than I have been taught. It could very well simply be a different school, though.

I've gotten to see some very pretty natsume (a kind of tea powder holder; the other kind is called a chaire, and can only have enough tea in it for one bowl). The department store had one appearing to be made of solid gold, with a pretty scene carved into it. On the lid were mountain tops and clouds; on the bowl were the mountains continuing down to overlook some fields. The fourth floor ceremony in the other building had a plain black one with kanji on top in gold filigree, and rice grains on the tips of stalks filigreed on the bottom of the lid. The seventh floor ceremony had a natsume that had rice stalks carved into the outside. Good stuff.

A lot of the tea bowls were really pretty, too. One of the ones I got to drink from was a light blue color. The pictures painted on it were of traditional Japanese scenes; a farmer by a house, guys on horses, and the like. They were painted in dark blue, and over that was a gold paint that just highlighted things now and again. Very awesome.

Oh, last night, I had a midnight snack, and a couple of days ago, I bought a couple of cheap candies.

Taste-O-Meter!

Stars of the Night Sky: 3
That's the translated name of the candy. I can understand the meaning of the kanji, but I don't know how to read it, exactly. There were a variety of flavors, one of which I didn't like. The others didn't stand out much.

Marukatsu Orange Marble-Fuusen Gum: 4
Orange flavered gum. I picked candy at complete random, and this wasn't candy. Good, though.

Milky: 4
This has a weird smell that reminds me of spoiled milk, but the candy itself tastes fine. I popped it into my mouth, then noticed the smell. But I like this stuff.

Salad Pretz: 5
I got Pretz for a midnight snack, then got home and realized it was salad-flavored. Pretz is kind of like pocky, except that instead of a sweet-coated biscuit, it's a pretzel stick. Somehow, a salad-flavored pretzel stick works so well. I didn't intend to eat all of them, but I had to.

Realizations of the Period

1) I didn't quite know what to expect when we went out today; I knew it had to do with sadou, but that was it. I should have taken my sadou equipment. On top of that, I was the only girl who wasn't wearing a kimono or a skirt (except for the russian female-exchange student). On top of that, even, I am wearing my bright green pants and a fishnet shirt today. Ack. I looked very much the gaijin.