Essentially that was precisely what I did this past Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, I braved my slight cold (read: I had no ability to breathe) to meet Yumi and Scott and the Honeycomb coffee shop. This is a coffee shop with cute cakes, derricious coffee beverages, and some attractive waitresses! If only I swung that way. But I'm not into waitresses.
Yumi, I should add, wanted to go back there about five times during the day. I blame LIZ for this, as she introduced me to it awhile back and I have been addicted ever since. The addiction has now been passed on.
After coffee, the three of us went to meet Miss Yuuki Shibayama for some Sushi Ro------- in Oyima. The sushi was good, but my sickness prevented me from eating a disgusting amount, as I usually do. Alas.
We ditched Scott afterwards and Yuuki drove us to a Jersey Cow dairy farm in Kumihama! They had baby cows in one pen and HUUUUUGE Jersey dairy cows in the barn. They were HUGE! I don't know why they seemed so big... either Jersey Cows are humongous or I haven't ever actually seen a cow before and I forgot. Anyway, the point is we tried salt ice cream and it was gross. So we revived our taste buds by eating blueberry yogurt ice cream was what soooo good.
After a quick glimpse of the Kumihama vegetable market and a very detailed discussion on sweet potatoes, we went back to the Mineyama area, stalked Liz from place to place, and bought me a shiny maroon bicycle! It's being delivered on Monday after school (in theory). Hooray transportation that isn't my car! Not that I have anywhere in biking distance I can go to, but damnit it's the principle of the thing.
After wandering around Mine and looking at ugly ugly shoes, we went to Seiryuu (a Japanese tavern by the train station). Yumi and Yuuki's stomachs were bottomless pits. I was thoroughly showed up by their crazy hunger.
The next day was meant to be taking Kirby-kun to the vet. However, the friendly vet said that he didn't actually know anything about ferrets and recommended a farther away different ferret-affiliated veterinarian. We did not go all the way to Fukuichiyama, however. Instead, we dropped Kirby off in Ine and drove even FARTHER and close to (in?) Fukui Prefecture. The goal, you see, was a road trip to Obama. Obama, through the ridiculousness of the Japanese kanji system, means "small beach". The name could easily be pronounced "kohama", but fortunately for my obsession with novelty, it is pronounced like our dreamy possibly presidential candidate. You know, the black one.
Obama has two mermaid statues, a public restroom, and a train station. We found no statues of Barak Obama, no ridiculous Obama-shaped cakes, and no shirts with Engrish pronouncing undying fidelity to the strange, American politician. It was sad. We DID however, find an excellent onsen! Yumi and I got nekkid and enjoyed the seaweed, vitamin, and freakishly hot baths in the onsen, drank lots of water, and hopped back in the car!
I should add that on the way to Obama (small beach), we passed Nagahama (long beach), Takahama (high beach), and Oohama (big beach).
We met Marina and Scotty at Karachi (the Indian/Pakistani curry shop in Maizuru). Quick fact about Maizuru, it means, "dancing stork". YAY! 舞鶴. Curry, as always, was magnificent.
Then it was moooore driving! Dropped Yumi off, went home, and realized that my glasses are still so broken and I have to wear contacts until I figure out how to procure more eye wear. Crap.
