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Went to a Zen Garden because wanted to feel Zen but failed to realize that Zen Gardens are where all the tourists go so actually it was not calm really. You're not allowed to take pictures with people in them which is why there are (almost) no people in this photo but they were all around believe me you.

I think this is takoyaki but not sure. Either way it was very good. I got it at Nishiki Market which was also a very crowded and kind of overpriced food market. Lots of tourists there as well. The thing I had after this was a katsu (basically tempura but katsu has panko and tempura doesn't) that I did not think was very good.

I decided to go to the new Miyazaki film which is only out in Japan even though it's only playing in Japanese with no subtitles. I wanted to go later in the day and the only place with a later showtime was an hour away - no problem.

But then actually it took more than an hour and was kind of long journey with 2 trains and a bus and some walking. But I got this beautiful sunset and a nice above-ground train ride out of the city center so that was good. I'll let you have your own opinions about the film when you see it. I couldn't tell you the plot really anyway.

On the way back from the movie I accidentally got on the wrong bus because I was running to not miss the bus and I just saw the kanji "南" which is the beginning of the name of the station I had to go to but it apparently was also the name of an area nearby which is not where I wanted to go. I got off the bus at a pretty dark station and walked through a temple to get to the right one. All good - by all accounts Japan is very safe, even for a "woman" walking alone at night. That said I was very glad when I made it onto the train back on time (it left early!! sketch!!). Went to the 24hr grocery store near the residence when I got back and got this instant yakisoba I like. Yaki is grilled and soba is soba noodles.

Giant and expensive grapes. Not much more to say about it. I got a little cup full of some of them and they're pretty good but I don't think I'd necessarily go out of my way for them above other grapes. I don't eat grapes that much though so maybe I forgot what they normally taste like.

Just went on a walk and got all of this stuff for about $8! Two chip bags, two onigiri for breakfast tomorrow, a ramen cup, a pudding, and a notebook for school! It came to ¥1225 and I was like oh man that's kind of a lot but then I looked it up afterward and $8!! Our daily food stipend is ¥3000 so, still about half of that but in USD not much at all. In the US pretty sure one bag of chips is $8.

Also I've been listening to a podcast in Japanese and watching a Japanese cooking youtube channel! Just to have it on in the background. I do not understand almost anything from the podcast and the cooking video would be hard not to understand because, well, it's a video of someone cooking. The podcast is called ラジオたべもの "radio tabemono" which means food radio :p The Youtube is 食堂あさごはん which according to google translate means Restaurant Asagohan (asagohan means breakfast) ?? Not sure.