Sunday August 19th

I got up early this morning to do more filming. I think I got to the park by around 6:40 and immediately I could hear the swarming of mosquitoes in a nearby tree. I was hoping to be one of only a few people awake at that time on a Sunday morning, but unfortunately this is apparently the time that the older people go walking. I was hoping that was only an American thing, but apparently not. There weren't as many people as last time, so I was able to film more, but I still had to fend off the mosquitoes. I walked until I reached the end of the park, I think that it leads to the old Fukuoka Castle, but the doors were closed so I'm not sure. There is a large baseball stadium and track field, and numerous tennis courts, all that have to be reserved. It isn't like America where if it's free, then you can play in it, you always have to reserve the courts. Anyway, there was a cherry tree garden and a plum tree garden that was really beautiful, I just had to take a picture:

I got back home really early, about 8am because the mosquitoes had eaten my feet and my video-camera's memory card ran out of space. I edited for most of the day and met up with a new friend that I hadn't met before named Yurika (Eureka!). I ended up taking a 2 hour nap since I was so tired from getting up early, then I went to the grocery store. I saw Keiji-san, the chef from the restaurant that we went to for Marc's birthday, while I was at the grocery store! I was so surprised I accidentally spoke to him in English, but that was ok, because he thinks it's cool when people speak English even though he can't understand it. He just repeats what I say and laughs. He's a cool person.
I met Yurika at Seattle's Best Coffee, then we went to this coffee shop near my place called Tully's. On the way, we passed a shrine and I told her I didn't know there was one right there, but I always wanted to see what it was like. We went in and she showed me what you were supposed to do. You rinse your hands first with a wooden spoon by pouring water from a basin over each hand. Then, you go up to the shrine and, if you want, you can throw money into a big box. You bow twice, clap twice, then say a "prayer" which is more like a wish, then you ring the bell. I wanted to take pictures, but wasn't sure if that was appropriate or not.
We sat at Tully's for about 2 hours and she taught me a lot about how to say certain things, like when I'm in an elevator and they ask me which floor. She also explained the difference between "kudasai" and "onegaishimasu" since they both mean "please," so that really helped me. She is very traditional because she's in her 30's so sometimes I would ask her what she thought about something and I think that it was too personal for her, so I will have to stop doing that! It's just so difficult coming from America where everyone asks you what you think about something. She told me that she had a hard time expressing her thoughts and feelings because that's the Japanese way, so I hope to help her get better at that, but maybe I should start out more slowly. She's a lot of fun, and she wants to take me to the beach sometime as well as a Thai restaurant! I didn't ask Yurika what time she had to go, so her mom called at 7:30 wondering where she was. I felt so bad! She was really sweet about it though, and even emailed me later to make sure I didn't get lost going back home! I look forward to being able to speak to my friends in Japanese, but that will be a little while from now . . . I'm just glad that that I was able to make so many friends and so quickly! I'm meeting another friend on Thursday at a different Tully's!