Edogawa Invasion

The next day, woke up, had brunch and left for Edogawa. It was cold to the point that I told my mum to book me a flight back to my sizzling Philippines. =)) So we were all wearing layers and layers of clothes but it wasn’t enough. You just have to bear with it and enjoy it. I finally met baba (Japanese for grandmother) and the woman was sooooo adorable and lovable. :D It felt like I had my lola once again. She is also petite and very malambing. Despite the language barrier, she was very endearing, talking to us even though we didn’t understand what she was saying. Ate had to translate it to us and she said nice things. If there was a word that would fit her, it would be this: NAKAKATUWA. I love oldies (I meant that in a god way) and seeing one makes me happy because I appreciate life even more. Masaya rin makipagkwentuhan sa mga lolo at lola. Subukan niyo. :D In my case, I was really eager to see baba because I wanted to thank her personally for being sooooo nice to my onechan (did I get the spelling right?) and of course to finally meet her in person. Webcam ko lang kasi siya nakikita dati tapos sa wakas nakita ko na siya at nayakap.

After getting warm, we set off once again to see ate’s hood and get a taste of it. Edogawa is a nice place to live in because it has an awesome park (but I think there’s a park everywhere in Japan), a lake nearby and just so many things to see. If I would put it, it’s like countryside but with a hint of the metro. Basta yun. I love that they have a soccer field, it’s for free unless you play after 5 or 6pm. You have to pay for the lights, but that’s a fair deal right? Not like here, usually you have to pay for your playing hours. They also have a track field, kahit yata tamad mapapatakbo sa ganda. Plus a ramp for skaters. You can tell that Japan is a progressive country by all these recreation parks. I remember someone told me before that once a country is able to provide playing field for its citizens, it’s a rich country. On that note, our country is really behind. =(

We enjoyed our time just sitting in a cozy bench, watching the kids play soccer and with the water fountain, it was freezing but they were playing as if it was a summer day. We bought hot choclit drinks in can, some bread and enjoyed our mini merienda. :D

We wanted to stay a little longer but it turned cloudy and started to drizzle. On our way back home, we spotted a cemetery and it was so solemn that I actually prayed when we passed by. Their cemetery is very much different from ours. Check the photo to know what I mean. I also had my first encounter with sakura and I fell in love with it. Love at first sight indeed. ♥♥♥

We left before six pm and dropped by ate’s favorite pastry, bought some sweets and spotted her old eyecandy. Aba! Snabero ang lolo mo pero pasimpleng tumitingin naman. ‘Di bale ate, madami pa dyan. =) Then it was too much to resist for mum so we went in the 100 yen store. Everything 100 yen (that’s 50 pesos) and it’s 25 hours open. San ka pa ‘di ba??

We also went to Don Quixote, to check out pap’s obsession, electronics. After all our pit stops, we met up with Papa Miyata and finally set off to our welcome dinner. There was really no need for that but the Japs were oh sooooo nice. =) Kampai for awesomeness!

It was nice to finally be inside somewhere warm. I almost died of hypothermia. hihi! Baba wasn’t able to come with us, her old age won’t allow her long walk. =( The entire Nakayama family was present to welcome us as well.

I am not a fan of Japanese cuisine for one reason, I don’t eat not-so cooked food. So I was a little bit scared that I might be put on the spot to eat sushi. :S I only ate sushi once in my life and that was because it was a sushi party of my bestfriend, baru. Thankfully, my sister warned them. Yakiniku is delicioso, yumyum!!! Dora enjoyed her yakiniku. =D It was such a struggle with the chopsticks not to mention a pair of eyes looking my way. Consciousness galore!

A gazillion photos and stories later, we billed out. The men had so much to talk about that we went to a videoke (they call it karaoke) after dinner which wasn’t part f the plan? Nakayamasan even wanted us to stay overnight but we had to refuse because we had plans early the next day and a hangover wouldn’t help. haha! Japanese love to sing. They sang, I listened. That was the game plan. Or so I thought. I was comfortably seated and snapping away with the gigicam when Papa Miyata handed me the mic! Eeeeeeek! I told him that I don’t really sing but my sister and mother sold me out!!! They were nodding with conviction that I should sing. Sige na, wag na mag-inarte at magpapilit. You could ask my friends, whenever we would have videoke night, lugi talaga ako kasi hindi ako kumakanta. But I was put on the spot, so I breathed in and belted out. hahahaha! Si Papa naman pinakanta na nga ako, Celine Dion pa pinili na kanta! Ayayayay! So napa-near, far, wherever you are ako doon! =))

It was an awesome welcome dinner. Thank you very much for the yummy yakiniku dinner and shidax after. Oh yeah, Kaorusan gave me and mum cute bags. :D Sobra-sobra naman sa bait. I officially ♥♥♥ Japs!!! ‘til then…