4th of July in Japan

My original plan was to go to Universal Studios, but crazy weekend crowds overruled. First I had work to do, and it was 'hatake' time. Hiroko, A-san, Ogawa and I got in the car and went to a high school two towns over to plant sunflowers. Ogawa dropped us off before he took Obaachan to the hospital (apparently she has cancer and has to go almost everyday. I feel a little bad getting mad at her for all the barks she's made to me, but no one told me!). At the back of this high school was the school's greenhouses, chicken house, and a few animal houses. We met some folks there for a meeting but since we're the 'kids' they brought us to the pig-house (smelled just like daisies....ehhem) where A-san and I filled plastic cups with dirt and seeds with other high school kids. Ogawa asked how my conversation with the kids went and I laughed, since no one talked to me. He was surprised no one wanted to practice English. Oh well, everyday is just a big surprise. I didn't think I'd be seeing pigs, rabbits, chickens, baby pheasants, guinea pigs, hampsters, and a little lizard a 10 year old caught that gave me the hibbie-jibbies. 

After lunch I went to the mall where I did more shopping and fell in love again at AXES. I saw the same girl I met there the first time named Aki and I think I'll go back and ask for her again. She's terribly nice and tries to visit with me and help me shop, which is well, part of her job, but she remembered me versus all the other weekend shoppers :) I ate dinner at a coffee place and had a bagel with ham and cheese with a blended mocha. I admit, the cashier helping me pick used more English than Japanese and I gave in... she was so good at it... And I was really hungry... Oh well. I made up for it when I went to the 3rd floor bookstore. There is a petshop next door and I get sucked in by the cute puppies in the window everytime. Darnit. But I wanted a Japanese book I could read, or, stumble through. I found Alice in Wonderland on my own after a while, gawked at the Japanese Twilight books, and even got excited over the discovery of a Sookie Stackhouse novel in the store (One of my favorite mystery series). Charlaine Harris made it all the way to Japan??? How awesome! Take that Twilight... I broke down and asked a worker if they had more American novels in Japanese, figured if I know the story I could know the Japanese, to a point. She showed me a few places but when she pointed out the Disney novelizations, it was all over. Especially when I found Finding Nemo in Japanese. Never picked out a book that fast in my life. Haha. So I spent the night reading and a happy little shopper on the 4th of July.