I got up too late today, having mistakenly set my alarm for seven instead of for six.  It’s the first time not changing the time on my alarm clock to local time has gotten me.  So instead of dorm breakfast, I took the bread I’d bought yesterday and a bottle of water, dressed, and hurried out the door.  On the subway, instead of the Tanigawadake Ropeway poster, I saw an ad for the Chichibu railway.  It shows the creepiest mascot I have ever seen.  If you know of a creepier one, send it to me! 

Oddly, despite having slept an extra hour, I felt more tired during class than usual.  We had three more presentations, on a Japanese restaurant the Australian girl had gone to with her boyfriend as a birthday surprise for him, on Okinawa and the Hawaiian’s family members standing in front of a big bush trimmed to look like a crab, and on life in Ãœrümqi and surroundings, which had everyone wanting to go even without showing a photo with cute girls.  Apparently Ãœrümqi is about as far from an ocean as one can get on earth. 

For lunch, I ate satsuma-age in a cellar izakaya that smelled stuffy and moldy.  The Wikipedia link on satsuma-age says less than I can: shredded fish with carrot and mushrooms fried in a batter and uber-tasty, especially when compared to the 600 yen it cost.  I had soon forgotten the smell of the place, especially as I got to savor a second delicacy: raw egg on a bowl of steaming sticky rice.  Try it! 

Oh, another thing I found out today: the Japan-Australia game was not finished when I left.  It was a quarterfinals game, and the Japanese won in penalty shoot-outs.