What a roller coaster of a week!

The craziest of weeks! To save myself the hours of story telling and blog editing (I can't just be this witty without some serious thought processes and sentence reorganization) and you the hours of reading, I'm going to condense these past few days into a few fun and amazing points! But they must be shared because it's been the best past few days EVER!

Tuesday June 4th, one of my best friends Matt (call me Shoma kun) came to Iizuka to visit me! He was in Japan visiting family and manged to make it all the way to the little city of Iizuka for a few days. KILLER! Amazing how he showed up too - he didn't have internet for a few days so I couldn't contact him while he was in Japan, I just knew he was going to arrive that day. At 6:30pm I get a facebook message from him "I think I'm outside your apartment." And he was!!!! Turns out he got lost trying to find his way here, but a few wickedly nice local Japanese people decided to drive him right to my apartment door. Amazing, or amazing?!

So Matt joined me, Samantha, Ken and Takehiro's friends at Takehiro sensei's house to watch the Japan vs. Australia soccer game. It was an unbelievable time! Japan scored the tying goal via penalty kick (Ken runs around the room sporting the Japanese flag as a cape and then shares a bromance extra lunch hug with Takehiro) with only a few minutes to go, qualifying them for the world cup next summer. We had great food, excellent company and a really marvelous time. Takehiro sensei and his wife are an absolute delight and I would happily take their daughter Mae as my own child if they'd let me, she's unbelievable adorable! They are the sweetest family and we were lucky to be invited into their home.

Wednesday and Thursday for me were normal working days...while for Matt they were "spend all day walking the streets of Iizuka because I'm bored stiff" days. I felt bad, but he said he had a blasty blast. He managed to find the always un-locatable AEON shopping center too - amazing!

Thursday after work we were invited out to kuru kuru sushi (conveyor belt style sushi) with Ihara san, the head nurse from C3F, and other hospital staff to celebrate Nishida sans birthday!
Seriously you guys....I can't believe I've been in Nippon this long and haven't experienced the wonderful and blissful joy that is conveyor belt sushi. I had literally walked into heaven. I also ate...SO...much! AND Matt was there chatting up all the lady nurses in Japanese (first time I'd heard him use his Japanese, the oddest experience). This day was actually the best. In my parents words: WHAT a day to be alive!! If I could remember the location of this place I'd eat there all day every day. I'd skip work. I'd....I'd work there just so I could eat there. Absolutely amazing.

Matt and I also made a cake and card for Nishida san which she certainly enjoyed. :) The cake was delicious too (despite the hasty "OH MY..I bought butter instead of icing whatdowedoooo" freakout 15 minutes before leaving home)! We almost ate the entire cake! And that's after eating all that sushi! BONUS was that the ladies covered the bill for us! What a lovely bunch of women. I was sad to say goodbye to Ihara san because Thursday was my last day on the orthopedics ward. :( I'll be sure to see her around the hospital though, she's one beautiful lady! Plus I owe her a written copy of some English tongue twisters that she finds to enjoyable.


Friday I took the day off of work so Matt didn't have to spend another day wondering the streets sad and alone. He and I decided to go into Fukuoka to explore. We spent the day wandering the streets following our feet and not caring where we ended up. We went to the "Ramen stadium" for lunch, Canal city shopping, Tenjin shopping, Hakata station, Ohori park and more. We soaked up the sun and drank vending machine green tea. We also took some really excellent purikura pictures that I'll never forget! It was certainly an unreal day. We stayed in a hostel in Fukuoka overnight and Matt left for Niigata Saturday morning. :( I was really sad to see him go, but having him visit was such a wonderufl last minute surprise and I'm so grateful he had the opportunity to make it out here. Matt, you're the greatest!! In exchange, I'm working on getting my butt to Vancouver to visit him and Ian, my 2nd high school friend to leave me for the West Canadian Coast.

A view of Fukuoka city from the Castle ruins! From here would could see 360 degrees of city including the Fukuoka Tower and the Yahoo Dome where the Fukuoka Hawks baseball team plays.

Ohori park. Where ambitious walk-runners, children wearing inappropriate English text on T-shirts, dogs wearing clothing and turtles all come to meet.

Was that condensed enough?