haircut, takoyaki, pudding, ecchan

On Tuesday we were supposed to get up early, especially Yukari. I woke up once, thought for a moment about my dream, listened to the rain, and went back to sleep. I woke up again around the time Yukari was supposed to be leaving, but she was still asleep on the futon next to mine. But something about the steady rain made me feel like everything ought to be canceled anyway so i just went back to sleep.

Finally i woke up and saw that it was 9:30. I had an appointment for a hair cut at 10:00, so i dressed quickly and ate the delicious pan we'd bought the night before, half of each: peanut butter and kinako, pumpkin seeds and raisins; and a cafe au lait.

Getting my haircut felt lovely. They served me tea beforehand, then two different shampooing sessions and a massage... and the price was quite low, too. The person who cut my hair was the husband of one of Yukari's school friends.

For lunch we made takoyaki:

Yukari and i ate our fill, then some of her mom's friends came over and ate too. Yukari and i sat at the table and talked, and drank coffee, and eventually ate the "egg" pudding we'd bought the night before. I finished my book, unfortunately.

At 6:30, Yukari's neighborhood friend Etsuko picked us up and took us to a cute cafe serving Italian food in Ueno, where a friend of hers works. Although it was dark out, it seemed like a house. Inside it was small and simple with a bookshelf and pictures on the wall by the creator of Miffy (Dick B...?). I can't remember the names of the dishes we each ordered, but Etsuko's had broccoli and cheese sauce, and Yukari's had smoked salmon, and actually, mine was penne putanesca, but i'm not sure how to spell it. For dessert we ordered tea and split a sweet potato and white sesame seed cheesecake.

After dinner, we visited their friends' apartment and had tea. Then we went bowling. I got two strikes! But Etsuko won. Then we drove her car back to her house (one of their other cars is a Subaru!) and walked to a nearby place called Baobab, which Yukari had pointed out to me when we were walking Boss. It was really cute and very warm, and was done with a Thai/Indonesian kind of decor. After that we all walked the short distance home. Of course it was quite late after such a long series of activity, so i went straight to bed.