Food, Family, and Final Destinations

On Thursday, I went into the city to eat dinner with Caitlin's family and Anna and her dad. We went to Penang, the Malaysian restaurant that me and Caitlin got ice kacang the other week and where me and Naoni had eaten before. Caitlin's dad ordered a bunch of stuff for the table (I think I overheard Ethan say to his mom, "there's no way we're gonna eat this much food") so we could have a taste of a bunch of different stuff. The table had a Lazy Susan in the middle so they could just put the food on it and you could rotate it around to get at the dish of your choosing.

I was really grateful that Caitlin invited me! It was nice to see Caitlin and Anna as always, and really cool to see how Caitlin's family interacts - I was always curious about what her dad was really like in person because I've heard so many fabled stories about him and he was just as iconic as I should have expected (he kept telling Caitlin she wanted to order peanut pancakes because he was actually the one who wanted the peanut pancakes). It felt like I was watching the in-laws (Caitlin and Anna) meet in a way - we talked about how it was odd that Naoni wasn't there because when I interact with Caitlin and Anna I'm usually with my roommate partner too.

In terms of the food, too, everything was fantastic. I ate some of everything, even the crab - which I've never eaten before and failed gracelessly at trying to crack open. Caitlin's mom had to help me, it was very messy and embarrassing but she was nice about it and I discovered that I do enjoy crab which is a huge step for me in my "trying to eat seafood again" journey. I also really liked the fish that we ordered. And Ethan was right - we did not eat everything, but Anna and her dad got to take some food home for her mom which I think worked out pretty swell.

And then yesterday, my family and I went to go see Detective Pikachu at this pub-cinema in Attleboro. We thought we had missed the boat to see the film completely, because it was already out of theaters at the big cinema near our town - but we managed to go see it thankfully. The theater was almost completely empty: it was just us, a dad and his daughter, and a group of like 4 young adults. I honestly thought I wasn't going to like the movie but it was pretty cute and I teared up a bit at the end (though let it be known that I am quite soft and prone to crying at movies). Would recommend seeing! Maybe not worth trying to get out to the theater to see, but definitely worth it if you're renting a DVD or can get it on streaming once it comes out of theaters.

Also me and Naoni got our placements for where we're going in Japan! We overlap in Tokyo for one week, but we're both going to totally different places in our non-Tokyo weeks. I start in Nagano, a city just a few hours Northwest of Tokyo. It's where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held and apparently Nagano prefecture has a lot of really beautiful nature spots for hiking and stuff.

Then I'm back in Tokyo for two weeks, and then my last week in Japan will be in Nara, a city about 6 hours west of Tokyo. I'm the most excited about Nara right now (I mean obviously I'm excited about everything, but Nara just sounds really cool). It's located in between Osaka and Kyoto, two cities I really want to try to visit if I can (even though I know I won't have much downtime), and it used to be the capital of Japan way back in like the 700s CE. Today, there's still a lot of historical sites and museums in the city. But it's probably best known for the friendly deer that roam the streets and that, in some parks, will bow at visitors in exchange for snacks.

Only a couple more weeks until Naoni and I blow this popsicle stand! I'm very nervous but really excited for everything we're going to do!! Aaaaaa!!