french fries!!!

Today Scott and I rode our bicycles to Funabashi to go to Wendy's because he wanted a frosty (chocolate malty ice creamy thing). This was no easy task for two reasons - Funabashi is about 10 miles away and we didn't know exactly how to get there. He had a general idea, though, and we rode from the dorm to Inage Kaigan Station, which is lined up with regular Inage station but about two miles south. Then we just followed the train tracks to the station by Costco, which was about two thirds of the way there and one street away from the big one that we eventually needed to be on to cross this river canal thing. We made it nine tenths of the way without any problems, but at the very end we were a little unsure of where to go. I asked someone but I didn't understand all of what she said but she had pointed so I figured we needed to go in that direction. The road we had taken's sidewalk had done this weird thingwhere it went under the road and came back up and then went back down (using these odd staircases with a ramp up the middle so you can push your bike ) and so wehad to go backup to go in the direction she had been pointing. From the top of this bridge over what I think was a tollway, we could see the IKEA sign. This was good because IKEA had been the other big landmark... the mall was diagonally across an expressway from it on the maps (to the northwest). Using the sun, I figured out which direction was north and then figured out where the mall (called LaLaPort) should be and we started walking back in the direction we came and about ten steps further we could see the sign for the mall itself. we went back down where we had come up and followed an old guy riding his bicycle in the correct direction and got there really quickly.

The mall itself was gigantic - I think it was about a half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. Bigger than Old Orchard, for sure. It was five stories tall and had an outdoor section in the middle where Wendy's was. It didn't take us too long to find that, which was good because I was really hungry. I got a large fries (hey, I had just ridden my bike ten miles, why get the medium one) and a medium frosty. I hadn't had fries since I left Chicago, and these fries were outstanding. After eating we wandered around for a couple hours.

The variety of stores was amazing. There were a lot of Japanese stores, but there were also some American ones - we went to The Gap and LL Bean (which was exciting for me). There was also J Crew and Eddie Bauer and a Birkenstock store and Toys R Us and a Body Shop. We were walking on the second floor on a balcony thing and I saw a Sanrio store on the first floor, so we went there... I was surprised how long Scott managed to last before going to sit on a bench outside. I got another Hello Kitty for my phone (this one is a surfer and has a tan and a surfboard) and a little Hello Kitty Christmas tree (which is the picture).

Coming back seemed to take much less time than going there did. We left at 11, got there around 12:30 and headed back around 2:30. We got back around 3:45, so I guess it was about the same.

We went to Maruetsu to get a cover for Scott's bicycle basket and I ended up getting one too... also a cheese grater (if Emily and I are goingto keep getting large chunks of cheese at Costco, I need to be able to cut it somehow, and I'm awful at cutting it straight witha knife) and these plastic shoes that are intended for laundry but I am going to use in the bathroom to keep my feet from getting wet. I'm tired of stepping in a puddle from the previous night and gettingmy sock wet right before school.

I had dinner and now I'm getting tired... all that exercise. I think my legs might get sore tomorrow, though...