スペシャル： 大北海道展！！！ And with pictures!

Due to the limited amount of Japanese I know relative to the ideas I want to express, all future posts will be predominantly English-based, with as much Japanese inserted when possible. As the semester goes on, hopefully more and more of the English will be replaced by Japanese...

Anyway...

きのう、ミツワマーケットプレイスの大北海道展へ行きました。


ごぜん９じに起（お）きました。コロンビア大学（だいがく）からミツワマーケットプレイスまで１時間（じかん）かかります。地下鉄（ちかてつ）とシャットルバース（ｓｈｕｔｔｌｅ　ｂｕｓ）で行（い）きました。

At the festival, I met up with some of my cousins who were also attending. We spent the day trying out many of the different kinds of foods that were on sale. Getting around inside was a nightmare... the place was very crowded with many other people going around trying to sample all the food as well. Amid cries of いらっしゃいませ！and みなさん、おいしいですよ！ we started buying.

The first thing we tried was "Asameshi Maeda Shoyu Ramen" (note - all pictures can be enlarged by simply clicking on them):

らめんとお茶（ちゃ）です。らめんは１，０００円（えん）です。おいしいですよ！

I also bought a bowl of Beef Soba to further satisfy my craving for noodles:

牛（ぎゅ）そばとお茶（ちゃ）です。７００円（えん）です。

Afterwards, we got many different kinds of pastries and small items... melon cantaloupe buns, mochi rice wrapped in red bean, Japanese ice cream, curry buns, taiyaki, fried fish cakes, various kinds of fried fish, this strange snack that you had to poke with a toothpick before eating, etc. There was this king crab bento that looked absolutely delicious, but by that time I had already almost run out of money and couldn't afford it （３０００円（えん）。。。たかいですよ。。。）!

There were also many different kinds of fish and other sea creatures that looked both fresh and tasty. However, I didn't buy any since I can't cook very well and don't have a refrigerator that would have been large enough to store anything in. T-T

The last purchase I made was a 雪（ゆき）ロール:

雪（ゆき）ロールです。１２００円（えん）です。おいしいですよ！

All in all, it was a fun and enjoyable day: taking a break from the pressures of school to attend a Japanese food festival with some cousins. But at the end of the day, you're probably wondering: did I actually practice using those shopping words and phrases that Nazakian-sensei just taught us the week before?

The answer, in one simple word, is はい。And it was quite useful, too!