Day 33: Naga's Birthday

I just realized that I missed the 31-day mark, oops! But yay, I've been in Japan for over a month now...and my Japanese ability is pretty much the same. Oh wells? Not like I had high hopes or anything. :P Anyways, I think the next important count will be 50. I'll try to make that post extra special. :D

On Sunday, it was Naga's 3rd birthday so my host mom bought a small birthday cake that dogs can actually eat.

    

 Happy Birthday Naga, who likes belly rubs, hates newspapers, and pees when I come home.

Tonight we had takoyaki for dinner and actually made it ourselves. Oh wait, I did learn something today - that I can't make takoyaki. 

  

Just a quick info bit for those who don't know what takoyaki is. Takoyaki literally translates to "fried octopus." It's basically dumplings made of batter with diced baby octopus, tempura scraps, green onion, and red ginger inside, and then usually topped with mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce. It's a really popular Japanese dish/snack and while I know for some people octopus doesn't sound too appetizing, it is really delicious. You can go anywhere downtown and find at least one takoyaki street stall or shop. There's actually one right outside the entrance of Juso station (the first train station I take to go to school).

    

It was so hot though. That's steam you're seeing fogging the camera lens.

I recently put in a site counter on this blog and it's really nifty. It counts page loads like any basic counter, but it also tells me how many "unique visitors" and "returning visitors" I have. And I have to be honest, I was really surprised by how many people are actually coming back here. Now that I know that there's actually a significant number of people reading, I feel like there's added pressure for me to put more effort into this blog and make higher quality posts.

Oh hold on, I have an itch on my back. ...Oh wait, nope, shoot, it's just my fingers crossed again! ;P

And a note to all you UOP lurkers: get out of here and go study! That's right N and T, I'm talking to you.

EDIT: There's been some confusion so I just wanted to add that the counter does not tell EXACTLY who is visiting. Don't worry, I do not know the names, ages, and social security numbers of every single visitor of this blog. The counter I signed up for is legal, you know. -_- The counter does, however, tell me where my visitors are from (which is pretty standard for site counters these days),  and it tells me that at least 90% of you are from Stockton, which gives me kind of a big hint as to who most of you are...