Long journey to Tacoma

The class went alright; we talked a lot with a different conversation partner. There are so many students from one university, so we should make sure that the partners are from different universities.

In the afternoon, I wanted to go to downtown, but I took a wrong bus. Actually it was an express bus heading to downtown Tacoma, a city in southern part of Washington. I arrived at another downtown after 1-hour journey on the bus. I went back to downtown Seattle right away but I wasted 2 hours, and I missed lunch too. It was so funny.

There was a good thing, though. The woman who sat next to me was very kind and she told me which bus stop is convenient for me. She was going to the art museum. I had lunch at a french cafe, where the menu was written in French. It was about 3:30 pm and quite late for lunch. The salad was delicious. Tres bien.

In Seattle, people are generally very friendly and easy to talk to. I see shop staff and customer greet each other and ask how they are doing almost everywhere. They usually answer "Yeah good." with smile and it seems the reason why Americans are always in a good mood. If you keep saying "Good", you are good all day. It is such a wonderful habit they have. In Japan, we do not usually ask how we are. Japanese are trained not to talk and bother people, while many Americans are keen to know the feeling of their friends.

The bus from downtown to my house was very crowded, but I was lucky to have a seat. I talked to the man sitting next to me and he said that he was going to pick up his car parked near UW. I told a bit about my self and so did he. To my surprise, he has been to Japan 6 times! He is working in YWCA, and they have some exchange program between Japan. He has been to Kyushu many times, like Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki.

There are some people here who have been to Tokyo or Kyoto, but I think it is rare that he went to Kyushu. My classmates from Taiwan and people I met on the airplane did not even know where Kyushu is.

I did my laundry today. We have a huge washing machine downstairs (about 1 cubic meter), and next to it is a drier as big as the washing machine. It is convenient that you do not have to hang the laundry out and to wait for them to dry up. I like the scent of the detergent, and my clothes now give a nice fragrance too. I like the scent of my hair now because the shampoos sold in America also have a good smell. I wonder where in Fukuoka I can buy the same detergent or shampoo.

After lunch I took a monorail to go to Seattle center, and walked around (or I should say wandered). It took me hours to find the SeattleOpera, which was at one corner of the square. It was such a nice day to take a walk. The Spaceneedle, the tall tower standing there, was cool. It is considered to be the landmark of Seattle and sure it is.