a heartfelt weekend
…And we’re diving into September! Nothing much has changed since my last update, but if I can say one thing it’s that I’m currently having acne breakouts either from stress or wearing a mask everyday (or most likely both..?) A few weeks back, my dear friend Shifa from university came to visit me for the weekend so I thought I’d share a little about it while I also mesmerize on how much joy it brought to my dull life:)
I took the Friday off, picked her up at the station and directly headed out for some lunch since we both had empty stomachs to fill! We had good Italian food at a restaurant located right next to a field of corn and later decided to cool down in the famous Kinomata river in the afternoon. While being surrounded by families of dragonflies, we goofed around together and took some time to catch up :) Later that afternoon we went for a mini karaoke session which we always love to do when we spend time together.
The stormy Saturday I’ll never forget..!
The next day, we went on a drive down to Sano Outlet which is a gigantic outlet located in southern Tochigi. We left the house mid morning when the weather was perfectly fine with not even a hint of it possibly raining. After reaching the outlet, we searched store after store for some treasures to take home, but we both ended up buying casual sportswear and some Korean onion dressing :D It’s not what we expected to have in our hands after the 3 hours shopping spree but we currently both genuinely enjoy the dressing ! On the way back home we were singing our hearts out to old Disney tunes and enjoying our little musical in my mini Daihatsu… But soon after, we saw lightening.. and then another and the next thing we knew, it was pouring cats and dogs. I had my wipers on max level but could barely see where I was driving!
Post thunderstorm rainbows..
Nevertheless, we made it out of the thunderstorm unscarred! Lightening and spontaneous thunderstorms are common in Tochigi but never in my 2 years had I driven right in the middle of one. We were both terrified at the time, asking each other every minute if we should stop by the road or keep going (remember Shifa? :D) but it’s another good story in the books of our long lasting friendship! We finished off our weekend at the signature Shozo Cafe with a cute brunch of scones and tea. The relief in our faces says it all :D
I felt very heart-warmed in the 3 days we spent together. It’s hard to think that it was only our first time seeing each other face to face since the last time we met in December 2019! What a strange strange time we live in.. Very thankful for our friendship and here’s to more life adventures together!