Week 14: Week 14

June 28th, 2026

(Creative title, I know.)

Monday night was karaoke night! Etsuko, Emily and I went out to sing some karaoke and had a lovely time. I also got my first 90+ score, but I forget which song it was on.

I made a dish I hadn’t made before, pesto chicken and veggies on pasta. I kind of used a recipe, but then changed everything about it. It turned out alright, but then later in the week I made it again and used more veggies, more seasoning, more pesto, and switched the frozen broccoli to fresh broccoli, and it turned out way better. It’s especially nice that I get to eat it four more times because there’s so much.

Thursday was DELTARUNE day. I did absolutely nothing except play chapter 5 and loved it. Visuals, music, characters and absolutely everything are top notch, and this chapter’s main gimmick was my favorite so far. Can’t wait for 6 next year, and it’s hard to believe that 7 is even on the horizon (7 will be the last chapter—chapter 1 came out in 2018).

Friday was a nice dinner with one friend from Rowan who is visiting, and another who goes to Kanagawa University, about 2 hours south. We went to a cafe near Shibuya and I had some curry which was really yummy, and a lemonade which was so sweet it was undrinkable. It actually hurt to drink. We had a nice time catching up and one of them told us about a festival that will happen in mid July where I’ll be able to see some taiko drumming. Very excited!

three signs, top 2 are a hand pointing left, third is a peace sign with a mouth on the hand — I saw this sign near the cafe. I don't know what it means and I'm scared.

Saturday I went to PokéPark Kanto, a Pokémon theme park that opened in February. I was a little worried it would close because there was a typhoon coming that day, but they announced they would stay open. Luckily, it ended up just being relatively light rain all day.

It was such a great time. The main area, Sedge Town, has some little shops and a PokéMart and Pokémon Center (I think you can take pictures with Nurse Joy—I didn’t because the line was so long). There’s life-sized Pokémon statues all over, some of them in the open and some a bit hidden. It really felt like it was made with a lot of care. There was a store where you could buy pins (that come in PokéBalls) that you could keep or trade at some of the shops, and you could buy a max of 10. So of course, I bought 10. And as a little treat, you get a free premiere ball, which is just one of the many small things that add up to make it a really great experience.

The main attraction is the Pokémon Forest, a path leading through different areas with over 100 Pokémon. It started with Route 1, led into a Pikachu and Eevee forest, a hill with Digletts, a Bidoof dam, and ended off with a rocky tunnel with a huge Onix and Steelix at the end. It was so much fun to hear the music and Pokémon sounds from the speakers—it really felt as real as possible. If you want to see more pictures, click here.

route 1 in pokemon forest — I would love to see an expansion to the forest one day. It really was a unique experience.

me and graveler — Can you tell which one is me and which is the Pokémon?

That's about it for this week! It’s been really rainy lately so I haven’t gone out a ton, and classes are starting to wind down towards finals so I’ve had to spend more time doing work…although I haven’t really done any lately. Maybe that will change this coming week.

Next week will probably be another low-key one, but the week after I have a big trip planned, so that should be a lot of fun.

Until then. Have a lovely day.
-Dan