Today! The day Itoshi finally came to Prague! What a surprise! I admire Itoshi so much, would come to meet me…I was so excited that such a thing could happen. I have known him since 2019 and he is one of the members who went to Russia with me for a short study abroad program, we first met in December 2018 at a party to prepare for our trip to Russia. “Nice to meet you!” That was our first conversation.

But I was too scared to talk to him because I didn’t know what he was thinking. He was so cool!

But finally I got used to him, or maybe I was just afraid of him.

What a surprise, he is currently interning at the United Nations, and that seems to be Vienna, Austria, so he got to Prague in 3 hours and 30 minutes, and it’s about 1500 yen each way, so crazy!

Meet at McDonald’s near Prague Castle

So, Itoshi and I decided to meet at McDonald’s on the other side of the river.

Walking in the Czech Republic

Walking in the Czech Republic is a lot of fun. I was supposed to be at the train station at 11:30 AM, but I was sleepy, so I was late as usual. I did what I always do when I meet a friend whom I know very well and do excuses by saying sorry for being late lol.

But Itoshi don’t even care about that. I also think that those who say, “Why are you late? to the person who late are expecting too much from people who are late. If someone are going to be late, why don’t you do something else? For example, if someone are going to be 30 minutes late, I walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes, or go into a store and look at something. I think it is better to find time for yourself in that way. So I don’t feel a millimeter of guilt about being late. However, if I meet someone for the first time, or if it is a Japanese person, I will go to the place properly on time (Itoshi is not included in this group cause I know him lol).

I hope someday Japan will become a culture where people don’t complain even if they are late. We interfere too much in the first place. I think they should live their lives thinking more about themselves. Don’t you think so, too? I don’t expect anything from others, so I don’t get hurt at all if someone cancels or is late. I just feel, “Just do something else, and that’s how people are.” That’s all. Right?

I got hungry, so I just ordered fries at McDonald’s.

Well! We were supposed to meet near Prague Castle, but we ended up getting hungry, so we decided to meet at McDonald’s, and I went there and ordered fries. 56 krona, 336 yen. And since there was no place to sit and eat them, I ate them outside on a bench. Still, Itoshi didn’t come. He didn’t even read my messages.

I thought, “He must be hanging around by himself and coming here slowly. That’s what’s interesting.”

So I just hung out against the wall for a long time. It’s a wonderful time, a time when I don’t think about anything, it’s almost like meditation, and my body releases serotonin, which makes me happy. While I was in such a daze, Itoshi tapped me on the shoulder and coolly said, “Long time no see!”

Oh no! Itoshi came! I was already too happy. I was originally going to hug him, but it wasn’t something I could do in the direction I was walking, so I tapped him on the shoulder, too. And then there was Riko, another intern from the same UN, who was behind me but had rejoined him after getting separated. She was a graduate student at Hokkaido University, studying nuclear physics. She was a very interesting person cause she wanted to work in the kitchen of Saizeriya after graduation.

It’s been almost a year since our graduation ceremony! Talking about many things

Itoshi and I stood side by side and told each other what we were doing. While walking in the Czech Republic. He is living in Vienna, Austria, and has been interning at a UN agency since December 17. I heard it is a wonderful place because you can get to know people from all over the world. I think it’s really amazing. He told me that the security checks at the UN are stricter than at airports.

I also heard that Vienna was ranked as the best place to live in the world, so I asked him about that, and he told me that it is not only a great place to “go on vacation,” but also a great place to live. I thought, “If he says it’s good, then it must be really good.” Besides, it was the location of the first episode of my favorite movie, Before Sunrise, so I really love this place. I got goosebumps and wished I could go there too.

Gutsy for lunch! Eat Czech food!

As we were walking around talking about this, we got hungry and decided to have lunch. I looked around for a place to have lunch, and I found a place that looked really good. It was a place called Pork’s.

Spare ribs! They are so good!

When we finally entered, there was quite a line, but we were able to sit down right away. It really had the atmosphere of a Czech restaurant, a bar. It really was a bar. But it wasn’t that noisy, and I thought it was for tourists.

Drink black beer together!

So we ordered black beer. Then I had spare ribs, and Itoshi and riko had a hotdog-like dish, but with meat instead of sausage. It was the best. The black beer was great. Itoshi drank three beers, and I had two. Riko had one and a 300-millimeter one. Everyone drank a lot. But I didn’t get too drunk. I was not so drunk because I had a lot in my stomach.

He told me about what he is doing at the UN, and I also told them about my story, about the difficult time I had during those five months, when I couldn’t even go to the dentist because I didn’t have any money, so I had to have my tartar removed with tweezers. And why I chose Georgia in the first place.

It was a real conversation starter. I used to get nervous when talking to Itoshi, but I never felt that way these time. We were able to talk to each other normally, as equals. That made me happy. I could tell from talking to him that he was the warmest and most considerate of all the Russian winter school members. Everyone said so, and it really is. He said, “Why don’t I buy them a nice one for thier graduation celebration, since it’s so special?” I was so impressed by how warm he is. It was really true, after all, that people who look scary are kind.

Walking toward Prague Castle, listening to Itoshi’s raging life

Well, so much excitement, and the time was already about 3:00 pm. So, we walked towards Prague Castle. The view was great. Speaking of which, Itoshi treated me to lunch. The spare ribs cost 400 Krona, even though I probably ate about 500 Krona. Thank you so much.

He also told me that he had appendicitis. A week after he arrived in Vienna, he got appendicitis, called an ambulance, and had surgery…and later docter said that it burst during the surgery! lol. The total cost of the surgery was about 1 million yen, but he had insurance for 30,000 yen, so it was zero yen. And his mother came to the party and celebrated the New Year with him. It was a huge rush, and you never know what might happen.

The cityscape of Prague. Very beautiful.

I don’t want to pay the national pension either, so I have been given a deferment and haven’t paid it, and since I am going to be removed as a dependent, I may not be able to go to the hospital in Japan. So, if I get sick, it will be the end. That is why I do thorough prevention. It is easier to prevent an illness before you get it than to cure it after you get it.

But in the case of appendicitis, it is luck. That’s why I learned that it is better to have insurance. Appendicitis is unpredictable. But I am glad that Itoshi is safe. I really am.

Arrival at Prague Castle! A cute castle towering over a very cute castle town!

And so we went to Prague Castle. We needed tickets there, but Itoshi gave me another gift and bought tickets for all of us. He was really too manly, and I thought he is very popular. If I were going to Prague Castle with a girl I met on Tinder, I might buy a ticket, but if it was a Japanese friend, I wouldn’t buy it. I really think he is too manly. Thank you. Really.

Entrance to Prague Castle?

So we went around Prague Castle. Then there was a cute little castle town where we stayed for a long time. On the second floor there was a torture chair used in about 1500, weapons, swords with pistols, and soldiers’ equipment, and I thought, “I love these era.

Medieval armor. Cool.

The torture chair. It is terrifying to think that there were actually humans here.

It’s kind of nice, isn’t it? It was around the time of the “Kingsman” movie. I liked it very much. That’s how I enjoyed it. The very cute castle town had souvenirs, so we went there to buy souvenirs for my friends.

Very stylish castle town

So it was already 4pm. Prague Castle was about to close. To my surprise, Prague Castle was also closed and we could not go inside. We could only go to one place, even though we had bought the ticket. But we enjoyed the view on foot. As we walked down, the buildings disappeared and a magnificent view awaited us. We had a panoramic view of the city with its unique Prague red roofs. It was really too beautiful.

View from the castle town

I’m in the Czech Republic.

The castle district of Prague Castle.

So I took a crazy lot of pictures and Riko took a lot of pictures of me. I don’t know if she is a good photographer or not, she doesn’t have a good taste, but she took a lot of pictures, and it was nice, unlike one of a certain Russian member. Thank you. So I talked to someone and asked him to take a picture of all of us. Nice.

The view was absolutely beautiful. Itoshi then ordered a glass of glühwein, so we ordered a cap of glühwein too. It was 3.5 euros. Was it cheap? But I can’t help thinking “in the Czech Republic”, so it was expensive “for the Czech Republic”. Just a paper cup of hot wine cost 500 yen. It’s expensive. If it were in Paris, it would be cheaper though lol. When I said that, Itoshi said, “You can’t survive in Europe. Well, that’s true. The best solution is to become so wealthy that you don’t care about the price. That’s all. Ok!

Okay, and then there were so many people at the earlier photo spot that I couldn’t get many shots, but this place was great because the view was much better and there weren’t too many people there. We all warmed up with a glass of glühwein. It’s -1°C today, but it felt crazy cold. My hands were freezing.

Glühwein. Very warming.

Photo shoot with everyone

Two shots!

After we finished drinking, the three of us took another shot there. Then, Itoshi and I did a two-shot! It was so great to get the two-shot of my dreams. I thought I haven’t been able to take a two-shot with Itoshi since Moscow in 2019 lol.

Arrive at the clock tower in the Czech castle town

So, with that, we started walking toward the clock tower. On the way, we went to the river that crosses the Czech Republic, played in the water, and interacted with the rats there.
Finally, we arrived at the clock tower. Climbing the clock tower costs 250 kronor, so we decided not to do it, but just to see the gimmick of the clock tower. So we decided to visit the nearby souvenir shops in the meantime, since the gimmick would have to be done at 00:00.

Clock tower in the center of Prague

There was a famous Czech beauty store and I tried to buy some face cream there, but none of it smelled good, so I decided not to buy it. So we went to the clock tower! First time I stopped and looked at it too and the gimmick was interesting. I wonder if it’s Christian? It was kind of cute, like a door opening and puppets with crosses coming out one after another as they spun around. There were many bells ringing. It was nice to see a clock tower like that. Okay, let’s go eat! Let’s go out to eat!

Have dinner at the famous restaurant “U Hulek”.

My Russian friend told me about it and said if I were in the Czech Republic I should go here. So, this was a typical Czech restaurant. I tried to go alone, but the atmosphere was too much for me, so I decided to go with Itoshi and Riko! So here we are!

Restaurants with a lot of excitement

The moment I went there, there were people playing accordion while going around the seats, and others playing with big horns. It was really noisy. Suddenly, without even ordering, they were like, “How about a beer?” They treated beer like water. After all, it was only 55 kroner. That’s 300 yen for a restaurant like this. Next, I was given a very sweet shot glass of alcohol as if it was an aperitif. I didn’t even order it lol. It was so sweet.

From then on, we ordered two main plates, one pre-meal entrée and one salad. It was a very different meal. It was a bread and hashed rice kind of thing and a bread and meat something. Sorry, too much to explain. You can tell from the pictures. I can’t say if it tasted good or not, but that’s about it lol. But the bread had a texture that was new to me, it was fluffy. It tasted like the skin of gyoza.

This is Czech cuisine!

Plus, a salad with bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and salt. The bell peppers were fresh, watery and delicious. Then I had another beer and a glass of wine. It was very good. The wine and beer were good. And the atmosphere was 150% awesome. Wonderful Czech atmosphere. But the food was not so good. I mean, is the food in the Czech Republic not so good? Maybe it’s because I’ve been to France before, but I didn’t feel it was good. But the atmosphere was great. So, if you want to taste Czech food, this is the place to go. So, finally, the bill.

It’s not like I was crazy drunk lol.

Here is the voucher. Amazing.

A whopping 2100 kronor. I mean, yeah. It was 12,000 yen. But Itoshi treated us to all of it. I guess he thinks it’s not cool to split the bill at a place like this. Or maybe he’s just too lazy to do it. Because of Itoshi. But I was really grateful, and he was too manly. That’s why I think Itoshi is happy, because he is a person who gives. I want to give all the time, too. Just like Itoshi. Thank you very much. I will treat him all in Japan.

Well, that was a great dinner! We got drunk in a good way.

A night out at the hotel

After finishing dinner, we went to the supermarket! We decided to buy beer. There, a bottle of 500ml beer cost 9 kronor. 54 yen. That was too cheap! So we bought 2 liters in total. Then I supposed to buy bread for breakfast, doughnuts, yogurt, and nuts for snacks. But he provided everything… I was so sorry. But thank you.

Czech beer. Very cheap..!

So we walked to the hotel. My place was too small, so we moved to a hotel where Riko had reserved for us and had a beer there. Over beer, we talked about my trip to Europe and how Tinder is great. Itoshi was surprised that I was using Tinder lol. He also told me that there are many beautiful Spanish girl when he was in Spain. He told me that Spain is a nice place to live and that he liked it a lot. He said he had eaten paella three times in the two days he was there, omg.

Also, we called Hironori on the way there and we talked for about an hour. We had a lot of fun talking about the Russian members and one girl’s situation lol. Everyone was really open and we had a lot of fun. We are suited for overseas, so our mindset is also overseas. That’s why everyone is so open. I hadn’t talked to a Japanese person in four months, and it was really fun. So we drank beer in no time, and Itoshi had to wake up at 3:30 tomorrow, took the first train back to Vienna at 4:00 or something, and went to bed because they have an internship.
We said bye bye, and that we would see each other again in two months. It was really fun. Thank you!

It was so much fun to spend this much time with Itoshi. I had a great time talking with Riko too! Thank you!