Announcement One

So, it's been a while, lovely readers (I think there might be three or four of you....yessss, my following is growing). I mentioned a WHILE back that I had some exciting news. I'm ready to share a little bit now. I have decided, that I am going to stay in Japan for ONE MORE YEAR! YAY! I love it here! I went back and forth for a while as to whether I would stay or not, but a few weeks ago I just decided that if I've been here for this long already and I don't feel like I'll want to leave in 6 months, then it's the right decision to stay.
Job stuff isn't completely ironed out at this point, but I will probably stay with my current employer and have a different position. Anyhow, for those of you who were/are interested in visiting, you now have a little extra time to save up some dough and make plans to come over to my side of the world. Happy day!

Perfection.

Wow. I am having major flashbacks to my high school choir years. And I think I like it. Also, vote. That is all.

Big News!

Okay so, for all five of you (on a good day) who read this, I have some exciting news! Yay!! I would've posted earlier this week were I not feeling sorry for myself for STILL having the plague virus after two weeks of misery and for having to work ridiculous hours during said two-week period. Basically, it's been me, in bed, with a box of tissues, a huge bottle of water, noodles from 711, and lots of tv shows on dvd.

Anywho, in the next several weeks I am going to make some exciting announcements (that I can't talk about just yet) on the blog so stay tuned.

The first of these which I AM able to share with you is that Michelle Garcia aka Chelley aka my LOVE is coming to visit for 10 days just after Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are going to see mountains and shrines and rice patties and the world's biggest city together! I'm happy enough that I may just be able to end my dependency on 711 noodles. I don't know though...there are these crispy bits of ginger root mixed in with the noodles.....

Nuts.

So not that anyone needs another reminder of how scary the U.S. economy is right now but....when I first got to Japan it took about 114 yen (just think of one yen as comparable to a penny) to make 1 U.S. dollar. Today: a mere 98 yen.

Four Month Anniversary, Extravaganza : Part Four

For the love of my life. You know that I think about you every second of every day. This song is pretty much perfect.

P.S. I just have to brag a little bit because, I upholstered that little striped sofa by myself. It was yellow plastic before (well, I don't know if plastic is the word, but it stuck really bad to the back of your knees and it sure wasn't leather) and now it is cute and is so comfy because it's the same material as a nice knit sweatshirt.

Four Month Anniversary, Extravaganza : Part Three

Ikebana class. My teacher was so excited to have a foreigner take her class that she invited her daughter and granddaughters to come meet me. We had lunch and tea and cakes together and then we all played board games and card games. I taught her granddaughters how to shuffle cards the American way. It was a joyful day. The first picture is my first ikebana flower arrangement done in the traditional style with three main angles. FYI it's really difficult to take a decent picture of flower arrangements that are as tall as you are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikebana

Four Month Anniversary, Extravaganza : Part Two

Japan at night. Love. (First three are Kyoto and the last picture is Mijayima.)

Four Month Anniversary, Extravaganza : Part One

These first two pictures are from our hotel room in Fukuoka (we died laughing trying to read the "English" hotel information). The last picture is a small paper bag that was holding some lesson props one of the Japanese teachers had made. I found it in the staff office and immediately, I broke out my camera. A (cowboy?) bucket of popcorn threatening to shoot you up if you don't eat the very popcorn he is made of? Jackpot. Click on the pictures to see the writing more clearly.

Halloween Costume Ideas.

So I had one brilliant idea for a Halloween costume but since Halloween is so close I don't know if I'll have time to pull it all together by the end of the week. MJ is one easy option to use as a back-up. I found this video while looking for outfits and DANG, the VMA's used to be kind of good apparently!

Which led me to a second possible back-up: Britney Spears VMA disaster. Then I thought, no, no, I don't think Japan can handle the sequined underwear. Maybe in Tokyo, but not here. But I did end up finding this gem (it's not what you think it is):

Pictures Lost Forever. Sigh...

So I'm feeling quite a bit bummed because Kozue and I got really hyped up on caffeine and chocolate cake and took some of the most hilarious pictures that I was planning on posting today. It did include one picture which, as we went back through the photos, Kozue saw and exclaimed, "You look like Kewpie! Japanese mayonnaise character!" So I'm sorry you will never get to witness the hilariousness. In the meantime...here's the real Kewpie. Enjoy your Sunday's, friends.

On the way to work.

Still trying to adjust and drive on the left side of the road. I love seeing mountains and trees and flowers every day on the way to work. Especially when it's raining, there are these beautiful whispy clouds that kind of just hang out halfway to the top of the mountains. Little things make me happy, what can I say.

Dinner, Kozue's House.

Me feeding Kozue's pet goats (obviously). Also, me trying to discreetly chew and swallow a slab of raw octopus. Which actually tasted good, but I just don't think I can handle the texture of this particular food. I think I chewed on one piece for like 10 minutes before I was able to sawllow it. Thanks Kozue for taking these pictures...and for eating the leftover half of my octopus when no one was looking... and for an amazing weekend...BFF's! (Although, shouldn't bff's actually be typed bf's f ? Has anyone else considered this?)

A-bomb Dome

Miyajima (from the shrine)

I love it when I go to a big landmark like this and get to watch Japanese people be just as excited and touristy as I am. Also, I love the outfits Japanese girls wear (and, oh, the umbrellas and parasols!).
Miyajima is just south of Hiroshima and you must take a ferry to reach the island. It was believed to be the home of the gods and that is why this shrine (only about 1/4 of it is in the bottom picture) was built in the ocean as a pier. The Japanese believed it would be disrespectful to use the land. Even though there is a small town on this island today and it is home to about one thousand people, there is no hospital on the island and burials are not permitted there. Kozue told me that in the past (and I'm not clear on whether this still happens today) the injured and the dead were transported from the island on red boats: literally "blood boats" in Japanese.

Iwakuni and Miyajima

I spent the weekend with Kozue (of course) and we went to Iwakuni (the amazing bridge) and to Miyajima (the beautiful Tori gate in the water). Travelling with Kozue is great because not only can she help me order food in restaurants, but she actually knows the history behind the places we are visiting. I think more pictures from both locations are in order!

Kyoto

Heian Shrine and the Golden Pavillion. I'm thinking you'll be able to figure out which is which. I love the way the sky looked the day I went to the Heian Shrine, very majestic. The Golden Pavillion is so spectacular I think it looks fake in pictures: kind of like a miniature of itself. It was so lovely in person, though.

Sorry, to anyone who's actually visited this blog hoping for new posts. (Silly you!)

So I think maybe, MAYBE, I'll have more luck with this if I just try to post a couple of pictures at a time. Maybe one a day and in no particular order. Otherwise it's just too much pressue to come back from a weekend trip with 600 new pictures on my camera and think what in the heck am I going to do with all of these and when will I find time to edit and post all of them?
So I'm just going to try and mix it up a bit more and explain the pictures as the come.

Sushi.

So like most places, this sushi restaurant that loops through the center of the restaurant. One side is bar seating and the other is booths (both have access to the conveyor belt). If you want something, just grab it. If you want something on the menu that you're not seeing on the belt, you can ask one of the employees and they will call the order into the microphone so the sushi chef can start preparing it. There are faucets on the counter with very hot tea for green tea (which is free most places). Unbelievably fresh rice, my cucumber rolls were warm because the rice had just come out of the cooker.

I have the same cell phone as Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz!

Every inch of the SoftBank store is covered in these pictures. Cameron is the most prominently featured and is dressed in a kaleidoscope of colors (a different one in each poster) to advertise this phone: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/812sh/. However, I opted out and got this little gem instead (you can see a perfect cartoon image of my phone if you watch this video to the end!) : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6J8gULFM0Ks.

Last night in Okayama. The Insanity.

Self-explanatory pictures. I miss you all so much! I'm ready for November training!

Last night in Okayama. The Dinner.