It was a date to the zoo! Lots of nice monkeys and penguins.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Just going home--
?????
Today is the first day of the Youkaichiba festival. The temperature was outrageous when I took this picture. My considerate neighbor hosed off the kids.
??????????????????????????????????
Today is the second and final day of the festival. Things were really kicked into high-gear!
I decided to try cooking today. I bought all my favorite vegetables, boiled them, then used the strained hot water to boil some noodles (Japanese people say that noodles absorb the vitamins lost when you boil vegetables). Then I cooked some fish, and some sauce and mixed it all together. It didn't turn out too bad, but the broccoli overpowered all the other flavors.
Well, today is the day. I've been here in Japan for one complete year! I went in to work for the first time in 3 weeks, as I had just used up all my yearly vacation... But there was nobody in the teacher's room! I guess everyone is on vacation. So, I went down to the school's weight room, and had a workout. Then I went home at 9:30. Yep-- a hard day's work. I didn't have my teacher's room key with me, so as the Japanese say, "shikata-nai," or in English, "It can't be helped."
I bought a tripod for the festival on the 5th, and tonight I thought I'd get a little more use out of it. I went up the hill to try and get a night shot of the city, but the trees blocked most of my view.
Blendy is my favorite coffee brand.
I think the cat is pregnant again.
This photo has almost nothing to do with the story I'm about to tell you. Today, I succeeding in a feat I've been previously unable to accomplish. As a little background information, I'll remind you of a past advertising campaign used by McDonalds in the USA. "Have it your way." In Japan, it's very similar, "Have it our way." A single letter changes. Now, I come from a mustard family, as opposed to a mayonnaise family. Accordingly, I would really prefer mustard on my McChicken sandwich. However this is against some kind of McLaw in Japan, and you just can't have it. Your frantic cashier will cross his or her arms and say (translated) "No good! It's impossible you know!" To which today I responded, "Of course it's possible. Just use mustard instead of sauce." After some minutes of arguing, I said sternly, "Just do it," and proceeded to order a mango McShake without hesitation. The manager personally handed me my food, getting close and whispering in English, "Mustard, top-secret." Oops, I just told the whole world. I was competent enough when I came to Japan one year ago to ask for mustard on my McChicken. But it took me a whole year to become good enough to actually get it.
The journey to Aomori begins! We took a night bus from Tokyo station. It's not an easy way to go, but it's cheap. It was a long night tho, I don't think the bus was designed with people of my stature in mind.
????????????????????????????????????????
We're visiting the family shrine during the obon season. Obon is the time each year were the souls of your ancestors are said to return to this world to see the family. The neighbors were also there paying their respects and presenting the deceased with their favorite foods and drinks. I pointed out in my awkward foreigner style Japanese that a lot of people here like Grape Fanta, which everyone thought was pretty funny.
????????????????
I had a hard time choosing a picture for today, because I took so many gorgeous pictures of the mountainside. I think I'll have some of them printed out.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Today was amazing! I was a little out of the planning loop, so when I asked where we were going, I was told (trans) "We're going to see Japanese paper dolls, well, that's not quite right... You'll understand when you see it." I never expected the word "doll" (Ningyou / ??) to include 5 story tall paper statues!
Everyone is leaving today, so we were all taking it easy. We went souvenir shopping and relaxed around the house. A couple of the kids had the Nintendo DS systems, which are really fun. They connect to each other wirelessly so you can play together even in separate cars on a road trip.
I went out with some friends today. We went bowling and I had my best game ever! In the second frame I got a spare, then four strikes in a row! After that I pretty much lost my touch, but still ended up with a 165!
The moon, taken by my Sony V1. I'm only using the built in 4X optical zoom. The big red blotch in the corner is not a UFO, but a camera defect. It's time for a new camera, but no model really calls to me. I love my V1, but as I mentioned before, it's replacement is disappointingly large. But I guess that's the price you pay for fantastic pictures! I see the photos from my friends' 5 megapixel pocket-sized cameras, and the quality isn't even close. It all comes down to the lens-- it has to be quality and the bigger the better. Should I jump ship and get a digital SLR? Or a more compact model I can take everywhere? I'd like to make a note for the future. If reverse time travel is ever possible, please send me the Sony 10 Gigapixel Cybershot camera. Oh and a million dollars would be nice too, that's not so much money in 2070, right?
I'd like to start out by saying, "not cool." I was in the gym this morning, trying to get Xyber-Huge, when I saw this monstrosity scamper across the floor at high speed. My camera instinct took hold, and I ran for my Sony V1. When I got back 10 seconds later, I thought I had lost it. Finally it appeared from behind the phone and paused just long enough to take this shot. It then ran very quickly into a recession in the ceiling where it knew it was safe from my shoe.
So I tried to make cookies today. But I don't have an oven, so I made them in a frying pan. How were they? Well, they could be eaten, but.. I won't try it that way again.
Do you remember on Monday, I showed you a giant spider in the gym? Well, today there was a giant dragonfly. There's nothing to give size perspective in this picture, but trust me-- it was huge. It kept flying around and dive-bombing me while I was trying to exercise.
Today I had a date in Akabane. We sang karaoke, and walked around in the rain. We tried to do the 2 people in 1 umbrella thing, (aiaigasa / ???) but the rain was too crazy. There's a typhoon coming tonight.
Well, no invertebrates of unusual size tried to attack me in the gym this morning. That's pretty nice, but I'm still worried that that spider is hiding somewhere. Although if a spider that big bit me, I'd probably turn into Spiderman and have super-powers. Super-powers are sweet. But anyway, I thought I'd take a trip out to my tad-poles and see if they're frogs yet. But the path is a little too overgrown (can you even see it?) I'm wishing them the best!
Let's drink Ramunade! It's tasty and refreshing! Always makes you feel fresh and cool! I think they're going for "Lemonade," but I'm not sure. It doesn't taste like lemon. Interestingly the romanization of the Japanese kana is "Ramuneedo" not "Ramunade."?In Japan, soft drinks often come in aluminum bottles. They're great. Generally in America, a vending machine has one size of drink. 12 ounce cans for example. In Japan, you'll have big plastic bottles, 500 and 350 ml cans, hot and cold coffee in little 190 ml steel cans. Another funny point is that often you'll have the same drink in two sizes for the same price. Hey, let's have a little Japanese lesson. The word for vending machine is (jidouhanbaiki / ?????). Just try to remember that!
This was a really fabulous sunset. My cell phone camera can only do so much...