I Use This Brand of Tuna all the Time...

Japanese commercials are so strange...


And for extra hilarity:

For My Wonderful Grandmother, Viktoria

Thank you so much for the birthday gifts! I love getting packages from America, and you sent me some great, as well as useful items. Thank you for the birthday wishes!!!

I Think We'll Buy A Couple of These For Allergy Season

There is a growing trend in both wearing face masks and making them fashionable. Why shouldn't you look good while responding to the latest flu pandemic? Even in our honky town you can buy Pokemon, Hello Kitty and Onponman face masks, but other places are taking it to the next level! Patterned, washable and reusable face masks are coming into style, and I think I should get one for Bret in anticipation of allergy season. One of my adult students told me he has already gotten allergy symptoms and "hay fever" and I have heard from others that when the rice fields flower the allergens in the air here skyrocket.

I do not suffer from allergies, but poor Bret does, so I think I should buy him a few of these, whaddaya think?

Big Thanks to Bret's Parents!! We Love and Miss You!

Osaka!

We went to Spa World, which is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) onsen in Japan. It was pretty cool. This was the sign in the front:

Next we went to the happenin' district in Osaka, where people journey from all over Japan for the local cuisine. This statue is a regional character. People pray to him for good grades, prosperity and love.



In this strange poster, the baby is holding kushi-age or kushi-katsu as some say, which is a regional food. It's meat or vegetables on a skewer which is battered and deep fried. They provide each table with a big bucket of brown glaze/sauce to dunk the skewer in when they arrive at your table, straight out of the fryer. You can only dip them once, or they get upset. I got potato and beef, but I only liked the potato. The area we were in, Shinsekai, is very famous for kushi-katsu.

Here I am at the Osaka Aquarium. Word to the wise, do not go on a Sunday, which is a day most Japanese have off (not everyone takes Saturday off). It was so crowded. Though it became less so further on in the tour of the aquarium, it was pretty irritating. The tickets are not cheap, and with throngs of people pushing and shoving, it put a damper on the experience. Also, turn your camera on museum mode/turn off your flash when you take pictures in dark places. Everyone kept using their flash and it was really, really annoying.





Here Christa and I were walking over a famous bridge where lots of musicians and street vendors go. It's a big shopping district, and just like lots of downtown areas of Tokyo, young people go here to hang out in groups and sit on the sides of the streets. We also saw some very very intoxicated middle/high school aged school children running amuck.

Awh, Valentine's Day

The Valentine's activity was the cutest thing ever. Here are some pictures that I just got in my email. The picture with fewer students is my classroom and the picture with more kids is Bret's classroom. They are all so cute!!!

Mah Birthday

It was a success in my book! I got my nails done, hung out with Pat and Mami's adorable children, went to Bellini's, ate tacos, and hung out with my favorite people in Saijo! Miss everyone back home!!!

Foreigner Party!

Bowling in Takamatsu

To Celebrate Valentines Day Bret and I Made S'mores with Kids for 3 hours

It was reaaaaallly funny showing them how to make smores armed with tealight candles, mini marshmallows, and cookies (they don't have graham crackers widely available here).

Some of the kids got it, and made as many as 20 smores to take home, others needed assistance. It was also funny that we had to gesture for the kids to try them before they started eating their makeshift sandwiches. They seemed to like them. Success!

Bleh, technology

So the two posts below were rough posts that I was going to flesh out later, but my hard drive has gone to a better(?) place and is no longer with us. Goodbye photos, i did not back you up in the last six months. It's times like this that remind me why I still have a facebook account (all my pictures are still there)

For example in the Godiva post I was going to add a picture of the chocolate department of a mall--which contained only throngs of women. In Japan people buy chocolates for their husbands and sometimes bosses and teachers on Valentines Day. Women don't get anything until White Day (reciprocity day) which is next month or something. Anyways, it was a funny picture because it was really crowded and there wasn't a single man on that floor, but in America it would probably be the opposite the day before the 14th.

I'll work on the Kochi post later.

Mmmm Godiva

Man, there is about a 30 percent markup on godiva here. It is LAME


Since it's Valentines Day, Bret let me have expensive chocolate

Kochi

I get lots of people asking me, "what do you do in Japan when you're not teaching?" This video is a response to that question. Enjoy. You brought this upon yourselves.



PS thank you mom and leah for sending me candy from america

Strangest Vending Machine to Date

Japan is the land of vending machines! Usually it's just beverages, but I have also found potato chip, battery, and ice cream vending machines. I'd heard of stranger vending machines than that before moving to Japan, so I am always on the lookout. I found this one when I was lost in Saijo (the city we live in) on the way back from the Matsuri festival a couple of months ago. I was waiting for a rainy day post, so here it is!

The underwear/contraceptive vending machine! Who needs planned parenthood when you can get everything right here for 500 yen! This is the only machine of it's kind I've seen and it was in a relatively obscure location.

Triumphs in Cooking!

Tom Kah!!! I love Thai food and there are absolutely 0 restaurants that serve it here. Luckily, though, Christa showed me a small import store in the Takamatsu mall that sells ingredients for Thai and Mexican food. The Mexican food was TERRIBLE. We got some frozen guacamole, salsa and freezer burritos. That night at Andrew and Christa's apartment we tried it all and it was...disgusting. The Thai food ingredients, however, are very good and I was really happy with our Tom Kah soup that we made. Delicious!


Okonomiyaki! It's like a pancake with cabbage, green onions and meat (like bacon or prawns) in it. At restaurants they give you two things to put on top of it: Brown saouce and mayo. I like mine plain or with a little brown okonomiyaki sauce. Bret was really excited to make these at home so commemorative photographs were taken