Naruto Whirlpools

waaah waaaah waaah

This was not exciting. the picture of the whirlpool below is from wikipedia. all we saw was slightly frothy water in the vague shape of an oval and we were there an hour before peak time and stayed until well after. 1 out of 5 stars for this one.







then again, it was really difficult to top the hours of monkey entertainment of the previous day. It was 3.50 to go and hang out with monkeys for as long as you wanted. it was 8 dollars to see relatively normal water and a bridge museum

Shodoshima: Monkey Wildlife Reserve

Shodoshima is an island near Shikoku. It has a monkey wildlife reserve so it was known to me only as "monkey island" since I first heard tell of its existence. We took the ferry over with four friends and it was one of the most entertaining and exciting things I have done in Japan.

I know my friend Megan, a public health major would not condone this, as she has already warned me about communicable diseases from monkeys, but even as I was yelling at Bret, Christa, Andrew, Al, and Sam, " DO NOT TOUCH THEM! DO NOT LOOK THEM IN THE EYES! REFER TO THE BROCHURE FOR MORE RULES ABOUT THE MONKEYS!" their cuteness got to me. We found a quiet spot where they were sunbathing and doing other monkey stuff, and some of the young ones came over and poked at our pockets, and it was all downhill from there. After that it was all about taking as many monkey pictures as possible.

the dangers of "what if"-ing

Ah, Tokyo

http://tokyoglow.com/hd.html

Going All out for Your Wedding

Going all out for your wedding in America



Going all out for your wedding in Japan




some fun facts about japanese weddings:

-you usually go with about 30,000 yen on hand (more than three hundred dollars) as a gift/entrance fee

-they have up to four separate weddings shinto, buddhist, traditional, and western

-weddings can have as many costume changes as the couple desires, my adult student showed me pictures from her wedding and the dresses alone probably cost more than bret and I's combined yearly salary

5/88 Temples

On our island there is a famous, 88 temples pilgrimage. Bret really wants to go to all 88 temples and get a stamp and a calligraphy kanji, so on Sunday we went to all the local ones that we can bike to. It was actually pretty fun.

Ooohhhh! Buttons!

Since writing comments is tedious (thanks everyone for leaving them!) I have added feedback buttons to my blog. You can click 'funny' 'interesting' or 'cool' (please don't click 'cool') and I will see it and be happy! Thanks for reading!

Look What We Found!

Today we were doing our usual morning jog (i'm using the word usual very liberally, and even as i'm typing this bret is correcting me saying it was more of a "spirited walk") and we strayed from the path a little to go down a narrow road that looked interesting. We saw a couple of big dogs, so we went over to see if they were friendly. Interestingly, the enourmous chow chow looking dog was really nice, but the old labrador was mean. We were just about to say goodbye to our new friends when out of nowhere skitters a little pig thing! It had a collar/harness and was really friendly. It was the size of a piglet, and had dark brown stripes on its tawny brown body.

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, so we went home and got it. When I returned, however, I saw only the dogs.


The lab is mean and does not get a picture.

So anyways, no piglet, or "inoshishi" as they are called here. An old couple walking by stopped and talked to us about the inoshishi and gave us some fun facts. They live in Nihama, and like the areas by the river. They are nice when they are small but sometimes charge people when they are big, and can be dangerous. That is all I remember them saying.

Since the little inoshishi was sleeping when I came back with my camera, I looked up some pictures on the netz, and found exactly what we saw. So cute!

It has to be said

Facebook. Let's talk about it. For those who don't use/want to talk about facebook, just...skip this. It's my blog and I can say what I want. You know where I don't say what I want? Facebook. Because no one wants to hear it!

Item one: The relationship people

You are in a relationship. You looooovvvvee someone. You're "facebook official." Here's a thought, WE GET IT. Stop writing on each other's walls about how much you love that person. Stop checking up on their page and writing mushy gushy nonsense JUST IN CASE someone forgets that you are indeed in a relationship. Aren't there better ways of being territorial? Shouldn't you be building an electric fence or secretly (or maybe not so secretly, the way some people cavort about) installing tracking chips into each other? Just stop it. The saddest thing is when someone's page is filled with nothing but posts from/about/to their boyfriends/girlfriends/wives/whatever. Just stop.

Item two: The political agenda people

I don't care what your political agenda is. Stop inviting people to "I hate Obama groups" Or "I love Obama groups" or whatever else you can think of. Go on a news.com site and contribute to a comment thread with the rest of the crazies. I am tired of you.

Item three: Newsflash
People see what you post. Amazing, right? So....if you don't want people to see your embarrassingly revealing updates, get blog.

Item four: The Mundane
If "what's on your mind?" is completely repetitive, academia exclusive, or just plain boring, don't post it. Especially not every day. Please. I don't care if you're taking the GRE's, psyching yourself up for the GRE's, got a good score on your practice GRE, etc. Amp yourself up about your boring life by writing it on your bathroom mirror in lipstick. Or, get a blog.

Other than that, feel free to send event invites, so that I can know where I am going, general goodwill, relevant questions and concerns, or post your pictures. Because you know what? I'm pretty sure that's what it used to be.

A Very Short Hike

On our island, the tallest peak is Ichizuchi-san. I'm always hearing about people climbing it, seeing pictures of people climbing it, etc, so we packed up and headed down the general road towards the mountain.

I would not recommend this course of action when going somewhere new, but in our defense we googled it first but found nothing. We talked to some Japanese people and had a friend with an iphone on hand though, so that seemed good enough at the time.

After getting off the main road, we went up a small, winding one that was about a car and a half's width wide. Hmm, let me clarify. A "minica" and a half width wide. I was feeling regret and nausea 5 minutes in. Huge buses would be racing down the narrow road and blasting through blind corners, it was not a fun drive. The iphone soon lost a single and we began following the pilgrimage tour bus.

We never made it to the mountain, but found a beautiful lake, some likely feral puppies (cute nevertheless) and the official mountain shrine where there were pilgrimage visitors by the dozen. We also found a short trail leading to what we guessed halfway up was an electrical tower access point. We were feeling a little hot and static-y, and noticed a lot of overgrowth and no other people, so we decided it was best to investigate other paths to the top.





The walk to and from the temple was actually tiring enough, so we decided to head home. On the way we stopped by a new favorite spot, "the big tree." It has a big tree, a small shrine and a stream that makes a sound like it's raining really hard. We got really creative in naming the location.





It was a nice day, and we did find which road leads to the actual trail. One day, when we are better prepared, we will actually make the trek.

Conversations I Never Thought I Would Have at Work

Me: (Cleaning up after a 4 hour baby class--that's 4 hours...in a row)Alright, well, thank you, see you later, boss!
Boss: (talking to someone else)Oh! can you stay? I want to discuss the lesson with you
Me: Ummm....I guess.... (spoiler alert, there is nothing to discuss about a baby class. THEY ARE BABIES. I read and sing songs, and if they crawl away I shoo them from electrical outlets)
Boss: (continues speaking to said other person in Japanese)
Me: (looking at the clock and getting hungry....then getting angry)
***10 minutes later***
Me: k well I'm going to go, email me whatever comments you had about the lesson
Boss: (surprised, pauses her ramble of a conversation) Oh. Really? You can't stay?
Me: Sorry, I have plans (PLANS TO GO HOME AND EAT)
Boss: Oh, okay, I will call you

Art Show

One day Bret and I went to our friend's art show. It was in a tea shop that he rented out to use as his "gallery"

It was nice, but there was an older Japanese woman who kept badgering everyone to order tea or food, even though most people were just there to look at the art. David got a little annoyed but I don't think he ever confronted her for scaring away his potential customers. Almost all the work sold, and I got a lot of photographs since I am poor and/or cheap.


vase
The tea shop was next to an old garden, which was interesting. It seems like most gardens in Japan are really old, and I feel bad for not appreciating all the temples, shrines, and little gardens, but after a while, they all look the same.

Sakura

It's cherry blossom season, and these trees are almost everywhere. By the toll booth to the expressway, next to the grocery store, in our yard... It's really pretty. The best part is driving down the expressway through the mountains, where you can see patches covered in sakura and the different colors.

HE LIVES

skip to the 40 second mark for this one



more box jumping


this is just him in a trash can






These were a little bit of a disappointment considering the entertainment value of the first one, but that's okay.