Monday, May 30, 2011

Summer is Here!





In recent news:

There was a small typhoon/rainstorm in our area, and a lot of the roads were partially flooded. It's always a treat to drive in those conditions :)

We swapped our rental car in for our failure of a K-car. Our rental car was pink and had a better stereo, so I was a little sad to see it go. The full story on the car debacle is this: We had it inspected when we bought it and paid for licensing and everything. One month later (approx 1,000 km) the engine exploded. The car service place said it needed oil, and that caused the problem....but they were the ones that inspected it, and said that it was tuned up and ready to go...so I don't understand how after 1,000 km this could have occurred. Even though our Japanese friend argued for us and tried to whittle the cost down, it was still pretty pricey because *the entire engine* had to be replaced. At least we have a more or less brand new car now. Hooray for having *awesome* luck this month...

I just re-did the powder line around the house of anti-centipede repellant earlier today. It looks a bit voodoo-y. It's a very thick, white powder line. Oh well, no mukade yet this season!!! I hope our luck improves

Bret's leg is doing better. He still has crutches, a partial cast and a wrap. When we go out it's difficult for him to walk for long periods, so we try to go places that have wheelchairs to use when you're shopping. Bret looks super cute in his wheelchair, and he cracks me up. I don't know why his misfortune is so funny to me. Let's hope everything heals up soon!

Other than that, nothing exciting is happening. On the weekends Bret and I like to have people over, watch movies, or go to the dollar sushi place in the next town over. A new place opened this year called SushiRoll and it has a lot of roll sushi (kind of american style but not really). Bret loves all the rolls, he usually orders one of each. They have eel and cucumber with seaweed flakes on the outside as a roll.

Salmon,avocado and omelet with flying fish roe on the outside, and tempura shrimp with avocado, lettuce and omelet with flying fish roe on the outside. The rolls are pretty large to accommodate all of the fillings. They also have a lot of interesting nigiri sushi, like poached salmon with cheese melted on top and basil mayonnaise. It's reaaaallllyyyyyy good. Two of my favorites are tuna and tempura scallop nigiri. Basically everything on the menu is good, and it's a nice diversion from the plain, fish-on-rice sushi we generally encounter. No california roll, philly roll, etc out here. Those are all western creations. I miss them! On a side note, we often talk about how when we come back to America, it'll be pretty difficult to want to spend money at sushi restaurants after having so much good quality stuff at dollar sushi places. Everything is going to be weird when I come back.

To finish off this riveting, keeps you on the edge of your seat post, here is a picture of some new shirts I got. There's a really cool store called gu that recently opened at the mall and it's like an even cheaper side project of Uniqlo, which I talk about all the time. I love gu because it has really cheap basics. I saw these same shirts at Zara (a store I love but can't afford to shop at) and they were triple-quadruple the price. Hehehehehehe. Who pays 45 dollars for a tank top? Sheesh.

Friday, May 27, 2011

London!





There are better pictures on my dad's camera. Still waiting on the Picasa web album upload from him. Better quality to come! All of his pictures were amazing

The Time Bret Got Hit By a Car


Generally, hearing that you got hit by a car doesn't ellicit much surprise in these parts. People just shrug, offer their sympathy and their own stories of the multiple times a car has hit them on a bicycle.

This case was a little more extreme, however, because Bret was on his scooter. Someone was making a turn across the street and didn't see him. Bret careened into the car's tire well, knocking him out for a tiny bit. When he came to, he had no shoes and saw that his scooter was wrecked (we laugh about the shoes part).

The doctor that saw Bret immediately following the accident did not order any scans, did not listen when people tried to translate, and refused to give him any medication. He prescribed low dose asprin. "Oh, did you just get hit by a car? Here's some asprin. Walk it off." When Bret said he couldn't walk because his ankle was messed up, they put a sports wrap on it and gave him some crutches. Then they told him to get lost. Unbelievable.

Everyone involved was pretty peeved and thought that doctor was pretty much a complete failure, so the next day we went to a private practice clinic. The doctor told Bret he should have a cast, even though the x-ray showed that nothing was broken. It made walking a lot easier for Bret. He's also getting some kind of therapy for his back, neck and shoulder. Bret is happy with the new doctor. He actually listens when Bret or Caleb speak. Amazing.

All in all, things are fine, but I'm still disgusted by how negligent that idiot was towards someone who was just HIT BY A CAR going 30 km/hr. I hope people have better experiences in emergency situations than we did.

It's been a while


Lots has happened since my last post. Ironically, a bunch of people in Japan got e-coli poisoning and died shortly after I published the post featuring the steak tar tar (like, 30 people). I went to Europe (LOVED IT), the car we just bought neeeded a new engine after it got semi exploded outside of Tokyo, Bret got hit by a car on his scooter (Bret is mostly okay), the scooter is now dead, our friend got bitten by a giant centipede and got a video of it, and lots more.

All that and more to come, enjoy another video of Maru in the meantime