Week 10: Wait, you can buy that?

I gotta say, this has been a beautiful month.

I have ridden my bike to work every day this whole month.  EVERY DAY.  The weather has been THAT nice.

I have been informed by one of my principals that this is unusual. That usually October is liberally peppered with Typhoons, especially on the weekends.  They all have sports festivals in October, and this is the first time in YEARS they haven't had to deal with the overhanging threat of rain.  While I would like to see a nice typhoon (the only one I went through, I nicknamed "the big drizzle") I am also enjoying this lovely weather.

It's getting crisp too!  I can tell because

1) I am no longer dying of heat and

2) everyone is putting on their coats and scarves.

I have yet to don long sleeves, though I will admit to wearing my short jacket one day.

I had previously been informed by my boss that when my school switches to winter wear I need to start wearing a suit coat, however, I know that schools have changed to their winter uniforms ONLY because I've noticed it on the way to school some mornings. None of my schools wear uniforms.  I'm wondering how long I can get away with not wearing a suit coat.....

Anyhow!

As mentioned by those who follow me on facebook, I was very sad this week.  AND nothing really happened. Lots of preparing for Halloween, but, you know, nothing much. So, this week is going to be "wait, you can buy that?"

Let's start with Halloween coming!  In honor of this, the nearby mall has set up the Halloween tree!

As I was watching, a mom brought her kids dressed up in costume and took pictures of them next to the Halloween tree. :)  The kids really seem to like it, now to introduce Trick or Treating!

You can, of course, buy a pumpkin

Why yes, that DOES say $26.

But they cost a bit.  Don't think I'll be carving this year.

Now, as mentioned, winter is coming along, and it's getting cold. Maybe you need a warm hat.

And it's seasonal!

And don't forget the sweaters!

it was so warm and fuzzy, I almost overlooked the cat.

 And, of course, you can't wear sandals anymore. Time to wear some shoes (darnit!)

and if you wear shoes, you need socks!

how do you CHOOSE?!

Now you're warm and comfy!  But then, what if you don't WANT to look like you're cold?

Goodness knows, you can't look comfortable AND be fashionable, right?

You need to layer, right?

They're little shorts!

Time to get yourself a belly warmer!  Gotta keep your core warm!

Well, you're all warm and comfy, time to get ready for school!

You're gonna need a backpack.  The iconic Japanese Elementary backpack is called a Randoseru.

They were originally all black, and according to Charles, just 15 years ago, they tried to expand the colors to include dark brown, but found that the students with dark brown backpacks were getting teased.

This has now changed, they are found in SO many colors.

Some of the girls' has bling, and lots are cartoon character themed.

 They are a bit pricey though.

$368 for a KID'S BACKPACK?!

This is the CHEAPEST backpack I could find ON SALE.  They go up to around $700, and if you look at the picture above this one, a purple was going for just $495.

 They last the entire time of Elementary school, and usually will be kept past that. (some have since passed them down to their children, I hear)  Or, of course, you can buy a knockoff.

Then you need study materials, like flash cards!

they're themed?

And of course, you need to keep your papers in a folder!

It was 2 weeks before I realized how snarky my folder was.

Now it's time to think of food!

This isn't odd food, I just liked the picture of the guy.

Disney themed soy sauce!

Barbecue sauce. I just... I broke out laughing in the grocery store.

You know, let's just have pasta.

maybe not THAT much pasta.

Ok, fine, we'll go out for dinner.

What IS a salad viking?

Fine, ok, dinner is over with, let's talk dessert.
Let's try fruit,

I hate bruised bananas.

You know, it's not sweet enough, let's have something else. I'm thinking roasting marshmallows,

No, wait, I have an induction stove. I can't roast marshmallows.

Let's have soda!

Melon soda, apparently

I like my soda with Popcorn, and luckily, you can get that at a vending machine here!

Hello Kitty popcorn!

Well, you know, they have some pretty good desserts at the local grocery store bakery, let's check that out.

Black eel shaped.

AAAAHHH

You know, I'm trying to cut back on sweets....I think I'll just skip dessert today.

Week 9: I'm going to too many festivals!

I have a new pet!

He's so cute!

His name is Albert, and he is a rosemary. (purebred) 

I haven't re-potted him yet because I've been too BUSY.  And when I'm not too busy, I'm too forgetful. Gonna try to fix that this week.

I went to two festivals this week! We didn't have school Monday, so after a lazy morning, I figured I'd go to the Indian festival in Kobe!  After all that dancing, I felt an easy walk around would be a good thing.  And you know? It was!

They had dancing!

And yoga!

I didn't get to participate, it was already too crowded.

And people in cool outfits!

dancers, waiting to go on.

And so much food!

yes, those are rain clouds in the distance. on and off all day.

I have never seen naan baked before, but they literally stick it to the wall of the oven.

 I'll admit, mostly went for the food.  As shown by the fact that they had cool market stalls, but all I got were curry mixes. :) 

I think they've got the wrong "Indian" here....

So, I got some tandoori chicken, and all the sudden, my stomach was complaining. "we're smelling all this wonderful food and you got ONE thing?!"  So I went back and got the "special plate" that had rice and naan and two kinds of curry and tandoori chicken.

Now, apparently Japan doesn't like things particularly spicy, because it was all VERY mild. (I have yet to try anything too spicy for me here) I mentioned to the shop owner (who spoke English) that I would like things hotter, and his eyes lit up and I'm like "I just asked an Indian for spicier food. Did I make a mistake?"  His assistant brought out a cup of red...stuff.  And put a dollop in each portion of my food.  Thankfully, it was JUST enough heat.  SO GOOD.

So there I was, watching the dancing, enjoying the nice day. Lingering over the last bits of my curry when the plate shakes! Something has dropped onto it! I think it's rain, because it's been threatening all day, but when I look down, I see a BIRD has POOPED in the rest of my green curry!!

The GALL!

I mean, I had eaten most of the food before this TRAVESTY happened, but STILL!

What's worse, because it fell in the green curry, it splashed green all over my shirt and my shorts!

And then a guy came and hit on me!  I'm like "dude, I'm tired, I'm sore, I just got denied the last of my curry, and now I have green on my shirt and shorts. There's nothing really you can do to make me feel attractive at this point.  Just...move on."



School has been pretty normal. Halloween is, of course, coming up.  My Friday school even bought orange pumpkins! (they're hard to find here)

The principal approached me "do you know how to carve a pumpkin?"
 "Oh, yes, I've done it many times."
"Oh good, can you carve ours?"
"...sure!  Love to!  Do you have a knife?"
"Let me check."

Later, she approaches me again.
"Can you draw on them instead?"
"Drawing doesn't really work. I've got a better idea."

The short one would have been great for a glower, but this principal wants a cheerful Halloween.

We stuck them in the windows, and of course, the kids loved them, and were always patting the pumpkins and saying "Bye Mr. Pumpkin!" (in Japanese.)

This weekend, my travel friend and I decided to go down to Wakayama to see the Lion dancing festival!  Which we never made it to.  Darnit. Still, it was a fun Saturday!  Wakayama is MUCH more rural than where I am, so it was NICE and they were near mountains! (and ocean!)  We saw a mountain shrine

and went to the beach!

She showed me how to hold hermit crabs, and there were a BUNCH of them!

so cute/hideous!

And it was JUST so PRETTY

And we went to a bath house with an outdoor bath!

Been a while, but still great!

When night fell, we met up with Charles and checked out the lantern festival! 

it was an igloo of flame!

you could tell kids had decorated the paper cups for the lanterns

bamboo with tea lights in the everywhere

one section had carved bamboo

there were performers around! and the castle is nice at night!

we even got to go up and see the city view at night!

They had a big red button and I DIDN'T push it!  At first.

It was lovely, and that's why we ended up not going to the Lion Dance festival.  By the time I noticed we had to go, we would have had to have sprinted to the train station, and we probably would have still missed it.  So we enjoyed ourselves anyhow.

There were some traditional musicians playing in one area, and I loved listening to it.  It sounded calm and mournful.  It sounded like mournful kazoos. 

And then we all went to our respective sleeping locations, because it had been a long day! :)

Next week is going to be a boring post, because I'm staying IN.

Doing laundry.

Sleeping.

Might even clean my room.

I'm having a blast! Really I am, but I think I need a short break before running back out there.  (and coincidentally, there are no nearby festivals next weekend.) 

Week 8: Swing time!

Ok, first of all, wasn't Conference GREAT?  LOVED it.

Onwards!

Well, the week itself isn't much to talk about.

I started biking to school (and back, of course) and I was jogging as well!  I think that's pretty cool!

They don't let me buy lunch at school (for whatever reason) so I always make enough dinner for lunch the next day. 

Or...the next FEW days apparently.

I didn't jog Thursday, but that wasn't JUST laziness.  It was PLANNING.  See, I knew I had a GREAT deal of exercise coming up that weekend.

Swing exchange!

Welcome to a corner of my heaven.

I haven't actually swung dance (swing danced? Done swing dancing? swung danced?)  for a couple YEARS now, so I got out there, and I knew I'd be rusty.  And I was! Charles was nice and said he couldn't tell.  I knew I WAS though, because I had to THINK about what I was doing!  It was hard!  After a few dances I loosened up and was able to relax.  A few MORE songs and I had it back again.  Guess it's muscle memory anymore. :)

Charles (guy from my swing club in Arizona) came in from the States and we went out to dinner before hand.

 And an interesting thing, I got some bacon.  For dinner.  It was thick cut bacon.  Like...two inches thick.  NO, seriously, it was like a little steak of bacon meat.  They cooked it on a grill nice and gentle and put pepper on it and then you squeeze fresh lemon over it. And I gotta say, it was GOOD.  Think of that, next time.

So, then dancing!  There were people with interesting clothes.

and I guess my living healthy has been helping, because I managed to swing for the whole three hours without too much trouble!  I won't say I got tired.  By the end of the night, I was making silly mistakes and when I finally staggered home at about 12:30, I DIED.

Saturday, I woke up sore, but well rested.  I got to talk to family and go shopping before taking off for...MORE DANCING!!

This was a contest. I didn't get pictures of most of the night because I was busy. Dancing.

I had a blast! I even got asked to dance several times!  Those who know me, know I'm REALLY subtle, and shy and retiring when it comes to asking people to dance.

Really.

(does anyone actually believe that?)

I, for some reason, don't get asked to dance very often, and since I REALLY like to dance, I just got used to asking others instead of sitting around and waiting.

This dance ended around 8:40, which is a little early for a dance, but then it started at 5:30, so it was still 3 solid hours of dancing.   They did have more dancing. Something called the "late night" but was actually an "early morning". It went from Midnight until 5:00 AM, and...again, I'm not really a late night person.  (My brain shuts down around 11:00) 

When I got home, I died again.

Sunday morning, I woke up SORE and TIRED and just laid about in bed. I was really glad this was the week for Asia to watch General Conference, because I did NOT want to leave the house before noon!

This week I am thankful for pain killer.

Then I went back to dancing.  Guess I'm a glutton for punishment. :)

Outside dancing!  I was really feeling the effects of a long weekend by this point and when dancing would feel interesting muscles pull.  They called a break, so I walked around Osaka castle park with Charles for a little to loosen up more.

There were adorable children

ACCEPT MY RETURNING OF THE BALL!!

And a raptor club!

I stare at you!

And there were kids practicing traditional dancing

And a street preformer

Then I went back to dancing! 

Because of course I did!

As I left, I was debating whether or not I was going to make it to the evening dancing. (It's an exchange. It just keeps going.)  And I finally decided my body had enough. I was done.  Three hours of dancing for three days straight, and apparently I'm not QUITE as in shape as the last time I went to an exchange. Either that or I'm more aware of consequences, because I DO have to survive enough to go to school.  I still did better than I thought I would.

Unfortunately, there WAS a casualty.

Alas poor fan, you served me well.  Go in peace.

Still, what a GREAT weekend!