Have I mention: I love Karaoke?

Yeah that is the one I ate by myself...the smaller one is what Sana and Fuusan shared.

cardboard cut outs in the lobby of our favorite karaoke place!

I don't know if I've really gone into how much I love karaoke...since getting to Japan in february I think I've gone at least 10 times.  And I'm usually the instigator of it when hanging out with my friends and wondering what to do for the next few hours.  Granted I don't really like singing at Ingrid's since I know I have a HORRIBLE voice, and everyone there when I sing usually gives me a hard time.  I do at least feel slightly better knowing that Jessica is worse than I am. 

This is actually pictures from a while ago, the girls took me out karaoking just last weekend for my birthday and it was hilarious.  I had Sana and Fuusan sing me "happy birthday" by EXILE in Japanese...it was epic. 

Best route contest!

Orange Bus

Come House
Trigun Refference

VS. 

Red Bus

Beauty Shaving
Perky Cafe

Tied for now but Green Bus soon to enter the competition....I've spotted some amusing shots that I still need to get some photos of!

Naming department does it again

Sucess or failure?  I can't decide

I think this is a hair salon as the Katakana says "kami house" and kami means hair and the posters in the windows....but you never know I suppose!

Puddle Jumping!!!!!!

So the begining of the typhoon rain started LITERALLY while we were on the train.  We got on, nothing coming down and we were perfectly dry...we get off (without umbrellas) and are soaked within moments.  And completely caught off guard since Jess and I both accidently fell asleep on the train, so the downpour was a total suprise.  Needless to say, being already drenched, puddle jumping (reguardless of the inappropriate footwear for the task) could not be resisted!

best action shot ever!



Boo! bad timing on the photo for this one Jess!

 And later once we had gotten some sleep, Jess and I decided to walk to Fuji-grand (has movie theater) to see what was playing....yes we WALKED 20minutes in a TYPHOON just to check out what was playing at the movie theater.  Our umbrellas were sideways the entire way and I still only managed to keep the top half of me about 80% dry.  Oh and if you notice my umbrella is closed.....the rain stopped just as we entered the parking lot.  Go figure! We each bought a new pair of pants/skirt before the movie started...which neither of us knew anything about it but decided to watch anyways because, hey we'd just WALKED there during a TYPHOON!  It wasn't that great fyi.

....Night at the bar!

Malibu shots with the owner/birthday girl

So after a great afternoon at the beach we made it back to our apartments with just over an hour to spare to get showered and catch the train into town for Ingrid's birthday bash.  Which was awesome!  Daniel had to bail at 11:30pm because of a Kendo test in the morning, but Jessica and I stayed out till the first train back at 6:00am 


And yes I did take bloggers license on the stamp date of this to flow with the previous post!

Day at the beach....

I know it doesn't look like it in these photos, but we have an inpending typhoon scheduled to hit tomorrow or Monday...the weather was fabulous and the still distant typhoon made the waves AWESOME.  After a vigourous ride into the high winds towards the water we spent an awesome several hours on the beach and in the water.  AHHH, great way to start a Saturday!

Im officially a pilgrim!

The pilgrimage route

So I had a great past few days with my friends for my birthday Friday and Saturday which led up to today, my actual birthday.  WHOOT I'm officially 25!!! I had a more laid back day today, I slept in till 1pm and got dressed and Jessica and I realized it actually wasn't raining.  A miracle it seems these days, so we decided to do temples 1-3 of the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku Island (where we live).  After packing for our bike trip we headed out.  I stopped in the gift shop at temple 1 and bought the pilgrim's stamp book.  Jessica refrained which I think is a pity, even if I don't get to all 88 it's a great suvenior!

Temple 1

The first temple took us about 40 or so minutes to get to, we stopped at Lawson's for a few onigiri and drinks after our ride and ate on a bench right in front of the temple.  It was really funny, we ran into one of the students from Seiko who was doing the pilgrimage with her parents.  I didn't recognize her and neither did Jessica, but she recognized me...makes me think she must be a kindergarten student, but I know all their faces...if not names, and she wasn't one of them.  Though she could have been one of the K5s that I had only been working at Seiko for a month before they graduated.  I only learned names and faces of a handful of them, and not all of them went to the Elementary School.

Temple 2

 After getting my book from Temple 1 we got back on our bikes and headed to the 2nd one, which was only 1.7km away.  Riding a bike around is fast becoming a favorite way to travel.  I miss the speed and convience of driving, but you get to see so many awesome things by biking....for example we saw wild monkeys~!  I almost missed them being on the bike, but managed to see the movement out of the corner of my eye and stopped to look and spotted them.  Jess was completely oblivious until I said something.  It was great.  Might have to go back out that way just for the monkeys!!! 

Once we got there Temple 2 was nothing really special, though I did get some great shots of their garden bridge, one of which I might paint in the future.  I'll have to wait and see about that one! 

Temple 3

Temple 3 was about 3km from the 2nd one so it took a bit longer to get to, it too wasn't as exciting as temple 1, but then temple 1 was a lot of fun because of the statues Jess and I kept climbing up on and taking pictures with.  I found only one to do that with here, and it wasn't even that creative.  Is it bad that I judge how good or bad a temple is by if I could find stuff to climb on that will result in amusing photos.  Somehow I think the answer is yes....boo I feel uncultured! 

once done with Temple 3 we briefly contemplated continuing on to number 4 but it was getting late and 4 was over 6km away, we decided to leave that one for later and headed home.  It started raining briefly on the ride back.  Thankfully it stopped after only about 10 mins of a mild rain or heavy sprinkle...depending on how you look at it.

Krillin's Hair Salon

So I don't about you...but Beauty shaving?

 But then I suppose with such a well known personage as their loyal customer they wouldn't lack for business.  Check it out...they must specialize in getting the dots on your head!

Before



After



He seems happy enough with the job to keep coming back for the entire duration of the show!

Note: Krillin's character does not actually have anything to do with this salon...but really, how could I resist!



Random happenings at Ingrids

So Jessica is playing in Osaka this weekend, and I am left to my own devices for entertainment. 

Ingrid had another dance party tonight so I decided to go.  A few people I knew were probably going to attend so it wasn't going to be completely pathetic to go to a bar by myself.   I was right in my assumption, 5 friends of mine were there and we had fun chatting and dancing.  By 2am all but my friend Hal had vacated the premisis and I was getting ready to do the same....just waiting for a sufficient time gap between when the last people had left since with my departure it would leave just Hal and a random Japanese man who was working very hard to get trashed. 

While mixing in finishing what I intened to be my last drink with dancing to hide my desire to leave ASAP from Ingrid I must have rialed up the soon to be drunk Japanese man because the second I finished my drink he bought a round for everyone in the bar which (including the staff ) was 5 people.  Not so impressive as the scenes in the movies where they do that and the place is packed.  Haha, so of course I didn't want to deprive Ingrid of the little money she was going to make that night by declining and leaving.  So Hal and I kept the man entertained and drinking.  Over the course of the rest of the night he bought a round for everyone

 another time, and for Hal and I specifically once.  By about 3:30 he succeeded in his goal of getting trashed and I think decided to play cupid between Hal and I as a way to live vicariously though him.  Every time we managed to not be standing next to each other the man would come over and do a 3 person hug so we would be squished together. 

Now Hal is becoming a pretty good friend of mine, but it was REALLY hot inside Ingrids and we were all sweaty and grose (I had to use a towel to de-hal sweat myself -eeewwww!)....plus I didn't really relish forced hugs with Hal...and it took Hal's and my combined efforts to keep the man from making Hal grope me all night.  After a while it progressed to demanding we kiss (thankfully the cheek satisfied him) and saying "I rove you."   Apparently he wasn't that particular though, cause when I managed to evade his Hal herding and took shelter behind Ingrid he started wanting Ingrid to claim she loved me.  Ingrid found this hilarious, she'd already been smothering her laughter all evening, and I must admit, I'd been throughly enjoying the absurdity of the night.  I mean come on, something like this would NEVER happen in America.  By 5am when the man passed out at the bar and Ingrid woke him up and kicked him out we'd remained relatively unscathed. 

I'll probably give Hal a harder time when we stand next to each other for a while though.  I forgive the man for being crazy and drunk, it was amusing and a once in a lifetime happening, but if I ever run into him around town (drunk or sober) I'm totally punching him in the face.

Crafts for kids

So my teacher for Sakura (cherry blossom) class is SUPER creative with crafts for the kiddies.  Over the last 3 weeks alone this is what she has come up with:

Frogs made from milk cartons, glue and construction paper

snails using paper, crayons, paint and a bottle cap

Crabs with glue, construction paper, Japanese fan and streamers

They are working on some more right now, I can't wait to see how they turn out!

awesome stickers

Orange bus

Ok so I ride past this "salon" everytime I am assigned to Orange Bus.....Trigun throw back anyone?!

Super Bentos

Silly Faces

Minnie Mouse

Rilakkuma

Pikachu

Thank goodness I'll never be a mom in Japan.  Love the culture and people, but this is just too much for me to handle.  These are just from one of the classes....I have no idea what the other moms magically created....

Rilakkuma-a-holic

Warning: what you are about to see is over the top and completely out of control.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Rilakkuma just as much as the next person here in Japan.  Much better than like 90% of the things people find cute, but this is really JUST TOO MUCH.  All in one car...not quite sure how they even fit in it themselves.  And yes, I am aware I probably shouldn't have been taking photos of the inside of someone else's car without their permission....but resisting was impossible!  Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Making me smile~!

Life size Pink Panther...need I say more?

I know it doesn't actually say Orge...but you can't help seeing it while reading, and added  to the CD title....

new 100￥store!

A tad extreme in my opinion.