BBQ at Komatsu Beach

I like the way the Japanese think!

beetle shaped rafts?!...ummmm ok.

The crew

Yoshinagawa Matsuri (Festival)

Ahhhh...I love fireworks!!

Yochien at the Beer Garden

 

the partiers of the school...too bad everyone couldn't make it

Pretty much all of the teachers from the yochien (kindergarten) got together tonight to relax and have a good time as a unit after school today.  We met in the lobby of the hotel below the beer garden and all went up together at about 7ish.  Daniel and I felt extremely underdressed after arriving since all the Japanese teachers had dolled themselves up...something I didn't do deliberately since I figured it was a beer garden and I didn't want to be over dressed for and show up my co-workers.  Man was I wrong...they all looked SOOO beautiful. 

Anyways, after getting upstairs we realized they were the ones a tad over-dressed and Daniel and I fit right in.  from 7 till 9:30 it was tabehodai (all you can eat) and namihodai (all you can drink).  Something the Japanese don't think of as a challenge, but the rest of us do...I cleared 8 full plates while everyone else had 1 maybe 2, and Daniel had like 10 drinks while the rest of us were down at around 3 or 4.  We'd taken the train in together and were going to get back the same way after stopping at Ingrid's to say hi....so we had to dodge around the good intentions of our fellow teachers when we were offered a ride home...I'm not sure how they would have taken it if we'd told them we were going to go to a bar after just been at a beer garden for nearly 3 hours.  I'm sure they would be watching us very closely at work tomorrow at the very least!!

I get paid to do WHAT?!

Yes folks, baseball.  I not only got paid while sitting and watching a baseball game all day today, but had my admissions ticket costs covered by the school.  We lost by a failed plan to try and win in the 13th inning...which is too bad since it would have mean Seiko's team would have been the best in the entire prefecture and gone on to national finals.  But I think a 2-2 score all the way to the bottom of the 13th is a pretty darn good job!

On top of the awesome day of watching baseball on the clock...since the game went so far into overtime, we didn't end up getting back to school until 6:30, so the school gave us an additional 1.5hours of vacation time we can use anytime.  Talk about awesome school benefits!

B.O.B.

BOB aka Beers On Beach...or in my case, Peach Chu-hi On Beach (doesn't have the same ring to it though does it?).  An AWESOME way to spend a beautiful sunny Sunday!

Ultra Potato

On the bus ride home

We saw this while on the bus coming back from Osaka Monday after noon.  If you told me the name and asked me to guess what kind of a business it was...never in a million years would I have come up with a used car dealership.  Just goes to show you how much creativity they put into naming stuff over here!!

Gion Matsuri Day 2

Great festival to go to, though the parade on the 2nd day is probably only a one time thing.  It`s very cool to see, but VERY long and Japanese summers are no small thing to be standing out in for 6 hours.  Definately will do the night before several more times if I ever have the opportunity again!

Gion Matsuri Day 1

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We'd just bought the yukatas and asked this sweet obaachan to help us put them on!

Pure in Osaka

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On the way back from the club at 5:30am!

best purikua!

So Jessica and I are probably addicted to Purikua...really fun photo booths where you can doodle on the pictures before they are printed out for you.  Seriously America, you need to import some of these things!

Anyways Jessica and I managed to get probably THE AWESOMEST purikua ever on our way to the club last night in Osaka.  Look below, and enjoy.  I know I'm not sick of this picture yet!

awesome dude award goes to...

So I was riding my bike back from in town tonight and this really cool looking car passed me...I SOOO wanted a picture, but of course I didn't have my camera in my hand so I was like "Damn!"  Then about 20yards ahead of me the car hits a red light....YES!!!

So as I'im riding closer I dig in my purse for my camera and lucky for me he was stopped right in front of the small (almost alley) Rd I was planning on taking to get back to my apartment.  So I held up my camera as I made my bike go as slowly as possible without grabbing TOO much attention, snapped a picture, and then turned down the road....and nearly hit a telephone pole...(T_T)

Which was not the smooth, cool snap shot as I was riding by senario that I had been hopping for, but oh well I got my picture of the sweet car right?

so i look at it and......

Apparently I left my camera on night setting from when I was taking pictures of the moon last night and fireworks on Friday.  (T_T)

So I continued down my street soo disapointed I'd missed that shot.  When out of the corner of my eye I noticed a VERY framiliar looking set of headlights on the big street that runs parallel to my almost alley I was currently peddling down.   i looked again to be sure and...yup the car had taken the street next to mine.  So I picked up my speed hoping to catch him at another red light (I know that road pretty well and there are 2 traffic lights between where we were and my apartment).  I was just getting up to an intersecting side road in order to get onto the same road it was driving on for my second chance at a picture when.....

The car suddenly turns onto the rd I was just about to cross into so I could be on the same rd he was on.  And right before my eyes he completes a U-turn onto my little alley street, coming right towards me!!Apparently the guy driving saw my failure of an attempt to get a picture of his car.....(therefore my unfortunate near miss at the telephone pole as well *sigh*).  The guy went and pulled a Uie so i could get a better shot of it.  When he pulled his car over asking if I wanted another picture I was like "YES PLEASE!"

The guy got out of his car and took my camera while telling me he'd take the picture so I could have one with me in it.  I had to attempt a few times to get my legs under the steering wheel, but eventually I got in!  Man was that cool...VERY low to the ground though.  I doubt I could actually handle driving it!

sitting in the awesome car!!

(meanwhile a full sized minivan had to manuver around us and got the funny entertainment of the forienger getting into a clown car sized vehicle)

 

Nice guy who went out of his way to let me get a picture with his car!



Happy Cows

Ok so this colorful cartooney cow sign is for a butcher's shop.  I think it's amusing that they have happy cows in the field wearing bowties as their advertizement.  It makes me giggle every time I see it, which is once a week.

The Hulk

I have no idea why.....but there is what I can only assume is a painting of the hand of The HULK on this building.  What is it doing you ask, why pointing at the doorway of course!

small kindnesses

So this sign hangs in a random business building on the skyblue bus route.  I've never seen the shades open, so am not even sure if this is an empty building or not.  This sign never fails to brighten my day.  So thank you random person who decided to write it and hang it in the window.  Hopefully everyone who sees it is able to read and understand your message to the world!

Thank you for Smiling

4th of July!!

After a half hour bike ride to the beach at 10pm we set up camp to play with fireworks....which ended up taking a conciderable amount of time as we hadn't banked on the pretty stong winds down at the beach.  It took us like 15 minutes to light off one roman candle!! haha but I think that only made the night better.  We brought drinks with us and chilled enjoying the water, sand and quiet while chatting and taking the occational sip.  I made friends with 2 random Japanese girls who where also there to light fireworks tonight.  They finished before us and came over to say "Hi" and since their lighter was better than the free one the conbini clerk where I'd boughten the fireworks had given me as a service we canned mine and asked to use theirs.  So after the introductions, they hung out with us for about an hour finishing off ours and talking.  Didn't get either of their phone numbers, so I'll probably never see them again, but hey that's Japan for you!! Randomly meet and talk with people for hours that you don't know! haha I love it!


I'm definately going back with more fireworks in the future when I think there is less wind!

pot luck at the yochien!