62 Days

I bought my plane ticket yesterday and on June 27th I'll be boarding Northwest 070 for the one-way trip home. I'm sure those days will fly by with unbelieveable speed. Just saying the date out loud makes it feel like tomorrow.

First Croaks

Heavy weekend rains brought out the first of the frogs. I'm very excited for late night chorus to start up again soon, but for now just the occasional ribbit out the window. I can hardly wait. I'm practically giddy.

Out Of The Way Places

While we're on the subject of procrastination...

To a certain degree, our entire life here is lived "out of the way" but living between mountain ranges provides a lot of nooks and crannies we're still only finding out about now. And then the real problem is actually going once we have noticed them. The pics above were taken only about a mile and a half from our house. The waterfall and shrine are amazing. Down at the road, there is nothing but a turn-off and a small sign though. We've driven by and contemplated going up countless times but only recently actually did it. What a payoff! We feel silly for not going sooner.

And then there's this:




There is a place in Yasutomi that we thought was a park set far off the road. When we finally drove out there this weekend, it turned out not to be a park, but a historical spot with a hexagonal tomb from the 7th century. It turns out there are less than 20 of these in Japan and this is the first one they discovered.

SO... if there's some place you've been meaning to explore, some small road you always thought about turning down, I highly recommend you do. Very cool things are hiding out there.

Procrastination, Gag Gifts

Laziness has its costs. Since people enjoyed the food post, all week I kept meaning to take a picture of our Kanji Quiz toilet paper & do a post about how gag gifts are pretty universal. As you can see I waited too long, so I grabbed the last strand today and took that sad photo above.

The T.P. was a funny gift. I got for Christmas (when I was still making a semblance of an effort to study Japanese) but Colleen boycotted its use for several months. Unfortunately the quiz portion was over our heads, but it served its more practical function very well.

From the Cupboards

"Oh! Chips" is an awesome brand name. The fact that they came up with the amazing tuna & mayo flavor is just proof of their greatness. Tuna/mayo is a popular sandwich, rice ball and sushi combo, why wouldn't it work with potato chips? Pretty genius. They brought on some horrid breath that lingered for quite a while, but I'd consider that a very minor downside.


Kinoko No Yama: The chocolate that's shaped like a mushroom! Pretty crummy overall, but undeniably cute. The chocolate is like wax, but the animal cracker-like stem is very enjoyable.


This one isn't necessarily a weird food, but I realized this week that our curry powder has a native american on it. Wrong indians, fellas. Just a little off base there. Navajo curry, anyone? The saddest thing about this is we've had this curry for at least six months and I just now realized it.

In Bloom

It's Spring and that means only one thing around here: Sa-Ku-Ra. Yes, the delicate little cherry blossoms are popping up all over the place and brightening the landscape quite a bit. My only attempt at a hanami (flower viewing picnic complete with copious amounts of food & liquor) was a bust, but maybe I'll get another chance. They should be around for another week or two. Then they will fall and remind us all how fragile life is or how soon the spring sales will be ending or something like that.

Getting Surreal Around Here

A couple scenes that document this:

Saturday: As Colleen and I are getting ready to pull out of a parking spot, we are blocked in by a gentleman who wants to practice his English. He doesn't just want to practice the normal basics. No, he'd like to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" for us and have us grade him on it. Luckily, he actually sang it very well as I was quite afraid of cracking up in his face. Did I mention he was waving a miniature American flag while he did this? Or that he asked us only to refer to him as "Eagle?"

Last Night: A bunch of English conversation students couldn't make it to the weekly class, so we went out for pizza instead of having a lesson. While there another man I've met once before who is great at English and friends with some of the students showed up and joined us. Then out of nowhere he turns to me and asks, "Do you know Dr. Steven Greer?" followed by "May 9, 2001?" I tell him these don't ring any bells and he looks at me like he can't believe it. He then proceeds to give a quick (and almost evangelical) primer on UFO theories and anti-gravity, quite a jump from the typical foreigner small talk. Google "Dr. Steven Greer" for your own lesson.

Today I'm heading off with someone I barely know to have lunch with someone I've never met before. What wonderful weirdness will this afternoon bring?