Hello (Installment 1 of Many)

We said good bye to Stacey and Jeremy yesterday. It's funny, I don't know if people think I'm much of a crier (outside my family), but I'm a huge crier. So anyway, I cried~I'm being cheesy (and honest) but what better way to tell them how much fun it was to have them here? Plus, it was good that I cried, Ryan keeps me so happy that my tear ducts needed the exercise.

I'll be updating every few days with a few pictures. Ryan went camera crazy, so there aren't too many pictures of him. ._.

Anyway, they arrived on a Wednesday and on Tuesday we took them through our "daily life" sites.

We went to Showa no Mori where Jeremy made friends with Japan playground equipment (since we can't have this kind of stuff in the U.S.), and taste tested/became intimately aquainted with some of our local bamboo.



The we went to the park across the street from Show no Mori~we don't know the name of it, but we call it "The Legend of Zelda Park" since it has the same feel as the place in the SNES version in which Link finally gets the Master Sword.



After that was PuriKura (short for Purinto Caraa=Print Color) or Photobooth. They've gotten pretty high tech and we mutilated/photoshopped (that's how high tech their regular photobooths are) all our cute pictures into a fun mess.


Then we had Tako Yaki (tako=octopus yaki=fried) it's a piece of octopus leg set into gooey fried pancake-like batter covered in Japan BBQ, Mayo and seaweed sprinkles~YUM! It's super hot though.



And that was the end of the first day. Coming Next: Kamakura hiking.

Kyoto

We are now in Kyoto, there will be lots later.

Comfortable

"I gotta tell you how I'm feeling,
In case you haven't noticed,
The mystery is gone.
Infatuation's wearing off.
I gotta tell you how I'm feeling,
I think that you'll agree,
That we've become predictable,
But I really don't mind being this comfortable."


Photo By B.K. ^_^

It's a Birthday Party in My Mouth!

Ice Cream Release Dates
First, I'd like to announce that our local Baskin-Robbins has yet to sell Piece of Cake ice cream (last year's January special) again this year. This has become very problematic for us as we are rapidly losing weight since we no longer make our weekly trips to engorge ourselves upon two large scoops of it. We even had a weekly $10 ice cream budget which is now going into our I.R.A. and more than doubling our monthly deposit.

Still, we long for it and can say it's been more devastating than Steve Jobs's recent hyped up release of a $100 Ipod leather case and $300 stereo, which wasn't really that devastating and brings us all plenty to laugh about.

Poli Ticks
I've finally been bitten by the Poli Tick, an informative and maze-like talker of a bug. I was previously afraid to ever discuss politics with anyone except Ryan, really, because I was greatly convinced I would lose a good many friends. Even though I've been out of college for 2 years the habit of silence is hard to shake; thanks to Jenny's kindness (in showing me that people can discuss world events with real concern and without expensive amounts of cynicism), I have become to feel more brave:

The Sean Allen issue really hit home for me since Melissa is in high school and has to frequently deal with off-topic propaganda in the classroom. To be honest, it concerns me to have kids recording their teachers in the classroom. As a teacher I know we all accidentally slip up, even in our own topics which we're supposed to know everything about. These days, way too much is frequently made of small events/words that are simply the result of being human. There is just too much nitpicking and we certainly don't require a larger stock of noses to satisfy this need, we need self-control. However, when it comes to debating off-topic subjects frequently and in an underage classroom, it becomes important to me and I think this quote from Hannity sums up my opinion on the matter "Now, if they [teachers] are so confident to say it [personal political rampages] in front of a captive audience of students, young students, then they ought to be able to debate them publicly." I think the "captive audience" part is key. I won't say more because I always typetalk too much for it to be of benefit.

I love you Melissa, you are very brave.

Win a Prize!
Can you tell me what has changed on this blog, aside from the pinkness?

The Best Game Ever?!?

This is a HUGE windows media player file for those with slow computers. However, it's 35 minutes into the latest game by Maxis (creator of the sims). The game actually changes play style from action/building, to RTS/building, well, I'll just let you watch it! Too bad it'll probably only be for Windows when it comes out in Fallish 2006.

Spore

I was wrong THIS is the biggest Buddha in Japan

So it turns out there are a number of "biggest Buddhas in Japan." The one in Kamakura on Ryan's blog is the biggest one in Japan made of bronze. This one is officially the biggest. He's sitting on a giant lotus flower. In front of him is a incense burning altar thing. This area is called Nokogiri Mountain. It's about a 2 hour train ride from our apartment (driving would probably be 45 minutes).


He's carved into the mountainside, as you can see. He has a very pleasant ocean view too.



There is a trail leading up the side of the mountain (it's really just a very very big hill) in a zig zag path past many Arhat (person who has obtained enlightenment) statues.


This fellow was over looking a walking path about 30 feet below.


This one looks inspired by China-inspired by Indian Buddha things.



At the top there was a great view of the surrounding area, the ocean is to the left of this picture, you can see it in the top left corner a bit.


And here's a photo of the place where Ryan and were just standing in the photo above.


We then went to the ropeway station and bought tickets to ride the cable car down. Right in the station a man was selling the most wonderful dango (basically rice that's really smushed together and made into little balls on a stick). It was flavored sakura (cherry), potato and plain (just rice). Yum!


Then we rode a cable car that was about the length and width of a VW Beetle down the mountain.









I bet you thought our date was over? NO! After our pleasantly exhausting climb up the mountain we stopped on the way home to eat at an (Japanese) Italian buffet. Nice atmosphere!

Instead of drinks after dinner, we went to an Oxygen bar to get rejuvinated. Yes, we're wearing nose plugs. I'm hooked into lime, mint and watermelon flavored/scented oxygen; Ryan's were mountain berry, pina colada (how do I write a tilde?), strawberry, and...something else. We could turn each scent on and off as we liked. Pretty fun!


the end.

St. Valentine's Day

In Japan, Valentine's Day is a day for girls to give boys to chocolate. It began when a chocolate maker mixed up the message of Valentine's Day in the West and managed to focus on the interesting fact that Western women show affection openly to their men on that day. So the chocolate maker made it a holiday on which girls should give chocolate to boys, and made a lot of money. Now, girls often give purchased chocolates to their friends (guy or girl) and make some kind of chocolate treat for that special guy.

In keeping with this, I made the ever so rare (in Japan) Peanut Butter Cup for Ryan--since it's his favorite kind of sweet.

I melted some good plain chocolate and microwaved some peanut butter a teensy bit. Then I mixed a little bit of honey with the peanut butter. After that it was: melted chocolate, peanut butter, melted chocolate, candy hearts and into the fridge. The whole thing turned out quite melty and soft. I also assume it was very edible since it disappeared so quickly.

Eventually, a marshmallow company proclaimed March 14th to be "White Day." A day on which boys should return gifts to the girls who gave them stuff in the form of, you guessed it, marshmallows. Now, they often give white chocolates, not marshmallows.