Worry Wart

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Matthew 6:34

The Murse

Alas, he's finally done it. Travis has purchased and is now carrying a murse. In Japan, I would venture to guess that 95% of the males carry murses or mlutches. 

He claims it's a manly one, since it's Coleman brand, but I'll let you decide for yourself. All I know is that I will no longer have to carry his stuff, and that makes me glad.

Travis is itching to make an appearance on the blog soon so I thought it might be fun to do a little interview with him. So, if you have any questions for him about Japan and what it's like to live and work here, please leave a few in the comments section. Please do or else I'll have to log in under fake names and leave them myself. 

Toyota-shi Fireworks

Last night we went to the Oiden Festival in Toyota-shi (Toyota City).  The main attraction was a fireworks display. I can't even put into words the awesomeness of the fireworks we enjoyed. They were absolutely huge, and each stage of the show seemed like the grand finale. I sat with my mouth agape for almost the entire show. At one point, I had chills. I was completely awe-struck by them. I was a bit disappointed that the show didn't commence with our national anthem, but oh well. I pretended it was the Fourth of July the entire time.

The fireworks were incredible, but I have never seen so many people in one place. Oh, man, it was so packed. 

Below are some pictures of the evening. Some of these pictures were taken by a friend of mine so I downloaded them from her facebook album. Mine didn't come out so great.

This is a small portion of the crowd that was lined up in the streets to watch the fireworks. This same pattern went on for what seemed like forever. 

This shows the train ride home from Toyota City. It takes about an hour by train. It is also extremely hot and humid here. Just imagine the comfort of the situation depicted by this photo.

Travis was quite amused by the fact that no one on the train seemed to have any personal space, except for him. Notice the perimeter around his body. He had a good foot around him the entire time. I, however, had a guy leaning on my left side and a lady leaning on my right side. I opted to prop by purse on one hip and my shopping bag on the other so I didn't have to make direct contact. 

Gross

A bird pooped on me today, and I found a worm in our lettuce.

Talk to the Hand 'cuz this Buddha Face ain't Listenin'

I am a jolly gaijin right now.  You're inevitably wondering why I am so happy. Well, I'm ecstatic because I am sunburned!! Hallelujah, we found a pool. Can I get a holler? I am so happy that I got to spend some much-needed time poolside this afternoon. And, I'm sunburned because I used SPF 4 sunscreen, so don't feel sorry for me. (I bet you're so proud, Heather.) It is a step up from the baby oil I've used in the past. Yes, I know it's stupid, and I'm going to be an old prune when I'm older, but I do enjoy a bronze glow in the summertime. 

The pool was quite fun but also interesting. In Japan, the women "enjoy" the pool practically fully dressed. They are almost always covered at least neck to thigh and oftentimes even wear pants. It is so unbelievably hot here that it actually causes me physical pain to see such a thing. They typically carry umbrellas to shade themselves while walking, gloves that go up to their elbows and large sun hats. As you can imagine, we gaijin most definitely stand out at the pool in our two-piece swimsuits. The Japanese women are much more intelligent for protecting their skin and usually look like they're 35 at 50, but I just can't let all of those UV rays go to waste. (This post won't be so funny when I have to get a melanoma removed.)

Enough about that. We had a great weekend again! This past weekend, we roadtripped it with two other couples to a little town called Nara. It's an extremely old town that was established during the 700's. The temples there were spared during the War. Thanks, Grandpa. 

Here we are under the entrance to a shrine in Nara Park.

This is me about to get malled by a group of greedy deer. Deer roam around freely in Nara and are considered messengers of god. One of these "tame" deer stood right on my foot for quite some time waiting for a biscuit. These "heavenly" animals are believed to protect the city and the countryside. The deer didn't like Travis so much. They could smell that he had killed many of their kind.

This photo is of the Todai-ji Temple, which is apparently the largest wooden building in the world. It is home to the world's largest bronze Buddha.

Above is the largest bronze Buddha. I like to call it "Talk to the Hand Buddha." Apparently 12 monks can fit into Buddha's left hand, which you can't really see in this picture. But, I don't believe it. Unless, of course, they are talking about Japanese monks. Then, I could maybe see it. Twelve American monks? I think not.

After we returned from Nara, we met up with some other friends for kaiten sushi, which is also referred to as conveyor belt sushi. It's pretty neat. You just have a seat and grab whatever sushi suits your fancy when the belt comes around to your spot. The sushi rotates along the belt on different colored plates. Each color denotes a different price. So, you just refer to the color key at your table to keep track of the cost. At the end of your meal, a waitress comes by, scans your plates and gives you a little hard plastic card. You take the card to the register, the cashier scans it, and you pay for your sushi. The thing that freaks me out is that I'm not entirely sure about the freshness of the kaiten sushi. I saw some plates go around several times. So, I prefer to special order, which is also acceptable. 

To view some more pictures, go here.

A Tropical Oasis Awaits Us

In less than a month, I hope to be sitting on the beach you see in the photo above. Travis gets a week off in August for the Japanese holiday called Obon. So, we're heading to Guam. I couldn't be more excited. Rumor is that the island has a Taco Bell AND the world's largest Kmart. Could you really ask for anything more?

Shhh....don't tell PETA

I'm a little frustrated as I write this because I'm having a hard time uploading many of the pictures I was hoping to share with you. So, you're going to have to go here to see view some of them for reference. Grrrr...

Sorry I've been out for a few days. It's been a bit busy. I'll start with the weekend. Last Friday, I met up with a few girls to go to Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens. We had been warned that this zoo was probably going to be a little different than zoos we'd frequented in the past. And, they were right. It was a fun day, but quite depressing at the same time. Living in St. Louis has certainly spoiled me on the zoo front, but this zoo was pathetic. I felt so badly for the animals. Once you've reviewed the pictures, I think you'll understand. 

On a brighter note, the Botanical Gardens was quite nice. Again, not as cool as the one in St. Louis, but enjoyable nonetheless. We also checked out the Nagoya Observatory Tower, which gave us all a nice view of the city.

Caution: Long paragraph ahead!

On Friday evening, I made the trek out to Toyota City by train to meet Travis for his welcome dinner. It takes a little over an hour by train with a couple of switches along the way. It was quite  an interesting evening. Looking back, I wish I would have taken more photos, but I felt a little awkward whipping out the camera at dinner. Not sure why since I should probably feel more comfortable snapping pics when dining with Japanese people than anywhere else in the world. Anyway, the dinner was really yummy. It was complete with sashimi (only fish, no chicken--Yes!), fried chicken, some salad and some yummy other dishes. Nothing too crazy, which was quite a relief. I just knew I was going to hear someone shout, "Challenge!" in the middle of dinner. (A "Challenge" is when Japanese people try to get each other, and especially foreigners, to eat ridiculous and usually disgusting menu items. Ask Travis about his chicken sashimi experience sometime. Well, he probably already told you.) We had a nice time, but it was certainly a little different. For starters, Travis' new co-workers insisted that I come along to the welcome dinner and justified it by saying that many of the Japanese guys would also be bringing their wives to the dinner. Ummm...not so much. It turned out to be me, about 25 Japanese guys and one other wife. I didn't mind too much, but it was a little awkward. To make things more interesting, a game followed that turned out to be a little like The Newlywed Game, only not as funny. Travis and I were put on the spot and asked questions like, "When did you fall in love?," "What was your first impression of each other?," "What do you like best about one another?," etc. WHAT?! Seriously?! Yes, seriously. I know, I couldn't believe it either. I would have felt awkward answering those questions in any setting, let alone in Japan with a group of people I just met. I must say that overall, it was a great experience. I really enjoy experiencing other cultures so the dinner was a nice way for me to do that. Plus, I must say it was pretty awesome seeing Travis interact so comfortably in a totally different culture and language. Ok, I'll say it, it was kind of hot. ;)

This is one of the dishes we ate at the welcome dinner. I believe it included chicken and cabbage. It also had some yummy spices on it. I love the little burners they bring out and set on the tables. What a great idea!

On Saturday night, we met up with some of our friends in Sakae. Sakae is an area in Nagoya that's pretty hip and trendy. It's bustling on a Saturday evening. We had a hard time finding a place to eat. Many restaurants, though not all, in Japan are pretty small, and we had a group of seven. We eventually landed on a Yaki Niku restaurant, which is like Korean BBQ. It was soo delicious! We had a great time hanging out.

After dinner and a brief stop at Haagen Daaz, we decided it was time to ride the ferris wheel. It was certainly the nicest ferris wheel I had ever experienced. It was air conditioned, had a little plasma screen television, little bucket seats and cup holders. 500 yen/each (about $5) was a little steep, but I'd say it was worth every yenny!

Buttons Everywhere

Good news! Our air shipment arrived yesterday, and now we're living in our apartment. It's so much better than the hotel room, and I'm so happy to be able to start getting settled.

I thought it would be fun to give you a little tour of some of the control panels we have in our apartment. It seems like there are buttons everywhere you turn. 

This photo is of the control panel outside of our shower. It enables us to change the temperature inside the shower if we want to use the shower as a clothes dryer. Our washing machine is tiny and is actually a washer/dryer combo. The dryer doesn't work so hot and uses a lot of electricity so we'll most likely be hanging our clothes on the patio or using the shower drying option.

This is the panel for the toilet. It's pretty stinking awesome. The lid opens as we approach the toilet, it flushes automatically and then gives a little warning beep before the lid closes for a final time. These buttons allow us to use the bidet option, change the temperature and even dry our parts after they've been thoroughly washed.

These are the dishwasher controls. I'm pretty sure I won't really be using it because it's pretty tiny, and I'm too scared to mess it up. Plus, I'm not working right now so I have plenty of time to wash by hand. Don't pass out, mom.

These buttons, located in the kitchen, turn on the hot water and allow us to control the temperature. This panel also allows us to start a bath from the kitchen and select the water temperature. The water level, temperature, etc. can be programmed so that a bath can be run at the same time each day. 

This isn't the last of the buttons, but it's the last of my pictures. These buttons control the wood floor heaters. Almost every room has a separate panel so that we can keep our tootsies warm during the winter.

Hope you enjoyed the button tour!

Kyoto and Austin Powers

This post has the potential to be lengthy since I haven't blogged in a few days. 

Our weekend was packed full of fun! On Friday night, we celebrated the 4th with several other Americans by going to an unagi restaurant in Osu Kannon. Unagi is one of the cuisines for which Nagoya is famous. It's a dish of grilled eel. Osu Kannon is a famous Buddhist temple surrounded by lots of shopping and dining. It reminds me a little of New York City's Chinatown but with less annoyance. The meal was pretty tasty, but it wasn't spectacular in my opinion. I still would have preferred a grilled cheeseburger, but I realize I no longer live in America. I'm ok with that.

This is part of the group that went with us. It was traditional Japanese style so we all had to sit on the floor. I got a kick out of watching Travis struggle to sit cross-legged for that long. 

It's also worth noting that we were served miso soup along with our meal. The soup contained the eel's heart. While Travis gobbled it up in stride, I chose to sit out on that one. Apparently the eel's heart is great for women's skin, but then again, the Japanese also recommend raw chicken for pregnant women.

On Saturday, we met up with some friends to head to Kyoto by shinkansen (bullet train). It only took us about 30-45 min. to get there, and we had a great time.

This photo was taken in front of the Golden Pavilion, Rokuon-Ji Temple. It is quite a pretty site.

This is a photo of the rock garden at Royoanji Temple. I was pretty excited to find out the symbolism behind this arrangement of gravel and rocks but was pretty disappointed when I read this from the brochure, "It is up to each visitor to find out for himself what this unique garden signifies." What?! You've got to be kidding me! I've been staring at this photo for hours, and still nothing. 

We also spotted what at first seemed like a romantic little rickshaw ride. Wait, but that's a person. These people were actually being carted around by a person. What this picture doesn't show you is that it had to have been over 90 degrees and the humidity was about 300%. It was soo hot. It grosses me out to even see these people with a blanket on their legs. Plus, the guy pulling this cart had to go up a ginormous hill. It was pretty incredible. 

And, we saw real geishas. This was a highlight for me since I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha right now. I should have finished it a month ago, but I'm slow.

Here we are in front of the Ginkakuji Temple. This temple was the prettiest, but also the creepiest. I sang "Jesus Loves Me" through parts of this one.

As we were walking up the hill to visit the last temple, my new friend, Beth, said, "Hey, there's Mike Myers." So, I glanced back, but couldn't get a good look and just carried along thinking what she really meant was that she saw a guy who looked just like him. About a half hour or so later she mentioned that he was right next to us again. So, I tried to get a good look, and bam! he looked right at me. My mouth dropped because, it WAS Mike Myers!!! Sweet! Of course, I planned to get a great shot to sell to People Magazine for thousands. We all stood staring for a second, and then his bodyguard sternly said to us, "He's on vacation." And, I felt like a big jerk for not respecting his relaxation rights and moved on. We continued to see him a half a dozen or so times, and it never got old. I'm not afraid to admit that I was completely star-struck! I can't help but wonder if he called a restaurant while he was in Japan to order cremofsumyungai. In the picture, he's on the one wearing the white t-shirt with khaki shorts. He has a goofy-looking straw hat on.

Happy 4th of July!

Not a whole lot has been going on these last few days, but I'll give it a shot.

We're still stuck in this hotel and most likely will be until Tuesday. The quarters are getting pretty tight, but I suppose I should be enjoying the simplicity of having my towels folded and washed and my bed made daily. But, I'm not enjoying it. Not one bit. I'm ready to get this show on the road! I am ready to try out my new kitchen and to sit on my balcony and read my new Chelsea Handler book. But, alas, I will stay here for now.

Since I last blogged, I have been able to hang out with a couple of American gals. We've had a Starbucks/shopping date and breakfast at Denny's. The Starbucks is pretty much the same, and the Denny's...well, sorta. The breakfast was pretty tasty, but I must warn against purchasing eggs at a restaurant in Japan. The menu picture showed them as being over-easy, but there was a BUNCH of extra clear runny fluid involved. I'm not a very picky eater, but one bite was plenty for me. The French toast and orange juice were splendid, though.

Travis has been working 13-15 hours a day so far. I'm really hoping that's not a trend for how it's going to be for the next 18 months, and I know he's hoping it's not, either. It's a privilege to be able to participate in this program, but it's pretty hard when our time together is only 2-3 hours/day. It wouldn't be quite so bad at home, but for now I pretty much just hang out with myself all day, and let's face it, I'm not that cool.

I have been trying to study Japanese on my own, and I applied for a one-day-a-week class. Hopefully I'll be accepted, whatever that means. I am actually really looking forward to tests and homework. I actually miss school and the challenge of exams. I'm also hoping to get hooked up with a private tutor soon.

As I mentioned previously, it's been a pretty uneventful week, but I'm really looking forward to the weekend. We are supposed to attend a little get-together for the 4th tonight and have plans to head to Kyoto tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm working on planning a vaca to Thailand in August so if any of you have any tips, please pass them along. Apparently my thoughts that it would be so much cheaper to fly from Japan to other Asian destinations were all hogwash. Yeah, it's not so much cheaper. Yikes!

Well, I hope everyone has a fabulous 4th of July! The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays. I LOVE summer and BBQs. If I could get my chops on some potato salad and some strawberry shortcake right now, whoa buddy! But, instead, maybe I can get some sashimi and green tea ice cream. Delightful, don't ya think?

Japanese Black Friday?

I just returned from quite the shopping experience. It seems as though I have stumbled upon the Japanese version of Black Friday. Oh, what a shame.

I went shopping today, and the sales were oh so abundant. It was crazy. There were people everywhere and practically elbowing each other to get the highest quality sweat dabber cloths. I think that's what all of the high-end washcloth-like things are. Pretty sure you buy really trendy and cute washcloths at department stores so that you can dab the sweat beads off of your face and forehead in style. The summers here include ungodly humidity, thus such an accessory is necessary. Missouri has nothing on Japan when it comes to humidity. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but my jeans were definitely sticking to me today. But then again, why was I wearing jeans?

Speaking of things you wear on your bottom half, you cannot even begin to fathom the booty shorts that exist here. I have never in my life seen shorter shorts. They're everywhere, too. Apparently it's in style to wear denim undies with heels and parade around. I think that's one trend I will not be bringing back to the U.S. Go ahead, thank me now.

Well, it is with great sadness that I admit to returning from my bargain hunt with only a few items-a shirt, some postcards and a few Japanese text books. Next time I guess I'll have to take more ammunition.