School officially started yesterday.  We had opening ceremony, The Great Cleaning, and then classes started today.  I sit at my desk everyday during the summer vacation wishing for the term to start, but then once it does I miss the peace and quiet from the break.

So now that summer is leaving, that means the cicadas are going going almost GONE!!  ( Read more... )

Long time, no update!

I come here today with my new internet toy... INSTAGRAM!!!  Since I now have a "smart"phone, I can finally use this shiny little photo app to take artsy cool photos. I've been taking pictures of everything the last couple days lol.  I just wish I could get the thing to cooperate with my Facebook! XD

My latest photography attempt ( Read more... )

Saturday afternoon was Rainbow Town's first fishing expedition. Well, it was more like have a nice picnic and attempt to fish while not have a clue what to do kind of expedition....

I was exhausted so my contribution for the picnic was some beautiful, tasty watermelon.  We also had stuff for the grill, some other fruits, aaaaaand... I think that's ( Read more... )

I almost feel like I'm living in a comedy of errors.

Or maybe some bizzaro Japanese office drama.  All I know is that everything about this week has been completely wonky.

First there was the great computer shuffle.  This involved moving one of the PCs over to the part-time desks.  Well after that got all moved, it took 6 teachers to move it the next ( Read more... )

I had another interesting Japanese cultural experience a couple weeks ago. This time... Ikebana!  It's Japanese flower arranging and I've been wanting to try it for a long time.  I had just been thinking about it, actually, when my friend invited me to a class with her and another friend.  What splendid timing!

It was just three of us in the class ( Read more... )

On Sunday I had the joy of going to my first ever sumo tournament in Osaka.  I was supposed to go last year, but the tournament in Osaka was cancelled because of match fixing.  Huge scandal!!

So I really had no idea what to expect.  I had seen sumo on tv.  Looked like a bunch of big guys pushing each other around.  I got to the venue with my friends ( Read more... )

McDonald's recently had a super cool campaign.  Spongebob toys in the Happy Sets!  I love Spongebob, so naturally I had to get some.  I only told myself that I would get a couple, but then I had a knack for getting all the athlete toys which weren't my favorites and then doubles of those.  It was a surprise in every package.  It can be lots of fun ( Read more... )

I went to the Chirimen Craft Museum in Kyoto a couple weeks ago in hopes of finding some cute crafts for Valentine's Day.  They surprisingly had NOTHING, except for one craft in the shape of a heart and probably not related to Valentine's Day, BUT they did have some cute other things!

The theme for this time of year is 7 Lucky Gods.  There's one for ( Read more... )

I went home for the holidays and when I got back to Japan, my very first weekend was full of fun things to do! And it was a 3-day weekend on top of that!

On Saturday I went shopping and saw Mission Impossible at the movie theater. Sunday was a big exciting day for me.  It was the National Kite Festival in Himeji. It was so much fun last year so I ( Read more... )

I stopped in the post office on the way to the mall to get a couple dragon stamps.  Here is my interesting conversation:

Me: "Doragon no kite arimasuka?" (Do you have any dragon stamps?)
Clerk #1: "Doraemon?" (Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon character.)
*I shake my head no*
Clerk #2: "Doragonbaru?" (Dragonball)
*I point to a picture of a dragon*
Clerk #1 ( Read more... )