first we went to ueno.
ueno park (koen) was beautiful. there were shrines and temples and gardens.
this is me showing mom and dad how to cleanse before entering a shrine.
then on to akihabara, the electionics supermecca.
dad bartered his way to a great deal on a touch screen digital camera. 10.1 megapixels. 10.1!! i am happy and jealous all at the same time.
as always... more pictures on flickr.
the best day of nothingness ever. we met up with mom and dad around noon. came back to asaka and showed them around a little. dad keeps saying "and this is a street." brought them to our apartment. mom said that it's smaller than it looks in pictures.
i think they are having fun so far. we had supper at ohsho with guy and mai. darren and guy tried to get dad drunk.
i still can't believe they are here...
and totally unrelated, here is darren at karaoke:
"randy and theresa": our airport sign...
finally. after an 11 hour flight, a 1 hour wait in customs, and 2 hours on trains (we had to take 3 of them)... MOM AND DAD ARE HERE!!!
and they'll probably kill me tomorrow for posting this picture of them.
this was our lunch on christmas eve. we had basically the same thing today. my favorites: top left and top right (tuna and salmon). i love japan. this whole tray was 750yen.
yestserday it poured. and i mean poured. all day. and now, it's 21degrees. very windy though, but 21.
ps
26hrs...
yup. i made eggnog. it was delicious. and the green stuff in the little bowl? those are wasabi covered soybeans.
i know you are all excited to see our japanese turkey. well this is the christmas of the turkey that never was. they burnt it. and after much apologizing and bowing (on the ground bowing) they gave us mega chicken. mega.
our meal was made complete with carrots, mashed potatoes and hiroko's homemade cranberry sauce. and guy's foot. we didn't eat it, but it was right there.
so that's it. of course there are more pictures on flickr. people were here for over 10hrs. i was freaking exhausted. darren was freaking drunk. it was freaking great.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!that's right, boyz and girlz. i am done. for 17 dayz i am done. done work. no reading outloud about yuki going to england and eating fish and chips with mr. brown. no reading about daisuke's uncle who powers his house with solar energy. seriously, this is what is in the textbook.
(i have mad skillz using z instead of s)
tonight is the year end party for my school. it's way too expensive so i'm not going. instead d and i are going to have a nice quiet "i bet i can drink more than you can" intimate affair at ohsho.
who do you think will win?
so christmas day. our place. can you make it? guy's bringing the turkey (deep fried from the yakitori place). hiroko's got cranberry sauce. me, i'm making the potatoes and eggnog. dessert will be a christmas cake from new zealand (also courtesy of guy) and maybe a variation on granny's apple salad. so far, the count is 7 people arriving at various times throughout the day. guy will be here first because, well, he loves us.
so, see you monday!!
a little birthday math for you.
i went looking for cheesecake but instead i found what was possibly the most delicious cake i have ever tasted. and d's 31. i hope he had a good day...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STINKY!!!
~ decorated houses
~ nuts & bolts
~ the hustle and bustle
~ wrapping presents while watching how the grinch stole christmas
~ ribbon
~ insufferable christmas music playing everywhere you go
~ crunching on snow
~ ...
so d got rid of the moustache. he says it's because people didn't believe in him. i say it's because i refused to kiss him. this is how i feel about the moustache, who we called "stache" by the way. "stache" spoke with a mexican accent and after he finished speaking there was that guitar strum like you hear in the movies when the chicos go into actions.
we totally felt this yesterday. it was barely noticeable, but we shook for about 10 seconds. it's pretty neat...
not much is going on these days. louise is going back to sweden to finish her masters. she is done work on the 15th so we all planned to go out yesterday for a farewell-ish party. (most of the people that work here don't like louise. let me tell you, she kisses ass like nobody i've ever met). so friday, guy and i are talking and i say "you know louise is going to cancel, right?" and guy says "probably. it was her idea though, so maybe not." and then i get an email from guy on saturday morning. "louise is sick. no party." and i say "HOLY F@#K I CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE!!" and then we decided that i should use my power for evil because the bad guys always have more fun.
oh!! i'm famous in asaka!!
it says "grade 5 special lesson wonderful world".
we had pizza last night with cream cheese on it. no sauce but cream cheese?!?! it was freaking good.
darren is trying to go back to sleep right now and i am clickity clacking away and that may be what is keeping him up but i say that he just wants to spend more time with me and so that is why he can't get back to sleep. awwwww.
darren wears his oilers shirt when he listens to the games online.
thanx for taking the soap poll. the victor: lather schmather. boo. anyways, here's one based on another discussion we had recently.
these are some shots d took while experimenting with our camera. all of them are from around our quaint little city of asaka.
as always, for more pictures go to flickr.
our first sushi in japan. tomoye took care of me, although you can't really see her. maybe it's the camoflauge...
picture that really does not do justice to how giant and how busy it is...
"darren, take a picture of me being cute on the escalator!"
christmas lights against a backdrop of neon. it's just not the same.
so that was our day in shinjuku. go here for more pictures. and go here for that christmassy feeling.
our boring day in ikebukuro turned out to be pretty great.
we stumbled across a shrine...
and had what was possibly the most delicious coffee in the world.
25 sleeps...
solution? our very own brand new flickr page!! or, as one of the japanese english teacher's that i work with always says "special wonderful" flickr!!
yup yup.
the link is over on the sidebar. click whenever you desire. there's not much up there right now. we're only going to post new pics. from this point on. right now. from here. today. i think you understand.
also, please help us to settle something by voting in the poll below. much appreciated.
seriously... we have way too many pictures.
deciding what to post hurts my head.
not "hurts" like how sake hurts me though.
what i'm trying to say is that japan is beautiful...
and we see so many great things and take billions and billions of pictures and i am not good at making decisions.
for real... billions. honest to goodness billions.
ps
i want to go back and buy that shirt.
