Simple Life

A restaurant near our home.  Notice the sign - "Don't mess with Texas."  All the servers wear cowgirl attire... The ever popular mop walking socks! Fun things to make with little sausages... Sorry, this photo needs rotated but I got lazy.  This is a toilet brush with a mirror so you can see under the rim.  Those are my fingers in the mirror. Simon, a fellow teacher, holding a very large citrus fruit. It's comparable to a grapefruit I think.  Simon is from Australia, lives here with his Japanese wife.  Jaxon affectionately calls him "Australian Dude". Say yes to the dless!  This brochure came in the mail.  Yes, it is advertising wedding dresses...I mean dlesses. Our very own black swan!  First one I have ever seen.  This one swims in the canal that surrounds Marugame Castle. Just love this one - it's from the zoo.  The big cat cages go over the walkway and are open fencing - meaning that if you are standing below it an

So, what are you looking at exactly?  Take a minute...take a guess. We are asked to do many things here that strike me as odd.  But, being that I am the foreigner and all the locals are doing it, I just shrug and go along.  Here is one example that I am still laughing about. Elementary aged school children were asked to provide urine samples a while back.  I never knew what they were for, some health test, so I ponied up the pee.  Neither child wash thrilled to be taking little tubes of pee to school but they did it.  Not too long later Jaxon brought home a test kit that I was to administer and send back to school.  There were two steps.  Step one, not pictured, was to collect a stool sample.  Step two can be seen above.  Personally, I like the wings on the little child's back as he squats holding his butt cheeks open. We were given a piece of cellophane like material that was folded in fours.  We had to open it up, press it on to the inside of Jaxon's cheeks (

Without a doubt, Jason is my better half.  I know and understand that when we make friends it is because they like him and tolerate me.  Eventually I grow on people and become endearing - but first you have to come to know and understand my kind of crazy.  As I say this, I am hugging myself, loving myself.  Please do not flood me with emails telling me that I am good, and I am kind, and that people like me.  I know that.  I think I have even won a few people over to like me as well as they like Jason...I wouldn't dare say they'd choose me in a fight, but I might think it. It has been almost a year since we began this journey.  I think that we got the ball started in late July of last year.  This year has been so up and so down and so everything in between.  We have celebrated and cried, laughed and yelled.  I'm ranking this as the second most difficult season that we have seen together, the first being the loss of Elliott (Jason's father).  While the lost of Elliott w

Today we went to Costco.  In my pre-Japan life that would not have been much of an accomplishment or very exciting, but here and now it is both. Costco is far away - in Kobe - about 180 KM away.  Drive time was just over 2 hours there and 2 hours back.  Aside from the distance, going to Costco is costly.  Driving there and back you have to use the expressway, which is a toll road.  The cost used to be much more reasonable but the prices have been raised to help Japan recover from the March 11 disaster.  Our total tolls for the day were 7100 Yen, or $88 USD.  Half tank of gas = 2500 Yen, $30 USD.  This is why going to Costco is an accomplishment.  Maybe investment would be a better word. Unlike all the American Costcos that I have been to, this one has a parking garage instead of the giant parking lot.  Land is scarce.  Parking was an adventure.  You know how you drive up and down the isles, waiting for someone to come toward you with a cart?  Then you slow way down and stalk to

Today is the most humid day we've had here in Japan so far.  Rainy season has begun - it is usually early June but we've been told it is a little late this year.  Rainy season means heavy drops of rain pelting you - soaking you as you dash from one door the the next.  It means that laundry that has been hung out to dry will not dry, it will be forever damp if left on its own.  It means humidity.  I think that my entire ace may have melted off today - I know that my makeup did.  Being constantly damp, as if having dressed after a shower without drying, is one thing.  That is something I am slowly getting used to.  having to carry a cloth around with me to wipe my face at all times, that is entirely different. To combat the heat and humidity we've already begun using the air conditioner.  It only works in our bedroom, but at least it affords us a decent night sleep.  There are products available here to help also.  In almost every store you can buy "cool-gel" pill

My biggest class - 32 today.  There were a couple absent.  These kiddos will be in kindergarten next school year. Kindergarten 3 year olds. Little Riki, with his marijuana shirt. 3 year olds. Cute socks.  The teachers always have the cutest socks. 2nd Kindergarten Despite Jason and I working at the same place and having the same job, what we do is by large quite different.  In our short time here we have each settled into roles that seem to suit us.  Jason and I each have some basic after school English classes - these are called Eikaiwa or conversation classes.  Where our jobs differ is that he has taken on more adult classes and business classes.  He travels to different businesses around the area and teaches English and also has many adults that come to him.  I on the other hand, have become more of a preschool teacher.  Each weekday I go do a different yochien (preschool that serves kids from tiny to first grade) and teach a few hours of Engli

A very narrow road - but this one is nice, at least it has a barrier on the cliff side.  Many don't.  Last weekend we decided to go for a drive to the Iya Valley.  It is a secluded little valley in the middle of Shikoku, the island that we live on.  It was about a 2-3 hour drive to get to our ultimate destination - mainly because the roads were all 1 car wide and very curvy.  We spent a good portion of the drive going 30 km/hr.  But, it was beautiful.  With approximately 72% of Japan being mountainous, homes and farms are built precariously on hillsides.  Our little adventure allowed us to see some amazing sites. Above and left are photos from a hillside restaurant we stopped at.  Jason's lunch was a very traditional Japanese Soba dish.  It was very pretty.  I love all the colors that show up on your plate here!  Next stop was a famous vine bridge called "kazurbashi".  There are 3 remaining vine bridges in Japan.  They are said to have been build in