Pics from the weekend and whatnot

Yes, more than half of my pictures are of food. Deal with it!


Oh, how I missed thee


The wonder known as the Costco food court




Fuck that's a huge churro


Fuck that's a huge soft cream


It's a VERY sad day when I am beyond thrilled to find Jose Cuervo







This was in front of a store. Merry Christmas, Lucy Liu!


K, not last weekend, but I took this as proof of what a Country Ma'am gathering looks like. Abunai, indeed!

Easy Peasy Japanesey!

So, today I was informed last-minute that for the next six work days, there will be parent-teacher conferences in the afternoons. This does explain why my kids have been eerily good lately. I thought they were just choosing to be nice! Sad. Suck-ups! Anyway, because of the conferences, two classes are cut each day, and the schedule is all crazy. This means I only have two classes today and two tomorrow, instead of four each day! And next week I have three (instead of four) each day, PLUS Wednesday is off for Thanksgiving! Good stuff! It’s like I’m a normal ALT now or something! Hell yeah! However, I really have no idea what to do with myself during this new free time. I already completed my CLAIR Japanese test, then got my vice principal’s permission to go home for a “forgotten item” (i.e. a book to read so that I don’t kill myself). I “faffed” around on the way there and back, stopped at the ATM, etc., and when I came back he was surprised at how “fast” I was! Hello, I could have stretched it out! Damn. Next time!

Movie Monday

Last night I went to my first movie in over three months. That is some kind of crazy-ass record, because I usually am at the movies ALL the time. Shinders and I made a night of it by going early to AEON for shopping….tho we sadly only got groceries??? Um, yeah, exciting. But it was nice to wander around AEON, as I hadn’t been there in a few weeks. I find myself having AEON withdrawals at times! I can’t imagine not living near it. I love me some Ota! Hehe.

Anyway, after shopping, Shindy and I went to Kappa Sushi, which is kaiten (conveyor belt). Cheeeeeeeap! Granted, not as good as made-to-order, but cheap and good enough. Plus I decided it is like watching porn while having sex, because you get to eat and watch food pass by you at the same time.

We saw The Corpse Bride with Mami and Minako and it was so nice to be in a movie theatre after so long! Yes, I am a nerd. Also, they have CHURROS and BEER at the concession stand? Why has it taken me so long to go to a movie?! Anyway, the movie was entertaining, but not amazing or anything. Very glad I didn’t pay full price for it!

Monday is “couple’s night,” so Cindy was my girlfriend. Tickets are “only” $10 (sad day when I consider that cheap), so we have made it a plan to go to movies on as many Mondays as possible! Harry Potter comes out in a week and a half and I am muy excited about that! Then on the 10th we get Sayuri (Japanese title for Memoirs of a Geisha), which I can’t wait for! I hope it’s as good as it should be. Then on the 17th we get King Kong! Yay Peter Jackson. So, even tho we won’t get Rent for up to SIX FUCKING MONTHS, at least there are entertaining movies in the meantime. Tho meh to not getting Narnia ‘til March? Anyway, the movies were good times. I hope we get Brokeback Mountain!!!! Sigh.

Three work-related thoughts of the day:

1. I am becoming the biggest slacker when it comes to dress code as it gets colder. I am pretty sure I can wear whatever I want and get away with it, but I always dress nice just in case. However, I refuse to bust out the long-sleeve button shirts (I wear short-sleeve ones) because there is no way you can’t iron those. I REFUSE to iron every day, and the short-sleeve ones can be “flicked” enough after washing to make it look ironed-ish. So, to make up for my lack of warm clothes, I have been totally Japanese and have been wearing a track jacket over the shirt. I am getting tired of wearing the same jacket every day, though, so today I am wearing my Muji hoodie over my shirt. The thing is, I still look nicer than like all of the 3nensei teachers, hehe. Tomorrow is shougakkou, and I am pretty sure I could wear my pajamas there and look nicer than all of the teachers, so I’m not too worried.

2. Has anyone else noticed how Japanese people aren’t afraid to touch garbage with their bare hands? When I help with cleaning in the morning I help empty the garbage cans into trash bags. Sometimes stuff falls out or the contents of the bag need to be pushed down, and the kids and/or teachers do it with their bare hands! GROSS! It’s especially nasty because like half of the trash is tissues. Given, Japanese people mainly use tissues as paper towels and napkins, but you KNOW in the winter a lot of those are NOT touch-worthy! Gross! It makes me want to have a big orgy of Purell after cleaning. *shudder*

3. I AM SO HIGH RIGHT NOW. K, so today is FREEZING. I can see my breath in the hallways. Oh, let me explain for those that don’t know that Japan doesn’t know what the hell central heating is. They think Americans are rich for having such crazy things as multiple heated rooms (I always want to respond “we’re not rich, we’re just smart,” but refrain from doing so). Anyway, the cheap way for them to heat rooms is using kerosene heaters. Not only does it run the risk of burning you alive, but it also gives off fumes that makes it necessary to open the windows once an hour. I have yet to use it at home, but they turned them on for the first time in the staffroom today. I am seriously high. Like, I can’t even describe it, but I can’t concentrate or anything. My head feels funny! Does one get used to this sensation? Is this how teachers deal with stress? “It was a fucking bad day, time to turn on the kerosene heater…whooooa, that’s the stuff!” Seriously, I can’t work like this! I’m gonna start giggling at the kids’ English or something!

Sunday in Chiba

If I wake up at 7:30 AM on a Sunday, you know it must be for a good reason. And oh, it was for a VERY good reason yesterday…..for I went to COSTCO. Oh, how I miss me some Costco. Mami drove me, Cindy, Ann and Emily to Costco, which is in Chiba, about an hour and a half away. I was looking forward to this for weeks and it did not disappoint!

How do I love Costco? Let me count the ways! First of all, they had samples of GOOD shit that you don’t ever see in Japan, let alone get free samples of. I got a free piece of fatty steak (SO GOOD), caramel apple pie, Krispy Kreme-ish donuts, cheese, kimchee, etc etc etc. Mmmm, orgasm. I usually ignore the pre-made “enchiladas” from the deli in the States, but here I am so starved for Mexican food that I practically attacked people to get to them. They also had the rotisserie chickens! Cindy and I opted to split a thing of rotisserie legs (they were different but still good). Hmm, what else did I get? I think I have buyer’s amnesia, as I did spent cough$200coughcough. I got tortillas, tequila, 16 cans of refried beans, bagels, good coffee…..I don’t even know what else. I mean, that sentence right there is making me excited enough, does it really matter what else I got? Might I add that they had a fifth of Absolut vodka for 1000 yen ($10)???? HOW does that happen? I didn’t get it, sadly, as I have no need for vodka, but I was tempted.

Not that I don’t have enough carbs here, but I missed bagels enough that the other day I had a dream that me, Ann and Cindy were eating them (and were very happy, might I add). How sad is that? I guess this is proof that dreams come true! Hehehehe.

I don’t even need to comment on how excited I am for Mexican food makings. Sigh.

After shopping we of course had to get polish dogs. And churros. And soft cream. And we ate it outside in a weird dead grass area that felt like a Costco park since there were kids running around (killing dragonflies?). Um, yeah.

Sigh. I love Costco. I want to go back. It is like Disneyland!

Speaking of Disneyland, it is also in Chiba. Chiba is a shithole, but is cool only because they stick all of the “Tokyo” stuff there that they can’t fit in proper Tokyo, like Costco, Disneyland, IKEA (not open yet, but I saw the building!), etc. Anyway, after Costco, we went to Ikspiria (what the hell is that word supposed to mean?), which is part of the Disney Resort. It is a huge, NICE shopping area connected to the Disney Ambassador Hotel. It’s like Downtown Disney but cooler. It is really nice-looking, and might I add that it has Diesel, J. Crew, Gap, Comme Ca Ism, etc etc etc. It was muy fun! I want to live there! I was good and only got a big-ass mug for my tea addiction. Was VERY tempted to get more, but ganbaru-ed.

Got home at 10 and had a late dinner before crashing. Fun and busy weekend, indeed!

It’s currently Monday afternoon and this is the third eerily good Monday in a row. Aren’t Mondays supposed to be horrible? I woke up feeling not TOO tired, all of my classes went EXTREMELY well, and…yeah. Weird! But muy good. Hopefully tomorrow is unlike the last two Tuesdays and doesn’t suck. Given that I will be home a total of 30 minutes today, it has the possibility of doing so, hehe. Oh, well, fun Monday, yay!

Random pictures of the weekend to come later….

Weekend Recap, Part One

What an exciting title for this post! Hehe. So, since I have been a bad blogger the last couple of days, I will summarize my weekend, I s’pose. As I am sure I will tell my 3nensei today, “I…had….a….very….fun….and…..busy…..weekend!” I used to make fun of my high school Japanese teacher for only talking about weekends during class on Monday, but now I realize there isn’t much else to talk about. Anyway!

So, on Friday, Cindy came over to Yabbers for an American TV party, Shindy and Jeffu style! We went to Nacchan’s restaurant for dinner and it was DAMN good. I love me some Nacchan! We got some MOW at Fujimart (a requirement for any Shindy/Jeffu get-together), and headed home to catch up on Veronica Mars. Aww, I love me some VM. We watched three episodes of that, and because that just wasn’t enough TV, we watched the first two episodes of this season of Grey’s Anatomy (Cindy is behind on GA, which I do NOT find acceptable!). After that, our eyes were about to fall out of their sockets, so we gave up on TV for the night.

So, my blog is only about food, and this trend will continue with this post. I finally opened up American snacks that my parents sent me…Circus Cookies and these lemon tea biscuit thingies. We devoured them, like we devour any dessert in this country, but we learned that American snacks are FAR too filling! Like, we couldn’t eat very much and we felt gross afterwards? If they were Japanese we would have had like 10 times more! Stupid American stuff! So, no more American snacks allowed for now. Sad.

Anyway, on Saturday morning we continued our eating tour of Yabuzuka by buying too many pastries and devouring them like madmen on the way to the eki. I was dressed like a scrub (or a college freshman, perhaps, Cindy?) and like 20 of my students saw me 1) dressed like that, 2) with Cindy in the morning and 3) devouring pastries. I am sure I will hear about it today! I realize that when I write blogs I like to organize my thoughts with numbers. Hmmm. Anyway!

In the evening was the Grow Up closing party (part 1 of 2 kana?) in Tatebayashi. It was good, thought I wish the DJ that was there for the first half hour would have stayed. He played hip-hop and he was really good, but had to leave with his family at like 6:30. After that the other DJ played WAY too much Bob Marley and weird J-Pop. It was….strange.

This post is fucking boring as hell. Oh, well, the next one will be exciting because on Sunday we went to COSTCO!!!! Yes, Costco. To be continued….