Umbrellas

So we were looking for a new purse for Laura today, and because it's the New Year, there are sales everywhere (New Year is like Christmas for Japanese - all the sales happen for New Year). She found some that she liked, and while she was humming and hawing, I saw umbrellas for 50-60% off. We bought two. A pink and polka dot one for Laura, and a blue and heart print one for me (I discovered when we got home... looked polka dot unopened in the store - oh well, it's Japan). The really funny thing is that when we were at the register, they bring out this gigantic bag for Laura's purse's (she found two - like I said, major sales), and then proceeded to put the umbrellas in THEIR OWN PLASTIC BAGS!!! The bags were long, narrow, and clearly meant specifically for umbrellas. They then taped the excess plastic to the bag (like you would wrap up your umbrella when finished with it) so they were nice and snug in their very own wrapping, and placed them in the one big bag. Japan is the land of extra packaging at a retail level. It's considered a sign of respect for the customer, as it's all about the details. It'd truly be funny if there wasn't so much waste involved. I'm almost surprised they didn't individually bag the bags. Anyway, I'm off to go birth a hamster. Nite.

Christmas Vacation

So our winter vacation is drawing to a close. It's gone by so fast! We started off on the 23rd by driving up to Sendai. What a beautiful drive! Pictures here We good 3 toll roads, which got us there in just under 4 hrs. It follows a lot of oceanside, which was gorgeous. We passed Mito (the capital of our prefecture, Ibaraki) and Hitachi (yes, like the electronic name brand). Sendai is in Miyagi, which is 3 prefectures away. We got into Sendai in the evening and wandered the city. It's quite big, just over a million residents. We both thought it was the perfect size. See pictures here

Christmas Eve day we went to the Sendai Castle Ruins . It was a big dull, though we saw some amazing views of Sendai. We were expecting some castle, but nope, just ruins. Christmas Eve dinner was Indian food, which was okay, but totally suited our usual Christmas Eve tradition of ethnic food.

Christmas Day we took off to Matsushima, which is a cluster of about 260 small islands. Pictures here . It was so gorgeous, but SO cold!! We finished the day with a cow tongue dinner (pics in the second picture link). It was delicious. So tender, not what I expected at all. I didn't like it as much as Brian, but I'm also not as much as a beef fan.

Friday we went to the Dai Kannon . It was snowing in the mountains and so cold!!! The next day we went drove home to Tsukuba.

Monday we took a new teacher to Costco/Ikea with us. Nothing too exciting there.

Tuesday we went to Disneyland - yay!! It was SO BUSY!!! We waited in 2 very long lines. It was almost identical to Disneyland in California. It had more rides than DisneySea, but I thought that DisneySea was more aesthetically pleasing.

We didn't do anything for New Years'. New Year's Eve isn't really celebrated in Japan, only New Years Day.

Friday we went to Chinatown in Yokohama. It's the biggest in Japan, one of the biggest in Asia. It was okay. The Chinese food we ate was very similar to what we get in Canada. Lots and lots of shops.

And that brings us to today!! We're spending the weekend just chilling and catching up on laundry and cleaning. Monday-back to work!

Anyways, hope you all had great holidays. Happy New Year!!