Costco

So we went to Costco yesterday. Gotta love how close it is to us. It's only a mere 60ish km from us in Funabashi, Chiba (near Tokyo), and thanks to the magic that is Japanese roadways, it's a painless SEVEN HOUR ROUND TRIP!!!!! Yes, SEVEN HOURS!!!!!!! Suffice to say, we never go more than once a month. Hell, if we could get a decent selection of Western food elsewhere, we'd probably never go there... if not for the pizza. Costco has the best pizza in Kanto, PERIOD. It's so good that a friend of ours tagged along for that reason alone.

We also had our newest teacher come with, then spent the rest of the evening hanging out with her and a few of our co-workers, hence the reason for a Monday post. Our house has turned into a bit of a meeting point for our friends, as it has more space than the apartments (just think back to our original apartment - that's what they're living in). This also contributed to the late post, as we were up untill 2.30am with guests, then up @ 9am for the Costco run (which is late considering it opens at 10am, and any time you can shave off of peak traffic time is MARVELOUS).

So anyway, that's the latest. Oh, and we stopped by our favorite liquor store (as Costco isn't solely a liquor store). It's called Big Boss, has a picture of Al Capone, and has an insane selection of booze. Snapped a pic with a bottle of whiskey, the quantity of which can be found in pretty much ANY standard liquor store in Japan. Enjoy.

Earthquake

So we had the largest earthquake we've felt here so far this morning. Just before 7am, it was a 5.7 (richter I would assume, as the site I got the info off of was an international site and not Japanese) and lasted for a bout 15-20 seconds. It was enough that our bedroom light was swaying back and forth for a good minute afterward. We then went back to sleep.

On another note, I'm going on record that I (can't vouch for Laura) will post here EVERY Sunday (our time). Whether it's a quick 'Sorry, nothing to write about' post, or something that's been on my mind all week, I promise it'll be up here Sunday. That said, if I have something that's gotta go up earlier, that'll happen too. I simply needed to lay down some ground rules for myself concerning my posts, as I can let it go for a long time if I'm not kicking my own ass about it.

So see you next week.

Brian.

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!!

Merry Christmas!!

Hey peeps, we're heading out tomorrow morning to Sendai and won't be back until the Saturday, so I just wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas!! Or as they say in Japanland, happy Christmas! Apparently they've adopted the British ways of Christmas.

I'm really missing everyone right now, more than I thought that I would. But anyways, have a GREAT holiday and make sure you take some time out for yourself and relax. I think people sometimes get so wrapped up in doing stuff for Christmas, that they forget it's a holiday! I myself will be having one of the laziest holidays in recent past-lots of sleeping in and watching movies. That said, we are going away for 5 days and are planning trips to Tokyo & Disneyland.

Anyways, have a Merry Merry Happy Christmas. I'd LOVE email updates from everyone I haven't talked to in awhile if you have the time. Cheers!!!

We're Really Bad Bloggers

Hey kids! Sorry for the lack of postings, we've been rather busy the last couple weeks! Ashley and Caitlin were visiting us for a couple weeks so we were busy having a jolly time. We've also been really busy at work-there's been some staffing probs, so we've been working more than usual. And of course, we're doing report cards before holidays and we had Parent's Week last week. The good news is that we have two weeks off starting next Tuesday so we'll finally have some R&R time!

We've decided to go to Sendai for Christmas. We really didn't want to stay and home and do nothing, so we'll do a little travelling instead. Sendai is the biggest city in the northeast part of Honshu Island (the island we live on). It's really famous because it has one of the 3 most scenic views in Japan. It's called Matsushima, which are 260 tiny islands covered in pine trees. It's supposed to be beautiful. In Japan, Christmas isn't actually a family holiday (or really, a holiday at all) but a day for couples. It's apparently the most romantic day of the year.

So we'll be in Sendai for about 5 days over Christmas. Other than that, we don't have any specific plans, we'll probably go to Yokohama (Chinatown) one day and Disneyland another. We're just really happy to relax!

Anyways, I'll be sure to post in the next week. I have a lot to talk about, but it's almost my bedtime. Luckily, I'm totally done my Christmas shopping (yay!). It's much easier when you only shop for one. Not as fun though :(

Take Care!!

Update

Sorry sorry sorry for not posting lately. Things have been piling up (post-wise) and every time I think to actually do one, I'm either too tired or have no internet (we get a lot of down time at work, but the school doesn't know its access keys to their own wi-fi. Sigh).

Things have been fairly uneventful as of late. I FINALLY managed to get our second parking spot. We can now park the Toyota Hilux (Japanese name for 4runner) and NOT have Laura meet me at the nearby company apartment and drive to our house five minutes away.

Japanese lessons have been going well. Starting to actually understand how the language is structured, though translating is still a little tricky. Example: 'This present/gift is for you' literally translates to 'this is a small feeling'. Go figure. At least I can pick out food items and generally know what I'm eating.

That's about it for now. I still have pics from the Tokyo Game Show (amongst other things) to put up, but I have to go through them and weed out the bad shots. What can I say, I'm just too damn lazy.