Stuck in the Rice Paddy

Went to go to the Children's English Camp on Sunday and there was this scene outside my house. A car somehow found its way into the rice paddy. How does that happen? A sudden spur of the moment? I wonder what it feels like to drive right off the road and into that rice paddy. There's like a good two/three foot drop between the road and the paddy. Bet that car's got a lot of water damage now.

Hmm... Sometimes...

Sometimes I worry about my husband. The other day when I told him I had drank 3L's of water the first thing he says to me is "You'll get fat!" And my reaction was "Are... are you joking? It's water! About the only thing you can't get fat from..." So he proceeds to call in his mom and double check his facts and in the end he decided with "Well I don't know." I went to the dictionary and pulled up the word bloated (肥大化した) for him and asked him if he meant that I'd get bloated/puffy from the water but no, he meant fat. sigh...

Weird Plant

Try to ignore the fact that I can't hold a camera without it shaking and focus on what happens when you stroke this plant. Can anyone tell me the name of this plant? I'd really like to know.

Akashi Bridge

In case anyone is interested, I'm around this area of Japan, sort of. No one ever knows the town I live in because it is a small town in the countryside. But this is the nearest city which usually can get some people to go "Oh yeah I maybe sort of heard of that city name before..." This is the bridge that connects Awaji island to Akashi city.

I was at Awaji island last weekend. My husband wanted to go to the seven temples that Awaji has and get a prayer from each. Awaji has seven different gods looking after it - sounds like a very lucky little island. But the temples are all spread out over the island making it a full day trip. However I did have a class to teach that day so we did set out until one in the afternoon. It was also an insanely hot day that day as well and having to sit Japanese style and get a prayer done in a non air conditioned temple was a little much for me. It was for my clothes, at least. By the end of it... well.. things got a little.. skungy, haha. We didn't even get to all of the temples because the temples closed at five. We only made it to four (half an hour of prayer time for each. Everything between was just travel time!). So we decided that we'd come back to finish everything either this weekend or next month.

This was awesome

From a restaurant on Vancouver island. So. Good. The soup was a roasted red pepper soup and it was so delicious. I want to try to copy it but I'd need to go back and do another taste test. The sandwich was also good but it's fairly easy to make as long as the ingredients are available (Like, for example, the bread. Which is not available around here...).

Chubby Squirrel

Meet Chubby. A friend and I were eating in a park while I was in Canada and this little guy came over looking for some food. I guess a lot of people would feed him as he was pretty brave, sticking around for a while. Although not too smart. I'd throw him some nuts from my salad and he'd only see/catch about 40% of them.

Re: Richie's Butt Burger

I posted that up because I thought it was a strange name for a burger. I guess everyone else agrees with me. I've had this blog for well over a year, if not more and that post is a fairly recent one and yet it's gotten the most views out of any post I've ever done. You guys are all crazy.

Also should I be proud or freaked out that if you search "human damage accident" on Google that my blog is one of the top three links?

How do you treat a sunburn?

I think when I was younger we stuck to Aloe gel. And to prevent that from happening we used lots of sunblock. I don't think that we had any other ways, at least in my family. However I was told today by my Hungarian friend that in Hungary they would slather sour cream on their skin to help the burns. Something about the oil in the skin and some sort of anti inflammatory agent in the sour cream helped it. I don't know if that is true, that it helps or not but I'd imagine that it'd at least feel cool on the burnt skin. Any sunburn stories from your end?

I got terribly burned today. The sun in Japan is insane. Same sun but it feels like it reaches peak temperature at 9am and finishes at 5pm instead of a few hours around noon like I imagine it would be in Canada. I was a little bit worried because I think I had a bit of heat exhaustion. Or a lot of heat exhaustion, I'm not too sure. I had on a hat and actually drank a lot more than I normally would (3L of fluid) but sometime during the middle I felt a bit nauseous and it just spiralled down from there. I don't know what else I could have done to prevent it. I had a cool compress around my neck, would often hydrate myself, wore sunglasses, wore a hat, stayed mostly in the shade when possible... yet being lightheaded isn't a daily occurrence for me. Neither is dizziness, or a rapid heartbeat. I'd like all of those things to not happen tomorrow as I have to do the same thing... And then on Sunday when I'm actually out in the sun all day unlike today and tomorrow where I'd be inside and outside only when I'm moving from one place to the next.

Thoughts

Today I realized that, at least in this area of Japan, you can only get actual chocolate ice cream in the form of soft serve. Everything else seems to be chocolate coated and vanilla ice cream on the inside. I hadn't noticed it before because... I guess I was distracted by all the new food things, but now that I've been in Japan for two years the new things seem less new and I'm noticing a lot more about them. There is one ice cream bar that is fully chocolate but it is one of those ice bars, made with a lot of water. I've yet to see ice cream, in bar form, that has chocolate on the outside and the inside as well.

In other food related news I noticed that, just like probably everywhere else, Japan has processed cheese and natural cheese. Unfortunately this part of Japan seems to really enjoy processed cheese. I went through the cheese section and picked up all the cheese and checked the ingredients. I could tell, at least 70% of the time just by looking at it but to be sure I checked the ingredients for processed cheese or natural. Out of at least fifteen different cheese things (One was even called cheese candy... and was wrapped like a hard candy...) can you guess how many were processed and how many were natural? Well I'll give you the answer anyway. 13 processed, 2 natural. Sad times for me, a cheese lover. Then again I already knew most of that, anyway.

There is a company here that sells individual cream cheese packets (Well. Individually wrapped in a package of eight). Processed cream cheese. I think all cream cheese is processed though... right? Am I wrong in saying that? Well they make it very clear on the packaging, as if they were proud of the fact that the cheese was processed. But I like it for the fact that it's just the right size for spreading on a bagel. The taste is a bit different than, say, Philadelphia cream cheese. This one is milder. Maybe that's the angel. Japanese people like mild tasting things. Anyway, the point of this story is that my husband eats these individual cream cheese packets like regular cheese. Blech. He offered me one and I asked him if he wasn't going to spread it on something... like a cracker or bread or... something. He responded by taking a bite out of the cheese.

Is that a thing that people do that I just don't? Eat cream cheese like it wasn't a spreadable thing? I have this visual now of someone taking a spoon and just diving into a can of cream cheese...

Pingu!

You were so much cuter when you were made of clay...

And not dancing to a random Japanese pop song...

Phonemic Text

I'm learning how to become a better English teacher by doing an online teaching course. This is some of the things that I've had to do. Learn the phonemic alphabet and then read through things like this. After a bit of a struggle my brain seemed to catch on and I could almost read it as if it were plain text by the end of the conversation. How about you, can you read through it? And how long did it take you?

Candy Hamburger

It tastes really bad in case you're wondering. I believe I've posted some of these candy foods before.

Troller's

Bet you thought I was kidding about that last bit.

... By the way, what is Lonely Planet? I think it's some sort of traveller's guide? Maybe? That's my best guess anyway. I hear about it a lot...

Pudding Commercial

It's a Japanese commercial. You know what to expect if you click the play button.

For Narnia!

There was honestly no information on or around this statue. I'm sure it's someone important, but I've dubbed him the Narnia guy because ... of his hat. Yes...

This is one of the ports on Vancouver Island. While I was here I took a stroll with my friend Isla and we went for fish and chips on the dock. It's apparently the number one place to get fish and chips according to Lost Planet. (At least number one in Canada ;) )

Japanese Johnny Depp

Yes or no?

Meet Hannah (Banana)

This is Hannah, often nicknamed Hannah-Banana. Oh rhymes, how we love you so. She's the sweetest dog you'll meet. But she will never stop wanting you to pet her. Ever. And if you do...

She has a secret No one loves me trick up her sleeve to get you back on track with the petting.

She lives with my aunt's friend on Vancouver Island. Also with several Yorkies. I think they're up to eight Yorkies now.

In case you forgot..

Japan has monkeys. Lots of monkeys. Technically they're called Macaque, but whatever. They're monkeys to me until someone tells me to stop calling them monkeys.

Meet Sebastian

 I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smoulder. 

This is Sebastian. He lives at my aunt's animal clinic on Vancouver Island. He's a lady's cat. Very interested in all females. not so much the males. Will give you little love nips and will settle himself on your chest if possible.

Richie's Butt Burger

Doesn't it sound delicious? I am amused by how many different combinations and titles that they gave to these burgers. This is from a new burger shop in my hometown. While I was in Canada I went twice. The burgers were a little expensive (Around $15) but you had the option to choose between beef, chicken, turkey, and a mushroom for the meat part and had a few interesting side dish options as well as the choice between white or whole wheat buns. I miss that option. Here in Japan your options tend to be rice or bread, and both are white.

I bet the SK8R Boy has something to do with Avril Lavigne. One could assume that because of her song Ska8r Boi, but I wonder if it's just because it's different and her music is "different" or maybe she likes her burgers with peanut butter, bacon and cheese... or maybe they were just running out of names to call their burgers.

One thing I didn't miss while in Canada was the servers. And the tipping. They always seem to come up to you and ask if everything is okay while your mouth is full of food. In Japan there's a little button that you press if there's anything wrong and they will come to you only if you press that button. Plus there's no tipping in Japan.

That's what I got, by the way. Sweet potato... something (They had a special name for it. I'm just going to call them fries) Turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with tomatoes, feta and herbs. It was tasty. The whole place was set up nicely. I thought the liquid measuring cups for drinking were neat, as well as the light bulb salt and pepper shakers. So of course your food has to come on something that's not a plate. What do they decide on? Horse trough!

Brave

I hope that the movie Brave is going to come subtitled. Usually with animated movies they tend to just dub it in Japanese so int he past I've had no luck with them. But I really would like to see the movie. It'll come to Japan in two weeks. Is it out already in Canada/US? I bet I could figure that out for myself with a quick Google search. To Google! ... I find it oddly convenient that when I type in "Brave release date" into Google's search bar that I don't need to even click on any links before I get the info.

Oh, pfft. It's been out for a month already?! Japan! Why are you sooooo slooooow???

...


Japanese TV is weird. Everyone knows this. But why go up to random people (In London) while riding on the escalator and just go "You know football?" "You know baseball?" And have them give you this odd look and go "....Y-yes?" And then they converse in Japanese until the TV host goes "Oh, okay!" to the English speaker and then move on. What is the point??
Well for this one guy they ended it with "You look like Beckham" .. Who's Beckham? ... To Google! ... Google tells me David Beckham is an English football player. Thank you Google.

I seriously only know half of what's going on. The host (same person) is now wearing pink and one of those over the shoulder "I'm showing off how rich and rich I am" scarves. And they seem to be showing how many gay people are in England. And... either there is a large population of gay people in England or they are making it seem like it is. Oh, they found a gay Japanese person. Japan is iffy about people who are not straight. You can be a TV person and be gay or have a gay persona and that seems to be fine but despite that and other trends that show a level of tolerance, it seems that a lot (if not all) conceal their sexuality with many even marrying the opposite sex. Not as terrible as some places where you can be beaten for it, or have the death sentence thrown at you (As I just learned while they were interviewing gay couples in London - it seems to be a popular option in many countries)... I suppose it's times like these that I appreciate Canada. Canada's far from perfect, but at least you don't have to be famous or a comedian for people to accept your sexuality. (Also no death sentence!)

Conveyor belt sushi!

Had this been done in Canada or USA would the camera make the full trip? I wouldn't have done it. I'd be too afraid to lose it. That girl has guts.

I'm too jumpy

Today I had a lesson with Linda, who is 4 years old. She went in for a shot today so they were going to be late. I knew exactly when they would be coming, too. I had been listening to my music, only half paying attention and occasionally glancing at the driveway. At one point I thought I heard them (Linda and her mother) but I didn't see them. Five-ish seconds later I turn and Linda's mother is a couple feet from me. Naturally I jumped.

Later on in the day I was watching Summer Wars on TV (It was very difficult because there weren't any subtitles, but I had watched it a couple times before so I could guess my way through). I went downstairs to grab some food and came back upstairs. It was at a point in the movie when no one was speaking so I grabbed the tea from my bag and heard an old woman speak Japanese. I jumped... and then realized how dumb that was because obviously it was part of the movie - there wasn't actually an old lady in the room.


On my way downstairs to grab food I was in the bathroom and glanced at a box that held random bits of junk, as I usually do because.. I don't know, it's there? And I noticed an English mistake that I hadn't before. I've been here for over a year, using the bathroom daily, and I'm just noticing this now.

"The garden is green with grass, hearty welcome to you!" Is what I thought it said.

"The garden is greeen with grass, hearty welcome to you!" Is what is actually says.

Speaking of English mistakes, I saw this on a shirt in the mall: "Love will find away!" So close, shirt makers! Just separate the "a" from "way" and it'll be... well it'll be correct English anyway.

100 Post Party!

So, my last post apparently was the 100th post I've made on my blog. Very exciting were it not for the fact that a lot of posts on this blog were rebloged from an older blog I used to have. It's interesting to see that after almost two months of absence that I still get people checking my site daily. Not a significant amount but it's more than ten which is at least nine more than I figured would. In fact today I've gotten a few views from Russia and Austrlia. Today I met up with Rob. He's the Canadian teacher who gave me his Friday class before he left for Canada. If you've kept up with things them you know he's moved back to Japan. While I was away in Canada I lent him his English books back and since I've been back I've kinda needed them. I was worried because we had a few email exchanges and then when it seemed like we had a plan he stopped replying. However yesterday he gave me his reply saying everything was a go. And also apologized for the late response. Turns out he had a terrible cough and his whole week hasn't been very productive. So we met up in Starbucks because it's hot out and Starbucks is air conditioned. We chatted a little while and I got a few tips and interesting things from him. Like how I should maybe invest in an e-reader. I love books, let's get that out right now. Love books. Would have a library if there was the room. But I don't have the room. Plus books don't do so well in the humid. Especially stored in boxes. I feel bad for my books. They don't often see the light of day unless I'm currently reading them. So as much as I'd like to just keep getting books because books, I am now figuring I should get one of those electronic book readers. Those can't get deformed. I will miss my books, however... Also I had mentioned that I like photography and in my spare time I occasionally go around and snap a few pictures of Japan. His response was "oh, really? I might have a job for you in November. My friend needs someone with a halfway decent camera to snap some shots of a motorcycle show in Tokyo." I told him that in no way would I consider myself a professional but apparently that doesn't matter as long as I've got a good looking camera. Huh. Interesting. The other thing he pointed out to me was how easy it'd be to get m license in Japan. Or he made it seem so. I'd have to look into it. But it seems easy although I've only got a paper license. Not a full one. This makes things trickier but he says it's still feasible. Just things to think about.

Back from Canada

So if you didn't know I went back home to Canada for four weeks. I kept it hushed from my blog as I had wanted to surprise someone and I knew that they were (and still are) a loyal reader of this here... something or other, haha. It worked well and I had a great time in Canada. It went by way, way too fast. Really, it felt like I only spent a week there instead of four. Even with the fact that it took me a good two weeks to get back into the groove of things here, it still felt too short. I was right in my feelings of what I missed and what I didn't and I miss those things again, now.

Random piece of random - There's this singer guy. His name is Adam Lambert. For the longest time my brain kept going we know this guy! Not personally mind you, just the name seemed familiar. Which was odd because I didn't seem to know any of his songs minus one that was constantly on the radio the last time I was in Canada. But today I happened to be skimming some IMDB things and I came across Adam Lamberg (He was 'Gordo' in the Lizzie McQuire TV show) and my brain went Oh. Okay, so we made a mistake. It's like one letter off. I... thought it was amusing enough to share.

While I was away my Saturday class got a substitute teacher to come in. She's a woman who works for a professional English company, very famous in Japan called ECC and has lived in Japan for over 20 years. Her Japanese is near perfect. I haven't met her but I hear about her from the students and after my second class back, after I left, they had a meeting about me. One of the students is secretly my friend (Secretly because the other class members seem to be very nosy and constantly want to know everything that we do when we hang out) and she tells me that they've been constantly comparing me to the substitute. I suppose that is a common thing to do but... unfair much? Compare me to anyone who has experience and can speak the language and I'll always fall short.

This week my husband has nine days off so apparently we are going to go to the beach on Tuesday. I'm worried that I'm going to get a horrible bubbling burn just like last year. I know you're all thinking ("Well wear sunscreen, dork!") But I put four layers of sunscreen on throughout the day last time and stayed mostly in the shade when I wasn't in the water and it still happened!

The other place we might go to is USJ, Universal Studios Japan. I was also there last year with the family (minus my husband because of work) and I have to say that I'd rather spend money elsewhere. Nothing there was really spectacular. Just expensive and long line-ups... but we were given tickets by a friend so it's already prepaid. And the tickets expire in September so we should probably hurry up and use them...