Last weekend we went hiking and I was looking forward to posting my pictures about it, especially the "watch out for bears" sign, but I accidently erased them all. We went with two japanese girls from my cooking class the previous week, and their older german man-friend. The hike was about an hour and a half uphill, to a beautiful view of the countryside, city and ocean, and all to the enjoyment of a loudspeaker at the top playing Rod Stewart. Actually you could take a gondola to the top, and there was also a remote control car race track, childrens playground, concrete animals the size of small houses (unfortunately I didn't get any photos) and a little "chalet" where you could get fresh popped popcorn, beer, coffee, etc out of vending machines and ice cream and other treats from the counter. Somehow, I really don't feel like there were many bears around, although there must be if they felt there needed to be a sign there. If there is a sign, then there is something to worry about. We didn't see any that were alive and not made of pink concrete.
Our companions were all very friendly, although we are still a little unsure why Masae, who is a married Japanese girl, is hanging out with Hartmut, who is a married German engineer living here. His wife and 4 year old couldn't handle living here after 4 months so they moved back to Germany. Masae told us she picked him up at a bar. Afterward, Masae and her friend made Japanese style barbecue at Hartmut's really nice house. Actually, Nate cooked most of it. We ate and drank for hours and special highlights were fish ovaries (not good), grilled rice triangles (very good), various grilled beef, pork, squid, and vegetables. Grilled tofu, mushrooms and ramen noodles with vegetables, I think we ate continously for about 4 hours. Anyway, despite the confusing social ties, we had a really fun time.
The last couple of days I have had a cold, so today Alex and I made this little playhouse in the closet. Alex doesn't seem to really care about hanging out in it, but I think I might.
I have been really cutting back on my pastry consumption, but I must admit that I had one of the best things yesterday from the place near our house. It was a cream puff type thing, although the "puff" bready part of it was alot softer then you would expect. Inside was smooth and creamy vanilla bean custard and layer of real whipped cream. I am going to make everybody who comes here have one, it is one of the best yet, and it will give me an excuse to buy the cute little box set that they come in when you buy more than one. I will also have you know that, despite what you may think, I have not gained any weight and this is the last time I am going to write about my love of Japanese bakeries and desserts!
There are some new pictures of Alex and where we go for his playgroup that I posted, also some other random pics. I think Nate has pictures of our hike on his phone, I'll try to get them up too.
Some of you may wonder what it is Alex and I do everyday while Nate is off teaching proper English to scared junior high school students.
Sometimes we are there an hour, Alex wants to stay all day. I usually have to bribe him to leave. One day we were leaving to go do this and I ran into my neighbor. When she asked where I was going, I was kind of embarassed to try to explain with her that we were only going down to the train station to watch the trains. She said that her son liked the trains too, they actually have a huge train set they invited us over to play with. But since then I have realized it is not only the local foreigners (aka-us) with time to kill that do this. It is what all the Japanese moms do. Every day they are down there with their toddlers and babies to watch the trains, too. Last week, we went to the train station to actually take the train downtown, and I ran into my neighbor with her son and her daughter. It was her daughters holiday off from school, and this is what they were doing. 
This last weekend I met Lindsay in Kyoto while, for the first time, I realize, leaving Alex and Nate home alone. Before coming to Japan I had always had this notion of Kyoto being this quaint place where everything was traditional, beautiful and full of history. While I see why it is such a popular tourist destination for the Japanese, so much of it is actually a concrete jungle of sprawl and modern ugliness that I wonder what it is that the Japanese value so much. If they valued the traditional buildings and history, it seems that they would have tried to save some of it, rather than tearing everything down and rebuilding McDonalds and pachinko parlors everywhere.
are back to normal.
ured here, which are pretty, but I still have quite accepted them as a worthwhile reward. Alex got a little ice cream cone fish stuffed with ice cream and bean paste (I thought it was chocolate, he doesn't know the difference) and I had a cream puff with chocolate ice cream inside. It is true that I have had flan and cream puff both within the last hour, but I earned by having to desperately communicate to the lady at the bike shop that I had a hole in my tire that needed to be patched. It is the only time so far I have actually had to pull out a phrasebook and it was useless, but it is fixed and we went on a bike ride up the street.
today is sunday and rainy. the bike has a flat (again). our espresso maker arrived this week (a wedding present that we thought was necessary to ship here) but apparently we don't have enough electricity in our apartment to run it. (?) anyone have any thoughts/suggestions on this, I just don't get it. We were supposed to get a real sized refrigerator but the only person we know to help us totally flaked out and I have been referred to as a "housewife" about 3 times this week. Not that I have a problem with housewives, I just don't feel I really fit the part. Although, I just had a vision of watching soap operas all day with a box of chocolates- not such a bad thing after all. Don't housewives also have to also take a lot of bubble baths and drink sparkling wine to escape their daily chores? Damn that moldy bathtub of ours!
This is a funny website to check out -http://www.engrish.com/
I cannot even remember today what happened on the last episode of the O.C.
I am obsessed with this painting. It is on the 5th floor of this department store, back in the corner along with some other weird art, a sparse antique selection and stale kimonos. It is gigantic, like 3' by 5', huge. And it is only $350! How would we get it home? How much would that cost? Nate wants it too, but are we crazy? Help!
Here is Alex. I know most of you want to know what is going on with this little bear. Here he is in his own room and a huge bed, which is more than I can say for Nate and I. He has only fallen off the bed once, but it didn't seem to even wake him up. We are in the process of finding a playgroup, there is a huge park and playground nearby with a childrens center that is one of the coolest places for kids I have ever seen. There is a huge toddler room with every cool toy, a little aquarium, tons of kid-made crafts everwhere. When we were there some kids gave us some huge bug carcasses (I didn't know what to do with them, so I gave it back, I probably should have just kept it). From what I understand, everything there is free. Alex has been doing really, he's adjusted quicker than any of us. He is not that fun to take shopping, but he loves riding around on the back of the bike and mimicking Japanese people. He also seems to be the loudest kid around, Japanese children are so quiet, even if they are being crazy. There are a couple of little kids in our apartment building, we have met a couple, so hopefully we get to play with them, too. There are crickets everywhere that are gigantic, they look like small birds when they fly and are super loud, all the kids wander around with nets and little boxes trying to catch them. In the parks they are so loud and piercing it hurts your ears. Alex has also been eating well, trying new things, and enthusiastically trying to use chopsticks. He calls all little kids Holden.
