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Hogwarts!

Today, I'm off to Nagoya so I get to eat Ichiran.  Hehehe.

In the mountains.  Here in Japan, I live near the mountains and everyday I see them on my way from work and they make my day better.  I love seeing how the seasons and the weather affect their appearance.

The JLPT is over.  I think I passed it this year, though now I'm ready to start studying for the next level.

In other news, I think the Ichiran ramen shops own my soul.

Ichiran is a chain of ramen shops based out of Fukuoka.  The ramen is incredibly delicious; and it is a perfect shop for anti-social people.  You buy tickets from a machine for what you want, and you sit at a seat at the counter; which is enclosed on both sides, so you can't see the person sitting next to you.  You fill out a form with your ramen preferences (seasonings, broth strength, noodle texture, etc), and then press a button.  People take your order and go.  Whoever invented the concept is a genius; I like it because I can personalize my order and am anti-social; from a business standpoint it seems like a great idea because people will eat and leave faster, and many people will come back to try a different combination of seasonings.

Anyway, I love it.  And I crave it.  There is one shop in Nagoya, and I ate there twice this weekend.  I'm totally craving it again today, but with an injured foot and a budget to follow, it seems like I'll have to wait.

Speaking of owning my soul, I think Villaines might have to battle it out with Ichiran.

I've tried two other products.
 

( Reviews under the cut )

Well, 2 of those (Buffy and MST3K), I adore.  

The show that I miss the most is Firefly.  There was no sense of closure with Firefly, not even after Serenity.  I feel that there is a lot left to explore and learn about in the Firefly universe.

It is exams week for my students.  I don't have very much work-related things to do.  I need to make a Christmas lesson for next week, and that is about it.

I have an exam to take on Sunday, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.  I started studying awhile back.  Now, I find that the closer I get to the test date, the less I care about studying.   This is not a good thing, as I know come Saturday night I will be freaking out about how much I still don't know for the test.

For the holidays, Jeff and I will be traveling around Kyushu.  I'm excited.  We'll celebrate Christmas early this year on the 19th, but I am not sure what we are going to eat yet.  No roast chicken and no Christmas cake.  I am hoping that we go to Indomura.  Indomura has amazing Indian food; their curries and naan are fantastic.  I worry that I'll never like another Indian restaurant as much as Indomura.

Wedding planning has taken a backseat, I've booked the photographer and I'm happy.  After the test though, we'll get in touch with the DJs, and then tackle invitations and flowers.  Color scheme was decided.  Red, purple, blue and green.  

My new obsession is  Villainess soaps.  More precisely, the scrubs (called Smooch) and body cream (called Whipped).  Shipping to Japan is really reasonable, and she includes two soap samples.  So far, I've tried Gingersnapped Smooch and Whipped, Decadence Whipped, Crushed smooch, and a Scintillating soap sample.

( Read on for Scent Reviews )

I have not posted in a long time.  The journal has not really served it's original purpose at all, so I think that I am just going to use it as a regular journal and use it for prompts occasionally.   I've been pretty busy with work, and life in general.

Some of my free time is spent wedding planning.  Right now, I am trying to find a photographer.  The wedding is going to be a lot more traditional than I ever expected.  I never really dreamt of a wedding (too busy dreaming about the groom), and I'm not very crafty, so I'm worried that the wedding is not going to be very  "us."  Currently, Jeff and I have different visions of wedding colors.  Since when did I become someone who would worry so much about a color scheme?

The rest of my free time is spent studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).  To my shame, I failed Level 3 last year, and this year I plan on passing it.  I wanted to pass Level 2 this year, but I am nowhere near there  (Level 4 is easiest; Level 1 is hardest.  There is a huge jump between Level 3 and 2).

Next month, I want to complete Nanowrimo, so I am going to try to schedule a time to study and a time to write.  And I'll probably book a DJ.  Bah.

In other news, I went to a charity sumo tournament in Kyoto over the weekend.  It was kind of a behind-the-scenes look into the world of sumo.  The sumo wrestlers were really accessible, as it was an event for the fans.  I got to meet one of my favorite wrestlers, Chiyohakuho, and saw my very favorite wrestler, Ama, from less than a foot away.   Unfortunately, Ama is really up and coming so there was NO chance to talk with them.  Jeff and I'll be going to Fukuoka at the end of November to see the Kyushu Tournament. 

"There are no happy endings, because nothing ever ends."

Home is Clinton, OH.  A tiny little town in the country and where my parents still live.

Home is an apartment in Suzuka, where I currently live.  I'd never truly lived on my own before. 

And Home is wherever Jeff is.

So much for writing everyday, must get back to that.

In the past couple of weeks, I have...

• Rescued a kitten
• Gone to Tokyo for a job fair
• Walked across the Rainbow Bridge
• Lost a kilo

This weekend I will...

• Work at an English seminar at another high school
• Watch Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull
• Start cleaning the spare room so Jeff has room when he moves in!
  
  
  
  
  
  

The first day of June was lovely!

Jeff and I woke up early and went to Mt. Gozaisho.  It is the tallest mountain in the Suzuka range (12,000 meters), and I can see it from my apartment.  It takes about three hours to climb to the top, and its a strenuous hike.  There are some points where you do have to literally climb the rocks as you go up the mountain.  It was my second time climbing the mountain; last October I went with Theda.

On the way up the mountain, we spotted some wildlife.  We saw a mountain goat, a pale green snake that wound it's way through the tree branches, and a reddish-brown squirrel.  It was very interesting to see a mountain goat in its natural habitat.

One of the interesting things about hiking up the mountain is seeing how the environment changes as the elevation rises.  Near the top, it almost feels like the jungle. 

The view from the top is worth the climb!  From one side, you can see Mie-ken, and on the other side, you can see Shiga-ken.  We took a ski-lift to the Shiga side of the peak (you can ski on Gozaisho in the winter), and looked out over the mountains.  In the distance, we could see Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.

We had lunch on the top of the mountain, and I changed clothes and freshened up.  We took a ropeway down the mountain.  The ropeway is the steepest one in Japan.  On a clear day, you can see all the way to Nagoya and even to to Centrair airport.  At the bottom of the ropeway, you can buy freshly-made senbei.  They are sweet and flavored with black sesame seeds; when they are hot and fresh they are very soft, but they harden as they cool...they cool really rapidly, so your teeth end up getting quite a work-out. 

After the climb, we went to Nabananosato, a flower park, to see the ajisai (Hydrangea) exhibit.  There were thousands of blooms...white, pink, pale green, and shades of sky blue.  In my opinion, the blue ones are the prettiest, but they had one variety called "dancing princess" which was a white flower with a pink edge that I found to be very beautiful.

Nabananosato is more than a flower park...it also has an onsen, and at least half a dozen restaurants.  We went to the "German" Beer Hall for dinner.  The beer is German-style beer, and the restaurant is huge like a beer hall, but the atmosphere and food (other than 3 or 4 items) are decidedly Japanese.  It's a tasty place nonetheless, and I like the weizen there, it tastes a bit like apples and cinnamon.  

Before we left the park, Jeff treated me to ajisai flavored icecream!  It was a pink and blue soft-serve cone.  It was a vanilla base with ajisai fragrance.  Delicious!

At this point in my life, I would not be able to take care of a newborn baby.  I live alone and work full time, and would not have the funds to send it to daycare or hire a nanny or whatever.

On the other hand, I certainly would not be able to just hand the baby off to an agency or whatever, so I suppose that I would want to take care of it until suitable parents could be found.

Ninjas.  Obviously.

Besides the fact that they are able to blend into their surroundings and can carry off assassinations and espionage with the greatest of ease, they have 3 other things going for them.

-Ninjas are an equal-opportunity employer.  They are not superstitious about women bringing bad luck.  Therefore, they can get the best fighters of both sexes.  See くノ一.

-Pirates are loud.  They drink and holler, and generally carouse.  Ninjas are silent.  Jack Sparrow* would wander around looking for rum, and the ninja would repel from the ceiling and slit his thoat before he even knew what was happening.  None of his pirate chums would even notice.

-Ninjas are weapons.  They know how to kill people with their little toes.  They can use poison, ninjato swords, and shuriken; they can manipulate their environment to suit their needs.  But they don't need to.  Without guns or cutlasses, where would the pirates be?



*Nothing against Jack Sparrow or Johnny Depp's delicious portrayal of him.