Valentine's--the day that keeps on giving

This post is just to say thanks to Rachael, Mom, and Lindsey for your super fun packages you sent in honor of St. Valentine's Day. (Lindsey--I especially loved the see through underwear.)

Fun stuff from Rach



Greatest card ever (from Mom)

Who wants some crab?

Hokkaido is famous for snow crabs. We saw them for sale everywhere, along with a lot of crab-themed souvenirs.





This one was trying to escape


This is the only crab I ate--in my fried rice, but it was quite tasty.

Me and L squared

Just trying out this new program...let me know if you guys love it or hate it.



These are just a few pictures of us in Sapporo.

Where do I begin?

Well, I have tons of pictures from Sapporo that I want to put up here. I've decided to break the trip up into several posts. I'll try and make it as organized as possible, so just bear with me.

For this first post, I'll put up pictures of the snow and ice sculptures, since we did go for the Snow Festival, after all.

An ice sculpture with fish in it


This one is made with snow. I have no idea what building it's a replica of...sorry




Here's Aslan on the Chronicles of Narnia sculpture


Narnia written in Katakana (Japanese symbols for foreign words)--I can totally read this


This is a Japanese pro-golfer. Haven't you always wanted to see your face made of snow?


Fun facts

Working days=27; Loads of snow=800 truck loads; # of people who worked on it=3,600 men
Crazy, huh?

Another ice sculpture advertising Bailey's Irish Creme


Some guys working on ice sculptures




Me with some random sculpture


Snoopy


The Narnia sculpture at night


Ok, you've seen enough of these, haven't you? I went overboard, huh? Sorry-I never know when to stop. It's like I start putting up pictures then I can't control myself. It's too hard to pick just a few...really, I'm sorry. But I can't promise it will get better.
Coming Soon--More pictures from Sapporo! Get excited...I promise it gets better (that actually depends completely on your definition of 'better').

My first bike wreck...

This was probably inevitable since my bike is my main mode of transportation. Here's how it went...
I was riding home from school on Wednesday, minding my own business listening to my iPod. I was riding on the sidewalk when a guy on a motor scooter came out of no where. He turned right in front of me and I hit him, and then proceeded to flip over my bike onto the pavement. (Yes, it was his fault.) After I managed to get up out of the road (that I had fallen into) I noticed my chin was bleeding--a lot. The guy asked me, "Dai shyobu des ka?" (Are you okay?), but I didn't answer him. I was too busy noticing the blood dripping all over me. I started digging for some tissues and soon the guy noticed too and got some tissues out. He asked me about 10 more times if I was okay, and I finally managed to answer, "Dai shyobu." (I'm okay.) I managed to ride my bike home, all the while holding tissues on my chin to keep from bleeding everywhere. Lauren looked at my wound when I got home and thought I might need stiches. We got Liz to give us a second opinion, and she thought we should go to the doctor just in case. Well, we only know one doctor that speaks English, so we went to his office, but he was closed. So-I decided to be my own 'doctor' and really it was fine. Here are some pictures--because I know you want to see them you sick people. (Oh, and if you don't--then don't look past this.)



Here is the result of my 'doctoring'...



Then, after I bled through that bandage, I resorted to this


Don't worry...I didn't go out in public like that. The only other damage is my right arm hurting from breaking the fall with it. Oh, and I have an enormous purple bruise on my left leg. It's a good thing it's not summer, because with this huge bruise on my leg, someone would probably think I had an abusive spouse.

I did go back to school today, even riding my bike. I was a little worried at first, but I have to ride my bike eventually, so I just did it. When I got to school, of course all the teachers were really worried about me even though I was clearly fine. After lunch, I was forced to go to the doctor. I really have no idea how that even came about, but whatever. I went to the doctor with a guy didn't speak English, so I'm not even sure why he was there. Once I got into see the doctor it was fine since he speaks English. He told me that it's infected and gave me some pills to take and some cream. I don't really know if I'm going to take the pills. I'm not too sure about needing to take pills for a scraped up chin. Yeah, I really should trust the medical professionals more I guess...

I'm claustrophobic--I just found out

Sunday was our last day in Hokkaido. We had a catch a train to the airport that day around 6 pm. Well, we were running to make a train and just jumped in the first door we saw open. It ended up being a reserved car, so we had to stand in between two cars in what I now like to call 'our little rectangle'. It wasn't so bad at first because the doors were open into the reserved cars, so some people were standing in the aisles. However, the train nazi came through and shoved all us 'commoners' out of there. It seems the people who paid for reserved seats didn't want to mix with our kind. Our rectangle was probably about 10 ft. by 6 ft. and there were like, 50 people crammed in there. (I'm exaggerating, but stay with me here.)
We had our bags with us, as did several other of the rectangle riders. It ended up that the train was delayed (which ended up being the theme for the evening) so we sat there probably 15 minutes until the train actually left--which of course enabled more people to cram into our little space. We had been going about, oh, 10 minutes maybe when Liz and I looked at each other, then said, "It is so quiet in here! It's creepy." (We couldn't look at Lauren because of the way we were wedged in there.) Anyway, I started freaking out. I looked at Liz and said, "I'm claustrophobic. I just found out." I think it was a combination of the super creepy quietness and the super confined space. Liz started laughing at me, then I couldn't stop laughing. We went into a fit of laughter and got several glances from people who obviously enjoyed the quiet. (Lauren was pretending she didn't know us at this point.)
There was one couple next to us that thought we were entertaining and laughed at us, so at least we were appreciated by someone. Well, after I got Gary (my iPod--which you know if you read this regularly) out to help with my freaking out, I got better, but I was so ready to be off that train. We ended up having a great conversation with the couple next to us a little while later and I think they agreed that the quiet was just a little too quiet. The train ride that should have taken 35 minutes turned into an hour, but our rectangle did get better when some people got off before the airport.

I realize this isn't that funny in writing, but I promise it was really hysterical.

Valentine's Day--the Japanese way

As promised, I will tell you all about Valentine's Day in Japan. Yuya was kind enough to tell us all about it (read: he was very vague, but we pulled the information out of him eventually). In Japan, Valentine's Day is a time for girls to give chocolate and gifts. Guys don't give anything on this day--they only receive. Girls give chocolate to co-workers and friends, much like we might do in the states. If they were actually interested in a guy, they would buy him an expensive box of chocolates or a scarf. Yes, a scarf (which we also found out Japanese call them mufflers...and I laughed at this A LOT). Yuya said, "If a girl makes you a scarf, she must like you a lot." After we stopped laughing we begged him to tell us if he had ever received a scarf on Valentine's Day. Again, he shared some vague details, but Japanese people are very private, so I won't tell his personal life on here.
Now, all you girls by now are probably thinking the same thing Liz, Lauren and I were...This doesn't seem very fair. Ha-well, don't fret. Exactly one month later on March 14th, it is White Day. This is the day for guys to return gifts to the girls. Of course the reason these 2 holidays work so well in Japan is because of the way Japanese people always feel obligated to return gifts when they are given one. Candy makers and department stores in Japan made up 'White Day' knowing the Japanese men felt obligated to give gifts back to the women.
Several of our guy friends have joked with us, reminding us to get them chocolate for Valentine's Day. Lauren and I think it's hilarious, so we're going to have fun with it. And of course we fully expect to get some chocolate back--haha.
However, we won't be making any scarves...

The antics of Yohei

I want to introduce you guys to Yohei a.k.a. one of my favorite students. He is a san-nensei (the equivalent of a 9th grader in the states). He sits in the back of class and doesn't listen to anything but the other students talking around him. His class as a whole is horrible and all they do is talk while I'm talking. In general, I hate teaching this class, but Yohei makes it all better because he's hilarious. Last week they had to memorize a dialogue with a partner then come recite it to me. He came and put his book up behind me on the chalkboard so he could read it. Of course I saw him do this, because he's pulled this stunt before. As he was squinting to read the book he had put behind me, I laughed, and then turned around, took the book down, and told him to go memorize it. He then proceeded to write all his lines on the chalkboard, again thinking I'm stupid I guess and that I wouldn't notice. I turned around while he was writing and told him he was funny, but he doesn't really understand any English (I know-big shock) so he just kept writing and laughing.
Yohei calls me to his desk sometimes for no reason, other than to ask me to arm wrestle. I told him we could after class...and of course he won. I'm such a wimp.
He also makes me play junken (rock, paper, scissors) to get my own stuff from him.
When he sees me in the hall, he asks me to come to the bathroom with him.
I seriously love this kid--even if he is the worst student ever.

Customer service with a smile

Jennifer -

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, January 15th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!


Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music

The new look

Well, I hope you all approve of the new look here. I was bored with the old one so I used my little knowledge of html and changed it to suit me better.

Quick note: To leave comments now, you click on the number next to the title of the post. Some of you had trouble leaving comments before, but that problem should be eliminated.

Now hurry up and leave me comments praising me for how awesome the new look is...or you can leave comments expressing disapproval, but be warned that if you do disapprove, I may make a post about my disapproval of you. (Sorry-I just wanted to type the word disapproval a lot.)

Never a dull moment...

Saturday night we went to Brett and Bong's house for Young Life. We always have a good time there, but this time was probably the best ever. There were just so many people there and we had a blast. Brett had given his university students an extra credit assignment to interview a native English speaker. Many of his students came because they wanted the extra credit which would raise their last test grade. It was really fun answering all their questions and trying to communicate with them.

After dinner, we sang a few songs, and then it was time for a game. The games at Young Life are never normal and never boring. Lauren and I were sitting there minding our own business when all of a sudden Brett 'volunteered' both of us to play the game. He said it was because he needed girls, and there are usually not many girls there other than us American girls. So, we get up there having no idea what to expect. He tells us to pick a guy out to be our partner. I picked this guy Manabu, who had interviewed me for his extra credit earlier. Little did I know that minutes later I would be rubbing shaving cream on his chest.



Lauren seemed to be enjoying this part a little too much...haha



After we had properly lathered the guy's chests, they were told to line up and we had to get on our knees about 8 feet from them. We (the girls) were then given a bag of chips that reminded me of cheeto balls. We were told we had one minute to get as many of them as possible to stick to the shaving cream.



In the end, Manabu and I got 2nd place with 16. The winner had over 20.



After all that excitement, we sang a few more songs.

Shinsuke and Daisuke--a.k.a The Suke brothers


Later some of the guys did a skit.
(from l to r) Brett, Daisuke, Shinsuke, and Dave


Here is what happens when you give someone else your camera.

That's Maury and he's a pretty cool surfer dude.

After everything was over we all hung out and talked to some of Brett's students. They all wanted pictures with Lauren, Liz and I. We were quite the celebrities. At one point the 3 of us were standing there for a picture and there were at least 4 cameras on us. Bong was laughing at us.

Later on, Shinsuke was playing guitar so I told him to play the song from "A Walk to Remember". (He had played it for us before and we thought it was funny that he knew it.) He handed me the guitar and told me to play something instead. I told him I would if he would play the walk to remember song for us after that. He reluctantly agreed so I took the guitar to fulfill my part of the bargain. At first I was just messing around not really playing anything, then Lauren got my camera to take pictures as Shinsuke and I pretended to be a band.



Now the reason that picture is really funny is because Shinsuke is pretending to play the flute--but that is not a flute. It's a folded up music stand. Oh, and he's holding it completely wrong. (Lauren showed him later how to hold it correctly since she was a former flute player.)

Save our movies...

At the beginning of movies in Japan there is a commercial that runs for anti-piracy. It is HILARIOUS. It starts out with a woman crying a black tear.





Then, when the tear drops it becomes a skull.



At the end, there is this skull with a warning about pirating movies.



Lauren and I literally crack up every time we see this. It never gets old and we always laugh--a lot.

Another fun thing about movies in Japan--they put your popcorn bucket in a bag so you won't spill any on the way to your seat. They are so smart!

Random stuff

The Japanese people are way too into their dogs.



There is one vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. Japan has one of the world's highest vending machine densities. We found 33 in a row in Chiba city.



This is a parking garage.



You can see straight through it...why? Well, it takes your car in, then it goes up on an elevator of sorts and stores your car until you come back for it.



Lastly, some of you have asked me about the 'squatty potty'. Well, you can all thank Lauren for taking this picture.



I hate these toilets, but when you gotta go, you gotta go, right?

Oh, and Japan is very kid-friendly. Almost all women's restrooms have little urinals for boys. (Thank you again Lauren for this picture.)

Oh, Annabelle...

Happy 3rd Birthday (or 21 in dog years)



Now she can have her first beer...legally.