All the cars here are frozen most of the time. My brother played Superman and hit the ice with his fist to make it look like he crushed the car. Sometimes it's impossible to open doors, so people have lots of stuff with them like scrapers, shovels and brooms.

Back home

So I'm home again for the holidays. Nothing much exciting yet, as we don't particularly celebrate Christmas.

This time round I spent about 30 hours in travel. I keep waking up at 5:30 and going to bed at 9... Obviously no one's up at that time. The internet's great though :D

 At the Kansai airport there were cool wind sculptures on the ceiling.

This was the first time I was flying over a winter landscape. The previous two winters Shiv came over.

Waaa, cute shadow! That's us!

Onigiri bar

We tried some onigiri today. They're surprisingly filling. A bit dry maybe. The ones we had (L-R) - salty squid, salmon, dried bonito shavings (скумбрия), chicken teriyaki. All extremely tasty.

すいぜんじ こうえん

We went to Suizenji park on Wednesday.

University festival

This weekend we went to the University festival up on the hill.

On Saturday they had the girls' beauty contest - 'our' girl won. On Sunday - the boys' (dressed up as girls) beauty contest. The guy in the white wig was hilarious. Didn't bother to see who won that time. Among other activities there were lots of bands, even an orchestra (I think they played some anime music), karaoke contest, some sort of event with dressing up in traditional clothes, and lots more.

Shiori-san's band was playing on Saturday. This time around I could hear her voice properly - really great. Got a bracelet-like thing that glows in a dark.

We ate lots of usual stall food. Mmmmmm takoyaki...

Sunday evening they had fireworks. They were supposed to start at 7pm, and we tried our best to wait until then. But we got hungry and super sleepy (because we're trying to be like normal people, and waking up earlier), so we left a bit before 7. The thing was, it seems the fireworks only began at 8pm. Good thing we didn't bother waiting.

Ate dinner at the pasta place. It was packed and we could only get a tiny table. It was very hard to juggle our food around. But very tasty. Except for the time I started choking. Remember kids - don't talk while you're eating. Or at least, not when your mouth is full of gooey cheesy rice.

Autumn colds

I've been sick on and off for the past couple of weeks. It's rather annoying, in that I can't go out for a walk, since it seems to make it worse.

So today I spent pampering myself - doing girly stuff.

My second attempt at half-moon nails a la Dita von Teese. This time I tried a creamy pink colour and bright red. It turned out much neater than the last time.

Hair's a bit messy after we went to the store for food.

My camera ran out of battery, so I had to use Shiv's iPhone.

This Saturday we're going to the university festival. Might be fun. Hopefully, I don't get even more sick. Got to dress really warm.

What I did the last couple of weeks

Haven't written in a long time. Let's see - a couple of weeks ago we went to see one of Shiv's students perform with her band at a live-house. That was on a Friday (23, Oct). I've never been to a live-house before, and we sort of got lost while trying to find it. The place was rather small, and the speakers were unnecessarily loud, I felt. I got a bit of a headache from it - couldn't even hear some of the singing over all that noise.

Shiori-san (the student) does have a nice voice. It was funny, because almost all of her family came to see her - sister, father, grandfather, and, I think, even her grandmother. Her dad was filming her a lot.

The thing I liked the most was the lights though.

Then, the next weekend (30-31, Oct) we went to Shimonoseki to watch the musical. Had to get up super early - 6:40 it was. On Saturday I walked around the shopping mall a bit. I like it better than the one here, possibly because it's smaller. I was super tired though so just slept in the hotel until Shiv came from the rehearsal. We went to eat some korean food. The lady took pity on a poor foreigner, and made the dish very mild (by korean standards, of course).

Sunday was the day of the performance. It was in the afternoon though, so we checked out of the hotel. I had to spend around 6 hours, waiting for the time to pass. Mostly sat in the shopping mall at one of the tables. Went out for snacks and a bit of drawing. Got the attention of a one year old kid. Later on some middle-school boys came up, and tried spying on my drawing. It was a bit annoying and distressing, but in retrospect - very funny.

Got to the hall ok, but had to wait in line some 20 minutes. When they finally started the performance, I wasn't sure if I went to the right place. There were some opera singers from Korea(?) on stage. They did 3 songs - a duet and two solos. The ladies dress was a modern interpretation of the hanbok - so lovely. Her voice was amazing as well. The guy was a bit funny with all those exaggerated movements.

After they finished there were some speeches by some really important dudes. It was incredible how after the speaker would say "good evening", everyone in the hall would respond with the same phrase. Kind of like kindergarten. And all that bowing...

Anyway, the musical itself was kind of fun, even though I couldn't understand many things. Shiv was hilarious in his role as Sakamoto-san. Seems he couldn't remember some of the movements for the crowd scene dances, nor lyrics to the songs.

After the stage we went for dinner with some of the people from the musical. The waitress totally forgot about my order, and only brought it after Shiv asked about it. Discrimination! :D

The stage dragged on longer than we expected, because of all the speeches and singing. We couldn't take the train, and had to go back to the hotel again. All my waiting was in vain, could've slept at the hotel...

The 10th of October (Wed) was a holiday here. We went to the shopping centre, but Shiv caught a cold, so we didn't stay long. Found awesome cotton leggings - promised I'd bring back some back to Latvia for my mom and sis. The weather was nice, and we decided to sit on a riverbank near the castle for a while. I got bitten on the knee.

On Friday we went to Kumamoto university to talk with a professor there. Need to translate some of my documents and prepare a CV. Hopefully, I can get it done by mid week.

Now we're both a bit sick. Did absolutely nothing this weekend.

A week's worth or so of things

Lots of stuff to recount. First of all, on Thursday I got to talk a bit to the two Chinese ladies in the YMCA group. It was kind of fun. The most important thing is - I can talk without worrying I sound stupid, because they're on the same level as I am.

On Saturday we went to Uto to watch a firework competition.

Uto is an hour away or so, and the reason for holding the fireworks' display there is because it has a river.

Sooooooo many people. Big bridge :) We ate lots of tasty things - I especially liked the chicken(?) in sweet sauce and the crepe with chocolate and banana (I made some thin pancakes at home later on).

The fireworks themselves were divided into sections. There were some standard flower entrees, and in between them show-style ones. They were awesome!!! One of the most amazing and imaginative ones was the Requiem.

Two of Shiv's students caught a cold. It seems Shiori-san's is pretty serious. Still we were lucky, since some nice people let us sit on their mat. No wet grass - happiness. I did take some warm clothes with me, but it didn't feel like enough. If we ever go there in the same season, I am taking a blanket.

On Tuesday we had two more people join us in the YMCA group. The lesson dragged on a bit as the teacher was trying to see if the new guy could read all the hiragana. I guess the lessons will become a bit slower now that there are more people, but, hopefully, not fatally so. Also, there are 6 people, so it's good for dialogues.

Trying to shift our sleeping schedule. Not going so well. I went to sleep early-ish, but woke up in the early hours and couldn't sleep. Then slept until 11... Le sigh.

Missed the festival

I was supposed to go to the festival up at the castle today. But somehow I got my toe infected, so I'm still at home. Instead, I organised one of the drawers. My lingerie collection looks lovely. I now have enough underwear to last me several years if not more, thanks to Shiv spending a small fortune on it yesterday. I didn't notice at first, but after looking through it all, I do have an enormous amount of pink in there (Shiv was right), even though I prefer blue or white. A lot of black with pink. I read somewhere once that a preference for black with pink (in clothing I suppose) signifies naiveness and childishness. Something else as well, which I don't quite recall, but nothing good.

I should really get round to doing various things today, like going to the store to get some food - at least some eggs, or sorting out my clothes. Alas, I couldn't fall asleep yesterday because of the toe, so I feel super tired. Couldn't sleep in the morning after chatting with Shiv either. So in total I'd say it was some 4 hours, maybe. My own fault in a way, I guess.

The food thing is serious though. I wanted to make an apple pie, and we've run out of eggs. No salad ingredients either. We bought dried plums yesterday (expensive!), but I think I'll experiment with those a bit later in the week.

Second lesson today. Not as fun this time around - we had a different lady teaching, and her voice was sometimes so loud and shrill. Also, she was more aggressive in her teaching style. Put me off a bit.

Before the lesson I walked around the shopping streets a bit, because I came too early (the tram arrived earlier today). There was a 'Living Store' (I think) that had a sale on. Cute cups, and bowls, and teapots.

We went to eat champon in the evening. Shiv's champon was extremely spicy! I tried a tiny sip, and my mouth was burning. I liked mine better. On the way back we bought some ice-cream at (SHOCK!) McDonald's. It was't too bad, cheap as well.

Japanese lessons, missing keys, and trams

Today was my first Japanese lesson at the YMCA. It started with Shiv taking the only key from the flat with him.

Had to wait ages at the tram-stop. I think it came after around 25 minutes. Thankfully, I went out early so I had some time to spare. One of the shops had furry bras...

At the YMCA they talked Japanese at me a bit. 'Something wrong with the form, and could we have some identification, and here's your stuff'. Then, the lady took me to the wrong room. And then - the right room. Our room, it seems, is 403.

We had some name-tags that we didn't use. Instead, the lady teacher wrote out our names on big pieces of paper. After some introductions we learned some greetings and other common phrases. For the most part we reviewed/studied hiragana with some words at the end of the lesson. Got lots of homework. Nothing difficult though.

It was also my first time braving the public transport alone. I'm still not quite sure where to drop the money. Hopefully, I did everything correctly.

Because Shiv took the key I had to drag myself to the university (with a chocolate bun along the way. It wasn't that tasty, and left me super thirsty). Shiv got me a strange drink, which tasted of grapefruit. It was called 'aqua'-something, and apparently, it's a sport's drink (really?). We ate lots at the university cafe/restaurant; sadly, it was late, and the food wasn't hot anymore.

It's getting kind of cool in the evenings nowadays. Much better, but during the day it's still hot.

Lots of money was spent today on various small items. Tomorrow will probably be similar.

Most of the day was spent washing, cleaning, cooking, and shopping. And hobbling down the street, because I managed to get awful sores on my feet. Mainly the pinky toe on my right foot though.

At one of the stores we met a rather twitchy student of Shiv's. Thankfully, it was a brief encounter. I never quite know what exactly is expected of me in such situations. Need to remember to answer 'yoroshiku onegaishimasu' if anyone says the same to me (what Shiv sternly told me the other day).

Going to bed late again - a very bad habit.

Pancakes

Making pancakes in the morning. Unfortunately, we put in too much milk so they're not that fluffy. Also, there's a noticeable lack of chocolate. I want to find real honey too, not the strange-tasting processed one. It's still good with pancakes though. Soooo hungry now. Pancakes, pancakes!

~~~
Делаем блины утром. К сожалению мы налили слишком много молока, поэтому они не такие воздушные. Также наблюдается явная недостача шоколада. Ещё я хочу найти настоящий мёд, а не тот странный переработанный. Правда он всё равно хорош с блинами. Я такая голоднаяяяяяя. Блинчики, блинчики!

It's already late, and we still haven't gone to the store to get the milk and, maybe, a lightbulb. Had to wake Shiv up, since he was already sleeping for more than 2 hours.

This laptop is so hard to get used to - no Russian, lots of signs in different places. Very annoying. I really should try learning that 'no-looking-at-the-keyboard' typing thing.

Ok, finishing quickly => going to the Donkey store.