Awesome game!!

I didn't realize I'd get so caught up in this WBC game, but boy, did I get into it! It was SOOOO exciting. During the semi-finals, I happened to be in Tokyo and had time when the game was playing, so my friend and I went to a sports bar to watch the game. The final game was against South Korea, and was it an exciting game or what!


Ichiro, although he'd been in a major slump during the games, was the one that hit the winning ball that brought in 2 points in the 10th inning, giving Japan victory over South Korea. I was so happy for him!


This guy, Iwakuma, he was the starting pitcher for Japan and did such a good job that he was able to pitch all the way up to the 8th inning, with the 100-pitch limit the WBC had. He was calm throughout, smiling, and was in total control of the ball most of the time. Quite amazing that he could pitch so well under so much pressure.

Say what?!

Oh dear...if you're going to sell something and you ABSOLUTELY need to have English on the packaging, why oh WHY not spend a few extra bucks to have the English checked?! Makes me cringe.

"99.9% is shut out pollen.
'Nose Mask Pit' supports your comfortable life.
Ad-justable
Free season
Entering by 3 pieces
Mask inserted in nose of not seeing."

Reminds me of this one time I went to use the restroom in a department store and it said "toilet shower" on all the doors, and I had no idea what to expect on the other side! Turns out they were regular bathrooms with those high-tech seats.

Children's Day (national holiday)

Went to the store last weekend and saw a bunch of these samurai style helmets on sale. Must've been close to the National Children's Day, which is a day of celebration for boys and is a national holiday. They have another day called Doll's Day, which is a day of celebration for girls, but that day isn't a national holiday. Yes, that's right. NOT a holiday! How wrong is that?!

Anyways, the helmets were all made quite exquisitely, down to every little detail. This one was on sale for about $1000?! There were probably about a 100 on display...I've yet to visit a home with this kind of decoration up though. Wonder who buys these?

Jasmine Tea Kit Kat!

Every time I go to 7-eleven, I seem to find a new limited version Kit Kat flavor! Sometimes, their experimental flavor tastes flat-out nasty, but a lot of times, it tastes pretty good. This one I found was Jasmine tea...probably hard to imagine, but it tasted pretty good.

Honey, I shrunk the....salad?!

They have GOT to do something about the size of salad plates over here.

The plates are the size of saucers, and you just can't make a decent salad when there's only space to pile a few leafs of lettuce. It's almost like a balancing act, trying to get a good mixture of veges on the plate so that your salad has something other than lettuce on it.

I understand people aren't that into salads over here, but gosh, I feel like a cow or something when I'm the only one who keeps going back to the salad bar 'cause three bites just wasn't enough.

Get bigger plate, get bigger!

Mysterious things in the mailbox.

I don't know how many times a year people do this over here, but there are certain times in the year when you're supposed to offer gifts to the neighborhood gods.

One afternoon, the lady next door (the classroom I work in is in a residential neighborhood) rang the doorbell and asked me if I wanted to make a donation to the local god. She asked me if I "wanted" to, but she wasn't exactly "asking" me you see, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so I gave the 500 yen ($5) donation to her.

About an hour later, I hear these chants outside and I got curious, so I peeked out the window and saw the monk(?) waving those white papers around chanting. I know this custom is a part of the Japanese culture, but I must say, I don't get it at all.

A couple of hours after that, I checked the mail and found a bag of stuff in it (pic). I looked inside and had big question marks in my head. What'd I find? A small packet of bonito shavings, two slices of squid, a piece of seaweed, and two rice cakes. Whaaaat??? I thought it was a prank at first, but then I realized they must be from that chanting ceremony that was happening earlier, and the neighbors divided up the things they presented to the gods.

I didn't know what the two white strips were so I smelled them....whoa, they were stinky! They were dried squid...

I wonder what people do with these...are you supposed to make soup or something? Since I had no idea, I just microwaved the rice cake and ate it with soy sauce...was pretty good =).