Postcard

More from Miyajima. I was trying to make a cool shot like on a postcard, where something cool is in the pictures with the cherry tree branches and blooms surrounding it. I think these turned out pretty well.

Pagoda on Miyajima

If you're not sick of it yet, here's more pics from Miyajima. We climbed up these stairs near the gate and saw this pagoda. I'm WAY behind in my picture posting. I still owe you guys pics of the flower festival! Yeah, these were taken over a month ago, but I thought they were too pretty not to share. Toukasan is this weekend!!! I'm really pumped! My yukata and accessories are ready to go! I just wish Markian would dress up. He doesn't want to wear shorts and the men's style that isn't shorts is SO expensive (hundreds of dollars), so....no yukata for him...unless he decides to surprise me, but I doubt it. I just wanted our pictures taken together at the festival all dressed up.

Little Temple

Miyajima not only has the famous floating tori gate and lots of deer running around, there are plenty of little temples on the island. This one was near the tori gate. You can easily spend an entire day on the island and not do everything. That's what happened to us, although we mostly did everything.
On an unrelated note...pirates 3 is out here, but the movies are SO expensive. The discount late show ticket at the Warner Brothers theater (which I've heard is the nice one) is 1,300 yen and a regular ticket runs around 2,000 yen and up. So, I don't plan on seeing many movies, but I probably will break down and see Pirates at some point because Johnny Depp is in it. So, even if it is poo, I will see Johnny Depp which almost makes it worth 20 bucks.

A private museum tour

This took place April 22nd and I'm just now getting around to writing about it! Anyhow, a student at our school who is taught be another teacher gave us a private museum tour. He works at the museum and wanted to talk to people about art and try out his tour giving skills. He's an incredibly nice guy. He bought us tea and we chatted and then he showed us around the museum which mainly contains Impressionist works. It was really nice. Then he took pictures of us in front of the museum and gave us prints as a present later. I don't have a way to scan them, so that's why they're not up here. He wants us to come back after he's learned more English so he can give us another tour. We're looking forward to it!

Robots are awesome.

Saw this guy up near Yokogawa Station. Thought he was pretty awesome, so I told Markian to pose with him. Robots are awesome. I'm wondering when we'll get the transformers movie over here. I know it's not out in the US yet, but I'm just thinking ahead.

I think Pirates 3 came out today, but I'm not sure if it did here. I went to the local theater website and used one of those web translators to change it into English and it was no where to be seen on the site. It looks like they're just now showing 300 here. So, it may be a while before I get to see Pirates, which makes me sad. Movies are crazy expensive over here, so I'm only going if it's something I really, really, really wanna see...like pirates. It'll probably be disappointing like the last one, but it's pirates + Johnny Depp so I really don't care.

The reason I'm able to sit here and type this is cause one of my high schools has exams so I didn't have to go today. I plan to use the afternoon to catch up on lesson planning. I still have night classes to teach this evening. Alright, I'm going to go check on my rice. It's the first time I've had time to cook in a while. I usually am living at the Mos Burger or the cheap-o Italian place.

I want more days like these

Fun and games have been over for a while. Really busy with work, but I still have a backlog of lovely photos to share with you. I worked overtime this week, so things were crazier than normal. We went to Kure yesterday because a junior high school that I teach at was having a sports day, and I wanted to make an appearance. I have a couple pictures from that, as soon as I get the chance to upload them, like so many other pictures I want to share. We wanted to do lots of sightseeing when we were there, but our tiredness got the best of us. Kure is about an hour on the train from our home. So it wasn't a bad day, but it ended up costing us more money than I wanted to spend, and I was too tired to really enjoy it. Today we got groceries, ran erands...you know, stuff that has to be done. Sorry for the boring posts. Hopefully more exciting good things are soon to come.

Life is short

It's been a rough week for a few reasons. That is why there has been a lack of updates. It's Monday evening, and it's already time to go back to work tomorrow. A coworker and friend of ours unexpectedly passed away this week. It just came out of nowhere, so I've been pretty down most of the week. It really makes you think that you don't know how long you have. He was an incredibly nice guy, and it just really sucks. I'll really miss talking to him; he was very friendly and interesting to chat with.

The picture is of some flowers I pass by on my way to teach at a little Juku I go to.

More Deer

Just in case you didn't get enough the first time, here are some more deer from Miyajima. Aren't they cute? Tomorrow is our last day of vacation and it will mostly be spent planning lessons for the week. We also have to go to the doctors in the morning for a physical because some of the high schools we work at require it. So, I guess today was really our last day of vacation. I'm almost totally over my sickness, now that I have to go back to work and all. Oh well, I guess better sick when I had time to rest than instead of when I'm working and have to go, go, go!

We spent a lot of the break in the apartment catching up on tv episodes from US shows we've missed. I have to say, I didn't like "Hero's" at first, but now it's getting really good. Smallville is good as usual, and I can't believe that Gilmore girls is getting canceled! That really, really sucks!

The close-up of the deer below I particularly like. It was my first day with my new camera and I was surprised at the detail on this photo. If I zoom in, I can see the snot on it's nose! hehe I love my new camera! I need to find out how to attach my movie files on here. My sister said it is easy, so I'll try and figure it out at some point. Things are probably going to get crazy again here though, starting tomorrow.

Update

I'm hungry. So hungry. I'm waiting on Markian to hurry up and get ready so we can head down to the festival again for more junk food. The festival has been fun. I have loads of pictures but haven't had time to download yet. My comp is overloaded with pics and I need to take some stuff off first because it seems to be running slower than usual.

I bought a yukata (summer kimono) yesterday for only 4,000 yen complete with shoes, an obi, and a bag. I'm very happy with it. It was on sale for golden week and it's really long, which is why I think it was so cheap. The retail price was 17,000 yen. It's pretty, deep purple with purple and white flowers and a big bright pink obi. Pictures later, once I wear it in June. I don't want to spoil it yet. I have to buy pretty hair pieces to go with it. I'm very excited about putting the whole thing together and going out in it!

More good news, I'm not perfect, but I am feeling much better. I'm not as stopped up, the ear pain has ceased, and now I'm only left with a nasty cough. That's two of the three down, so almost back to wellness, or at least I hope. Markian seems to have picked up a cold though now that I'm getting better, which sucks.

Alright, I'm off to eat more junk food. As my mom said, at least I'm eating, even if it is junk. Hopefully a nice update in the next couple days with festival pics.

A cute plague beast

Two nights in a row we've seen this bird (crane maybe? not quite sure what it is...) off of the bridge near our apartment perched on a line that ties up a boat. He just sits there. He turns around a little, but I think it's funny he always comes back to the same spot. We stood and watched him for a little while. I thought he/she was cute, but I think all animals are cute. Technically, I guess it qualifies as a plague beast just like those pigeons who carry bird flu. But for some reason, he/she is much cuter and more amusing than a pigeon.

Itsukushima Shrine: Part 2

More pictures from Itskukushima Shrine. I have so many pictures from Miyajima, it's kinda ridiculous, but it was just so beautiful and I love taking pictures! Plus, it was my first day with my new camera, so I went a little crazy!

Still sick, but trying to get out more. I feel much better in the afternoon than the mornings or at night. I don't sleep well because the coughing and lack of ways to breath wake me up quite often. Last night was a little better because I only remember waking up 4 times verses around 12.

Yesterday we went out with a friend that I met on myspace who's also any English teacher, but lives outside of the city. We walked around and explored and had a lot of fun. Pictures from that adventure are coming soon.

Today is the start of the flower festival. I slept kinda late, so I need to get my butt in gear and get out and go see what the festivities are all about!

Opium

No, not drugs! I felt crappy yesterday so Markian and I basically stayed in the apartment and watched movies on my computer. Later that evening I was feeling some cabin fever being trapped in here, plus I was hungry, so we decided to go out for a bit. I wanted to try something new instead of the same old cheap Italian restaurant or Mos Burger. I went on the web and scoped out some affordable places with English on the menus or pictures or plastic food and off we went!
The place we ended up at was called "Opium". The decor was really nice, very retro. The food was reasonably priced and decent portions. I had fish and chips and Markian had an omelet thingy with rice and mushrooms and pork. We were lucky because they were having a happy hour and certain drinks were only 300 yen! Pictured above is some Russian drink Markian got that tasted like grapefruit juice and vodka (or we think anyway). The other drink is what I got, cassis and grapefruit juice. Cassis is some kind of berry liquor and it's popular around here and really good. So we had some yummy cocktails and after a couple I started to feel better, temporarily anyway. :-D
Then we made out way next door to the crepes shop and got some yummy crepes. They were good, but not as good as they smelled. So it was a nice ending to what had been a crappy day otherwise because I felt so yucky. We'll have to do it again sometime.

CANTWIN

Ever feel this way? I sure do. Especially now. I'm finally off work and I've been sick the entire time. It really, really sucks. I "cantwin". I think it's allergy problems again, but they're back with a vengeance this time. It's even worse. I keep thinking I'll be better the next day, but it only gets worse! I wanted to go and see and do things, but every time I go somewhere I just feel like crap. We went to Diamond City yesterday because it's not that long of a haul. I had a coughing fit in a shoe store and got over heated and almost passed out. I went and laid in the floor of the mall because I couldn't find Mark (he was still in the shoe store somewhere and didn't have his phone) and I knew I was going to pass out if I didn't lay down and cool off somehow. So, I don't think we'll be doing too much this week now. It's our last big break til August so I'm pretty peeved at the whole situation. I guess it's better now then when I have to work, well sorta....

Markian is perfectly fine. Whatever is bothering me, doesn't seem to bother him, thank goodness. I was reading stuff online about Japan and allergies. If you don't know, it's so bad here that people wear like surgical masks around town in order to filter out the pollen. Apparently it's cedar pollen, see http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-02/2005-02-14-voa5.cfm?CFID=69280231&CFTOKEN=95079777 It's an older article I know, but it explains some of this stuff. This royally sucks.