"It was THIS big!"

I was happy to hear that ONE Japanese person doesn't work himself to death. One of my doctors cuts his hours short on Saturdays so he can go fishing. Here's one of his catches:

It really was that big!
Maybe they use this kind of documentation, a fish print, gyotaku, instead of taking it to a taxidermist?
I love this guy. I can hardly ever really understand him but he always makes me laugh. And, well, they say that laughter is the best medicine... (^0^) /

Omuraisukare and singing frogs

One of the great benefits of not having a car & then missing the last bus home is that you get to wander around on foot and find interesting places for dinner. At 7:15 when I was leaving school last night, all I wanted to do was grab something from the store and go home. Instead, I went for a walk about, and ended up in this little restaurant near the arcade (outside shopping mall). Omuraisu (omelette + rice) is quite a common dish here, but I just never felt the urge to try an omelette filled with ketchup-seasoned rice. What you see pictured above is Omuraisukare - a house specialty - and I'll just say it tastes MUCH better than it sounds or looks. Onion and shrimp omelette, on a bed of rice, covered with Japanese curry (kare). Wow. I really had my doubts when he served it up, but it was amazing!

Afterwards, it decided to rain a bit. Seeing as that the rain was being rather noncommittal about the whole thing, I started walking home along the river and was treated to a proper frog symphony. So, since they sounded so lovely, I saved on a cab ride, kept walking, and got wet.

I figured - I'll dry (~,^)

and - I did.

Lovely handmade paper cranes

Here are the students stringing together strands of 50 paper cranes. These will be presented to each of the sports teams competing next weekend in the Nagasaki Prefecture High School Sports Competition. Each strand represents so much effort...have you ever folded a crane? If so, you know what it takes just to do ONE!

They're origami cranes

When I walked past this science lab room after school yesterday, I saw a riot of color on the tables. Wondering what experiment they were doing, I wandered in. Too my surprise, the colorful bits turned out to be exquisite Japanese washi papers folded into (thousands of!) tiny cranes. One of the science teachers just lost his daughter, and I learned that before she died, she folded all of these cranes. !!! I don't know why she did. I do know of a belief that they have here associated with folding a 1,000 paper cranes for luck. Her father didn't want all of the cranes to go to waste, so he brought them to school to give to the students.

You never know...

... what you're going to find...(can you guess what this is?)

Why does it have to be Christmas?

Who says we can't have candy canes in May? (well, they're the closest I've come to candy canes HERE, anyway!) I saw these today at the bakery. Sorry, can't tell how they taste...yet (^O^)/

one thing...

...that made me smile today.

Kiku-chan was a very well-behaved painting subject this week :)

So sorry... I just can't seem to get out from under this invisible leaden blanket. Just moving my arms seems impossible. Is this what I get for trying to trying to forget Mother's Day last week?

Let's Going

Here's an Engrish present for you!
Chris and Ryan are on their way back tomorrow, so back to reality soon. Cheers!