why i love this town...

my adventures of this week mostly involve our prefectural orientation. thus, i haven't had many adventures :) today was probably the most exciting, in that i got to chat w/ my friend mandy the entire way up to mt. tateyama[in the bus] and the entire way down.

other than that-- nothing thrilling. i decided not to climb for the following reasons:

1. i'm climbing mt. fuji in 3 days [saving my leg muscles]

2. the weather was horrid today and the view was nilch. i figured it wouldn't be worth the effort since i couldn't even see anything once i climbed.

sooooo i walked around, sat around, and took some random pictures. ONE time the fog and rain cleared so i could get a few good shots. [see below]

Yesterday, there was a gorgeous rainbow over the sea. of course i took pics of that, too :)

at orientation on monday, the man presenting was talking about speeding in your car. here in japan they are very strict and i quote "you might get captured by the police if you are running over 40 kilometers per hour!!"

... anyone else find something(s) odd and hilarious about that statement...??

the food here is seriously great. my fav so far is definitely yakisoba, which we had on the grill at the beach barbecue on saturday [it's noodles, cabbage, pork, and something else... absolutely awesome!]. i've also been managing to cook some good stuff for myself at home. i found basil pesto sauce which i had on regular spaghetti from the 100Yen shop. my latest addiction is to DARS chocolate... i should prohibit myself from purchasing it, but i don't think that's possible.

*cute story 1*

last night at Lawson (the konbini/ convenience store) i had the following conversation:

old man: "excuse me" (IN ENGLISH!!!)

me: "excuse me. sumimasen." (i thought he was trying to go by me, so i moved over)

old man: "excuse me. where are you from?" (ALL in english still!!)
me: "America, New York"

old man: "ahhh, new york. Yankees!!"

me: "hai. yes, Yankees :)"

old man: :) :)

old man, 30 seconds later: "it's muggy today"

me: "hai, atsui. it's very hot"

:) golly i love this town.

*cute (?) story 2*

tonight at the grocery store "HappyTown"... checkout aisle:

checkout (old) lady told me the price and i got out all my ridiculous coins... b/c i had 1000 Yen (10 bucks) in one bill, but i didn't want to break another and get MORE change. the old lady motions i should open my hand, she starts counting my coins and putting them on her counter. i could see i clearly didn't have enough so i would have to get my other 1000Y out. SO, i did. but then she kept some of my change so she could give me back coins that were worth more instead of lots of 1Y (about one cent!!). she smiled and smiled. i smiled and smiled and breathed a sigh of relief b/c i could feel the people behind me in line thinking "stupid foreigner can't even count her own money". and i can. but i wanted to appreciate the lady's kind efforts. so there.

yesterday Ann said to me:

"I read your blog. why don't you talk about me more?"

I cracked up, obviously. and now i've talked about ann a tiny bit more. so... shoutout to 703 ;)

[see why i love this town?!]