you know what happens on Thursdays...

 
It's that time again! I'm going to start off this week's post with one of the most important things that I love:

★ My friends. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without my friends here in Japan. Probably go crazy. I really do love and appreciate my friends and all they do for me and my sanity. Especially all of the ones back home in the states. I miss them all so much. It makes me so happy to see that I can still affect their lives from such a distance, too. For example: my BFF Breann got inspired from my 'Things I Love Thursday' posts and decided to do her own. Which is awesome. I personally think it's important to appreciate the things in life you love - mostly because they're what make you happy - and being happy is what really counts, right? I wouldn't be happy without any friends!! In addition to this, my other BFF, Jim, whose life right now, from the sound of his blog, is really super hectic, made the decision to do some feature posts on his blog, too. Yay! I can't wait to read them! I really love that I've inspired some of the people that I care the most about.

★ Haagen-Dazs Creme Brulee ice cream. It is simply fantastic. It has the dark caramelized sugar topping and a hard vanilla candy coating beneath it so it cracks just like real creme brulee. The custard-flavored ice cream even has little black vanilla flecks in it. It not only tastes like creme brulee, it mimics it to a T. Absolutely incredible.

★ Ferris wheels with a view. Like this one in the park by the bay in Kasai, which happens to be the tallest in Japan. I was on it this past weekend with Taryn and Take. I only wish it had been a nicer day. Or even night time, which would have been awesome, too.

★ Pepsi in bottles in Japan. Pop that comes in bottles just plain tastes better than pop that comes from a can or an automatic dispenser. The fact that pop in Japan is sweetened with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup quite literally sweetens the deal for me. At home, most pop is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Since massive corn farms are subsidized by the U.S. government, it makes it so much cheaper just to use corn syrup instead of real sugar to sweeten things like soda pop, ice cream and what have you. It's actually much healthier to have regular sugar instead of that processed corn nonsense that is just plain bad for you. Pepsi in Japan is pretty rare, too. Bonus points for that!

★ The Japan Times is a pretty entertaining newspaper, especially for me, as a foreigner living in Japan. I started reading it mostly because Japanese newspapers are difficult even for Japanese people to read. I really enjoy reading newspapers in general, so I decided to subscribe to JT for the free trial week. It was great while it lasted, but I wish I had enough time to read the paper every day. I'm considering getting the weekly instead of the daily newspaper. You can apply for a free trial subscription here, if you're interested. You need to have a Japanese address & a phone number, though, and your local newspaper distribution center WILL call you do verify your address, and you WILL need to speak Japanese to them in order to do so. Nevertheless, I still love the Japan Times.

★ Also, I am most happy to mention that my blogger friend, Homestay Mama, gave me the Honest Scrap award! She is such a wonderful human being. Sometimes I wish my homestay mom would have been more like her! Ever since I did one, I've been really interested in the dynamics of the whole host student experience, mostly because it is so unique and different for each individual who does one. It really is amazing, let me tell you. I really enjoy reading her blog because it gives me a different perspective on doing a homestay (a homestay parent versus that of a student). She has hosted students from all over the world, and you can read about them & all of the cool stuff that they do (like playing guitar, arm wrestling, eating awesome foods & more!!) on her blog, Home to the World, which I love reading. Thanks again, homestay mama!!

Anyway, I need to get to work on a big storybook I'm making for one of my classes for an end-of-the-semester review. I'll post some photos later.
These are some things I love! How about you? What do YOU love?