Maps ♪

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of my all-time favorite bands. Karen O. is quite possibly one of the coolest people on the face of the entire planet.  This is an acoustic version of ‘Maps’ that I adore…

My OTHER favorite song of theirs is their cover of ‘Diamond Sea.’ It’s so much more desolate than the original Sonic Youth version, and Karen’s voice is lovely, which is why I kind of prefer it. I couldn’t find a good video, so here’s a link to the song that someone was kind enough to put on youtube:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Diamond Sea (iTunes Acoustic Session)

Speaking of Karen O., she also did the soundtrack to the film “Where the Wild Things Are.” I taught this song to my 6th graders (it has a lot of cool things in it, like shouting HEY! and whistling and saying oooh oooh oohh). They really enjoy singing it.

I haven’t done a “Things I love Thursday” post in quite some time.

These are some songs I love. How about you? What have you been listening to lately?

Things I Love Thursday – elementary school edition

Yeah, I probably have one of the best jobs in the world. Teaching English to elementary school kids! There’s no pressure to perform academically on tests or homework, plus we get to sing songs and play games. The point of elementary school English in Japan is to expose the kids to a new language and its culture in a fun way and hopefully get the kids interested in studying English before they start the drudgery of middle school.
So, I’ve been here for two semesters so far, and here are all the things I love about working at elementary schools in Japan:

1. The kids! Of course! I’m going to say here that the kids at my schools are fantastic. Super 仲良しくて、やさしくて、and 元気!!! I’m not kidding! Of course, there are always going to be like.. those 5 kids in the whole school that think they are too cool for English, but whatever, all the other kids are having fun, so they can go sulk in the corner and not have fun with the rest of us.

2.  Days when we get awesome 給食! Yes, I definitely put this down at number 2, because I honestly look forward to kyushoku… it’s always a surprise to me, mostly because nobody ever decided it might be a good idea to give the English teacher the monthly menu. Maybe they just assumed I wouldn’t be able to read it. In any case, days when we get tonkatsu or a cool dessert or something fun like the little tube of Meiji cocoa that you squeeze into your milk box to make chocolate milk with, are fantastically awesome days. The kids have fun, and they like asking me if I like such-and-such food, and they like showing me how to eat certain foods. Lunch times are awesome times.

3. Getting to decorate my own classroom! When I was a kid, I always thought it was so cool how my teachers decorated the bulletin boards and stuff at school according to holidays and seasons. I also really liked how they got to decide what posters and stuff to put in the classrooms… well now it’s MY turn! I get to have my own cool classroom and bulletin boards to fill with awesome stuff! ha!

4. Teaching the 6th graders “cool” songs. Seriously. If I had to sing “the days of the week” or “row, row, row your boat” with ALL of my classes, it would absolutely drive me up a wall. Luckily, my 6th graders are fantastic kids who know enough English and will try very hard to learn “cool” songs. We’ve already learned “Sing” by the Carpenters, “1,2,3,4” by Feist, “Hey Jude”, and this month we are singing “Feliz Navidad” at one school and “Christmas time is here” (from the Charlie Brown Christmas special) at the other school. Yeah, my 6th graders pretty much rock.

5. Speaking of songs, I thoroughly enjoy the 歯磨きサンバ (ha-migaki samba). Yeah. It lets me know when lunch is over and when it’s time to start cleaning time. It’s pretty catchy, too.

6. Drama time! Drama time is that time that comes AFTER we’ve reviewed last week’s lesson and BEFORE we start this week’s lesson. I get to act silly with my homeroom teacher (HRT) while we introduce this week’s target phrase in a little conversation that we call a “drama.” I guess they called it drama time with the last English teacher (ALT), and I loved the name, so it definitely stuck. We do all kind of crazy things in drama time. Here is one drama we did a few weeks ago to teach the kids “who is your teacher?” and “what grade are you in?”

HRT: I love 遠足 yay!! Wow, what a beautiful temple! Oh no! Where is my teacher?! Where are my friends??? WAAA!!!! (>.<;)

ALT: Hello there, are you lost?

HRT: Yes I’m lost and sad…

ALT: What’s your name?

HRT: My name is ________ (*choose someone… from your class.)

ALT: What school do you go to?

HRT: I go to なんとか elementary school.

ALT: What grade are you in?

HRT: I’m in 6^th grade.

ALT: Who’s class are you in?

HRT: I’m in Mr./ Ms. ________’s class.

ALT: Here, have some candy, and get in my car!

HRT: Oooo! Candy! Wait… are you a不審者?! I’m going to the police!! Good bye!

ALT: Hey, wait!!

The kids enjoy it, especially when the HRT and I ham it up. Sometimes they are like, “do it again! do it again!” “You and sensei are like a combi (a pair of comedians)!” Reactions definitely vary, we have some boring, straightforward dramas, too. Nevertheless, drama time shows them that English is fun, and has practical uses. If the homeroom teacher is into it, then the kids will be into the rest of the lesson!

7. The other teachers at school. They are pretty awesome people, if I do say so myself. They work basically 24/7 for these kids. I have no idea how they have a life outside of school. I actually feel really bad when I leave school and they are still in the teachers’ room correcting worksheets or doing whatever they are doing. I’m serious. These teachers are always working hard, and it shows. Their students are unbelievably bright. They also take care of me if I have problems… (like when I got in a bicycle accident, or when I got a flat tire) and they give me fruits and veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers and umeboshi in the summer, apples and mandarin oranges in the fall). Not only do these teachers work hard, they know how to PLAY HARD, too! Faculty drinking parties rock the house. I’m serious. Every time I’ve gone it has never been a chore. Everyone ends up having a great time and not wanting to go home. End result, fantastic co-workers.

8. Not having to have a car to get to school. I really really love this. Like.. a lot. I live close enough to both schools that I can either walk or ride my bike. I actually feel much healthier here than I do back home in the U.S., mostly because of this aspect of my lifestyle.

9. Telling the kids about the United States. My students never fail to be fascinated with all things American. I guess because it’s so different from Japan. When they ask me questions about the U.S., I tell them the way it is there (for the most part) and they are just absolutely amazed. Once, my 3rd graders asked me if it was true that kids in America go to school on a big bus, and how did the bus know where to pick up the kids, and how were the kids divided in the bus? Was it boys on one half and girls on the other? Divided by grade? How big is the bus? How many buses are there? Where do they park all the buses? Who drives the bus? Etc.
I showed them pictures of a big American school bus and told them about neighborhood bus stops and basically everything else. I also had to explain that you have to sit wherever there is a seat on the school bus, and it isn’t separated by boy or girl or by grade - apparently this was shocking news.

10. Getting to go home earlier than the rest of the faculty. It’s a pretty nice thing, especially since everyone else stays till 7 or 8 o’clock (or later) at night. Since I am not a full-time teacher, I get to school at about the same time as everyone, but once my meetings are had, and my flashcards are ready and my interview sheets are copied, I'm ready to go home. It’s nice that I don’t have to abide by the same rules as the rest of the faculty… but then again, I simply do not have as much work as they do. I plan my lessons and most of my materials are already made. If not, I make them myself in my free periods. In truth, there is quite a bit of downtime as an ALT and sometimes I have to make myself just look busy. I don’t mind though, I usually end up with kickass flashcards and classroom decorations as a result.

SO, that’s what I love. How about YOU?! What do you love?

Things I Love Thursday – back & better than ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok. well… maybe not better than ever. More like… more of the same but slightly different this time. It’s just not very appealing as a title. In any case, it’s fall here – my most favorite season of all. Complete with pears, apples, persimmons (柿), trips to the local museum, 紅葉 (colored leaves), and comfortable weather. Seriously. The only things that could make Japanese fall better would be the additions of Halloween and Thanksgiving… but I don’t think either of those will be instituted anytime in the near future.

In addition to all of the wonderful things that make up fall, I also had a couple of surprises last week. Flowers from my school’s groundskeeper (They look a little droopy… but that’s only from the rain we’ve had all week) AND reruns of ALF (!!!) on NHK. Does anyone remember Alf?! We’ll he’s back! In Japan!

Anyway. Apologies for a severe lack of interesting posts as of late. School keeps me fairly busy and since I got back from Kansai I’ve been a little low on funds, which has prevented me from doing any serious traveling. In the meantime, there’s a Japanese speech contest coming up soon here in Ashikaga that I’m participating in. That, plus doing some studying for the JLPT in December… just… keeping busy.

In short. Just some things I love.

Stay cool.

Things I Love Thursday

 
★ Something extremely strange happened to me this week. My bike was stolen on Monday... but then I went to meet Ian at the Tobu station today... and someone had miraculously returned it. Only in Japan would someone return a bike after stealing it. I found the bike just sitting there outside the station while I was waiting... the light was broken and there were chu-hi cans in the basket, but I got my bike back!

★ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I think if I hadn't watched them as a child I wouldn't have even known that Japan existed. I'm serious. I don't think I would have appreciated Art History as much as I do now, either. Thanks TMNT.

★ Seeing a Square Watermelon in real life for the first time ever. Does anyone remember the commercial we made for Mr. Manear's class? I still have it. On VHS.
★ Tokyo at 6 in the morning is the most surreal place you will ever see in your life. Tokyo in general is an unreal city, but when there is no one around... it is absolutely amazing and eerily beautiful in a post-modern apocolyptic sort of way.

★ Hanging out with the teachers from school. They are just cool people in general, and I was lucky enough to get to go to Yokohama with them last weekend. I will have a post up about it tomorrow, hopefully.

★ This year's UT collection from Uniqlo. They are absolutely amazing. Taryn and I both bought this shirt with epic wolves eating pianos on it. I don't know where else I can buy such original designs without paying an arm and a leg for them. At least now I can be absolutely sure that nobody at home will have the same shirts as me!!

★ Jake and Amir....make me laugh so much. Straight up.

★ Rainbows over Shinjuku. Enough said.

How about you?! What do you love?!
BTWs.. I know it says Friday... but it's still Thursday somewhere. Apologies for my lateness.

Things I Love Thursday - back with a vengance

    
Shakey's Pizza ★ Google Reader ★ New headphones! ★ Awesome dresses from Honey's ★ Wearing black leggings with everything ★ lotus blossoms ★ hiking through the hills in Japan ★ getting homegrown cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from the teachers at school ★ having two weeks worth of of the next semester's lessons planned already ★ a clean apartment ★ chats with my 校長先生 ★ home-made umeboshi from Aoba's groundskeeper ★ wearing yukata for the first time ★ going to the beach ★ the view from Mori Tower sky deck ★ the beginning of summer vacation ★ talking to my teachers about complex concepts like 'context' in our meetings after school ★ having everything I own be the color purple ★ Lindt intense orange dark chocolate bars ★ drawing my own flash cards ★ my お守り from 織姫神社 ★ the end of the rainy season ★ being able to leave my laundry out all day and not have anyone steal it ★ unexpected fireworks in Ashikaga ★ air conditioned 職員室 ★ balmy summer evenings ★ being able to speak intelligble Japanese★ little lizards hanging out right outside my door ★ the green bridge & the view from it ★ going to shrines that seem like they are out of the way and hard to get to ★

How about you, what do you love?!

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?

墨絵

 

Sumi-e, or ink painting, actually isn't Japanese at all. It's Chinese. Word on the street is that people in Taiwan and Korea paint with sumi, too. Despite all this, I learned sumi-e in Japan, from a New Yorker. I guess it would be more appropriate to call this style of painting Chinese brush painting, but since I know it as sumi-e, I will refer to it as such.

I learned this style during my year at Kansai Gaidai. I haven't been able to get my hands on the same type of paper that we used there. I've asked around at a number of different stationery shops, art supply, & craft stores, and nobody seems to carry mulberry paper. It's a real bummer. I have to settle for a thicker, whiter paper, that doesn't absorb the ink the way I'm used to.

Ah, but despite this, there is nothing better than painting. I love it.

Sumi (ink) comes in a stick. In order to get yourself some colored liquid to paint with, you have to grind the stick in an inkstone with some water. The stick itself is actually a compressed bar of soot. Its made by burning cedar wood soaked in oil, and then covering it with a big metal.. cover.. and then collecting the soot residue on the inside of the cover. They smoosh it together with some glue, and bada-bing-bada-boom you have yourself a stick of sumi! I have to say that this is one of my most favorite smells in the entire world. It smells faintly of cedar and campfire.

Once I see the ink looking slick in the well, it's time to dip the brush in and start making various shades of grey. Sometimes I add colors, but sometimes I get really distracted by them, especially if I am painting a landscape or bamboo. I usually reserve color only for flowers, but I do like monochrome flowers, too.
 
The motion of the brushstrokes, the thought behind the balance of the painting, along with the smell of the sumi and sitting seiza, really just relaxes me and lets my mind wander. It's definitely one of my favorite ways to unwind. Hopefully now that I have some appropriate paper, I will be able to get my painting up to snuff again. I think I've become a little rusty, as I haven't painted since before I left for Japan this time around.... which I guess hasn't been since... Feburary or March.
I love Sumi-e! What do you love?

pink bicycles & generosity

 
Yesterday, one of my teachers, T. Sensei, gave me her daughter's old bike.
It was really quite the ordeal, so let me tell you all about it. First, our groundskeeper, I. Sensei, drove me & my borrowed bicycle (from my other school) back to my apartment, so he could pick up the busted bike. He said it would be much easier to throw it away with the rest of the school's trash, so I wouldn't have to worry about calling the garbage men & paying for them to come and collect it. It is unbelievably nice of him AND my school to do this for me.
Because Japan just isn't a very big place... refuse and what to do with it is always a problem. You've got your burnable garbage, un-burnable garbage, recyclable garbage, and then your large items.. like broken bicycles. Because they are too big and troublesome for the regular trucks, you have to call the city office and pay to have them haul it away for you.
So then we took the broken bike back to school, and T. Sensei was waiting in the parking lot for me. She drove me to her home, which actually is right across the river from my neighborhood, where my bike was waiting! I. Sensei followed behind us in the little truck that belongs to the school. He said he would drive me & the bike home in case it would start to rain.
T. Sensei and I had a good conversation in the car. She told me that she thought I was so brave for living so far away from home and in a country that is so different from my own. I told her that living in a foreign country is hard sometimes, but the one singular thing that made it quite easy was the fact that I can speak the language. We talked about people that go abroad to teach English who don't speak their host country's language at all and how difficult everyday life must be for them. We also listened to a little bit of a Spanish conversation CD and practiced some Spanish. We talked about the fact that the vowel sounds in Spanish are the same as the vowel sounds in Japanese, so she finds Spanish very easy to pronounce. However, since she doesn't get much chance to speak it, she said she unfortunately forgets many words.
I personally feel that it's really like that with any language. If you don't use it, you lose it. But, some people are just amazing at recalling words & grammar, and can produce it at a moment's notice. I wish I could be one of those people.
Then, T. Sensei told me that she and her husband had taken the bike to the bike shop and replaced the light and bake pads, and made sure everything was in working order before they gave it to me. The bike was their daughter's, who is actually the same age as me, and also like me, no longer lives at home, and an elementary school teacher, but in Kanagawa prefecture.
I was able to ride home on the new bike since it had not begun to rain yet, so after many 'thank you's' I said see you tomorrow to to I. Sensei and T. Sensei, and rode home.
The generosity & genuine concern from my teachers during this whole bicycle fiasco was very touching to me, so I really want to do something nice for them in return, especially for the teachers like I. Sensei and T. Sensei.
I think when I go home I will bring them back a little something to thank them for all of thier troubles. They really took care of me, and I am so thankful for that. They are just good-hearted people, what can I say? I am very blessed.
So here is a photo of the bicycle that was so generously given to me, It's pink!!! yaay :D
 

The care and generosity of my teachers, along with good conversations and of course, pink bicycles.
That's what I love this Thursday. How about you?! What do you love?

let's think about some...

 
Yessss. It's things I love Thursday. I feel like I've been stuck in an absolute rut with all of these bicycle accidents, locked phones, and fundamental attribution errors that have been happening to me lately
Anyway.  Let's think about some positives to outweigh the negatives!

★ Nihongoup made this beautiful chart of Japanese color names. I was learning them from the construction paper drawers at school, but since this is available to download in PDF format, it's way more convenient.
 
★ Mister Donut. Pon de Ringu, por favor?! Plus, they have a point card that can fill your life with Pon de Lion emblazoned items!!

★ The teachers at my schools. They are probably some of the kindest, most considerate and understanding people ever. They are constantly worried about me (and I guess I give them good reason to, what with all of my bicycle accidents and being foreign) and help me out so much. I appreciate all of their insight and input they give during meetings. I don't know what I would do if they weren't there helping me out & making sure I'm OK. Now, one of my teachers is just going to give me a bike, since her kids are grown up and no longer live at home, so I don't have to borrow a school bike anymore. After the accident, another one of my teachers took me out to dinner. They invite me to events like this week's koto class. The kids got to learn about the koto and even got to play a song on it, too. It makes me so happy that they want me to be involved in school life, because that's what I want to do!
 
★Vivienne Westwood knockoffs. I can't afford the real stuff right now. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford the real thing... *le sigh* I can dream, can't I?!

★ A beautiful tote bag given to me by my school's EAA. It's a Dutch brand called Handed By made by a company called DIEZIJN that's manufactured in Thailand. On the tag it says the bag is 100% handmade of recycled material and 100% child-labor free, and those are all good things! Who could resist a gift like that? Plus, the woven plastic design makes it particularly strong, so it's great for shopping. She got me the black one... clearly because it will go with everything and it is the most chic.

★ My new Telephone Necklace. I got it in Harajuku this weekend at a sweet little store called Paris Kid's. I love that the receiver is attached with a little chain, and you can actually take the tiny phone off the hook... just in case you can't be bothered with any calls.

★ The song "Here We Go" from the Punch-Drunk Love soundtrack. It resonates.

How about you? What do YOU love?!

It's that time again...

 

Holla! Time to list the things I love this week! The past few days have been particularly harrowing chapters in the life and times of Bridget Beaver.

The day before yesterday I accidentaly locked my phone... and I needed the PUK code to unlock it. So I wasn't able to use my cell phone and I had to get to a SoftBank store ASAP. Thankfully, I know enough Japanese to be able to say "I accidentally locked my cell phone, and I need a PUK code." I knew that bachelor's degree would be good for something!

TODAY, I was quite innocently riding my bike to school this morning at around 8:00 AM, when a mini white car full of some college aged looking kids (guys and maybe girls in the back seat?) pulled off to the side of the busy main thoroughfare and shouted at me "YOU'RE CUTE." Meanwhile, I'm just trying to be a normal human being, biking to work. Should I take this as a compliment? Was it thier idea of some kind of sick joke? I had no choice but to think the latter. The only thing running through my mind was.. they could hop out of that mini car and kidnap me. This could be really bad. So I said the first thing that popped into my head: 何でやねん！失礼だよ！They looked kind of shocked... and then continued on thier way.
I wasn't prepared for having a fundamental attribution error that early in the morning, but it's over now. If it happens again I'll take down thier license plate number. I might even tell the police. I mean, who stops alongside a busy road to yell "YOU'RE CUTE" at 8 o'clock in the morning??! It's just plain odd, if you ask me. Who DOES that?! The part that bothered me the most was the fact that it was so close to my apartment. I really hope they didn't see where I live. I try to keep that kind of stuff on the QT, just for safety reasons.
They were probably on drugs. Or perhaps they had gone mad with the swine flu.

Then I had a full day of classes at school, since I had to re-schedule the classes that both sections of 4th grade missed due to the all-school 'treasure hunt' activity that took up two periods yesterday.
So... they combined both sections of third grade into one class, gave me a free period during second period, and then I had classes for the rest of the day. I kind of wanted to chew my own leg off by the end of the day. The kids looked like they were about to do the same.
What I learned from this:
If you can help it, don't ever schedule a language class late in the afternoon. The kids are beat from recess and from all the other periods in the day and want to go home. They don't feel like singing songs or repeating words they can't understand.

Anyway. Let's make this day better by thinking about things I love:

★ She's not in Japan, but who cares?! My BFF Kika!

★ At McDonald's in Japan, a smile doesn't cost you a yen! Nice!

 
★ Going shopping in 原宿. I knew about it long before Gwen Stefani did. I don't care if you don't believe me. I knew all about it and its amazing wealth of unique and conspicuous shopping. Even though Gwen popularized it, some people think she's a sell-out, but she's still cool in my book. And so is Harajuku.

★ My awesome 明治神宮前 cell phone strap. Yes I totally posed off of my nametwin, and I hope she doesn't mind that I have the same one as her. I saw hers and I totally fell in love with it.

★ Watching Spongebob Squarepants in Japanese rocks my socks and is far too cool for any school. It brings to mind THIS inside joke: "Geography Lesson! This one is Patrick, and this one is Spongebob!" or.. even WUMBO.. WumBOLOGY... it's first GRADE, Spongebob (I could go on all night with this stuff..)

★ NYLON Japan and the free stuff that comes with each issue!! NYLON is probably my all-time favorite fashion magazine. The fact that there is a Japanese version AND that they come with goodies attached makes it even better.

★ An after school snack of panju and milk tea to go with a good magazine! As for the milk tea, I have had a fondness for it ever since my days at Kansai Gaidai. I picked up the panju at a little cart next to a shrine on my way home from school. I've gone past about a dozen times marvelling at the amazing smell as I ride past on my bicycle, but this time I absolutely had to stop and get some. They are simply amazing. The man and the woman a selling them make them in a griddle that looks like it's for takoyaki. They were still warm when I got them home, too. So... amazing.

  That's all for this week. What do you love?!

oops...

I forgot to do this last week. Sorry! I've also had a host of negative posts.. so I guess it's about time for some postitivity here.
Now for the things I love this week:

★ my Softbank 830SH PANTONE! Yes! I have a Pantone phone! The color, more specifically , is PANTONE 8143, which is one of those metallic pantones. Oh and the box matches, too. The colors are a little off in the photo because of the crappy lighting in my apartment... sorry.

★ 円円円 Getting PAID! - This week I'll get my first paycheck of my first real full-time job ever! how exciting is that?!

★ Speaking of getting paid - Shinsei bank offers their cash cards in 32 different colors! Mine is wine red cocktail; not quite pink and not quite purple. They won the Good Design Award for 05-06 from the Communication/Design Board. Much more exciting than the boring orange bank card that everyone I know in the US has!

★ 家でやろう。 (do it at home.) I want to wallpaper my apartment with these.

★ TOKYO DAYS - all-day Tokyo metro passes! Not only an awesome money saver but an awesome name, too. I am going to start a band and call it TOKYO DAYS.

★ Getting mail from home. I got a package full of goodies last weekend from my Mom & Dad. It was full of U.S. goodies like microwave popcorn, peanut butter, hand sanitizer and my pink cardigan sweater.

★ speaking of purple colored things. Have I shared my purple teapot yet? If I have, I'll share it again, that's how much I love it. I bought it at a glassware/ceramics shop that is less than a block away from me. It's so cram-packed full of glasses and dishes that I felt like a...bull in a china shop, to use the expression. I love this teapot. I saw it sitting in a pile of terracota teapots. It looked so... lonely.. being the only purple teapot there! below is a photo of the window of the glassware shop. It really is amazing in there.

★ The blog post 10 Beautiful Japanese Fonts by nihongoup. I love Meiryo Gothic, I used it for this blog. I downloaded & installed Anzumoji.

★ THE PENS. Amazing. Just amazing. I'm so bummed that I can't watch the games here in Japan. I listen on hockeywebcasts.com, and sometimes before I leave in the morning, I can hear it on my itunes radio, but I have to go to school, so I don't usually find out who wins until I get back home.


★And of course. THE PENSBLOG. Best game recaps ever.

love, love, love

So. I've decided to do a 'Things I Love Thursday' post much like Gala Darling, except that mine will be a few things related to my life here in Japan; thus - 好きなこと木曜日. I think I'll also contrast this w/ a weekly post about something that drives me nuts - but more on that later. Now for things I love this week!

★Tochigi Strawberries - They come in perfect little rows in their packaging and they are quite possibly the best strawberries I have encountered thus far in my existence.

★Claire's - Yes! There is Claire's in Japan! I bought these doughnut earrings there! They express my love not only for doughnuts but also for all things that doughnuts represent. Like Mr. Donut, or the Simpsons.

★The ADORABLE packaging on the Frito-Lay cheese balls. Come on Frito-Lay. You need to have cute packages like this in the U.S.!! Please?!

★Poupeégirl - My new obsession. Thank you, Taryn. It's a fashion community. When you upload photos of your real-life fashion items, you get ribbons and fashion items for your doll (which, btw is poupeé in French). You also get ribbons for commenting on other people's items. It's super cute and I love making outfits for my poupeé.

★Lastly, I received little presents from my students at school last week. A photo of Matsujun (the drama star) and these little Pokemon stickers w/ a note that says 「これあげるよ」. I felt so loved!

So how about you? What do you love?!