Saturday, July 24, 2010

Randomness

Here are a bunch of random pictures. They're not in any particular order. Hamtaro van!!!


This was my meal at Mos Burger (a Japanese fast food chain). It's a nan taco (Indian nan bread with taco stuff on top), french fries, and melon soda. It was pretty good. They also had nan dogs, which were hot dogs with nan bread instead of a bun. I saw nan dogs at another restaurant too.


There is a little shrine between the train station and Sun to Moon (the mall). I need to find out the significance of the cucumbers and spilled rice.

I bought a yukata!

I bought this at Sun to Moon. It was called Panda! Panda! It was filled with custard. It was okay. But it was soooooo cute!!!!

The park near Sun to Moon had a cool view of Fuji-san! There's only a tiny bit of snow left.

The manhole cover outside of Mishima Hirokouji Station is really pretty! :)

Last weekend I got on the wrong bus. At Shuzenji station there are numbered parking spots for the buses. There are signs in front of each spot, but the spots are also have the numbers painted on them. There are two spots that are both #1. In the past only one of the #1 spots had the number painted on it. Apparently they recently painted both of them. As I was walking towards the bus I quickly counted towards the #3 bus (the one I was supposed to get on). I heard it start up which meant it was about to leave, so I hurried onto the bus... the #4 bus.

This bus took the same route as the Toi bus for about the first 15 or 20 minutes. I had just bought a Nintendo DS and I was absorbed in playing with it. I didn't look outside the window for a while. When I finally did we were in a really pretty forest. People were getting off at some hotel where they were being greeted by women in kimonos and there was a pretty bridge. It was really beautiful! But it was also NOT where I was supposed to be.

I asked the driver if he was going to Toi (I knew he wasn't, but I asked anyway to let him know I was on the wrong bus). He then told me that this bus returned to Shuzenji Station. So he drove for a while more through more pretty areas. It went on a lot of one lane roads. At one point we met another car, and the car had to go backwards for about a minute to get to a place where we could pass each other. I would not want to drive in this area!

Finally we reached a spot where he turned around to go the other way. That's where I took the picture above. The driver got off the bus for a bathroom break. He also bought a tea for himself and one for me. He also didn't make me pay since I was on the wrong bus.

So finally we arrived at the stop where this route begins overlapping the Toi route and I switched buses there. But when I was at the bus stop I realized I had left one of my shopping bags on the bus! :( It was the bag with my Tide laundry detergent (I can't buy it in Toi), a spoon, and some stickers. It wasn't anything irreplaceable, but still annoying.

But overall, taking the wrong bus wasn't too bad. I saved a couple dollars on the bus because I didn't pay for the first bus and was on the Toi bus for only a portion of the normal trip. I also got a free bottle of tea and saw a really beautiful area of the Izu Peninsula... wherever I was. I think I was somewhere in the central part of the peninsula south of Shuzenji.

At the local supermarket they had bags of dried fruit and bags of dried vegetables near the checkout. I saw them while in line. The dried fruit was probably more yummy but the vegetables looked more interesting. It was dried carrots, green beans, okra, and sweet potato (both the regular kind and the purple kind). It was actually all pretty good except for the green beans. I still ate the green beans too though.


This pack had a Cola Kit Kat and a Lemon Squash Kit Kat inside. The lemon one was pretty good, but the cola one was gross. I don't like cola stuff though. I know many other ALTs who have tried this one and most of them really like the cola one.

I thought the bottle was so adorable! It tasted good too! I don't like watermelon itself, but I usually like watermelon flavored stuff.


The river in Shuzenji has gotten really green and pretty! :)


This is the door to a shopping center in Numazu. I thought it was soooooooooo cute! :)

Fancy digital price tags!

Blueberry Daifuku (blueberry filled mochi). SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I bought this near the station in Numazu. I haven't been able to find fruit mochi anywhere really close to where I live, so I was super excited. It's probably good that it's further away otherwise I would be buying this all the time. It was perfect on a hot day because it was nice and cold. :) They had many other flavors including strawberry, banana, kiwi and some others I can't remember right now.

The chocolate raspberry Kit Kat was my favorite! The Aloe Yogurt (weird, huh?) one wasn't bad, but not one of my favorites.

This picture was taken at 4:19 AM. TOOOO early for a sunrise!!! Japan really needs daylight savings time.

This crane hung around here for a couple days.

Here's a bento I bought at the grocery store. It had a couple onigiri (the rice things), a hard boiled egg, a couple pieces of fried chicken, and a hot dog. Delicious!

I got a really cute Mickey pudding keitai (cell phone) strap at Disney Sea.

I love keitai charms. :)

I finished the puzzle!

Mmmmmm... pizza. :) I don't have an oven or a toaster oven, but I am able to make this on my stove. The corn cost 99 yen. It was really good. So a couple days I was craving it again. I went to the grocery just to buy some corn, and it was 199 yen a piece! So expensive! I really wanted it though... heh.


I love cute stickers! :)


Vessel in the Fog... such a random name. It's tasty though!

I bought and made another puzzle. Tokyo Tower!

I love these chocolates with different fillings. There are many different boxes with different assortments of flavors. This particular one has strawberry cheesecake, chocolate, orange sherbet, and vanilla.

I used the cute stickers to decorate my phone. :)

This mechanical pencil is so super cute. :) The melon soda can on top has liquid in it. The notebook behind is Mamegoma. It has nice gridded paper for me to practice writing kanji.

Scooby Doo Mac and Cheese!

There was a dragonfly swarm behind my apartment. They really like the rice fields. Here's a video:




Mmmmm! Lemon Ice!

Here is my Nintendo DS. :) The case is Mamegoma... super cute! The game is a Taiko drumming game. It's super cute and super fun!


I've made a few new plushies and keychains and things lately.

I have eaten a lot of Kit Kats! :) Here's a list of the flavors I have tried:
banana
blueberry
green tea/sakura (outside green tea, inside sakura)
sakura
framboise
cola
lemon
wasabi
milk coffee
strawberry (bite sized kind)
maple
aloe yogurt
mixed fruit juice (banana, strawberry, and peach)

My favorites have been framboise (chocolate raspberry!) and blueberry, and maple.
The only one I have actually disliked is cola. I didn't really care for the milk coffee one either, but it wasn't bad. I was really thinking I would like it since I love coffee flavored stuff.

Here area couple random videos.

Bus Ride: Toi -> Shuzenji (you can see some of the pretty views from the bus!)



Hamutaro Weather Report - even the weather report in Japan is cute sometimes! :)

3 comments:

  1. Okaaaaaay, this is WAY too awesome NOT to comment on. *_*

    First.... <3 the Hamtaro van! Eeee! It's adorable! *I* should be living in Japan, seriously. JUST because I don't think my random loves for kawaiiness would be looked down on (and I wouldn't be laughed at over it).

    That manhole cover is one of the prettiest ones I've seen so far. XD

    And that seriously sucks that you got not only got on he wrong bus, but that you left a shopping bag. xp I hope nothing else went wrong that day.

    Ooooh, digital tags? I wish we had those here! By the way, the coconut pocky? <3! I've never seen those before.

    Awww, all your cell charms are sooo cute! ^^

    In the pic with the pizza.... what is that milky soft cream stuff? I didn't see a pic of it.... but if you posted it, I probably missed it.

    Kitty stickers = <3 They remind me of Luna from Sailor Moon.

    I love your newest plushies---did you make those from a Japanese felt book there, or on your own?

    Haha, I liked the bus ride---I love the winding roads for some reason. And it's soooo quiet on that bus, too. ^^

    Hamtaro! Ahhh, I love it!

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  2. Loving cute stuff is soooooo acceptable here. I've even seen business men with cute charms dangling from their cell phones.

    Nope, nothing else went wrong that day. All in all it was a pretty awesome day because that's the day I bought my DS. Out of all the bags I had that was the best one to leave behind because it had the most boring stuff in it. Another bag had a video game in it and the other bag had some clothing in it.

    I'm always keeping an eye out for unique Pocky flavors. Unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of coconut. It's ok, but I didn't want to spend my money on it. The only unique flavor I've had since being in Japan is apple yogurt. In the US I could find many different flavors at Japanese groceries, like orange, coffee, and milk. Here it's mostly strawbery and chocolate. Oh well, the variety of Kit Kats makes up for it a bit. :)

    The Milky Soft Creams are like the Look Baskin Robbins chocolates I did put in my post. It's just a different assortment of flavors. I think that one just had vanilla and strawberry.

    The cloud plushie, rainbow keychain, and raindrop phone strap are originals. But the square cookie and the flower are from a book. The square cookie pattern was in a book I got back home (an English translation of a Japanese book) and the flower is from a Japanese book.

    I actually enjoy that bus ride. The only things I don't like about that bus are that it's expensive (though it doesn't bother me now that I'm used to the price really) and that the last one to Toi leaves the train station at 7:45, so I always have to make sure to be back at the station on time.

    Thanks for the comment! :)

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  3. Aww; I seriously wish I lived there now. XP I could be unique and like stuffed animals without having people look at me like a weirdo.

    Good thing, then! I would've really hated myself if I left my video games or clothing behind---but those poor stickers. Hopefully you could get the same ones again.

    I can only find Pocky flavours in strawberry and chocolate; and that's only when I CAN find them.

    Ahhh, okay then. They look good nonetheless. :D I'm in the mood for ice cream now, lol.

    You did a really good job on the originals. x___X *is jealous of your crafting skillz* I need to look for Japanese felt stuff now and see what I find to make. ^^

    I don't think I've ever ridden a bus (other than a school bus) before---I'd like to! I've been on a trolley (and those are awesome!).

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