Tim is arriving tonight! I'm really excited to finally have a friend visit me in Japan! Michael has had friends from Chile, and friends from Korea come to visit, but we haven't had one from NZ till now! I will only have one day to show him around, because all the other days I'm working, but that's okay. We will meet up for dinners, I'm sure.

I was so worried that he'll get lost, and he can't speak any Japanese, so I drew him maps of the area, wrote out detailed instructions about how to catch the train and get around the major sights. And wrote out some essential Japanese phrases, like "does this train stop in Kyoto?"

He should be fine. Yay! Finally, I get to show one of my friends what it's really like to live here.
Going to be sleepy tomorrow at school though! I think he's arriving about midnight, and of course I'll meet him at the taxi stands, coz taxi drivers never know where we live (the house numbers are seriously f*d up here.) They are numbered from the oldest house to the newest houses... weird... and hard to find at night time.

Anyway, off I go, to teach! And then to clean when I get home! (visitors are always good to inspire me to do a thorough clean!)

Kaiten-zushi is the type of sushi restaurant where the food rotates past your table and you can choose what you want to eat. At the end of the meal, your plates are counted and that's how much you pay.

So we didn't end up going to the Thai restaurant that I was raving about previously. Because Michael wanted to show me this Kaiten-zushi restaurant. It's also in a pretty special place. It's in Uji city, which is famous for being a place in The Tale of Genji, and it also makes pretty good tea!

Anyway, in this restaurant, we tried "o-toro" which is fatty tuna belly. It is so fatty, it was like eating cream! Very strange sensation, as my mind knew it was fish. And anyway, who eats cream on rice? There were some other strange raw items rotating around, but I took a photo of one, that was pretty gross.

Crab-guts Sushi

I mean, we're not 'starving'!! Why eat crab guts if you have to pay for it?! I was too chicken to try it. It looked gross. Green-grey and mushy.

After lunch, we took a walk around "the town of the tale of Genji". I dunno why. I don't think it's really the place where the tale of Genji was based.
Statue of Genji and Murasaki:

Some people who paid to dress like Genji in his time:

Byodo-In: This building is believed to be a summer house of the man who they think the character Genji was based on. It is a national treasure, and on the 10yen coin.

We came across many statues of gods: with offerings of children's soft toys at their feet. We don't know why or what the gods represent, but obviously some sort of benevolent god for children.

Today is our 5 year Anniversary!
We're going out for dinner tonight, and tomorrow night! tonight we're just going to our usual local Japanese restaurant, because Michael gets home late and he's too tired to go anywhere far and fancy. But tomorrow night is the special one! We're going to Osaka to eat some really good Thai food, in our favorite "restaurant for special occasions" the Elephant Cafe! I dunno why they call it a cafe, coz it's really a restaurant. We like it there, because it's got authentic Thai carvings everywhere, and lamplight, and flickering candlelight. The Thai dishes they've got there are so yummy and really spicy! Takes us about an hour to get there though, so it's always a special occasion when we go.

Here's to another 5 years together, and more!

The first time I've ever eaten a fig is in Japan, from our fig tree. Well, I guess it's kinda shared with the neighbours, but they never go out into the garden, so we eat all the figs. They are such a delicious fruit. Really lightly sweet, creamy, and softly fragrant.

My tea ceremony teacher eats them with a peanut sauce, really unusual, but not bad. But figs are much better by themselves, or with a little brandy & cream... because the flavor is so delicate, other flavors easily overwhelm it. Bye bye, going to enjoy my figs now.

To my surprise, Japan has many strange bugs/insects/grubs in summer (compared with NZ). Here's a weird one we found the other day. It was a fat caterpillar, with funny "eye" patterns repeated down his body, an antennae-shaped tail sticking straight up, and a skinny head (to attract predators to attack it's tail instead of it's head). It had cute little suction pads for feet. Anyone know what kind of butterfly/moth this grub turns into??

Long Weekends are great. I think it was "Respect For The Aged Day"! Japan has so many public holidays, it's great if you're a teacher! Seems like most other people have to work though... all the shops were still open. I reckon we should always rest 3 days a week. Not just 2. Sometimes I find that just 2 days isn't enough to get that totally relaxed feeling. We need one day for doing fun stuff with friends, one day for cleaning and doing the groceries etc. And one day for relaxing and hanging around!

We had a BBQ on Saturday. About 10 people came over and sat in our tiny garden. We cooked a ton of meat on our small bbq! Poor Michael didn't eat much because he's vegetarian, and he was so busy cooking and making drinks for people! I was also busy being the hostess, but I managed to grab food for myself, as I have a permanant fear of going hungry. 

At about 10:30pm we all walked down the hill into town and sang some Karaoke till midnight. We all love Karaoke, there's some real group-bonding going on when we sing favorite songs together. 

Sunday, Michael and I were so tired! We had a huge mess from the BBQ to clean up... inside and outside the house! I dozed and read books all day, while Michael watched geeky Sci Fi on his computer.

Monday, we had energy from lazing round the house all sunday.We went shopping! I had a piggy-bank where I'd been putting in all my coins from the end of the day, and I'd saved about $200! So I bought a few winter tops with that money. Yes, not quite winter yet, but the shops had the air-con on such a cold temperature, I was influenced to buy winter clothing! haha. Michael also bought some clothes (wow) it's been a long time since he bought new clothes. Ah, so now I have my eyes on a new pair of winter boots and I really need to find some jeans. Back to saving those coins eh?! Next piggy bank spree will be boots or jeans!  

Here's a photo of my ring, taken by my cellphone! It's a platinum ring. Platinum jewellery is really popular in Japan, so the price isn't as high as in NZ/Aussie. The style is quite simple, but modern. And it doesnt get caught on clothing, or scream bling, so I'm happy!

Ew. Those lovely Bell-Crickets that I wrote about a couple of weeks before... they're cannibals.
I don't like them anymore!! We did everything we could to stop them from eating each other! We put in some sort of 'animal protein' that they're supposed to eat to stop them eating each other, and they still ate each other! It's so gross to come home and look into the tank and see just a little black torso lying there. ewwwww. There's only 1 male and 4 females left. I think the females eat the males after they mate because they're not needed anymore, and the male's protein will help the babies grow. (that's me & michael's theory).

Anyway, I'm pretty grossed out by them, and we are thinking about letting them go back into the wild where we don't have to watch their nasty ways.

This weekend, Michael and I finally found an engagement ring that was perfect. We have been looking here and there for quite a few months now. We found it in Osaka. It's great to finally have a ring on my finger!

I'm a member of the High School's Tea Ceremony Club. We practice once a week. Yesterday was the school's Cultural Festival, where all the students perfom dramas and dances and sell food etc. So, the tea ceremony club held a tea ceremony for the teachers, students, and parents. We were so busy that day! And it was really hot being dressed in a Yukata! A Yukata is a kind of summer Kimono. Anyway, we had fun. Above is a picture of me and one of the older women who came to help with the ceremony.