Break Time

It's that time of the year - the too-brief intermission between winter and summer in Japan, which features temperatures that neither require 5 layers of clothes nor constant air conditioning. The flowers are pretty too, but mostly I enjoy the newfound heat, at least before it gets too hot again sometime in June.

Oh, and it feels a lot like winter in my hometown. That's a little nostalgic bonus.

Olive Oil

I love olive oil. I use it in everything, including pasta, curry, and mashed potatoes. It's good for you too, so you don't need to worry about eating too much of it. It's also an important food in Italian, Greek and Spanish culture - but my favorite olive oil is actually the Turkish kind you can buy in Gyoumu Suupaa. Give it a try.

Anna's Sick!

Anna gets very bad headaches sometimes, which we call "migraines". I hope you all don't feel too strange with only me here! I think she'll be back tomorrow, so please be patient until then.

Golden Week is Coming!

What am I doing for Golden Week? I'm not sure yet. I want to visit my cousin in Matsuyama, but that's so far away. Of course, I would like to visit California too, but that's even farther, and expensive too. I have a friend in Yamagata I could visit, but he works a lot and probably doesn't have time to hang around with me. I could also visit my old friends and co-workers in Hamamatsu, but they're probably leaving to go somewhere else during Golden Week. Plus, everything is too crowded during Golden Week! Maybe I'll just stay home and enjoy the silence.

The OC

I finally rented a DVD of this show, "The OC", from GEO. I hope nobody thinks that that's what my old neighborhood looks like. The show takes place in Newport Beach, which is a very wealthy part of Orange County. Now, I'm not saying that Orange County is poor, because it's not. It's more like a sea of averageness with islands of extreme wealth here and there. Newport Beach is one of those wealthy places where celebrities and businesspeople live. It's actually very close to the university Anna and I went to, but most students can't afford to spend a lot of time there.

If the producers of "The OC" had decided to film it in Garden Grove or Santa Ana instead of Newport Beach, it would have been a very different show.

Vagabond

I sometimes read manga to practice my Japanese, and just for fun. Vagabond is my favorite, although it doesn't really have much speaking, just yelling and screaming! Musashi is a very skilled fighter - I wonder what he would do if he were alive today. Maybe he would compete in the Olympics, or maybe he'd just be a very deadly sushi chef!

Cherry Blossoms

It's that time of year again, when the landscape is covered in a pretty shade of light pink. It's not that I don't like the flowers, but I think I look forward to spring mostly for the warmth, not the scenery. It's nice not to have to wear a jacket indoors anymore.

Since my brother lives there, I found out that Washington, D.C. also has cherry blossoms. I'm not sure why, but it sure is beautiful. The US generally doesn't have as many events tied to the 4 seasons as Japan does, but if I lived in Washington D.C. (or Kyoto, probably) I'd definitely look forward to spring.

Check them out!