Introducing Mochi Clark!


She's a shelter cat, estimated to be around two years old. I adopted her in mid October and she's warmed up to me amazingly fast. Penelope and her are still working out their relationship, but they'll hang out in the same room now. (As you can see in the picture above, Penelope is chilin' in the window.)



Unrelated: This is just pretty. I took the picture in Madison, WI when I was up visiting Sylvie in late summer.



This is Mochi and my first modified 'Aaron shot' (when neither person looks at the camera). Technically, you're not supposed to smile in these 'Aaron shots', but who can help it when you have a happy little cat jumping into your lap and purring every time you sit down?



For those unfamiliar with Japanese, mochi is a type of (usually) sweet cake made from pounded rice. They are usually white, although they come in different colors, and sometimes can be filled with cream, strawberries, sweet beans, and other things. It's one of my favorite Japanese traditional sweets, and they are typically made into little round balls. Mochi, the cat, has three brown and one black, round markings on her back that look like a paw print. For some reason they remind me of little stacks of mochi. And then there's the saccharin sweet comment that I could make... she's sweet like mochi. Yeah, that's a little too Hallmark, huh?



Penelope has been pretty good about sharing her space, and I've been giving her extra attention.



Penelope is still as beautiful and wonderful as ever.






Mochi has the cool genetic trait that makes her polydactyl. I've not noticed any increased dexterity that can accompany this trait, but you never know. ;)



And now you've been officially introduced to the newest addition of my family!
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Fourth of July weekend was a great whirlwind of family, studying, and fun.  My Cioci (Aunt) Ricki and Dziadziu (Grandfather) came down for a visit.  We went to a picnic and then watched the fireworks.  Dziadziu cracked me up by blowing the bubbles on the table.  For a while he was aiming them at Cioci Ricki.  :) I adore them both!  

The fireworks were beautiful, but as usual, difficult to photograph.  So I gave up and just enjoyed them.  Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!









This evening Penelope was meowing at me while I was writing my lab report.  So I picked her up and plopped her on my desk to show her that there was no fish up here and also nothing fun was going on.   Naturally she sat on my notebook and started purring.  She's the best lab partner.

Bio 210 is so much fun because we get FIELD TRIPS!!!!

Lab this week was at the Botanical Garden Conservatory, which was super fun. I brought along my camera for my report, and was subsequently blown away by botany.

Mom's always been the garden guru of the family, and while I've always enjoyed plants, until looking at them from a biological standpoint I've never appreciated them so much!

Pictures!

" />

This is Faucaria Peersii, which is spiky and cute. (Both technical definitions.)


" />

As expected, some assorted angiosperm.

" />

This adorable little succulent. Look how cute and green!

"

And some AU students that crack me up.  I told them about Aaron shots, and while Maddie couldn't figure out the whole 'don't smile' part, and Matt was looking a little too far from the camera, it was memorable and hilarious.

Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend and a good Valentine's Day!
Also, hope everyone enjoyed Darwin's B-day!  

This is a cute kitty video I found on youtube.  Not only does it give you an idea of what a reasonably nice Japanese room looks like in a home, but the kitty is way cute!!!

Stalking Kitty!

 Well, I'm back into the full swing of another semester.  While working on physics I decided to take a quick break to show you all how silly my kitty cat is!  She's recently decided that the box of paper is a much more comfortable place to sleep than the nice soft bed that's available for her. " /> " />

Dear readers,

Sorry for the lack of messages recently, especially since I've been in China.  I'm a little convinced that the Chinese government has somehow blocked live journal from working in mainland China.  However, from Hong Kong I can finally access it!  Wooot!

However, as tomorrow I'm flying back to the States I can't do a huge update.  So yet again, this is a message saying that I'm planning on updating, but it might take a wee bit of time to get everything arranged and in order!

This is a picture from the journey of part of the Forbidden City in Beijing.  I'm sure you'll see it much better on TV when the Olympics get in full swing, but what can ya do?



So look forward to more updates soon!!! 

For now, I'm homeward bound!!!! 

Yay!

Who knew that from studying Japanese that summer at Cornell to satisfy the linguistics language requirement would lead to such a wonderful experience in Japan?!?!

I'm having a very difficult time saying goodbye to everyone, and I don't think I truly am feeling the full impact of what's happening just yet. Tonight Teruyo and Masao (my homestay parents from my first summer in Japan) took me out for dinner after work and after dinner they drove me to the hotel I'm staying in. Masao hugged me and I started bawling. I've been crying on and off saying goodbye to students, but this was a full on tearful goodbye. They've promised to come to the States sometime, and I really want to show them around!

Today a student who I only taught once, and otherwise just saw around school came to give me a present. (Beautiful handmade indoor slippers.) Mr. Shibata had recently heard that I like playing and listening to the violin so he decided to give me a mini-concert. He hadn't been playing for long as he only started after he retired. He brought his violin up to school and played 'Meditation' by Massenet, which is one of my favorite pieces (and one that is very emotionally packed for me). Then after playing a few pieces he gave me his violin and asked me to play something. I haven't played in about 7 months, and was hoping I hadn't forgotten everything I knew. I played a bit of something, and it didn't sound terrible. We continued playing 'pass the violin' until we had both run out of music. He's in his eighties and I'm amazed that he's still taking lessons and learning new things. I hope I can be as spunky and cool as him when I'm old. He said some amazingly profoundly deep things that you might expect to find someone in a movie say, and then (in English) bowed himself out of the school. It's weird saying things like 'Take care! Keep studying! Good luck! Farewell!' while bowing deeply and then waving.

Anyway, lots of farewells, tears, cards, and presents. I taught my last large lesson today and at the end everyone applauded. I managed to not cry because I was telling myself to be in teacher mode. I think I'm doomed to be red faced and puffy eyed at tomorrow's farewell party. It's the largest party I'll have ever gone to at Aeon. I'm touched just by how many people are coming!

Laura and I had dinner last night, and I'm still mentally saying to myself that I'll see her soon. It's far more likely, as we at least live on the same continent! But, as I'm not expecting to see my students ever again, it's a little worse.

After leaving Japan I'll meet Mom in Beijing and we'll have a fun vacation together in China. Then I'll come back and actually get to all the posts I've neglected. (Or at least the really important ones like Thailand.)

Wish me luck!

(flowers from one of my cute kid's mom)

Greetings fair journal readers!  I apologize for the false promises of Thailand updates.  I've been very busy getting ready to come home, and the Thailand updates have been shoved to the back burner of my neighbor's cousin's vacation house.  However, in a rare fit of updating fun I bring you my weekend!

This past Sunday (6/15)  Laura and I headed on out to our favorite city, Kyoto.  We were in search of something I had heard about and had always wanted to try: Nagashi somen.  Somen is a type of noodle, and nagashi is a style you eat it.  Somen is usually eaten in the summer cold with a light broth, and it's a favorite of mine.  The nagashi part means that it's delivered to you by means of a bamboo tube and a current of water!  You wait at a place on the counter for the noodles to go shooting down and you catch them with your chopsticks, dip them into your sauce and enjoy! 

Laura found a good looking place in Kibune (a bit North of Kyoto) and we had a blast catching them and not only were we eating nagashi somen, but we were doing it on top of a river!!!  It was the coolest eating experience ever.  Anyone who's been to Japan in the summer can attest to the severe heat, and so the river really helps provide a natural air conditioning.  I don't want to think about how many bugs would be there at sunset, but for a lunch treat, it was very reasonably priced (about 1,200 yen) and relatively bug free.

We traveled back down to Kyoto and met up with Elysaar around Sanjo in Kyoto.  We wandered around a bit looking at the markets and shops.  Then we decided to enjoy some more cheap kaiten zushi (conveyorbelt sushi) and then headed over to our new favorite parfait store. 

The store has over 150 parfaits!  Elysaar and I enjoyed translating the sometimes useless descriptions.  I finally decided on a raspberry chocolate parfait.  It was heavenly! 

We retired to our very nice hostel.  It was more like a hotel than any hostel I've ever seen or heard of. 

Here are the pictures (and a cool video of the noodles):

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/KibuneAndKyoto2008_06_15





After having a Sunday dedicated to delicious, and less common food, we woke up on Monday for another taste of adventure!

Laura, Becky, and I had taken maiko photos on one of our first trips to Kyoto, and it was a lot of fun, but Laura and I both kinda wanted to try it again with a different studio.  Being the amazing weekend planner that she is, Laura found and made reservations at a really cool, professional studio that included a professional photographer with the package that let you go outside.  So we arrived at the studio at around 10 after a light breakfast. 

They have you change into a undershirt/dress thing and white socks that have the big toe separate.  (Kinda like basic toe socks)   Then they put the make up on, they put the kimono on, and then a wig.  The whole dressing process takes about an hour or so.  Then we got to wander around with the professional photographer for a bit.  After they were done we had a half an hour to wander around and take our own pictures, as well as pose with other tourists.  It was fun having our pictures taken with so many Japanese tourists.  I guess a tall, blue-eyed maiko isn't exactly a common sight!  We had so much fun wandering around in our platform sandals.  I was a bit afraid I'd topple over, but I managed it ok.  The photos came out great and it was totally worth it! 

The makeup is removed with baby oil!  Then after it's all off you wash with facial soap.  I still feel like my face is recovering from the whole process, but it was worth it!

Then we wandered around a bit, had an amazing tofu lunch, and then some kinako ice cream.  I was dead tired from walking around in the shoes, and from walking around the whole place in normal shoes.  So we decided to head on home.

This weekend was probably my last in Kyoto until I come back in the far more distant future.  It's an amazing city, and I'll miss having it just one short 35 minute shinkansen stop away from my home city.

Enjoy the pictures!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/Kyoto2008_06_16

It is Laura's birthday, and I am happy to be included in the loving masses who are celebrating today!

Her birthday today actually shook Aichi prefecture with a small earthquake.
That's how important it is!
So, watch out world, we'll be celebrating this awesome girl's birthday 'till Japan shakes a bit more!



(If that is still on an angle, I officially give up on trying to turn it.)

Laura, for those of you who somehow don't know, is the best travel buddy, talented photographer, amazing weekend planner, skilled french toast (and other delicacies) chef, pro takoyaki turner, fashion adviser, pop culture guru, mango lover, rilakuman enthusiast, and so many other things. She is also an amazing friend who I feel totally lucky to have met in training here in Japan. Without meeting Laura it's questionable if I would have stayed the second year here in Japan, and I'm sure I'd have gone to less than half of the cool places we've been together. Most of this journal has her to thank, and so I just have to do a little picture post to show her how serious I am when I say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



Who couldn't love someone who enjoys the teacups that much?!?!?







(I really did try my best to alter this photo so you don't have to turn your head sideways.  I promise!)
Laura's first upclose experience with an elephant.



Laura in a mushroom growing house!



Rockin' it up in Fushimi Inari.

So, here's to you Laura.  I hope you have an amazing birthday!

Before I start the series of Thailand updates (sorry they're late, I've been kinda busy recently), I'd like to show off that I figured out how to use the photo stitch setting on my camera and my computer.  Here's a taste of the pictures I took in Thailand, and me being proud of myself:

I am back from a rockin' Golden Week vacation in Thailand.  It was great, and soon I will try to get all the pictures online and show you all!

February 24th and 25th Laura and I took a weekend vacation in the beautiful town of Kinoseki. This place is known for it's onsens (hot springs) and you can walk from place to place in your little geta (wooden clogs). It is also known for it's amazing crab dishes.

Whenever Laura talked about it before I was totally envious as it sounded like a dream. It was very close.

The ryoukan we stayed in was one of the more expensive ones we've ever stayed in, but after considering that it included a super amazing crab dinner, breakfast, a service that dropped us off in the center of town, and onsen passes, it was very reasonable.

This was also the first trip (as so far the only one) where the trains were late and therefore we missed our connections. But we got to Kinoseki in time to check into our ryoukan, take a quick dip in the ryoukan's onsen, and have an amazing dinner.

After dinner we went around to 3 other onsens in the town. One was in a cave, one had a waterfall (!), and one you sat under a cool little hut. At the end we took a taxi back to our ryoukan and I got into a discussion with the taxi driver.

On the road there were little spigots that were spraying water, and I wanted to know what was up with them. He explained that since there is a lot of foot traffic along the road in the winter, once the air temperature drops below a certain temperature on days with snowfall, the roads will spray water automatically so that the snow clears away without salt or chemicals. It was very clean and impressive. It sounded expensive, though.

That night we curled up in our futons and slept like the little melted people we were.

The next morning we woke up pretty early, due to breakfast times, and we wandered around the town after dropping our bags at the station. The town had an awesome Hello Kitty saloon-like store, and I had some fun.

We also tried some kinako ice cream, which was really tasty.

We caught the train back to Kyoto and met up with J-chan and had our favorite tonkatsu for dinner. We also tried a new tart store that was really delicious.

Then we took the shinkansen back to Nagoya. On the shinkansen home a salary man discovered I spoke Japanese and I talked to him the whole forty minute ride home. I can't remember what we talked about for that long, but it was entertaining.

Overall, it was an amazing weekend and I now understand why Laura raves about it so much. It is totally ravable.

Here are the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/KinosakiOnsen


*note The pictures aren't captioned due to the Picassa website having a bit of trouble. As soon as I can caption them, I will. :)

Sometimes bad things happen when you confuse 'l' and 'r' in English words.

My trip to 'Hakuba/Goryu.'

So... (flips open real, paper journal to check details on this trip) 

February 10th (Sunday) I sleep late and wander over to my home stay parents' place by mid-afternoon.  After purchasing some last minute snowboarding things (a neck warmer, a better pair of gloves, and some of those self heating packs) I hang out with Teruyo and Masao.  We enjoy a super tasty sukiyaki diner and then around 11, instead of going to bed, they drop me off at their friend, Yumie's place. 

In the past Yumie has taken me to an all night dancing festival and has brought me wake boarding. Weekends with her always prove entertaining. She has 'a wide face', which means that she knows scads of people. 

After loading up the car, we met the rest of our snowboarding adventure party in the parking lot of a sports bar. When the bus got there, all 30 (or so) of us got on. By 1am we were underway and surprisingly everyone was super happy, and while a little sleepy, ready to stay awake for some good old game show fun.

The bus ride ended at 6:30 at the base of the mountain, however, from 1-2:30 we played a trivia game. After a break at a rest stop, we boarded the bus in our newly designated 'teams'. I was in a team with Yumie and 4 other people who spoke very little English, so I was a little nervous about being sleepy and needing to speak Japanese.

But you may be asking yourself, 'Hey, you're going snowboarding tomorrow! Why aren't you all sleeping?!?!” Well, my answer for you is that Japanese 20 and 30-somethings are crazy. The way they got us from giving up and going to sleep was that the team with the least amount of points would have to wear super embarrassing clothes on the mountain when they snowboarded the next day!!! So, I tried my best.

The questions were mostly sports related, which meant I was no help at all. There were some that I could help out with, but mainly I was just crossing my fingers that we weren't the lowest team. At 2:30 it was the decision time, and it wasn't looking good for my team. However, we were (thankfully) second to last!!! phew

We stopped at a rest stop and got back to our normal seats. After that, I fell sound asleep against the window.

When I woke up the window was crusted in ice, and I was pretty cold and still rather tired. However, my excitement made up for my lack of sleep.

Upon entering the ski lodge we changed and I rented equipment. Oddly enough there were a bunch of Australian staff members who I found out got 'working holiday' visas and were staying for the season. So, I was outfitted and at 8:30 we hit the slopes!

Yumie and her friend are less experienced than me and the boy we were with. (forgive me, I've forgotten his name.) Let's just call him, Takuya. So Takuya and I after going once on the main slope for a practice run, left Yumie and Ayaka on the easier slope. We went up the gondola to the top, and without really consulting the map, we headed on down the mountain.

I can justify the mistake I made after this point in two ways: 1. I was a little tired. 2. The English on the sign was misleading. It just said 'no beginners'.

So that's when I found out that men all around the world will nearly kill themselves rather than be shown up by a girl at a sport. We found ourselves on the double black diamond of the mountain. The name was 'Champion, Expert Course.' HA! It was covered in mogles and to be fair, I fell quite a few times. But I was doing so much better than poor Takuya. I think he might have turned twice and mainly fallen down the rest of the course. (oops) At the end, though, there was some delicious powder snow, which relaxed me, and I was ready for more!

So we met up with Yumie and Ayaka and together went up the gondola and went on a less insane path. Over all the mountain wasn't as crowded as I expected for a national holiday, and I didn't have many problems. It helped that we weren't on the main easy parts. The snow was very nice, and comparable with Utah and Colorado. While the mountains weren't as well developed or as wide, they were as high.

There weren't many lines to wait in, as there were almost 2 lifts (mostly high speed) for each run. But as it was one day, it was perfect!

Lunch was at 11:30, and I enjoyed some curry rice. It was excellent and full of calories that I was excited to burn. Then we went up for a ride, and my three companions felt their energy drained, and decided to call it a day. I was still gung-hoe for more, so I headed off to the other side of the mountain. I explored on my own and had a great time people watching from the lifts and enjoying the scenery.

At 3:30 I came in and turned in my cute electronic pass, and then after a bath (there was a hot spring there), I changed and clambored back on the bus with the rest of the very tired group. I slept from then until we reached Nagoya.

Overall it was an incredibly enjoyable and strange experience. While I prefer the more relaxing snowboarding schedule of home, it was very enjoyable.

And now:

Pictures!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/NaganoSnowboarding

Laura and I went this past Monday to scream our heads off at Nagashima Spaland in Mie.  It took about an hour all together to get there, and then for about 40 dollars we had our tickets for a day of unlimited rides.  We definitely got our money's worth!  And in the end my stomach was a little queasy.

This park is famous for the roller coaster called 'The Steel Dragon.'  It was closed for a few years due to an accident that involved something flying off it and landing in a pool nearby.  But it re-opened a year or so back, and we decided to try it first when we got to the park so we wouldn't get chickened out.

Well, after about a 30 minute wait we found ourselves at the very front of the coaster!  At the end of it I had tears streaked across my face, as the speed and adrenaline rush forced most of the excess water out of my eyes.  It was both super scary, and a great deal of fun.  I would totally recommend it to any roller coaster lovers! 

Then we went on a ride called 'Bobcats', which were like a go cart with a bobsled design.  Weird and cool.  Then we proceeded to go on a lot of different smaller roller coasters and rides that flipped us all around. 

Eventually we took a break for lunch, took purikura (tini pictures that are also stickers) and then waited a while to make sure we were totally digested.  So we waited 40 minutes and then waited in line for the 'White Cyclone', which is the longest roller coaster in the park.  The line for that was about a 30 minute wait, so by the time we were at the front of the line we were very safely digested.  While this wasn't as scary and the Steel Dragon, it was still great and rather scary as it goes through its own supports.  Very spiffin ride.

Then we rode on the jumbo frisbee and then finally on the giant Viking ship.  By 4 we were tired and our stomachs and inner ears had had quite enough.

After buying omiage for my staff and a Hello Kitty charm to add to my collection, we  went to the nearby shopping center and bought some Cold Stone ice cream.  I had some yummy concoction with peanut butter, oreos, nuts, and coffee ice cream.  Maybe Rocky Road Mojo?  I'm not sure.  But it was tasty!

Then Laura and I hopped on an express bus back to the station and took the train home. 

Over all, a totally excellent weekend, and I think my voice has recovered now!

Enjoy the pictures and the videos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/NagashimaSpaland

But before I try and post anything, I want to show off my pretty DS addition.  This has been a long time coming.  :)

My DS before:





My beautiful DS after:





So now I have a cute, sparkly, ridiculous DS.  I am a happy kid.

However, I need to sleep as this weekend was quite an adventure!

In the end of January, Laura and I took off to Kawaguchi-ko.  Despite being geographically pretty close to Nagoya, it took us around 5 hours to get to this picturesque town.  We had the dream of onsening with a view of Mt. Fuji, and we got what we craved!  Really good food, a nice outdoor hot spring with a view of Lake Kawaguchi at night, and in the morning we enjoyed another relaxing bath with a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji. 

That night there were some less than amazing fireworks.  I'm sorry Laura, I thought they might get more interesting.  We stayed up on the roof the whole 30 minutes, and it was so cold.  Laura wanted to go in, but stayed due to my stubbornness to see all the fireworks.  Really, they should have made the fireworks into a 10 minute exciting show, instead of a 30 minute snoozer. 

Mt. Fuji and the weather may have defeated us in the summer, but we totally conquered this weekend!  The next day we went up a ropeway and enjoyed the view from an odd observation platform that had a story that I think involved a guy and a tanuki (racoon dog) saving the day.  I honestly can't remember the story.  I think it involved the tanuki stealing fire, and his fox buddy helping him when he burned his back.

Then we enjoyed some ice cream.  We could get 'three steps of stacks' ice cream.  Which means 3 layers of flavors.  I chose the unusual ones, which were grape, peach, and lavender.  Yeah.  It was weird, but tasty.  It was super strange to be eating ice cream on a cold day in January. 

We had wanted to take out a swan, paddle boat, and go ice breaking, but unfortunately it wasn't an option.  They were closed on Monday, despite being open on Sunday. 

Then we took a bus to Tokyo, and then rode one of the new Shinkansen N700es.  It was very stylish.

Pictures here!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/KawaguchiKoAndFuji

Warning:  For those who are abroad and miss home things, this may make you a little homesick.

These are some pictures I took during the holiday season.  Mainly it's the yummy food from Thanksgiving that Mom made for me during the Christmas holidays.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/HomeThings

The pictures have individual captions, so enjoy!

So, when leaving the Shinkansen one day, Laura and I stumbled upon:



This is out of season, but Nisshin does some winter decorations.  Here's our Christmas tree and our dragon.

http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g113/picturepanda/?action=view&current=ChristmasTree.jpg



And for the holidays Laura and I tried a ridiculous Hello Kitty beverage.  It tasted horrible, but what do you expect from a sparkling, pink beverage that cost a whole dollar?  It was very pretty, even if it wasn't really drinkable.



More to come soon!

This is a link to Laura's webpage for those of you who haven't explored the link on the left of my main page.  She has a rockin' journal as well, and posted a video that shows me playing a new Taiko game on my DS that's very similar to DDR.  I'm hooked.

Check it out at:
http://thelandoftherisingfun.blogspot.com/

This weekend we're off to onsen near the Sea of Japan, eat tasty seafood, and play taiko. 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!