Top Ten Lists are Overated.

Here is Top 11:

Music: (not part of Top 11, but can be included if you wish, in number 1 of 11) With Love-Hilary Duff.

1. Singing a lot of Karaoke. That, in addition to trying to talk loud enough to be heard over the voices of six year old boys has rendered me a rough voice and most likely scarred vocal chords. For someone who thought she wasn’t going to get into the ‘karaoke scene’, she sure knows her way around a Karaoke bar (also how to get money knocked off her bill so that she’ll just leave already!).

2. Totally getting into wii scene. I am determined to own Wii. For lack of fluency in Japanese, I will not be purchasing said item in Japan.

Scene 1: It’s a rainy sunday afternoon, nothing to do, and kind of bored. Telephone my buddy Ichan (his name is actually Masatoshi, but Ichan suits him). ‘Hey Ichan, it’s Lindzy, what are you doing?’

‘Oh just hanging around my house playing Wii with some friends.’

‘Really?! Can I come over?!?!’

Reminds me of when I was seven and I’d put on my bathing suit and run over to the neighbor kids (who had a pool) and subtly ask them what they were doing for the day…

3. I find myself becoming more and more interested in languages and wondering how many I might be able to learn.

4. Becoming more interested in Leah and stories she is not telling me. So I told her the other day: ‘Re-chan, you should talk about yourself more.’

and she said:’I don’t wanna sound self-centered.’

Which got me to thinking, it seems that those with truly interesting stories are those that often hold back and don’t tell them, so that when they do, you are completly absorbed and left wanting more; (this may be a trick) whereas those with mundane, run of the mill stories never seem to shut up. It’s often those that have nothing to say that talk too much. Makes me think that they are just talking to be heard…

5. Finally forcing Leah to tell me more stories has gotten me really interested in Berlin. She spent a year there… yah she’s pretty much the coolest person I’ve met in Japan. When you meet her, ask her about Moritz Fuuk and Joker game.

6. There is this Joker game that my friends and I should start when I get home… if you’re in, let me know. Only those that are in are allowed to know about it.

7. Leah and I had to reschedule our Japanese class for a Thursday morning and I am extremely excited to not be hungover for once in class and show her that I can read faster than the pace of a four year old monkey.

8. Starting to become tired of being an outsider. (It’s blatanly obvious that I am one, so that doesn’t help). Don’t mistake this statement for ‘being tired of being noticed and gawked at’. That’s still cool.

9. Looking forward to mountain party. Also, I have started dropping particles. They are irrelavant (FYI, email is uncountable noun and therefore, you are sending email, not ‘an email’. I sent email today. Yep… I’m learning more English grammar as an English teacher than I ever did in school.)

10. Super excited (I mention it at least once a day) to see Mom and Matante Aline! Also, I have never been more excited to go on vacation. 11 more days! It sounds cliché, but damn I need a holiday.

11. Purikura. If you are interested in making a shit load of money off of the biggest spenders in North America, look into bringing Purikura into Canada. Purikura is Katana for Print Club…basically the coolest photo booth in the world, most popular among young female, Junior high students and often used by, but not limited too, couples, high school students and foreigners. This leads me to my obession with everything cute, especially notebooks and any other form of stationary with adorableness on it.

Won’t you Enjoy Hanami Party with me?

Music: Beat Box- Art of Noise

Early March we were spotted.  We were in our natural surroundings, a bar, behaving normally, drinking.  March 17th we were officially adopted.  New parents: Yukie and Ken-ichi, new ride: a big white SUV, new events: magical mystery tours.

Leah met Yukie one night at a club in Toyama.  They made plans to be best friends and hang out all the time, as most people do when they are drinking and they meet each other at a bar for the first time.  Clearly you should be the best of friends.  I have nicknamed these encounters: best friend One-night stands.  Similar to the well known “one-night stand”, but less awkward and less chance of catching an unwanted virus. 

They didn’t speak for a week or two afterwards (similar to the classic “one-night stand”), but after Leah and I ran into them at a bar one weekend we’ve suddenly (without any notice) been tagged and selected as their new foreign friends. 

It’s a pretty sweet deal actually; we always do amazing things with them, pretty much rendering us Japanese.  They have us over for dinner parties, where they cook us amazing meals and give us amazing things to drink.  They also have this crazy huge white SUV.  This vehicle is good for transporting us to our secret exciting locations.  Example, on one of our dates, we weren’t told where we were going untill we were pretty much there.  It was a fantastic day though.  They took us to this desolate, but beautiful art museum tucked away in the rolling green mountains on the west side of Toyama.   On this road trip we stopped at a “famous” onegiri shop (rice with fish in the middle wrapped with seaweed, pretty much the most delicious snack in the world) as well as this funny little shop on the side of the road where we stopped for some sake. 

New favourite discovery: sake in a can that once you pop the top, it heats up, giving you delicious hot sake for a rainy chilly afternoon car ride.  Ping Pong.  I love you Japan. 

Anyways, our new family is great.  I see a bright future for us, full of road trips in El’ Grando (the vans name), yummy dinners and lots of wine.  Next on the list is a tempura party.  It’s so funny that Yukie and Ken-ichi are just like “you guys are foreigners, and you’re our new friends.   We are taking you here and here and here and we are going to hang out all the time.”  Done.   They also have a sweet friend, who in turn is our new friend, Megumi and a sweet as pie daughter, Aoe, who pops out now and then. 

This weekend marks the true beginning of Spring with the peak of the cherry blossom season.  I can’t explain to you, nor can I capture it in a picture, how wonderful this season is.  It is absolutely mind blowing (this shouldn’t be a surprise, Japan is all around mind blowing).  I spent Sunday on the river with good friends, “hanamiing” it up (hanami = cherry blossom party).  The day was incredible; everyone in Toyama is out and about, walking up and down the river, children were running and chasing one another, babies were sleeping in strollers, shaded  from the sun by the Sakura, couples were holding hands and having picnics, and moms were capturing these moments by photographing their beautiful, well dressed children with the priceless background.

The day was perfect, I almost died of happiness.  You could actually swim in the happiness, it was so amazing; joy was just bouncing around pingponging between people, spreading the joy as far as the eye could see.  Amazing what a blossoming flower can do.  The wonderful day was spent having picnics under the trees talking with anyone and everyone, making new friends with adorable people.  Next to us was a group bar-b-qing wonderful food which they gladly shared with us.  The sun shone all day and we enjoyed beverages late into the night.  The evening ended with some karaoke.