I went to the Ueno Zoo when I was in Tokyo on Valentine's Day. I took some pictures, so here they are! (look at me catching up!!)

( lions and tigers and bears and .... gorillas?! Plus two shots of Ueno )

I said I may post pictures, and here they are. This is just a sampling of the jillion or so I took on my Christmas trip.


( Hiroshima peace memorial area )




( Hiroshima castle and Shukkeien Garden )





( Iwakuni )





( Miyajima )





( random crazy things on Miyajima )





( food )





( misc. )

Today I went to Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine in Kyoto, finally. It was nice, and afterwards I had curry for dinner (and strawberry cake), plus I did a little shopping. Oh, and I fell in love with this cute cat at the shrine. It only meowed when I was there but it was scared of me. I wish I hadn't eaten all of my food at lunch because I would have given some of it to the cat. :( On the way home I sat by this really nice grandma who talked to me the entire time and was so happy that she could talk to me. She was so sweet and even though I didn't understand all that she was telling me (she was talking a lot about Japanese grammar), it was nice.

( around 15 pics )

Today, pretty much for the hell of it, I went to Kyoto. First I went to the Kyoto National Museum. Their special exhibit was black and gold makie. Some of the stuff was absolutely gorgeous. You can see some of it here. I then headed over to Tofukuji since it is just one stop away. As I was leaving some dude came up and asked to take a picture of me in front of the temple. I was like "umm.... OK." Then he wanted to get one of us together. So, we did. I stood there for a second trying to figure out if he still wanted to talk to me but he moved off so I just left. He didn't chase after me so I have no idea what that was all about.

Anyway, I was too early to see the autumn foliage (haha), but I still took a bunch of pictures. Highlights are under the cut.


( a bunch of pictures under here )

Two weekends ago I went to Osaka. I rode the Ferris wheel at Hep 5 and we were there just as the sun was setting. So, I snapped a few (haha) pics. Here are a select few.


( Captured rays )

It snowed yesterday up here. But today it is warmer so the snow is melting. And by melting I mean sliding off my roof. It sounds kinda scary. I woke up this morning and was like "WTF IS GOING ON?!"

In other news there was a fire somewhere near my house Friday night. I think. Near when I was going to go to bed I started to smell smoke. I thought it was my AC/heater because the thing likes to randomly stop working and it had just stopped. But there was no smoke and no flmaes, so I walked around my house and saw nothing. I just kinda sat there wondering what was going on, and then the next thing I knew there were sirens going off like crazy and driving around. I don't know where the fire was because I'm too lazy to go look, but it had to have been close because of all of the sounds and the smell of smoke. It started at like 12:30-1, and the last trucks didn't leave until long after 2:30. I stayed up waiting just in case something happened.

( snow pics )

Sorry to spam but here is the snow!

I've been meaning to post these for a while.

( Christmas gifts )




( the lighter )





( recent cooking )

Apparently I am a hero. hahahaha I needed that after my week. Here are is a bag I got for Christmas plus my strawberry tart from last night and some curry. Yes I am random.

( food )

( new bag - take 1 )

For those who want to see what I plan to wear, or my uchiwas, feel free to look below. If you have any other ideas for uchiwas, let me know! I still am making one that says "American eighter." I also have my "Yokoyama-san" and "ENGLISH TALK ONLY" to use.

You can see the K8 apron in one of the uchiwa pics.

( uchiwas thus far )





( stuff I plan to wear )





( I may or may not wear these )