Tuesday, December 2, 2008
This one is to you Ebs
Isn't it crazy how life turns out? You meet people, become great friends, laugh, eat onigiri together and before you know it 3, 4, 5 years has passed and you are practically related. Then comes the part where each goes their separate ways and you don't know when you will see them again.... the latter is always the saddest.
When I first met Ebu, I can't remember my first thoughts, but we became friends and every Saturday I looked forward to going to Japanese school and sitting next to Ebu, studying, laughing, arguing over correct kanji, talking about our crazy cats. Eventually I even began bringing him lunch I made-- hehe. Ebu and Lo, we became the pair that was always at school on Saturdays rain or shine. We've seen teachers and volunteer come and go and even the changing of the prinicpal. The secretary however has always remained the same and even when I came back from Japan she recognized me. I however, almost didn't recogize the person standing next to her and within 2 seconds a huge grin came across my face as I realized it was Ebu!
My best friend will be leaving the country this weekend and I feel like Japanese school won't be the same. Of course there is always the internet and we will keep in touch, but it isn't the same. Let it be known that I looked into all the information I could and if there was something I could've done to help or prevent you from leaving I would have done it. I just wish I could've done something more so that we could continue to have our fun Saturday school times :)
Life is short, but friendships are forever. I don't know where I heard that, but it seems appropriate at this time.
Well Ebu, thank you for years of being a great friend and making every weekend lots of fun! You will be greatly missed and I hope we can meet again someday...
-Lo
Sunday, June 15, 2008
“boku wa Gunma, Gunma, Gunma Gunma~~~~~ kuma jyanai yo”
On the way there we listened to one of the podcasts I downloaded: In Our Time: Lysenko, which was about a crazy, self learned bioagriculturalist who attempted (an failed miserably) to change
Anyway, back to Gunma-
We arrived in
The bus ride to Gunma no mori was rather interesting. We took the most roundabout way to get there. I was sure we’d turned the wrong was down a one way street about 5 times… haha The cutest part was when this little old man got on the bus, he brought a drink to give to the driver--- you don’t see that in Tokyo. It was a scenic tour of the area, but kinda fun. There were a lot of Shell and Mobil gas stations, which was very surprising. There seemed to be more there in the country then in
The 3 of us: me, shi, and Ryo met up at the Gunma Modern Museum of Art. There was a really large lawn in front of the museum that many families were enjoying the nice weather. We had a small picnic, nothing too fancy just some onigiri, veggies, senbei, and ginger cookies.
The museum is really cool and the special exhibit right now was about different architecture of museums around the world. It showed the blueprints for the remodeling of museums in LA,
The whole day was super fun and we got back home at around
The 1st kakigori of the year: blue hawaii flavor !
Saturday, March 29, 2008
"Egg day" part 2





And finally a picture of the leftover Easter Eggs. I decided to use the leftover colors from the Paas kit Sheila's mom sent (THANK YOU!). Some of these will be going w/ me to my flower viewing party today and some will just be breakfast for the next few days. It was a fun time!

Monday, March 24, 2008
"Egg day"
This week in classes we are decorating Easter Eggs!!! This has to be one of my favorite activities associated with a holiday second only to decorating for Christmas. I took my camera to school today so here is the first installment of pictures from classes today. I will update this particular entry as the week continues!!!




I made the egg over there -------------------------->
China town

Apart from the chestnuts the other things that you will find plenty of in China town will be nikuman (meat roll) and pandas. China town has taken both of these and made---- dun dun dun dun dun dun----- a PANDA NIKUMAN!!

We then moved onto Panda World where we ate lunch at the cafeteria and browsed through the shops. Panda World was sooooooo cute. I restrained myself from buying a lot of things in that store--- hehe.

---> Me and the Danpa!!

We basically just walked around all afternoon, took pictures and ate a lot. I of course had some really yummy mango/vanilla ice cream cone!!! YUMMY YUMMY I restrained my shopping self mostly except for some really yummy Jasmine tea. The ladies who ran the store were really cute and I talked with them for a few minutes. It is definitely on my list of places to return before I head home to the US.
There was really only one thing about the whole day that was a little unnerving--- that would be the Communist hats for sale:

Some other interesting pictures:




Thursday, March 13, 2008
春が来た・・・・・・らしい
So keeping in tradition with this blog, here is a picture of another tasty looking meal at the Saia-O'Neil household.

Spinach, Lotus root, Scallop Pasta! hmmmmmmmmmmmm
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I haven't had a lot of too interesting things to talk about b/c my life has been consumed with work, doing household chores, and trying to get to bed at a normal time. I've been trying to avoid the 3:00am nights...
So today I went out to run errands: the fruit/veggie stand, the post office, and the recycle place. On my way home I there suddenly appeared a cute little stand that wasn't there the day before. It was selling homemade mochi (pounded rice cake) with various types of sauce on top. One of the little old men was pounding the mochi himself!! It was fun to watch for a few minutes. I decided to buy some sweet bean paste flavored ones and almost scared the men when I ordered in Japanese---hehe. It made a rather yummy lunch.

McDonald's has come out with a new McFlurry here: carmel and oreo. It was yummmmmy!!!

Here are some other pictures as I was walking through the park to get to work today. They planted one of my favorite flowers, pansy.


The last bit for this blog is a picture of a present I got from one of my students. She has this glue that you can make things and then it becomes like a sticker. It was pretty cool and she gave me one today. awwwwww I love my students!

Sunday, March 2, 2008
Changing the calendar to March


The rest of the day was spent not doing a whole lot, but enjoying the quietness and relaxation. I haven't had a day like today in a long time and it was definitely long overdue.
Spring is popping up here and soon the Cherry Blossoms will be blooming! My student's father told me that there are some that are already 30% in bloom in the park by our school. I was surprised to hear this considering that they usually bloom at the end of March-beginning of April. Anyway, it is time to start carrying my camera with me at all times. I don't want to miss a chance at a good picture!
Here are some pictures I've been meaning to put up of the past few weeks or so:
Kozue and I at our monthly dinner! It is soo nice to have one night to get dressed up and go eat at a nice restaurant in Tokyo. I'm gonna miss those times when I go home.
