Wonderful Engrish

It's Going

I really haven't done anything too exciting recently but while sitting here not doing anything important I thought I would post about a few recent happenings. 

I bought a new purse, my first one in four years, it took a long time to decide but I found this one in a store off a side alley of Tekashita street in Harajuku.

And you can unzip the sides to make it bigger.

I think it's pretty cool...

Then I bought a fancy little cake.

Mostly because it had silver spots I thought it looked super pretty and wanted to eat it... And it was crazy delicious.

Then I don't have any pictures but I went to a Bulgarian fair and ate some Bulgarian food which was delicious and became a part of the Bulgarian Friendship Group! Haha it was fun. Also bought some Rose jam to bring home for Christmas. 

So, while I am really too busy for much free time I have been able to do a few fun things in the past month :)

Its been awhile...

Well, I never did say I was good at blogging. So a lot has happened the last few months, moved cities, changed jobs, and visited home. 

Now I'm living in Tokyo, working at the school I had studied abroad at. So far I love my office, the staff is excellent and I surprisingly really like doing office work. Outside of that though I am an RA for an exchange group from 6 different countries, and I will be an English tutor once summer break is over and school is back in session. 

The office is awesome, and almost all the exchange students are awesome except for a select few who my fellow RA and assistant director ran into some major issues with last night. It's too bad that there are students who can't see how lucky and fortunate they are to be able to have this chance of studying in a foreign country. I really hope they will learn and mature from this experience along with becoming more accepting and open minded with others.

In the meantime I'm taking a brief break from the city in Todai's lovely garden with a yummy matcha latte :)

It's good to be back in this amazing city.

Pearl Island and an Okonomiyaki party!

Well, this weekend was pretty eventful. On Saturday I went to Toba to visit Mikimoto Pearl Island and it was really interesting! First I saw the women pearl diver demonstration. 

Then I went to the museum about the science of cultivating pearls and how humans play a role in it here at pearl island. Then there is a second museum on the island about Mikimoto himself and his struggle to learn how to cultivate pearls and start his business. Overall they were really great museums with very good English explanations.

My last stop was the store.... Where I spent too much money, but they are really beautiful!! 

Then on Sunday we went to an Okonomiyaki party where we learned three different kinds of japanese games!

This one is called Mahjong and we played it the longest, it was really difficult!!! It's a strategy game and was really hard to understand especially with it only being explained to us in mostly Japanese! But it was still fun and interesting.

Then lastly I came to work Monday to be surprised by a package from Steph!!! Full of delicious Norwegian chocolate :) yum

Kumquat Jam

Having mostly adult students here at OBC I often receive gifts from students that most often are food, and it's awesome. Today, one of my students gave me a jar of homemade kumquat jam!!! It's really difficult and time consuming to make especially since kumquats have many little seeds that have to be removed to make it. So, it feels really special that she gave me some! She told me it's best with natural yogurt and even though I don't like yogurt I gave it a try and holy adjkljgfaahkk it's so good!!!!!!!

Here are some pics of this amazing jam :)

Never though Japan would make me a yogurt eater lol but this was really good!

Sweets Paradise

Well, had a successful trip to Nagoya last weekend with the main destination being Sweets Paradise... 2 hours of all you can eat desserts(they have some regular food too)

Some of the regular food to eat in prep of the sweets.

Then cakes... So many cakes, and they were pretty delicious. Felt super full afterwards but super worth it. 

When we finished at Sweets Paradise we decided to walk to Osu and do some leisurely shopping. Osu is a pretty cool place cause it's almost all thrift second hand stores and has a lot of cool stuff to look at. While walking through there we also stumbled upon this awesome little shrine.

Pretty cool, after we walked to sakae for some more shopping (I wanted to go to LOFT to get some stuff for my sisters b-day) and on the way there we came across the weirdest vending machine I've seen in Japan so far.

Those are fish inside the bottles... It's fish broth for cooking... Why in a vending machine??? I have no idea lol

Then for dinner we went to a resturant in the Oasis building and I had misokatsu.... So freakin delicious

And that was my very fun and eventful day in Nagoya :)

Hachimitsu Manju

Oh hachimitsu Manju... How I will miss you when I leave Tsu. Hachimitsu Manju or Honey Manju(Manju is kinda like a red bean filled bread donut thing) are super super delicious and the best Manju in the world... Why is it so much better then other Manju? Cause of the honey added to the breading! So delicious I wish I could send them to everyone to try but I can't cause they are best fresh. 

So this Manju place is a dangerous distance from my work... Only two blocks  and one of my favorite traditional japanese desserts. So, if your ever in the Tsu area... Get some, you won't regret it(unless you don't like red bean)

Other news, this weekend I went out to dinner with some of the JETs who live near by and it was really fun! We made plans for next weekend to go to Sweets Paradise in Nagoya... Two hours all you can eat desserts. Who can diet when places like that exist? Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I'll take some pics and blog about it next week :)