Mission: Get a Tan

It's an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, and I made it my mission today to get some sort of tan that did not resemble the t-shirt I was wearing. Another part of my goal for the day was to avoid driving my car. Last week I went over the 14,000 "free" km, and I will have to pay for anything over that. My new car arrives tomorrow, so I have been doing as little unnecessary driving as I possibly can!

I started my day bright and early (Bryn had to start even earlier...different story, different blog). I was out of bed just after 7 this morning. Seems ridiculous to wake up so early on a Saturday when I have absolutely nothing that needs doing, but that was actually sleeping in for over an hour! After Bryn left the house, I rolled out my yoga mat and hooked my computer up to the tv. See, I've become slightly addicted to yoga, so I've downloaded several videos and have been doing them religiously!

After yoga I cleaned the house some (we have guests coming next week :D) and made myself some breakfast. I am on a fruit kick this year, and believe me, it is not an inexpensive "kick" to be on!!! I splurged and got myself a mango and some blueberries...it hurt paying for them at the store, but I can't bear to go another year without fruit just because it is ridiculously expensive here.



I took advantage of our friend the sun and did some laundry that could hang out to dry, then took a shower and readied myself to go in search of sun.

Now, I can't really go out in the parking lot, set out a beach chair and sit out there in my bathing suit, so I had to go elsewhere. I also no longer live a two minute walk from the beach. Since I wasn't driving anywhere I had a bit of an issue. It was easily solved by riding my bike to the station, and catching a little blue train to Amanohashidate, which is not only one of Japan's top 3 views, but conveniently is home to a sandy beach as well! Also, seeing as it's a top tourist spot, I probably wouldn't stand out as the lone foreigner on the beach.

The bike ride was really nice. The rice is at it's prettiest stage right now (if you ask me). Some people like the reflective stage when it has just been planted, and some like it as it turns golden just before it's time to harvest, but I like the wavy-green sea effect it has right now.



I had allotted myself a good amount of time since I had never ridden to the station before with intentions of catching a train. I was quite early, so I went a bit further down the bike path than my turn off to take some pictures of the lotuses that are starting to bloom.


I still made it to the station with 20 minutes to spare, but there was a really nice breeze so it was quite nice to sit on the platform and read while I waited on the train.



Once at Amanohashidate I laid out my towel (some really crappy ones Bryn and I got at Ikea a while back) and sat in the sun reading for the better part of two hours. It was really nice and relaxing. I certainly wasn't the only person there, but no one seemed to care too much about me at all (a refreshing break from everyday stardom)...well, accept for the scantily bikini clad girl next to me who stared and stared...I smiled at her after a while and must have embarrassed her horribly...don't stare at me!


A super-white girl like myself can't sit out in the sun all day long though, so I called it quits after a couple of hours and got myself a vending machine ice cream while I waited for the train home.

Upon closer inspection, my tanning day was a success...I do indeed have a bit more color (and am surprisingly not burnt to a crisp!) No, I'm not posting any pictures of it though, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Now I'm home and relaxing for a while. I was given a big bag of onions and potatoes the other day, so I have decided to make potato salad, since it's too hot to eat them any other way. I also got some corn on the cob this morning, and maybe I'll get some hamburger meat and make burgers to go with it...(see, I'm working on the Japanese wife thing! but still no rice...)

Next week Bryn and I are off to Tokyo to meet mom and Prad, then we'll go to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe...not really sure where else! Then it's up to Tango for some beer gardens, okonomiyaki, sushi and festivals. It should be a really fun couple of weeks and Bryn and I are really looking forward to it!

Anyways...it's too hot to type, so that's all for now!

Recent Failures (haha)

Well, as Bryn wrote last week, we are well into the rainy season here. It has been a rainy, lazy weekend - for me at least. I have spent a good part of it on the sofa reading or watching TV, but I did get up the energy to do some baking yesterday. You see, Bryn and I have found ourselves wishing we had cookies or something sweet to snack on in the evenings lately, so I thought I would make us something.

I decided to give Afghans a try (the recipe is in the Edmonds cookbook that Robyn gave me last year for my birthday), so I guess I should say I was making biscuits rather than cookies. I mostly decided on them since I already had all of the ingredients and wouldn't need to make a trip to the grocery store for anything. Robyn made them a while back for her cooking challenge she is doing...you can read about it here if you haven't already. I'll be honest with you...the idea of baking something that had cornflakes listed as an ingredient never appealed to me, but Bryn said they were really good so I decided to give them a try.

My very own copy of Edmonds!

Before I go any further I should mention that I have never seen or tasted one of these coo - I mean biscuits, so I had zero idea of what to expect. I mixed everything together and spooned them onto my "pan" (the microwave tray lined with baking paper) and set them in my "oven". Fifteen minutes later I took them out of the oven only to find that instead of holding their shape they had spread out in to flat nothings. I didn't think that was quite right, so I ran to check Robyn's blog to see if that's what had happened to her's...nope. Her's came out as nice round balls. Damn. Failure. Oh well, Bryn said they tasted exactly the same, so as long as they taste good it's fine!

My biscuit disaster...

I don't know what to blame my baking disaster on. Maybe it's because it's crazy hot and humid here, or it could be my inferior oven. Actually, thinking back, I have never had much luck with cookies since coming to Japan. Cakes turn out ok, but all of the cookies just spread out into a floppy, crumbly (but yummy) mess.

The "oven". It's also the microwave and toaster.

Anyways, moving on...

Do y'all remember that I got married? Yep, I did! And I am quickly learning that I fail miserably as a Japanese wife (and Bryn pretty much fails as a Japanese husband for that matter!). I get asked on almost a daily basis if I cooked dinner for my husband the night before, or what I am planning on cooking for him tonight. When I tell them that we cooked dinner together, or that tonight is his turn to cook, they look absolutely appalled!

You see, Japanese men don't cook. Period. It is the wife's job to cook his dinner, do his laundry, clean his house, make his breakfast, pack him a lunch box, etc. It is also her job to let him go out drinking with his work colleagues and then obediently go fetch him and drive him home.

Also, when it's my night to cook I usually don't cook rice. You would think that I told them that I made him eat dirt when I tell them that no, in fact I didn't serve him rice last night.

Me=failure.

I am not the only one who sucks at being married in Japan...Bryn isn't too good at it himself. I mean, what man would dare help wash the dishes?! And take a taxi home from a drinking party so his wife can go to sleep when she wants to? Get a back bone!

It's funny trying to explain to people that where we come from people are equal. When I do manage to get the point across that it is normal and even expected for a man to help cook, clean, etc., the women often say how nice that must be. If you ask most of the girls at my schools what they want to be when they grow up, the majority of them say they want to get married and be a housewife. I am about as far from a feminist as someone can get, but c'mon! It's not 1950 anymore!! Even in elementary schools, if the kids cook something, when they finish the boys all run off to play and all of the girls stay behind to clean up.

A couple of weeks ago we listened to "Obladi, Oblada" (however you spell it) in class. One girl pointed to the line "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face," and asked if that was true - that there were places where the man stayed at home and the wife worked. After I told her yes, she told all of her friends about it in utter disbelief!

I tell ya, it's crazy!

So anyways, the point of the story...I'm a bad wife! Haha...I'm sure the novelty of it will wear off eventually and the teachers will stop caring about whether or not I fed my husband enough rice or not.

However, in the meantime...I think I'll start lying. ;)

(countdown til Mom and Prad come...16 days)