Japan, where CHristmas was once unheard of, has once again taken a Western concept and completely perfcected it. Pictued here is purified CHristmas concentrate, distilled to a quality not thought possible in the USA.
Remember how I said looks can be deceiving in Japn concerning food?
All 28 fruit and diagrams labeled!
It's a miracle of Grapefruit!
This is the teacher's room, where we pull out student files, choose a lesson plan and plan it in the 10 min between classes.
These are coworker people. And an ultraman riding thing in the arcade in the background.
These are some of the awesome Japanese staff and a coworker who is leaving for Thailand today.
This is the Nova Usagi, vital member of our team. He's a rabbit with a beak who singlehandedly raised sales 20% by his existance!
Another Coworker.
A coworkette
A cool traditional style roof on the way to work.
A Japanese cloud.
SATY, the... shopping centre, I guess.. where I work, when viewed from...
This street bridge, with power cables that brush my head, overlooking...
This shrine, with trees, guarded by...
These 'Ah' 'N' statues, since you open your mouth to say 'A' and keep it closed to say “N'
So yes, I suppose there ARE trees near where I work...
And heres the beauty up close...
Japanese signs don't always make sense.
Creap, now in stick-type!
Typical supermarket wares
Shrimp flavoured goodness
Essential squid snacks, for when you need squid on the go
Meltykiss!!
It's the prince of curry from FLCL!! yeah....
VItamin enhanced gummies. I got the C, E and something else kind in the middle top row
Supplement jelly packets
Mocchi Goodness! My favourite food is all over the place
Animal Crossing bread is popular.
And of course Pokemon everything
Some good old fashioned supermarket bentos for the english instrcutor with little time between lessons
Super-sushi
More bento choices
Tempura. The octopus on the top is good
The bakery has some good deal on Tuesday and sunday. Think of any food item, and they have bread or a roll with it inside or on top of it.
This is the billboard I shot this morning. I was on the train to work, and since I didn't have the huge buffer time I usually do, I decided to put my DS away early to ensure I don't miss my stop. SO I do, and keep waiting, past the next stop. Then see the huge “SATY” sign/billboard that is on top of my building go slowly past in the window. SO I accidentally went into unknown territory at the next stop. While waiting to catch my next train back to my real stop, I saw this.
A typical view from the 4th floor parking lot outside my Nova office
A typical view immediately outside my office. Yep. That's pretty much where I work.
Yet ANOTHER example of the France-Japan Connection, possibly the strongest yet. Here we see French horses and Japanese horses co-existing peacefully.
A few $30 melons. Supposedly GUARANTEED SUper-Fantastic
I really want to buy a giant daikon raddish, but I need to think of a recipe using one first..,..
The mushroom aisle
Here is the BA-NI-RA YO-GU-RA-TOOOOOO boy in his natural habitat, the dairy aisle
Bananna bread, Japanese style
Pineapple bread
One of many variations of the hot-dog bread archetype
Cheese bread, sometimes called Fromage Bread (Japanese-French connection)
Some hot-dog breads with the popular hashbrown bun
Hashbrown and hamburger bread
Beef bread
SOme cream cheese bread and dessert breads
BAcon bread, which was a little disappointing, but does have its share of bacon inside
Delicipus melon bread
Assorted dried sea critters
The octopus aisle
A balanced Nova Meal
It took me a while to figure out the difference from the soy sauce bottle (red) and the sauce bottle(green)
Looking a different way outside my office
Lots of arcades, which somehow I haven't used yet... hmmm
We also have a bowling alley on our floor, another 20 feet away
One of two crepe stands (that I know of) in my building alone. Somehow, when I was talking to someone about Japan, who had been a lot, I mentioned crepes because I had seen so many in anime and stuff, and they simply stated that there weren't really crepes in Japan. Although from what I've heard it's not just Nagoya that is filled with Crepes. Well I saw em in Kyoto too.
The super-secret passageways behind the supermarket I go through to get into and out of work. Usually filled with supermarket people and fish smell.
Hmmmm, coincidence...
That TOmmy Lee Jones is the BOSS coffee spokesmodel?
The amazing picture I drew to explain what 'crime' is. This followed the two students looking at each other and repeating “Crime? Crime? Crime? Crime? Crime?'. One of them drew the ball and chain, and the gun and knife were later for emphasis.
Maybe I'm playing too much Disgaea...
Apparently, that's not honey. It's sweet soy sauce.
This is me, in Nova form. The kids caught on to it before I did. I was indeed wearing a blue shirt and striped tie like that that day.
The aftermath of my second Voice lesson (free discussion with a bunch of students) The main topic was fruit. Can you list all 27 fruit from my drawings?
Mickey grows my Produce. And he does a fine job too.
My drawing of a cockatiel. The eye was made that way in response to my student's claim that “Big eyes are cute,” and my subsequent attempt to test her hypothesis.
Three things I have found to be wildly popular in Japan: Johnny Depp, anything realted to Stitch from the movie Lilo and STictch, and
Anything with Jack Skellington's face on it. I have kids in my classes who ask me to do Jack smileys for their homework.
This is the machine that NOT ONLY gave me a Mixed Fruit drink today, but ALSO sang me a song and danced for me. The frog seems a bit out of it though... Apparently aslo dispenses GOD, as noted by mom.
What do you think of my attempt to convey the extremely difficult concept of 'Unattended'?
More tree-birds.
SOme tree-birds eating persimmon, maybe, on my way to work.
Pineapple bread, with cream cheese, in anticipation of the huge pineapple I would eat tomorrow.
The trusty Ultraman ride that watches over our office mysteriously lost an eye today.
What's this? Donkey Kong got roped into the gambling biz?
See what I mean about Pooh, Stitch, and Jack being super popular? Just no Johnny Depp dolls...
The horrible Japanese standard grabbing arm. Only two fingers? You'd need to grab right at the centre of gravity! Plus you only get ONE movement forward, and ONE movement sideways! Unacceptable!
Apparently these are variations of rock-paper-scissors games?
