I’m still hanging around with my mom and her friends and we made our way to a farmer’s market this morning. They were giving away half a Chinese cabbage (hakusai) for the first 200 people. I’m wondering if they didn’t have a lot more to give away because we got there late and the five of us got a total of 4 1/2 cabbages.

The farmer’s market was a little smaller than I’m used to in Oregon.

The prepared food is quite different than what we get, too. For example, there was no taco truck.

They were also selling cookies, or something like cookies. Anyone for some raisirn or frullers?

I’ve been eating like a pig since we got here, and a lot of it has been fruits and vegetables. The other item I’ve been ingesting a lot of is happoshu, or the stuff that looked like cheap but not very tasty beer when I was here last year. Turns out it’s what I’d consider beer, but it’s not taxed like beer because they make it with less malt and most of the stuff I tried last year was pretty unexciting. “Koku no Jikan” is actually pretty tasty, and is mixed with barley spirits. Here’s an example picture of how much I’ve been eating, though this wasn’t just me.

It’s a good thing we got lost on the way to the farmer’s market. It was further than we thought and I, for one, needed the exercise on the way back.

We also went shopping for random stuff today. I think I’m going to end up with a few more office supplies and computer doodads. Today I just bought a USB memory stick, not because it was interesting, but because it was surprisingly cheap. I guess no one trusts Sandisk here. I also started getting more items on my sister’s “list” including Blood Orange flavored lip balm.

Oh, and here’s some proof that it got real cold here. It’s supposed to be up in the upper 60’s tomorrow, but it snowed in the mountains. Here’s a really bad picture of a mountain with some snow. I don’t know how I took such a bad picture, other than lack of practice.

The only other excitement I had was the long-distance call I made to VISA this morning. I had to explain to them that, yes, I spent $1 at Amazon (plus $25 in a gift certificate for some toothbrushes), and yes I spent $21 at Dove Vivi for pizza. I mean, really? They stopped my account for that?

Yesterday it was 80°F until the middle of the day but it started raining and the temperature dropped. Today it’s 18°F cooler, and it’s about 40°F tonight. Add to this the pouring rain and we have the makings for it to be absolutely miserable outside. I didn’t do much today but catch up with some more of my mom’s friends. We did make it to the shopping center nearby where I searched for some shiso flavored Coke which was only on sale earlier this year. I also saw some premade coffee in the cooler cases here. The first I thought was St*rbucks.

I figured it was an imitation and looked at the Lipton branded premade coffee that looked even stranger:

It says “EXTRASHOT” but all I saw was the “TRASH” in the middle.

So what happened to yesterday’s post? I guess I thought I hit the “publish” button and just fell asleep. All the editing of photos and posting must have been lost. Oh, well.

So let me try to recreate what I did the two earlier days (Friday and Saturday). I spent most of the time in the back of a car, getting from Maebashi to a Japanese hot spring on Friday, and then from the hot spring to Toyama where we’re going to spend most of a week and I’m going to be doing much of nothing while my mom hangs out with her friends.

We started out Friday going to the Gunma prefectural office looking for a display of kokeshi dolls that my mom saw on TV. Unfortunately, they were somewhere else, though we did see them eventually since they were on the way to where we were having lunch. Some of the dolls were some pretty modern interpretations of a traditional art form and nothing that I really would want to display at home though my dad would have bought something, I’m sure. I didn’t get a picture of any of the dolls but here’s a picture from the top of the prefectural building, 17 stories up.

The picture faces the mountains we drove into. I had no idea which direction we were going most of the time. Lunch was soba somewhere seemingly far away and up a ways, but the food was worth the trip.

That’s my mom’s friend Mieko on the left and my mom on the right. We continued the trip and made a stop at Mieko’s apple tree. I guess she owns one tree in this apple orchard. I should have taken a picture of a Japanese apple. They’re really sweet and about the size of a grapefruit.

After that it was off to the hot springs where I spent a lot of time soaking in the large public baths, where we met Dr. Kobayashi, Mieko’s husband. I think it’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve seen him. It really is relaxing sitting in a pool full of hot water. I wish I could have taken a picture of the various baths, but this isn’t the blog you want if you’re looking to see a bunch of naked middle-aged Japanese men. I bet google could help you out if that’s your preference. In any case, in a Japanese hot spring you usually wash yourself off outside of the bath and then soak for a while, wash yourself again and soak for some more. There were a series of baths inside and a couple of outdoor baths where you could stand and look at the rapids below and the sound of the rushing water was an added soothing feature. I also forgot to take pictures of the food we ate because I was busy doing what most people do at a Japanese hot spring: relaxing.

The next day we were off to see Sho Shimomura and her family. Sho is the eldest daughter of the Kawasaki’s, where I’m spending most of my time this trip. I’ve seen Sho and the Kawasaki’s fairly regularly, but I hadn’t seen her husband Atsushi since their eldest daughter was 1 1/2. She’s 17 or 18 now so it’s been a while. It’s also the first time I got to visit their famous house in the rice fields. I didn’t see much of it, but I think it’s pretty large. Before we got to the house we visited Yasuhiko Jinja, a Shinto shrine, which was busy with a Chrysanthemum festival and 7-5-3 celebrations.

That’s my mom and the Shimomura’s younger daughter.

And again with the Chrysanthemums.

After the visit to the Shimomura’s house, it was off to the Kawasaki’s in Toyama. The other two weird things I saw that day were an interesting t-shirt and a cow truck. I wanted to get my minimal Halloween fix at Baskin & Robbin’s by buying some pumpkin ice cream and I saw a t-shirt that I thought was oddly appropriate for Halloween.

And here’s the cow truck.

For some reason the cows were all sideways to the direction of travel and lighted up. I dunno. It’s Japan.

Spent most of the day just kind of hanging around, which I don’t mind. We went shopping for clothes at Uniqlo, which is sort of a Japanese Old Navy but even cheaper, but I didn’t do much otherwise. We started filling my sister’s shopping list with a couple of jackets, a bunch of long underwear, and other stuff, and all I bought for myself were pajamas.

It’s boring, but I’m in Japan, and I’m not at work. I think that’s still a positive situation for me.

I’ve spent most of the past two days in the back of a car and now I’m trying to stay awake. Yesterday we went from Maebashi to a Japanese hot spring with a stop at the prefectural government building and their spectacular view.

We also had a stop for soba for lunch somewhere in the mountains in between stops at lakes, viewpoints, and other mountaintop recreational areas.

We also made a stop to see our friend’s single apple tree (the one right behind my mom).

We got to the hot springs in the afternoon and I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy relaxing. We went with my mom’s friend Mieko and were met by her husband, Dr. Kobayashi who I haven’t seen in 18 years. He’s usually too busy to get away from his doctoring. I wish I had pictures of the baths because it’s so relaxing taking a bath and then soaking in a pool of hot water. Unfortunately, there were lots of people around and I’m not about to post a picture of a bunch of naked middle-aged Japanese men. This isn’t that kind of blog. The food was pretty good as well but I was still too busy relaxing to take a picture of the food.

I was in the back of Mieko’s car for a second day while we made our way to the Kawasaki residence in Toyama. We made some stops to see friends and also Yasuhiko Jinja.

In any case, I can’t believe how tired I am for just having sat in the back of a car for two days. I guess I’d better cut this short before I end up passing out.

However, here’s a picture of a girl’s shirt with some fine examples of Engrish which I thought was appropriate for Halloween.

Plus some cows in the back of a transport truck. They probably couldn’t fit on the Japanese version of Greyhound.

Pardon my incoherence, but it’s 11:30PM here in Japan, and I just got back from dinner. That means it’s 7:30AM at home and I’ve been up since 7:30AM yesterday with a few naps during the day. I didn’t sleep that well last night, either. I’m pretty beat. After the flight we got on a bus for 3+ hour bus ride to Maebashi and didn’t have dinner until 9:30PM.

We had monjiyayaki for dinner tonight tonight which is similar but not identical to okonomiyaki. I’m used to okonomiyaki because it’s a Kansai thing, but this monjiyayaki is completely new to me. I also had a couple of large-looking beers, but I always think they’re not that strong here though they are very tasty.

And thought you might not be able to tell the difference, here’s an okonomiyaki.

The new NWA (Northwest Airlines, not the rap group) is not an improvement over the old. The planes are smaller and there aren’t any screens in the seatbacks, only the big screens up in the ceiling above the aisles. The headphone jack in the seat arm is one of those funky airline jacks that has two plugs for stereo and plugging in a normal set of headphones just gets sound in one ear. I also think they don’t feed you as often, even though they did have Cup-a-Noodle on demand.

Fortunately, I’m a big geek and brought lots of toys. I did watch the three movies overhead with the help of an airplane headphone jack converter that I’ve been carrying around for years but never used until today. I had my Kindle for reading books and my iPhone for music. The three movies were one I never wanted to see: The Soloist, one I sort of wanted to see: Monsters vs. Aliens, and one I actually wanted to see but shouldn’t admit that: 17 Again. The flight wasn’t that bad. It took 11 hours but it was fairly empty. Got on at 12:30PM, got to Narita around 11:30PM, and then took a bus to Maebashi. Our dinner was in Maebashi, where we’re spending the night.

OK, I’m about done. The funniest Engrish I saw was for a “love hotel” named “First Wood” that was right next to the freeway. More later.

So now my huge 23″ TV is in the other room and I just measured the distance from the TV to my chair. It’s somewhere around 23 feet away. The worst part is that the 23″ Samsung has really awful audio and it’s kind of hard to hear the tinny sound come out of it. Here’s a picture of what I see when I’m watching TV.

It’s really not so bad. I remember when I used to watch a 12″ TV I hauled out of the trash in Japan. I had to fix it, and I sat on this awful foam couch that I also hauled out of the trash. Fortunately, my manager gave me some wicker chairs and I didn’t have to use that couch much after that.

I just downloaded a bunch of books into my Kindle for the trip to Japan. I haven’t used my Kindle in months and the display said something about the battery being completely dead, which it can say because e-ink doesn’t take any power to maintain the text on the screen. I’m just hoping I haven’t read any of these already:

Coincidentally, I tried to read Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo on my trip to Japan last year. It took a LONG time to finish that book and it was worth it, but it took some work.

I was moving some furniture today because I figured I could start using some of the space I gained back after the carpet was put into the “other” bedroom. The closet door and shelves need to be put back in and the attic access doors need to be installed and I probably need to get some matching paint and touch up some of the messes myself.

So I know better than to move furniture without my shoes on, but I usually don’t wear shoes upstairs. Because of that, I smashed the crap out out of my toe on a hand truck. I put shoes on afterwards and that’s when I figured out that my toe was bleeding, as it did for the rest of the day. I can’t remember when I took the shoes back off, but I did end up dropping a remote control and a ramune bottle on the same foot later in the day. Ramune bottle thick, heavy green glass, by the way. If you think I should have more sense, it’s likely you don’t know me very well.

In any case, I moved my computer and some files up to the bedroom, and ended up spending a whole lot more time shredding my dad’s old financial papers from the 90’s. Really exciting work, let me tell you. I kept some of it, which my sister and I may or may not ever look at (stuff like his backache diary) but the various tax records are now in little confetti-like piece. My shredder sure fills up the recycle bin quickly.

Hooray. And end to a long week, and I didn’t even have to go in to work today. We had our “group offsite” which meant we went to a science museum that was full of screaming middle school kids. I’m hoping I didn’t get swine ‘flu, because my trip to Japan is supposed to start on next Wednesday. It doesn’t help that my boss had the ‘flu and is coughing all the time.

In any case, I spent most of the afternoon and evening watching Fringe and thinking of what I really should do this weekend. Mostly dumb stuff like getting door stops and curtains and trying to get a door to latch. Nothing big but you know how weekends go. We’ll see if I get anything done, though.

We had burger club tonight but we were missing two of the founding members. Sean has dad duties and Jeff’s parents were in town. But we finally got Imran to come out with us and Matty’s friend Kurt as well. Rounding out the group were Erin, Matty, and me. We went to Bridgeport where they had a pretty good pub burger, not in the upper tier but tasty nevertheless. A little unevenly salted, but otherwise pretty good. The place wasn’t packed and there were a lot of wait staff, but our server was also the bartender and we had pretty abysmal service. Plus, we were squeezed in between two tables of douchebagsfrat boys, or so it seemed. It was a pretty weird scene.

Yesterday I was talking to Jorgen at the gym about the weight he was using during the workout. I did OK with 30lb dumbbells, but he was using 35lb. He told me, “I pushed the man button.” I suppose I pushed the damnfool button the night before when I was doing a little heavier weight and wasn’t able to do it two nights in a row, so I don’t suppose I should complain about what I was doing. In any case I felt like falling over several times tonight as well, so I suppose that’s OK. That’s what I’m there for, to work out.

I had a much better day today and even did OK at the gym. The bad part is that I’ve been busy enough at work all week that I had to eat at the cafeteria for the past two days. My stomach has been grumbling all day and I was worried this afternoon about it. Now I’m staying up late to see if it will resolve itself before I go to bed. Yeesh. I know I shouldn’t be talking about work so I probably should stop talking about the cafeteria, too.

Who am I kidding, I stayed up way too late on Tuesday night to finish watching my Monday night TV shows off of my DVR. Tomorrow I’ll watch Tuesday night, which is probably just NCISx2. The only other excitement I had today was vacuuming the new carpet in the other upstairs bedroom. Now I just have to figure out how you get curtains that fit a particular window size. I suppose that’s just another job for google.

There are certain motivational methods that just don’t work on me. And then when fight or flight kicks in, I often bail. That’s the flight option after all.

So if today is any indication, I’m going to be fairly distracted at the gym and not feel like myself until afterwards. We did an old workout that was fairly challenging and I spent a fair amount of time standing around wondering if I should just go home. For a week. And not come outside the whole time. It beat the other alternatives I was thinking of, and it would give me more time to work on the house.

Ah, well, I’m sure I’ll get over it one way or another.