No More 3×5’s

This past Saturday Jen, Luke, and I had a girlie movie night at our place. Luke provided the movies and we provided the dinner/snacks. Don’t worry, Luke likes chick flicks, so he was a willing participant. We ate taco rice and then proceeded to watch three movies: Another Cinderella Story, What Happens in Vegas, and Iron Man. Okay, okay, so Iron Man is definitely not a girlie movie, but after the awesomeness of the first two, we just felt that another one might spoil the whole mood. But we had a great time and I think that we should plan another one in the near future. So, if you know any good girlie movies, please recommend away. And also, I highly recommend any of the three movies that we watched. They were all excellent!

Well, I made it to the immigration office today and I’m officially in process for a new visa. And although it completely sucked that I had to wait there for an hour (yeah, I got 171 and they were on 150), it all ended well because I managed the whole application process in Japanese. I felt very happy and hopefully that will reflect well on the application.

But before all that, I had to go to the city hall for some paperwork. On my way back to the station, I put on my brave pants and went to the bicycle shop. I managed to explain my problem and the sweet grandma who works there helped me with no problems. And actually, my back tire was fixed in the space of one minute. The front tire took a bit longer because she discovered that the inner tube had a puncture. So after about 15 minutes total of her working and us chatting about America in Japanese my bike was as good as new. And she even did a complete checkup and tweaked a few problem areas. And the best part was that it was so so cheap!! Part of me hopes that my bike will have more problems so that I can go again and talk with her. She was so friendly and helpful!

So, all in all, I had a good day.

It’s officially fall and the weather seems to be cooperating with its season thus far. We’ll see how it goes. But here are a few things that I like about fall in Japan.

1. In Japan, Fall Equinox is a national holiday, so I had the day off work to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

2. It’s perfect weather for a hot drink in the morning, cold drinks during the day, and a cup of hot tea after work. It’s really the best of both worlds.

3. I can sleep with my balcony door open, but I don’t need to have the fan on.

4. Humidity is on the decline.

5. Japan loves fall fruits and vegetables, so there are starting to be some really great flavors and foods out right now for the season.

6. Winter never comes busting in halfway through October acting like it owns the place. It’s more like the opposite- fall is a pretty strong competitor over here, while winter just cowers in the corner until the end of December.

7. Apples and mikans are back in season!

You know, I remember watching George of the Jungle when I was a kid, the live action movie with Brenden Frasier, not the cartoon. In the movie were two poachers who were living in Africa. Well, they got caught and the African government deported them. I remember thinking that deportation was not really such a bad punishment for poaching animals. But I had no idea back then all the effort required for living in another country. And suddenly, if I don’t get my butt in gear, I could be facing possible deportation myself.

On the sixth of October, I will have officially been in Japan for one year! Yay! But that also means that I have to get my visa renewed because it was only good for one year. Boo! So, I have almost all the necessary paperwork, I just lack the motivation to do it. So, today is visa day. After I eat breakfast and get ready, I’m going to start the journey to renewal. If only that were a slogan for a spa instead of a trip to the immigration office. And it’s an overcast day, so that does not add to the motivation levels.

But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to keep your job and avoid illegal activity. So, off I go!

My favorite flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans is, without a doubt, buttered popcorn. A strange choice I know, but I could eat a whole box of them and be completley happy. Good thing Jen doesn’t like them!

So, for the past three or four months, my bike has been out of commission. I’ve had two pretty much permanent flat tires. At first it was just the front tire that would go flat more and more frequently. But then, I think the back tire felt lonely, so it started going flat as well. It got so bad that thirty minutes after filling my tires with air they would go flat. Now obviously I know that this is a problem and I know exactly where the bike shop is, but there was this lack of motivation to do it. So I had completely resigned myself to a life of walking and I was doing pretty well with it.

But then on Saturday, I filled my tires to go to the grocery store, and while I was at it, I tightened the screws for the air valves as well. And lo and behold, I checked out my bike this morning, and both tires still had air in them! Miraculously, and quite accidentally, I managed to fix the problem with my tires! Who knew that it was such a simple problem? But that seems to be my M.O. when it comes to transportation. So, I fully enjoyed riding my bike to work today for the first time in ages!

And on a related note, whenever I told people about my flat tire problem, their first question was always, well, did you try putting air in the tire? Well, duh. Tell me something I don’t know. It’s not as though this is the first bike I’ve ever owned, and I did somehow manage to gain a college degree in my life. Of course if I had a flat tire, my first response would be to put air in it. Oh man, I just have to wonder how many times I ask such silly questions and think they’re completely legit. Please tell me when I do because I really want to stop doing it.

This morning I went to an ikebana exhibit in Sakae. For those who are wondering what ikebana is, it’s the Japanese art of flower arranging. A quick rundown is that it’s part of traditional Japanese culture that started with people arranging flowers for the temples. From there it’s evolved into a very intricate art form with rules to follow and different styles to arrange in. I’m interested in it, though I don’t know much about it, so my pastor’s wife gave me a free ticket to the exhibit.

So, I went and it was really beautiful, though I wish that I was better able to understand how ikebana works. But what I really enjoyed about the show was the viewing audience. Basically, there was me, the foreigner, maybe three men, none under the age of 35, and about 500 old women. There were snapping shots at every turn, examining each arrangement very carefully, and staying in these packed clumps that made it very hard to navigate around.

I also got to watch a 20 minute demonstration of a woman doing an arrangement, and that was pretty interesting…especially because there was English translation, so I got to hear and understand some of the history of ikebana. So, maybe someday in the future, I’ll start taking ikebana lessons. We’ll see. For now, enjoy some shots that I managed to take while avoiding all the old ladies.