Kristen, this is for you.

I haven't blogged recently because I couldn't find my camera cord, which is pretty lame because now that I've downloaded pictures there really weren't very many. So, this is what we've been up to.

We went grocery shopping at our local grocery store, Life, and stocked up on fruits, vegetables, rice, and ramen. We had to forego the watermelon, even though I REALLY, wanted it. I just couldn't bring myself to justify 1,980 yen, or $20 for one melon! I'm sure it'll taste just as good in July or August when we're back in the states.

The grocery stores here are really different from what I'm used to. I'm pretty good at shopping, it's a skill, and I haven't needed to use any of my limited Japanese to find things for the most part. I even found ketchup (Heinz!) and syrup! They were hidden in a specialty aisle along with taco shells. There are products I recognize and if we stick to fresh stuff it's not too complicated. I still can't bring myself to eat a lot meat and certainly not cook it myself. This place really doesn't help. It is all just so unappetizing. Don't worry Kevin's not starving, he eats all he wants of the stuff I can't handle at school and we're eating plenty of nuts and other things. Aside from the main staples we're surviving on anything else we buy is trial and error. We have no idea what some stuff is or what it tastes like til we take it home and most of the processed stuff just tastes like salt. Everything is so salty, they even have salt flavored Ramen. I'm rambling, but about the picture above. These little guys were just sitting out in the aisle (all of which are super narrow). 

There are some fillets of fish but a whole lot of skin appears to be popular and the store is about half, dedicated to fish. I was going to take more pictures of some of the stranger things we saw, but I forgot. Some of the weirdest stuff is what people wear. English is really popular on clothes, but for the most part people have no idea what the words mean or say. For example, In big bold letters on the back of one woman's shirt were the words "Heroin is good" We checked the front and it said New experience. Really wish I'd gotten a picture of that. 

On Saturday I was not in the mood to do much of anything and pretty worn down from the week. I can't remember the last time Kevin and I got to get out of the apartment together without Alexander in tow. Dates are necessary for sanity as a parent. Kevin's friend Jaime (pronounced high may) is here in Japan studying as well. They had class together at CWU and Jaime has a lot of childcare experience since his mom runs a daycare. Kevin called and set it up and we escaped for a few hours Saturday night. It... was... AWESOME. We rode our bikes to Aeon mall, walked around, actually went into stores and looked at things, sat down to a nice meal in a restaurant and ate uninterrupted. I love my baby, and it didn't take long before I missed him but I am greatly appreciative that I had the chance to miss him. 

We had Shabu Shabu for dinner which is pretty much fondue with broth and vegetables. My broth was sukiyaki flavored which was delicious and Kevin's was something spicy but yummy as well. It was also tabe-hodai which means eat your fill, or all you can eat. We did. After that we went to the arcade in the mall and played some Taiko drummer. We didn't get to play much and had to wait because there were some intense little girls all over that game. Gaming is apparently a serious business, they were like 5. We also did a photo booth which was really funny. The pictures made our eyes big, not like goofy big, but the kind of big Japanese girls try to achieve. It also made our skin glowy and the pictures, supposed to be glamour shots, are kinda creepy. After you take the pictures you get to photoshop and add stickers and words. 

This was Monday. We went to go look for a pack N play for Lex and though we finally found one it was super cheap looking and priced at 8,000 yen ($80). It was pretty funny though trying to explain that we wanted a portable crib. Kevin resorted to pantomime, they showed us some strollers and then we finally found it ourselves, and realized they are called Pack N plays. 

Don't mind the man passing, I Just like that Lex is looking at the camera. Though he's not thrilled about the leash he does like to walk around and we like him to get the exercise. He's getting better at holding our hands and following when we need him to. 

It's rained for the past three days and is finally sunny again and beautiful. I actually enjoyed the rain. 

My birthday is next week and Kevin is planning a trip to Osaka for it since it's also Golden week and he has school off. HURRAY! That means, if it's warm enough we'll go to the beach! I just checked the weather though and it's probably going to rain which means we might go to Nara, the place to feed the deer cookies, or somewhere else. Either way I'll have a more fun update and plenty of pics. 

Hope everyone is happy and well back home!