Riding the Train

Found this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XjldEzC6RU&feature=related while looking for directions for the train. Very interesting, this is exactly what it looks like- but we TRY HARD to not ride at this time of the day or if we do to take the local train instead - it is the train that stops at every stop and takes a while but you can usually get a seat!

Land of the Rising Sun

I guess it is called that for a reason- The sun comes up at 4:30 in the morning. If you don't believe me look at weather.com and you can see the rainy weather for today and the time of sunrise/sunset. We have typhoon shutters on our windows- so in addition to curtains we just shut those at night. Picture soon!

Flowers and Pineapples

Found these cute pineapples at the flower shop. O.K. I guess you can't see the pienapples to good, I'll ahve to get another picture later. Have slowly been bringing home flowers that I find while out. I think there must be a cute little florist/garden shop on every street. Next thing to bring home- a bucket of grass- the kind for cats, it looks nice, so I thought I would make a cute centeriece from it for the table.

Trash Sorting

Pictures from the festival in Yokohoma. I thought the trash sorting was interesting, even the Japanese sometimes goofed it up.... it is a little confusing and you really have to read the pictures! Our house trash is done the same way but not in as many trash cans. We have 6 sorting system at our house. Burnable, Non-Burnable, Plastics and Packaging, Recyclables, Stuff for Thrift Store type re-use, recyclable paper (milk carton - wash, dry, cut open, paper- letters and such, magazines, paper boxes, newspapers) I have not figured out the paper recyclable yet- I think each type according to our booklet has to be separated and tied with a string) It is amazing- almost everything here is recycled- the picture shows how.

FREAKY Bug!

Not sure what I found in the house today but it sure was FREAKY!!!!!! The size was about that of a silver dollar (the whole bug) Just hope not to wake up to one of these. Now that I think about it, I had a hige bite on my ear last week and it swelled pretty big, maybe.........

Skinny Little Oven

This is a skinny little oven. Actually it is an American oven that is not so wide but it is deeper- My Pampered Chef large stone dishes seem to fit in it, so that is nice. We once had an oven that none of our dishes could fit in and we could not figure out so we never used it, only the top burners. This oven is in F. temp so that is nice too.

Koinobori

Koinobori! For Children's Day in May. A little late but thought they would be nice to show. These are HUGE Koinoboro decorations flying high above a river, I think there were thousands on display there. They are really pretty with all the bright and fun colors. Children's Day is part of a week long celebration in Japan known as Golden week.