The Littlest Popsicle

Hey guys! Well, I cant think of any amusing anecdotes, so I think I'll just put a bunch of pictures I took around town and include some captions and call it a day.

Look at this tasty looking posicle box. I bought it because I recognize the brand (Dole) and it has a whopping 16 bars inside! Little did I know...	They would be the tiniest popsicle bars I have ever encountered. I'm holding one next to my pinky for comparison. (WTF?!!)
Your typical crowded Tokyo train.	This is what I would do if I thought I could get away with it. ^_~
Heh heh, this bike is especially made for Sushi delivery! Someday I may own my own SushiBike. I mean, think of all the chicks I could impress! ^^	Some swallows made a nest on the lamp of a nearby restaurant. It's a crowded area, but no one bothers the baby birds, and the other day I saw one of them fly. They're so loud and so so cute!
Alright, so as Grandma Blue pointed out, Peter isn't my Grandfather in Law, he's my step-grandfather. But I actually met my grandfather in law this weekend, He's a very talented ink painter. He painted a fish for me and Takeshi, it's hanging in our apartment now.	And speaking of fish, Takeshi loves fishing. He has a ton of lures, and some of them have had the paint wear away after too much use. He asked me if I could repaint a couple of them. I looked at the paint in the fishing store, and it's enamel, and pretty expensive. Hm, enamel? I thought. 'Is it ok if I use nail polish?' He shurgged, sure, why not. So I bought the girliest nail polish I could find.. gold sparkles and glittery hearts! Heheh, I doubt any fish will go for it, but it's pretty amusing to look at.
Here's the sign to the kodokan. I finally found a closer dojo that's in Chofu city, and it's only 1000 yen per month ($10). But the Kodokan has its own street sign, check it out.. (you gotta love the little icon of the judo guy ^^)	And finally, here's the picture of the beer garden. I went to with Takeshi's coworkers a while back. Kanpai!

High summer

Heya. Sorry its been awhile since the last post, I have been... occupied.
By occupied I mean rolling around on the floor in pain, getting up to slather on Aloe Vera gel, and then roll around and groan some more.

Before you start to think odd things, let me explain... last weekend I went for a lovely day trip to the ocean! Takeshi and I and my friend Yu-san all left the apartment at an appalingly early 7:30 in the morning. On weekends Takeshi's motto is to leave as early as possible and enjoy the weekend to the full extent. Often he leaves to go wherever he's going at a time I and most people I know would consider night. ^^;

Anyways, last saturday the earliest he could convince us to get up was 7, accompanied by pokes to the side,loud music, and threats of being left behind. We could tell it was going to be a good beach day because it was already a breathtaking 90 degrees F. (35-ish C?)

By the time we arrived in an appropriately beachy area, it was only 9, prompting Yu-san and I to glare at Takeshi. But after breakfast at the famous Japanese restaurant named Denny's, we were ready to hit the water. It was really nice to swim in the waves. After about a half hour of splashing around and inhaling a good (or bad?) amount of sea-water, Yu-san convinced me to buy an intertube for easy floating. It was perfect, because the intertube was exactly 1000 yen (ten bucks) and that's exactly what I had in my board shorts pockets. Um, a very salty, wet 1000 yen, but the clerk didn't seem to mind. (that I know of... no punctures in the intertube yet! ^^)
After a bit more floating and making sand castles and playing frisbee, I thought I'd perform the great whitey tradition of trying to get a tan.

I was wearing a bikini for the first time. This is because Takeshi insisted that my black speedo (tm?) one-peice swimsuit looks exactly like a junior high school student's uniform swim-class suit. "Only girls with no fasion sense wear their junior high school swim suits, it's so embarrassing!" Takeshi said, shaking his head in shame. My pleas that obviously I didn't go to junior high school in Japan, and I didn't even buy that suit until I was a junior in high school fell on deaf ears. "But... it's a speedo! Its made for.. Speed! and it looks like an olympic medalists', isnt' it cool!?" I said, trying to make up for the fact that Takeshi apparently has more fashion sense than I. Again, no luck. I had to go get a new swim suit. So, the clothes store called UniQlo (very much like the Gap only cheaper) was having a super blowout sale, so I was able to get a cute bikini that FITS! for 500 yen. I'm embarrassed, it's too cheap. Who ever heard of getting a bikini for $5.

ANYWAYS, tangent!! So, I was bound and determined to get a tan that day. I had generously slathered sunscreen all over my face and shoulders before I arrived out of a sort of 'beach reflex.'(tm?) But my great 'beach relex' (tm) didn't extend to my back, belly, or legs, which after only about ten minutes of roasting in the sun, are completely horribly RED, flaking, peeling, and disgusting. Just call me Kyra the human snake. My belly is the worst, which thanks to my lack of fashion sense and my 'junior high school swim suit', has never seen the sun before and was about as white as a new china doll...Now it's as red as... a very red thing. Think crab.

If only I could fast forward three days, I would be pain free and very brown and sexy, I'm sure.... but now it's Friday night and Takeshi is insisting on leaving for the countryside to go hiking.
Yep, you guessed it, we're not even waiting until the sun is up. ^-^

---

Here are some amusing things that have kept me occupied...(for those of you who say you're bored at work and need things to read *coughViet*!)

• My friend Julia sent me this link. It's a blog of an English teacher living here in Japan, who is much funnier than me. ^-^ http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html
• My Grandpa-in-law Peter Rodman wrote a series of humor columns that spanned from the early eighties to the mid-nineties. If you've ever met Peter, you already know he's really funny. These articles give Dave Barry a run for his money. http://www.angelfire.com/ego/halfwit/hwcont.html

---

This is a cell phone ad for AU. The Star Wars fad is in full swing over here, since movies are a few months late to be released. I just thought this picture was too cute! (that's Darth Vader next to some school girls, sorry about the glare).

New comic up! ^^

Tanabata Matsuri

Hey guys! Thanks for all the congratulations! SO yeah, the wedding's definitely gonna be in Hawaii, probably next summer. Unfortunately we're poor and can't fly anyone out, so start saving up for plane tickets! ^-^ hee hee.

This last thursday (July 7th) was the official day of Tanabata. The legend of Tanabata is as follows: (pause while I google it ^^)
On the seventh of July (or the seventh of August depending on whether you use the lunar or the orthodox calendar), the two stars Altair and Vega, which are usually separated from each other by the milky way, are able to meet. The stars are supposed to be lovers, a poor fisherman and a princess, that are only able to see each other once a year. And if that isn't harsh enough, the legend continues... if it's cloudy or raining, the stars don't shine in the same sky and hence, are unable to meet. (I guess this legend was told before even primitive astronomy.) ^^;

This weekend there was a big festival in a small town of Hiratsuka, where there were many many people and small shops set up in the streets and streamers overhead and little games and lots of snacks to buy. Most of the girls wore yukatas (summertime kimonos).. I was one of them, and I didn't stand out at all. This is a pretty rare occasion when a foreigner can wear a yukata and get away with it, so I took full advantage of it. ^-^

Here are some pictures.. I went with stef and her fellow exchange students. I'm very sad because thay'll all be leaving me in less than a month :(

Stef and Marty and some of the big streamers overhead	Yukata!! (and me) ^-^
A normal festival game is fish catching, but this guy decided to get creative... it's turtle catching!!	This is the view of the place at night. Extremely well lit, and pretty. ..(and crowded and hot, but it was fun so oh well ^-~)

For more on the tanabata... go to Wikipedia! Everyone loves the wiki.
Now I shall make myself some dinner. tonkatsu perhaps?
Kyra
PS Harry Potter book 6!!! I must have it!!!

Married! ...but still a Weaver ^_^

*dah-DUM-DA-DUM, dah-DUM-DA-DUM!*
That, in case you couldn't tell, was "here comes the bride". Finally we managed to jump over, through and out of the red tape of paperwork (I had to go to the embassy, get some witnesses to sign our papers, get my foreigner registration card and all sorts of nonsense), but we're finally married!! (WEIRRRRD!!) ^_^ haha.
But after all of that, my name is still officially Kyra Weaver. I was kinda looking forward to being a Shinkai, but the city office said they don't have the authority to change a foreigner's name. Only when I become a citizen can THEY change my name. ...However, when the wedding ceremony occurs in Hawaii in a year or so, (DONT WORRY I'LL KEEP YOU ALL POSTED! jeez ^^) it will technically occur in the states, so will my name change THEN? and THEN what? hm, I'm not sure. Oh well. I like Weaver, I'm used to it. I just have to change my name back on my resume.

Here's a picture of Takeshi stamping the last paper with his seal.

In other news, I painted a lovely picture of a Subaru Impreza today:
(here's a preview):
here's the link to the big one and some more car paintings I did: CARS!

Latah!