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. ^-^

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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

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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! ^^