Falling cherry blossoms make every thought seem more profound. Even the mundane ones.
A few weeks ago was the prime Hanami (flower viewing) season for cherry blossoms. Andrea took some great pictures that you can check out below
Until next time, Stay Awesome!
-R
I’m pretty sure Obachans are the inspiration for Boo ghosts in the Mario Games. Continue reading
*Gaikokujin = Foreigner
*Sugoi = Cool
Konnichiwa!
Often times when walking down the street, kids will casually practice their English with me. Usually it’s very simple sentences like “What is your name?” or “How are you?”. If you’re lucky, the kids will know how to respond if you ask a question back, but the main thing is to keep them encouraged to try out speaking English since, as they get older, kids usually shy away from random street interactions.
From my experience, the Top Ten English Phrases in Japan For Elementary Students:
No joke on the Pikotaro line… kids say this every day.
Until next time,
STAY AWESOME!
If you’re familiar with Japan or Japanese culture, cat cafes are nothing new. But I’m glad to say(and Andrea is glad to hear) that they even exist here in Tottori. With Andrea’s love of the feline kind, I know that we would eventually visit the cafe. And so we did!
All cafes will be unique to their areas, but in most of them you’ll find a wide open room Continue reading
For my birthday, we went to a araoke parlor, and in case you didn’t already know, karaoke in Japan is a pretty big deal. That’s because it’s a very FUN deal!
Kon’nichiwa!
It’s been a while, so I thought I’d let you know what Nihon no Bunka (Japanese Culture) things we’re up to:
Martial Art I’m Practing: Kendo.
When the Meiji Era begin, the Samurai class was re-arranged and with it, the Samurai art of swordsmanship and martial arts.
Aikido is hand-to-hand combat, but nearly all moves are based on swordsmanship. Kendo is known as Japanese Fencing, and focuses on the swordplay aspect using the bamboo sword, the shinai.
My brief history hardly does any justice to both of these martial arts, but you can find out more about Kendo, The Way of The Sword, here: http://kendo.com/
Until next time, Stay Awesome!
-R
Kon’nichiwa!
We had a round 2 of heavy snowfall in Tottori, that may have been worse than the first, but this time people were prepared. And we did what any Floridian would have done in that situation… stayed home.
Continue reading
It gets windy in town, what with winter fronts moving through the mountains.
And yes, my umbrella was only 50 yen (about 47 cents US), and I did get it from the second hand store, but it is a very nice umbrella. It just no longer “umbrells” very well.
Until next time,
-R
I haven’t lived in a place with constant snow fall for years, and Andrea never has. That said, besides the de-centralized heating, we’re handling it pretty well.
And Andrea got to build her first snowman!
Until next time, Stay Warm! And Awesome!
-R
Greetings and Konnichiwa from Tottori!
Sorry for the long break between posts, but we just got back from Tokyo. I’ll be making several posts about different aspects of the trip, so be sure to check back in a few days for updates. As for the comic, if you are unfamiliar with Japanese culture, allow me to explain.
There are no Turkeys in Japan. So back in the 70’s when tourists and US Soldiers were looking for Christmas dinner and there was no turkey to be found, they opted for the next best thing: Chicken.
Kentucky Fried Chicken then seized this opportunity and made a huge campaign pushing the idea that an authentic American Christmas dinner, is a bucket of KFC chicken. Many other stores have also embraced this, so you’ll see special holiday chicken buckets on sale everywhere.
While in Tokyo, there may be many KFC’s, in smaller towns and prefectures, you sometimes have to order your bucket 2 months in advance via an in-store order form.
My wife and I decided to skip the KFC lines, and just had some chicken from the local SunMart.
Greasiest chicken I’ve ever had.
Until next time, STAY AWESOME!
-R
Tottori Awesome 