My wake up call today was provided by yet another earthquake. It was small and quick, but woke me off the couch. Quite a nice way to wake up, if I do say so myself. Much more gentle than my alarm blaring in my ear.

Yes, I slept on the couch. Sometimes, my futon bed is just too hard to be tolerated. I feel like I never get a good night sleep here; I'm always tired. The couch is too short and a little narrow, but still more comfortable than the floor. I had the fan smack in my face too. Normally, when I overheat while sleeping, I either have nightmares or just weird dreams. With no air conditioning, you can imagine the state of my dreams. Maybe that is why I don't get enough sleep.

Enough whinning (yes, I can read your mind!), let me tell you about my weekend. On Friday, Taylor and I went to a nearby festival, called Neputa Matsuri. I wore my new yukata, quite pleased with my new ability to put it on (I probably haven't been this happy about dressing myself since I was 5). I thought I would get strange looks for wearing it, but I think I actually felt a little respect wafted my way. I could have imagined it.

(click on any of the pictures to see bigger versions)

The festival was very very crowded and fun. There were these HUGE drums being pulled/motored down a street that was entirely blocked off for the festival. I couldn't say for sure what the drums where made out of but it was likely paper. Each were hand painted in great detail, mostly depicting warriors.

There were also drums, big drums, being motored/pulled along, usually several in a row, with people sitting on top of them, beating the drums in unison. It was very loud and had a nice feel to it. I made a recording of the sound on my camera. Once I have gotten it put together, I will post it here so you can hear it!


There was lots of food places set up along both sides of the road. It was sometimes difficult and sometimes not to figure out what the item was. One man was cooking octopus legs on a stick! I took a picture, but refrained from purchasing. Too chewy. I did try octopus balls though (see picture on right) and discovered that those were not to my taste either. Taylor and Chingyi both say they like them but... the fish taste is just too overwhelming for me!

I had a crepe for dinner. They had examples showing and I saw what I wanted but I wasn't sure what they called it. I politely asked the women in front of me what the item was called and they were kind enough, without prompting, to order it for me.

Unfortunately, we have missed most of the festivals for this year. I look foward to going to others next year.

On Sunday, I did more cooking. I was actually able to make some fish that tasted good! I made teriyaki salmon using a recipe for swordfish. Finding fish in the supermarket is so difficult! I cannot figure out what anything is other than salmon and tuna. Salmon I don't really want and tuna is too expensive. In the end, I just bought the cheapest thing I could identify, which happened to be salmon (sigh). Hopefully I can get someone to help me.

In addition, I attempted to make peanut butter cookies in my tiny convection oven.

I know what you're thinking: "Hey Lindsay, where's mine?" Don't they look delicious, all nice and BLACK like that. Yeah... if I'm not careful, my time in Japan is going to have a serious effect on confidence in cooking!! Despite the fact that the cookies were black, they were actually so undercooked that I couldn't pick them up. They are cute though, yes? Bunny rabbits, horses and bears, oh my! I think I need to find recipes specific to convection ovens...

Last night I cooked another recipe (squash and pork) in my new frying pan. What a difference! It doesn't spew oil at me like a viper! I think this recipe worked out as well, actually, but I haven't tried it yet. It went straight from the frying pan into the fridge for lunches. It didn't look anything like the picture in the cookbook though... I think those pictures are fake...

I am suspicious.

cookie Baer