Continued.......

Sorry for the hiatus, the packing and journey back to the states was grueling, but necessarily so i suppose. Nothing like seeing how much everyone hates their jobs in america! Or are just terrible at them. Enough griping though, hereeererereres the rest of the story!

So as soon as i reached the landing on the suspension bridge i passed out (from the high altitude), and proceeded to have a vision. Luckily chris had his fm radio ipod adapter on the street and was able to get this recording midway through my dream:
Mystery Vending Monstercat
I'll let all you dream analysts take a crack at it. I can't make much sense out of it.

It's Thursday the 24th. I will be at the shop starting today - for those who are still wanting to get appointments for march, i have a handful of days open so let's have at them!

Soooo... I think this blog will turn into a food and tattoos-i-do blog now, and occasionally a travel log when i do leave nola for those brief moments! Thanks to all you guys that've been checking this thing every so often. Hope it was at least partially entertaining haha. And stop by again soon, i should be updating this kind of regularly with stories of cheese, desserts and tattzoos!

Aya Castle

Guess what? It's in Aya town! Lots of photos. Let's start with some models! Awesome!!

Castle's in the upper left.

Here you can see the 'original' steps, or what's left, and the added ramp.

The lighter stones i'm assuming are repairs.

When you can't dress up in the samurai garb, put yourself in the reflection!

It's me.

It's chris!

It's mami!

noting the different approach with the corner.

slingshot KING of aya castle. Giving a demo.

we took turns flingin' acorns at the target down the path. 

Climbin'...

A suspension bridge?!

to be continue........

students and the cherry blossom would be.

Yesterday was hilarious. Chris took me to the school where he teaches english to assist in two of his afternoon classes. He said we would be working with this third graders... i misunderstood. I was thinking 'third graders', but chris teaches junior high third graders, which is like freshmen in high school hahaha. So the kids were way bigger than i had anticipated, but that was a good thing too.

It was kind of an 'interview the visitor' thing. After a brief intro by me the class broke into small groups and came up with questions to ask me. Kids who asked questions that had already been answered had to play pictionary. It was fun. At the end of one class i got a photo taken with them, but the photo is on my phone so that will have to wait until i get back!! Ohhhh the phone photos... what a treat they will be.

Today it's very nice out. Sunny, barely any cloud coverage. We took a few hilly roads just out of the town to a bordering mountain (near the waterfall), and made a hike up. The path to the mountain is famous for the time in a few months when the trees lining it bloom with cherry blossoms. There are so many cherry blossom trees! Everywhere! I can tell because they're all dead now. Or at least not blooming is what i mean. At the top of the mountain they hold a ceremony of sorts, and there's a few photos from temples up there. The view was awesome, though again it's winter so just imagine it in spring when there's colors! Anyway, enough writing. Enjoy!

in a few months this picture will be full of cherry blossoms!

uhhhh

mimata

13.2.2011
5:30p

I'm very excited to get to explore some of the japanese countryside. More so than playing in the city. It's really nice here, even with all the volcanic ash everywhere. The kirishima and sakurajima volcanoes have been erupting for a month or two and now i think there's a third that just joined in? So that's just trading snow for ash... Mimata city is in miyazaki prefecture, on the opposite end of japan as sapporo. It's pretty far south, so a bit warmer too.

Also, we drove to a waterfall today, not too far away, and went for a hike. The suspension bridge was closed for probably seasonal reasons, so we couldn't go on that. But there was a nice bridge crossing at some of the rocks and you could run onto the rocks if it pleased you. Glad it wasn't very cold. From a nearby cafe on a mountainside you could see one of the volcanoes hiccuping ash onto mimata.

Speaking of ash, that stupid bit of grit in my camera that's showing up on my photos is getting really annoying and i can't figure out where it is! Don't see it on the mirrors and can't find it on the lens... bah! anyway... here's these -

bike covered in ash

doghouse propped up by a rock, with friends gloves and mask in a garden situation

some of the ash swept up and bagged - 

the roads are littered with piles like this

volcanic eruptus

scrapple

11.2.2011
6:30p

Well the trip to sapporo winter festival is coming to an end. Tomorrow is the flight back to fukuoka where we will board a bus down to miyazaki prefecture. Flying in japan is soooo much more relaxed than the states. None of that bs security that doesn't really do anything. And they are waaaayyyy nicer and at ease. Like the old days of flying in the states. Planes are regular size of course, but they have a more conservative size regulation for carry-ons even though you could technically fit an american size suitcase.

I guess this post i will put a few of the scrap photos from sapporo, some that didn't really fit into categories and whatnot or i just forgot to include them. Also let's begin with two taken by chris -

that's me walking - photo by chris

photo chris

hairy crab!

spiked crab!