Oasis Pics: September 2006

flattery will get you everywhere

one of my best english speaking students made this one in her free time. i feel sorry for derek's new friend. :)

fall bike ride

i took off from my house and rode towards the school. then i headed west. this is from the shinto shrine to the west from my school.

this is a buddhist temple. it's one of the 88temples.

moooo. it's so sad here. the livestock have no space to roam. they just stay in the pins. i'm used to a large expanse where the cows can move around.

a little path on the side of the temple grounds.

i perfer this kind of buddha to the fat one. this one (amida perhaps?) looks enlightened as opposed to jolly.

this scary fellow had coins thrown at him, probably to pacify him. many throwers were lucky to get their coins into the space around his neck.

i don't know what this means, but it scares me!

this torii was at the buddhist shrine. the torii is shinto, so another good example of the blending of the two religions in japan.

and here is the red flower of fall. their popping up everywhere!

takoyaki party

ok, the thing with the red band on the bottom, is an electric skillet with half-circle molds in it (18 to be exact) you pour in the batter, drop in the octopus (tako), then pile cabbage on top. then as it cooks you flip the balls over and shove the cabbage into it. when it's brown enough and still gooy in the middle, you pull them out, cover them in: sauce, seaweed powder, fish flakes (remember the saw dust from when i first got here?), and mayo. very tasty! oh, and this is my living room (someday soon i'll take actual pics of my apt.)

who says the japanese have no sense of humor?

ok, please click on this to enlarge it. i had the third year classes split into pairs this week and they filled out their own comic strip in english. i borrowed this comic from penny-arcade.com which is an awesome site that i highly recommend. anyway, this gem came from two boys, i had been walking around the room checking the students' progress, and i only ever saw these boys' comic up to the second box. then everyone started reading theirs to the class. and when we got to this beauty the boys didn't want to read it out loud because they knew that it was impolite. the teacher and i went over and read it and i burst out laughing. after the class i came back to the room and asked to borrow it so that i could show you all. ;)

odds and ends

ok, i kept forgetting to post the pics from that koto concert two weekends ago, so here!

komonos are so pretty!

I'm begging for help here! japanese shampoo doesn't clean my hair very well. asain hair is generally very thick, and it needs some natural oil in it to look healthy. my hair is fine (though i have a lot of it) and feels gross if i can't get all the oil out of it. i bought the japanese pantene and it only half cleans my hair. grr. i even tried rinsing and repeating and it's still not completely clean. if anyone sees one of these bottles (red or purple) could you please send it to me? i'd be eternally grateful as would my hair!! :)

that tiny little thing that the vice principal is pushing is a lawn mower. i heard it when i was in the teacher's office and looked outside then started laughing. i tried to imagine people in america mowing their lawns with such a little mower. lol.

speech contest and disasters

went to the home center, and there was this cute little frog hanging out on this potted plant.

wind tunnel.

our lovely judges from the speech contest. they obviously made the right dicision.

here's chiemi winning her award.

the disaster tour lady had a crazy uniform on, the japanese love crazy uniforms in every situation.

the earthquake simulator.

better put out that cg kitchen fire!

kitten updates

velcro's gotten a good bit bigger since the last time i saw him. mia sent me these, which was most excellent of her.

an old pic, as a size comparision from when we got him.

what a pretty young man!

so inquisitive...

and cute!

an eventful weekend in the area

this is a broken dragon at the shinto shrine.

here's the shrine's torii

this is a scarecrow along the way to the train station.

here are the dochu sand pillars. apparently, this is the only formation of its kind in the world.

this is on the path that travels down the side of the pillar, you can see how much the ground's erroded since they put these steps here.

this is a picture of a snake, click on the pic to see it larger. he's climbing up to go hide. he's dark grey, but yellow under his head, so look for the yellow spot up with the leaves then see his body hanging down from there. he was probably about a meter long.

the sand pillars from on top.

also from on top. there wasn't even a railing up there!!

very pretty day today, but warm. japan is reminding me that summer isn't quite over yet.

third times the charm!

all of us (minus the principal) at the end of the party.

uichi, the second year teacher and i.

ahh king kong. i had seen this the night i danced at awa odori, but hadn't seen it since.

part two

this is the back of a green cream soda can called bubble man II. this diagram clearly shows how a rocket is made. there's the rocket flash at the top, the captain pliot, and holding him up is the assistant. the assistant is a vital part of this machine since there doesn't seem to be any food or fuel.