Recently I found the most adorable figurine at the local Lawson’s convenience store. It’s a series of figures that mix cute Kewpie dolls with popular animation characters. This one is a combination with various giant robot series from the seventies.
Of course I couldn’t resist this pinnacle of cuteness and coolness so I had to buy one. This is the one I got.
His head also bobbles for added cuteness effect!
This Saturday was sports day at the local elementary school. It also happens to be the school where my nieces attend, so I went to see them compete. The day consists of various running, relay, and some strange events. Like four children running carrying a long stick and going in circles around pylons with it. After that they return to the line and all of the children in line have to jump over the stick. Yes this does sound potentially dangerous, and yes several kids were tripped or knocked down by the big stick. You can see a short video of it below. At the end of the day the scores were revealed and the red team won.
This incredibly hopeless looking place is the Driver’s bureau in Sendai. Last Friday I went there to get my Japanese driver’s license. This process which should have been quick and easy, (due to me not having to take any test) was in fact a two and a half hour experience in waiting. Not in line ups mind you, all of the windows were closed. I’ve learned that anything to do with the government here leads to lots and lots of waiting and not a lot of doing. All these years I had thought the Canadian government was bad, well everyone who works for the Canadian government, feel better because you’re a lot better than your counterparts over here. I’m just glad I never have to go to that office ever again!
One of the cool things about Kakuda is that most of the stuff for the Japanese space program is made here, including rockets. One of the ways they show how proud of it they are is the really cool manhole covers all over town.
In Japan you can always see funny misspellings of English words. Some of them are so far off it’s amazing. One of these is just down the block from me.
This bakery has a fine selection of baked goods and such. It also has some drinks like a nice cold glass of…
Also while I was in Sendai this week I also saw a professionally printed sign for the recent passed mother’s day proclaiming “Happy Mather’s Day” at a chain store. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera to document this bit of genius. I could pretty much just do a blog on just this kinda stuff if I wanted, it’s so common
Filed under Funny, Japan, Misspelling
Recently the government decided to raise the gas prices in Japan by a whopping 30 yen (roughly 30 cents Canadian). This happened over night and it was announced the day before, which led to a lot of chaos as so many people lined up to get gas. You can see in the photo above that regular gas is 158 yen per liter ($1.58 Canadian). The higher price is diesel gas. Thank god the Wagon R is really good on gas!
Yes even airplanes can be cute in Japan. I spotted this on our way to China at Sendai airport. And yes, Hello Kitty is everywhere here.
Later in our trip we went to one of the oldest parts of Shanghai. There wasn’t many tourists here, mostly just Chinese people.
There was a lot of really old and beautiful buildings here. Many shops and restaurants.
We went during lunch time so it was quite packed with people. they had lots of different things to eat like dumplings,soups, and lots of kinds of meat, including all of the gross parts like pigs noses and pigeons on a stick.
There was a nice picturesque river running through the area too.
The only bad part was quite a few places had a dish called stinky tofu. Which is basically rotten tofu that smells like very vile garbage. I wanted to take a picture of it to show people, but the smell was so bad that I didn’t want to get too close to it!
Filed under China
As you may or may not know, we just recently went on a trip to Shanghai in China. Shanghai is a very fascinating place. It’s super busy all of the time. People always seem in a hurry. They also drive like maniacs. I’ve never seen driving like this. Every time we took a taxi (which was a lot because it’s super cheap) I felt like i was in a scene from an action movie. It’s also very smoggy there too. The first couple days my lungs hurt a little bit. Above is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
This restaurant is one of the most famous places in Shanghai. They make delicious dumplings that are filled with soup and meat. You have to be careful when you eat them because they are super hot inside and they also have a tendency to spray burning hot soup out if you bite into them wrong.
In the area near the restaurant there is a lot of places to buy Chinese things, mostly souvenirs. There was a lot of tourists in this area. Chinese people constantly came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy a bag, shoes, wallet or watch. They would have a picture of Rolex watches and Vuitton bags. All of these were bootleg.
Tomorrow is part two so come back again.
Filed under China
I’ve found you can learn a lot about a country by what they have at McDonald’s. Every different country has their own special things. One example is on my recent trip to China the had spicy schezuan chicken burgers. In Japan they also have their own special stuff, such as the new “Cheese Katsu (Fried Pork Cutlet) Burger” (which I have tried and yes it is delicious).
Other favourites in Japan are the “McTeriyaki Burger” and the “Fried Shrimp Burger”, also very delicious!
I'm originally from Canada, but now live in Japan. I like games, strange things, and trying new foods. I hope you enjoy reading my semi-interesting posts and pictures.
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In Sendai 