Sometimes (but not as often as I used to), I get this feeling of, “Oh shit!  I am in Japan!!!” And I feel a little like I’m in prison. Yeah, I know I am VERY privileged and Japan is a wonderful country with lots of kind people and delicious food and I could really be in prison maybe even a North Korea prison but I’m not so I really should not be complaining. Nevertheless, I’m like, “Wait?  Wasn’t I supposed to live my life in America?  How did THIS happen?  I’m in Japan.  Omigosh.  Weird.” I supposed many immigrants feel like this.  Maybe not all, but a lot ..read more

Aeon Shopping Center. Omigosh…..SO CUTE!!!!! ADORABLE!!!!! SWEET!!!!!! I want to wear these clothes myself…They are so cute. Gah, so cute.  I always enjoyed dressing up my son when he was little.  Can’t do that anymore.  Darling Son isn’t the least bit interested in clothes. These are “character” clothes.  You can see Kitty and Minnie Mouse and Doraemon. More character clothes….Purikura on left. Kamen Ride on right. Don’t you wish you lived in Japan so you could scoop up these cute clothes? Or if you do live in Japan….don’t you love living in a country with such cut ..read more

I’ve got big saggy  thirty year old boobs*, and I need to dress them up pretty.  I have posted before about my brazziere woes.  Regular stores in Japan don’t have sizes large enough for me (I wear a D so not larger than typical American women my age.)  I have in the past resorted to buying my bras in America. There are stores online in Japan, of course, but I don’t really want to get my bra over the internet. So I tried Shimamura with success.   It’s an inexpensive store with clothes like you might find at Walmart.  But it does carry large sizes of cloth ..read more

I’m here, but I seem to have run out of space with this blogging site. (Thus the missing photos in the previous posts.) So I am wondering in my head what to do about this…. Also, I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. I enjoy it, but now that I am not doing it, I am enjoying that, too. I’d like to get back into it, but I will definitely wait a bit first. When I get back, I won’t do the “every day” thing. I started that because I read a book in which the person blogged every day. I did enjoy doing it every day, but of course it is hard to keep up that pace. And I feel like if I do it every day ..read more

What’s inside? Yumminess! What’s inside? Scrumptiousness! Well, another year has come and gone.  I can’t believe it.  2016…DON’T LEAVE MEEEEEE!!!!!! (Wiping a tear from my eye) I am going to take a break for the holidays.  Holidays in Japan means Christmas, but it actually mostly means New Year’s Day.  I don’t know when I will be back….. Happy Holidays ..read more

Today’s book is originally a Japanese book, and it is called, “Mushi o  Taberu Kusa.” Mushi=Bug Taberu=Eat Kusa=Grass Isn’t it awesome?  I am so fascinated with these sorts of plants.  The venus flytrap is the most famous, but there are others.   Anyway, this book is great. I bought a venus flytrap in college.  It died!  I even fed it flies……..  Oh well ..read more

Yep, that’s me!   Ready to board the bullet train and head for Fukushima. (The straw hat and luggage were provided by the station for photos………) My “ekiben” on the way home.   Yes, it was expensive! Enjoying my train ride.   Reading and thinking of writing……… I really enjoyed Yamagata City and seeing old friends there.  I probably won’t go back for a while….but who knows?  The possibilities are endless ..read more

After lunch, we went to a shopping area and walked to a building called the Bunsyoukan.  It used to hold the offices of the Yamagata Prefectural government.  It is exactly one hundred years old this year (2016).  Woo hoo! Inside the Bunshyoukan were exhibits and a coffe shop.  Very interesting! My husband had told me “Go to Yamadera.”  However, that’s located out of the main city area, so we couldn’t go there.  “Well then,” he said, “Go to Nanokamachi.” That’s this little shopping area.  He had told me that there was an extremely famous sweets shop…but I fo ..read more

My motive in spending the day in Yamagata City was to get together with my gal pals of the Association of the Foreign Wives of Japanese.  So we had lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Igatta.  My husband and my Japanese teachers said, “Yamagata City is famous for soba!  You should eat soba noodles!”  Uh……no.   I had the ladies lunch…. I chose this spagetti because it was unique.  Chicken and burdock.  Delicious! A genteel lunch suitable for a lady ..read more

Okay, now I going out of the back of the Kajo Building. Walking to nearby Kajo Park. You can see it there on the map. Approaching Kajo Park…. Off to my left… And behind me, we see Kajo Building… I found the park lovely.  I realize that it’s probably the least prettiest season.  No leaves or flowers or even snow.  However, the weather was nice for walking.  Chilly, but not terribly cold.  No wind.  Mostly blue sky. In the summer (and late spring and early fall), Japan is just too uncomfortably hot and humid for enjoyable sightseeing. Came upon this treausur ..read more