Get Amped Up!

Back in June I posted about orange flavored Coke, and how Japan loves taking American products and producing dozens of wild different flavors. I found this, which isn't a flavor, but they took Pepsi and doubled the caffeine amount. Gotta get through those 6 day work weeks somehow!

Strange Things

So, in Japan there are many things that seem odd or scary or hilarious. You just never know what you may see or run into, and even after living here 9 months, you keep an open mind and understand that it's Japan - anything goes!

Vehicles that have loud speakers are very common here. They often cruise around town, blaring special announcements (sort of a mobile community bulletin board if you will), or political propaganda. Even the garbage trucks play music on a loud speaker as they slowly make their way through your neighborhood and across town.

This one vehicle has us stumped as to what it is, and honestly a little freaked out. It's freaky because of the music it plays. It drives very slowly down our street, often stopping in certain places for a few minutes. It comes around every Sunday evening at 7pm like clock work. I heard it coming tonight, and quickly grabbed the camera and ran to the kitchen window. I was able to record the entire song. The video is purely for the audio - I just shoved the camera up to the window and it's night, so there isn't a lot to see, but I think that makes it even scarier. We did some research, and the music they are playing is from a song called Requiem from an anime movie called Naushica of the Valley of the Wind. However the only lyrics are within the first 25 seconds of the music, and I don't think they are "lyrics," I think it's some kind of announcement or message. After the message, we are then left with nearly 4 minutes of eerie, beautiful, soul-haunting music. Toward the end of the video, the vehicle starts driving away, so the music gets softer, and the message starts again. We currently have no idea what they are saying, but we have a Japanese friend we are going to ask. When we find out any additional information, I'll be sure to post it here! In the meantime, enjoy this video of what we get to listen to every Sunday night:

                                                    Eerie Music in Our Neighborhood

Christmas Decorating!

It's that time of year again! The second best time of the year (aside from Halloween)! We LOVE decorating for the holidays. Last year after Christmas, we had gotten rid of our big tree because it was super old and starting to fall apart, and plus we didn't know if it would even fit in our next home (it definitely would not have even come close!!). I went to the 100yen store and got a 2ft tree for our little home. It is strong enough to hold the strand of lights we already had, so now we can enjoy the glow of our tree every evening! I love that! I had several ornaments that fit it, but most were too large for the little tree. I hated the thought of our ornaments sitting in a box not being used, so I hung them on the walls throughout the house! I think it looks pretty cute and it makes the entire house look festive.

Also, there is no way to hang flags here, not even the small garden flags, because everything is concrete. So, I took my two small Christmas flags and hung them on the wall! We couldn't do lights outside either because our house does not have any electrical outlets outside at all. But that's ok. I decorated our mailbox with some ribbon and ornaments. I think it all turned out pretty well and we can't wait to have our moms here later this month!

Friends-giving

We had a get together today with friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was such a great time! Lots of great food, a wonderful walk on the beach, and great people. After enjoying appetizers, we combed the beach for treasures (I collected a bunch of rocks - I think I'm going to start a rock collection from places I've lived) then headed back for grub and drinks. I made broccoli casserole and Oreo cheesecake bars. They went over big and we barely had any to bring home! We had so much fun, and are wore out. Time to sleep in tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Surprise!

We had quite the treat on Thanksgiving! It snowed!! Our area of Japan almost never sees snow, so this was amazing! We stayed inside and sipped hot cocoa and thought about our friends and family back home. Here is a video I took out our front door:

                                                           Thanksgiving Snow!

Adorable Bear Ramekin

Japanese bakeries never fail to impress. We went to one near our house tonight and got this! It's a cute chocolate dog face in a ceramic bear ramekin that you get to keep! How awesome!

Ding Dong Ditch?

So something a little odd happened this morning. We were sitting downstairs on the couch, just enjoying the morning, and we hear the doorbell ring. I glance out the window and I see a little old Japanese lady walking away. We go to the front door but she is long gone. We look around, check the inside of the mailbox, thinking maybe she dropped something off. There wasn't anything anywhere. No idea what that was about. Oh well!