My Oven

To my lovely left, you shall find the oven I have been working with for the past year.

Yes, I said oven. It is also our microwave. It functions as both. Convenient, is it not? ^_^

It really is quite useful, despite its tiny size. Can't cook a turkey in it (unless it's a really tiny turkey), but it can cook at least 6 to 8 cookies at a time, and it works great as a microwave.

This pic shows a close-up of the control panel. Obviously, it's all in Japanese. Was kind of fun, at first, guessing which button was the one that I wanted. Got some interesting results... ^_^

The red one is "Start" and the one to its immediate left is "Stop/Cancel". The white button below the Cancel button is for the generic microwave setting. The one below that is for the oven. It even says "Oven" in Japanese, albeit with their accent - "ooben" (there is no "v" sound in the Japanese language).

China's Great Wall

Here's a shot of a part of China's Great Wall that I went to see (with no people in it! - a huge feat!) back in September. Awesome thing to see in the flesh. If you ever get the chance to see it, I'd highly recommend it. ^_^

Shopping Carts

Behold, your shopping cart.

Yep, it's a basket. That little thing shall serve all your needs in shopping around!

Well, okay, if you need something more (or if you're really not into lugging that thing around), they do have these nifty little carts where you can place the basket on. They even have an extra spot for another basket on the bottom, in case you need more room.

Pretty cool, ne? I thought so. ^_^

On the Fly

During last summer, I was driving down some random road and had to stop at a red light. Glancing to my left, I saw this incredibly odd house and just had to take a picture. Amazingly, it came out rather cool. ^_^

The house is surrounded by just a common flooded, rice field - which I hope they own - but the way the water looked and with the house having those high walls, I got the feel that this house was more like a miniature castle, tall and proud and lording over its little pond. ^_^

My Way Cool Car

Behold, my car. Yes, it's tiny. Yes, it's designed to fit only 1.5 people in it and that I look really funny when I drive it. But it's awesome! And I can barrel down the small streets of Japan without fear of hitting any electrical poles! Or, better yet, I can easily see on either side of the car ahead of me since I have plenty of room to move around in my lane! Plus, it's got great gas mileage.

It doesn't have any radio, though, and the AC makes the poor thing shake to death, but the heater works alright, and I've always been good at making songs up on the spot. ^_^

I should really get a picture with my bicycle up next to the car, so you can understand just exactly how small this thing is....


P.S. The little nose looking thing is the spare tire. That's the only place they could fit it! And the battery isn't in the front. It's above the left wheel. Took me a while to figure that out when I tried to jump start the car once. ^_^

Himeji Castle

Cool shot of Himeji Castle that I took. It's an awesome castle that is HUGE! Six floors, and the stairs are incredibly steep. Makes you wonder how in the world they were able to hurry around in that place.

I hope to be able to go back up there again and see the castle during the cherry blossom season. I hear the castle is gorgeous admist the background of pink petals.

Can't wait to go! ^_^

Okayama Castle

This is Okayama castle, commonly known as the Crow Castle because of its black walls. It's a really interesting castle and the inside houses a museum telling about the origin of the castle and why it was built. You also have a chance to get dressed up in the attire of that period and take pictures, which of course, I did. ^_^ (and which, of course, none of you shall see).

However, I did get this great shot of the Crow Castle with a crow flying across the pic. There were several crows around and so I had a friend help me to drive them toward the area where I was taking the picture. We had to do it several times until we finally got one. Whee. ^_^

This castle as you now see it is actually the rebuilt version of it. It was completely destroyed during World War II and when they decided to rebuild it, they decided to build it in another area. This pic here is of the original foundation, showing where the castle used to be and how it was arranged the first time.

This last pic is of a gold, fiery fish (I think they're supposed to be carp?) and a shot of the beautiful moat/river (it's an actual river, but also used as part of the moat for the castle) and gardens nearby. These fish are on all of the castles that I've seen so far. They're supposed to be a type of god that protects the castle from fire. And seeing that most of their castles are made of wood and often are burned down, it would explain why you see these fish everywhere on these castles.