D-D-D-Double Trouble!!!!

Boom! Here you thought you were only going to get one delightful post to read and savor, but being the kind, modern gentleman that I am, I am delivering double the delight!

 Continuing on. This was the cool looking wall at the Izakaya that we went to on the last night of orientation. It is a cool place. It is usually designed for people to drink copious amounts of alcohol. This methodology is great because it means that the food is cheaper. 

 Also, this is a drink called the Sakura Cherry Blossom something or other. It had glowing ice cubes in it. As you can see, that is Christina (my next door neighbor and new JET) in the background. 

 Gyoza. Delicious.

Yakisoba served on an iron skilled. Also delicious. 

 Ah...the delicacy of Yamanashi. Raw horse meat. Raw horse sushi. The sushi was good, but the meat itself was only ok. It was like greasy beef. Kind of like the difference between chicken and duck. Just greasy. 

 This was at an entirely different restaurant on a different day. It is food, so I thought it would fit. Katsu Curry. Think delicious chicken fried and breaded pork cutlet in Japanese curry sauce. Delicioso (notice that I said delicious in Spanish this time)

 Also in the food category, we got together and everyone made a dish to share. I made the Yakisoba on the left (wasn't my best effort). The middle is Okinomiyaki. Okinomiyaki is a Japanese pancake pizza thing with all sorts of crazy stuff inside. Actually it means favorite things fried in Japanese. It is served with a barbecue like sauce, mayo and fish flakes on top. The fish flakes move when you put them on top because of the heat and it makes it seem like it is moving. On the right is home made Houtou. 

On to the next occasion. Last weekend we had a big party up in our city with a bunch of people in the prefecture. We went to a legitimate Irish Pub located smack dab in the middle of Japan. I got some delicious fish and chips and mint milk. The mint milk tasted a lot like melted mint ice cream. 

 After the Pub, everyone came back and proceeded to get drunk and play Rock Band. I took my leave after a few renditions of good songs. Here you can see all the folk in not too much room.

More folks. Notice the guy in the hat because his birthday was yesterday, and we celebrated in style. 

There is really no easy way to do this...bugs. This is bugs part two. I want you to look at the size of that freaking mosquito that is feasting on the ear of corn in the middle of the photo. Giant. Huge. Mosquito.

 Here is the spider that tried to kill me outside my house a while back. His web was as big as the whole window and I had no choice but to burn him alive. I left just enough life in him so that he could warn any others. It was legitimately the size of a half-dollar.

 These don't look that terrifying, but I assure you. It is because my camera is terrible. These things are significantly bigger than the one outside my window. They are green and they are mean. They hang out in the roof over the train station I use (see used). I counted 8 of these little death-bringers in a 15 foot radius.

 I tried for over 5 minutes to find out what kind they were and got bored. 

 One of our lovely crickets that found its way into the house. Yuck.

 Now THIS is a big bug! As part of the orientation, we went to the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum. It was interesting, and kind of boring. It is less fun to go to museums when you can't read the displays.

 Big Japanese beetles on display.

 This is some armor that they found that dates back to about 1500 A.D.

 Since we didn't speak Japanese, they gave us these laser tag vests to wear that spoke into our ears about where we were in the place. It was interesting, but also mad you look silly. 

 Ah yes, the birthday party. We had a birthday party for James who is pictured above. He has been here for a few years so we wandered out to cheer his birth by going to a bowling alley out in the middle of nowhere. This picture doesn't adequately capture how terrifying the bowling alley looks from the outside. It feels like it belongs in Soviet Russia.

 They did have some wicked fly shoes that were in my size. They came with velcro straps and everything! Eat your heart out Marty McFly!

 A view of the alley

Private karaoke rooms up top because why would you have a bowling alley without karaoke rooms? 

That is pretty much it. Thanks for bearing with me. You may find yourself to be a little too excited by the sheer amounts of delight that you have just finished. So go ahead and take a few minutes to breathe.

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Better? Good.