And I selected the Donald Duck milk tea.

So, Angel has been harassing me to make another blog update. Sorry it's taken so long~~ Nothing really interesting has happened, truth be told. But, here we go~

I guess, first thing I should point out is from about a week ago. David and I were meeting in Izumi after work, since I work there and he was near there that day, too. I was done work first, so I toddled to the local Bux for a drink and got a Chai Latte~ They make their cups sooo strangely in Japan. I was taught to mark them differently, so maybe times have changed? Anywho, I got my lovely Grande 5 pumps nonfat no water chai and it was glorious. Not as good as a Chai Eggnog Latte, but that will be for Christmastime at home~

While waiting, I ended up walking around the mall. There were already stores with Christmas displays! It made me so happy~~~ I found a store that had a Christmas Village type display. They looked like something from Canada. There were townsfolk decorating a tree infront of the city hall, a moose touching it's nose to a showman's carrot nose, and a group of people curling. Awesome.

We ended up getting dinner from a little restaurant across the hall from the Starbucks. They made amazing pizza. It was really good! We got one with tomato, basil and mozzarella and the other was onion, bacon and italian salami. Very tasty!

Also last week, David and I made plans to meetup in Sendai after work. I got there with about and hour to kill, so naturally I went to the Disneystore to kill some time. Their Halloween stuff was on sale, so I bought a bag of Halloween snacks. Curry or Barbeque flavoured cracker things. They're actually pretty good~

After exiting the Disneystore, I wandered around the arcade. And then I noticed that they were already putting up Christmas lights! Lets be honest here, people~ I'm a Christmas Geek. So, seeing Christmas lights in October actually excites me.

During my break recently at work, I ended up buying a new seasonal drink and snack from Family Mart. A cinnamon donut and a Kirin brand Chai Latte. Can't lie, I wasn't expecting much from that drink. But, it was surprisingly good! Will probably get it again~

On the subject of drinks, last Sunday David had a work Halloween thing he needed to do. It was basically a big show Halloween party thing that anyone in the mall could go to. He asked me to go, just in case no one wanted to participate in the Q&A portion and they needed someone who would. He bought me a drink for my troubles~ And I selected the Donald Duck milk tea. Hahaha. I like this brand. And now it has Donald Duck on it. Of course it was a good choice! David had to wear his costume for the event, and I thought he looked quite cute.

After the event, I wandered around for a bit and managed to find the cute Sailor Moon themed eyeliners that I had wanted to try~ They're really nice, actually! I've never tried liquid liner before, and I reeeeally like it. I got black liquid liner and a white pencil that had gold shimmer to it. They're both quite nice!

Recently, Sailor Moon keychains were available in gashapon machines. I managed to get almost all of the girls, except Mercury! I was kinda bummed, but I'm sure I'll find it somewhere! They keychains are reeeeally cute, actually! I'm using Sailor Moon as one of my keychains right now!

Oh, and in Preschool recently, we did a series of vegetable planting with the kids. We planted radishes which are supposed to grow up and be ready to eat by mid-late November. Real radishes~~~ I'm kinda excited. I hope I get to try one!

They are freaking adorable and amazing and awesome and lots of other words!

So, it's been a bit of a quiet week. We've got a lot of new kids in preschool, so that's keeping me on my toes. Although, the new kids are turning out really nice! One of my new kids' mum speakings English, so she often chats with me after class. She's really sweet~

In class a few days ago, one of my students gave me a Canada flag! He went to a festival thing I guess and he got it and thought of me! So thoughtful for a 3 year old, eh? :) And it was funny~ I stuck it in my hair, like how we wear them on Canada Day and another of my students, H, came up and said, "Ashley! No! T's!" And then gave it back to T. Hahaha. They had a bit of a discussion about what was going on, then H brought it back and stuck it back in my hair with a laugh. It was cute.

And~~ My new Sherlock figures arrived this week! They are freaking adorable and amazing and awesome and lots of other words! I got them from a seller in China, but I found out about them through tumblr. They're actually pretty well made~ And they're quite heavy and durable. Which is awesome. Sherlock came with a skull, which I have sitting next to his chair right now. Lovelovelove!

SOOOO COOL~~~!!!

Anywho, that's actually about it. Like I said, it's been a quiet week, really. Payday is on Thursday, though, so hopefully we can get our plane tickets bought later this month. Keep your fingers crossed! >__<! And maybe, I can still afford to go to Disney for Halloween... Nooot likely, though. Oh well~

Russian tea is really neat!

It's been an exciting couple of weeks. Good times all around. And I finally got my camera wire to work, so I could upload my photos. Hurray!

So, to start off, Azusa moved away. Azusa was the barista at my local Starbucks who would chat with me most often. She's from Niigata I think? But, she's a sweetie. She drew on my cup one last time before saying goodbye. I brought her a little gift and she cried! I didn't mean to make her cry, but she was really happy.

Also, the Star Trek movie finally came lout over here in late August. I'm a total fan. But then again, I just adore Benedict Cumberbatch, so I suppose everyone saw that coming. You don't wanna know how many times we've gone to see that movie. The theatre we go to got a bit of a face lift in their lobby area. It's not got a nifty Studio Ghibli mural along the wall!

Work has been going well~ One of my students lives on a farm and his mum is always bringing in goodies for us. They brought us in another watermelon recently! Chiga brought me over a plate and said every slice on it was for me! I was so happy~~~ And it was really tasty, too! The same family also went to Disney Land recently and brought us back some cute omiyage. Mickey crackers! Yum yum~

In preschool recently, we had a rainy day and couldn't go to the park. So, some of the kids were cutting up old book club pamphlets and taping them to paper. Kinda like a collage~ One of the girls asked if I wanted one, so I asked her to cut out the Harry Potter set for me. Then she proceeded to tell me to stick it on my forehead. She was so amused that by clean up time, I had one on each cheek and on both sides of my neck. Hahaha.

In my kindergarten class, the kids recently decided to show off their artistic abilities on our whiteboard. One of the girls thought it would be cute to draw Canadian flags. I totally agreed. And another one of the girls made me a zoo with stickers. I thought it was so sweet~

 I also had a bought of nostalgia at school recently~ Angel used to have a backpack of William, the blue Egyptian hippo. And William walked into class one afternoon! One of my students got him as a gift from his mum, I think.

I've taken to cross stitching at work on my breaks. I finally finished one of my samplers and now I'm starting another~ I'll post pictures of the new one when I finish.

Mika and I met up recently in Sendai for an afternoon of frilling about. We ended up meeting some girls at the station who wore lolita, too. We all grabbed lunch and hung out together. It was just a fun afternoon~

On the subject of frilling out, I went to my first real lolita tea party last Saturday. Oh man~ It was so much fun! I got to sit with Mika, thank god. There were about 30 people I think. We all had to fill out profile cards to give to each other. And then Hikari asked us to give introductions. Oh. No. Actually, mine went pretty well. I was able to say what I wanted in Japanese and Mika helped me to make sure it was all correct before they gave me the mic. No one laughed and everyone politely applauded, so I guess I didn't screw up. I was shaking like a frigging leaf, though! I ordered Russian tea with strawberry jam and the chocolate waffles. Russian tea is really neat! You take a bit on jam and put it on your tongue, then let the tea wash over it. Nifty! I won an apron in BINGO. Lucky~~~!! It was a really fun afternoon! Oh, and before anyone asks, I know that my makeup wasn't done! I had a clinic appointment before the party and when I packed up my stuff to change in Sendai, I forgot to pack my makeup kit! T___T

Oh, Kazue and I also went to the Build a Bear shop recently. They were closing. Kazue wanted to go to say goodbye, so I went along with her. They were having a massive sale, so I made a dragon for David. Named Glorthlok. He was pretty happy. Hahaha. They had the Bunny mascot out and about, so we got a picture with her~ She shook my hand and gave me a hug. Awwww. <3

Last Sunday my work had an event in the morning. It was a massive Hide and Go Seek event type thing. The teachers were all assigned a colour and 5~6 kids and our job was to help the kids hide from the Hunters who would come and catch them. Naturally, I had the pink team. My team was AWESOME! We didn't win, but we did pretty well! Two people caught, but we had a get out of jail free pinecone, so only one person stayed in jail. I had a pair of siblings on my team. They are hilarious. The younger one got caught, and big brother made a big dramatic display over it. As little brother was being led away he shouted, "Nooooo!" and sank to his knees all dramatically, then landed face first on the ground. It was hilarious. Hahaha. It was a full hour of running and hiding and constant movement around the park. Good times~~~

Right after the event, I had to boot it to Sendai Station. I had a ticket to see the Sailor Moon musical that evening, so I had to catch a shinkansen to Tokyo. I barely made it to my train, but I managed to get to the theatre with plenty of time to spare. The musical was AMAZING. It totally made my life. And my favourite Sailor Moon character made her musical debut in this one~ Queen Serenity. Sailor Moon's mum. I adore her. She was flawless in the musical, too, I might add. So perfect. I cried when I saw her. Amazing. Oh, and Gackt sent flowers to the musical cast. I thought it was kinda sweet~

I ended up staying with my friend Sara while I was down. I went straight to her place after the musical and we got pizza and watched Cupcake Wars. Good times. It was nice just to chillax and chat. I miss her so much~

 The next day, we got together with her friend Andrea, and we went off to Harajuku. Sara had actually never been down Takeshita Dori, so I took her. We did some window shopping and just ventured around. At one point, we popped into La Foret and I got to try on a Triple Fortune bonnet! Oh. My. God. They are so pretty! Like, ridiculously good quality and gorgeous. But, reeeeeeeally expensive. But still~ The shop lady let me try one on and it looked so pretty~! Maybe someday~~~ I saw a reallt cute Duffy bear, too. Someone had it dressed up like Aiba Masaki from Arashi! Too cute! Oh, and check out my amazing photo skillz. I totally snapped a photo of us on camera walking into Takeshita Dori. I totally didn't even notice till just now!

After that, we just kinda wandered around. We ended up at Shibuya park. It's a reeeeally nice park! And it was a really nice day, so everyone was out and about. I think mum would probably really like it. There were so many people out for runs. I really kinda wanted to join them, but it's be difficult to run in wedge heels and a long skirt. Maybe next time~

After that, we just went back to Sara's place to have lunch and watch a movie. We ended up watching Resident Evil. Oh boy~ But, anywho, after that it was time for me to boogie off and meet Mika and Melissa for our bus. We took a highway bus back to Sendai and it was a surprisingly quick trip! We got in about 20minutes early, even! Good times. I watched Sherlock on the trip home. It was pretty awesome.

And that about sums up the last little while~ I've been off this week, so I got back to work on Monday. Woo~~