Oh hey there rice~ What are you doing all over the floor?

So, I've been trying to remember to post a blog update for the past 3 days. Oops. My bad. Well, to start, David and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on December 4th. Wooo! I made us a really nice dinner of pasta, caesar salad and I bought some shortcake as a treat. It was lovely~ I wish David didn't have to work on our anniversary, though!

I bought David a new Gundam model for our anniversary. And he bought me some clothes. Including my new favourite sweater, ever. Say hello to the Oswald sweater~ Soooo comfy. (Oswald is an old Walt Disney character that Disney only just got the rights on. Walt created Oswald, but lost the rights because he didn't read the fine print in his contract with a company he worked for before he founded his own.)

So, aside from our anniversary, another big thing happened. There was a 7.3 earthquake near Sendai. And know what's funny? We didn't feel it. True story. We were out for a 'date'. We're getting into the habit of meeting up in Sendai after David's done work on Fridays and just going out. We went for dinner at an organic cafe and got tomato and mozzarella spaghetti. It was quite tasty. I made a point to make myself all pretty, since it was a date~

After dinner, we went for a walk to the Pageant of Starlight, which started that night. Sendai has done this for 26years, apparently. They put lights on the trees in Jozenji-dori street and it looks magical. Kinda reminded me of Lothlorien, in a non-Peter Jackson way. It was very pretty, but super duper crowded! Everyone was out and about to see the lights. As we walked, I saw a group of people from the Tohoku University singing the Twelve Days of Christmas, with hand actions, in English. It was great~ And there were some pretty shop displays in the arcade, too. The first 2 pictures are form the arcade, not the Pageant.

After we walked for a bit, we decided to go home. David was tired from work and I was feeling pretty zonked, too. We stopped in the Disney store to look around (and I didn't buy anything!) and then we popped into Lotteria for a quick pick me up. And wow. They had some amazing signage in there!

 Yes. Redneck bikers munching sliders look to the past for better riders. Rock then roll for big check paydays mountain rangers ten lane freeways. And other such classics~ It was ridiculous. And mildly hilarious. Now, I know what you're thinking. "But Ashley, how did you not feel that earthquake?" Well, the answer is simple: It hadn't happened yet already happened while we were walking. And when did it happen? While we were walking to the pageant. I actually just realized this as I was typing, hence why it's so far down the story. Oops. When we were waling across the street to re-enter the arcade, I heard lots of rattling and people started to run out from the shopping arcade. I also noticed that I kept walking into David, kinda like how when someone is drunk they'll walk into you. But, I wasn't drunk. Ahhhh~ now it all makes sense. Crazy. Anywho, we got to the station at about 6:45 and it was insanely crowded! Like, had to fight to get to the gates. Once we passed through and walked to our track, we noticed all the departure times were off. It was already about 7pm, but they all listed departure times for around 5:30. We thought we lucked out, since our train was there. We hopped on and waited. And waited. And waited. We waited for about 20 minutes before I started to feel dizzy. I needed to get off that train. There was no air and it was hot and just all around bad. So, we got off and started to go back up the stairs. Until I heard an announcement saying something about track 3, so we scrambled back to the train. This time we tried a different cart and found seats. And waited on the train for about 2 and a half hours. We finally left the station at about 8:30. And then, when we got to a station about 2 stops before us, we stopped again and waited for another 30 minutes. It was like 9:21 when we finally got off the train. Insane. We didn't know about the earthquake. We thought maybe a train crash or something. But, we finally figured it out when we got home and saw this.

Oh hey there rice~ What are you doing all over the floor? My friend Mel helpfully pointed out that the earthquake was quite polite in knocking over the paper towels, too. It was trying to help clean up, you see.

So, after that fun evening, it's been a bit quiet. I've been meeting David for lunch whenever he's teaching here in Natori and it's been getting colder outside. A few days ago, I met him for lunch and it started to rain/sleet on my walk home. And I, without an umbrella, just grinned and beared it. However, the wind was wicked and it shows. My hair is so fashionable thanks to the wind~

Oh, and we went and saw Skyfall a few nights ago! It was awesome! It was my first James Bond movie and I really enjoyed it! Gonna watch the other Daniel Craig Bond movies sometime soon~ Woo. We were the only gaijin in the theatre and there were about 8 of us in there. Skyfall had just been released when we saw it, and I think most people went to the Japanese dub showing. And you know what was funny? We had the WHOLE theatre and we all chose seats near each other! Then again, it's reserved seating at this theatre, but it was funny. We kept seeing ads for the Hobbit and Les Miserables. I'm so excited for both! And it was while we were out, that we found them. FROOT LOOPS! Er... Fruit Rings! The taste more like Crunchberry's, but hey~ They're still good!

Going out with some friends on Saturday~ They're coming up from Fukushima to see the Starlight. Hopefully no earthquakes this time!