It was terrifying as always~

So, I found a really weird thing this week. I stopped by a vending machine on the way home to grab a coffee and I spotted it. HOT Ginger ale. Canada Dry ginger ale, even. I wasn't brave enough to try it, though~

Ai-sensei brought in tea for all of us to try at work this week. It was a chamomile and orange peel blend. It was really nice~ Sadly, it did make me kinda sleepy which was bad, because I still had 2 classes to teach. Hahaha. I'm re-reading the Hunger Games trilogy on my kobo. The movies won't come out in Japan, but I'm hoping to go see Catching Fire when I go home. The Capitol.PN website was issuing free ID cards again for the movie, so I got the updated card. Being from District 1 is pretty sweet~ Did I ever mention that I'm apparently a goldsmith? Awesome.

On Monday, I ended up meeting David after work. I popped into Starbucks to wait for him and decided to give the red cocoa cake a try. It wasn't bad, but I was kinda disappointed. I was hoping it'd be like a red velvet cake, but alas, it wasn't so. My hazelnut cocoa was nice, though.

On Tuesday, one of my students brought us in cookies! We're talking with my grade 3 students about jobs and what they want to be when they grow up. She wasn't sure what she wanted, but she mentioned that she likes baking the week before. So, Midori and I had joked that she should bring in cookies for the class. And this week she totally did! She brought in lightly sweetened shortbread cookies for us! It was so sweet~ They were very nice, too!

And on Wednesday, two of my kinder girls were drawing pictures on the blackboard. One girl drew a picture of Princess Peach on the right and the other drew pictures of herself and her pet on the left. I thought they were cute~

On Friday, David and I both had half days. We're both working on our anniversary and we also both had weekend plans, so we decided to go out on a date. I wanted to try the Afternoon Tea tearoom, so David took me out for lunch! I ended up with the smoked chicken, potato and broccoli pasta with Afternoon Tea blend tea and David (who ate lunch while he was waiting or me to get out of work) ended up with a cute tea set. It was sooo good~ I probably won't get the same tea next time. It was rather weak, but the food was amazing!

After lunch, we walked around for a bit. We popped into the Pokemon Center and David bought me a cute little Vulpix bag charm. Vulpix is still my favourite Pokemon, but you almost never see things with it in the store, so I always get excited when I do.

And then, we wandered back home for the evening. It was a nice little date~ <3

And yesterday, I went out with Mika and Kazue to Bennyland! Sadly, there was a disinct lack of Benedict Cumberbatches, but it was still fun! It's a locally owned amusement park here in Sendai. It has kinda a shaggy, run down, haunted vibe going for it, but it's safe.

We started by doing the cute Jet Coaster, which was a kids train type thing. It was so bumpy! Hahaha. It was kinda hilarious. A little disconcerting, but still fun.

After that, we wandered over to the not-so-monorail type ride. We each got to pick a car thing and drive around the park on a track. Or rather, we hit the gas or brakes and the car moved along the track. No steering wheel. It was kinda cute and gave a really nice view of the park. I guess in the spring, when the sakura are out, it's quite pretty.

We all did the Pirat ship ride. Yes, Pirat. No 'e'. It was terrifying as always~ The free fall and momentum and whatnot was scary like always. But, still fun. We screamed our heads off, though. The people behind us kept laughing at us.

Now, there were 2 big coasters. The Cyclone, which was a normal coaster and the Corkscrew. Kazue flat out refused to do either, but I wanted to do the non-upsidedown one. So, Mika took one for the team and went on it with me. The attendant came over and advised us to remove our glasses, so we got to go on it blind. What a great idea~! ...Not. We sat in the middle and again, we screamed our heads off. Hahaha. I was gonna take a photo from the top, but I was took scared. As soon as we were buckled in, Mika and I started to get scared. I made a joke about getting out, and then the car began to move. Hahahaha. It wasn't overly big, but everything is bigger when you're partially blind. It was only like 45seconds long, but it was fun. We were shaking like leaves afterwards and laughing at ourselves.

We didn't stay all day~ It's kinda like those carnivals that come through at home where you buy tickets and go on rides that way. It's easy to spend a lot of money there, but we didn't wanna spend loads of money, so we planned what to do before buying our tickets. Kazue wanted to do one more thing before we left, which was the space car up and down-y ride things. It was fun~

After Bennyland, we ended up going to the Hub British Pub for dinner. They're brand new to Sendai and it we wanted to check them out. I ended up with bite sized fish and chips and a Bailey's ice cream drink. All drinks were 1/2 off because of their grand opening, which was pretty cool. Less than 1,000yen for dinner. Awesome.

Which brings us to today which was a bit of a lazy day for me. I did some laundry and I'm just kinda chilling and watching Christmas specials on youtube. Hahaha. Hopefully this week will be more interesting~

Yep~ Free cotton candy!

Ahhh~ Summer vacation! Woo hoo! Work was crazy busy last week with it being the last week before vacation, but now I'm all happy and well rested. So, time to blog.

So, during my last week at work we said a fond farewell to July and welcomed in August. I miss July's month tag already~ Which means, we have new songs. This months song selection makes me giggle something fierce. Shark Attack! I also was asked to attempt to draw sea creatures in an attempt to get attention for our art project that day. THAT went well. (PS. The 2 humans are my students Haruki and Yuan who informed me that they do indeed live under the sea.)

I went through a major Disney fan mood last week. I ended up doing some shopping at the Disney Store and finally joined their point club thing. Ended up with a new water bottle for work, face towel and a nice beach towel. Among other random stuff like tea and whatnots. Can't wait for Disney next week!

We took photos at work last week for a postcard they send out during the summer. It's a 'Have a nice vacation' type postcard thing and this year they wanted us to all wear a Monsters Inc. helmet and pose. Needless to say, I volunteered to go first~

Last weekend I was quite busy! I had a playdate with Mika on Saturday and then on Sunday I hung out with the girls. There was a matsuri in Natori on Saturday, and we originally planned to go, so I dressed up in yukata. We met in Sendai and went to Glass Forest first, though~ I had some lolita things that I don't use anymore that I wanted to sell, so off we went. The lady who runs that store is so sweet. After that, we decided to grab some lunch, so off to Saizeria we went! I got spaghetti and made sure to not get any on my yukata!

We decided that for dessert we wanted to go to the fancy tart place. I finally got to try the Yamanashi-ken plum tart! And it was amazing~ *____* Sooo yummy!

I also interviewed Mika about her moving cat ears~

As we passed back through the station, I saw the big Disney display in one of the travel agencies. And I couldn't help myself~ I wanted a picture. Hahaha.

It was Mika's birthday that day, so we went back to Natori with the intention of doing fireworks, but we ended up just going out for dinner. Hahaha. We met up with Melissa, Bobby and Kazue at the station to decide on a plan. We decided just to walk over to Big Boy and have dinner and chill~ Which was nice. I got the karaage basket and some mozza sticks. Both of which were pretty lack luster, but I got drink bar and shared my food, so it's all good. I just filled myself up with melon soda instead.

The next day, we all met up again in Sendai with the intention of going to the fancy tart place to celebrate Mika's birthday. But, slight problem. There was a pretty intense earthquake that afternoon right before meeting time. I was actually waiting for my train at the station when it hit and it was pretty freaky. The platform is about 3 stories up and it's an open platform, if that helps give a mental image. The whole building swayed and the lights above were jittering and it was just intense. There was me and this older guy up there and he was just checking his phone and holding onto the rail all calm like. And there I was, clinging onto the signpost for dear life. I don't usually get scared by earthquakes, but that was pretty freaky. Oh well~ No damage and no one was hurt. I texted David right after and he said that he was ok, but 2 of his Gundams fell down. Oh dear.

So, trains were running late because of this. When I got to the station, Bobby and Kazue were there, but Melissa and Mika were going to be late. So, to pass the time we wandered over to BiVi for free cotton candy. Yep~ Free cotton candy! I was pretty excited, can't lie. XD

Good times~ We wandered about munch our treat and then we got a text saying Mika and Melissa were on their way. So, we all met up at the stained glass window and off we went for cake! I ended up getting the same tart again, but it's so yummy! And only available for the summer, so better appreciate it while I can! The patio area is really nice at this place~ There's a sweet little pond and it's nicely shaded and lovely.

After that, we wandered over to Animate so I could pick up the first volume of the Sherlock manga. Oh yeah~ BBC Sherlock got a manga adaptation. It's amazing. *___* So, we got there and asked one of the shop staff to help us find it. I was pretty stoked when I was able to open it and look at the art. Can't wait to learn more Japanese so I can read it.

We all wandered off home at that point, so I picked up a snack from the bakery at Aeon on my way. It's a star shaped pastry for Tanabata! I might add, Sendai celebrates Tanabata 1 month later than the rest of Japan.

On Tuesday I had a date with Belinda! Eeeeeee! I hadn't seen her since our last visit to British Hills, so I was really happy to see her! She was here on a business trip, but we got together Tuesday morning before she had to head back to the mountain. Tanabata started that morning, so we went for a wander around the arcade to look at all the decorations. Sendai hosts one of the biggest celebrations in Japan, so they really go all out!

And wanna know something interesting? ALL of those decorations are made by hand. Can you imagine how long it would take to make just one of them? Holy hell. o___o Anywho~ Belinda and I grabbed lunch and just chatted for like 3 hours. It was really nice just to sit and catch up!

And finally yesterday, I went out with my friend Beckie. She hadn't seen the Tanabata stuff yet, so we wandered through and then grabbed a snack. I ended up with a caramel chocolate frappe thing and a peach chocolate croissant. Yummmmm~ After wandering about, we hopped to Maruzen so she could pick up some stationary. I wandered over to the magazines and promptly made a shopping list of all the issues I need to pick up. Benedict Cumberbatch sure is popular over here right now~