Japanniversary

Happy One year anniversary to me!  Last year on this very date (October 29th), I arrived in the land of the rising sun.  I can't believe how the time has flown.  I was exhausted, both emotionally and physically, but I still remember my first meal: a steaming hot bowl of ramen!

First dinner in Tokyo- from the ramen shop in Motohasunuma

Tonight's meal will be just as memorable.  We are blessed to have two more visitors with us!  I'm looking forward to joining them shortly for a delicious dinner of shabu-shabu.  After dinner, we'll probably take some sticker pictures, drink some sake at our favorite tiny bar, and maybe sing some karaoke.  Are you jealous?  You should be!

I Love Engrish

I just can't help myself.  Everywhere I go, I stumble across some really amazing uses of the English language.  No one does it like the Japanese.  Enjoy!

T-shirt spotted while waiting in line for food at a summer festival: "I was hearing the voice, drinking the last coffee today.  I regard great music as and sleeping."

"American Kilts" for sale at a thrift store. 

Renewal

In Japan, a lot of English words have weird meanings.  For example, everyone lives in a 'mansion'.  The first time a student told me he had a mansion in Tokyo, I was taken aback.  I knew I he was a high-level businessman, but who actually flat out says they have a mansion?  Then I learned that mansion actually means apartment in Japanese English.  Man, I love correcting people with that one now! 
In the same way, the world 'renewal' is usually used in the context of a store that has just undergone some renovation.  After a store opens again, the signs all say Renewal Open.  It's almost the correct usage, but not quite.  Well yesterday, I had a renewal of my own.  I went to the immigration office to get my visa renewed.  It was going to expire at the end of this month.  Look what they gave me:

My new visa- a three year extension!

Fear not!  I have no intentions of staying here another three years.  But the three year visa doesn't cost any more than the one year visa, so I was told just to go for it.  So I did.  And I got it.  If anyone had asked me a year ago if I'd renew my visa for three years, I'd have told them they were crazy.  And yet here I am.  Well I guess it doesn't hurt- right?

Summer Nights- Festivals

This is the last in my series of summer entries.  There are many other things to talk about, but we put the duvet in the duvet cover, and I'm wearing sweatpants in the house.  So I think it's time to put this topic to bed.
I've saved the best for last.  Festivals are probably the coolest part about summer in Tokyo.  It seemed like there was a different festival every week.  Each neighborhood had their own, and sometimes each ethnic group had their own too.  We enjoyed a Thai festival, a food festival, a dancing festival, a fireworks festival, a festival featuring a giant duck, one with lots of paper mache characters, and one across the street from our home.

Turning summer melons into works of art at the Thai Festival in Ueno Park