It's that time again

True Blood time that is! Season 3 just started and I just watched the first episode. Boots is away right now and he very kindly bought me season 2 before he left, which I hadn't seen yet. I had True Blood marathons and fed my school girl crush on Eric by rewinding and re watching scenes with him in it. I loved season 2 and season 3 is off to a great start. I'm not sure who I have to thank for getting me into the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I ripped through those 9 books super fast, they felt like such an indulgence, a guilty pleasure and were when I would spend days at a time just reading reading reading. I recently heard that book 10 is out, but I haven't ordered it yet. I read all the Twilight books, went though withdrawal when I was done, but then I found the Sookie series and then my sister let me borrow the first 3 Ann Rice Vampire Chronicles because she wanted me to read a "real" vampire book. I'm all about it.

I love to read, which is wonderful because I hated it as a kid and my mom used to have to bribe me to read. I love going to the library, which is where I get most of my books. I hardly ever buy them. Most of the books I do own were given to me and were either given to a friend or were put into storage before our move here because of the weight restriction, but three books that are by my bed at all times (no, they aren't vampire books) are: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, suggested to me by my sister who was on her way to Rome. I've read this book so many times to laugh, feel uplifted, and brave. Another is The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. My best friend gave it to me on my birthday 4 years ago, wrote in the inside cover and marked her favorite parts throughout the book making it one of my treasures. It is coffee stained, worn, and well read. It means something different to me every time I read it. And The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Gibran's book was my Mom's, she got it on her birthday in 1967, and she gave it to me right before I left for Japan and it has traveled with me everywhere ever since. I love the frayed and worn book cover and yellowing pages almost as much as the words on them. It is small enough to tuck inside my purse and just knowing that it is there close to my heart makes me feel closer to my family, safe and calm. I like having it there to always bring me back to center, to remind me of the importance of family, love and kindness. My dad read "On Marriage" from this book at our wedding ceremony and my Mom put a little dried rose between the "On Love" pages years ago.

I love having 3 books on stand by that I know I can count on, but I'm always looking for book suggestions, so let me know what your favorite is!

And... because I can't resist. Team Eric or team Bill? Team Edward or team Jacob? HA! Love it.

Little work of art

Today my friends and I went and tried a new nail salon called Dulce off of 58 outside of the Foster gate. We are celebrating a friends birthday this weekend (you can check out her blog here). She had us over for a fantastic Shrimp Boil and birthday cake last night. This morning we went over to Dulce and relaxed in the massage chairs while we deliberated over endless nail design books. I got a manicure this time and enjoyed the paraffin treatment and arm massage. I like how they turned out, but nail polish never lasts very long on my hands, so we'll see how long it lasts.



After being pampered we had lunch at one of my favorite bagel places I already told you about in this post. The sun even came out for a bit and gave us a little break from all the rain (it's still rainy season). Wishing Jess a very happy birthday!!

Playing in the Rain

This past weekend we didn't let the rainy weather stop us from having a lot of fun up at Okuma. We met our friends up there and spent the day kayaking, jet skiing and checking out some tourist spots up north.

We rented clear bottom kayaks, and our friends got a double. The water was murky from the rain and so the clear bottoms ended up not being as cool as they could have been. The water was also kinda rough from the wind and weather, so we were told to stay in one area. Still very fun!

This is one of the most ridiculous videos ever. It was my first time on a jet ski and my husband did not hold back. I was pretty scared going so fast! So, I'm being a big baby in the video. He totally threw me off. The video is the wrong direction, has my finger in it, but you get to see me wipe out and give me a break, it was really hard to try and take video and hold on! I think it's pretty funny.

After we finished playing in the water we grabbed a couple beers and a bite to eat at a bar and restaurant called Bar 1080. It had a lot of character, mostly on the weird side. Food was good though. We got tacos and pizzas.

We were hoping to do a waterfall hike that's near Okuma, but when we got there it was already closed. So we settled on going for pineapple ice cream at the nearby Pineapple Park. I had been hearing about how awesome this ice cream is and I was excited to finally get some. It was delish and lived up to it's reputation. We walked around a bit and did a pineapple wine tasting. Next door was Tropical Kingdom, but it was already closed too, so we'll have to come back for that one.

I saw this at the Pineapple Park store. Pigs head anyone? Even with the sunglasses... ewww. I'll pass, thanks.

Sights and Sounds of Osaka

As I mentioned here, we went to mainland for Memorial weekend and stayed in Osaka and we were very exited to explore this city. We started off the day with almond and caramel coffee and sandwiches at a cafe down the street from our hotel. As we ate we flipped through our guide books and made a general plan for the day. We agreed we'd start by seeing the Osaka-jo Castle.

Osaka-jo is impressive in itself, but it is also surrounded by impressive grounds that are now a large park area. Walking around the grounds you can see the massive stone walls, moats and gates that have escaped being destroyed all this time.

We were in the process of walking up to the castle when we heard these unsettling loud screams, banging and yelling coming a building along the path. We went over to investigate and saw the building packed with spectators watching people in long black robes and full head/face getups wielding sticks. We watched from the door for a minute, but I decided to slip my shoes off and go inside for a closer look. Check it out:

The castle's history begins in 1496 and has a dramatic past. The castle itself has been rebuild from the many wars and fires and now stands as the symbol of Osaka and is a museum that vividly tells the history of the era, the castle, and the people who lived there through paintings and artifacts on 7 floors of the castle. The 8th floor is an Observation Deck where you can look out over Osaka from the castle.

After the tour we took a break in the park area and saw a Japanese man riding his bike with a cat in the basket wearing and interesting getup. I was excited when he decided to rest on a park bench near us so I could snap this shot. This cat was wearing a shirt, a strange wig/hat and a leash. It was surrounded by pigeons and just sat there. The man then decided to take the cat for a walk and the cat went along on the leash through the park. It was so strange and funny, you just had to laugh.

We then headed off for Umeda. Umeda = shopping. I was overwhelmed by the massive malls, huge department stores and escalators that just kept going up and up. We had lunch at a fabulous Italian/Japanese restaurant on the top floor of the Hanshin Building and it was delish.

We had to check out the famous Sky Building. This two tower building is 173 meters high and the top floors of the 2 towers are joined a the top. We took and escalator up, an elevator ride up and then took another long escalator ride up across from one building to the other. The top floor has some really beautiful, fancy restaurants. For 700 yen you can go up to the roof to the Floating Garden Observatory for a panoramic view of Osaka.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for an evening out on the town. We started out with drinks at our hotel before taking the subway to Namba. Our guide book told us that Namba is the place to go for nightlife and great food, and it sure was.

When we got off the metro we found ourselves in a huge, fancy mall with every high end brand name I could think of.

We weren't in the mood for shopping, we were looking for something in particular and it wasn't at the mall. We found it easily enough, it was Dotonbori Street. Both of us agree that this neon street full of colorful people, vendors and restaurants selling delicious food was one of our favorites, if not the most favorite part of our whole trip. We stopped into an Irish Pub for a drink before dinner (where I took the "Irish-cow-bomb" picture) and just loved this underground bar that transported you to another continent and country.

We continued on down Dotonbori and had to try a famous Egg Tart from a little street vendor. The street had so much going on, I was just constantly looking around and taking it all in.

We went into a little tempura restaurant for some dinner where we split a dinner set. Fried shrimp and pork with rice, salad and miso soup went along perfectly with a cold beer. The best part of dinner was the company. We met Keith and Amy who are traveling the world for a year. Check out the blog of this incredibly nice and interesting couple here.

We walked all the way down Dotonbori street and then wandered back up again going down little side streets and exploring.

We ended the night on Cafe Street where we had glasses of wine in an Australian bar called True Blue. The both of us did not really enjoy our wine, both of us didn't get what we ordered, but we had a nice time in the relaxing atmosphere.

We called it a night and headed back to our hotel. We flew back to Okinawa the afternoon of the next day. We had a leisurely breakfast near our hotel and watched from our outside cafe table all the people in their business suits bustle down the sidewalk and streets and zoom by on bikes. I didn't want to leave this progressive city alive with energy and vitality. We had a wonderful trip and I hope you enjoyed hearing about it!