How about some Japan pics from the weekend, eh?

I had a pretty sweet, fantastically random weekend because I said YES! to any social opportunity that came my way. Liz Lemon. Zing!

After a long loooooooong week, in which I tried to explain debate and writing to 560 (adorable) Japanese students and had no voice by the end of it, the weekend commenced with the strange-yet-wonderful combination of yoga, hamburgers, and bowling.

Chotto matte kudasai. (A moment please.) I highly suggest getting Zenned, getting blissed out on burgers, and then getting thee to a bowling alley near YOU. Jedi younglings, this formula is a force field on a Friday night. We bowled two games, and in complete Sarah fashion, there were drastic ups and downs. I lost the first game by rolling gutter ball after gutter ball, but won the second game with strike after strike. SO.IT.GOES.

Saturday was declared a BAKING day with some other teachers in my city. We made chocolate chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and what my New Zealand friend Rachel calls `Ginger Slice,` which is something like a ginger cake meets fudge combination, while lounging on the floor (Japanese apartments=so small) and reading snippets from an English Cosmopolitan out loud.

After consuming about a cup of sugar each in baked goods, a group of us spontaneously decided that we had enough energy to take a train to Kanazawa and walk around Kenroku-en garden at night because thatswhatyoudoonasugarhighinjapan. You take night trains to nearby cities and walk around life-size bonsai gardens all lit up at night. Duh. I think the pictures capture the beauty of the night best of all.

Sunday, I made the last minute decision to go sightseeing up in the Noto Peninsula, the remote area of land north of Toyama-ken that juts out into the Sea of Japan and is famous for onsens, nature, and pumpkin. I have always wanted to see this place and worry about solo train travel in the rural areas with my less-than-stellar Japanese (I have not really studied since December. Shame on me.), so when my fabulous friend invited me for a day of nonstop eating, drinking, shopping, picture-taking, and onsening, I was like IKIMASHOU! Let`s go!

I saw PINE flavored gelato, and was so confused that I asked, WHAT FLAVOR COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE? He said pineapple. And, muggles, this is my brain in Japan. I took that to mean PINE apple. Two words, like this ‘pine’ apple was a rare kind of jewel of a Japanese apple, akin to the revered Honey Crisp back in the States, that I had never heard of yet. As a lover of all things apple, how could that be?! So I leaned in, widened my eyes in a tell-me-more fashion, and asked, ‘Oh, what is the pine apple?’ He just stared.

That`s okay though. I got to stand here and clear my mind.

And now it`s back to the daily grind. I am a wee bit tired, but hoping to GO TO BED EARLY EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK. Hope you all had good weekends, friends! Any Superbowl stories? Was Beyonce LIVE?