Oct. 15th

Melissa: Yesterday I went to a market with my neighbor Fumi to buy some fresh fruits and veggies, and in the back where the seafood was they had packs of fish for only a buck fifty!!! Thats right, about 10 fishes for only 150 Yen, which is around $1.50-1.75. Now, I normally don't eat fish, I'm not a seafood lover, but Braden loves it, so I decided I better buy him some since it was such a great deal (I guess that's normal in a town right next to huge lake that's apparently full of fish). The only problem was, these fish were fresh and whole, and I had no idea how to prepare them. So Fumi offered to teach me. After we finished shopping I stopped by Fumi's apartment where she taught me how to gut and clean fish and boil them for a yummy meal. So afterwards I went upstairs and gut a fish for the FIRST time in my life! Man was it GROSS!!!! I almost puked a couple times at the sight of all the fish blood. Man, I didn't even know fish had that much blood o_0. It was really awkward the first time, I really don't like to cut into things that still have a face 0_0', but I managed, and I got better at it as I went along. Now I'm sure there are some of you out there who have done this before tons of times, but for me it was unusual, so I thought it was noteworthy, lol.

Last night Braden and I got to participate in Karate for the first time since coming here. It was great!! We worked a ton on our technique, did pushups, and worked up a real sweat! This morning when I woke up I was all sore (its been a whole month since the last time we did Karate, we're getting out of shape!), but it felt great! Some of the techniques we have to relearn in a slightly different way though. Down blocks, for instance, are done differently. In our karate dojo in Ellensburg, which was a member of the IKO Matsushima (The one here is IKO Matsui) we started down blocks by putting both fists up by our heads and then bringing one down into the block while the other went into chamber (which means it went into the prep position for a punch, with your fist closed and up next to your rib cage). Here in IKO Matsui we start a down block with one fist by our head and the other blocking the groin area, then the one by the head goes down into the block and the other goes into chamber. We're both still getting used to it. When the sensei tells us to do a down block I immediately want to put both fists up by my head, then the sensei has to come over and correct me :P. But I'll get used to it eventually. Then, when we return to our dojo in Ellensburg, we'll have to relearn the downblocks yet again! lol.

So some of you out there already know that I'm a fan of movies by Studio Ghibli, especially the ones written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Well, here in Japan is a paradise for fans of Ghibli movies! In the mall I found a store that had a whole Ghibli section, with tons of awesome Ghibli merchandise, CD's, Books, Movies, etc etc, and man, I just wanted to buy the whole section!! Too bad I'm not a millionaire :P. There are a couple things I really want though, like the complete set of Nausicaa graphic novels and a Totoro doll. I'll have to save up for it :). What Braden and I did end up buying from the Ghibli section this week was an awesome CD of Ghibli songs done by a Ska band called Ska Flavor. It's an awesome CD! The latest Ghibli Movies, "The Borrower Arrietty" just came out here in Japan a couple of months ago. I can't wait for the DVD release, I really wanna see it!