Nov. 28th

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know its a bit late, but I decided to say it anyway :P. Braden and I didn't do much to celebrate it. I tried looking in the local grocery store for traditional Thanksgiving food but didn't have much luck. No Turkey, no cranberry sauce, so canned yams, or canned pumpkin for pie. And since I don't have an oven I can't cook most of those things anyway :P. We did get to eat some pumpkin pie this weekend though :). We visited an american friend in Izumo and he had just gone to Costco a day or too before, and one of things he got was real american pumpkin pie. So we ate some. Yum!!!! I wish Braden and I had our own car so we could go to Costco. Its a few hours away. It would be hard to just take a train over and carry all the food back. Maybe the next time Ed goes to Costco we can hitch a ride :). We had a really fun weekend. Not only did we eat pumpkin pie, we also sang karaoke with some of Ed's friends, played video games, watched anime, ate real Indian curry, and all in all just had a great time. Japanese Karoake is AWESOME. You can rent a room for just you and your friends, they have a huge catalog of music, you can adjust the volume and lights, and sing to your heart's content! You can even order food and drinks and have it brought to your room. The place we were at had tons of english songs in their catalog, so I was able to sing a ton (I even tried to sing a few Japanese ones but the words went by too fast and my rhythm was always off :P), and I got to hear some really fun Japanese songs that I'd never heard before. We sang till about 2 in the morning, hehe. The next day we just hung out playing an RPG called Tales of Graces that hasn't been released in the US yet, and watching funny internet videos. Oh, and we watched some cool anime, including a really good movie called "Beyond the Clouds". For dinner on Saturday we went to an Indian restaurant called Curry King. I got this really delicious curry that had a tomato and butter base, and it was served with a huge piece of tradional Indian flat bread. I ordered the mild, but even so, it was still kinda spicy! That's real curry for ya! Ed had the level 4 curry, which is the highest they list on the menu (but they'll make it even hotter if you want!). I tried some of Ed's and, yeah, it was pretty spicy :P. Braden and I definitely wanna eat there again some time :). The cooks were all Indian (of course) and their kitchen was open and we could see into it while they cooked. The main waiter, who was also Indian, spoke English (which didn't surprise me), but it was cool for me, cause I could totally order in english :). Anywho, all in all it was a delicious and fun weekend. Oh, and Ed had also bought a huge jar of Jelly Bellies at Costco, which Braden and I pretty much gorged ourselves on. Lol, I miss american candy ;P. I guess before I end this I oughta mention where the photos are from. I took them at the Adachi Art museum. My beginner's Japanese class went there for a field trip. They have a huge, beautiful, Japanese style garden. The route you take in the museum (the museum had a really nice layout) takes you in and out of various rooms and patios. The rooms have artwork that you can look at and the patios give you various view of the garden at different angles. It was really pretty :). If any of you ever visit west Japan you should check it out. Foreigners even get a discount ;).