November highlights...

Wow, almost December already? Jeebus.

This month has been dotted with many drunken karaoke nights, which is great (I think), cuz I love to sing and there's awesome (and surprising) song selection here. I never thought I would ever sing Rancid or Goldfinger for karaoke. Who cares that it's midi file style musical accompaniment  I got to sing Time Bomb (and NoFX's Bob, there's also quite a few Nine Inch Nails songs in there, too, depending on where you go) and 99 Red Balloons. I went out with my friend Minako, from the BOE office a couple of times. We went for dinner with friends of hers and then out with Sakura-san who works in the drop-in type center upstairs from us. Both nights were delicious and song-filled... I have discovered I am able to sing Peggy Lee's Fever without much difficulty, which is nice when I'm with a different crowd. I've gotta figger out at least one Japanese song to do... I have a feeling it with be the opening theme from either Evangelion or Escaflowne. The Evangelion one seems to be available in more places...

November 15 - 16th Was the Skills Development Conference, so I got to see the other ALTs in a formal setting... and then after hours in a much more fun setting. The talent show was awesome! If there's another one organized I'll have to get something together for it... I'm afraid I was uninspired and lazy for this one. This crew's got mad skillz. Found a record store on the way to Berry Berry where the party was being held, and it had an old man or woman... I can't remember or couldn't tell... snoozing in a chair at the back of the store. Some pretty cool selection of oldies, but the price tags were a bit much... I kept finding records that I'd gotten and given away for free priced at $20. Madness. Didn't find any of the ones that I was looking for, though...

November 17-18th Drove down to Odate in Akita to join in a fondue filled girls night with Mel! So much food, wine, karaoke, girly drinks, pancakes & bacon, a sprinkling of One Piece and an onsen visit. Nevermind the 6 hours of driving. I tried to avoid the toll roads on the way down because I had no idea how much they would be (I tried to figure that out before I left, but was unsuccessful...), so I took the highway through the mountains... and found my first path blocked, so I hadda detour for a bit and what should have been a 2.75 hour drive took 4 hours. But I made it, and that's what's important. Had a great time hanging out with Mel and meeting up with her fun friends, I look forward to the next one. It had started to snow on the way back, so I bit the bullet and took the toll roads back as I didn't want to be sliding around on switch backs, in the snow, with my summer tires. As much fun as it was to go slowly and carefully in the dark on the way down, I felt I would have a much better time of it in the summer during the day the next time I felt like being adventurous like that. It did give me a chance to listen to the Mighty Boosh radio show episodes on my iPhone, though.

It's not a karaoke party until someone buys a horse head mask... apparently...

Last weekend was a long weekend, with Friday being Japan's Labour day/Thanksgiving day. I hitched a ride with Chelsea and Christina to Takko to hang out with Dan and Joel (with whom I climbed Mt Fuji) and joined in with their non-traditional yakiniku thanksgiving dinner. Great to see the guys and Erica again, meet their sass mouthed friend Ben and meet a couple of nice Japanese gals, too. Best of all: beer and grilled meat. Dan brought along a bottle of booze with gold in it... You could taste the class in every sip. Haha.

After dinner, we hit up a snack bar before crashing at Joel's for the night... belted out quite a few tunes... it was great.

Saturday and Sunday were spent messing around in my kitchen. The results were damn great, if I do say so myself. Sunday evening was a JET thanksgiving dinner in Sannohe to which I brought garlic smashed potatoes (delightfully garlic-y), apple banana muffins and a loaf of banana bread. I think the other JETs dug 'em too, as I had minimal left overs to take back home. Again, wonderful to see everyone, I'm glad we get to hang out every now and then.

Random appreciation cake that I got a piece of this morning. :9

We finally got some snow in Shichinohe, it snowed all day yesterday, but when I got up today, there was only a few inches of it remaining. Not too shabby. I was expecting at least half a meter the way it was coming down. Hell, the sun is even out. That just means the sidewalks will be helluv slippy when I go to walk after work this evening. Ah well. It's not minus 30 or even minus 20 like it is back in Winnipeg, so I'm living easy so far.

Last week

Leaves on the ground, last Friday 

This morning.