humid & happy

There's always something going on here in Tsuchiura. I want to share more of my life on here, but whenever I finally get a chance to write, it's so hard to pick the highlights. Every day, something noteworthy goes on. I can't even explain how lucky I am. Katie visited me a few weeks ago so I'll be posting pictures from her visit very soon. It's hot and humid here. This is not entirely surprising given that the country is an island. I must still mention that it is indeed humid here. My calendar has curled off the wall on both sides. I can't decide whether that is impressive enough to take a picture of, but for now I'm going to say that, no, it's not, relatively speaking.

Since I've been in Tsuchiura, the train station has been just a train station. But last week, the station mall, which I didn't even really know existed before, re-opened right inside and by the train station. It is marvelous. There are lots of stores inside including clothing stores (with some clothes that fit my big American self!), an Excelsior Cafe (a real coffee shop!!), a bakery, and an international food store. Not to mention the cute "perch" icon written everywhere and the cute birds perching on the perches all over the perch shopping center. It's all new and makes the once quiet (and still quite quiet) Tsuchiura seem like a happenin' place. I love Tsuchiura, happenin' or not, but I do enjoy having options and places to go on my lunch break at work.

These are two of my good friends-Maiko and Nao. Maiko is my brilliant anesthesiologist friend who ran the 10 mile race with me, and Nao is brilliant teacher friend I work with and hang out with all the time. My everyday hang-out buddy, if you will. I've lost count of how many times we've done karaoke all night.  This is the town singer. I can't remember his name, but he's everywhere. He plays at restaurants and festivals and at least once a week at the train station. He has an extremely impressive voice.

This is the inside of my regular Wednesday night hang-out place. It's right between work and my apartment (about a 3 minute walk from work), and sometimes there's live music on Wednesdays. It's a really small, organic, vegetarian, and slightly hippy restaurant. I also take yoga lessons here sometimes when there are not bands playing or people eating. This is one of my homes here.This is the owner, Haru san. He's one of the funniest, most loving people I've ever met. He's a really good cook and teacher too.

And this is his adorable little baby, Rin. And Koto san, the best guitarist (and guitar teacher) in the city, is holding him.

And this is my second almost-weekly hangout. It's an Indian restaurant a few minutes away from my work (and Tsuchiura station). The owner is from Sri Lanka, and these guys in the picture (on the left and right) are from Nepal. The one in the middle is a soccer player on the Ibaraki soccer team. Yep, I know someone famous.

Fields of yummy things. Possibly lotus root. Beautiful. This is what I get to see every time I go running. Hydrangeas were everywhere in June when it rained almost every day. There were huge bushes of them on the sides of roads. I've never seen naturally growing hydrangeas like these. Have you?