WEEK 15: A as in Accidental Attempted Arson

I'll go ahead and explain the title first.

I almost burnt down our apartment again, whoops! I was rolling out

some dough on the ONLY FLAT SURFACE we have in our kitchen, which is

an approximately two foot by two foot counter top right next to the gas

stove (Japanese kitchens are tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny), and I set down

the wooden rolling pin and apparently it was quite close the the

flame... Because suddenly my companion was shouting fire and throwing

the rolling pin into the sink.

I made pizza though!

In the microwave.

And we cut it with scissors!

Okay now that I've confessed, let's move on to what's really important.

JAPAN HAS MCDONALDS.

AND THEY HAVE SHRIMP BURGERS.

Yes, you heard it here first, burgers made of shrimp. And they are delicious!

Like one of my top ten favorite foods now.

Freaking yum.

And because it's Japan, they had cute little cartoons everywhere. They even have a little show playing about this girl who just started as a part time worker, haha! Oh, Japan!

As we were parking our bikes in the parking lot, a big group of Japanese teenagers comes out and they laughed. Classic Americans, gotta get their Big Macs! You know us too well!

Haha.

PS the french fries are exactly the same.

Today I visited my first shrine!!! It was big! It was beautiful! It was culturally relevant! And you are going to have to wait until next week because we took a lot of pictures and I don't want to edit them right now. It was a long car ride back, okay??

But here's a sneak peek until then!

And if anyone wants a language update, I still can't do the whole Japanese thing, but at least now I can read the flavors of ice cream and don't have to choose at random!

My life has a lot less surprises now.

And with this week my first transfer comes to a close!

I can't tell if it feels long or short. I kind of take every second as it comes, which makes it really hard to tell what day it is. It feels like it's been one long day so far. Haha, thinking about it makes me want to take a nap!

Actually, thinking about anything makes me want to take a nap.

Aka I'm tired.

This week one of my favorite people we visit said we can't come over anymore. She's a cute, spunky grandma who is a less active, and is lonely, so she loved to talk. She would always give us snacks! But she hadn't been sleeping recently, and her doctor said it was because of the stress from our visits. We make her feel guilty, because she doesn't want to come back to church. I was pretty sad, I really liked her. We're still going to write her letters and stuff, just to tell her we love her.

After she told us that, we were pretty bummed, so we went to a convenience store and bought fancy bread and Black Thunder candy bars. The two best cures for any ailment, I think.

Here is a picture of me and a tanuki.

Oh, Japan.

Remember, "It is not a wastebasket."

BYE BYE!