Sundry photos from a Japanese life

A lot of my pictures are of very random things that don't fit with a particular theme. So, I thought I'd do a post about all the random pictures I have right now!

	This first picture is of eiji-happo, the calligraphy character that contains all the basic strokes. It took me forever, but I think I finally did well enough on it to get the nod of approval from my teacher. My love affair with calligraphy is kind of stunted, because the class is on the same night as the English club at my main high school, so I can rarely go to the calligraphy class. But when I do, it's always fun and I get to speak with the teacher's junior high-aged daughter who comes along to the class. The rest of the class is mostly elementary and junior high kids, plus a couple adults who do their calligraphy in pen in notebooks. I can't imagine that kind of calligraphy is as fun as the brush kind, though!
	This is my new guitar! I bought it for about $150 at the music shop literally 100 yards from my apartment. I have written a new song or two using it, but I haven't thought of a guitar name that sticks, yet. I thought this picture was fitting because of that stupid phrase "music is my boyfriend." Though, if we're using that as a metaphor, this would be a very naked and uncovered boyfriend. Whoops.
	This is me and a friend at the AJET Halloween party in Beppu. I was Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service (link goes to the trailer in Japanese with English subtitles), and she was "a fork in the road"! A is a costume designer back home, and she was frustrated at not having a sewing machine yet, so she went with the next best thing — a punny costume!
	This is the bear I spotted while walking through Beppu that was wearing the same headband as the one that came with my Kiki costume. Silly bear.
	This is a care package from my lovely bestie, E! She sent me lots of pumpkiny goodness, plus a few other creature comforts from home, such as peanut butter and black beans. I have already finished the pumpkin cookie butter. It goes great on toast!
	This is a cat in a hat. I went to Kitakyushu for a date (non-win) and we went to a cat cafe. It was really hard to find! The map kept telling us it was located in a building with the kanji 魚 (さかな, or sakana, which means fish) on it, but it definitely was NOT that building! Eventually, I went and asked in a hair salon, where a guy was kind enough to walk us all the way down the street to the cat cafe. At the cafe, the shop attendant seemed to like putting little things on the cats' heads, like this hat and other little props, like a fake mandarin orange. Kawaii~
	This is something very special to me. It's an original calligraphic print done by the calligraphy teacher at one of my two high schools. He is famous in Oita and maybe even in the whole country for his calligraphy. I won this print at our year-end staff party, by playing janken (rock-paper-scissors) against all the teachers!!! I couldn't believe I won! The print is a famous Japanese saying, which means something like, "Be content with what you have, for it is enough."
	This is a typical school bento at one of my schools. I order a bento every morning for about ¥420. Usually, I get karaage (fried chicken, the local specialty) with menchikatsu (links to a recipe from Just One Cookbook, whose PDF cookbook I bought and love!), but this time I just got karaage (left side). The other side of the bento contains various sides, like (clockwise from top left) lotus root, fried fish cake, boiled egg, fried fish thingy (obviously I am an expert in these foods), and vegetables in sauce.
	This is the former site of the local laundromat, which was torn down a couple weeks ago. Luckily, I don't have to use a laundromat because I have a washing machine in my apartment. But I was a bit sad to see this one go, as I always passed it and it looked so cozy with its whirring machines and manga (comic books) strewn about the place. But the construction site is pretty cute too, with these strange little fence characters.