Finally, a weekend to celebrate what we've needed to. For various reasons, we've put off celebrating momentous events in our lives. Anniversaries and Valentine's specifically. But this time, we were able (a few weeks later) to go to Nagoya for the weekend! We planned to (finally!) go to the castle and the aquarium and Tiffany had a surprise for me. Some kind of special dinner. We got off to an early start on Saturday and headed out to what is fast becoming our favorite city.

We got in around lunch time, so we went up to the 12th floor and had dim sum again! Nikuman (steamed dumplings with meat inside), shrimp soup, jasmine tea, crabmeat gyoza, it was great.

From there, we left Nagoya station and went to Nagoya port with the intention of going to the aquarium, but when we got there, sadly, the aquarium would close in a short time, and thus not make the visit worth the cost. So we instead went to the nearby portside amusement park, where we saw this "scary" place called Zombie Panic. It was supposed to be a haunted house type thing where you walk around and things jump out and scare you. But...we ruined the effect. We asked the guy if we could take pictures inside the haunted house, so we were going a lot slower than normal and we would stare at skeletons and zombies until they moved and then took their picture. They guy was probably getting impatient with us because he was supposed to give his customers one last scare by carrying around a little zombie statue. Oh well.

After that, we walked to Italia no mori, or Italian Village. I called it Little Italy, although it had nothing to do with a bunch of Italian immigrants living in a community together. This was a place where Japanese tourists can go and see the touristy things of Italy while staying in Japan. They had gondola rides (romantic and with a singing gondoleer!), a horse carriage (on cobblestone, even more romantic!), a pirate ship, and museum. Of course, because of the occasion for us, we were looking for the more romantic side.

But when we got there, we found that the horse carriages held eight people and they were walking along the regular street. Not quite as romantic as we thought. Oh well. There was still the gondola. But as we were waiting, we realized they weren't the typical two seaters. These had chairs and rows crammed in to fit at least six people in this boat. And the guy didn't sing at all! And it was short too! It was just down a canal. That's it. Oh well.

We walked around Little Italy a bit more, saw some shops, but it was ultimately, a tourist trap. But we had fun, cuz that's the kind of people we are! After that, we headed over to Sakae, where Tiffany was about to explode, she was so excited. I promised her that I would not try to figure out and ruin the surprise. I tried asking her some basic questions, but she was good at making sure she didn't slip up! And, it turned out, the surprise was great. You folks back in the States probably don't care about this part, but we went to Outback Steakhouse! Tiffany had done research, remembering how much Aa and I liked it (see that story here), and found one near us in Nagoya! So she's been sitting on this surprise for months, just waiting for the perfect time to spring it on me. Oh, I was so happy. I ordered a Bloomin' Onion and an order of their Baby Back Ribs. Tiffany got healthy pepper steak. I told the lady that we were celebrating our year and a half anniversary, and she offered to get us some ice cream to celebrate (and she was a good sport by taking all the pictures), but we declined, we were so full. I just didn't want her to think of us as tourists, since we actually had a reason for being giddy and taking pictures of everything.

It was getting late (we left Outback at 9:30!), so we went to the hotel and made plans to see the aquarium the next day and head back. Once again, we decided to forego the castle. Will we ever see it? But, there's always next time, right? Oh well.

So the next day, we left early amidst a heavy rain in Sakae where we stayed. At the station, Nissan had an exhibit to show off their racing cars. The bright yellow one looked awesome, if not street legal at all. But they also had a Nissan Fairlady Z and a Nissan Skyline all decked out in racing colors. So then we got to the aquarium where I discovered that Tiffany had never been to one before (only Sea World, cuz THAT counts.)! Imagine my sheer delight at being able to introduce her to the wonderful world of swimming fish! We had a great time seeing the dolphin show and the orca training. Apparently, in Japan, it is ok to have the customers see how they train these animals, but we didn't know it. After the dolphin show, we were quite bored with the orca just doing basic things and getting fed a lot for it. He didn't even flip out of the water like the dolphins! But it was fun nonetheless.

After that, we went to the Beluga exhibit, which displayed what the Northern Lights would look like (we can't wait to go there and see it ourselves some time!) and then they showed the training of the Beluga white whale. Let's just say I won't eat caviar anymore. They didn't make quite a cute noise as the dolphins but they were cool nonetheless and the desire to anthropomorphise is huge with these big animals.

And after that, we went to the observatory, which was an amazing (read sarcastically) 7th story view of the port. It was kinda dull, but still nicely romantic. And then, for sheer time's sake, we went to the Maritime Museum. Yeah, neither of us care about the shipping industry and its many uses or the scale models of the common Japanese cargo ships. But when we left, we wanted to see the Fuji Antarctic Museum, but we ran out of time. Oh well. ;)

And then, because we were craving it since the day prior, we went back to the Italian Village and ate some real pepperoni pizza. Oh, it was soooooooooo good! [smack, smack] We devoured it and were thinking about getting more, but decided against it. After all, one pizza split between the two of us was enough, but we were starved for good Italian pizza. Oh well.

All in all, a really fun, romantic, and relaxing weekend. Definitely worth it. And the castle was...oh wait! We never got to see the castle AGAIN! Oh well. If it's stood this long, it'll stand until our next time to Nagoya. Now to plan for the NEXT romantic outing!

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And so, for the second time in my life, I went ice skating. Tiffany's friend, Aya, knew about this ice skating rink, and Tiffany was very happy to go and ice skate again. She's a pro. I, on the other hand, had done this once before, a lifetime ago, and had forgotten everything I had ever learned. Tiffany tried teaching me, but it was pointless. I just couldn't get the hang of figure skating. So I tried speed skates and raced around the rink much to the amazement of all the Japanese people. And this one guy came and wanted me to skate for Japan's Olympic Team!

If only! It was sad. I fell into a group of people just hanging out by the wall. One of them offered to try and teach me, but she too realized it was pointless, especially since she couldn't teach in English. Oh, it was embarrassing!

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I would like to take a break from the website a bit to express some very warm fuzzy feelings. I want to say Thank You to everyone who has pulled through and been there for Tiffany and I at the beginning of our lives together. It has been an incredibly stressful and trying time for both of us, but we have pulled through even stronger and more resiliant. Things haven't been easy these past few months, but we perservered with the help of many people, and I am very thankful for all you have done and your counsel. Thank you, our dear families and friends.

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I know it may seem wierd to all you "normal people" out there, but we have yet to really celebrate important moments in our lives together. So as a result, we celebrate where we can. This weekend marked our year and a half anniversary, so we used it as a chance to reflect on the past and the future and contemplating even more life, the universe, and beyond.

Not Really. We used the time to celebrate as much as we could. Friday, we went to yakiniku (korean barbeque) and had a delicious dinner, then, on the spur of the moment, we saw King Kong, as it was its last run in the theater here. I know what some of you are thinking, but it IS a romantic story! The love between the beautiful heroine and the childish silverback gorilla directly parallels our own relationship (I won't tell you who resembles the gorilla more, but I think you can guess). And they fell in...something. It works, I tells ya!

The next day, we planned to go to Nagoya, but the timing never worked out, so we decided to postpone it for later and celebrate here in Hamamatsu. We ended up having a very nice and romantic Indian dinner and then when we made it back home, Tiffany baked me a cake (which is part Japanese tradition for Valentine's Day, and part because Tiffany is such a great girlfriend) which we then devoured with vanilla and green tea ice cream. Doesn't sound like a big deal? Just wait until we actually head to Nagoya. Keep checking this site for that information!

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Risk. The game conjures up images of global domination. Infinite armies. Horrible odds. Three red die. Two white. Three armies, six colors. I finally gave Blair his Christmas gift and he agreed to come over to Tiffany's so we could play it all weekend. Blair...slaughtered Tiffany and I. Separately. We weren't a team and Blair just cleaned us out.

So we changed games to Scrabble. And he beat us in that too. So we changed again back to Risk, where he beat us. So we changed to Bull$#it, where Tiffany won! Then we played another round of it, and I sneaked a victory!

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So this term started off with a bang! One of my schools added an elementary school visit twice a week. So now, I teach English Conversation to elementary schools as well as junior high. And I have to get lessons out to them as well as my junior high students. They're a lot of fun, but extremely active. It's a little tough to teach kids who can barely read the English alphabet but they try and they're happy about it. And if they're not, they'll do it anyway! Because I'm that mean.

As a result, I've had even less time to prepare lessons for my junior high class, and the lessons I've been planning have been more involved and intense. So basically, I spend my days working without a break the whole time, just so I can leave at a decent hour. But soon, the term will end, and I'll be back at the beginning. Woo Hoo!

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