Heard

It’s a good excuse that I love to use…

So many people are holiday haters, and start ranting about materialism and about how holidays are arbitrary as soon as one approaches. I was on my way to the station this morning when a song by Kina Grannis came on (I mentioned her beautiful version of Sound of Silence last week). The song was called “Valentine,” and it really summed up my feeling about that holiday–and all holidays, really.

There is a line that says, “It’s a good excuse that I love to use, baby I know what to do: I will love you, I’ll love you, I’ll love you.” She also talks about not needing “those things,” and I totally agree. I don’t need an excuse to go crazy loving my husband (I always do, anyway!), and I never need an excuse to celebrate! But I love all holidays, theme parties, normal parties…any reason to get together. I embrace every moment we have to share joy, whether through a Valentine song, a dinner, or a quick conversation and a hug. It may sound cheesy, but I truly believe in the cliché of making every moment we have together count.

How do you feel about holidays? Are you looking forward to any gatherings soon?

Monday Matters · Projects

My Day in Photos & My Summer Fun Bucket List

Yesterday we went to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game, followed by a judo farewell party for Chad (one of his teachers started the party by saying, “Ladies and judo-men, thank you for coming. Kanpai!). Both events were really fun, but drinking in the sunshine followed by drinking at a small izakaya led to two sleepy friends this morning. So, we slept in and then lazed around all morning. Chad played League of Legends online and I drank coffee on our balcony while reading blogs, twitter and the news.

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We finally got going in the early afternoon, walking from our apartment to Nunobiki waterfalls, down through Kitano (spotting a woman with a monkey!) and to Starbucks, to Sannomiya for a little shopping, and then all the way to HAT Kobe for some more shopping and sushi.

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We ate sushi at a kaiten sushi restaurant called Kurazushi, and while we were waiting for some of our specially ordered sushi to come zooming down the sushi train, Chad surprised me with a Rilakkuma stuffed animal! Yay! Just looking at it makes me so ridiculously happy. You can’t deny Rilakkuma is one of the cutest characters ever, not to mention the fact that our favorite things are the same in life: eating sweets and relaxing.

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I know. I look tired. Focus on my cute Rilakkuma & the striped bag I got for only 300 yen instead!

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We tried some new sushi today, as well as some yummy sweet potato sticks (top left corner, above). You can see sushi with grilled bacon and mayo on the bottom left, and lemon steak sushi on the bottom right. In the upper right corner is my handsome husband with his cheeks full of sushi, and in the middle you’ll see more normal types of sushi (crab salad, tuna salad, shrimp mayo and cucumber salad, shrimp, and tuna).

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Chad expertly making green tea with the powder and hot water.

All in all we had a really nice day. We’re both feeling sad about leaving Japan, despite our excitement about going home, so I made a summer fun bucket list to help cheer myself up! The warm weather was a welcome reminder that summer is on it’s way, so I thought I’d share my list (so far!) with you!

Caitlyn’s Summer Fun Bucket List

1. Drive-in Movie

2. Binder Park Zoo

3. Go fishing

4. Make S’Mores

5. Have a Star Party

6. Learn to play guitar again

7. Make a bird feeder

8. Make jam

9. Join a book club

10. Go mini golfing

11. Go bowling

12. Have a BBQ

13. Go on a picnic

14. Make banana splits

15. Make homemade ice cream

16. Tie Dye Shirts

17. Blow bubbles

18. Paint rocks with my niece

19. Cheese Fondue

20. Make Root Beer Floats

21. Board Game night

22. Milk Carton Boats

23. Go to a museum

24. Friendship Bracelets with my niece

25. Look at bugs/plants/nature under a microscope

26. Learn to make egg tarts

27. Get a cat!

28. Can tomatoes

29. Play badminton

30. Run at least one 5K

31. Have a fancy night dressed up around town (going to ordinary places)

32. Find a gym with yoga and zumba that’s reasonably priced

33. Volunteer

34. Pay it Forward by paying for someone behind me at a drive-through

35. Paint Balling

36. Wine and Cheese night

37. Make kimchi

38. Make homemade pickles

39. Make homemade Bloody Mary’s

40. Make pineapple upside-down cake cupcakes

41. Make sun tea

42. Dandelion Blowing

43. Make a sandcastle

44. Make/decorate pottery

45. Bon Fire

46. Celebrate 5th Wedding Anniversary at Guster concert!

47. Visit Green Dot Stables in Detroit

48. Go to our high school reunion

49. Traverse City & eating/drinking cherry-flavored things!

50. Shorts Brewery

51. Make waffles

52. Make homemade bread

53. Make cookies with my niece

54. Make trail mix and go for a walk with my niece & nephews

55. Make dreamsicle orange punch

56. Make strawberry mimosas

What fun have you been up to lately, and what fun things do you have planned for summer?

Seen · Tried

Flowers, Crazy Outfits & Frozen Beer

I’ve got a growing list of blog posts I’ve been meaning to write, but in between cleaning & packing, and meeting with friends as much as we can before we leave, I just haven’t had a chance!

On Monday we decided to visit Himeji castle because Chad had never been, and though much of it is (sadly) still under renovation, we were still able to have a nice time.

Here are a couple shots of visible parts of the castle:

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Some pretty flowers in the surrounding gardens:

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And an amazing outfit:

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Who needs to see a castle when you’ve got this to marvel over? 😉

Also, the other day we tried “frozen” beer, which has become a sort of fad in Japan recently.

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As you might expect, the frozen part was basically foam, in other words, not so delicious. Chad pointed out that the foam also happens to look like Japanese drawings of poo, which actually should’ve been a warning sign.

Will write again soon! Off to a dinner before more packing and cleaning.

xx
Caitlyn