Sugar Sunday!

The spark that started the fire.

I have never been allergic to anything consumable in my life. Though I’ve always been allergic to perfume and scented body products. So imagine my surprise when I ate this delicious Kinder Egg look-a-like treat.

My lips swelled up like someone decked me in the mouth and nausia and headaches soon followed.

It turns out, after it happened 2 more times sans chocolate, but with other consistant factors, that I am allergic to ibuprofen. No idea why or how, but after 25 years of taking it I am now allergic…. wtf?

But I digress.

They are called Futura Choco Eggs, and while they look exactly like their Kinder counterpart, yellow capsule and all, they are not.

These guys. Contained Pokémon toys, which is what drew me to them in the first place as I am ever in love with Pokemon. The chocolate was okay, no where near the quality of Kinder, but still edible.

The only sad thing to come out of this, aside from my sudden allergy, is the fact that I threw away 4 eggs worth of chocolate…..

I know I’ve posted these pictures before… buuuuuut what the hey… lol

Out Shopping

Last week I went out shopping in Shimoda and Hachinohe with Lady S. She’s kinda crazy, but someone I enjoy hanging out with a lot.

We started out getting lunch at her and her husband’s favorite ramen place, which was a new one for me. It’s nick named ‘Cat Balls’ because the sign outside has a huge cat on it with a giant set of them…. it’s weird… Needless to say, I won’t be changing my ramen house of choice, I enjoy Thunder Ramen a lot more.

On the way to Hachinohe I was telling her about how much I wanted a bunny, and almost ended up with one if it wasn’t for the fact that I would have to bunny proof the house and that I would rather have my dog instead. So, she decided to stop at a pet store. Two to be exact… One was dogs, where she got her two, but they also had a goat……

New goat friend xp

Then we went to one in the mall that sold the Norwegian mini bunnies I want as well as hedgehogs, one of which I also want….. so adorable. No pictures though, the store clerk was helping another customer standing right next to us…. We messed around and walked through the mall afterward, not really doing much aside from the arcade.

We also stopped by the fish market on our way to Shimoda to get my husband his favorite squid cake things. I also saw the BIGGEST apple I have ever seen in my LIFE!!!! I just about died! I seriously regret getting one, and I have never felt that way about an apple…. Seriously this thing was at least 6-7 inches in diameter! Honestly the picture does not accurately show it’s size, I will get one…… Awesome stuff.

The giant ass apples in the Hachinohe fish market

At Shimoda mall we spent majority of the time in the arcade, she loves her arcades. We played that weird circle rhythm game again, forcing me to play it on super hard with my retarded hand/eye coordination.

Shimoda Mall arcade, first floor.

…. And then I saw them… The backpack of all backpacks, the randoseru. For those that don’t know, randoseru are the super square backpacks all the elementary and sometimes middle school students carry as part of their uniform. Most always seen in anime and Japanese movies. I have wanted one for the longest time, since I can remember first seeing them in Sailor Moon back in the early 2000s. Needless to say, I will have one. I have plans to turn it into a camera bag since I can think of no other use for one. But priced at anywhere from 30,000¥ to 60,000¥ (roughly $300 to $600) it might be a little bit. I’ve proposed getting it as my anniversary/Christmas gift. Since both are coming up really soon. ;p

RANDOSERU!!!!! All the needs!!!!

Anyway, we ended the day by running some small errands like stopping at Sanwado, Yamada, and JoyM. As well as getting sammiches for dinner.

But that’s not all……. After I had finally decided to go to bed, my husband calls me at 3:30am. I was sound asleep and it was the best sleep I had had in a while…. “Babe, I had a blow out. I’m on the side of the road just before the beach. I need you to bring the car so I can put my tools and this stupid microwave in it and for you to help me change the tire.” Oh husband, he’s lucky I said “for better or for worse” because I was on the verge of strangling him. The cause? My dear, dear husband had neglected to check the wear on his tires, for a month. Which is something you should do when the camber on your car is super crazy like his. The band and wire mesh was showing through, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Then I couldn’t go back to sleep. So my schedule was screwed for a few days. But it’s all good now.

It was a very long day, fun and frustrating, but long. :p

Home Wrecking Game

After watching his favorite lets-play channel, Game Grumps, on YouTube the past few days my husband thought it would be a smashing idea if we bought Monopoly. Danny and Erin, the hosts of Game Grumps, played the Wii version and for some reason it made him want to bring this home wrecking game into our house. This board game, simple as it may seem, has single-handedly ruined millions of families…. probably…. either way it causes lots of animosity amongst it’s players……..

It started innocently enough, about half way through all the properties were bought and we were both doing well, had lots of cash in our coffers….

The high point of the game

Then I got tired…. it was close to my bedtime. And on top of that he had bought a hotel on Boardwalk around 11:30p….. aaaaaaaaaand I landed on it…. $2,000… and it was too much work in my state of tiredness and soreness from sitting on the floor to do the math to mortgage my properties…. So after 4 hours of playing, I folded. Because screw math when you’re half asleep.

My Love: Daiso

A couple week ends ago I finally found a normal Daiso, I was soooo happy! This place is now my favorite store in Japan. It is much larger and full of so much more stuff than the mini one inside a local grocery store, and it’s a lot closer than I anticipated! I really don’t have much more to say on the matter. That’s how much I love this place!!!

There are so many things here! I got A LOT of stuff!!!! Gifts for friends, and the rest was for me! ;p I got some deco craft supplies for a friend of mine in Florida, fake whipped cream, ice cream cones and dishes. As well as sprinkles, mini strawberries and assorted mini fruits. I was also finally able to get a hold of some spring frames to make some coin purses. And my search for plush stuffing came to an end with the best stuffin’ fluff in the world! It’s too good to be called polly-fill, it’s so much softer! I couldn’t stop touching it!~ I also grabbed some children’s rice bowls that lok like Rilakkuma and his duckie friend! The best part, imho, is the mini strawberry trash can! It’s probably about 6-7″ tall and for 100¥!!!!

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On the same weekend, we also went to McDonald’s, nothing abnormal since I love McDonald’s here. But we got these nifty takoyaki type nuggets. They were without the ‘tako’ or octopus, but they had all the same makings of takoyaki, even the sauce on top!

Edit: Thanks to a commenter I found the nuggets are tofu and minced fish! XD

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Anyway, enjoy!!!! ^^

Doctor Who!

The best show in the universe! I haven’t been a Whovian for long, and I’m still trying to catch up on the old episodes, but I’m getting there… slowly…

Most of you know, if you follow Doctor Who, that the new season started roughly two weeks ago. I’ve finally watched episode two, and I have to say that I have a greater appreciation for lasagne…. Sorry, I couldn’t help that!

I have to say that I kind of love Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, he’s definitely not childish like 11 and a lot more mean than Tennant ever was. Not so hell bent on saving everyone and every thing, seeing the world for how it is and accepting his place and the place of everyone else. Now this is just what I’ve seen from the first two episodes, there are still 11 more, plus the Christmas special, at least in this season.

Aside from all that, I want to know who the heck this new guy Danny is going to be. Dare I say, a new Micky? Who knows…. Even though I know that everyone’s question is “who is Missy?” I know that will be answered in good time, Danny is the mystery I want an answer too. Hopefully I’m not just getting my hopes up, and all of this isn’t just some silliness I’ve decided to cling to…. But I have hope. We’ll see in later episodes!

Nothing Much

So far, nothing much has been going on. Mr. A and I haven’t done much due to the fact that he has been working weekend for the past few weeks, making it very hard to visit around town and go to festivals. Due to this we missed a very large one in a city near us, but there is always next year?

It has been raining a lot lately, almost 2 days straight now. There have been lots of floods and mud slides in the surrounding cities on the back roads as well as the toll roads.

We did buy a new car though, a 1995 Toyota Majesta. It is very stanced out, which is why Mr. A loves it so much. It is very clean (as far as no dirt and looking nice), it has been lowered and it’s got quite a lot of camber, 5% to be exact. Which is a crap load, I told Mr, A that it reminds me of a hover car. You know the ones where the wheels flip out and then it just floats there! It’s rather amusing. But I told him it has to go due to the financial aspect of it, a set of tires every 8 months! Since it rides on the edge of the tire due to the camber. Soon….

I also got my license finally. It is very weird driving on the wrong side of the road. everything is all backward feeling. I’ll make a video one of these days of it all.

Anyway, I just wanted to give an update. As you can see, not much is happening due to all these outside issues. The rain will pass though and we’ll be up to out normal shenanigans again!!! XD

A Few of My Favorite Things

My absence the past few weeks was partly due to tracking the typhoon down south, shopping and binge watching Chuck on Netflix… but I do have pictures… lots… new favorite food items, some silly ones, arcades and Gundam models. Because of the multitude of pics I’m going to split them up. ^^

My current two favorite stores here in Japan are Homac (a home accessory and appliance store) and Universe (a grocery store sort of like Kroger or Publix).

One of my favorite things at Homac was the metal petrol suitcases (gas cans). I must have one or 5 and send some to my FiL and Dad when I can.

Universe market was right next door. I finally found some Poppin’ Cookin’ candies as well as Happy Kitchen candies too. (Both of these are the latter because they looked cooler lol)

I even found these awesome popsicles. They are my new favorite! Watermelon and honeydew melon flavor. The watermelon had dark chocolate “seeds” and the honeydew has white chocolate ones.

Also… mushrooms… unless you pay out the butt and live in near an awesome farmer’s market you will probably never be able to buy mushrooms like these stateside. I can’t remember the names of most of them but I have never seen them in s chain grocery store.

Anywho, I’ll leave you with that. I’ll gather my thoughts about the mall, maybe visit it again, and then tell you guys all about it. Thanks for reading!~

Lets Have Real Ramen!

So this past weekend my Mr. A  and I finally had real Japanese Ramen from a very small place called Thunder Ramen here in Misawa-shi. Yeah, there are about a billion places in every town to get it and they all do it differently but this place came recommended from Mr. A’s co-workers and so that is where we went.

This place was very small. Max capacity was probably about 40 people, which isn’t too small but much smaller than the 300 head count you can get from an Olive Garden. There weren’t many people in there, so we sat alone on one half of the space and a group of four sat on the other.

Mr. A and I both got the pork dumpling ramen, it looked too good to pass up. So throwing our rules with Sirs B, F and M out the window, we ordered the same thing (one rule with them was that no one could order the same thing, silly, I know. But it was often broken).

It was full of all kinds of yummy things: a slice of fish paste (the wink and white thing), half of a hard boiled egg (still chilled, the temperature difference added a nice contrast), bamboo thingies (that were way better than any I ever had in the states), green onions, sesame seeds, seaweed and of course 4 pork dumplings that were simply divine. Last but not least, nestled at the bottom of the bowl were the noodles, and of course the broth.

Now, ramen noodles do not get served al dente like most other noodles. They’re mostly squishy but still have loads of texture. They were the best, very lite and a nice contrast to the broth. The broth on the other hand was very rich. It was richer than home made chicken soup is rich and the taste is indescribable. I thought I died when I took my first bite. If I miss anything when we leave this country it will be the ramen.

Further more, I need to bone up on my chop stick skills. I had a hard time dealing wit the noodles for a good bit of the meal….