hell on motorized wheels!

watch out japan…tiffany’s got hot new wheels!! i finally got my car last week! it’s the cutest / most silly looking bubble of a car you’ve ever seen. aqua blue, 4 door Mitsubishi minica [Japanese for minicar]. it’s a manual which means i’m not only sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the opposite side of the road, i’m also shifting gears with my left hand. really odd at first, but no problem now. oh the freedom. i’ve got that feeling again like i did when i was 16 and first got my license. i just want to drive for the sake of driving. the potential for exploration is endless. woohoo!! got gas for the first time the other day. funny how i keep finding amusement in the darndest of places. pictures coming soon.

went to sado island for the weekend. well, we missed the ferry on friday night…long, irritating story. but after we treated ourselves to a nice dinner and were treated to some shochu by three older business men at a hostess bar, we didn’t really mind. practiced for the musical on saturday [did i tell you guys i’m dancing in peter pan the musical. what a riot.] then about 20 of us made curry rice for dinner and played guitars and drank beer and had a lot of fun. sunday, 5 of the girls had a leisurely lunch overlooking the ocean and then went to an onsen, a natural hotspring, near the coast. the water in these baths is incredible, like silk, and it just coats your body. the view was awesome. also saw the strangest thing while there…a tanuki. that’s the raccoon dog made famous by sushi bar statues the world over. there’s one on the corner of the bar at inakaya in cola town. it looks more like a raccoon cat than raccoon dog. kinda cute…definitely looked rabid.

another hilarious student snafu…grading papers this morning and read “my dong doesn’t eat meat.” i’m pretty sure he meant “my dog.”